People, People of Forks, People of Lucerne,
Holy Princess of Lucerne
Appears In The Lost One
Holy Dragon Princess of Lucerne
Lady of House Lovie
Nickname The Pixie
Race Vandal German
Allegiance House Lovie
Father † James Lovie II.
Mother Lisa Tyrell
† Tristan Lovie
Half Siblings
Diane Portmane
Natalie Portmane
Jamie Portmane
Spouse Jasper Hale
Children None
Alice Lovie is the daughter of James, and Lisa Lovie making her a member of House Lovie through her father, and a member of House Tyrell through her mother. Alice Lovie has two siblings in the form of William, and Sean lovie of whom she was extremely close with William and he has become the King of Lucerne, while her brother Tristan lost his mind early in life and following his exile from the Kingdom he was eventually killed by William during the Battle of Berne. Alice is engaged to Jasper Hale of House Hale, and she expecting their first child which she discovered she was pregnant while she and her brother William were returning from Lorderon, and she is expecting anyway the baby.
Alice Lovie is known as an extremely kind and friendly person that makes everyone around her smile due to her endless supply of energy. This kindness was in response to the deep connection she shared with her older brother William Lovie, and the great times the two had together. It was in complete disregard to the horrible and most of the time cruel parenting she received from her parents.
Alice Lovie was born into a position that should have put her into a lifestyle that would have left her wanting for nothing in life, but instead her early life was part paradise and part hell. Her relationship with her brother William consumed her every minute of the day and the two were the closest two people could be, but this happiness was basically the sole good thing in her family. Her father despised her with a malice that was scary to behold, and her brother wanted her in more then just sibling type desires, and this led to violent interactions between the three siblings. She and her brother William would become distant for a time when she didn't like the kind of decisions he was making, and this led to her isolation from most of the people that she knew and allowed both Sean, and Bill to further their own agendas. When Alice was fourteen the Circle of Magi under the direction of her father would use Magi to erase her from the memory of the Valley of Lucerne, and for her to forget who she was and believing she was a poor servant girl living in Forks. She lived in Forks for several years and while she was in Forks she became very close to Bella Swan, and Rosalie Hale of whom both would become very important in the Kingdom of Lucerne, but she constantly felt the pain of being apart from her beloved brother William. Alice Lovie would become the target of assasination when it became clear that William was going to move against the Knights of Aerene and in order for this to happen she was sent to Dunten where the plan was for her to be executed by Lord Duneria who was a James loyalist but this fell apart when James Nighting II. warned Er-Khadgar Morgrave and he would move her away to Castle Vuneria where she remained until the Seven Knights rebellion was ended and Khadgar reluctantly allowed her to return to Forks. When William arrived in Forks during The Journey she and he recognized each other though they didn't know why, and also during this time she would rekindle her relationship with Jasper Hale. Upon her awakening from the spell she returned to Lucerne and the deep connection that she shared with William caused his mind to remember the relationship they shared. Since this Alice has returned to the side of William, and their relationship is as strong as ever. Alice would accompany both Emma Bell, and William to Lorderon where they would meet several members of the Lovie Family that had fathered by Bill Lovie during their youth, and had been kept a secret for all that time. Following witnessing William and Brooke in a passionate state she begins having an affair with Dylan Steinmare of whom eventually would get her pregnent with a child that she came to understand was not Jasper`s when Catherine Lovie tells her how the milk of the poppy she had been taking to abort Jasper`s attempts were always fake. When William Lovie decides that it is time for him to make a major move in the Kingdom of Lucerne it is Alice that is the only one that can help him go through with it, and during this epic conversation they begin to accept that their feelings for each other may not be simply the sibling type anymore. Following the death of Bella Swan Alice Lovie realizes once again that her romantic feelings for her brother are coming out, and her decision is to leave the capital for a time while her brother spends time with his new betrothed Leven Martell, and she leaves the capital for northern Italy. Her arrival in northern Italy is met by great enthusiasm by the northern Roman provinces of whom see what happened with Ravenna as something they are interested in, and she settles with a large force of Lucernians outside of Venetia of whom grants them the stay.
2.1.1 Chaos of Youth
2.1.1.1 The Demitri Incident
2.1.1.2 An Uninvited Guest
2.1.2 Britney Hemsworth
2.1.2.1 Arrival in Lucerne
2.1.2.2 Alice Steps In
2.1.2.3 Confrontation with Alice
2.1.2.4 Birth of Lucie Lovie
2.1.3 The Bird and the Dragon
2.1.3.1 Bill Intervenes
2.1.3.2 The Winter Ball
2.2 The Corruption of Tristan Lovie
2.2.1 Testing the Limits
2.2.2 The Spark of Madness
2.2.3 The Duel
2.2.4 Moral Decline
2.2.4.1 Keeping Secrets
2.2.4.2 Coming clean and Consequences
2.3 The End of Alice Lovie
2.3.1 Unforeseen Consequences
2.3.2 End of Amber Heard
2.3.3 William, and Alice Awaken
2.3.4 Alistair Irons
2.3.5 Life in Forks
2.3.5.1 Florius Novellius
2.3.5.2 Bella Steps In
2.3.6 Attempted Execution of Alice Lovie
2.4 The Seven Knights Rebellion of 5123
2.4.1 The Lies of Ghelen
2.4.1.1 Arrival of William Lovie III.
2.4.2 The Floren Movement
2.4.2.1 The Coup of Brightwater
2.4.3 The Taking of Castle Ongrill
2.4.3.1 The Duel
2.4.3.2 Tristan Arrives in Ongrill
2.4.3.3 Saving Rachel
2.4.4 The Dunten Rebellion
2.4.4.1 Arrival of Edward Cullen
2.4.4.2 Surrender of Dunten
2.4.5 The Trachtenburgs
2.4.5.1 Battle of Castle Trachtenburg
2.5 The Journey
2.5.1 Attempt on Alice Lovie
2.5.2 Arriving in Forks
2.5.2.1 Alice Learns the Truth
2.5.2.2 Golden Haired Boy
2.5.2.3 Chance Encounter
2.5.2.4 The Tavern Meeting
2.5.2.5 William Returns
2.5.2.6 The Storeroom Meetings
2.5.2.7 The Return
2.5.2.8 Ending a Marriage
2.5.3 Gathering Storm
2.5.3.1 Arriving in Stormwind
2.5.3.2 Return to Lucerne
2.5.3.3 Alice Rises
2.5.4 Removing the Old King
2.5.4.1 Wedding of Bella, and William
2.5.4.2 Tristan's Failed Attempt
2.5.4.3 Entering the Sky Tower
2.5.4.4 Coronation of William Lovie III.
2.5.5 Nortburg Tournament of 5125
2.5.5.1 True Sons of Lucerne
2.5.5.2 The Riverlands
2.5.5.3 Meeting the Elves
2.5.5.4 End of a Betrothal
2.5.5.5 The Manderlys
2.5.5.6 Arrival of Brooke Scott
2.6 Death of Joseph Faraday
2.6.1 Return of the King
2.6.1.1 Removing Dylan Steinmare
2.7 Battle of Berne
2.7.1 Meeting Ezio Ederiz
2.7.1.1 Infiltrating the Tower
2.7.2 Meeting in Forks
2.7.2.1 Discovery of Betrayal
2.7.3 Sneaking Inside
2.7.4 The Battle
2.7.4.1 The Final Tower
2.7.4.2 Battle of Krinner
2.7.4.3 Taking of the Prison
2.7.4.3.1 Hunting a Beast
2.7.4.4 Duel with Sean Lovie
2.7.4.5 Death is the End
2.7.4.6 Meeting a Son
2.7.5 Control of Berne
2.8 The Underfort
2.9 Learning Hard Truths
2.9.1 Finding Family
2.9.2 Meeting Family
2.9.3 Meeting with Medivh
2.10 Wedding of Hanna Arryn
2.10.1 Arrival of Hillsbrad
2.11 End of Brooke Scott
2.11.1 Saying Goodbye
2.11.2 Goodbye Son
2.11.3 Death of Brooke
2.12 A Desperate Gamble
2.12.1 Telling Alice the Truth
2.12.2 The Mountain
2.12.3 The Monolith
2.12.4 The Mad God
2.13 Return of Riley Scott
2.13.1 Meeting a Daughter
2.13.1.1 Arrival in Westbridge
2.13.1.2 Running From a Monster
2.13.1.3 Arrival in Fairmarket
2.13.1.4 Return to Lucerne
2.14 Second Arnor War
2.14.1 Rachel's Assassination Attempt
2.15 Death of Bella Swan
2.15.1 Bella Dies
2.15.2 Confronting the Truth
2.15.3 The New Queen
2.15.4 Return of the Dragons
2.16 Northern Italy
2.16.1 Council of Venetia
2.16.2 Founding of Tyrol
"The short girl was pixie-like, thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was deep black, cropped short and pointing in every direction."
— Bella Swan
Alice is a very beautiful person, petite, the shortest of the children of James Lovie at 4'10" in the books, "thin in the extreme", with small, "pixie-like" features. She is also described to have large eyes and long, delicate eyebrows. Her hair is cropped short. She moves very gracefully, continually cited as dancing, with a carriage that would "break any ballerina's heart", as described by Bella in End of Darkness.
Alice is portrayed as being optimistic, and she loves and cares for Bella like a sister, although all her relationships are but a shadow compared to the love and loyalty she has for her brother William. She often ignores other people's advice and does things her own way, which usually results in the outcome being better than predicted. She is kind and cares for those she loves. She loves to sing with music three octaves higher than the song really is with her silvery bell-like voice. She has vicarious fun dressing up Bella, and her other cousins and friends "like a three-dimensional paper doll" and decorating for and throwing parties.
Main Article : Timeline of Alice Lovie
"My early life was all about extremes. My father hated me more then I feel like its normal for a human being to hate their child, and that clearly didn't make me feel good about myself. On the other extreme was my brother who grew up far quicker then anyone his age should have had to, and he loved me more then I ever deserved to be loved."
— Alice Lovie
Alice Lovie was born in Lucerne to her parents Bill, and Kathy Lovie and is the youngest of the three Lovie children, and because of this was always gaurded very closely by her brothers, though she was especially close to William. It was often said that you couldn't find William without Alice by his side, and it became very clear that they were very close. They would often sneak out into Lucerne proper, without there usually accompanying gaurd. The two of them continuesly attempted to find a way to get into the Tunnel Towers, in the hopes they could see the world outside lucerne. No matter what they seemed to try the two could never get past the gaurds who as time went on saw it as an almost hilarious game. But each time this happened Alice's father became more and more disturbed by the influence that Alice had over William. There were two final straws that caused Bill Lovie to remove Alice from Lucerne. Two moments that would shape the eventual departure of Alice Lovie from Lucerne, and completely destroy her emotionally for many years.
Chaos of Youth
The Demitri Incident
Alice was simply off limits. I hope to god his broken corpse proved that.
"There was simply the world that existed around Alice, and then there was Alice. Everything came secondary to the love my son held for that whore, and that made me hate her more then anything."
— Bill Lovie
As a young man though there was no relationship that could ever match up to the one he had with his sister Alice. This relationship would come to define him, and in subtle ways would be a major source of the distrust and hate between William and Sean Lovie as well as between William and his father. No matter who came or went from William's life the one constant love in his heart, and the person that everyone knew meant the world to him was Alice Lovie, and this came to be something that many close to him told him would one day become a weakness to him. As the two grew closer and closer William's hobbies became Alice's hobbies, and the things Alice enjoyed William tried to enjoy as well. This came to the front as the two came to really enjoy going down to Lucerne proper on their free days, and in these times they would play as if they were adventure's from a distant land, and not the prince, and princess of the Kingdom of Lucerne. This came to become a part of their lives that was a secret from everyone outside of Jasper, and Leven and for them as they spent more and more time escaping the world that for Alice was filled with pain, and for William was filled with regret, over what he knew he should be doing but for whatever reason he was to weak to become the prince the people needed.
"It was hard to believe even after all the emotional abuse I had recieved from my father that someone could actually hate me enough that they wanted to kill me. The real damage for me of the Demitri incident was for a long time I believed that this was validation of what my father believed. This man knew nothing about me and yet even he thought I deserved to die."
The Demitri incident was the the event that occurred when Bill Lovie hired mercenary Demitri Volturi to assassinate Alice. Bill Lovie would send his feelers throughout the neighboring regions as he definitely couldn't use someone from Lucerne, and after talking with Ravenholdt he was silently told no as the man he had talked to was Ezio Ederiz and he spoke against dealing with Bill Lovie although Bill would not know that it was Ezio that had done this. Eventually after exhausting better sources of assassins Bill would settle on a young man named Demitri Volturi of whom had a growing reputation for getting the job done despite the morality of the target. Demitri was a member of the Roman Family House Volturi of whom were an extremely wealthy family within the northern Italian country side. In his boredom Demitri had come to selling himself as a mercenary to keep his strength strong, and during this he had become involved with many morally ambivalent targets. Demitri had become completely used to the orders of others and this had caused an emotional collapse in the young man as he was forced by his trade to provide the killing of people that he knew nothing about. He was watched at this point for several weeks by Alex Kirsh of whom was commanded to watch him and make sure that he was someone who was capable of doing the act. In order to test him Alex would hire a group of bandits of whom he was able to convinse to attempt to rob the home of the Volturi of which was truly wealthy, and a good prize. The bandits would attack the estate where Demitri was at the moment, and at this point the foolish bandits attempted to attack the main gate despite being told by Alex not too, and Demitri awaited them as they entered the main courtyard. Demitri would over several minutes target and kill the entire group with throwing daggers and never was forced to engage them in combat despite their attempts to find him. Seeing this convinsed Alex of the skill of the man, and thus he returned to Lucerne to tell Bill Lovie about his findings.
"I was at my lowest point when I was given the message that a man of the highest importance was on his way to talk to me. I wondered who the hell it could be but I never had any idea it would be Bill Lovie. I also could have never imagined that the Lucernian would be commanding that I killed his own daughter. A strange people these Mountain Germans were."
— Demitri Volturi
It was at this point following the words of Alex Kirsh that he was contacted by Bill Lovie, who wanted Demitri to enter Lucerne and kill Alice. Bill was forced to once again use an alias and would travel to the lands of northern Italy alongside his growing Circle of Magi, and in fact the man that Demitri thought was Bill Lovie was actually Kieth Schwartz acting as a body double in case of trouble. Bill would make sure he was able to enter the city, and once inside he was to find Alice and kill her. Told that for this brief period of time the defences of the Cloud Towers would be lessened, and he would be able to climb the walls of the tower without resistence. Demitri was told that he was in no way to harm Bill's son William Lovie III., and that his death would be a certainty if he did. Kieth also made sure to note that Alice needed to be strangled so that they could make it look afterwards like she had hung herself, and their could not be any sign of physical violence. After at first laughing about the hypocrisy of killing one child and protecting the other one, he was silently approached from the side by Bill who pulled back the hood and said the following to Demitri.
Conversation Incoming
Good is a lie. Nobility is a shield. Honor is a weakenss. Death is the only escape..
Every family has their problems. My family has a problem that can only be solved when she is removed. My heir is the most perfect prince anyone in the entire continent could ask for, and I don't fear for a second that you could kill him. I warn you not to save my son, but instead I warn you because if you approach my son he will kill you, and thus make you unable to kill my daughter.
After this Demitri understood his command completely and agreed to the task set before him, and with this the five members of the Circle of Magi, and Bill would leave the meeting place and return to Lucerne. Demitri returned to Rome for a time where he fashioned a team of other assasins that he would use in order to enter the city of Lucerne, and eliminate any threats that he found once he arrived. What his assasins did not know was that he was going to use them as a lure to allow him to more safely enter the tower since he didn't have complete confidence in Bill Lovie getting him inside what many deemed to be the most heavily fortified capital in the region.
"Arriving at the base of that city for some reason gave me chills. I didn't understand quite why I was nervous, but I knew that something just wasn't right about all this. I entered anyway because I was worried my father would be upset that I had failed a mission from the King of Lucerne if I returned."
Demitri would come to camp a few hours south of Lucerne, and during this time he was met by Kieth Schwartz of whom assured him once again that he would have a simple entry into the city, and he needed to be done by the following day or he would begin to arise suspicion. During that night he spent time talking with Keith Schwartz about Lucerne, and he was shocked about the level of depravity that Kieth and the Circle of Magi were getting involved in, and when he asked Kieth why they were targeting their own people for so much destruction he was shocked about the anwser. Kieth would tell him that they were doing it because the Orcs were going to win, and the only way to survive was to force the people to retreat northward into the mountains, and they would do this by making life in the valley so terrible they would have no other choice. Kieth would indicate to him that they had destroyed Tree Hill in order to turn the southern valley into a wasteland, and the only part that hadn't worked properly was the fact that the Orcs hadn't completed the job and were for some reason just sitting in the city of Tree Hill. Kieth would continue and tell him that Forks was next, and that they were planning to spread massive amounts of explosives in the city, and then light them causing the city to be burned down. When Demitri asked him why he was telling him all of this since it was damning things to know Kieth told him that he didn't think he was going to survive the attack as he believed that William was going to get wind and end up killing him. Questioning why this William was such a threat when he was still a boy Kieth would indicate that he was the reborn messiah that would lead the Lucernian people into the uncertain future.
"I don't understand what happened father. How could this man get through all the layers that exist to defend us from this very threat."
After this Kieth would leave the camp during the night and return to the city where he joined the other Circle of Magi members in making sure that Demitri and his men were able to enter the city. He entered the city, and after sneaking him and his team to the Sky Towers he commanded them to attack a group of merchants near the tower, and thus force several of the guards away from the wall he was intending to climb. His team would be combated by the front defenders of the tower, and this distraction allowed him to walk by the normally guarded western wall of the Tower and slowly make the climb up the side to the first balcony which was on the ninth floor. The climb was extremely dangerous as the tower had been designed so that no one was supposed to be able to scale the sides for fear of this very thing, and on top of this the area around the tower was constantly guarded by hundreds of men at arms especially during that time of day. Despite all of these dangers he slowly made his way up the side of the tower using his personal hidden dagger tool he had purchased from Ravenholdt. After reaching the ninth floor he was able to make his way onto the balcony and prepare the next step of his plan.
"Reaching that balcony was for me the first moment since I had entered the city that I felt like I would survive this mission. I had not understood how truly expansive the city was until I stood on that balcony and quickly scanned around the area and saw how massive it all really was."
Demitri would make his way through the next few levels of the Tower of Clouds until he reached Floor 17 and came nearly face to face with Draco Highmore of whom was making his nightly rounds of the Tower of Clouds. Demitri had been warned about Draco and the fact that there was nothing any of them could do about the patrols of Draco as the man was beyond honor, and because of this he couldn't be dissuaded from defending the family he had become beloved by and towards. Draco Highmore would stop and look around as he felt that he had sensed someone nearby but Demitri was able to hide himself, and then able to make his way up the next few floors until he finally reached floor twenty five where he discovered the bedroom of both Alice, and William Lovie. Finding his target at last he checked Williams room to make sure he was in fact out of the Sky Towers at the time before he made his way into Alice's room to find her asleep in the bed. He would silently move towards her bed admiring for a moment her beauty before he would capture her neck with his hands and waking her up with a squeak but no noise loud enough to wake anyone up.
"I was standing on the balcony when I felt this immense pain in my heart, and a vision of Alice in pain. In that moment there was nothing on my mind except for the simple truth that I had to get to her. I ran to her room faster, and more frantic then I think I'v ever been before that moment, and when I ran in I didn't think I just prepared for any threat that might be harming her. That run from the balcony to her room was the most frighting ten seconds of my life as I imagined the hundreds of possibilities that I could find in that room."
He was in the middle of strangling her to death when William ran into the room and crashed into Demitri knocking him to the ground. A fight then broke out between William and Demitri, and in this moment Demitri understood in the truest of ways why Bill had said not to confront William as after falling to the ground Demitri would roll away and take out his sword while William would have nothing but his fists. At first Demitri attempted to bargain his way out of the situation, but he feared telling William about the involvement of his father, and thus he simply offered to leave and never return if William would simply back away and let him. William though was never going to be able to allow this man to escape after harming Alice and he made this point perfectly clear as he spoke to Demitri of whom watched as Alice clung to the leg of William. In this uneven battle William would dodge thrust after thrust until finally flinging a book at Demitri's face which in order to dodge Demitri was forced to turn away from him, and when he did William charged him and was able to take the sword from him. William would at this point with Demitri now swordless walk to the wall and grab a sword of which he threw to the ground in front of Demitri and then waited for Demitri to pick it up before he would reengage him. Now with a sword the two would continue to fight but William was an extremely talented dueler and pushed him out of the room before making sure Alice didn't watch what happened next.
"The feeling of him embracing me, just released the flood gates, and I cried so much that I didn't think I'd ever stop. This wouldn't be the only time that he was forced to save me but in that moment it just felt like he was the only person in the world. My brother held me for what may have been five minutes or may have been hours before finally Draco entered the hallway, and William just nodded at him before picking me up and leading me to his room. Suffice to say I didn't have to beg him to let me sleep in his room for awhile after that."
William would close the door behind him before dragging Demitri to the balcony where Demitri once again attempted to bargain his way out of things, but William was blood crazed at this point and refused to listen to anything he said, and one last time making sure that Alice wasn't watching William would decapitate Demitri and push his body off the balcony. With his adversary dead William returned to Alice's room to find her frantically searching for him, and when she saw him she ran straight into his arms. William would hold Alice as she lost herself in her fear, and sadness, and this would continue until a few minutes later Draco and several guards would enter the hallway to make sure everything was alright now.
Alice and William Lovie would be inspeperable before her first attack, but after she idolized him in an almost godlike way.
William wouldn't say a word, and Draco wouldn't make him as he simply picked up Alice and brought her to his room to sleep. Following the incident no one was told and the guards on duty were made to keep it a secret, and thus no one close to them outside of Edward, Levan, Emmeett, and Jasper would know of this attack against Alice. Even though they thought it was kept a secret the failure of Demitri to kill Alice had come to Bill as he was the one that set it in motion, and Draco reluctantly was forced to tell him what had happened despite his misgivings. Draco would be in the room as the Circle of Magi members discussed the failure to kill Alice, and Draco nearly spoke up saying the horror that he was watching unfold in front of him, but instead his loyalty kept him silent, and he kept his mouth shut. Draco would witness Khadgar voice his disgust for what was going on, and it was this that was one of the main reasons that down the road Draco would stand up for Khadgar when he fled the Circle of Magi. Following this William would become even more protective over Alice, and despite the brief attempts by Demitri to reveal that Bill Lovie had commanded the attack William didn't suspect for a moment that his father had attempted to kill Alice, and the only person he did suspect was Sean Lovie as he assumed that perhaps he had done it out of his continued jelousy over his relationship with Alice.
Britney Hemsworth and William Lovie III.
Who would have ever imagined she would grow up to be the girl that did the most damage.
Britney Hemsworth
"Britney Hemsworth came to the land of Lucerne with a purpose. At first I thought it was marriage, and it was for this reason that I dismissed her so quickly. It was only later that I realized she actually cared for me on a deep level."
Bill Lovie had a loyal messenger in Arnor at the time who sent him the news that the young Britney Hemsworth was now free following the death of her proposed husband in battle. Bill sent letters to King Jonas Hemsworth asking him if her hand was open for his young son William Lovie III., and after a series of back and forth letters Jonas would take this option to his council, and their would little debate among them. It was decided that clearly this was a much better option then most of the other options so Jonas agreed, and Britney was planned to be sent to Lucerne to get to know William so they could make sure it would work. Britney was told about the plan, and she was the studious daughter so she ably agreed that she would do everything necessary to gain the marriage and the hand of the young prince. During the time before she left she was left a list of things that William liked that had been sent by Bill Lovie but unfortunately Bill did not know his son half as well as he thought so the vast majority of these things were innacurate.
"Noone told me the distance between the two places, and for that reason it was shocking not only the distance but the complete changes that you go through in travelling from Arnor to Lucerne. The ice tipped mountains of Arnor pass through the lush Riverlands, and the hardy lands east of Stormwind, and then finally you reach the prestine valley of Lucerne."
— Britney Hemsworth
As she was leaving she was forced to for the first time accept life without her family of whom had been her rock for most of her life, but she was sent with her handmaiden Ilana La-Phellion of House Phellion. So it would be nothing more then Britney Hemsworth her handmaiden Ilana, and a small party of men at arms to protect them when they went for a trip to a completely foreign land. Also along with her learning she begin taking the name Britney Hemsworth the rough translation of what her Numenorian name became in common germanic.
Arrival in Lucerne
"The lands of Arnor and Lucerne are not exactly close, and having that much time to think made me more nervous then anything."
The Journey for Britney was extremely long, but over the time she and her best friend Ilana La-Phellion would be reading up on the history of Lucerne through several books that they had been given by Bill Lovie during his time in Arnor. Through this they learned the history of the Kingdom of Lucerne, but more importantly they learned all there was to know about House Lovie in book learning. During this reading she came to greatly admire her betrothed's name sake in the form of William Lovie of whom she read all about, and the relationship that he had with the dragons. She tried her very best for the situation that awaited her, and no one could have expected any more preparation or thought by a girl that young.
"The first thing you notice about the Lucernians is that unlike in Arnor where the people have this silent fear of life. The Lucernians have no such fear of death, they just lived there lives. If this was their capital I couldn't wait to see their prince, as surely he would shine just as bright as the city that he would one day inherit."
When Britney arrived in Lucerne Bill made sure to use all of his skill to manipulate the young girl into keeping her purpose their a secret. With the element of surprise still with him, he set Britney out on a mission to seduce William, which based on his whorish behavior at the time wasn't difficult. As her sexual ways moved her closer and closer to William she became slowly quite obsessed with the young prince. This obsession had her go to insane lengths to make sure that William was always paying attention to her, and above all else was always enjoying himself with her. She came to learn all the stories that he loved. All the games he loved to play she showed incredible interest in. All the things she could do to show him how much he meant to her she did and she also silently led William down a dark sexual path that led to the conflict that would begin with Alice.
