United (Magics AU - Part 1)

Chapter 5 - Falte

Falte pressed his hands against his forehead, his elbows propped on his knees as he sat alone in the library office. His glasses were discarded on the desk in front of him and his hair loose over his shoulders as he rubbed his face with exasperated exhaustion. A few days ago, four guards had been brutally murdered by the mysterious culprit, and there were no clues leading to who it could have been or where they could have gone. It was then that Falte realized whoever this person was, they were moving on to drastic measures - even though they gave no clues to what they wanted.

Four days ago, and already three more people were dead. 

The day after the guards at the gates were killed, the captain of the guard had sent two more this time, both of them older and more experienced guards - hoping that they were more capable of putting up a fight and apprehending the killer. But the next morning, the two guards were found dead the foot of the gates, their throats slit and their armor shattered. If the killer was trying to prove the point that they were more powerful than the armor, they had done it already. Two days later, one of the guards stationed in the northwest section - a sentry that guarded one of the well-known shops to keep things in check - was found dead with a shattered skull. And of course, the armor was broken in pieces around her body. 

Falte couldn't tell which emotion was stronger - fear or anger. He was terrified of this killer, for the people of Ariel, of what might happen next with each new abduction or murder. But he was also angry at the killer, angry for the sake of the people of Ariel, and angry that the murderer was planning something else. 

He hated to feel powerless. He was just as capable of any other person to take down a grown man, because he knew the right way to do it - and the right places to hit with just the right amount of force. But that wasn't why he felt useless - because he didn't really like fighting, nor could he do much of it. It was because he could provide no knowledge to anyone on how to work through this situation. 

To him, the whole kingdom felt like a sitting duck - waiting for the next attack to happen, trying to figure out how to fix it, and waiting again because they had found nothing. They weren't getting anywhere, it was really beginning to frustrate Falte. He was scared of how many people they would lose before the kingdom was eradicated completely or they figured out what they would do. 

Falte nearly jumped at his own stomach grumbling for food, immediately after feeling stupid and smiling at himself despite his previous thoughts. Sighing, he lowered his hands and pushed his glasses back onto his nose, blinking a few times before standing up and crossing the room toward the door. 

After winding his way through the large aisles that were lined up throughout the library, he reached the open library doors and stepped through the doorway. Because the library was on the fourth floor, it would take a bit before he reached the kitchen - which on the first floor, accompanied by a large cafeteria where lots of meals were held. 

Normally, Falte would have noticed if someone was walking near him - because pretty much everyone in the castle, unfortunately, was taller than him - but since his mind was elsewhere, he crashed directly into a passerby. 

Falte gasped in surprise and instinctively reached out to catch the arms of whoever he'd bumped into. The man he'd walked into staggered backward with a small grunt, and Falte grabbed his arms just before he tumbled to the ground. As he regained his own balance, he firmly held the arms of the man to keep both of them from falling. 

"Sorry," Falte apologized quickly before looking up to see who he was talking to. He let go of the mans arms to right his glasses, blinking a few times before looking up. 

Ruby's father, the former king and Falte's closest friend, was standing in front of him, one hand grasping the folds of a small blanket that was wrapped around his shoulders and the other still at his side. His ash brown hair was disheveled, but in a strange way that didn't look bad, and his green eyes tired and widened slightly down at Falte. His mouth, as usual, was pinched in a thin line, and although he was sixty-one, the only creases on his face were around his eyes and mouth.