章 118: Last of them

"I represent no one but myself. Me and my friend were to get into the city, but we're kind of on the wrong side of the law, if you get what I mean?... Name's Mike by the way."

The man takes a moment to appraise Michael, and nods once satisfied, "Julien of Aeirton, one of his Majesty Prince Wales' Dragon Knights... Well, just knights now that we're without our mounts." he says, watching Michael's reaction to his words very closely.

Michael just pauses when he hears this, he wasn't sure if this was a lucky coincidence, or a preview of the disasters yet to come. "O-kay, nice to meet you Julien, I guess... I'm guessing you guys are here to save Prince Wales then?" he asks despite the obvious answer, not really having anything else to say to these men.

Julien nods, "Indeed, but we've run into a problem with the city's defences. I remember much during my time serving within Londinium, but I had not realised that even the aqueducts were protected." he admits, tossing a pebble at the gate which is reflected and knocked away by another spark of electricity.

"Ahm, I think I can help with that." Tiffania says as she comes out from hiding, again causing the men to stiffen slightly... In more ways than one due to her 'large personality'.

Tiffania walks over to the gate and goes to open it as Michael and the others watch with rapt attention. The former to make sure she doesn't get killed in case her royal status doesn't work.

Annnd!...

The gate swings open without much effort at all, making Julien flush slightly at the ease with which she'd opened it. "H-how did you do this, miss-?"

Tiffania lowers her head slightly, making sure that her ears were still concealed, "I'm Tiffania, and you just had to be gentle with it." she says,

Julien coughs into his fist at her words but doesn't try to retort, not knowing enough about the defences to argue against her. "Is that so... You've done us a great service by helping us here, but as much as I wish to reward you, we are low on time. It is only a few days until Prince Wales' execution, so we must get ourselves situation and prepared for it."

Michael shakes his head as he steps into the aqueduct, the water inside it reaching up to his thighs, "You guys must know that the execution is a trap right?" he asks.

Julien shrugs, "In all likelihood, it is. But our oaths forbid us from not intervening if at all possible. Even without the oaths I made, my loyalty is still to the true Royalty of Albion. I refuse to let some upstarts usurp everything my ancestors fought for and built." he states, getting affirmative cheers from his men behind him.

"That makes sense." Michael mutters, not really understanding how people could give their lives for such inane things as 'King and Country'. Not even the country of his birth, England, held his loyalty to the extent of these men, so Michael couldn't really comprehend dying for something like that... It all just seemed a bit useless to him.

From what he understood, most countries were incredibly corrupt, with even the clean ones slowly becoming self-serving cesspits. While he knew that Prince Wales was a good person, his father had been the one to have Tiffania's mother killed. Who's to say that Prince Wales children wouldn't be the same?

In the end, dying for another person that he wasn't incredibly intimate with didn't even cross his mind. The only people he'd even consider for it was his sister and Tiffania, the latter more because he required her Void Magic...

The duo and the loyalists slowly walk through the aqueduct, the latter of which trying to make small talk and occasionally asking Michael and Tiffania to help them in their attempt to free Prince Wales. They were soundly rejected of course as whatever plan they had was doomed to fail.

After half an hour of walking, the group finally reach a gate leading into the city... Tiffania opens it and they all stream out of it, Michael realising that they'd ended up next to the city's wall in some sort of slum area.

Michael turns and shakes Julien's hand, "Good luck out there, you'll definitely need it." he says, knowing that this entire group'll likely be dead before the end of the week.

Julien nods, "And you, young Mike, Tiffania. I feel the need to warn you though, stay away from Cromwell, he is in possession of some sort of mind control magic. It is incredibly powerful, enough so to control armies." he warns, not that Michael needed to be told, he was more than familiar enough with Cromwell's method of mind control.

"Thanks for the warning, but it ain't a spell he uses. It's his ring, the Ring of Andvari I think it's called. Cut off his hand and you'll have no problems dealing with it."

"Is that so? I thank you for this information, Mike." he turns to look at his men, "We'll be on our way, spread out and use our signals to locate anyone else who is still loyal to the prince-"

"Er, I'll warn you guys now, Cromwell will probably know any signals you have to contact other loyalists, his ring is more effective at gathering information than any torture. Anyway, take care guys." he says, giving a small wave as he and Tiffania leave, heading for the main street to get their bearings on the city's layout. Primarily though, finding an out of the place-inn and locating his tormentors was his main goal.