"I did whatever I could to keep him interested. He was a maturing young man, but for all intesive purposes he was a child. I had to be the greatest of all the distractions he would be met by or else I would lose everything. "
It wasn`t long after beggining with Britney that he begin to tire of the routine of it all. He came to be aware that his father greatly admired young Britney for both her knowledge, and for her kindness and this made him want to rebel from his father by rebelling from his relationship from Britney. Seeing a distance growing between them and the amount of time he spent with her declined she would try a different approach to regain him. Finding him walking through Lucerne Hold with his sister and Draco Highmore she would interject into the conversation to the annoyance of Alice. William found this brave on her part, and the three begin talking and it eventually led down the road of her homeland. William knew about Arnor from school, but he was unaware of the dramatic differences of the north as well as the true scope of what kind of human she was. She told him of the fact that she would not age in anyway, and basically she would look the way she does now for hundreds if not thousands of years. She and Alice would argue the merits of living forever and it was only when Catherine Lovie arrived to take them home for supper that they would depart from the conversation.
Look at the world father. You were born into this land. You grew up here. These people swore their lives to you. How could you have done all of this? Look at everything you have done. You destroyed a city. Killed hundreds of good men out of fear. Is this how you want to be remembered father. Is this the world you want to leave behind? I know you were a good person once. Don't end it all here. Don't do this. For me father. For everything I supposedly mean to you. Don't do this.
I walked down the steps watching the girl laughing as she skipped beside me holding my hand. I watched her laugh and felt at peace for the moment. Who was this girl that haunted my dreams I wondered. Always the same blurred face, but the voice remained as resolute as if I heard it everyday. As we kept walking holding hands I felt her stop and looked towards her seeing she had an angry look, and when I looked forward and saw Britney Hemsworth coming towards us I understood.
Britney was for all intensive purposes my girlfriend at the time, and despite continueing to sleep with Leven, and whoever Elce I felt like she was the one that I was coupled with. My father loved everything about her, and that fact was never kept far from my ear when I was near him, and maybe that made me like her less. I mean there was no reason to have a problem with her, and the love making with her was beyond anything I had with anyone outside of Leven....It was just something missing.
``My prince, and princess, what brings you to this part of town.`` As I looked around I hadn`t noticed we had gone so far, and I knew we were getting close to dangerous areas of the town. The unfortunate nature of Lucerne was that the northern section was called Lucerne Hold, and in this part of town the nobles and the rich were dominent. But in the southern section. In the southern section the slums had sprung up like insects. My father told me that it was the work of criminals, and that only the glory of House Lovie kept the slums even fed. I didn`t believe him for one second, but who was I to say anything when I had the ability to protect them and I did nothing. WaIking into Lucerne proper wasn`t something that Draco liked us to do, but after I resisted him more then once he simply brought along more men when we entered the lower part of the city. I mean not that we were in any actual danger with Ser Draco Highmore gaurding us, but it was reckless to put ourselves in this type of situation.
``I could ask you the same milady. You do not have a mighty knight gaurding you as we do.`` She chuckled after I said it and the girl beside me holding my army tightly let out a sigh as if discusted by her.
``I suppose your right on that case.`` As I went to speak the girl clasping my arm spoke up.
``In the end we were just leaving weren`t we Will.`` I knew this girl for some reason and knowing her the way my mind did I knew her calling me Will was a reminder that I was hers, and not Britney`s. Britney though looked so sad when the girl called me Will that I ignored her. Her voice was like a beacon in the worst storm you could imagine, and yet I had no idea why.
``Yes we were Alice.``Britney`s sadness seemed to multiply until I finished. ``Would you care to join us Milady.`` Upon me saying it her eyes immediatly lighted up she nearly jumped beside me taking my arm in hers. The three of us walked back towards the Cloud Towers and just talked. The conversation was fluid between me and Britney but this girl I knew so well refused to even feign kindness towards Britney. Britney told us of her home in Arnor, and the family she had left behind, and I felt a connection for a moment to this girl that I only felt for the girl on my other side. Arriving where she was staying in the Lucernian Academy grounds I took her hand in mine and kissed her goodbye.
It was a suprisingly tender thing to do when I knew I was luring her into a relationship I could never recipricate into. But despite knowing that I couldn`t shake her beauty. As I pulled back and took in the ear to ear smile that crossed her face I knocked a pendent that held her hair in place to the ground. Moving quickly to pick it up I felt terribly as she ruined the front of her dress kneeling down in her desperation. ``I`m so sorry Britney.`` She reached out to the sound of my voice and caught my hand squeezing it tightly. When she raised her face she had tears on her face, and I felt even the girl I knew so well behind me move closer to try and comfort this broken girl in front of us. She wuped the tears from her face, before speaking and I felt the girl squeeze onto my back as well as if pulling me away from Britney.
``My mother made me this broach. She made it for me...and now...now its all I have left of Arnor.``
``You shall return home one day Britney.`` I held her cheek up and stared at her. ``I have no doubt that before you meet Glaurung you shall see your home again.`` I knew she didn`t believe in the dragon, but in this land I knew there was no choice but to accept its words or be a leper. It was such a strange thing the way people became angered by the rejection of a god that they had never seen.
``Its not seeing my home again that worries me William.``
``Then what has you frightened.``
``You know little of my people. I understand that we must seem almost non-human in our ways, but despite what people say we can...we can die to many things. Many amongst us are cursed with a disease that ages us, and eventually kills us.`` The broach coming from her mother made me realize of whom she was afraid for.
``Your mother suffers from this.``
``She does...`` I pulled her into a hug and I felt the girl behind me recoil as if struck by fire. Britney rested herself in my chest and her breathing seemed to calm down somewhat.
``I`m sorry Britney. I`m sure she knows how much you love her.``
``You know when I say it, I can barely believe it to be true but...but when you say it I almost believe it.``
Alice Steps In
The moral decay that was happening to William Lovie III. as he struggled to deal with the pressure of his position would become the uttmost conseren for Alice, and when she came to believe it could be stopped with the removal of Britney Hemsworth the battle between the two was set.
"Alice understood me better then anyone else in this world. In my mind I knew she was right, but I was just so bitter that I couldn't accept it. I tried to push her away but she wouldn't let me. I tried to fake it but she wouldn't believe me. In the end I should have just listened to her."
As William basked in the constant sexual gratification he was getting, his loving sister Alice was becoming very upset about the fall her brother was taking. She confronted William about it, and the two got into a heated argument which ended with Alice walking away, and them not speaking for a time. With his sister's disappointment William began making changes in his life, and Britney could not seem to get him back to where she had him before. She tried everything that had worked before but it was all to no success, of which included an ever darker series of sexual attempts of which continued down a darker path of violence. She finally attempted to confront Alice herself but this only had the effect of creating even more conflict when William stuck up for his sister.
Confrontation with Alice
Looking back now I should have felt the noose being tied around my neck by Alice. Each day he pulled farther and farther away, but it was never about his feelings for me, it was always about the lies she told him. She used the love he had for her in a sick and twisted way. A dagger to her chest would have been the best way of removing my self of Alice Lovie..
"I knew so little about Britney that when she came to me and wanted to speak to me I didn't have any idea what we were going to speak of. As I walked down the stairs I tried to remember what I knew of Britney and I couldn't think of anything. I barely knew the sound of her voice let alone enough about her to make me able to discuss anything. I guess I hated her before and felt pity for her after. I realized that she loved my brother at his lowest, and she was just trying to reach the same levels as he was."
Alice was in her room when Britney came to the Sky Tower and she was alerted by a guard that Britney was on the main floor asking for her. She went to William's room but found that he was gone, so she went by herself downstairs accompanied by Graden Bloomine where she planned to have it out with Britney. When she went downstairs she found that Britney was standing in the open garden next to the tower, and she was clearly upset. As she moved closer Britney noticed her and bolted towards, and after being told to move back from Alice and continuing to yell at her she was restrained by Graden. Now being held by Graden Britney unleashed her anger towards Alice and Alice just stood
Britney Hemsworth was misunderstood by most she met, and her love for William was in fact very true.
their as Britney at first became irrationally anger, and then broke down into tears. As she broke into tears Alice saw for the first time the side of Britney that she had never allowed herself to see before. As Alice went to comfort her she was shuffled away by Graden of whom didn't listen to Alice's desire for Britney to remain, and since she would be removed following this fight Alice would never get the chance to. Following this Britney was quietly shuffled out of the city by Bill Lovie who believed she had completely failed. Unknown to William was the fact that he had gotten Britney pregnant during their relationship and she now carried his child. Despite his best attempts at fixing things with Alice he became ever more detached from the situation and it only got worse when he grew into conflict with Jasper as well over the things that Jasper had been feeling. Alice continued to attempt to get through to William but she found that he was changing in a darker way and she begin to fear for him.
Birth of Lucie Lovie
"If Alice was gone there would be absolutely nothing standing between me and my beloved. She had ruined the whole thing and now it appeared that the Dragon had given me the only vision of her, perhaps in his guidance he destroyed her forever. Whatever he did I knew his greatness was now without question."
— Ar-Brentey Hemsworth
Unknown to everyone was the fact that Britney Hemsworth did not return to Arnor immediately after Bill sent her away, and since Bill cared so little about her he didn't even send a letter to her father in Arnor telling him that she was returning. Because everyone in Arnor believed her to still be in Lucerne no one checked on where she was after she left Lucerne. During her time in Forks she would work very hard to make sure that she kept her family in the dark through the use of letters to them describing to them how perfect her life with William was. Britney spent over a year in Forks, and in yet another of William's hidden secrets she gave birth to a child while in Forks. When she had properly recovered from the birth of her son she decided to return to Lucerne and present her and Williams son to her beloved. She silently boarded a stage coach with their young baby boy and traveled her way to Lucerne, and while she rode for those days and in between caring for her baby she wrote a letter to William in which she told him all the things that she felt for him. When she arrived in Lucerne she ran into one of her friends, and thus she was quick to hide the baby with her handmaiden Janna Coates of whom she told her friend was the mother of the baby. Through her friend she learned that William had gone into a coma and had only recently gotten out of it. This news was something she was obviously shocked by and when she asked her friend where Alice was, her friend gave her a shocked look like she had no idea of whom Alice was. At first Britney was confused but she quickly adjusted and realized that something strange had happened to Alice and that she had been given a gift from the dragon through her departure.
"Jasper Hale would be the one who stopped what would have been a perfect reunion. He cost you all that time with your father. Do not forget what he did Lucie."
As she and her handmaiden traveled into Lucerne Hold they were spotted by Jasper Hale of whom remembered all the trouble that she had caused for him. He immediately approached her on the street and she at first smiled at him but when he roughly grabbed her arm and pulled her down a side street she realized that this was not a pleasant get together. He demanded to know why she had returned, and it was as he was accusing her of things
that he noticed the baby in the hands of Janna and when he looked a the baby he immediately knew that the baby was William's. Britney watched as Jasper put it together and she was at first happy to let someone know what a miracle she had created but she then watched the anger in his eyes and he again grabbed her by the arm and ordered his men to take hold of Janna and the baby and follow him. They took Britney to the House Hale estate where he put them in his room and locked the door. When night came he returned with his men and he made it very clear that she was returning to Arnor immediately, and no matter what she said Jasper wouldn't hear it and thus she was whisked onto a stagecoach and set off to Arnor.
The Winter Ball
The Winter Ball changed all of our lives.
The Bird and the Dragon
Main Article : Amber Heard II.
"The Academy was a culture shock for me. I had grown up amongst the nobility of Forks so I understood the intricisies of that culture, but the aristocrats, and noble children of the academy and what they brought was something I just didn't fit into."
— Amber Heard II.
Her early time in the academy was filled with learning as she attempted to honor her family by gaining the most out of the experiance as she possibly could. She had been placed into all of William's classes, but despite her obvious interest in him, she was kept away by the bullying of the other girls that seemed to hate her, and the continued relationship of William with several of the same girls. Amber though was falling into a very deep crush on William and despite the constant abuse she took from the girl students of which much of this was led by Britney Hemsworth of whom saw her as a major threat to her she continued to attempt to get to know William. Britney during this time was causing a lot of problems for William and his personal life, and because of this he was growing more sad, and Amber noticed this which made her see an even deeper side of him that few people noticed as they were looking for other things with him. Outside of the Shadow Council the only people that he seemingly truly trusted were those such as Marcel Lovie II., Hanna, and Aria Arryan, and Emma Bell of whom were also members of his family, and this number decreased further after the departure of Hanna, and Aria Arryn from the city due to the silent menipulation of Bill Lovie. Even as Britney was pushed from the city the simple fact dawned on Amber that he didn't even notice that she didn't arrive at class anymore, and the usually jovial young man was constantly filled with malaise over the things that hung over his life.
Bill Intervenes
"Despite my growing affection, and perhaps more for William he never seemed to be within my reach. Each attempt I did with him was met by a tenderness from him, but extreme hostility from the other girls. All that changed when for whatever reason the teachers decided to pair us for everything they could possibly design."
Despite the fact that both of them were attracted to eachother in an extremely strong way, for William the loose ends of Britney Hemsworth, and Leven Martell, alongwith with the arguements with Alice meant that he was depressed, and felt vulnerable at this point. This vulnerability meant that he didn't feel up to corupting a girl that he for whatever reason felt different about then many of the other suitors for his bed. When Bill saw that she and William were not immediatly coming together he went to William and subtly asked him what he thought of Amber Heard, and when he saw his young prince blush he knew that something was there. When he tried to push William on his hesitence to seal the act with her, his son clammed up and the conversation ended without any real responce but Bill had in his own mind finally found the young women that would give his son a child. Amber Heard was nearly as good a choice as Britney as she was a blood relative of the ruling House Arryn through her mother, and this meant that she was someone who would further the alliances of the crown. Bill knew that for whatever reason his son wasn't moving at the speed he usually did and for this reason he decided to intervene at the school, when he had the teachers create numerous group projects of which all combined William and Amber working together in very sexualized assignments.
"For a guy who had every women in the school pawning over me, I found myself not wanting to debase her the way I had done all the other girls here. There was an essence of purity in her face, that made it feel wrong to take advantage of her. It wasn't until the moment came that fate seemed to thrust us together that I relented and continued to be the same man I had become. For better or worse I felt something for her, that stilled me inside. I felt something for her that made me want to protect her, and that wasn't something I felt for any girl I had seduced."
The projects begin as simply normal projects that students at the academy did together, and these projects drove the two together into a deeper friendship at first. This friendship helped William to push himself through the depression that he felt about so many bad things in his life, and Amber was the first person even above Alice that he actually verbalized to how much he missed Edward. William at this time was very sad over the numerous arguments that he was having with both Jasper, and his beloved sister Alice and because of this their friendship was allowed to blossom in a scenario that allowed for the usually sexual William to take his time and actually feel something for the girl in front of him. As the two became more and more inseperable the time came where they had a school affair which led to them being forced to anwser questions about their first life experiances. When the question appeared about who their first kisses had been with she confirmed that she had never kissed anyone, and at this realization he couldn't resist anymore.
"Looking at her face, and how honest she was with me, I was overcome with emotions that I didn't know still existed in me. I reached out and touched her face and revelled in the calmness that washed over me as she lay her hand against me. I knew in that moment even if I didn't admit it till after she was dead that I loved her. I knew then and their that she wasn't just a fling."
When the too broke apart something had changed between the two. The friendship that they had built this moment around remained but the chemistry and sexual tension that had always been there increased to the point that when they walked back he couldn't believe it when he held her hand all the way back to the academy. After this it didn't take long before Amber and William began sexually intimate. When this became clear to everyone around them it became nearly common knowledge that the prince was in love with a girl, and everyone from the commoner farming in Brill to the noble in Lucerne Hold came to obsess over this girl that may have finally tamed the playboy prince. It wasn't until he had invited her to dinner with his family that the true scope of the relationship came to be realized by the one that may have mattered most in the form of Alice. and not long after that the usually playboy William settled into a true relationship with Amber Heard. The two of them grew much closer then Andrew did with Britney Hemsworth and in this way the two were truly in love though its true to say that Andrew took it for granted.
Amber Heard, and Alice Lovie were both unaware that the Winter Ball was among their last moments in Lucerne. A relationship that had defined both of the Lovie children was on the verge of ending and neither were even a little aware that this was happening behind the scenes.
"The Winter Ball was the last moment that I could point to before she left that I felt anything. It was the last moment for years that my heart felt the love that I felt at the end of that night. Had I of known how little time I had left, I would have done things differently. I would have...I guess...I don't what more I would have done, but I do know that I would have told them both how much I loved them. How much they both meant to me."
One of the annual traditions of the Lucernian Academy was the Winter's Ball, and for the two years previous this years William had brought his sister Alice as his date of which he had pretended was an act to melt the girls hearts but in fact it had more to due with the fact that she was younger and without the invitation wouldn't have gone with him of which meant that he wouldn't have gone and his father would have lost his mind if he didn't. In the year previous William and Alice had first got into their arguments as he had arrived with Alice bit shortly after this Britney Hemsworth had taken his eye, and had been able to covinse him to go around with her. During this time as Alice had remained alone she had been the source of many jokes from some of Britney's friends of whom Britney had pushed into this as she attempted to push Alice away from William knowing how strong her influence was over William. This year because of their fighting being particularlly bad, and the fact that William was for the first time actually in a real relationship he didn't invite her, and on the eve of the dance it appeared that Alice wasn't going to be coming.
Amber Heard was in a precarious position as she wasn't all that popular in the Shadow Council as she was seen as somewhat of an outsider that didn't play well with others, and thus if she repaired the relationship between Alice and William then she risked William having one more person to go to that might not like her. But despite this danger she knew what William's heart wanted and she already loved him so deeply at that point that she couldn't bear to see him hurt, even if he didn't know he was hurting.
"I knew of Alice through the rumors. I knew of Alice as the girl that had stolen the heart of the man I loved. I knew of Alice as a girl that clearly loved her brother. And yet the only time I had met her was when I had dinner at the Sky Towers and she didn't say a word to me. I could tell she had wanted to, and it wasn't even under debate how much she loved him and because of that. Because of what she meant to him. Because he deserved that kind of love I would ignore how powerful she was. I would ignore the fact that with a flick of her finger she could send me packing. I would ignore all this and make her see the truth."
William and Amber would go to a dinner where Amber hoped Alice would be and thus she would convinse the two siblings to talk through their problems, but as she arrived she saw that it was only William, and his aunt and uncle with no sign of Alice. When Amber wondered where Alice was William would tell her that his father had sent her away to Nortburg for a few days as Alice had not wanted to go to dinner with William as angry as she was. Scolded by his aunt Catherine for saying such a mean thing about Alice he was visably angry by the fact that Alice had seemingly ditched him and convinsed his father to send her away for a few days. In fact the truth was that Bill realized that they were fighting and had conspired to attempt to make it worse by having Alice sent to Nortburg with Michelle Trachtenburg where he hoped William would be unable to forgive her after she returned. At this knowledge it became clear to Amber that she could no longer sit on the sidelines and wait for either Alice, or William to make the first move, and thus she went to Alice a girl that she only knew through the legends of Alice Lovie, and a girl that clearly held the heart of the man she loved with everything in her.
"I didn't know how to make it better anymore. I wanted him to know that I was sorry I had made him upset with me, and that none of it mattered in the end. The only thing I wanted was my brother back. I wanted the person who meant the most in the world to me, to return. I hadn't meant to make him feel ashamed. I hadn't meant to hurt him as deeply as I clearly had. In the end I was just sorry for everything. I didn't care who came out as the winner, and who came out as the loser. I didn't care about anything except letting him know that I was sorry, and that I loved him."
She went to the Sky Towers on the night that she knew William was going to be staying with Emmett, and when she arrived she told the guard on duty that she wished to see Alice, and knowing who Amber was she was allowed inside without much questioning, and she made her way to Alice's room. Draco Highmore would accompany her up the stairs of the Cloud Tower and though she had been up this pathway many times she felt scared beyond anytime before as she was going to confront the great love of her lovers life. When she arrived on her floor she could hear the sounds of crying and when she entered Alice's room she found her curled in the corner holding onto a bear as if it was the last thing on Earth.
Amber Heard and Alice would come to the shared conclusion that she was going to need to be the one that made the first move or else they risked William always ignoring the situation.
Upon hearing Amber enter the room Alice immediately attempted to hide the bear but it was clear to both girls that Amber had seen it, so in the first real communication between the two Amber asked what the significance of the bear was. Alice told her it was a bear that Andrew had given her, and that for her it basically was the one constant reminder of how much her brother loved her. Alice would stare at the bear which was nothing of any great quality but for Alice the bear meant everything. Realizing in that moment how much Alice loved her brother she would talk Alice into believing that she wanted Alice and William to get back together in the way they had been in the past. Alice would only believe her after much convincing as she had watched William's last real girlfriend in Britney Hemsworth spend much of her time actively attempting to weaken the relationship between William and Alice. Once Amber had convinced her though Alice and Amber came together and talked it all through, and by the time they were done Alice was ready to make the first move.
For Alice Lovie the dance was her chance back into her brother's life.
"Jasper and Will weren't even talking on the days leading up to the dance, so it didn't exactly put me in the best of moods. I knew that of all the things in this world that we shouldn't be doing it was fighting amongst ourselves. Something had to change for us. Something had to get better."
— Emmett McCarty
For William during this time he remained by the side of Amber, and Emmett of whom was very uncomfortable during this time as he was forced to both choose between his best friends, and at the same was being forced to go to the dance with Lauren Oakheart of whom he hated, and was only there to get a chance at William. Jasper was completely alone at this point and had as said previously even pushed away Emmett, and despite his reservations and attempts to get her away from him, Alice had remained the only one willing to be around him in his depression over his friendship with William crumbling. Alice came to him with the idea that the time was now for them all to get back together, and that the only way it could work was if he invited her as his date. Jasper at this point was a leper amongst the girls of the school because of what he had done to Kristen, and Blake and the fact that noone wanted to upset the prince so he relunctantly said yes to her proposal. Arriving at the ball everyone who was anyone in the academy was their and as William, Amber, Lauren, and Emmett arrived they made their way to their table and prepared to spend the night enjoying eachother's company. The quiet table would be interupted when they found that the two empty chairs at their table were set up for Jasper, and Alice by the two of them arriving at the table and in an act of bravery they both sat down.
"I knew this was them apologizing to me. I knew exactly what their arrival at the table meant, but the problem was with them. My love for them hadn't changed, or diminished with the time we had been fighting. The only thing that had changed was how I felt about myself. At this point I had forgiven them a long time ago, the only person I couldn't forgive was myself."
Seeing them both sit down, William shook his head before getting up from the table followed quickly from behind by everyone at the table outside of Lauren who had no idea what was going on. When they finally caught up with him outside he broke down and said he couldn't take it anymore how bad he felt all the time, and he didn't know how to move forward anymore. As the group watched the rock of the group break down Alice lunged forward and took him into a hug which the two maintained for sometime before the whole group begin talking through the problems of the the past. Everyone got everything off their chest that had been bothering them for so long that it had built up into something horrible, and as they talked through it they were all finally able to move past the crimes of the past, and accept that they all needed eachother.
"Everything improved the moment after that Winter Ball ended. We had finally put everything out on the table that had been bothering us, and to top that off I felt like for the first time in my life I had found the girl I would marry. What could possibly go wrong."
Following the Winter Ball the relationship was mainly fixed between William, and Alice and this caused an increase in the relationship of Amber and Alice as the two were now around each other all the time due to their shared time with William. On the days that Andrew and Alice couldn't go down to Lucerne proper on their adventures Andrew begin to even take Amber Heard who had a silent enjoyment for taking part in the adventures, but even beyond that she just wanted to spend time with the prince that had her heart. The two would take their little swords and journey down into the city, and unlike on times when he went with Alice the times were more filled with silent contemplation on top of the roofs of buildings they came to enjoy climbing. The two became quite open in their romance as this came to pass, and although Andrew still went with Alice whenever she was able, there wasn't such a deep sadness that he was going with someone other then Alice the way there was when he tried to take other girls he had been involved with. Their was no jealously between Alice and Amber, and she came to enjoy spending time with Amber on a level that had never even been contemplated between Alice and Andrew's previous girlfriends. As time went on the adventures of Amber, and Andrew took on a different turn as Andrew had become interested in seeing the caves of Lucerne proper and he silently knew that if he told Alice about that then she wouldn't let him go because he might get hurt in there. Instead he told Amber that he, Jasper, and Emmett were going there and that he would miss her while they were gone, and while she and he became intimate before he left he forced her to promise him that she wouldn't come and she relunctantly promised him.
The Corruption of Tristan Lovie
Main Article : Duel on the Steps
The Duel on the Steps
He was a monster. He needed to be treated like a monster deserved to be treated.
"I watched him carefully after I fed him the poison. I had to make sure in his madness he didn't try and harm William. I wanted him to kill Alice, but in his madness he filled his days with raping whores. After he had killed three of them I decided to lower the dose a bit."
In the early days of his teenage years Tristan Lovie continued to feel rejected by the lack of relationship with his brother William, and his father James, and as time went by and his loneliness increased this resentment only grew in the heart of Tristan Lovie. The only relationship that seemed to have any balance for Tristan in his own mind was the one he shared with his sister Alice Lovie. This relationship would come to be the only true relationship that Tristan had, and while he grew to love Alice in an entirely brotherly way, Alice was hiding a growing fear towards her brother due to the manner in which he begin to act. To the outside world and even to Tristan the two appeared close, but for Alice she was hiding the fear deep within herself and refusing to tell anyone about it including her beloved brother William as she feared what William would do to Tristan if he knew how lost Tristan was truly becoming. Unfortunately as they both aged, Tristan's desires for Alice only increased and as he was also becoming increasingly deranged due to a near constant abuse from his father he was very poor at hiding his desires and over the course of time many in the capital began whispering about Tristan having unnatural feelings towards Alice. In his loneliness Tristan made several attempts to befriend William but due his long isolation and the abuse from James he had little skill in social settings and embarrassed William each time leading to William and him become estranged even further. Seeing the growing issues between Tristan and William, and feeling his own resentment towards Alice, James began forming a plan to remove Alice of whom he begin to blame for everything wrong in his life. James would approach Tristan with his plans and demanded that Tristan take part in them, but to his suprise Tristan refused to harm Alice admitting his deep love for his sister. Following this refusal it was Tristan that was placed within the Tower of Solace by James and the rest of the city and family was told that Tristan had been sent to Castamere to squire for a few months. As Tristan toiled in the prison that was the Tower of Solace it was James and the Circle of Magi that begin work on a specialized spell that they would name Cruciamen or The Butcher's Nails. This spell would be designed by James and the Circle to increase the level of violence, and hate within the heart of Tristan and realizing that Alice was the person that Sean thought the most of he believed it would lead to a violent encounter between Tristan and Alice. The main issue that James and the Circle had not take into account for was the fact that Sean already harbored some very dark thought's and so while working by increasing his violent thoughts it also caused Sean to become nearly completely unhinged sexually.
