Zaos was reading his book while smiling from ear to ear. He only ate a few things here and there while Drannor and Ameria didn't stop chewing for a single minute in the last hour. Thanks to that, now they had their faces buried in the table, and they were moaning as if they had eaten the worst thing in the world and not the best sweets made by the best cooks of the kingdom.
"I feel bad… why do I feel so bad after eating so many good things?" Ameria asked.
"Mother was right… she said that I shouldn't eat too many things that I like," Drannor muttered. "I can understand why now."
After a while, Zaos began to feel bad since the kids were really feeling bad. So, he decided to use Detoxification and see if their semblants could improve. The spell actually worked, and they looked relatively more relaxed… for a while.
"I need to go to the toilet," Ameria said.
While Ameria was leaving, Zaos wondered if he should take a piece of cake for his mother. While she always could ask for the servants of her house to cook one, that was another matter altogether. In any case, it was getting late, so Zaos decided to head home. However, when he jumped from the chair, the ground began to tremble. In the next moment, the castle's windows broke, and all the candles instantly were extinguished.
"What was…" Drannor muttered.
"Don't say anything and come over here," Zaos said.
Zaos had no idea what was going on, but he knew it couldn't be something good. The castle was probably being attacked, and that timing was just too good for that. After all, Laiex and Drian had just left the capital to hunt a criminal.
When Drannor got close enough, he found Zaos's shadow, and at the same time, he saw his signs to move away from there and to keep quiet. They needed to look for Ameria since the royal guards were all outside the castle. Who knew what could happen when the castle was covered in darkness and when the princess was alone?
Fortunately, when Ameria left, she let the door of the dining room open, so Zaos and Drannor didn't make any noise when they left the room. Since Zaos had some experience sneaking out of his room in the middle of the night, he had some stealth skill, but it surprised him that Drannor didn't make any noise either.
"Where is the nearest toilet…" Zaos muttered when they reached a point where the corridor split in three.
"It is on the left side," Drannor said.
"How do you know that?" Zaos frowned
"I have been playing hide and seek with Ameria lately," Drannor replied.
Despite his talent at fighting, Drannor truly was a kid. They turned to the left side, and then they stopped when the sound of metal colliding began to spread around the garden of the castle. It looked like the royal guard found some unexpected visitors. Considering the noise outside, Zaos assumed that the neighbors were pretty good at fighting.
Suddenly, when Zaos and Drannor found the nearest toilet, the wall on their left side exploded, and their bodies flew and hit the wall on the opposite side. Zaos lost the air in his lungs when his back hit against the hard wall. As if that wasn't enough, a big chunk of the destroyed wall flew and hit his head. Zaos almost fell unconscious while his head began to burn, and things started to get strangely wet on his right ear. Still, before that could happen, Zaos began to draw the magic symbols in his head.
Just before he could finish the spell, Zaos said a big shadow passed through the hole in the wall. It was a man who was wearing black clothes. The man had a short sword in his hand and stopped in front of Zaos for a moment, but in the end, the individual left him alone when he saw how much he was bleeding. However, that unknown man stopped in front of Drannor and prepared a stab.
In a hurry, Zaos used Heal and his head cleared. However, it was evident that he couldn't face the invader. He didn't have a weapon, and even if he had, defeating someone who defeated the royal guards was impossible. Before Zaos could think of anything to do, the unknown man noticed that he had healed his wounds and jumped toward Zaos. At lightning speed, Zaos tried to activate Holy Light. While he only drew the last symbol, the spell was activated… somewhat. Zaos's right hand began to shine for a second, and that blinded the unknown figure.
The invader tried to rub his eyes and recover his vision, but that wouldn't happen so soon. Zaos decided to use that chance and move away from him, but then he froze when the invader turned in his direction. His eyesight wasn't back yet, but he could hear the sound of Zaos's feet hitting some stones.
Zaos stopped moving to prevent the invader from finding him. Still, in the end, that only delayed him only for a few moments. The unknown man began to walk at him, ready to swing his short sword.
"Shit…" Zaos bit his lips in exasperation.
In the end, there wasn't anything Zaos could do aside from resisting with all his might. Before the assassin could get closer, Zaos began to draw some symbols inside his head with lightning speed. Just before the assassin could have Zaos within his range, he was attacked by a powerful wave of cold winds. He tried to protect his face with its left arm, but the man regretted that in the end. In a single instant, his arm turned into ice… that was probably someone who never learned magic. Thus his resistance was incredibly low. However, before Zaos could freeze his face as well, the man stepped backward and threw his sword toward Zaos. The weapon easily pierced Zaos's left shoulder.