The One Amongst Me

Page 28 - Path To The Palace

As Alec and the other entered back into the city they quickly retreated to a thin alley in the middle of the street. "So, do we have an actual plan?" Renei asked as she leaned against the wall of the alley. "Well, for now we should find a way to travel across the city without garnering too much attention..." Alec looked down, thinking.

"That is true, Advard Fioney seemed to know who you were, so it is safe to assume someone is selling information?" Chinia added to the discussion, causing for him to sigh. "First, we find a cheap and quiet way to travel, second, we request for help from the King. That's all I can think of, really." he thought aloud.

"But what would 'cheap and quiet' mean, anyway? Like the dark market?" Renei asked in a quizzing manner. "Yeah, think about it; there's no way a city as big as this doesn't have some shady workarounds, right?" Alec smiled slightly, watching a the averted their eyes.

"Alec, you do realize you're asking us to risk everything by going with a shady service?" Renei asked, slightly frustrated as Chinia nodded in agreement. "W-Well, you give me a better option, then!" Alec raised his voice slightly, causing for her to look away.

"There is another option, but it would take a lot longer." Chinia let out, getting their attention. "We could travel separately; Alec will travel with me and Renei will travel by herself." Chinia explained her idea. "Hell no..." Renei retaliated to it immediately. "Well, she has a point... No one is going after Renei, so she can safely to alone without worrying..." Alec mumbled.

"Look, what if I end up making it to the palace first and they ene up either kicking me out or killing me? Alec needs to be there at the same time if we want to get a chance to enter!" Renei rambled, surprising him. "Yeah, that's true, but then we have two options: we go with an untrustworthy way of travel or we walk." Alec concluded the discussion.

"Shall we choose by majority's choice?" Chinia asked. "Yeah, right! You'll agree with Alec no matter the options!" Renei yelled slightly, with Chinia slowly looked away from her. "I knew it! You can't even deny it!" Renei continued. "Okay, stop! Let's make a genuine opinionated decision. No one is agreeing with anyone; you'll be going by your own opinion for what's better." Alec demanded in an angry tone.

"Fine. Let's just choose." Renei said angrily. "I'll pick the quicker way. Walking would take way longer and might ruin our chances and ensure even more danger." Alec said confidently. "Well, I say we walk. In my opinion, we'll get attacked way later than when we would if we picked some underground, unknown guy." Renei set her foot down.

As the two of then turned around and looked at Chinia, they stepped closer towards her. "Choose!" they said together, causing her to slowly take a step back. "I have decided on my answer." Chinia declared to them, with them watching in excitement.

             ~Two Hours Later~

"I can't believe we're actually doing this..." Alec mumbled to himself as the three of then stood upon a hill slightly outside the city. "Come on, do it already." Renei pushed him. "Fine!" he yelled at her as he gripped the sword, causing for Chinia to quickly connect with it. "Send a message with Chinia's wind waves... This is dumb." Alec thought as the big sword materialized in his hands.

"Alec, you need to coordinate yourself. The message we need to send is, 'I am the son of Khrom, please send someone to escort us,' do you understand?" Chinia asked. "Yeah, I do, but this idea has a lot of flaws... You get that, don't you?" he asked, not getting an answer from her. "Come on! I reconsidered my answer, because Chinia's idea was better, so do it already!" Renei yelled.

"...fine." Alec whispered, raising the sword up. "Carefully, carefully..." he thought as he solidified his stance, beginning to quickly swing the sword in all directions, sending waves of wins flying across the sky in a sloppy formation, watching as they more or less landed into a message, saying 'I am Khrom, please send escort for us at the other wide of the city.'

"Well, it's better than I imagined it'd be..." Renei thought to herself as she watched Alec disconnect with Chinia, causing for her to leave the sword and for it to disappear. "How long will the message stay there for?" he asked as he panted slightly. "I would assume for a few days or until someone chooses to destroy them." Chinia thought aloud, watching as Alec sighed.

"Are you perhaps exhausted?" Chinia asked as Renei walked up to them. "Just haven't recovered fully, I guess... B-But I'm fine! It's not like it hurts, I promise." Alec explained, confused at Chinia looking away and Renei giving him a worries look. "A-Anyway, what now? Do we go back and wait?" he asked them. "Indeed. I recommend we wait in a rather popular spot." Chinia said as she looked back at him.

"Okay, good. Let's get to it, then!" Alec smiled, trying to be optimistic about the idea, the three of them beginning to wall back towards the city.

   ~One And A Half Hour Later~

"Come on, come on, come on..." Renei mumbled to herself as she tapped her finger on her arm, with Alec and Chinia standing next to her at the entrance of an alleyway. "Be patient. They will not come the moment they see the message. Alec also angled it in an almost unreadable from the palace way." Chinia said, slightly disappointed. "Okay, I'm sorry, but I'm not used to writing messages in the sky." Alec said, annoyed at the remark.

"Even so, I'm a little sceptical. How are we sure they'll even come?" Renei asked as the three of them watched people wall through the streets. "We don't, but it's worth giving it a try. If they're thinking it's my father, that might be even better; he's incredible friends with the King." Alec explained as he slowly crouched down, sitting onto the ground.

"Alec? What exactly so you think of the King and his son?" Chinia asked suddenly, surprising him. "Ah, well the King himself is really honorable guy; he's considerate, except when he's drunk. I didn't really get really familiar with him when I was younger." Alec explained, slightly narrowing his eyes.

"His son, however...is a slightly different case." he continued, confusing her. "He's not stable in a few areas. The first time I visited him, our game of tag turned into a one-sided death match, just because he hadn't taken his medicine that day." Alec finished his explanation in s light squirm, causing for her to look at him in silence.

"Hey, guys! There's some rich-looking carriage coming through!" Renei said with a smile, impatiently exiting the alley. "Idiot, wait!" Alec yelled as he stood up and went right after her, with Chinia slowly walking behind him. "Hey, you guys are looking for Khrom, right?" Renei asked the soldier in the carriage.

Without answering her, the soldier turned around, whispering something to his partner, then turning around quickly. "Indeed. Do you have an idea of his location?" the soldier asked as Alec ran up, placing his hand on Renei's shoulder and pulling her back. "I'm sorry, sir! We didn't really mean to disturb you!" Alec yelled in a worried tone, causing for then to look at each other.

    "Are you Alec Khrom, boy?"