"I watched him carefully after we conjured the spell. I had to make sure in his madness he didn't try and harm William. I wanted him to kill Alice, but in his madness he filled his days with raping whores. I did everything in my control to put him within range of Alice, but each time he just kept killing more whores. After he had killed five of them I decided to change my strategy."
— James Lovie II.
James Lovie watched him the entire time that he basically lost himself in his madness, and during this time he used his power to make Tristan and Alice be around each other as much as possible and in order to protect William he forced William on a trip to Nortburg which kept him away during the madness of Tristan. As per the spells effect Tristan felt a massive pull to kill Alice, and eventually no matter how hard he tried to resist hurting the one thing he truly loved eventually the pull for violence became too much. He stalked her for days each night he found it more and more difficult to resist the pull he felt to kill her, but each night he used the massive amount of love he had for Alice in order to not kill her. As the days went by and he continued to not kill Alice, it was James that would begin to pick fights with him and have other guards insulting him which would lead to Tristan having a breakdown which caused him to go to a local brothel, and followed in this movement by Carlisle Cullen, and Kieth Schwartz he would sit in the brothel stewing in violent thoughts but still unwilling to go across the moral line, and it was at this point that Kieth Schwartz would push him over when Kieth paid one of the whores at the brothel a large amount of gold to seduce Sean and then be rough with him during the time together.
Alice Lovie would become the target of James Lovie for murder, and it was his own son Sean that he would mold to target her.
Kieth would on short notice set up the two to be able to come back to what she was forced to say was her place but in fact was nothing more then an abandoned home in Lucerne Proper, and everything was prepared in the house to have Tristan murder the whore and hopefully for Keith to push Tristan over the edge. The prostitute would seduce Tristan through the help of Carlisle Cullen of whom advised her to call herself Alice and upon this happening Tristan would follow her back to her home where he tried to be gentle with her but believing he wanted things rough due to the manipulation of Kieth Schwartz she would be rough which escalated the violence and Tristan would let out his pent up anger and murdered the girl brutally. Feeling that one kill would not be quite enough Kieth Schwartz would have his brother Fadril Schwartz bring a girl from the same brothel to the house where she too was paid a large sum of money and then was let into the house by Fadril directly after the murder of the first girl by Tristan and seeing what had happened the girl tried to run but found the door blocked by Fadril, and Sean now completely unhinged would kill her too. Waking up the next morning to find the two girls dead and knowing exactly what he had done Tristan's moral compass was destroyed and over the next two days he would kill two other girls before becoming obsessed with having more violence and extending what he was enjoying.
"It was a dark path that Sean had fallen down into, and unfortunately for Ellen Page she had walked into the path of a demon. Her only saving grace was the fact that she was a believer, and whatever was in Sean had lost that a long time before that moment."
As Tristan Lovie was escalating it would be his interaction with Ellena Page that would completely push him over the edge and lead to his first true demise. Ellena Page would join her family during an attempt by her father to meet the king and when she did she stepped right into the lions den when she was seen by Tristan Lovie as she walked with her parents and two brothers. Something about her called to Tristan and he begin stalking her for days after this chance meeting and he finally caught her when she went south of Lucerne to a vineyard with two guards of House Page. Watching them from afar Tristan was overcome with rage that she had been accompanied by guards and thus he moved ahead of the group and set traps for them as they passed the road. One of the guards stepped on a trap immobilizing him, and when the other guard went to help him Tristan was able to secure her after he went about killing the two guards. Stabbing them repeatedly to death would allow Ellena to briefly escape but he chased her down, and then knocked her out allowing him to kidnap her and take her to a forest cave he had turned into his home base, and there he prepared to torture her for hours.
"The pain and degradation was one thing, but the main thing I felt was helpless. I didn't want any of this, but no matter how much I wanted it to stop the thing I realized most was the fact that I had no control over it."
— Ellena Page
While being nearly continuously raped by the monster, she never allowed Sean to see her fear, and throughout would recite the words of the Dragon of which caused Tristan immense rage. Most of this was unseen by Tristan though, and when it finally ended he was preparing to kill her when he found her eyes still without fear and her saying Dragonoph prayers and all of this made him hate her to the point that he he planned to break her. At first Sean took this as a challenge and each time he returned to her he attempted to up the ante in the belief that he could simply frighten her into giving him what he wanted. As his attempts failed time after time, he found his control slipping more and more, and only the desire to defeat her resistance kept her alive.
Believing he needed to make her suffer more emotionally he tried this by Showing her two other girls in the form of Roslin Reyne, and Sophia Faraday and then he forced her to watch as he broke the two girls emotionally, and physically. Over several days leaving the two girls with Ellen they grew close, and thus it was devastating when two days later he killed Roslin after she gave in, and then a day after this he killed Sophia when she did the same. With the two girls dead Tristan became overcome with hate for the girl and was prepared to kill her the next day but wanted to find the perfect weapon to destroy her with. Luckily for her that next day Sean was overcome with rage over her resistance and would flee the cave he had built to return to Lucerne where he believed in his heart he needed to see Alice and everything would be alright again. Ellen uses the sword at her feet to escape the restraints placed on her, and following this she takes the badly mutilated bodies of Sophia, and Roslin out of the cave and hides them in the hills before she returns to Lucerne through the forest. Hiding herself in a robe she does not return home instead going to the Great Dragonoph Temple where she meets two Dragonoph Priests there in the form of Lena Weigl, and Sabina Edrenn of whom take her into their care and nurse her back to health over some time. Revealing to them what had happened without revealing the name knowing if they knew who it would just put them in danger the two priests deliver her to several Dragonoph Knights training in the courtyard and there they are commanded by the Priests to train her in the use of the sword to defend herself.
The Spark of Madness
"It was all so much in that moment. It didn't matter that I shouldn't kill him. It didn't matter that there would be some serious consequences in my life if I killed him. None of that mattered for even a second because each and every second my eyes were open I couldn't shake the image of Alice in pain."
It was late at night when Tristan returned from his failure with Ellena Page, and looking for his sister he saw Alice walking the balcony of her room in nothing but her nightgown, and seeing her in this sexualized position was too much for him and he charged through her door and attempted to rape her. The two scuffled for a time, and the noise they made during their fight woke William of whom Tristan hadn't even checked to see if he was home in his madness induced rage, and coming to the sounds William charged into the room. Seeing the situation and now no longer able to pretend his brother wasn't a monster William quickly beat Tristan, and unable to accept that he had hurt Alice, William started to kill Tristan by strangling him. As he was strangling Tristan it was Alice that put her hand on his shoulder and whispered for him to stop. Every ounce of his soul wanted to kill his brother in that moment but he looked to Alice and saw tears streaming down her face, and he couldn't bear to add more pain to her, and thus grudgingly William Lovie III. did stop and Tristan ran out of the room. William would hold Alice tight as by this point guards had entered the situation, and James came to room feigning confusion over what had happened but quickly in order to keep the support of William he commanded Draco Highmore to put Tristan in chains and lock him in the bottom of the tower of Solace. It was in this moment that James saw his daughter in a different light then he had ever seen her before, but the voices in his head would keep him from revealing anything real to his children and he would eventually leave without honesty.
"Take him away. Lock away the monster, and I will see to his judgment.". I watched as my command was quickly heeded by Draco of whom assisted by two of the other guards grabbed Sean and took him towards the elevator where he would be locked up on the bottom floor.
As I turned back though I saw her. Maybe this was the first time I had ever really seen her. I don't know what it was about her face when I looked back into that room. My mind was filled with the endless lies I had told myself to say to William to make him see my truth, but as I walked in and saw her for a split second I saw something. Hidden beneath her eyes was something I recognized. I almost fell down, and it was only the arm of Hayden holding me up that kept me from falling to the ground. My heart pounded, and I felt this sort of despair that I couldn't place. William looked at me with a confusion that made me feel worse because it was built on the fact that he couldn't understand why I was sad about Alice being hurt. My son had been so corrupted to who I was that he thought that little of me.
"My king are you alright?" Hayden's words knocked me from my daydreams, and forced me to level my head at him.
"My brute of a son has made a mockery of this home." I stopped for a moment and looked at William while I struggled with all my power not to look at her. "He will pay for this my son. You have my word that boy will pay very dearly for this." I knew for the first time how pathetic it sounded to be trying to care for my son while my daughter...I think that was the first time I had instinctively called her my daughter. I guess I always knew she was my daughter, and when formally required I've said it before, but never in my own mind.
"Your daughter is lying here broken by your actions, and all you can think of is making me feel better." I felt worse by the fact that I wasn't more hurt by the hatred in his eyes then I was by the actual look he gave me.
"Son I had nothing to do with this. I was on a completely..."
"You did this to him. Whatever he was, or could have been you ruined with your hatred. At what point do you sit back and just admit to the world the damage you have caused."
"Son..."
"Just give me an answer for once in your life!" He got up and if her life would flow away without him holding her she got up alongside him still cradling him. "Just one time in your life just tell the truth!"
I could have said something. Looking at him with all that raw emotion I could have made things different for us in so many ways. But in the end it came down to the simplest of truths. If I told my truth then he might understand but he would hate me. For me I just couldn't live with the fact that if he knew the complete truth the monster he thought I was would pale in comparison to the monster I actually am. So I did what he probably knew I would do. As I turned my back to the situation and walked out of the room I could just make out the sobs of Alice, and yet again I felt the desire to help her. But yet again I did nothing.
William would stay with Alice the entire night letting her sleep in his bed for the night to keep her calm, and then in the morning his aunt Catherine Bell arrived at the tower at his request and watched over her as William needed to deal with Tristan. Leaving Alice crying with his aunt William told Hayden Percy to take him to Tristan, and Draco would tell him that this wasn't the time and that judging from what just happened James wouldn't want him to do that. William would upon his failure to convince Hayden attempt to convince Draco, but despite Draco wanting to do this he was hamstrung by his honor to the king of Lucerne. William would let it rest for a night because even in his hatred and anger towards his brother he knew that the beautiful sister that he loved so deeply needed him more then his vengeance. Returning to Alice she fell into his arms as soon as she saw him, and Catherine left them to go and find her brother and try to learn more, and the rest of the day the two would talk, and Alice would tell William yet again how much she wanted their father to just reach out and say something to her. Alice was very open to revealing that even indifference would be preferable to the way he treated her now, and this feeling only made William hate his father more.
"He was an embarrassment to our family, and I would make him see just how embarrassed of him we truly were."
William knew that Tristan would just try this again so he decided that he needed to so greatly shame Tristan that he would leave the city. Speaking to Jasper Hale, and Emmett McCarty about what had happened they would come up with idea of him challenging Sean and following through on this William went to the town crier the next morning and sent out a decree for Sean to duel him the next day. William never believed Tristan would show up considering how skilled with a blade that William was, and the fact that Tristan had little to no skill at the art of battle. But when the day did come he stood on the steps of Lucerne surrounded by a massive crowd, and saw Tristan walking down the road towards him wearing the armor that he remembered had been given to Sean by Maron Scorpian as a gift on his twelfth birthday. As Tristan walked towards him with a look of pure fear in his eyes Alice begged William to not give Tristan the gratification that this fight would give him. She knew that for Tristan the hatred of William meant that he was probably willing to give up his life so that William would have to carry the title of kin slayer around with him for the rest of his life. William wanted to listen to his sister but when he saw the scarf on her neck he remembered the fear he had that his sister was dead or raped and could not. Tristan and William would argue for several minutes discussing all the things that had went wrong between the two, and after Tristan continued making sexual comments about Alice William exploded on him and the fight went basically as everyone had assumed it would as William and his vastly superior fighting skills brutalized Sean throughout the fight eventually knocking him to the ground. Despite being beaten quite badly and bleeding from cuts on his face Sean would charge forward grabbing a sword from a guard and threatening to kill William, but would be stopped when William got under his guard and knocked the sword away before Sean would trip and fall down the steps hitting his head.
"My dear daughter. You should have left well enough alone. Because trust me little girl, if you tell Andrew anything about this and I'll kill him."
In the aftermath of the fight between William and Sean, Alice was visited by Bill Lovie, and in this meeting he set out exactly the future for Alice as by this point Bill Lovie came to understand that there was no relationship possible between himself and William as long as Alice was in the picture. After telling her father that she was sorry any of this happened he proceeded to charge her and beat her quite badly. After several minutes he stopped and realized the extent of what he'd done. Her father threatened to kill William if Alice told William about the beating by him - an obvious bluff since nothing was more important to Bill then the uplifting of his prized heir - and this threat shocked Alice to her core. In fear that Bill might kill William, Alice lied to him about how she was beaten up, and was forced to continue the lie two months later when he attacked her again. After the second time she threatened Bill that she was going to tell William, and that he would kill Bill. In that moment Alice's fate was sealed, and Bill went about creating the spell that would remove Alice from the memory of all who knew her.
Moral Decline
When Jasper left for Hogwarts he took the center of the Shadow Council's morals with him.
"Blake Cullen started off as something I was going to hurt so that I could get back at Edward for leaving. That all changed the more I got to know her. I should have stayed loyal to her. I should have loved her the way she deserved to be loved, but I see now I wasn't capable of that back then. Our love was true at the time but it was always going to end badly."
— Jasper Hale
When Edward left Jasper in his mind became rather obsessed with Blake Cullen and this obsession led him to manipulate his friend Emmett into getting them to meet each other. After their "Surprise" meeting he used all of his kindness and charm to get her to love him and in a relatively short amount of time she was hooked on to him. During this early time as Blake became the source of much attention for the group as it was actually William Lovie III. who first came to her seducing her and sleeping with her for the time in her life which was something that he never revealed to anyone, and Blake would keep this a secret as well as by this point she was beginning to want more with Jasper realizing it was not possible with William. Even as he spent every night with her, and whispered in her ear how much he loved her and was devoted to her he was falling deeper into his sexual deviation alongside his friend William. Despite his best intentions, and the best intentions of William the two during this time were lost without their best friend in Edward Cullen, and thus they continued to sleep around with as many women as they could get their hands on.
For Jasper this led him to become estranged emotionally from his love in Blake Cullen and from this departure he begin to become romantically involved with Kristen Trachtenburg, who fell in love with him, and was under the illusion that Jasper was going to end things with Blake so that he could be with her. As time went on and this didn't come to pass, and she watched as things between Jasper and Blake grew closer she begin to hate Blake with everything in her heart. Jasper continued down this dark path, and as time went on he became confused as to what to do as he truly loved the both of them, and didn't want to hurt either of them. At the same time William's relationship with Britney Hemsworth had left his relationship with his sister crumbling, and by this point Bill Lovie was only beginning to plan for Britney to leave as he still had slight hope for the two. William was falling as he was sexually destructive with Britney, and at the same time was stringing along Leven of whom loved him deeply, and while he loved her deeply it was as friends, and despite knowing her feelings he continued with her.
"As the relationship with Britney fell apart it was William that begin to improve. But while my brother got better Jasper only fell into more trouble as he was finally discovered for all the things he had done."
For Jasper this behavior ended when his at the time girlfriend Kristen Trachtenburg became pregnant with his child, and the moment she came and told him was one of the worst moments of his life as he understood that he had finally been caught. He also knew that because it was Kristen Trachtenburg that was William's cousin and thus his best friend was going to be furious that he defiled a member of House Lovie in such a way. The first person that he told after he left Kristen was William, and as he arrived at the Sky Towers he was allowed in as all the guards knew who he was to William. When Jasper arrived on William's floor he was having sex with Levan Martell on the floor of his room, and in this moment as Jasper walked in on this kind of behavior he for the first time truly understood how far he and his friend has fallen. William laughed it off, and joked for Levan to get dressed, and when she did she left his room with nothing more then a sideways kiss. When Jasper moved to tell William about what happened with Kristen William stopped him and begin telling him how he was a great friend, and as William continued to talk Jasper realized that William was drunk. Seeing his friend like this he couldn't help but wonder what was happening that had him so emotionally troubled, and at the same time he wondered where Alice was. When Jasper asked him where Alice was he laughed and said that Alice was pissed at him for the way he was acting. Despite the hard way that he had said it you could tell without any effort at all that William was exceptionally emotionally damaged by the rift with his beloved sister, and so Jasper didn't have the heart to tell William about what he had done.
"I left his room feeling more emotionally distraught then I had when I had arrived. When had we become this?"
Jasper would leave shortly after when Leven Martell arrived back in the room, and as he left he was followed out by Leven while William went to the window to look out. Leven and Jasper would talk for a few minutes, and Jasper nearly told her, but knew that her loyalty to William wouldn't allow her to keep that kind of secret so instead he simply talked to her about what she was doing with William. She would tell him that she loved William, and that although she knew that William didn't feel on the same level as she did to him, she also knew that he cared for her, and she only hoped that she could make him feel differently with enough time. Jasper knew that William didn't see her that way, but seeing the hope in her eyes he didn't have the heart to break her so he simply agreed with her before saying goodbye and leaving. Following this attempt Jasper begin to watch William closer, and watched as he slept with several girls in the form of those who were well known in Britney Hemsworth, and Leven Martell, but Jasper also discovered that William was sleeping with others including Eura Clune, Faye Skane, and to the great shock of Jasper he learned William was intimate with Lanna Lannister.
Keeping Secrets
"I lied. I lied to everyone for so long I got confused as to who I was anymore. Was this the person that I was now. Someone who skulked around hiding the truth from the only people who had ever meant anything to me? Was I the kind of man that tricked a girl into believing I loved her so that she would keep my dirty secrets? In the end it was always going to come out. Whether the world found out when she started showing, or someone slipped up the news was always going to get out. It was the hopelessness of the lie that made it all the more terrifying."
Following his discovery he wanted to go to Alice, or Emmett but once again was stopped from doing anything by William of whom came to him during the night and once again stumbling in drunk begin to cry about how he missed Alice and was going to do things differently so he could get her back. Believing William at his word Jasper wouldn't tell anyone anything so for nearly a month Jasper lied to almost everyone, and convinced Kristen Trachtenburg to lie to everyone as well about her pregnancy. With no one to talk to Jasper would go to his grandfather and revealed what had happened to Tarnide Hale of whom Jasper knew would advise him to do what was best for his future. Tarnide Hale would strongly advise him to make Kristen abort the child by basically any means necessary, and while Jasper didn't want to force Kristen into doing anything she didn't feel comfortable with Tarnide was able to convince him of the importance of this. Jasper went to Kristen and attempted to convince her to abort the child, but she was completely unwilling to agree to this, and walked out on him only making things worse, until he was able to find her and apologized saying he would never ask her to do that again. The lying continued as Jasper believed he needed to fix William and Alice before he could ever tell William, so with this in mind he went to Alice and attempted to convince her to talk to her beloved brother. Her words were laced with anger
Kristen Trachtenburg stood as the center of a lot of drama during her time.
towards William, but also were very cruel to the way in which Jasper as well was living, and Alice openly called out Jasper for the way in which he was running around behind Blake's back with Kristen. As Jasper listened to Alice telling him about all the things he was doing wrong in his life, he became distraught realizing about how people were actually starting to feel about him. Jasper had always saw himself as a moral guy and while sometimes in the dark he had realized that he was falling, he also thought that people would still think him a good person, but hearing Alice he came to sadly understand that he was wrong in that belief. As Alice continued to talk about Jasper's affair with Kristen Tractenburg Jasper became irate as he couldn't undestand how Alice could have known about the affair, as he hadn't told anyone. So as Jasper became increasingly aggressive about Alice telling him how she knew, she continued to refuse to tell him and as they begin to yell William appeared in the doorway with true anger in his eyes. For William this must have appeared to have been Jasper being hostile in a physical manner towards Alice, and everyone knew that there were certain things you just didn't do if you wanted William to be rational, and at the top of the list for things you didn't do, threatening Alice was at the top.
"It was time for a reckoning, and the main thing to remember about a rebirth is that sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes the damage is too much for people to come back from the darkness into the light without losing themselves."
Seeing the look on his face, Alice stepped between the two, and basically begged Jasper to tell William the truth, and everything about it because they all needed to come together before the darkness swept over everything. William was overcome with rage, and only the fact that Alice was between them kept him from attacking Jasper where he stood. When Alice looked between the two and realized that Jasper looked uncertain and William looked enraged she spoke softly to her brother, and gently placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. Alice would whisper apologies to him, and told him about how she was glad that he was here, but also made sure he understood that Jasper was not threatening her, or even that angry at Alice. Hearing his sister's voice, and having her hand on his shoulder calmed him down immediately and he sat down in order to hear Jasper tell him whatever truth he had apparently been keeping from him.
"I'd known my best friend William for years. Since the days of us both being children and thrown into the same little playground I had known him. I'd seen him angry with people over how they treated me or one of the other members of our group. I'd seen him sad over an argument with Alice. I'd seen all of these things but the emotion on his face when he saw what he must have believed was Alice in trouble was something else entirely. It was a look that sent a chill up my spine because even though he was my best friend and I was his, I was mentally capable enough to understand that if it fell down to it we were all secondary to Alice."
As Jasper told William about all the things that had been going on, and the fact that Kristen was pregnant he watched as the look of disappointment went across his friends face. While at first they argued in bitter tones to each other as all the bitterness they felt was poured out on the only other person that could ever understand the pain that they were feeling, William became slowly more angry with his best friend, and the emotional attacks became too much for the two to continue trade at each other without violence. It would be William making a low blow at a lack of loyalty shown by Jasper that would truly escalate the argument to a new level.
"We trusted you Jasper. You were supposed to be someone that this house could trust, and now you go and do this. You leave my cousin high and dry like some common whore on the street. If this is the person we laid our faith on then our faith was grossly misplaced."
With questions raised against his loyalty Jasper was more hurt then he had ever felt in his life and before either of them knew what was happening Jasper charged his friend and the two of them begin fighting on the floor, and out into the hallway, and they continued to fight until they were pulled apart by Alice. Alice gently held onto William of whom wouldn't pull away for fear of hurting Alice, and before he left Jasper and William spoke one more time that day. After Jasper spoke to William he would leave, of which left Alice and William alone and they would talk about what was happening and Alice was able to convince William that he needed to make a change if he didn't want this to happen to him. For the first time in a long time Alice would follow William into his room and was actually able to get a good nights sleep as she slept in the same room as her brother and not alone as she had for months previously.
Jasper Hale had been the first true friend William had ever had outside of Alice, and that meant everything to Jasper. So hearing that he was mistrusted in any way was something that Jasper was not willing to accept. It would end up being the mistrust from William more then anything else that forced Jasper to change the way he was living.
"You never have to doubt me William. You are my brother. You were always my brother, and trust me when I say that I take that more serious then anything else in life. But also trust me when I say that you and I are falling. We are not the people we were meant to be. We can blame this on him all we want but in the end were making choices. Were the ones not making the right decisions, and eventually we have to start or were never going to be able to stop."
With that Jasper left the Sky Towers and the two best friends left each other to cool off for a time, but while William was consoled by Alice, for Jasper there was nothing to return to. He returned to his home at the House Hale tower, and realized with absolute certainty that the life he was leading was leading him down a path that he was no longer willing to go down. Jasper came to understand that he risked more then just a moral decline if he didn't come clean and repair everything he did, he also risked his friendship with William, and that was not something he was willing to lose. With this in mind he slept well for the first time in months, and the next day went back to the Sky Towers where he walked in on Alice, William, and Leven eating breakfest and would come clean about everything, and told them all and specifically William that he was going to make all of this right starting with telling Blake and Kristen the truth. Jasper would declare that he was going to marry Kristen so that he could be honorable to her, and he understood what that would mean but he was willing to do it so that she would not be birthing a bastard and losing her dignity at the same time.
Coming clean and Consequences
"I was proud of Jasper in that moment. I understood that could have been me, and it was for that reason that I supported him. He made a mistake and he was doing the honorable thing to fix it."
Jasper would go first to Blake Cullen knowing that she would be perhaps the most hurt by his decision to marry Kristen Trachtenburg and when he arrived at her suites near the Cloud Towers he was shocked to see William, Leven, Edward, Emmett, and Alice awaiting him outside. William would lead the group in telling him that they were proud of him for coming clean, and that while he had done terrible things William was painfully aware that he had done the same. The group would hug Jasper as he broke down realizing he had his friends back, and promising that from this point on they were all going to be better. William offered to go in with him, but Jasper said no knowing this was something he had to do himself.
"The worst part was how excited she was to see me."
Blake was sitting at her desk reading, but when Jasper entered she would jump up and come over to him for a hug. As she tried to hug him he pulled away knowing she wouldn't want to hug him after what he told her. Jasper would go about telling her everything that he had done, and despite hearing all this Blake begged him briefly not to marry Kristen and to stay with her, and it was only when he refused that offer that Blake would become truly angry, and screamed for him to leave and never speak to her again. Leaving the estate he found it empty but could see his friends out front, and thus wanting to deal with the Kristen situation quickly he went out the back and snuck his way out of the estate and made his way to the House Lovie estates which surrounded the Cloud Tower. Kristen was outside on a bench crying when he arrived, and he immediately went about running to her and enveloping her in a hug of which he could feel she didn't return and after a few moments she pushed him away.
"I didn't have to break up with Kristen as she was well ahead of me on that feeling. She hated me, and I couldn't exactly defend myself knowing everything I had done."
Kristen would proceed to tell him that she realized that he wasn't going to leave Blake Cullen, and that shortly after realizing this she had a miscarriage. Kristen would blame him for losing the baby saying all the stress of hiding things, and his constant running around on her had caused her so much stress that she had lost the baby, and before he could respond to any of her attacks she would physically attack him causing several guards nearby to intervene and Jasper was sent away by the several Trachtenburg men that were nearby. Jasper would following this be devastated that Kristen had hated him so strongly at the end, and though he still loved Blake he decided against returning to her knowing that he didn't deserve her anymore, and that all he brought her in his current condition was pain. From there Jasper returned to the Cullen estate where he met his friends, and didn't have to say a word just started crying and was hugged by all the people left in his life that still loved him.
The End of Alice Lovie
There is an ache in my heart father, and I don't know how to fix this pain. Tell me what is wrong. Tell me why I feel like I've lost everything. Tell me what is wrong with me. Tell me the truth.
"From the moment I had met him, despite his constant socially proper behaviors. Despite the fact that he had done nothing that might have aroused any kind of suspicion, I felt uneasy around him. The way anyone feels I suppose when surrounded by a predator. The way anyone feels around the man responsible for so much evil."
