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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1498124" data-attributes="member: 15043">The Countess MovesOrion’s slow walk suddenly stopped, as he noticed the distant flashes on the horizon as well. His companion walked a few feet further, before stopping in confusion.“Do you think it will rain?” she asked innocently, after seeing him looking at the distant dark clouds and the arcs of light beneath them.“Um... yes...yes it will my dear.  We should head inside,” Orion said quickly, with a gentle pull of his hand guiding her back towards the window they had come down from.    The courtesan took one look at him, and then the window.  As unusual as this man was, she found him... interesting.“Are we going to jump again?” she asked, her eyes flashing a tinge of fear but a great deal of expectation.  After she’d gotten over her fear of leaping that high in the air, she realized that at no time with him was she in danger... she was starting to appreciate the fun of it all.“Umhm,” he nodded, lifting her up.  With a single bound, he leapt halfway up the wall, and using his abilities with spider climb, he clambered up the rest of the way, back into their room.  She gave a slight giggle when he set her down, and was about to say something quite... inviting, if she hadn’t seen how serious his face had become.“I want you to go find your friends and family, and tell them to get to a safe place,” Orion said, packing up his few items.  “Things will get bad in the city soon.”As he dashed through the halls towards the Throne room, he could see the outer walls through the giant glass windows of the palace... and one by one, bright lights flared on their tops... the oranges and yellows of great bonfires.  The warning bonfires.A few minutes before he reached the throne room, the noise of a great wind buffeted the windows and walls of the palace, and within seconds, a torrential downpour had blanketed the city as a thunderstorm cruised overhead.  Within five minutes, by the time he reached the throne room, it had passed.The Chamberlain then directed him to a balcony further along, where he said the Crown Princess the Baroness, and others had already gathered.  Orion dashed off, and quickly found the location through the sheer number of messengers streaming to and from it.  “Came as quickly as I could,” he breathing only slightly altered by his run.  Before him, the part stood in puddles of water, their clothing doused wet with the rain.  None seemed to notice however, as they all seemed to be staring at some distant point, far away.Orion followed their gaze, towards the south, and saw a massive, heavy bank of dark clouds, seemingly inching closer, arcs of alternating blue and red lightning streaking between them.“This is only beginning,” he heard Tess sigh.“She’s with them,” he hear Siabrey say over the receding thunder as the last remnants of the storm moved on towards the north.   “She’s arrogant... letting a titanic marker like that stand over where she is.”“How do we not know that’s some kind of weird air elemental or sentient storm?  I mean, Siabrey, I doubt your mother in law is dumb enough to march forward with that kind of stuff hanging over her head.  It’s like hanging a sign out that says, ‘Here I am, come beat me!’” Shaun scoffed.“If you want,” Orion said, “I can leap down there and take a look.  I’m fast enough I could be back in a few hours... its what?  Noon right now?  Just get one of the mages to give me an invisibility spell!”“C’mon!  One person scou...” Shaun started to mock, until Tess interrupted.“Excellent idea, Orion.  I remember you bounding along fast enough you didn’t need a horse.   Court mage,” Tess grabbed one of the greybeards also on the balcony, “an invisibility spell?  Do you know of such things... and how long would it last?”“Yes, I know of such things,” he said cautiously, “and I could make one last about eight hours or so... does m’lady require such a spell?”“No, but he does.”Part of Orion regretted the necessity of the invisibility spell.  He had always prided himself on his physical capabilities, and he loved to show them off.   The courtesan and numerous others, likely, would have been amazed if they could have seen him merely leap over the 30 foot outer walls of the city.They also likely would have been amazed at the lightning speed with which he dashed south of the city... literally within the hour he was a full ten miles south of the city walls, and he watched as the roiling black clouds seemed to close.  