Friends and Enemies // Chapter Thirty Two // Preparations

A darkly dress figure slunk up the stone steps of the turret, his tattered cloak hiding his ugly features. Knocking gingerly on the black wooden door, he slid it open.
   A petite figure stood at the window, silhouetted by the dusk. Her long dark hair was curled and twisted into a messy bun, and two small black arrows were stuck through it. She was wearing a tattered black tunic paired with worn black boots, but simply from her posture, it was apparent that she wasn't normally dressed like this.
   She turned around to face him, her black, empty Shadow eyes met his, and then the black faded to a cold brown. "I am Zaria. They told you to expect me, I hope. Do you have your report?"
   The raggedy messenger nodded meekly, and she motioned to a chair. He sat, and nervously fiddled with his hands. "The young sister of Betromith was left at Lady Adira of Corrinath's manor. She was brought there by Kadesh of Gossgath and Willow Elvish-grace."
   A cold smile played at the corners of Zaria's lips. "I thought that dear Willow might do something stupid like that," she mused softly.
   "And I believe that they have returned to their headquarters," he concluded.
   Zaria narrowed her heavily-mascaraed eyes at him. "The Shadow want the headquarters located. I want you to find them," she instructed. "Now you may leave," she dismissed with a flick of her hand.
   The messenger rose and gave a slight bow, then hurried out of the tower room. With an impatient sigh, Zaria glared at her reflection in the mirror atop of her vanity stand. Being a Shadow top operator was hard work, especially when, well, you were involved. The time has come for me, Zaria thought, her narrowed brown eyes searching her reflection. It had better.

***************************************

   Tajoreth was exhausted. The entire day was full of wedding planning with Kedemeth, and his brother was such a sociopath that Tajoreth had been forced to help him with everything, and be bossed around all day.

   But once he had shoved open his door and collapsed on his bed, he noticed a tiny bit of rolled up paper tied with a tiny royal blue ribbon sticking out of his hairbrush. Picking it up, he slid the ribbon off and unrolled it.

Tajoreth,

   Our plan is for you to convince your half-wit brother to hold a masquerade ball in honor of his upcoming marriage to Hyaline as soon as possible, preferably within the next week. During said ball, we intend to sneak in and examine some books in the king's library, and then escape with Emmeth, Asharlah, and Hyaline if possible. The subject of our study is none of your concern, and would have been very dangerous to write on paper. Please leave your reply on the garden wall near the gate, under the lantern.

~W. Elvish-grace

   Tajoreth lifted his eyebrows. That is the most ridiculous plan I have ever heard in my life! he thought. But I am committed, so why not? All that could is, well, they could be found out, I could be found out, etcetera, etcetera. But it could work.... if Zemerah does not get wind of this. Hmmm...

**************************

  Willow leaned back in her chair back safe in Essgarothe. In her fingers she held the reply from Tajoreth.

  W. Elvish-grace,

   I have done as you have asked, though I do not pretend to understand. Please know that my cousin is not doing particularly well in the dungeons, and my sister, Asharlah, is also imprisoned. I hope that you are taking every precaution with these communications, for if they are intercepted, I am in much danger, though I am sure you have noted such. I am sure that you can procure for yourself an invitation to the ball, and please let me know the particulars of the plan as soon as you have formulated it.

Tajoreth

   Awesome. Now the ball is scheduled, and all we have to do is prepare! Willow mused cheerfully.

   "Willow!" Immer gave a swift knock, then pushed the door open. "We have invitations! Teclemith managed to get a message to a friend who works in that industry, and now he has sent us several!"

   "Perfect!" Willow grinned and leaped out of her seat. "When is it?"

   "This Saturday," Immer answered, reading the off of the invitation.

   Willow took a deep breath. "It's time to act. Let's get ready."

I know, super short chapter, but I did introduce Zaria {pronounced Z-ae-r-ee-uh} !

Yay me!