The beginning of the end of Alice came in the aftermath of the Duel on the Steps, and with this confrontation it was James that had made the decision to rid himself of Alice Lovie. Initially the thought was to simply kill her but as this planning begin it was the Dovah Lornax, and Vlarenix that learned of this plan through their agent Anna Kendrick and knowing the importance of her to William they would intervene. Lornax would appear to James in the appearance of Lisa Tyrell and the struggling James would be convinced by Lornax to not kill Alice but instead simply remove her from the memory of people. Despite Vhloraz attempting to push James to kill Alice he would use what power he had left to resist this and with Vhloraz still in a somewhat weakened position he allowed James this slight victory and did not push back. It became the idea of Kieth Schwartz to create a spell that would manipulate the Fade to create a variable reality where in people would not remember Alice, and with this plan in mind they would need an anchor for this in the form of someone with a strong relationship with Alice. Going through the list of people with this relationship they were unable to find anyone that wouldn't create suspicion if they were missing or killed and thus they went to Ellia Targaryan who was friends with Alice but was also a member of the Circle of Magi.
"I didn't want to believe that everyone in my life was lying to me. I just wanted to believe them. I'm sorry that I failed you Alice."
— Ellia Targaryan
Ellia was tricked into believing that the spell was an attempt to turn Alice into a Magi user, and that they needed her as she was the only one in the Circle who was close with Alice, and although Alice was warned that this was a lie by Er-Khadgar Morgrave she decided to listen to her uncle and take part. In the days preceding the casting of the spell, and during this time the Circle of Magi would travel across Lucerne placing wards that would limit the scope of the spell, and the people affected by its actions. Knowing that the Magi users of Lucerne were divided and he controlled the only organized Magi users he knew he could escape notice, and thus moved to set the first of the runes in place in William's room. As James was going to do this it was Amber Heard that was waiting in his room for him to return when she had a truly horrifying encounter with James Lovie of whom came into William's room and at first he didn't see her in the room so he had a perfect almost molded smile on his face. He walked around William's room for many minutes simply speaking out loud in some sort of chant like speech that she couldn't understand but for some reason the tone in his words scared her directly to her core. He continued to chant and then abruptly stopped before sitting on his bed for a second before he chanted again and then laid down on the bed. She watched from the corner as the King of Lucerne appeared to be in some sort of stupor, and something about the change in him as time went on told her that for her sake he had best not see her, so while he laid there she moved the blanket she was under farther up her body so that it completely covered her.
"I watched this man I had known for so long speaking in tongues that I didn't understand and I felt fear. Fear for what the purpose of his actions were, and most of all fear for the future."
He would continue to chant, and then as this continued a cloaked man (Khadgar) walked in carrying a stone and she looked him dead in the eyes and he saw her, but he didn't say anything and just passed the stone to Bill before giving her one last look before leaving the room. Bill would go to his knees and begin praying before the stone, and as this went on it begin to glow blue, and then disappeared into nothing, and despite this James continued to kneel down praying. He eventually got up when Carlisle Cullen walked into the room and told him that William was returning, and in that moment he simply got up without a word and left the room. She sat motionless in the corner still covered by the blanket as William walked into the room, and unlike his father William immediately saw her in the corner, and went to her and embraced her in a tight hug. He held her close as if he somehow understood what had happened to her, and as she cried into his shoulder she fell so deeply in love with the boy holding her that she simply held him close for what might have been hours. William would leave the room to say goodnight to Alice, and Amber was hell bent on telling him what had happened the moment he returned, but a moment after he left the door to his room reopened and Carlisle came inside. Carlisle would confront her on telling William as he lied to her that in truth Carlisle was leading a rebellious movement in the land, and was just waiting for this moment to strike. Amber would tell Carlisle that he had a day to get his affairs in order before she would tell William, and Carlisle knowing the spell was being cast the next day would agree to the offer, and when William returned Amber didn't tell him.
"There were so many things I wanted to say to him. So many things that I know if I had been able to say his heart, and mind would have coped better with my departure. He was everything to me. He was my father, my brother, and my best friend and the thought of losing him wasn't something I was ready to accept but if it meant I could have protected him I would."
With the secret kept due to the lies of Carlisle Cullen the Circle of Magi would come together in summoning the spell, while James Lovie stood at the top of the Cloud Tower and focused the spell itself. Dozens of Circle of Magi would be spread throughout the valley of Lucerne making sure that the spell spread to the distance of the wards, and that any attempt to work against the spells power were turned on. In a moment that would change the fabric of Lucerne, and most dangerously would completely shatter both Tristan, and William Lovie their father James completed his spell that would erase Alice from the world. As the spell finished, and there was nothing that could stop it from enacting itself James was overcome by his hatred of Alice, and in a fit of blind rage ran into Alice's room in the middle of the night and laughed at her because he was about to remove her from William's memory. For a moment Alice wanted to run and get William but still the fear of his death was too much for her to bear, and so she remained calm as her father verbally attacked her. After exhausting himself screaming at Alice he was interrupted by Draco Highmore of whom came at the sound of the screaming, but was sent away on the command of James. For a single moment Draco looked to Alice as he had enough of looking the other way, but she wiped the tears from her face and nodded that he shouldn't do anything. As James left Draco would return but as he attempted to comfort her she commanded him away, and ran to Williams room where she buried her head in his pillow. Alice then spent the rest of the night waiting for her beloved brother to return home but he was out with Amber Heard and he didn't return until nearly the morning and when he went into her room to check on her, he found her cradling the doll that he had given her as a child and dried tears running down her face. The sight broke his heart and he laid down beside her and held her close as he too fell asleep. James Lovie would enter her room in the morning to find his two children knocked out by the power of his spell but even in that moment his arms were wrapped protectively around her, and he had to get Carlisle to come in and assist him in releasing William's grip on her. But his grip was released and they put Alice into a sack, and put her into a wagon where she was to be brought to rest in Forks and then dumped on the side of the road.
Unforeseen Consequences
"It was like looking at a picture you should know, but just not quite understanding why. Everything in my life was both familiar and strange. Nothing felt real."
Alice Lovie was dropped off at the outskirts of Forks by the Circle in Magi second in command Kieth Schwartz following her going into a coma following the spell. James Lovie's loyal knight Caius Elvorix III. would convinse his brother Flavius Elvorix II. of the purpose in joining the Circle of Magi and while Flavius would not officially join he would work for them when he would murder the owner of a tavern in Forks taking control of the tavern himself and there in giving there plotting the location to dump Alice while they planned on her future. Through this work James had set her up with a job in Forks, at that local tavern - he silently hoped she would be killed while working there - and on top of this he created back stories for her where in her parents were killed, and she had left Lucerne because of this. For the three children of James Lovie who were the closest people in the world to Alice the cost was quite heavy on them. For Alice she was knocked out, but due to her lack of Dragonborn Magi abilities she did not fully enter the Fade and thus was able to wake up. Tristan was also very slightly Dragonborn and thus woke up. When Alice awoke in her small room on the ground on the side of the road her head was in horrible pain, and so debilitating was the pain that she was unable to move for almost two days. She just barely managed to pull herself into the ditch at the side of the road which saved her from being run over by the constant wagons that crossed the roads. When she was finally able to move she went towards the city where she could find things in her mind that told her she worked at a local tavern. When she arrived the tavern owner who had been paid by Bill Lovie went about punishing her for her lateness, and then on Bill's orders prepared to make her life a living hell. As Alice was broken in spirit and mind by the departure from Lucerne and her beloved brother she was not alone in this feeling as back in Lucerne her brother William would suffer deeply as a result of her departure.
"She needs to die Carlisle, surely you see that. Everything went exactly how it was meant to and the only reason he remains still asleep is because she lives. Send the entire army to Forks, and don't have them return until shes dead and the entire city burns around her."
For William though his powerful Dragonborn Magi and his near constant use of the Dream Fade with Taylor Swift had left him dangerously at risk to the consequence of the spell. While both Tristan, and Alice had woken early the same day of the spell being cast, William had not woken over the entirety of the day, and had to be watched by Carlisle and James of whom by this point were growing more worried about why he hadn't grown up. As hours passed without him waking James begin to scream that Alice needed to be killed, and that was the reason he hadn't woken but this was ignored as his more evil of lackeys were away and those near were loyalists to the Kingdom. That night Amber would arrive at the Cloud Towers to try and find William, as she had discovered she was pregnant, but when she arrived she was told that William wasn't seeing visitors, and she was forced to leave. James commanded the Cloud Tower to be locked down, and thus they continued to send Amber, and then the Shadow Council away, but on the third day Draco Highmore would secretly tell Jasper that William had slipped into a coma. While this was happening it was William that had entered the Dream Fade where like he did most nights his soul on earth remained completely unaware of what was happening as it awaited the return of his Fade soul, but as William's dreaming ended he attempted to wake up but as his Fade soul could not recognize his soul on earth due to the changes in memory done by the spell he was unable to wake.
"William I need you to stay with me. If you give into despair. If you allow your mind to wander then you will die for real. No Sovngard. No us. Just darkness."
— Taylor Swift
With unable to wake from the Dream it was Lornax, and Vlarenix that became aware and immediately entered the Fade where they discovered to their horror that he was lost within the dream Fade. Realizing that they only had a short window to work with before he would be lost to madness and despair as his attempts to wake failed they would immediately contact Taylor Swift. As a part of their plotting it was Taylor that had been engaged in an affair with William within the Dream Fade, and thus she was quickly told of what was happening to William and told to keep him from drifting within the Fade and thus dying. Taylor entered the Fade and found a panicked William who was already drifting, and only her timely arrival would keep his panic from causing him to drift completely out of the Dream Fade. Taylor warned him about what was happening and realizing that
End of Amber Heard
"William you need to wake up. I know that right now is not the right time for this but...I love you...I love you more then words can say, and you need to come back. This world is scary without you. You told me once that you would always be there to protect me, and I really need you to open your eyes right now and keep that promice."
The Shadow Council, and Amber Heard II. would enter the Cloud Tower using the help of Draco Highmore of whom risked his life in his desperation that perhaps the return of his friends and Amber Heard would force him awake. Leven, and Amber would collapse emotionally into his arms as he lay on the bed, as he was bedrock for the two emotionally, and both loved him, and eventually the group was discovered by James of whom summoned Draco to see him. Draco would go to the King assuming he would be killed, but instead James wanted to use this as a chance to get the information out about his son's coma, and he planned to blame the affair on some of the more rebellious elements within the Kingdom including the Swan's, and Starke's. As it was discovered that William was in a coma the entire Kingdom went into hysterics as the silent hope of the Kingdom was that when William came of age he would save them from the madness of his father, but with his demise that hope was slipping through their fingers. Thousands begin flocking to the Sky Towers to pray for his return, and all attempts to disperse the crowds ended with failure.
"How do I leave him? How do I leave that which has my heart. My everything. The thing that keeps me tethered to a world that I increasingly believe has lost its soul. I wanted him to smile when he heard that I had given him a child. I wanted it all to mean something more then it ended up meaning. I just wanted the man I love to know that the reason I left wasn't because I didn't love him. It wasn't because I was scared of his father harming me. The reason I left the man I love was to save him the only way I knew how."
During this coma Amber remained by his side the entire time, as she had realized only two days before his coma that she was pregnant with his child. During this time Jasper, Dylan, Leven, and Emmett attempted to stay in the room as well all camping out for several nights before James Lovie had them all sent away with his Circle of Magi guards except for Amber of whom he believed perhaps could rouse William due to his affection for her. When Amber's presence didn't wake William James came to blame her for the coma his son was in, and in this way he began threatening her on a daily basis. At first it was completely shocking and Amber didn't know what to do but eventually he started to become violent and she pleaded with him to stop. The end came when he entered the room with a knife and threatened to kill William if Amber didn't leave the city. Following this confrontation he left her to be with William knowing he had shaken her to the core, and during the night she spent one last night at his side.
I walked up the hallway commanding Ser Narose Scorpian, and John Shephard to wait for me and not let anyone pass under my authority. Walking forward I looked through the slit in the wall and saw Amber sleeping on his sleeping form and felt a great amount of pain for what I knew I had to do to her. She loved my son of that there could be no question, but I saw his feelings for her the same way I saw his feelings for the Numenorian girl. He cared for her but...but he didn`t love her enough to marry her. My earlier threats had led to nothing as she stayed by his side night and day despite threat of death, but I knew who she was, and I knew how I could control her.
She didn`t wake up as I walked into the room, and I made my way to his side and kissed him on the forehead. When I raised my head I saw she had woken, and she looked at me with shear terror in her eyes. It was clear that when I threatened her life, and those around her she was frightened but she loved him more then herself. ``I believe the last time we spoke I told you what would happen if you remained here.`` She made an audible gulp and moved her hand towards Williams enveloping his hand in hers. I would have done anything in the world to make him wake up, even if that meant he did defend her to my punishment, but when I looked at him there was nothing. His eyes didn`t open at her touch. She was in danger, and he didn`t wake. That had to mean she was irrelevent to him. That had to mean I was right. ``So you ignore your kings commands, and now you must pay the consequences.`` She looked away from William for a moment and looked towards me.
``My king please I love your son, and I...`` I didn`t let her finish I just lashed out with my hand striking her across the face and releasing her from William`s hand. As she fell backwards she pulled William somewhat off the bed tumbling his one side nearly to the ground. I let out a scream, and as I ran around the bed to get him back to his position I felt her try and help me get him back onto the bed, but feeling her touch me made me angrier then I may have ever been.
``Don`t touch me you stupid whore.`` I stared down at her walking towards her as she crawled backwards away from me. ``Do you know what happened to your parents Amber.`` There was nothing in her eyes but confusion so I assumed the Arryn`s had kept the Plague story going for her. ``You see there was the group of people that believed they could do whatever they wanted. Included in these things was the belief that they could kill me and take the crown from my family. Your parents were one of those people Amber.`` I grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her up standing her infront of me. ``Your cousins as well.`` When the first tear fell down her face I continued. ``I killed them all. Your cousin Martin put up a fight but my men slit his throat. Your cousin Thomas was dragged before me and I pulled out his tongue and left him to bleed out in a cell. Your parents you see they were dragged from their beds and burned alive. You ask how you live. You wonder why I killed everyone else but you. Search your mind as to where you were when your parents died. You escaped death because you were in Hillsbrad far from my reach. Had I of known where you were in those days I would have had them smash your pretty little face in with a rock before I ever let you near my son.``
``Why do you act this way.`` I let out a laugh as she attempted to find anwsers. ``Why hurt me all it will do is drive him further away from you then he already is. Don`t you understand that all your children just want you to love them. Just be the man they want you to be and...`` I slapped her again and she started to fall down the wall before I held her back up.
``The anwsers you seek are no where to be found. Now we need to move forward. My son is gone. I feel his presence leaving this world, and I cannot bare to see him like this. I only wish to leave him in peace in this room alone.`` I thought I had seen fear in her eyes before, but now I knew what fear looked like. She knew in that moment that I was threatening William, and that was all together to much for her to handle. ``If you do not leave here. If you do not travel home to Forks then I will put a pillow over his head until he is gone away.`` I nearly cried myself speaking of his death, but I used everything I had left to speak the words I knew I had to say to make her leave.`
``You wouldn`t...You couldn`t...Why would...``She was crying but her face kept looking to William for rescue. Even in these final moments she still believed in him as strongly as I did.
``You embaress his memory by staying near him. I would put my beloved prince out of his misery if you do not leave here. Do not doubt the things I would do to protect his memory.``
The next morning before Bill had returned to send her away for good Catherine Lovie came to his room to see both William, and Amber, and during this time the two would hold each other and she begged Amber to leave as she had heard through her own spies that Bill was preparing to have her killed. When Amber told Catherine that Bill had threatened William's life she was shocked beyond anything as Catherine had believed that William was the one piece on the board that he would never risk damaging, and realizing William was threatened the two understood that Amber needed to leave, and she loved him so deeply that she couldn't bear the thought of his death and she agreed to flee the city.
William, and Alice Awaken
"It was years before I finally understood why I woke up. Years before Khadgar let me know that he was the bravest man I've ever known."
It was as William continued to not wake and the departure of Amber Heard II. alongside the banishment of the Shadow Council that the only sane remaining member of the Circle of Magi in the form of Khadgar would decide to take matters into his own hands. Khadgar would sneak into the room of William and finding Bill passed out in the corner he would silently take the blue stone from Bill Lovie of which kept the world from remembering Alice Lovie, and he would damage it slightly causing the spell to weaken somewhat. The following day with the spell releasing somewhat to the point that the two siblings would begin to dream of each other it begin to spark an awakening of William, and Alice which led to the two waking up three days after Khadgar damaged the blue stone. Khadgar having made his silent choice to support William's rise would send his most trusted Magi Eberhard Schnabel to go to Forks and protect Alice from what Khadgar knew would be an eventual attempt to have her killed.
"It wasn't so long ago that my beloved son was in a constant sleep. Never opening his eyes I remember spending nights screaming at him after I sent the bird away. I thought to myself that perhaps he would never wake. When he finally opened his eyes there was a terror there. It was hidden behind strength, and all the layers of hate, but it was there. I could see it, and it made me hate my daughter even more."
Alistair Irons
See Also : Alistair Irons
"He was a troubled young boy that many were beginning to think would become nothing more then his father with more charisma. When I looked at him I saw something different. When I looked at the young prince I saw someone who could change everything that was wrong with this world. I saw someone that was destined to be the greatest of his line."
— Alistair Irons
Following his coma he would be clearly lost without Alice though he didn't know that it was her loss that troubled him, and in this way his father would bring in Alistair Irons of his loyalist House Irons who he thought would put William back into line with what he was before. When Alistair arrived he attempted to at first get a lay of what was happening by talking to people around the young prince of which the principle person he spoke to was Draco Highmore of whom told him of how skilled in every way the young prince was but for whatever reason he couldn't put it all together. Alistair watched the young prince from afar as he spent all his time with the group he called the shadow Council, and when he wasn't with them he was constantly finding different girls to spend his nights with. When he finally approached the young prince the two would have the following exchange.
I ran away from Leven jumping over a chair laughing before I felt her leg catch me causing me to fall onto the ground causing us all to laugh. Leven let her hand out to help me up, and still laughing I let her pull me up which when I was moving upwards I saw a fully armored man walking towards us, and immediatly looked for my sword. Before I could find it he stood straight between me and Leven. When he did I saw Jasper nearly vault between me and the man followed shortly after by Dylan, and Emmett. "Is this what you plan to do for the rest of your life?" I was shocked hearing the man talk to me this way. Surely he was a noble by the armor he carried that much was clear. He must have been approved to see me or else he would be a pile of bloody armor due to Draco Highmore. "Did you hear my question son, or you too busy being a spoiled little brat to answer anymore?" That was too much for me, and without thinking I pushed the man backwards, and despite pushing him as hard as I could he barely budged.
"You had best watch your tongue old man, or I shall remove it." My friends laughed around me, and it was in that moment I started to feel more confident as I knew I had their support. So I did the only thing I could think of at the time and I slapped him across the face. The moment I did Jasper lunged at me, and I was just able to throw him aside before I stood over the young prince who was holding his face.
"That's not pain son. Look around you and you'll see pain. You have a city filled with pain, and yet you do nothing. This isn't the prince I heard of when I was younger. The prince that tried his hardest at everything he ever did. This isn't the kind of person you want to be and I know that." In that moment while his face was hardened and he was ready to attack I saw a spark in his eye that told me he wanted a way out. He wanted to be better, and that was the only indication I needed. "Your better than this, and if you don't believe me then give me the chance to prove it to you."
Following this exchange William would have a silent respect for Alistair Irons of whom would take him south of the city to the House Lovie esate alongside his Shadow Council for an entire month. During this time he would teach the young prince about what it truly meant to be a leader. He was finally able to get through to him that he needed to step forward and start actually making things better instead of just talking about theoretical changes he might make or believed would work if he made them. Alistair would take the four of them along with Levan Martell back to Lucerne where he made them understand that they needed to stick together no matter what, and that only they could make sure that they were all the people they needed to be. So instead of turning William back into the playboy prince that his father had wanted returned Alistair was able to reinjuvinate the young prince into rebecoming the man his sister always thought he could become.
Dragon in Forks
It was like this constant ache in my head the entire time I was in Forks. Something felt wrong but I could just never place my finger on the reason behind it. While I lived this fake life I just kept living within my dreams.
Life in Forks
"I don't remember anything. All I know is my name is Alice, and I have a terrible pain in my head."
Following the spell ending the existence of Alice Lovie in the memory of those who knew her Alice Lovie was dropped off in Forks by James Lovie's cronies Kieth Schwartz. James had set her up with a job in Forks, at a local tavern, where he silently hoped she would be killed while working there and on top of this he created back stories for her where in her parents were killed, and she had left Lucerne because of this. When Alice awoke in she was on the ground on the side of the road and her head was in horrible pain, and so debilitating was the pain that she was unable to move four hours and found herself forced to pull herself into the ditch at the side of the road which saved her from being run over by the constant wagons that crossed the roads. In debilitating pain from the spell she found herself unable to move and thus she would be forced to sleep in the ditch using her jacket as a means of covering herself and woke up hours later finally able to raise her head. Finally able to move she got up from the ditch and in the early morning darkness she could see the outlines and fire of the nearby city of Forks and the created memories of the spell drove her towards Forks where she could find things in her mind that told her she worked at a local tavern, but despite this feeling she also felt as if this was somewhere strange to her and not her real home. While she had been in debilitating pain, and sleeping in the ditch she was being watched by Keith Schwartz, Florius Novellius, and Johan Snow of whom the three would have starkly different views of what was happening with Kieth and Florius caring little for Alice while Johan Snow would feel terrible and during the night would leave food in the ditch which led to Alice surviving and being able to make her way forward. When she arrived the tavern owner who had been paid by James Lovie went about punishing her for her lateness, and then on James's orders prepared to make her life a living hell.
Alice Lovie would go from a life of complete luxury in terms of what she had available to a life of a commoner. This was made more difficult by the fact that Bill would leave responsibilities to several people around Alice to make her life more difficult.
For Alice despite the memories she had been given as a part of the spell her life in Forks just felt wrong to her, and no matter what she tried she couldn't shake a silent depression that wracked her so completely that on most nights she could not sleep because she was crying so hard. To add on to this her boss the owner of the tavern in the form of Flavius Elvorix II. seemed to hate her with a passion that she had never known before with Flavius going out of his way to cause her problems. Things became somewhat better for her when she become friends with Rosalie Cullen of whom had secretly also been sent to the tavern as a means of hiding her bastardy beginnings and thus her father Carlisle Cullen had kept in contact with her through letters but never revealed who he was in constant fear of the shame it would bring him. Rosalie and Bella would share in a mutual grief which while neither could completely describe to each other they were at least able to give each other comfort as the pain of their existence threatened to push them over the edge and for Rosalie towards suicide. There friendship would expand to a third person where while there were walking the streets of Forks late at night they found a girl hiding out in some bushes and talking to her they discovered she was Bella Swan, and was hiding from her father who she had gotten into an argument with. The two would hide her at the tavern that night and would be nearly executed when Lord Swan finally discovered where they were but she lied for them and they were protected by Bella and following this she would return to the tavern with her cousin Brody Swan and the three would build a strong friendship.
Florius Novellius
"Monsters come in various shapes and forms Alice. Some monsters are hideous and can be discovered quite quickly. Others I fear are more like the monster you found in Stephan. They aren't hideous. They aren't easily seen."
During her time in Forks while she was stuck without her memory Alice became involved with Florius Novellius and in this relationship she became enamored with this man that showed her the kind of attention she had been craving since she had been in Forks. She originally met him through the bar that she and Rosalie worked at, and the moment she begin talking to him Rosalie attempted to step in and make him leave, but he was so charismatic that he convinced Alice to ignore her friends warnings and to leave with him. Throughout their time together she was constantly though feeling that she was unimportant in comparison to many of the other people that he surrounded himself with, and this didn't get any better. Alice made numerous attempts to make him care about her, and many of the things that she did she felt ashamed by, and as it continued it caused tension between her and Rosalie of whom did not like him and what he was making her do. During this time she found a soundboard for her confusion in Bella Swan, and this along with some other things had a large effect on the reason they became the best friends that would grow into being. In fact his behavior became more and more unstable as time went on and this behavior first started out as his becoming promiscuous on a level that even Alice knew was happening. She confronted him on this and this confrontation would lead to the next evolution in his dark behavior.
"I went into his room and found him half naked with two women laying on his body. They held him tight but the general appearance of his body was such that it was clear he cared nothing for these girls, and watching him this way made me completely confused as to what crazy part of my mind cared for this boy. As I coughed in order to wake him up the two girls sprung up and clothed themselves quickly before skulking out of the room. The entire time this went on he just lay there without moving. He stared at me the entire time with nothing in his eyes but the faint appearance of amusement. When I started yelling at him, his eyes changed into something different and it wasn't until he got up and slapped me in the face that I understood what his emotion was."
The moment he slapped her everything changed. She realized in that moment that she was crazy to be staying in this situation and she simply put her hand to her cheek to shield herself from the pain before crying and trying to leave the room. As she pulled open the door she felt his hand on her arm of whom pulled her back into the room and tried to have his way with her. As his hands ran up her body she knew where this was going and she refused to accept this was going to happen to her, and so she lashed out at him. As he flew off of her she grabbed a pole from the corner and smacked him across the face knocking him unconscious. She then walked past his now motionless body and into the street where she stumbled her way towards Swan Keep where she hoped to find Bella Swan of whom she knew would protect her from his vengeance.
Bella Steps In
"I knew I should have gone to see Rosalie because she was the one that deserved the right to tell me she told me so. I just knew how that conversation would go, and after nearly being raped I really wasn't in the mood to be yelled at anymore so I went to see Bella. Her home in Swan Keep never felt as inviting as it did walking across the drawbridge and seeing the white armor of the Swan Guards."
When she arrived at Swan Keep she was greeted by the guards of whom led her into the back stables where Bella was spending her day, and the moment that she saw Bella she begin sobbing and fell to the ground where she was met by the arms of Bella surrounding her in a loving hug. Alice clung to Bella for sometime before she was finally calmed down enough to explain to Bella what had happened. She made Bella promise not to do anything about it, and Bella in a shocking move refused to let this go, and told Alice that the first chance she got she would be telling her father of whom she knew would have him removed from Forks. Alice attempted to make her change her mind but Bella wasn't going to change in her opinion of what she had to do, so Alice simply clung to Bella and prayed that nothing would happen. But she was wrong, and the moment that Alice went to sleep Bella left her room and went to see her father of whom was still awake. She told her father what had happened and her father did exactly what she knew he would do when he summoned him to Swan Keep to answer for his crimes. Instead of arriving in Swan Keep he got notice that he had been recalled to Brill and thus would no longer be in Forks.