With some alarm, Orion noticed that the dark mass of cloud glowed red to the east, and blue to the west, the lightning apparently arcing dual colors from over the same location over the middle.There is where the demon lord is...His thoughts were interrupted by the sharp snap of a twig to his left, and despite the fact he was invisible, he instinctively froze.Ambling around the wood, desperately trying to stay quiet but failing miserably.  It was small, blubbery, its skin pale white, fading to a sickly blue around its eyes, lips, and underarms.  It seemed mostly hairless, save for a few small bristles on its head.  It stopped its movement, and looked about, sniffing with a stunted nose.  It then ambled over towards Orion’s location.If I don’t move, it won’t find me, he thought simply, and lack of moving was something he did every morning in meditation.  Instead of sitting back to contemplate universal mysteries, he merely sat back and watched this creature with interest.He’s a scout of some kind... though not very good at it, Orion reasoned.  Its obvious his intelligence leans towards being more feral than anything. The creature half-crawled, half-walked to within inches of where Orion sat, and sniffed again.  Its mouth curved in a snarl, revealing numerous small, black teeth, sharpened like mini-daggers.  Its foul breath clogged up Orion’s nose.And then it turned away with an upset growl.I should follow this little one... see what he’s been instructed to watch, Orion thought, glancing up towards the more and more menacing clouds.For the next two hours, Orion followed the creature, as it made its way further and further north.  He had to resist the urge to chuckle at its failed attempts to stay in the underbrush, or to climb from tree to tree. It continually mumbled and chittered the entire route... all the time giving Orion time to place in his mind what the creature was exactly.A dretch he finally decided.  Checks of the clouds showed they were moving slowly... much slower than the storm that had passed overhead earlier in the day.  In fact, they seemed to move at the speed of someone walking...an army marching...  Siabrey was right, the monk decided, just as the dretch suddenly stopped as they left the last copse of forests before the city of Irulas itself... some five miles out.  As Orion watched, the creature began pointing at the towers along the outer wall, as if counting.Yes.. he’s a scout, Orion thought.  I’ll let him finish counting, and see where he goes...About half an hour later, the small creature finished whatever counting it was instructed to do, and then turned around, back towards the south, and the seeming looming storm.Oh... you’re going back to report to mistress... we can’t have that.One sharp blow to the back of the creature’s head ensured that it would not live to finish its report.Siabrey still stood, worried, on the balcony of the palace.  The storm was seeming to get closer, and now she could definitely see the arcs of red and blue lightning were far larger than any she had ever seen before naturally.  There is something dark about this... definitely she thought, as another messenger arrived with troop dispositions.  She waved him off to Shaun, who got a little joy out of issuing orders.“I’m back!” a voice from thin air said, and Siabrey jumped.“Who the hell?” she heard Shaun start to complain, before she placed the voice.“It’s me, your friendly invisible monk,” Orion’s disembodied voice said... in a tone she could easily imagine him smirking with.“Well?” she crossed her arms.  She didn’t have anyone to deliver her ‘all business’ stare at, so she contented herself with delivering to the city at large.“An army... I killed one of their scouts... a blubbery guy, many small sharp teeth?  A dretch maybe?”“A dretch,” Tess nodded, free from messengers for her.   “I think the Countess may be a few hours away now.  How long do we have, Orion?” shed asked no one in particular.“I’d say the storm was about four hours behind me... so maybe five hours now... in other words... about dusk.”Siabrey gave a sigh.  So it all begins...  “Messenger!” she finally barked towards a well dressed man in Imperial regalia.  “Sound the officers call!  All troops will report to battle positions!  You, inform the city watch to begin ringing the evacuation bells...”A bevy of orders were sent, crisply cleanly, and with authority.  Siabrey then turned, finally leaving her balcony perch, to put on her armor.  Along the way, she saw Aeron the mage in the halls.“More research?” she asked, walking briskly towards him, with clear intentions of merely heading by.“No, Majesty,” he stopped.  “I see the bonfires have been lit.  Our mages have left their notes behind... and are preparing war spells.”</blockquote>

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