Blinded By Stardust

Chapter 14: The Attack

( I apologize in advance for the cliffhanger)

"Me? W-why? Eugene and the princess are usually the ones who come to me with requests, w-why does the king want to see me?" Varian asked, growing nervous and a little bit scared. "I don't know, but he asked for you personally," John answered. "O-okay," the alchemist replied and slowly put his feet to the floor. He started feeling lightheaded as he slowly stood.

Cass watched from the desk chair, where she was sitting, before Varian stumbled a bit. The woman quickly stood up, bumping the desk and knocking over one of the vials, before rushing to his side. She grabbed Varian's arm to help stablize him then glanced back to the desk. When she did she saw that she had knocked over the vial of the purple dust, causing it to spill on a couple of the petals Rose was looking at earlier.

"Are you okay?" Cass asked looking back to the alchemist. He nodded then they started towards the door. Before stepping out of the room, Cass saw a flash of silver light come from the desk and quickly glanced towards it. When she did she saw the spilled dust had vanished. She stared at it for a moment before heading towards the throne room with Varian and John.

🔆

King Fredrick sat on his throne talking with Queen Arianna, Eugene, and Rose as the sun grew lower in the sky. They were soon intrupted when one of the guards pushed open the door. "Your Majesty, the Royal Engineer is here," he said. "Okay, send him in," Fredrick responded. The King watched as the guard pushed the door open more and saw the alchemist standing there, Cass standing by his side.

"Varian, come in son," Fredrick said, "you too Cassandra." Fear suddenly struck Cass as she thought back to what she'd done less then a year ago. She looked over to Varian and saw he seemed just as nervous. John stayed outside the door with Matt, the other guard, as the pair stepped into the room; Varian had his hand on Cass's lower arm to help him keep balance. They slowly went towards the king and queen before stopping in the middle of the room and bowing.

"You-you asked to see me Your Majesty?" Varian asked nervously. "Yes, we've heard that you have not been doing well these past few days, because you've been poisoned?" the king stated. "Th-that's correct," the boy responded. "Is it true that Nigel had something to do with it?" The King responded. "Yes Your Majesty," the boy answered.

"I'm sorry Varian, we had no knowledge of what he was doing," Fredrick said soberly, "but I can assure you, we did not order him to do this." "You may have made some wrong choices in the past, but we would never wish this upon you," Arianna added then paused and looked at Cass, "either of you." Cass gave her a small smile before feeling Varian's grip on her arm tighten a bit.

She looked at him to see he had closed his eyes and lowered his head. He brought his hand to his head as his breathing started picking up. The Queen could see something was wrong. "Varian, are you alright?" She asked as Varian grabbed his side. He began groaning softly before his legs gave out; Cass was able to catch him before he fell. Arianna's motherly instincts kicked in and she rush over as Cass lowered Varian to the floor, where he continued groaning and holding his side.

The queen put a gentle hand on Varian's back, startling him a little. Arianna was shocked when a cloud of purple dust started to form in front of the boy as he began to cough loudly. She began to rub his back in small, soothing circlular motions, trying to comfort him. Varian soon stopped coughing but the pain lingered as he started shivering.

"Varian, are you alright?" Asked the worried queen as he tried to catch his breath while breathing out the dust. The boy then nodded, lifting his head. "I-I'm sorry you had to see that, Your Highness," he said softly then Arianna gave him a look of shock and disbelief. "Varian, darling, don't be sorry, it's alright, you can't control how or when this poison effects you," she replied. She could tell what was happening to him was painful, she wished she could take some of it from him but knew she couldn't, so she did the next best thing.

Before Varian had the chance to respond, the queen wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a warm, conforting hug. It was like a Punzel hug... but different. It had a different kind of love; a motherly love. It felt just like one of the hugs his mom used to give him.

"It's alright, it's alright Varian," Arianna said softly then the boy melted into the hug, trying to holding back tears. "If we had known what Nigel was doing we would've stopped him before he assisted in doing this to you," Fredrick said after a moment, "I am truly sorry Varian." The boy broke the hug as he turned towards the king's voice. "Thank you, Your Majesty," Varian responded with a small smile.

One of the side doors then opened and they looked over to see a maid came in. She bowed then told the king and queen the dining room was ready.

"You're more then welcome to join us for dinner if you would like to," Arianna said, looking back at the alchemist. "Thank you Your Highness, but I-I'm not sure I'm up for that right now," Varian responded softly but respectfully. "That's alright, I understand, stay there as long as you need to," she replied sweetly as she stood up from the floor. She brushed off her dress then followed Fredrick out of the room.

💥

It was silent in the room after the king and queen left. Varian stayed on the floor for a moment to regain some of his strength before Cass helped him up. They were about to start going towards the door when Varian heard some commotion in the hallway right outside the throne room. "Wait, do you guys hear that?" He asked. They stopped and listened for a moment then something hit the door, hard.

Cass and Eugene drew their swords and cautiously went towards the door. The door was suddenly opened then John and Matt slipped in. They quickly closed the door and pushed against it, trying to hold it closed as something continued ramming it.

"What's going on?" Eugene asked. "The Saporians!" John answered then Varian heard the two side doors lock from the outside. "They just locked us in here!" He exclaimed. Cass and Rose each ran to one of the doors and sure enough, they were both locked.

Before they could come up with a plan the Saporians pushed through the door, each one with a sword in hand and wanting to fight. John and Matt were protecting Rose, and Cass and Eugene protected Varian as the five Saporians began their attack. Eugene was soon pushed away from the alchemist and was now going head to head with one of the Saporians, leaving Cass as the only one protecting Varian.

The warrior woman was fiercely fighting off Andrew when she saw the vial of crushed seeds in his pocket. As she continued to fight she was able to knock it from his pocket, sending it rolling towards Rose, before Ki helped Andrew attack her and they forced her away from Varian. Ki launched attack after attack at the woman while pushing her further and further from Varian.

John and Matt soon were able to disarm two of the Saporians and John went to help Eugene. They quickly disarmed a third Saporian then went to help Cass. Once they disarmed Ki, Cass helped handcuff the four Saporians before quickly realizing Andrew wasn't there. She turned and saw Andrew steps from Varian, ready to strike down the alchemist.

"Varian look out!" Cass yelled and ran towards him. He turned his head towards the cry just as his vision was returning for the night then looked over to see a sword ready to strike. Cass pushed him out of the way just as Andrew was about to stab him. Varian was knocked to the ground a few yards away then he heard a quick cry of pain.

"CASSIE!"

(This chapter was really fast paced and kinda short, sorry about that)