Attempted Execution of Alice Lovie
Main Article : Attempted Execution of Alice Lovie
"Listen. If this were up to me, I would take you away and keep you safe until your brother came for you. This isn't that reality. In this reality your father wins. You die."
The Seven Knights Rebellion of 5123
Main Article : The Seven Knights Rebellion of 5123
The Seven Knights Rebellion
It was those seven knights that showed me just how imperfect the Kingdom was. I had always understood to a certain degree that there was bad feelings among the people of our kingdom but seeing the support the seven got showed me the reality of this feeling. I had do do something. They were the final straw in showing me that.
"Things are a foot in the land. Those who moved against Tree Hill are once again stirring. It is time we struck back."
— Brandon Floren
The Seven Knights of Aerene would first be formed as an idea by James Nighting of whom as a member of the Circle of Magi wanted to assist his only family above all things and saw opportunity for his family to expand into the lands of Eastern Lucerne and specifically the lands of House Ongrill, and in this way he begin planning the idea of starting a banditry conflict in Eastern Lucerne to extend this plan. James Nighting would conspire with Circle of Magi operatives in the area to find individuals who they knew would work alongside them, and in this way they planned to have the leadership of the Seven Knights believe that they were doing this in order to end corruption and greed in the area, but while the leadership was doing this the Circle of Magi would commit atrocities in the area sparking the coming of the Kingdom of Lucerne and through this they hoped the land would be ravaged leaving it more open for invasion. The Circle of Magi would send Kieth Schwartz of whom approached Alester Floren to become the leader of what they saw as the banditry force and Kieth would convince him that James was unable to send troops for fear of reprisals from the other nobles and thus needed Alester to save the land. As the Circle of Magi sent correspondence back to King James Lovie it would be Catherine Bell that would intercept one of these letters and discovered that the rebellion would be happening but also to her horror she discovered through reading the writing that James was not simply aware but was in fact orchestrating these movements. Realizing what she had discovered she knew that this was the moment where she could finally find out whether or not William had what it took to take control of the situation.
"I don't care what happens to me Cuthwin. I won't be a part of this anymore."
— Werner Schinkel
While Catherine busied herself with planning what would become the first part of the eventual Journey it was an exhausted James Lovie II. that would be completely possessed by Vhloraz who was able to sneak a command past Kieth and to Cuthwin Mountain. This command would order Cuthwin to have James Nighting II. send Alice to Dunten where he wrote a letter to Lord Maeger Duneria telling him to capture Alice on the road and then execute her. When Cuthwin left to deliver this message he was accompanied by Werner Schinkel his personal lower enchanter. While Cuthwin had lost himself to the darkness following their actions in the Ambush on the Eyes it was Werner that felt shame over what had happened and vowed to never allow such evil to happen again. Having remained at the tower for his time since the ambush on the eyes it was Werner who only left for the first time for this event and thus realizing that the plan Cuthwin was doing was evil it was Werner that prepared to turn on him. Traveling northward to Dunten after meeting with James Nighting II. it was Werner who's hatred of his long time best friend reached its peak but despite this he lacked the courage to act and they arrived and met with Maeger Duneria and told him of his command to capture Alice.
The Lies of Ghelen
"I was in the Temple praying my prince. I come out and my men tell me my betrothed and his family are in pieces. While I'm burying them and trying to get to the bottom of what happened Lord Ghelen is at the walls with an army accusing me of the crime. What was I to do?"
— Elsa Hosk
As the forces of James Nighting moved against the Province of Eastern Lucerne they would come to target Arryk Ghelen of whom was an honorable man who had fought with the Lucernian army at Lyons and lost his father there, and it was in this connection to the king that James Nighting would arrive at the town of Ghelen and would meet with Arryk. The goal in the area was to cause a conflict between House Ghelen and their vassal House Hosk and thus open up House Hosk's lands for being free to be taken over by someone loyal to the Circle of Magi. James knew that in order to move forward with that he would have to convince Arryk with more then just a letter telling him to rebel and so he would send his knight Tristin of Nighting to Castle Hosk where the brother of Arryk was staying with his family while they prepared to leave there young son there with his eventual betrothed the also young landsgrave Elsa Hosk. Tristin of Nighting would arrive at Castle Hosk and discovered that Elsa was close with her future betrothed and thus it was going to take more then he thought to turn perception towards her being the eventual killer of the Ghelen at Castle Hosk. Tristin would travel to the farming estate of House Poskentrin a vassal of House Hosk nearby and arriving there he would blackmail Conrad Pokentrin into assisting him and in this Conrad and Tristin would be joined by Conrad's baseborn son Alwin Snow of whom was also brought along but Conrad did not reveal that Alwin was his son instead convinced Tristin that Alwin was a training Maester.
"I just need someone of nobility to give proof that I was here. Its a very simple thing your going to do here. Just tell my truth."
— Tristin of Nighting
The group would arrive at Castle Hosk where Conrad and Alwin were made to believe that they were only needed to act as proof that Tristin was actually in Castle Hosk and not somewhere elce and after they did this Tristin would release there family and everything would go back to normal. While Alwin and Conrad waited in the tavern for Tristin to return it was Tristin that into the home that Ellion Ghelen II., Alice Ghelen, and Ellion Ghelen III. were staying and he would kill the one guard they had from House Ghelen and then entering the home he would brutally kill the three while they were eating lunch together. Desecrating the bodies he would leave them where they lay and then returned to the tavern where he quickly forced Conrad and Alwin into the alleyway. In the alley of the Tavern he told them the truth of what they would need to do when he revealed they needed to say that they had seen Elsa Hosk covered in blood leaving the house of Ellion and his family. Horrified at what had happened and what they were going to have to do they quickly fled the castle and moving down the road they would travel several hours to reach Ghelen where they would meet with Lord Arryk Ghelen and tell their story causing Arryk to raise an army to bring Elsa to justice.
Arrival of William Lovie III.
"You may not have faith in Glaurung my prince. You may not believe he exists. All you need to remember is that whatever you believe. Whatever your faith is. Glaurung believes in you."
William Lovie III. and the Lucernian army would arrive outside of Castle Hosk several weeks into the siege of Castle Hosk and arrived just before the increasingly enraged Arryk Ghelen was preparing to launch an all out siege against Castle Hosk and Elsa Hosk who was refusing to admit guilt in the deaths of the Ghelen family members. While they waited for the Maester witness for Elsa it was William and Elsa that would have sex in chambers of Elsa and following giving into to having sex with Elsa the two would talk over many things and even discussed how Elsa hoped their sex resulted in a child of which if it did she revealed she would not ask anything other then legitimization for the child from William.
The Floren Movement
"Your father is a monster Brandon. He's got your beloved Erica locked up in the temple. He's sponsering bandits all over the area. He needs to be stopped."
— Tobin Aven
If House Trachtenburg was the most powerful house of the area it was House Floren that was the second most powerful and in this importance they were seen as a very important group to turn to the Knights of Aerene and in this way it was Tobin Aven that was sent to Brightwater to convert them. Tobin would convinse Brandon Floren that his beloved Erica Steinmare had been imprisoned by rebels in the Great Temple of Brightwater and that these rebels had been aided by his family, and while he didn't believe Tobin at first it was Tobin that showed him a letter written by James Lovie the king which said that he was to take control of Brightwater through the imprisonment of everyone involved in the rebellion. Brandon would confront his father on Erica Steinmare and not knowing what was going on behind the scenes it was Wendel Floren that made mistakes when he refused to let Brandon see Erica - he had been asked to keep the two apart while Erica was in Brightwater as she had been asked to pray for three days before seeing him - and in this mistake it was Brandon that left his father and swore himself as a Knight of Aerene. With Brandon Floren as their man it was Tobin Aven that provided him with several dozen mercenaries and alongside this Brandon was able to gain the support of almost half the forces of House Floren when he was able to convince his uncle Alester Floren to support him. As the coup was in its final moments it was Tobin that further sparked the fire within Brandon when he showed him evidence - evidence that he had created - that showed that not only was Wendel dead set against allowing Erica and Brandon to marry but was planning to murder Erica after she left the church where Brandon was convinsed she was imprisoned within.
The Coup of Brightwater
"At the start we were told we were fighting to take these lands from the corupt nobles who controlled them. I honestly believed we were doing good."
It would be Eddara Floren that would be within the walls of Brightwater when her brother and uncle took control of the town in the name of the Seven Knights of Aerene and she would be the only person who Brandon would admit to his involvement as the entire time the members of the knights of Aerene would wear masks covering their identity. With Wendel imprisoned and unable to defend himself it was Eddara that came to believe her brother and came to support him in his campaign to control House Floren, and it was in this effort that they found a lot of success as the loyalty that Wendel had showed to Bill Lovie had left him very unpopular among the people and it was only the escape of Benfred Floren from Brightwater that gave them any sort of pause in their celebration. Benfred Floren would escape Brightwater supported by Adelar Eichler and his son Janik Eichler of whom as vassals of House Floren controlled Castle Floren and would bring Benfred there to plan for the resistence against what they believed was the madness of Brandon Floren. Having gained control of the city it was Brandon Floren that attempted to enter the Great Temple of Brightwater but was barred entrance due to Erica being still at prayer and the priests refused to let him in and with his strong faith he placed guards on the temple to make sure no one tried to kill Erica which is what he believed was going to happen and then went about finishing his move to gain complete control of Brightwater. Realizing that Benfred Floren had escaped the city it was Benfred that summoned all the House Floren vassals to Brightwater and was surprised when most did not answer the call and from those who did he learned that Benfred had gathered to him almost all the vassals to his side at Castle Floren where he was preparing to lead his forces against Brightwater.
The Taking of Castle Ongrill
"We are here to not harm you. We are here not to steal your food or gold. We are here to show these nobles that there is a different way to rule. Remain calm, and do what we say and I guarentee you that not a single person will be harmed."
— Robert Snow
In Castle Ongrill the Seven Knights of Aerene would send Robert Snow of whom as the bastard of the former heir to Castle Ongrill and House Ongrill was extremely bitter over his treatment following the death of his father Robert Ongrill at the Battle of Lyons. Robert Snow's desire to rise within the realm and his loyalty to the crown were manipulated against him by James Nighting of whom begin using the seals of House Clegane, House Morgill, and House Lovie to make Robert Snow believe that the crown wanted him to gather a force and take control of Castle Ongrill, and that once this was done to hold it no matter what happened and then wait for the arrival of more orders. Daryn Ongrill the Lord of House Ongrill and baron of Castle Ongrill would travel to the Riverlands with his wife Tamyra leaving his son Morgan as the acting lord of House Ongrill while he was away and unfortunately while he was away the Seven Knights of Aerene rebellion would be sparked but while this was happening he and his wife were visiting her family in the Riverlands. At the time of the rise of the Seven Knights of Aerene it would be the wedding between Candice Anthor, and Morgon Ongrill that would lead to the Knights having there opening in the town, as having spent nearly three months and significant gold gathering to him nearly two hundred men at arms Robert Snow would begin infiltrating Castle Ongrill using the wedding as shield to his movements. Robert Snow would begin to have a relationship of sorts with Candice Anthor at this time as she was growing quite frustrated with her husband over his lack of physical time with her, and in this way Robert Snow was able to menipulate Candice Anthor into joining the Seven Knights of Aerene and using her only assisted him more.
Candice Anthor now effectively having an affair with Robert Snow would become the central figure of the Knights of Aerene in Ongrill as she recruited another fifty plus men while travelling north of Castle Ongrill with Robert Snow, but also at this time Morgon would depart Castle Ongrill as with their wedding only a month away he traveled to a temple nearby where he would pray at for the final month before their wedding. The forces of House Clegane, and House Morgill would arrive at the outskirts of Castle Ongrill, and realizing that he had been betrayed Robert Snow would prepare the castle for a siege, but now realized that the letters he had been receiving all along had been a lie and he was now effectively a traitor to the realm.
"Whatever happens from this day forward that you will never touch me. You will forever have nothing but bastards if that is what you want. I will never give you a thing."
— Candice Anthor
Completely surrounded and having come to the conclusion that he had been betrayed it was Robert Snow alongside the other knight in the form of Candice Anthor that put up a white flag and would engage in negotiations with the besiegers in the form of Hedrik Clegane III. and these negotiations went slowly but were coming to fruition of having Robert Snow surrender the castle and the safety of his men. As the negotiations were reaching a conclusion the arrival of Morgon Ongrill at the walls with his forces having returned from his month long prayer would cause major problems as Morgon Ongrill would at first want to continue the arrangement and have Robert surrender peacefully with no punishment but this changed when Robert refused to give up Candice Anthor during one of their meetings horribly embarresing his brother Morgon. Reacting very badly to this embaressment it was Morgon Ongrill that Robert Snow would engage in a duel against his half brother Morgon Ongrill and to the suprise of everyone Morgon would defeat Robert and the religious fanatic would not wait for any decisions to be sent to him instead executing Robert on the spot causing the destruction of his marriage to Candice who had fallen in love with Robert.
Tristan Arrives in Ongrill
Main Article : Tristan's Attack on Rachel Wood
"I had gone to the streets trying to survive hundreds of times. It was each day of my life, but something about that day felt different. If it wasn't for the fact that I would have died without food there is no way that I would have ever gone out that day. The entire time that I was handed bread over the day, I felt this aching in my heart that didn't stop until I felt his hand grab me from behind."
— Rachel Wood
It was following the end of the siege that Rachel was out in the streets of Ongrill attempting to beg for food, when she was approached by a man who appeared to her in very expensive robes. This man was Tristan Lovie, and he would proceed to brutally attack and rape Rachel. Tristan Lovie had entered Ongrill with a group of his men and used the chaos of the siege to commit atrocities as he had done elsewhere, and it was while he was raping another young women, that he had felt a pull towards Rachel. Tristan would believe this was because of her hair but in fact it was the work of Lornax to bring her to his eye. With his eye fixated on her he begin to formulate plans in his mind of what he would do to her when he finally caught up to her. Tristan by this point had completely lost himself after his corruption by James had basically turning him into a serial rapist that had been traveling across the Lucerne valley raping and killing any women that struck his eye. The brutality of the attack was what was truly the worst part for Rachel, as before this she knew of emotional neglect, and cruelty from the head lady at the orphanage, but after this she lost all faith in what humanity was capable of. Tristan on top of raping her for some time would also severely burn her hands after he placed them into a bucket of scalding water that he had brought into the alley for the purpose of the attack. The attack and rape then were followed by Tristan attempting to strangle her to death. He would have succeeded if it wasn't for the work of Glorinex of whom could not accept what Lornax was planning to do and warned a group of nearby soldiers led by Hedrik Clegane III. about what was happening. Hedrik, Meinolf, and several of his men were walking back to the fort they had constructed from the Ongrill Keep when he is stopped on the road by Glorinex who tells him that he needs to go down an alley and save someone, and before he can stop the woman she disappears back into another alley. Moving to the alley she had told him to go he and his men find several men guarding the entrance to the alley but he is able to see past the men and realizes a woman is being raped by a man they are clearly guarding. No words are spoken instead a fight breaks out with Hedrik charging past the men leaving his men to handle the guards and he barrels into the raper knocking him off the girl. The two groups would briefly scuffle in the back alley, but Tristan would throw dirt in Hedrik's face in a very cowardly manner and this would allow Tristan the time he needed to make his escape. With Tristan gone the remaining men were either killed or ran with him leaving Hedrik and his men to turn to the girl to see the mess that the man had left her in, and was shocked at this amount of brutality. Her clothes were all ripped apart and her body was nearly completely exposed, and despite the circumstances he couldn't help but have his eyes linger as this was the first time he had ever seen a naked women. He checked her for a pulse and when he found it he knew she was alive so he wrapped his cloak around her and carried her back to the fort.
"Carrying her back to my room was a reckless move that was so outside of everything I had ever done before that. I knew that since we were in Forks I would be able to get away without my parents finding out, at least until I was forced to return to Lole. I just wanted for some unknown reason to help her. Maybe I loved her even then."
— Hedrik Clegane III.
he brings the girl inside the Fort where he takes her to his lodgings which are on the top level of the tower they had constructed. When he put her down on his bed to rest she became hysterical and only when he raised his hands in submission and then left the room did she calm down. While she begin to calm down it was only the start of her problems as Lornax, and Telemerix arrived at the fort and attempted to continue their next moves despite the fact that she had not died. Hedrik waited outside the room for a time as she screamed at the top of her lungs, and whether her screaming was due to the heavy burns on her hands that she had kept hidden, or the brutal rape wasn't clear to Hedrik, but she continued to scream which caused Hedrik to panic fearing she might die or attempt to escape. Hedrik went to the outside of the room on the roof and was able to secure the lock on his window so that she couldn't escape through the window but he was unable to see in as she had apparently closed the blinds to the room. After a good hour she stopped screaming so he returned into his room and he didn't see her so he quickly ran to his window but it remained locked so she couldn't have escaped that way. Feeling hopeless he was given her location when he heard sobs coming from his study. He opened his study and found her cowering in the corner crying wrapped in what he thought was one of his blankets.
Saving Rachel
"She seemed to be comforted by my presence but I just couldn't manage a way to get her to talk to me. I would listen to anything she had to say, I just didn't want her to cry anymore. It broke my heart, and warmed me at the same time that every time I entered my room, she immediately opened her arms for me to hug her, but then she would break down into tears."
The Dunten Rebellion
"If you actually look at what happened in Dunten. How close we came to violence. It was entirely about your father trying to kill Alice. He moved all the pieces on the board towards that simple goal."
— Edward Cullen
With the Seven Knight Rebellion spreading in its scope it was the Knight Maeger Duneria that would become involved in an added layer of the workings of James Lovie II. when James Nighting arrived in Dunten. Arriving in Dunten it was James that told him that soon a commoner girl named Alice was meant to be arriving in Dunten where she would have been executed but instead she had been rescued by rebels in House Vuneria. Maeger would be commanded to send an army to Castle Vuneria and capture this girl by any means necessary and to capture the city before the arrival of more rebels to the area. With Maegar still injured from battle it was his child son Taegar Duneria II. that would be sent with the main Duneria army against Castle Vuneria. Accompanying Taeger was Alexander Hesnel a Circle of Magi Senior Enchanter who having been sworn to the service of James Nighting was ordered to make sure that the Duneria attacked Castle Vuneria or he would be killed. Alexander did not know who Alice truly was but was told by James that if the girl survived then the whole kingdom might fall, so an already fearful Alexander was desperate to make sure this girl died.
Arrival of Edward Cullen
"The distance between me and the rest of my friends was more then I could even fathom. I was riding right beside them but I wasn't really there. Jasper, and Leven despised me. Emmett, and Will seemed too uncomfortable to even talk to me. This was rock bottom."
As they march Edward can't ignore the distance between himself and the Shadow Council and this is only made more clear when he William, Leven, Christopher, and Catherine are riding together and he listens as they discuss that he will be joining Christopher in meeting with the forces of House Shephard and joining that army. Edward is screaming inside to resist this but refuses to embarrass himself and also wants to show he is loyal to William and thus agrees without disagreement to go with Christopher Bell. As Christopher says goodbye to Catherine its Edward that tries to talk to William but he is blocked by Leven and although he watches William attempt to let Edward talk he almost starts crying out of embarrassment and decides to leave saying a quick goodbye and following Christopher. Arriving at the meeting point with House Shephard it is Edward that is shocked by the size of their forces, but has little time to think on it as a small group of cavalry break off from the main Shephard forces and ride towards them. The group arrives and Christopher greets several of them revealing Jack Shephard, Evangeline Shephard, Reginald Kane, Sargon Gurse, and as the group talks one girl who had been in the back gets off her horse and greets Edward who recognizes her as Eura Clune a girl who he had went to the Lucernian Academy with. Edward has a long conversation with Eura while the nobles talk and during this conversation he quickly realizes that Eura is obsessed with William following a sexual relationship they shared while Edward was away in Hogwarts and while Edward attempts to tell her that the chances of them getting together are slim she refuses to hear this and hints that she plans to seduce William when she sees him. The conversation ends and the group leads the force led by Edward towards the main Gulltown army and the now combined forces begin marching towards Castle Vuneria where the castle is held by loyalists under Edrik Vuneria but is under siege by rebels under the command of Taegar Duneria II. Arriving at Castle Vuneria the group sees the large force from House Duneria placing the castle under siege and discusses what strategy they want to do with most under the lead of Sargon Gurse, and Evangeline Shephard wanting to just destroy the rebel force without discussion, and Edward argues for negotiation but Edward is unable to convince the group and it appears this will be the strategy until Eura steps in and is able to convince them to allow her to go and speak with Taegar Duneria.
"None of this is as it seems Lord Shephard. If I am wrong. If the Dunerians are actually traitors then why not find that out. You lose nothing by letting me and Lord Cullen go in there and get answers."
— Eura Clune
Eura Clune after gaining the permission of Jack Shephard to meet with Taegar walk towards the Duneria forces carrying a white flag, and while walking Edward is scared but is calmed down by Eura who is driven by her desire to impress William to feel no fear. Entering the camp of the Duneria force they are restrained and taken before Taegar of whom when they see they are shocked that he is a young man maybe thirteen years old. As the talk starts Taegar is not the one who does the talking but instead a man comes from the main tent and as soon as Edward sees him he feels the Magi coming from him, and the man introduces himself as Alexander Krutzwalder an advisor to the king.
Surrender of Dunten
"I went to the prince's eighth name day. The King was kind to me then. He has sent me letters for years continuing our friendship. Why would I betray him now?"
— Maeger Duneria
The Trachtenburgs
"Where the hell is my mother?"
— Sasha Snow
House Trachtenburg as the main power of the area would become a focal point of the rebels and Bill Lovie knowing that Frank Trachtenberg was a coward who had already allowed his wife to be imprisoned without a fight realized that House Trachtenburg was ripe for rebellion. Seen as a coward and a failure Frank was not approached but instead it was James Nighting that would approach the bastard children of Frank Trachtenburg in the form of Sasha Snow of whom had been unofficially adopted by Katia Lovie several months before her imprisonment and because of this it was known that the bastard children were extremely loyal to Katia. The girls had been told like everyone else that Katia Lovie was in Lucerne visiting with her family but when the letters had stopped coming there was a lot of worry about her safety but it had been Frank that had lied and told them he saw her weekly and that she was fine. It was this lie that Jamie would play on when he revealed that Katia had been imprisoned and lied stating that she was imprisoned beneath the walls of Castle Trachtenburg by Frank himself and that only if they took control of the house themselves could they get Katia released.
Battle of Castle Trachtenburg
"I don't care what the reason. I don't care that her death was an accident. I don't care who you say her real mother was. She was my cousin."
Sasha Snow would be killed while defending the gatehouse of Castle Trachtenburg alongside her fellow defenders and her shocking death would become a major point of contention as shortly after this William Lovie III. would arrive ending the conflict for fear of the deaths of his other two baseborn cousins in House Trachtenburg.
Main Article : The Journey
Sometimes to see what the world looks like, you simply have to go outside and look.
"You can choose to keep being the wandering playboy prince of the Valley. You could spend every year until your father dies doing just that. Trying to rebel against your father by squandering your potential, is only hurting you. Be the man your mother. Be the man I see you can be. Save these people. Save your people from the hell that your father hed led them into."
— Catherine Lovie
William Lovie III.'s coma had caused him to have no memory of his sister and anything to do with her which left him suffering headaches and finding his happiness in sleeping with other noble girls in the city, and this behavior continued to spiral out of control until the arrival of Lanna Lannister. Lanna Lannister had been a romantic partner to Jasper Hale, but had also slept with William several times including mothering a child with him in the form of Termin Jest of whom she believed was Jasper's but in fact was William's child. Lanna arrived in Lucerne with her mother Cersei Lannister of whom was visiting for a trade negotiation and would only be in the city a few days but wanted to see Jasper so came with her aunt and tried to see him but discovered from Rosalie Hale that Jasper had left for Nortburg with his grandfather and thus unable to see Jasper she went to see William of whom was at the pools with Edward Cullen, and Leven Martell. William finding her as beautiful as he remembered he talks to her after she is unable to find Jasper, and seducing her she follows him to his fathers throne room where he demands everyone to leave and then sleeps with her on the floor in front of the throne. Lanna and William have a long discussion about their respective lives and the discussion of her child comes up implying for the first time that her son Termin Jest could be Williams, but this is laughed off by William and following this the two sleep together but are stopped during this by Catherine Bell his aunt of whom he has a serious conversation with about his life. Discusted with himself for this he listens to his aunt and goes to Edward and the two come together to decide its time to truly change thus marking the begining of the Journey as William could no longer take the person hes becoming alongside the increasingly depressing dreams he suffered from each night and was forced to attempt to deal with them through finding the places in his dreams of which a common place was a tavern in Forks.
"Where are you taking me Will?"
"If I told you then it wouldn't a surprise."
"Does Jasper ask about me Will?"
"Not that I recall."
"You know his son is almost three."
"He know's that."
"He's just willing to ignore it."
"You know his grandfather."
"Tarnide is a monster of a man."
"That he is. I always think of him as a lesser version of my father, and that does not say anything good."
"You two were always bonded by your hatred of those two men." "Tell me Will why aren't you married yet?"
"Amber left would be the easiest anwser."
"But whats the real answer."
"It's gotten really easy to not have any responsibility."
"Don't you want a family?"
"I want it more then anything in this world."
"Then why don't you start your family?" "Your twenty years old Will. There is talk that your infertile you know."
"When did this talk begin?"
"Its been going on for some time Will. How many girls have you slept with and how many children bastard or not do you have?"
"You had a child."
"That child is Jasper's."
"Perhaps it is mine. You and I were sleeping together at the same time. Why could it not be mine."
"Would you want it to be William?"
"If it was I would be a father to him."
"You taking responsibility wasn't my question. If Termin was your son would you be happy marrying me and being the father of my children knowing where my heart lay."
"I see your point."
"William I'm not dissapointed with you." "No one is disappointed with you. Everyone just sees you as being capable of so much more then sleeping around for a living."
"You think I don't know that. Every day I get up and there is this hole in my mind. This giant gap of memory and it tears away at me."
"Memories are just that Will. They are glimpses of something that has already happened."
"That doesn't make it hurt any less."