 D did a cool post with little Mason and Conner escaping.Why knew, right?
Also, D's trying to choose a name for Mista Lee Pace Character, so if you have any intimidating names, and you'd like to help name a character, pop on over there with a comment. You never know.
So I'm actually working on a costume based off of a TV show costume that Willow will wear in a later chapter. So I'm going to make it and use photos of it for the chapter covers! Yipee!
Nothin' much has been happening, 'sides that, but I did do a really cool edit on Picmonkey...

It's actually a Tolkien quote, but it works so perfectly!
So, Zaria is going to become a much bigger character then you might imagine.
Willow has met her before, so there's fun stuff there.

Any queries are welcome!

Be a friend, not an Enemy,

Willow

The Watchmen Files // Name Help // Sketches // Etc.

*mason* sups, readers! sorry if things get a little choppy, conner and i are trying to do this post ourselves while d isn't looking ;) but seeing that we're, like, half an inch tall, it takes forever to write anything! we have to jump on the keys to get them to press.

*conner* and your rambling on the subject isn't helping. hurry up and write a proper sentence!

*mason* this is my post, alright? you can write your own if you want it! anyway, i'd like to ask you guys some questions. why is everybody's favorite character conner?!

*conner* because i'm a properly great guy, obviously.

*mason* yeah, well they don't even know your background yet! i mean, what kinda guy hides that? and besides, what am i, chopped liver?

*conner*one who wants to protect his friends, maybe?

*mason* whatever. anyway, i also wanted to ask about my action moves-

   What are you doing, young man?!

*conner* crumpets. good morning, darrion!

   You've got to be joking. Highjacking my blog post? Really, guys? This is a new low.

*mason* it is my story you're writing. i think i should be heard from. i rest my case.

   Okay, that's it. *reaches down and plucks them up by their shirt collars*

*conner* woha! wow, that's high!

*mason's voice fades into the distance* police brutality!!

   *Ahem* Alright, moving on.

Hey bloggers of the internet! It's Darrion here.

    Sorry about all of that, I've been having trouble with those two characters. They're escaping off of the page all of the time now! Invaded my lego drawer on Sunday, watched TV all night Monday, and woke my dog up at 4 on Tuesday morning. *sigh*

   That's what I get for making them pocket characters. What, you don't know what a pocket person is? Well, I sorta don't either. But I'm pretty sure it's just a drawing/cut-out that is pocket sized. Like this...

   ... sort of. I'm going to try and make one, cut it out, and take pictures of them doing things around the house. Sound fun? Maybe I'll post about it next week.

   And I've got this. Yep, that's Mason on the right, and Conner on the left. Though Conner did turn out to look like Tyler Ward (it's because his nose isn't long enough, making his face not long enough). I'd like to do some small comics, or just portraits of them in the near future.

   But anyway, I've as you may have noticed, I've got more writer's block (with the sun shining outside, it's hard to write about snow). I'm so, so, so sorry about that. I just can't seem to make myself pick it back up again. But, in fact, I'm planning to change that! I've written down everything I want to put in the chapters (scenes, ideas, etc.) and I'm going to try to plan what goes where, which will (hopefully!) be helpful.

   Also, I've got another problem. My villain for the second file is still unnamed. And you know what that means! :) Your suggestions! So, I'd like his name to be short (something like the actor's name, Lee Pace), concise, evilish, noting to hide. Maybe, Maximilian something or other? I could call him Max :) Or not... that doesn't sound particularly menacing... I've got some other character for the next book I'm really excited about, too :)

    Other than that, I'm re-booting my personal blog! Yep, Sincerely Darrion is back! And with a new look. I'm also going to be posting my art and photos on there. If you'd like to check that out, clicking here would be much appreciated :)

   Also, we're going to be putting a new photoshoot on our website soon. BBC Sherlock (that's me!), here we come!

   Willow is going to try to get her chapter done of F&E for Friday.

   Well, I think that's all for today. Again, I'm so so so so sorry about not having the chapter up yet. I'm going to try for next week, don't worry!

Always Watching,

Darrion