"Life hurts my love."
"It shouldn't hurt this much."
"Just because something hurts doesn't mean you should stop living."
"Tell me what I should do?"
"Find anwsers. Find love."
"I can't remember anything more then a blurred image, and the girl who I love ran out on me when went into a coma."
"You know thats not what happened with Amber William. That girl loved you of that there is no question."
"Then tell me why she left?"
"If she left I believe there was a good reason." "Find out that reason."
"Lanna sent she went to Forks."
"Then go to Forks."
"Father won't even let me leave Lucerne Hold."
"Make him." "Your twenty years old William. You are the prince of the Valley of Lucerne. When my brother dies you will be king. You do not need his permission to leave the city."
"I will have to tell him something more then me wanting to find Amber."
"You'll think of something. Talking people into doing what you want has never been something you struggled with."
"Thanks Catherine. For...for being the mother I wish I had. For being there for me when I didn't deserve anyone by my side. Thank you...Thank you for loving me through it all."
"I love you William. You never have to thank me for that."
Confronting his father Bill would at first completely reject any idea of him travelling outside of Lucerne, as Bill understood that he was beyond hated outside of the capital, and that worried him for what people might do to the prince. In the end though he realized that William was not going to take no for an anwser and relented by sending an elite troop of soldiers with him, including Carlisle Cullen of whom William had lost all trust in.
Middle gate of Lucerne
"It was the first time in many years that I had seen the outside of the Lucernian Mountains, and it felt so different. Like a feeling in the air everything felt tense out in the valley."
William Lovie III. left the city of Lucerne with Edward, Leven, Jasper, Emmett, and a guard unit of sixty men led by Carlisle Cullen of whom had been commanded by Bill Lovie to attempt to maintain his position, but both knew this was nearly hopeless. When they arrived outside of the city they were met by Levan Martell sisters and Ellia Snow of whom joined them with four more men from House Martell, alongside Joshua Jackson and Hayden Percy of whom brought twelve more men with him. Hayden was confronted by Carlisle about why he was there as he had not been commanded by Bill to do this, but Hayden was evasive and when the two had a moment of privacy he said that he worried someone would try and assassinate William during the journey. The group headed towards the safety of the city of Forks on horseback, and as they neared Nortburg William revealed that he had larger plans in mind and that they would be meeting several others in Nortburg. As they passed Norburg they were met by Radlet Scarlet, Dylan Steinmare and their accompanying four men of which further expanded out the group of those joining William on his journey.
"He had an apologetic look across his face as he spoke to me, and I couldn't help but hate him and feel sorry for him at the same time. I didn't doubt whatever secret he kept he only did so with the greatest of reluctance."
On the ride their William and Carlisle engaged in the first of what would become many heated arguments between the two on the journey as William saw Carlisle as little more then a hand of his father. William desired to know how it was that Bill his father was so reluctant to allow him to leave Lucerne as for what reason would anyone have for wanting to harm him. Carlisle berated him about being unwilling to have done something like this before, and that he wasn't mature enough to understand what he was going to find in the cities. The engaged in a long argument in which it became clear to William that Carlisle was deeply aware of a number of important lies that were being told by his father, and that he had no intention of telling William. As Carlisle told William lies about the dislike the people had for him it was Hayden Percy that stopped the party and told William that actually the people were deeply in love with William and he was the only thing they did like about the ruling king.
"It was obvious to me that he was a liar. The only thing I wanted to know was whether he was just a really honorable liar, or the kind of liar that had to be dealt with immediately."
Eventually when William realized that Carlisle wasn't going to break his father's confidence he stopped talking to him and the younger men, and Leven just socialized the rest of the ride to Forks. This silence between Carlisle and William didn't go unnoticed and Carlisle attempted heavily to reengage the young prince in conversation to no avail. Carlisle was stuck in a terrible place as he knew the scope of terrible things that Bill Lovie had done, and knew that the moment William arrived in Forks he was going to be told by Charlie Swan of the destruction of Tree Hill, and that alone would spark a quest of discovery which would only end with the discovery that Bill was responsible for the violence. Carlisle would at this point realize that there was no hope of protecting his old master in the way he had been commanded too, and thus he begin to hope for the success of William so that Bill would be removed and he would be free from the chains that bound him. Travelling the path along the river, it was at this point that William would send Levan Martell and her party eastward towards Stormwind so that she could tell the Starke`s and Lannisters that he was moving, and that he would be making his way east after he had visited Forks and Charlie Swan. Along with Levan he also had Radlet, and Martin travel westward towards Hillsbrad where they would tell Lord Genn Greymane of their intentions and make him aware that they would attempt to travel to Hillsbrad after they had visited Stormwind.
"I need you to do something for me Leven."
"You know I will do whatever you need Will."
"You won't like it."
"Spit it out Will."
"I was writing letters back and forth for several weeks with Eddard Starke. In these letters we discussed our meeting, and he told me that if I went to him that he would support me in my search for answers, and what came after."
"What do I have to do with this?"
"Carlisle can't know that I'm meeting with the Starke's. My movemement in the east must be done by someone that I trust without question."
"Why me William. My place is by your side. What about Jasper, or Emmett, or Marcel. What about anyone but me, I don't want to leave you."
As the group moved towards Forks it was the Circle of Magi that worked without leadership from James Lovie II. as the king had locked himself in the Sky Tower and refused to be seen leaving the situation to be handled by Kieth Schwartz. Kieth would command a raven be sent to Forks and the Circle of magi forces in the city led by James Nighting, and his son James Nighting II. and the raven detailed that they were to deal with Alice in whatever way they saw fit but there ultimate goal was to not let the two siblings meet in Forks when william did arrive in the city. Kieth at this moment was truly only conserned with assisting the rise of William Lovie III. and thus understood that despite telling them to make all attempts to bring Alice to Berne that this would most likely be ignored by James the Elder in favor of attempting to kill her. The Forks cell would discuss this and while James the younger would push to kidnap her and get her to Berne as was the command of Kieth, it was James the elder that overruled him and did as Kieth feared when he decided to attempt to kill her.
Attempt on Alice Lovie
Following the failure of Laetorius Pilatus and his group to kill her while at the gardens it was James the Elder that commanded his son to murder Alice using his relationship with her to trick her into leaving the Swan Keep. Having watched the two for the entire time that they had both been in Forks it is clear that James the elder knew what sort of emotional effect this request would have on his son but James the elder felt that this was the only way to bring his son back into the fold of House Nighting.
"Don't do this James. I love you."
Alice would be listening at the window as James the elder and James the younger would argue about things and thus when James the younger entered the tavern it was Alice that was there prepared to comfort James over what he had been arguing with his father about. After some time talking Alice realized that James was there with orders to kill her and realizing this the two argued over this with Alice playing to his emotions and eventually causing him to come to the realization that he would not be able to kill Alice, and with this moment his father James the Elder smashed the door down using Magi knocking down his son and leaving him unconscious. Alice would see this and rushed to the side of James the younger where after seeing that he was alive she and James the elder spoke for some time with James the elder hinting that her brother was on his way to the city but was unwilling to reveal his identity despite the fact that he was going to kill her. As James the Elder prepared to kill her with a killing curse it was james the younger that gained consciousness and stopped his father by stabbing him through the back killing him instantly and leaving James the younger emotionally broken. Alice would attempt to console him but he refused her touch and picked up his father preparing to take him away but before he left he forced Alice to promise that when the time came she would lie and say that she had killed his father after he had kidnapped her from the tavern and taken her to a forest. Alice would follow him riding on the horse with him as they took his fathers dead body out of Forks and into the forest west of Forks, and it was here at a small cabin that James would take her to stay for a few days to make the story make sense. While Alice slept that night an emotionally distraught James Nighting II. would leave her without a word riding southward towards Tree Hill where he planned to return to his family and try and find some kind of peace over what he had done.
Arriving in Forks
Main Article : Forks
"It was the first city I had ever seen outside of the surrounding area of Lucerne, and I don't know what I expected. From all the talk of my father I guess a burned down husk of a town screaming for my death wouldn't have suprised me at all."
When the group arrived at Forks the four of them simply sat and looked down at a massive city that for most of their lives they had not even known had existed. Each of the group spent a moment describing what they knew of Forks, at least what they had heard, and the simple fact seemed clear that they had all been fed a lot of lies over their life to keep them from leaving Lucerne. William told them all a story about how his father had told him that in Forks he had once been forced to put down a rebellion that started after the city wanted to kill him, and his brother. Jasper told him that his grand-father as well as clearly taken the party line and had told him and his sister that the city was a haven of criminals and rebels. Leven told the group that her father had refused to speak of Forks, and she realized now the reason was because he was ashamed to have to lie to her so he just simply didn't. At the urging of Carlisle they begin heading towards the town, and they would reach the great castle bridge of which Hayden Percy would travel ahead of the group with twenty men and have the way prepared for them and he did his best to try and keep who they were as something he only told the top commanders of the castle. After Hayden was able to get them through they made there way towards the city itself, and by this point guards from the castle had reached Forks and had begun spreading word that Lucernians were there, and they were of some high level nobility. As they entered the massive gates of Forks they didn't get twenty feet before the very well known and expensive armor of the Lucernians was seen on them which caused the people to begin swarming the group in the hopes of finding out who they were.
West Side of Forks
"You could hear the roar of the crowd from everyone within the city, and like a tidle wave everyone within the city simply moved like they were automated towards the prince they had always dreamed of seeing."
— Charles Swan
William didn't know how nearly mythical the Lovie's had become so he simply attempted to calm the crowd by telling them their prince and his best friends were on a journey to visit the Kingdom and that Forks was their first stop. If he didn't know before he knew after everyone in the crowd fell to their knees and remained deathly silent in their awe of the prince that they all hoped would become their King. Before five minutes the entire city learned of the coming of William Lovie, and a large group of Lucernians, and it took William begging the people to get up before they would finally stop kneeling to him. With the people back on their feet William and the group waded through the crowd that all attempted to touch the armor of their beloved Prince, and as this was happening Jasper, and the rest of the group followed very closely trying there best to keep an eye out for danger. As the groups of people all attempted to touch the armor of the prince the gaurd of House Swan, and his bannerman arrived on the scene to clear out the crowds and allow the prince through, but it took some time before they were able to get moving again. The arrival of Ser Richard of the Swan Guard would finally calm the crowd enough that he was able to line his Swan Knights along the side of the princes entourage, and from there walk them towards Swan Keep.
Alice Learns the Truth
"That lady Alice is prince William Lovie III. He's going to be the king some day."
— Nerio Swann
Arriving at the cabin at night it was Alice and James that discussed everything that had happened and Alice attempted to get James to forgive himself, but she would fail and despite both describing their love for the other it was James that left her to sleep alone while he told he would be in the main room and they could talk the next day. While Alice slept that night an emotionally distraught James Nighting II. would leave her without a word riding southward towards Tree Hill where he planned to return to his family and try and find some kind of peace over what he had done, but he did leave behind a letter that detailed how much he had loved her and his involvement in what she would eventually realize was her memory loss. Alice would wake in the morning and discover he had left and after reading his letter she would ride back to Forks on the other horse where as she arrived she was stopped by a troop of cavalry led by Nerio Swann and Nerio knew her as Alice was a friend of Bella Swan and thus he revealed to her that the prince of Lucerne William Lovie III. was the leader of the group that was being surrounded by the people of Forks, and as she looked down into the group and saw him she felt a wave of memories crash over her which caused her to pass out. Alice would wake up back in the tavern where she was being held by Rosalie, and Bella while Donnel Swann stood at the doorway, and upon waking up Rosalie and Bella both started crying as they were both afraid that Alice wasn't going to wake up, and after calming down the two it was Alice that told them that she remembered who the boy from her dreams was. Before she could tell them that she knew the boy was William she was overcome with a terrible headache as the memories overwhelmed her and while she hid the severity of the pain it was Flavius Elvorix II. that came to the door and ordered Rosalie to return to work and despite Alice attempting to stop this he overruled her and then demanded them leave Alice's room which again they did reluctantly.
Golden Haired Boy
"His beauty was painful, but it was the way he allowed everyone to touch his armor, and never once did I sence that he hated this or wanted these people to just leave him alone."
While the crowd was clamoring for their prince it was Bella Swan that was in the tavern waiting for Alice to feel better when she heard all the noise outside. Joined by Donnel Swann she scaled the stairs of the tower of Trelly she looked out of the tower and finally saw the reason for all the commotion, and in that moment she was overcome. While she would never admit it to anyone even to this day during that moment she felt a pull towards the golden haired boy that she had never felt in her entire life. Her mind wanted with everything in her to return to her father's side where this knight was obviously heading to but instead her mind won the battle and simply stared love struck at the beautiful golden knight. After five minutes the group had barely moved due to the crowd sheer size and Bella remained in the same spot as she had been. Her only movement came when Rosalie approached from behind her and she fell startled by her friends arrival. Falling down before getting back up the two watched the group finally make it out of the crowd after the Forks guard, along with the House Swan honor guard moved in and created a barrier so that the prince could move through the thousands now lining the streets.
"Watching them grasp for my hand. Watching them cry out my name. Watching them do everything they did to try and make me see them was the first time I ever really understood who I was. I always understood I was powerful, but it wasn't until then I knew what I could accomplish."
William and the rest of the group would make there way now with the help of the Swan Knights and footmen of Forks through the crowds and made there way towards Swan Keep where they would arrive at to the site of Charlie, and Brodie Swan bowing to them while dressed in beautiful blue Swan adorned armor. Charlie would declare himself and immediately William gave him the respect he deserved as an Arch Lord of Lucerne, and after giving him bread to signal that he was under guests right he alongside the Shadow Council and Hayden Percy would enter the Swan Keep. Carlie Cullen would attempt to follow them but Brody Swan would hold him back on the command of Charlie before following the rest of the group inside and leaving Carlisle outside with the remainder of the group. Charlie would tell William the first of what would become an ever increasing amount of bad things about his father, and Charlie told him that he was beyond happy to see that he had a chance to meet him before he perished in whatever the next plot of Bill Lovie was. William would be somewhat defensive of his father at first, but Hayden Percy would vouch for many of the things said, and this shocked William as he believed Hayden and couldn't believe that his father was causing so many problems. Charlie told William that Brody would take him on a tour of the estates while Charlie prepared things for William to see, so that he could understand what Charlie believed he could do.
Chance Encounter
"Looking back the fear I used to have was just so palpibable. It was as if I would litterly die if I went to see this man that people were calling the most perfect thing they had ever seen. I should have been at his feet praying like the rest of them, but my fear kept me back. Considering how it ended I can't say I regret not going."
Bella would continue to stare at William throughout the entire time he was surrounded and still in view, and as she did she brought on the questioning of Rosalie of whom also felt something for one of the men with William in the form of Jasper out there but attempted to bury that within herself by asking Bella questions. Bella escaped the questioning and badgering of Rosalie that she go to see the prince, and instead made her way to the blacksmith of her father's loyal banner house House Black to basically hide out. She entered the blacksmith and admittedly spent the next few hours simply walking among the seemingly endless stable that surrounded the overall blacksmith. She was about to return home when she heard a commotion from the front of the blacksmith, and when she came out to see what it was she saw that the prince was in the next room talking to Arthur Black the brother of the House Black patriarch. Bella would watch as two other men entered the room in the form of Jasper Hale, and Joshua Jackson, and she watched as the prince laughed with them, and they seemed to love his presence. Arthur Black, and Jasper Hale would leave the area for a few minutes leaving William and Joshua to talk among themselves, and she watched as once he believed he was alone William appeared worried and talked in hush tones to Joshua of whom seemed to attempt to reassure him.
"Seeing him like that was such a shocking thing, that I felt immobilized in awe. I had wanted to run away, and hide in a hole so deep that noone would ever find me. I had wanted to do anything to get away, but I couldn't move. The moment his eyes met mine, all the remainder of my resistence just flowed away."
As the two continued talking Bella found herself transfixed on the prince in front of her. She was so nervous that she wanted to run away and hide in the stables for the rest of her life, but before her cowerdess could allow her to do this she was spotted by Arthur who brought her presence to the prince of Lucerne.When the two locked eyes Bella had to hold onto a railing to keep herself from falling, and while William had a lot of experience with women he couldn't bare to not touch this girl in a way he couldn't understand. William thanked Arthur, and told Arthur to take Jasper and Joshua and show them the remainder of the Stables, and Arthur quickly removed himself to the pain of Bella whose head was filled with crazy thoughts of love, and marriage. At first Bella was nervous and shy as she was with everyone, but William unlocked something inside herself that had been dormant since the death of her brother Jacob Swan, and she begin opening up to him. Bella would take him to the more secluded spot of the Stables, and it was there that the two talked for hours and came to know each other rather well, with both telling eachother things they hadn't told anyone else before. This closeness was interrupted by the fact that it was well past midnight and so he had to return her Swan Keep, and then make his way to the Tavern that they had taken over as a residence or Jasper was going to explode from worry. William walked Bella back to Swan Keep before the two parted but made plans to meet the next day at the tavern. As William went to leave her though Brody Swan would come out and whisper something to her which caused her to give Brody a kiss on the cheek before she ran back over to William and told her that she was going to join him since she knew friends at the Tavern. Several Swan Knights joined them in order to make sure Bella would be able to get back safely, and thus arm in arm they walked towards the Tavern with Bella leading them.
The Tavern Meeting
"So much happened in that small run down tavern, that whenever I return to Forks I feel like I have to return there. Had we of stayed at a different tavern I'm sure that eventually I would have found my sister again, but it would have been longer. It would have meant one more minute away from my sister, and that was too much."
As the Lucernians spent time in the Swan Keep it was Alice that recovered from her headache and now having regained her memory rejoined her friend Rosalie Hale, of whom was known as Rosalie Woods due to her supposed bastardy birth, in her pursuit of learing more about why William Lovie III. who she now knew as her brother was in Forks. As they attempted to leave the tavern the it was Flavius that slapped Alice in the face and forced her and Rosalie to return and not allowing them to leave for Swan Keep where they knew they could get Bella to tell them more. This physical abuse wasn't uncommon so Alice just moved about her business, and acted as if nothing had happened, but inside she now knew that she was a princess and feeling the shackles getting closer to being removed she felt hopeful for the first time in years as she knew that William would save her. Alice would watch as the man she knew now as Carlisle Cullen entered the tavern and went to Flavius and after talking briefly it was Flavius that would rush out of the tavern. Shortly after this happened it was her brother himself that entered the tavern flanked by Bella and Jasper on each side of him.
"When I saw the gleaming armor of the prince's men I couldn't help but stand in awe of these men. So much was spoken of Lucerne, and since I had never been there I was left to my imaginations. They just seemed so polished, and downright perfect."
After at first being overwhelmed by attention by the tavern dwellers they were spared further harassment when Rosalie yelled throughout the tavern that they were going to close if they didn't leave the Lucernians alone. Alice spent the rest of the night watching as the group of Lucernians spent time in the corner, and she made the arrangements when a man named Carlisle Cullen introduced himself and basically said that the group needed lodgings for the night and they would prefer if they could simply take all the rooms in the tavern. As Alice moved about the business of moving their things to their rooms she came to be helped by a silent young man who introduced himself as Jasper Hale. The patrons of the Tavern were slowly removed as the men that guarded all these noble young men begin to take up the spots and guarded the door making sure the tavern was now safe for the royals to sleep in. As the two shook hands on Jasper's insistance they both felt a shock as if something inside them was kismat, and that they recegnized the feeling. They went about their work, but following the hand shake no more words were shared between the two. As Jasper returned to the table he returned to conversation with Emmett, and Edward where he revealed that he felt a connection with the young barmaid. Emmett was far to lost in his lust over the beautiful blond to pay attention to Jasper but Edward was completely listening and had never seen his friend with so much certainty in his eyes since before he had left. For the first time since the death of Hostella Jasper was actually talking to Edward, and this continued for several minutes until the emotions wore off for Jasper once Alice had his eye sight and he realized he was talking to Edward and would from that point on ignore Edward and only talk to Emmett, and Joshua of whom entered shortly after. As they continued to talk Emmett simply got up from the table without a word and walked over to the counter where once their he begin talking to the blonde barmaid. Edward and Jasper were shocked that the extremely shy Emmett had been capable of something so obvious, and once again a member of the group stepped out of his comfort zone and did something they were not used to doing.
William Returns
"Bella said that she was best friends with two of the girls that worked at the tavern, and when I asked how she a noble got to be friends with barmaids she just laughed and shrugged her shoulders. Her nervousness in that moment just made me love her all the more."
The flirting between Rosalie, and the conversation between Jasper, and Joshua ended the moment the front entrance to the tavern opened and walking through the doors was William Lovie, and on his arm was Bella Swan. When Alice watched her normally dower friend walk in smiling while holding the arm of what she could only assume was the most handsome man in the kingdom she couldn't help but do a double take on the two. For the boys this was nothing new as Jasper and William had girls on their arms all the time, but the way he held her hand was something they hand't seen before as usually it was a more physical connection that William was after. The tavern was at this point basically at full copasity with all the guards and other members of their party so it was difficult for William, and Bella to see where the group was. As he looked around the tavern for his friends so that they could meet Bella his eyes scanned a tiny brunette girl standing behind the table and for a moment he was completely lost in thought. His mind went back for a moment and he had a hallucination of dreams he had been having flooding through his mind. Every dream he had ever had about the girl suddenly flashed back to him, and he nearly fell over if not for Bella holding his arm, and keeping him steady.
"I didn't know what it was but when I caught a look at her it was a moment I cannot explain. I felt a sence of longing that I didn't know existed but it wasn't in a sexual way it was something elce. It was as if this was someone I hadn't seen in a long time and now I was getting a chance to see her again."
Seeing Alice awoke something in William, and at first Bella watched him as he looked at Alice, and she felt nervous that she wasn't good enough but as if he felt her nervousness he tightened his grip on her hand and looked down at her smiling. The smile he gave her wiped away the fear she had, and brought her back to the happiness that she was feeling the moment before. Across the room at the bar Alice nearly dropped the jug of liquid that she was holding and stumbled her way back into the store room to calm herself down. At first she was horrified that she might be attracted to her best friends date, and thus she decided to hide herself away in the storeroom. As William held Bella's hand and walked towards his friends who he had finally spotted he spied the blonde sitting on Emmett's lap and smiled at his friend who appeared to be smitten. He locked eyes with Edward who gave him a knowing smile, and for the first time in a long time he returned Edwards smile, as he believed Edward was happy for him. Jasper and Joshua would both say hello to Bella and the group got into a fresh, and lively conversation only interupted by sporadic kissing between Rosalie and Emmett.
The Storeroom Meetings
"I sat alone in the storeroom hiding in the corner behind a box. I wanted with everything in me to go back out there and talk to the boy that had sent electricity through my arm just through a touch. I wanted to know more about who he was, and whether he could ever like a girl like me. But the only real though that flew through my mind, was speaking and seeing the prince again."
As the group talked and spent time together Rosalie, and Bella both wondered where Alice had gone too, and Jasper said that she was probably still busy like before. Bella got up from the table and went to see where she might be, and like always her noble stance meant that she was able to walk into the back where she found Alice sitting in the corner of the store room. Bella walked up to her, and sat down beside her and tried to find out what was wrong. Alice lied to Bella and told her she was nervous about seeing Jasper again because she thought she was having strong feelings for him and what was the point of getting involved since she was nothing but a barmaid. Bella looked her in the face and said she was so much more then that, and the group out there would never look at her as just a barmaid. She knew Bella was right but she wasn't ready to see the prince again so she told Bella to ask Jasper if he would come see her in the back room. Alice would hug Bella and tell her she loved her before Bella left to tell Jasper.
"I didn't want Jasper to leave and think I was unhappy or didn't like him, so I thought the only way to see him without involving the prince was to get him to come to me. I'm guessing this would be the first time he chased a girl into a storeroom in his life."
Bella would return to the table, and say that Alice was in the back room because the tavern owner had forced her back there so not to bother the customers, and that she wanted to apologize to Jasper in person. Jasper would immediately go to the back to see her, and he found her now standing against the wall waiting for him. The two would talk, and eventually they would kiss against the wall before things got more heated, and they would make love. As Jasper and Alice were in the storeroom the group outside continued having a great time, but in the back of William's mind he continued to think of the brunette barmaid that he had seen at the front, but like Alice threw herself into Jasper, William threw himself more and more into Bella. The two continued to talk lovingly and didn`t know when Rosalie, and Emmett left to go to her room William decided the time was right to take Bella home, and he said goodbye to Edward and left a goodbye for Jasper before holding Bella's hand and leaving with her. Emmett and Rosalie would spend the night talking but for the first time in her life Rosalie had found someone who didn`t just want her body, and this led to the two to become quite close very quickly in.
"For whatever reason as I walked with her the world just seemed clearer again. Memories seemed clear for the first time in the longest time, and looking at her smiling face as we walked hand in hand down the pebbled street I knew it was her. She was releasing me from whatever darkness had befallen me. She was the one to release me back into happiness."
Taking Bella`s hand and walking her down the street he was painfully aware that despite the appearance of being alone with her in fact he could make out Ellia Snow, and Hayden Percy following behind them keeping enough distance to remain private, but still close enough to move forward if something went wrong. William would enter the Swan Keep with her, and when the guards indicated that her father was away from the keep meeting several just arriving nobles from Fogtown he would take her back to the stables where they had originally met, and the two talked there for almost another hour, before the arrival of Charlie Swan, and a large troop of Fogtown men would cause them to depart each other. As the shy Bella Swan was preparing to leave his side he would kiss her, and the two lost themselves in the kiss for several minutes before Hayden came into the barn to tell them the lady had to leave before they were discovered. William following this would meet with the Fogtown force whom led by Natalie Highport would swear themselves to his side and thus joining the army that was gathering in support of William.
"I had found my escape in Jasper's arms but even he wasn't enough to keep the constant thoughts of the prince out of my mind. I wanted nothing more then to just escape with him, but even after making love I still found myself thinking of him. I knew I had to go out and see him, and thus I took Jasper's hand and followed him out to the table."
As Alice and Jasper finished they talked about things, and Alice frankly asked him where he saw this going, and Jasper who was trying to be a good guy after everything he had done in the past told her that he would like to see her again. Alice was skeptical because he lived in a different city, and was a completely different kind of person in terms of importance but looking into his eyes she believed him. This didn't take away from the fact that Alice couldn't get the prince out of her head, and thus when Jasper extended his hand to take her back inside she took his hand and prepared to once again see the prince. When they entered the hall again she noticed the table was barren except for Edward who sat alone at the table drinking his water. When they arrived they learned that William had left with Bella, and Emmett had left with Rosalie, Joshua had went to bed, and with this Edward said that he too was going to bed, and said goodnight. Alice in that moment was sadly sort of happy that nothing was expected of her with Jasper and walked hand in hand with him as he escorted her to her small room four floors up the tavern. Collapsing into her bed she attempted to fall asleep but the screaming headache she suffered from was the worse she had ever felt before and she wanted to cry out in pain, but bit down on a pillow for longer then she would have liked to admit.
Ending a Marriage
"Im sorry that this is coming as a shock to you Taylor. I never wanted to hurt you. I wanted to spend our life together. I wanted to love you. I wanted to love our children. That's all gone. The moment our little girl died I knew I couldn't stay in that castle for one second longer. If you have any shred of love for me, then you will let me go."
— Kate Denali
Following Taylor Shephard leaving with a small troop of men for the Journey it was Kate Denali that would go to Edward Shephard and with his assistance she was able to make her way northward meeting with the main Lucernian army and her father at Forks. As the army was preparing to leave for Forks time was sensitive and thus Kate wasted no time and told her father the truth of what was going in Vorhelm and hearing this an enraged Emerich Denali would travel to the Shephard forced and meeting with Taylor it was a shocked Taylor who saw Kate and then was verbally attacked by Emerich. As the acusations rained down on Taylor swords were nearly brought out but this was stopped when Kate stood between them feeling a hidden desire to protect Taylor despite everything he had done, and she was able to get him to agree to speak to her alone. Speaking together alone it was Taylor who realized that he had truly hurt Kate and that there relationship was dead from the side of Kate feeling no love for him, and with this he agreed to have their marriage ended without resistence.
Arriving in Stormwind
First we saw Forks and were shocked at how many people there were. Looking at Stormwind you couldn`t help but feel the same. Everything my father had told me was a lie. That became clear the moment I looked through the Great Eye of Stormwind.
Rosalie Hale would join Alice Lovie in traveling to Stormwind as the situation deteriorated there was increasing worry from William Lovie III. that his father of whom he now no longer knew what he was capable of would use these girls to punish William.
"We went by boat as by this point I understood the gravity of the situation in the valley. This was no longer simply me travelling the land, and getting to know my people. I was discovering destroyed cities, and a growing rebellion. This wasn`t the kind of trip I took by horse anymore."
Leaving Forks by boat the group now numbered nearly a dozen ships worth of men, and nobles all traveling with the prince of Lucerne, and for many this was people drawing lines in the sand. For the part of James Lovie this was the worst case scenario and he begin to try and find ways to stop William from realizing the truth once he reached Stormwind by trying to have his agents assassinate Eddard Starke, and in this way he commanded several of Ezio Ederiz's agents to go to Stormwind and kill him.
Return to Lucerne
"I don't have the full story yet father, but I need to do this. Let me repair the damage that every single piece of evidence I've seen show me that you caused."
Alice Rises
Alice greets the arrival of Emma, and Hanna Bell of whom are accompanied by a heavy contingent of men-at arms and knights of House Skane, and House Scarlet and she discovers that they remember her. Also among the group arriving is Adela Aven of whom has been brought to become the lady in waiting for Alice, and the two talk briefly with Adela showing herself as a kind girl who is clearly very happy to be a lady in waiting for the princess of Lucerne. Finding herself basically in a moment having gone from a tavern girl to the princess of Lucerne she remembers her times with the two sisters, and they spend the day together, which is joined by Fredrik Highmore of whom seems to be quite close with Emma Bell. Leaving behind Emma for a time she and Hanah go to the palace grounds where she meets with Charles Swan of whom has basically become the driving force behind the northern Lucernians joining William at Forks, and the two form a quick friendship as Charles is beyond happy with what they have agreed to join him in. Following her meeting at the Forks Palace she meets with Charles, and Daniel Faraday of whom have asked for a meeting with her, and realizing once again her power now they ask for Emma's hand in a betrothal and she sees the value in this but asks that they allow her a chance to speak with Emma about it with both of the Faraday's are very accepting of. Returning to Emma she finds her cousin all smiles and when she presses her cousin on what she believes to be a relationship with Fredrik Highmore of whom has been flirty with her throughout the day, and she tells Emma about the offers from Charles Faraday about marriage and is surprised when Emma agrees to this betrothal. While this is happening she also is flirted with by Dylan Steinmare, and when the two are alone she questions him on this and he tells her they were quite flirty before she left, and apologizes to her, but she begins to remember him and instead of accepting his apology she gently rubs his hand. While speaking on the rise of the west to Williams side due to the movement of Franklin Brent she receives a raven from William asking her to travel to Stormwind and see the city, and she takes Emma Bell with her. In the letter they are asked to be escorted by men of House Scarlet and Martell of which it is determined should be Saiden Scarlet, and Wilheim Martell. She does not realize the main reason she is recalled is the fact that William believes she will be killed if left alone in Forks after hearing so many bad things about his father.
Rise of the King William Lovie III.
Removing the Old King
See Also : William Lovie III's Takeover of Lucerne
"It was a sad sight to see the father that had never loved me or gotten to know anything about me fallen so far. He was broken to the point that there was barely anything remaining that resembled humanity."
On the days following the liberation of Tree Hill news begin to filter into the city that William Lovie III. was on his way to Lucerne and was planning on removing his father from power. While during this time James Lovie made no effort to control the city watch so that they would defend the city, his young son Tristan Lovie did attempt to stop his entry. The liberation of Tree Hill was the moment that Tristan Lovie understood that William would return to Lucerne and attempt to remove his father, and most likely kill him as by this point there was no scenario where William couldn't have known the truth of what happened at Tree Hill. This wasn't something Tristan could allow so he begin ordering the guards of the city to prepare the defenses of the city in order to make sure that William had no way of entering the city. He mainly was giving these orders to Tavin Flynt of whom had always retained the belief that he was loyal to House Lovie first and then the Kingdom thus he made the choice to stand beside Tristan Lovie, and the King James Lovie. This decision was met with rumblings throughout the city watch as most wanted William to be victorious but Tavin had a lot of control over the top echelon of the City Watch, and most believed he had the support of his brother Janos Flynt of whom was the most influential member of the city watch. As William Lovie III. moved back towards Lucerne following the victory at Tree HIll it would be Janos Flynt that was in a position that was only a step beneath his brother Tavin Flynt of whom was running the city watch as the commander.
"This is what I have trained you all these years to do."
— Vlarenix
As everything was happening it was Dovah Vlarenix, and Lornax that would make the decision to use their long hidden devise known as the Circlet of Aerene to weaken Vhloraz's hold over James just long enough that James could gain complete control and stop Vhloraz from doing anything to harm William or slow what they wanted to happen. Using Anna Kendrick to communicate with James Lovie II. they would convince James to have Michelle Trachtenburg recalled for the purpose of abusing her for what James was tricked into believing was the sin of attempting to assassinate James (of which was a pure lie). With Vhloraz at this point having near complete control over the body of James the demon was more then happy at the chance to abuse someone without James resisting and thus commanded that Michelle be brought to him immediately. While Michelle Trachtenberg was traveling to the Sky Towers she would be given the Circlet by Taylor Swift who was convinced by Vlarenix that this would protect the boy in her visions and thus not knowing what she was truly doing, it was Taylor that took part in this. Entering the Fade Taylor would travel to the carriage carrying Michelle to the Sky Tower and slip the Circlet into the pocket of Michelle before whispering to her in the Fade which led to her waken body taking the circlet and putting it on her wrist.
Michelle arrived at the Cloud Towers unknown to her mother Catherine and taken to the room of James she was terrified but found some peace given to her by what she thought was the Dovah Aerene but was in fact just Taylor who had followed her in an attempt to find out what she was actually being ordered to do by Vlarenix. Having given Vloraz control it was James that would take out all of his anger on the poor depressed young girl but as the assault begin the Circlet made its work done and created a block around James which while in no way permanent allowed James clarity and the ability to block out Vloraz for a time. Without the threat of Vhloraz or the other demons it was Lornax that went to him under the guise of Lisa Tyrell and told him what was happening as much as she could. Realizing what he needed to do he apologized as best he could to Michelle who didn't understand anything that was being said but listened when her uncle sent her to Whitehaven Castle and told her not to say a word of what she had seen her to anyone. James would also hand over control of the Circle of Magi to Kieth Schwartz and during this time James made it clear that he was not to have any members of the circle stay in Lucerne that might listen to the words of Tristan. With this command in mind it was Kieth that left behind Khadgar, and Medivh who he knew to be not loyal to James and then commanded that the remaining members of the Circle of Magi retreat to the safety of Orleans.
Wedding of Bella, and William
Main Article : Wedding of Bella Swan and William Lovie III.
"You lied during your vows brother. What changed that made you lie?"
While William was unknowingly to Alice engaging in a sexual relationship with Brooke Scott in Tree Hill it would be Alice that was pushing forward with plans for the wedding of William Lovie III. and her best friend Bella Swan. William would depart Tree Hill planning to go to Forks and reveal the truth to Bella but after he arrived at Forks he was met first by his sister, and Alice would be so excited that despite not wanting to marry Bella anymore he is unable to disappoint his sister of whom loves Bella deeply. Unwilling to hurt Alice William decides to goes through with the wedding despite everything in him wanting Brooke more. Attempting to find a way to not betray his promice to Brooke its William that attempts to delay the wedding, and while at first this is successful and the army of Lucerne prepares to leave for the capital. This delay is thwarted when Bella reveals that she is pregnant, and this basically forces William to marry her in order to keep from having a bastard. Thus due to the pregnancy Alice is able to delay the departure of William in order to have the wedding before he arrives in Lucerne, and thus join House Swan and House Lovie together before he leaves for Lucerne. During the wedding itself Alice watches him lie during the Vow to protect and love her for the rest of his days and following this while everyone else is screaming in excitement Alice is in a fog of which is noticed by Edward Cullen of whom holds her hand and walks with her out of the ceremony as they follow William and Bella who now married are heading towards the wedding feast. Following the ceremony she walks out and sees Lanna Lannister talking with Jasper Hale of whom is gently rubbing her arm, and following this she looks for Dylan Steinmare of whom she finds and takes him away from the party and kisses him. As they become more heated she pulls away leaving him behind, and returning to the party where she takes her seat beside William of whom holds her hand as several prominent members of the Kingdom of Lucerne say nice things about the married couple.
Tristan's Failed Attempt
"I had the commanders in my ear. I had the men on my side. I thought I knew who my brother was. I guess that was the only part of the equation that I had wrong."
— Janos Flynt
Following the wedding of Bella Swan, and William Lovie III. the situation deteriorated even further as they were only a few weeks away from Lucerne but had a truly massive army with the entire Grand State of Forks behind him following the marriage. While James was absent from the leadership of his loyalists it was Tristan that continued to take the lead and while he had the support of some members of Jame's council the majority of the Circle of Magi had fled to Orleans leaving only Khadgar Morgrave, and Fredrik Gurse as Circle members in the city. House Jestife, and House Nighting remained with some strength in the city but even they saw the writing on the wall and begin shuffling their troops and people through the Hale Gate and out of Lucerne leaving the loyalists increasingly isolated inside the city. The only other power player in the city that seemed willing to listen to Tristen was Cersei Lannister and in an attempt to gain her support he would travel to the Fortress of Einhelmer. Upon reaching the fortress he saw the walls were lined with troops, and although he was let inside the walls there was some serious question as to whether they were going to fire on his party as they approached the walls. Meeting with Cersei Lannister, Bendrin Reyne, and Birgitt Mander Tristan is shocked when Cersei barely lets him speak before she rejects his call for assistance and then has her guards remove him from the fortress with a demand that he never return. Following Tristan being embarrassed at the Lannister enclave he leaves accompanied by a group of his personal men from his Order of Saint Tristan and as Ezio watched him he was screaming in anger at what happened in the Lannister enclave. Ezio would follow him and discover that he was heading towards the Fortress of Schnabel where he planned to enter Lucerne Proper and then he planned to begin killing several prominent nobles he knew were William loyalists. Ezio was able to get to these people first as he was able to use the Fortress of Theiner but each of the people he searched for appeared to have already been warned and had traveled to the numerous William aligned areas of the city. As Tristan finds those he searched for already hidden he realizes the situation and travels to the Cloud Tower to meet with his father and try to find out what he should do.
"I'm so sorry Khadgar. I didn't realize how far I..."
— Fredrik Gurse
With Tristan Lovie taking the lead on the attempt to resist William he would gather to him the few remaining loyalists including Fredrik, and Polina Gurse. Fredrik, and Polina Gurse would be commanded by Tristan Lovie to gain control of the Fortress of Theiner which in the case that William was able to get through the main gatehouse they would be able to hold him off while Tristan believed his fathers allies would come to support them. With loyalists not remaining in the city in any real number it was Polina, and Fredrik that were able to gather only a few dozen men for their attempt to take the Fortress of Theiner, but Polina planned to have their Magi turn the tide. It was as they prepared to assault the fortress that Khadgar was warned of what was happening by Ezio and hearing about what his adopted son Fredrik was planning the two rushed to the fortress where they warned Lord Marwin Theiner about what was coming for him. Marwin raised his forces bringing nearly two hundred men at arms into the fortress to supplmenet the hundred already inside the walls, and with his son Florian Theiner in command of the main gate, and his daughter Lena Theiner a Magi sensitive they believed they were well prepared for the coming assault. Polina, and Fredrik arrived at the fortress and discovered that the defenders had been warned and upon seeing a fully garrisoned wall, and Marwin screaming at them from the walls it was most of the men with Polina and Fredrik that laid down their weapons and surrendered. Polina for her part did not surrender instead she begin firing Magi missiles at the gate while Fredrik used magi to shield her from the arrows and spears that were thrown at them, while their troops ran. As this happened Khadgar, and Lena would have Florian open the gate and the two would then go outside and after a brief conversation they engaged in a four way duel where Fredrik was mortally wounded and Polina used Magi to portal herself away. Khadgar would hold Fredrik as he died, and the two who had been so close for so long were able to say goodbye as Fredrik finally understood how far he had fallen.
Following the fight at the Fortress of Theiner it was Ezio that made his way to the Fortress of Schnabel where Tristan was gathering what little forces he had at due to the loyalty of Lord Adalbert Schnabel to James Lovie II. Entering the fortress using the stream of soldiers already entering he was able to find Alfred's heir Alfred who was being kept locked in his room due to his loyalty to William. Ezio would release Alfred who then gathered to him the leadership of the house that was not supportive of what Adalbert was doing and with Ezio's assistance they were able to take Adalbert into custody keeping him locked in his room while Alfred took control of the fortress.
Meanwhile while this was happening the City Watch was becoming the main remaining battleground. Janos Flynt had by now gained the support of the vast majority of the city watch when he approached his brother with the idea of doing what was right and allowing William Lovie into the city. Janos was shocked when Tavin revealed that he was going to remain loyal to James Lovie II. and would command that the defenses resist any attempt by William to enter Lucerne. The two brothers would argue back and forth for the next week and a half with Tavin unwilling to budge and Janos becoming increasingly desperate to stop what his brother was planning. As William was several days away from Lucerne Janos Flynt would approach his brother and attempt one last time to talk him out of his decision, but despite pleading with his brother and being accompanied by the entire leadership of the city watch outside of Tavin he was unmoved. Tavin following this rejection discussed how he was preparing under the orders of Tristan to not only bar entrance but to first allow William into the tunnel where they would kill him and anyone else in the tunnel at the time. Hearing this was too much for Janos of whom begged his brother to not be insane and think of the entire Kingdom but Tavin refused him and enraged that his brother had seemingly turned on him he called on men of his guard to arrest Janos for treason, and when he did this Janos realized that there wasn't going to be any convincing him, so before he was put under arrest from the guards he unsheathed his sword and slashed his brother across the neck killing him almost instantly. At the death of Tavin the guards stood down and basically switched loyalties almost immediately, and as Janos had been the second most powerful within the City Watch he was able to cover up the death of Tavin for a time while he moved on to making sure the Watch followed his commands.
While Janos had gained control of the City Watch it was Cersei Lannister that moved from the Fortress of Einhelmer with a large force and took control of the several areas in Lucerne Proper that were resistant to William and held them under her control awaiting the arrival of William. Following this Janos would go throughout the various city watch commanders and make sure everyone was with him, and when he was sure they were he gave the command for William to be allowed into the city. William would enter through the vast gates of Lucerne alongside his force, and Tristan Lovie would watch from the first gate as his brother approached a position he believed was blocked to him. Tristan ran to the city watch command and demanded to see Tavin, but found information that Tavin had been murdered and Janos was now in charge of the city watch. Realizing he had failed to resist the entry of William Lovie he fled to the Sky Towers again forced to use the Fortress of Schnabel as the Fortress of Theiner was now under the control of William loyalists outright. Reaching the Fortress of Schnabel he found that Lord Adalbert Schnabel had been removed in favor of his heir Alfred Schnabel in what was clearly a move made due to Adalbert being pro-Tristan. For a moment there was nearly a fight but not wanting to make a move without the command of William it was Alfred that allowed Tristan inside without bloodshed, and a now very isolated Tristan moved to the Cloud Tower. Arriving at the Cloud Towers he found half the garrison was gone and only the Praetorian Guard remained at full strength and they were under the command of James and thus could not be used by Tristan. Tristan at this point placed the Order of Saint Tristan under the command of Florian Brickner and commanded that Florian attempt to get them out of the city so that they would not all die in what Tristan believed was going to be his death, with this marking one of the first moments of Tristan's life where he showed care for anything other then himself.
Entering the Sky Tower
"I knew William my whole life, and I had known Tristan Lovie my whole life. Both of them were who they were, and the problem for Tristan was that he was a terrible human being. The time for honor was later, I needed to protect William."
— Barrett Ahren
The prince would continue making his way through the city of Lucerne, and as he did this William would gather thousands of supporters to his army marching like a massive horde towards the Sky Towers where the hundred strong garrison would prepare for their coming. Those loyalists for William who had went to the different strong points while Tristan was searching for them would come out in numbers as well joining him as he travelled through Lucerne Hold and towards the Fortress of Theiner. Reaching the Fortress of Theiner William discovered the first visible signs of the fighting that had spread across the city during the weeks preceding his arrival and meeting with the Theiner leadership he learned what had happened. Moving from there they made a direct line towards the Cloud Tower where Tristan Lovie gave the House Lovie forces the command to stop him at all costs but by this point no one was listening to him, and the order wasn't accepted by the head of the House Lovie Cloud Tower guards in Barrett Ahren. Tristan discovered that they too were unwilling to stop the prince from coming, and begged his father to tell him how they were going to get out of this but his father just sat at his desk waiting for William to enter the room. As they waited the two would have a final visitor in the form of Bill Thalmer of whom arrived with two stones and gave the stones to James before taking out a third and disappearing into nothing, and at this Tristan attempted to discover what they were but before he could they heard the sounds of the elevator as William arrived on the floor. When William entered the room he did so flanked by Leven, Alice, Hedrik, Franklin, Edward, Jasper, and Emmett and they found his father sitting at his desk writing on papers, while Tristan stood in the corner of the room looking very uncomfortable. William would accuse James of treason and make him very much aware that he was now the King in everything but name, to which James Lovie stood up and responded with the following.
My brother held for a moment holding the door, and as he stood their transfixed on the door handle I put my hand to his arm. Feeling my hand on his he looked back and smiled back at me before pulling the door open to reveal the contents of the room I had never been allowed to enter in my entire life. My father sat behind a massive desk, while the pathetic image of my brother Tristan leaning in the corner of the room looking like a small child. Tristan looked like the same pathetic boy he had been on the last day I had seen him, and it pained me to remember now all he had done. On a scale of evil he was up there with the worst monsters, and yet somehow when you looked at him now he looked so small.
William entered the room flanked to his left by Jasper, and Hedrik, while on his right Edward, and Emmett moved forward. I stood transfixed staring into the room until finally Franklin gently grabbed my arm and led me into the room to stand behind William. If he noticed that I had entered he didn`t make any signs of caring he just stared at William. Tristan on the other hand saw me and a twisted smirk moved across his face to the point that I moved closer to William looking for the protection that he offered me.
``My victorious son returns with his brave Lords. I rejoice at your great victory at Tree Hill son.`` My father was anything if not a brilliant manipulate of men, but even that seemed foolish. My brother`s victory left him in a position of little hope, and yet when you looked at his face he did look genuinely proud to see his son.
``The time for your lies is long past its end. I have learned the truth about what you have done father, and the time has come to pay for crimes.``
``So you come as a guardian of the realm then.`` He rose from the desk and moved in front of it to sit gently on the front. Seeing him closer he wore the armor of his father James, and even his madness you could see the royal look he carried.
``I`ve come for justice for the thousands of people you have either killed or terrorized. I come to avenge the wrongs you have done to this Kingdom. I come make you pay for everything you`ve ever done.``
``And yet your point is sullied by bringing that bastard girl.``
``You will never speak of her again do you hear me.`` William stepped forward and I grabbed at his cloak to keep him close while Jasper and the others also stepped forward to protect their prince. I actually couldn`t believe it still hurt me to hear the disdain in his voice towards me, but it still hurt my heart to be so unloved by my father. A tear fell down my cheek and I grabbed again at his cloak and he turned as if realizing I was crying. Gently wiping his hand on my face he smiled at me conveying the love he held for me, and how much he was capable of I felt safer.
``That will be your undoing my son.`` The words from my father turned William back towards him, and as pathetic as it was I moved closer behind him nearly hugging his back.
``What do you blather on about now.``
``Your love for that girl is going to be the one thing your enemies will use to their advantage. Don`t you understand that I sent her away because she was weakening you.`` He spoke as if it was the most honorable act he could have ever done, and yet the sheer scope of what he had was beyond grasping.
``Use whatever excuses you want but this ends here. Your time here is at an end murderer.`` The moment William said murderer it was as if James had been struck with the most painful strike in the history of mankind. Falling back onto his desk he looked back with a horrified look on his face.
"I've seen horrors. Horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me...It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies…" It was the sad ramblings of a man with nothing left, but as the tears flowed from my father`s face I felt a tinge of empathy for the sadness that must have driven this once great man to fall so far as to hate his children, and turn the Kingdom into a hellish place.
``The time for your talking is over. Jasper, Hedrik please take my father into custody and Tristan it is...`` Before he could finish my father broke out into hysterical crying and fell to his knees before William. Moving that close to William Jasper grabbed a hold of him almost immediately and shielded William.
"There they were in a pile, a pile of arms, and I remember, I...I...I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized like I was shot, like I was shot with a diamond, a diamond arrow right through my forehead. And I thought, 'My God, the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than me because they could stand it. These were not monsters. These were orcs — trained warriors. These orcs who fought with their hearts who have families, who have children, who are filled with lust for battle – that they had the strength, the strength to do that. If I had ten divisions of those Orcs, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill – without feeling, without passion, without judgment – without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us." After that madness filled rant Bill recoiled from Jaspers grasp and ran behind the desk.
``There`s nowhere to go...its over father.``You could tell this was breaking William as he watched the man that had been his father for his entire life fall apart. This wasn`t like it was for me or Tristan as father had never loved or cared for us in any real way, this was true pain. For his entire life his father had loved and cared for him, and now was the final moment of his time with him, and I felt his pain wash over me.
``The day may come son, when this is at an end. I see my end in the stars son, but know that while it is my blood that lays the final blow, it will not be you. You will be far far away when I finally get the judgement that you wish of me.``He stopped for a moment and looked briefly at Tristan, and then William before stopping at me. ``I`m sorry that my plan failed in the end. I`m sorry that every time I looked at you I couldn`t find any feeling but resentment. He always loved you in a way that he never did me, and I...I just...I just hated you for it. I see now that you were never my daughter in the end. I see now that you William were the only child I was ever meant to love...and I failed even that.``
``It's time father. Take him away...``As he finished James took a blue stone out of his pocket, and with another look at his children he clasped the blue stone and disappeared into nothing. Too shocked to say anything we were knocked out of our shock by Tristan stepping forward holding a green stone. Tristan stared at William laughing and as William lunged forward at him Tristan too clasped the stone, and disappeared into nothing.
Bill went on a series of rants and William rejected this logic, and prepared to arrest James and place him in jail, when all of a sudden Bill broke out into historical crying. After breaking down and crying for nearly a minute James finally begin blabbering about different things of which none appeared to make sense until finally James begin discussing the Battle of Lyons. James told William of how there were piles upon piles of bodies, and he knew that the Orcs were greater then he was. With that speech done James took out of his pocket a blue stone, and told William that the day he might bring justice against him would come at some point but it wasn't today as today he was going to leave to the safety that the stone provided. In a single moment James disappeared and teleported to the location the stone sent the user. With James gone it was just William and Tristan and the two stood transfixed at each other, and then as suddenly as a man shot with an arrow dies, Tristan went to his pocket and pulled out a green stone and then disappeared into nothing.
Coronation of William Lovie III.
Main Article : Coronation of William Lovie III.
"This is the moment I have been waiting for since your father came back from France. I always knew that you were the one to save us. This is your time now William."
— Catherine Bell
Nortburg Tournament of 5125
Look out there Alice. Did you ever imagine we would be hosting men, Dwarves, and Elves for what is quickly becoming our honeymoon.
Main Article : Nortburg Tournament of 5125
"A tournament signals that the reign of the new king will be one of great success. I know that there is much to do, and no one understands that as much as I do. But we must also look to consolidate our holdings. You have a lot of goodwill and this will only help us later your grace."
— Jacob Vorn IV.
Following the crowning of William Lovie III. as the new King of Lucerne he met with his council within the Lucernian capital and they went bout devising there next steps of action. Following some of the more extensive plans he met with the Shadow Council, and Jacob Vorn IV. of whom now stood as the King's Archbishop and the group would decide they needed to know more about the regions around them and also repair damage and they would do this by planning a tournament at Nortburg and invite foreign dignitaries to the tournament alongside the most influential of nobles of Lucerne. Also invited to the Tournament would be the Trachtenberg family of whom were the blood cousins of William Lovie incluing his uncle Frank Trachtenberg, and two cousins Michelle Trachtenberg, and Kristen Trachtenberg all of whom William wanted to repair relationships with most specifically with Michelle who he came to understand had been treated quite terribly by his father. The Trachtenberg side of the family had become distant due to several instances, most notably the imprisonment of Bill Lovie's cousin Katia Lovie the Matriarch of House Trachtenberg in the city of Berne.
True Sons of Lucerne
"William you need to understand that Berne is hell itself. Your brother is losing control more and more every day. We are attempting to control the situation but its a tinder box waiting to explode."
— Hanna Arryn
A large force under a white flag and led by Kieth Schwartz, and Alistair Bedregen arrives at the tournament ground carrying also the flag of the True Sons of Lucerne. The arrival of these True Sons would cause William himself accompanied by the Shadow Council and Charlie Swan to confront them and while at first wanting to bar them from the tournament as they were basically traitors the arrival of Hanna Arryn, and Aria Arryn would lead to William speaking privately with Hanna and Aria. Speaking to the two alongside Leven Martell, and Charlie Swan he would discover that the situation in Berne was growing completely out of control and that was why they had agreed to all the demands of Sean Lovie and had come here. Seeing that his friends were in grave danger he would agree to play along with the plans of the True Sons and allowed Danzal to take part in the tournament. Following this meeting with Hanna and Aria he would meet with Kieth Schwartz who was like an uncle to him during his childhood and the two would talk over everything that had happened with Kieth admitting to everything and for the first time giving William a true glimpse at what Bill had been going through and why he had chosen to do all the things that he had done. Another of the members of the group to come under the flag was Harrold Hardyng of whom as a dire hard member of the rebellion against Sean Lovie would sneak himself into the force with the help of Alistair and when he arrived he met with Teri-Jacob Vorn IV. and together in secret the two worked out steps for Harrold to take to help with the eventual retaking of Berne.
"Tell me about Amber."
"She is safe but misses you dearly."
"I know you may not feel the same way, but I want you to know how truly amazing it is to see you again Will." His face rose with a smile as he looked at me and it brought me back to thinking about the man who had helped teach me how to swim when I was a boy. He was a constant throughout my youth taking on my fathers role for those months when he could barely leave the tower.
"You know I cannot same the same. And you know why."
"I want you to know that I am sorry. I want you to know that he is sorry."
"Do not speak of him here or this conversation will end."
"That hatred that you feel. That's what drove him William."
"I know my friends would never let me do the things you let him do."
"Your friends love you. As your fathers love him."
"Love doesn't mean you let those you love go mad with no attempt to stop them."
"You look at it now and believe that if you started talking about killing your own daughter that what Jasper would stop you. Leven would stop you."
"They would. As you fucking should have!" I knew I was being too loud. The tournament was not even close to starting so the numbers here were low, but this was all so fresh. I could not be seen as being my father.
"They would do as we did. They would speak to you like I spoke to your father. I told him of the madness of what he was thinking. I told him that he had lost himself in that damn book. I did everything your friends would do. The only further step I could have taken was the one thing I could not do."
"They would."
"Look me in the eyes William and tell me that you truly believe that one of those people hovering outside this tent would ever raise a sword against you."
Following the conversation between Kieth, and William Kieth would leave the tournament as he was a soldier of Bill Lovie and not Sean Lovie and did not care if the plan of Sean succeded or not, and thus he would return to Orleans where he would report to Bill Lovie about the conversation that he and William had. With the departure of Sean Lovie the remaining elements of the True Sons of Lucerne were mainly William loyalists and in this way he would meet again with Hanna but this time she introduced them to House Krinner and House Dorin of whom led by Harrold Krinner, Trailen Dorin and accompanied by prominent heirs in Danzal Krinner, and Trailen Dorin II. they would be shown to be loyalists who were more then ready to assist when the time came to destroy the forces of Sean Lovie.
The Riverlands
Meeting the Elves
Following the Second Battle of Minus Ithil the Elves of High Forest would come to understand that the alliance between Gondor, Lucerne, and High Forest was something that they should work towards and as they followed the Lucernians into the relief of Tree Hill they would also send a large force to Nortburg to celebrate at the tournament. Alongside sending a force led by Taflarion Stormrage, and his wife Helian Stormrage, and their daughter Tonlia Stormrage, alongside her husband Cadwyr Winterdew the High Forest government back in the capital would also make several large movements for advancing the alliance itself when Malfurion Stormrage would contact the forces of the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas, and the Atmer Empire and told the two forces that they needed to send forces to the tournament as the new king of Lucerne was someone who truly was willing to try and change things for the better. The Sindar Elven Kingdom of Quel'Thalas sends representatives in the form of Alleria Windrunner, and Marinda Oakwhisper to the tournament as well with the purpose of arranging a stronger relationship with the Kingdom of Lucerne's new King. The Atmer Empire would send members of the Atmer Elven great house in the form of the House of Finwe to the tournament and these Elves used Magi portals to enter the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas and then travelled into Lucerne alongside the force led by Alleria. These Atmer Elves would be the first of the High Elves to enter the Kingdom of Lucerne in an almost uncountable time and led by Elendil Finwe III., his daughter Alais Finwe, and sons Talais Finwe, and Anar Finwe IV. of whom have come to discuss an alliance with William and Lucerne. The Elves appear very honorable about their intentions and the talks go well, with Hedrik Clegane III. leading the negotiations with the High Elves, and despite eventually leaving it would be so successful that William would make his intentions known to them by inviting the Elves to found a small settlement in Frosthelm. The Elves like the idea and Elendil sends his sons back to Ulthuan to make the arrangements while he will accompany William for the next while.
End of a Betrothal
"He's a monster."
— Sansa Starke
The Starke's had come on mass to the Tournament of Nortburg and during this time it was believed that Sansa Starke, and Joffrey Lannister would get a lot of time together to get to know eachother, and while this was true with Joffrey, and Sansa going on a walk together and having a good time, this would alter dramatically later that night.
The Manderlys
As the tournament is only a few days from starting the final invitees arrive in the form of the Manderlys of whoom William meets with several representatives of the Manderlys who control the White Knife and during this conversation he and his father in law Charlie Swan are able to arrange a marriage between Winfred Manderly, and Miley Black. In this arrangement he and Charlie Swan decide that they will send Lucas Scott of whom is deemed by many to be the hero of the Siege of Tree Hill and thus someone they want to remain close too, but also William has become obsessed with Brooke Scott and thinks on her constantly believing that this will give him a chance to see her again.
Arrival of Brooke Scott
"Our being together was not a mistake William. Our being together has led us to this moment. No matter what way you look at this our child will be amazing. Our love guarantees that."
— Brooke Scott
Following the end of the tournament William and the group prepare to return to the capital where they will plan out the reconquest of Berne, but this changes with the arrival of Brooke Scott of whom breaks down crying in front of him as he stands with Leven, and Jasper and William quickly takes her away from the two into a back room where before he is able to say anything she reveals her stomach showing she is nearly four months pregnant from the time they last saw each other. Realizing in that moment she appears more pregnant then Bella he ponders the consequences of this but she doesn't demand anything just wishes him to help her with her grandfathers funeral.
The Start of the Faraday Conflict
My brother is dead. I demand justice from the royal family.
Death of Joseph Faraday
Main Article : Death of Joseph Faraday
"It was the most painful death I've ever seen. This man was clearly lost in his own sadness to such an extent that only death could release him. I wish someone could have saved him. I wish I could have saved him."
— Emma Bell
It was around the time that Freddie Highmore and Emma Bell were beginning their full fledged secret relationship that Joseph Faraday and his own personal level of depression would cause a massive problem that would eventually spread into a household rivalry. Joseph Faraday had been betrothed to Emma Bell for a time but this had ended after Emma had become smitten with Fredrik Highmore and had convinced her mother to end the betrothal. Unable to tell the Faradays the real reason they had offered their younger daughter Hanah Bell of whom while younger was still a prime match, and for Charles Faraday this was seen as a fair trade, but in the case of Joseph Faraday this was a terrible insult. By this point they had begun to discuss the idea of telling Emma's beloved cousin William of whom was also Freddie's friend, but at that point had not fully worked up the courage to say anything yet, and it was under these pretents that they went to a tavern in Lucerne proper to be alone together. The two were having a great time until Freddie went to the tender to ask for a refill of the drink that Emma had come to enjoy and when he did the situation would drive out of control. When he left Joseph Faraday would use this moment of departure to attempt to seduce Emma Bell of whom he had been watching for some time from across the tavern. Where once his natural looks had allowed him to get any manner of girl that he wanted, as his reputation had spread so to as a result had the number of women interested begun to dwindle. As he had become used to resistance he had also become used to forcing his way on girls and using his noble birth, and money to bribe off any trouble after the case, and thus when Emma told him she was with Freddie, and that she was noble born he saw this as the same rejection and he started to get more forceful in their meeting. When Freddie came back to the table and found the situation he attempted to remain calm and simply advise Joseph who was much older then him to back away. This calm approach did not go over well and Joseph reacted with laughter before punching him in the face knocking Freddie momentarily down, but he quickly got up and following this the two would become involved in a scuffle of which Joseph would lose causing him to request a duel with Freddie Highmore.
"Your Grace I only saw the end of the fight, but what I saw was clear. Lord Faraday attacked Lord Highmore, and despite Lord Highmore disarming him and attempting to end the fight...despite these attempts Lord Faraday would attempt to kill your cousin my your grace. Only Lord Highmore moving quickly saved Lady Bell's life."
By this point Paulo Snow entered the tavern after finally catching up with Joseph, and by this point he found Joseph tauning young Freddie into a duel, and because of the large crowd Freddie was forced to go into the duel even though he knew that Joseph wouldn't stand a chance. Joseph Faraday would taunt him into the street and then took out a sword threatening Emma of which caused Freddie to sadly take out his own sword, and the two fought although with Joseph nearly falling over drunk it wasn't much of a fight as Freddie knocked his sword aside and shouted for him to surrender. Joseph refused and charge Emma with a dagger forcing Freddie to stab him through the back to stop him, and killing him nearly instantly. Paulo took out his sword and tried to attack Freddie of whom he was able to fight breifly before guards from the nearbye House Elbertson led by (Ser) Underian of House Elbertson would step in and stop Paolo of whom watched screaming as Freddie left the scene carrying the crying Emma Bell.
Whatever secret that Freddie and Emma had hoped to hide ended the moment that he went on trial.
Following this Emma would wake up the following morning surrounded Alice Lovie, and her aunt Catherine Lovie of whom let her cry and held her before finally telling her that a trial had been demanded by the Faraday's over the death of Joseph Faraday. At that point she begged to know where Freddie was and they said he had been taken and placed in the Lucernian dungeon awaiting his trial, but when she became irate that he was in jail for basically defending her they revealed this had been decided only after he had returned to the House Highmore estate and the Faraday's had attempted to kill him in the courtyard leading to Desmond Faraday also being imprisoned awaiting trial. Dressing quickly she accompanied Alice into the courtyard where they were met by some twenty House Lovie guards including Giblert Fouline, and James Junnsworth of whom escorted the group to the King's Keep where Bella Swan was preparing the court for the arrival of the group. With King William in the Port of Stormwind celebrating the foundation of that city while this was happening it did fall to the Councillors of Lucerne, and the Queen to determine the court, and under these circumstances Bella would prepare ahead of the time and had recalled many of the most influential in the Lucerne Court. The trial would have five judges as was the way in Lucernian courts in the form of Cersei Lannister, Bella Lovie, Brandon Starke, Liam Greymane, and Mace Tyrell of whom would listen to the words of the plaintiffs first in the form of Desmond Faraday who had been released from jail alongside Freddie. Weaving a tale of lies he argued that Freddie had killed Joseph in blind rage using Magi and trickery. The Faraday's brought forward several men who were not present at the fight of whom told the court that Freddie was a well known pedophile and had also been found killing children in Nortburg years before, and while Brandon Starke on the council would openly laugh at the truthfulness of these stories, it wasn't until the defense led by Lysa Highmore called as their witness Underian of House Elbertson that the case was completely ended. Underian as a witness and a knight testified that he saw Freddie attempt to stop the fight and even after defeating Joseph attempted to resist hurting him, but Joseph had brought death upon himself when he tried to kill Emma Bell of whom took the stand next and as a princess of Lucerne her words would end the trial when she agreed with Freddie, and Underian.
"This case was a farce, and you Lord Desmond Faraday should be embarrassed that you wasted our time in this manner."
— Mace Tyrell II.
Following Emma Bell's words the judges would briefly speak together before Brandon Starke spoke giving the words of the judges in the form of stating they had come to terms with the fact that Freddie Highmore was innocent of murder, and then proceeded to verbally attack Desmond Faraday and several of the Faraday retainers who had wasted their time with this hearing. Desmond would at first remain silent but then responded with great anger shouting and trying to get to Freddie of whom stood stoically as the House Lovie guards took Desmond away where he would spend the day and night in the Lucerne Dungeon. While Desmond was imprison again Bella Lovie, and Alice Lovie would take up court at the Keep and would summon Charles Faraday of whom they would have a long conversation with about the events of the day. Charles made it very clear that he was demanding consequences against House Highmore and that unless there were consequences there was going to be reprisals against House Highmore. Once Desmond was released his father was told by James Junnsworth that until William Lovie III. returned and he was on his way that nothing more would be done in the matter, and grudgingly Desmond agreed as he believed that the King would punish Freddie. Following the departure of Charles Faraday she would meet with Cersei Lannister and the two have a nice conversation before Cersei unknowingly slips that Lanna Lannister had traveled to the Port of Stormwind and realizing that Jasper is a liar about not seeing Lanna anymore she says a quick goodbye to Cersei and goes to find Dylan Steinmare. Finding him talking to Emmett she has him excuse himself and following Alice the two return to the Cloud Tower where without any real words of what she is thinking she seduces Dylan and the two sleep together. Following this the two discuss there futures and Alice all but pleads with Dylan to tell her to not marry Jasper, but despite proclaiming his love for Alice he knows he cannot divorce Laera Steinmare who he loves as well, and she must marry Jasper Hale for her brother, and although she has come to hate Jasper she knows this is the case. It is following this decision by Dylan that an angry Alice would begin the plot to have Dylan removed from Lucerne and sent back to Castle Steinmare as she had lost faith in him.
Return of the King
Despite the trial of House Faraday's lasting effects the truly major develpment of the return of William Lovie III. was that Alice was finally able to convinse him to end things with Brooke Scott which would put into place a series of increasingly dangeorus events.
"This is a kingdom of laws Lord Faraday. The High Court of Lucerne has put forward a unanimous decision on the matter. What would you have me do?"
Following the court decision the situation remains in a holding pattern as the Faradays await the return of the king of whom they strongly believe will reverse the decision and they will get their vengeance. When William Lovie III. arrives back at Lucerne following the debacle that was the death of Joseph Faraday and trial of Freddie Highmore, and upon his arrival he is met at the gates by Alice, and Bella of whom accompany him back to the Cloud Tower where upon their arrival they tell him about the trial and he is quite shocked but is proud of his wife, and sister for their handling of the event but despite agreeing with their decision he is forced to meet with Desmond, and Charles Faraday of whom ask for punishment against Freddie Highmore. Tired from his trip he tells them that the law is concrete and there is no changing the decision, and unknown to him the Faradays take this as meaning that he is saying they must get justice themselves and while disappointed they see this as an opportunity to get their own revenge on House Highmore. Following his conversation with Desmond, and Charles he returns to the Cloud Towers and has a long conversation with Alice, but despite wanting to and Alice pressuring him to reveal the truth of Brooke he refuses to and the two siblings say goodnight and William goes to his room with Bella where he sleeps with her. Waking up after sleeping with Bella he is overcome with sadness over being apart from Brooke, and despite having Bella's arms around him he feels no better, and leaving his bed with Bella he goes to Alice's room where still overcome with emotions over being apart from Brook he finally reveals the entire truth to Alice that he is in love with Brooke. The two siblings argue for some time as William reveals the true scope of the relationship, and only after this does Alice truly come to understand that William's feelings are more then just lust. Revealing the scope of the relationship leads Alice to go through the endless list of potential problems it creates, and emotionally exhausted and unwilling to let his sister be mad at him he agrees to Alice's demand that he break things off with Brooke.
Removing Dylan Steinmare
"I see now that I am the other woman. I allowed myself to become the kind of girl who sleeps with a married man. I cannot have him here one more minute."
With Alice stressed about everything that was going on between William, and Brooke she would allow her anger towards Jasper to grow, but without any way to resolve that her anger turned on Dylan Steinmare. Dylan had failed to be the escape from Jasper that she had wanted him to be and thus in her anger she begin a plot to have him removed from the capital despite his close relationship with William. Another growing part of his removal was due to the relationship that Alice begin to have with Laera Steinmare, who Alice begin to become quite close friends with. This friendship made Alice feel worse becasue she had betrayed Laera and slept with Dylan. With all of this in mind Alice would send a letter to Fenrick Steinmare of whom in the letter she asked to send for Dylan and then begin arranging for the why when she had Dylan named to the Order of the Red Dragon and made a general in the order with a plan of founding the 7th Waffen Steinmare Division. As a part of this move it was Alice that conspired with Edward Cullen in order to block what Alice knew would be the eventual attempt by Dylan to have William step in and stop Dylan's removal, and with Dylan being openly hostile to Edward it took little convincing to gain the assistance of Edward. As Alice plans the removal of Dylan she decides to bring Edward into the plot as she knows the two are at eachothers throats and also wants to make Edward loyal to her and not fall into loyalty of anyone else leading her to summon Edward to speak with her at the Cloud Towers. Edward arrives that night at her summons and the two have dinner in what is an all but empty cloud towers and Alice plays on the lonliness of Edward to gain his assistance in the plot against Dylan making it out to seem to Edward that it is more Dylan than Jasper that is responsible for Edward's isolation. When Dylan was told of this he attempted to resist this assignment seeing it as little more then exile, but his attempts to until William returned to the capital were opposed by Edward Cullen of whom confronted Dylan. During this conversation it was the two long time rivals that finally bared their true anger with Edward revealing the extent of the plot against Dylan and the invovlment of Alice which was a shock to Dylan. The moment that Alice's involvement was discovered it was Dylan who understood that he was without real options and accepted that he would be going to Castle Steinmare and also that he had possibly ruined things with Alice of whom he had true feelings for.
Battle of Berne
Main Article : Battle of Berne
The Battle of Berne
This is where this divide ends. After we take this city there is nothing stopping the Kingdom of Lucerne from becoming exactly what we always dreamed it would be.
"The fact that Sean was able to escape was a black eye on the Kingdom of Lucerne, and no matter what anyone said as long as he lived there would be no improvement for us. He had to die or else we would be nothing more then a joke to the rest of Europe."
With the valley clear of Bill, and Sean Lovie, William went about attempting to gain control by eliminating those that were loyal to his father, but most of all he declared war on his father's supporters and very soon after doing this he came to understand that Sean Lovie had taken control of the city of Berne which he didn't even know existed. Under Alistair Bedregen the loyalists loyal to William were sending word to William outside Berne for the first bit of the control by Sean and thus for this early time they knew many of those loyal to Sean or at least to afraid to resist Sean. With this knowledge William rallied the Order of the Red Dragon, alongside a large force of House Lovie and sent this large force to besiege Berne. When his forces arrived there he they saw that Berne was a death trap, and that while they could feasibly attack the city the casualties would be horrendous and on top of that they might not even succeed. Knowing this William ordered them to dig in, and make sure no assistance came from land, and they were forced to live off the small parcel of land within Berne, and to burn through their internal supplies. With the front door shut for the moment William went about his plan to take control of Berne which would revolve around building a tunnel from Lucerne into the rear of Berne and fighting inside from that direction, while also hoping to starve out the defenders so that they would surrender. As William devised his plan where they would complete the underway in its route to Berne and thus they would break in behind the defenses and take the city from within, the Order of the Red Dragon begin having difficulties holding the main entrance as the Orcs in the region were a constant problem. Knowing they needed to be somewhat quick with their siege they were in trouble as unfortunately the tunneling behind Berne would take some time, and so he needed to block the front of Berne without having his army sitting there for the four years the underway would take to complete.
"The Kingdom of Quel'Thalas could either close the gap that existed, or leave it open. It all depended on the whims of Elves, and they had never showed themselves to be willing to take chances in order to help others so I wasn't exactly betting on their assistance."
In order to do this William sent emissaries from the Order of the Green Dragon to meet with the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas whose forest extended close to the boundaries of Berne and thus would be able to assist in blocking them in if they so chose to do. The Order of the Green Dragon was sent and led by Demi Hill of whom was accompanied by Franklin Brent and his wife Karyl Reyne who led a force of some six hundred House Brent forces alongside three hundred men led by Dexter Hill to act as guards for the mission. When his emissaries arrived they were greeted by Legolas, and Alleria Windrunner of whom were accompanied by nearly three hundred Sindar Elves, and they would greet them with friendship and take them to Darnassus. Traveling through the woods of Quel'Thalas its Franklin, Karyl, and Demi that discuss the current situation in the area and discover that the Quel'Thalasian Elves are not the only major Elven power in the area as Alleria tells them about Lothlorian. While being there to make an alliance with Quel'Thalas its Demi Hill and Franklin that both make mental notes to discuss also furthering the Lucernian presence in the area by also forming a relationship with the Kingdom of Lothlorian. In Darnassus they would be treated to a beautiful feast and Alleria took Franklin and his wife around the capital before they would have the meeting later that night. Seeing the size and beauty of Darnassus, and the kindness of the Windrunner siblings Franklin would have a very high opinion of the Sindar Elves, and he took this opinion into the meeting that night. At the meeting they found that Quel'Thalas was willing to do this in return for an alliance with them which Demi Hill was quick to give them, as William was more then willing to make an alliance with the Elves. Not just happy with an alliance the it was Alleria Windrunner that would offer Franklin and the members of the Lucernian entourage a chance to visit the Dor'Danil Barrow Den where they would be able to enter the Emarald Dream if they so choose.
"Enter the Emerald Dream, and discover who you really are."
— Tular Windswift
After discussing what would happen there its the groups decision that they will all accept this gift except for Demi Hill, and outside of Demi they are then taken by Clintar Dreamwalker of whom is the Arch Druid of Quel'Thalas, and Saelar Dewwalker of whom is the Guardian of the Claw and leader of the Dor'danil Barrow, to the Dor'Danil Barrow Dens which are located on the edge of Darnassus. While the group spends several days in the Barrow Dens a letter arrives from William stating that a revolt has broken out in Hillsbrad and since they are closer Franklin is tasked to travel there with all speed and end the revolt. The Quel'Thallasians reveal that they can portal Franklin and a small group to near Hillsbrad as there is a forest there with a way stone and Demi Hill agrees that once he wakes from the Emerald Dream he will go there through the portal and gives the letter to Alleria who will give it to Franklin. Following the agreement its Legalos that would lead a force of some two thousand fighters to a forward forest that they would fortify and from there they would be able to adequately block the Orcs from being able to interfere in any real way. So with the front door closed his forces returned to Lucerne while a small contingent remained along with a larger force of the Elves of Quel'Thalas. Franklin Brent and his group wake from the Emerald Dream and with Alavanna holding a visablly shaken Franklin of whom is in tears as he wakes from the Emerald Dream, and taking him by the arm she leads him to a meeting room where Clintar, and Nylindia wait inside. The group sits together and as Franklin slowly recovers from waking from the Emerald Dream they discuss that Tular, and Alavanna will be joining him as he travels not back to Berne, but instead travels through a portal formed for them in Darnassus taking them to a small forest east of Hillsbrad where Franklin is told William Lovie III. has sent him a letter which after reading Franklin nods and asks for them to take him to the portal. As Demi Hill was leaving to return to Berne it's Alleria Windrunner that said that she would be joining them with some two hundred heavily trained and equipped Sentinels at the main Lucerne camp, and this was once again quickly accepted by Demi Hill.
Meeting Ezio Ederiz
See Also : Ezio Ederiz
"There were two option when it came to Ezio Ederiz. Option one was that he was a trap. Sean had sent him to make us believe him and we would be caught in a trap of his making. Option two was that he was telling the truth. If this was correct then we couldn't just ignore him, but the real question was how would we ever know until it was too late to turn back."
As things were happening outside the city and making the siege move positively inside the city there was chaos as Sean Lovie lost his mind and was the source of madness and chaos for the citizens. Ezio after saving the life of Thomas Lovie and watching Allison Arryn die would decide to move aggressively to allow William into the city, and thus would make his way to the western tower and prepare to send a message to the Lucernians sieging the city. Ezio enclosed in the message the entirety that he knew about the defenses of Berne, and a message that the city was ready to be joined with William's forces. He had hoped that if he gave as much information that William would still attack even if he didn't believe Ezio, but he also understood the distinct possiblity that William wouldn't believe him and would just continue to siege the city. Ezio waited at the tower for some time alongside the rebels that he had gained control of, and waited patiently for a response. He got his anwser when a Lucernian messenger approached the tower, and sent a letter up to Ezio. In the letter William told Ezio that he needed to come down from the tower so that they could discuss this, and that no harm would come to him if he did this. For all Ezio knew William had become his fathers son since the last time he had seen him, and thus suffering from the same madness as his brother, but he knew he had to do something so he trusted the devil he didn't know over the mad man that he did. Ezio gave command of the tower over to his top man in the form of Martin Arryn of whom had snuck his way into the tower and convinsed the men to join the rebellion.
"I felt fear being pulled alongside those golden armored men. This whole thing just reminded me why I didn't get personally involved in these political matters. As I regretted my decision to put myself in this kind of danger I remembered the brave look in Amber's eyes as she surrendered herself to save her child. If she could have that kind of strength then I could, and would do everything in my power to save her."
— Ezio Ederiz
When Ezio got to the bottom of the tower he was grabbed by some five men all clad in golden armor, and these men escorted him to the Lucernians camp. One of the men identified himself as James Junnsworth and told Ezio that if he planned to harm the king he would be doing it over all of their bodies. When he arrived at the camp he immediatly knew which one William was when he saw the golden haired boy walking up to him in his magnificant armor. Restrained by the men around him he saw how little he was trusted by the arranged forces, but he wasn't bitter as he could understand their fear. He spoke as best he could and told William of what was happening inside the fortress, and that every day they delayed the citizens inside were being killed in ever increasing numbers. As the conversation continued Ezio accompanied William inside his tent with Jasper, Leven, Marcel Lovie II., and Draco Highmore and then spoke openly of the murder of Allison, the rapes, and for Andrew the most horrifying news that Amber Heard was captured and now held in a cage beside Sean's throne. Ezio would at this point tell William about much of the things he had done for his father, and would make William understand that he had done all he could to help him after he had learned how brilliant and how much potential William had. Leven would suggest that during their initial attempts to clear the gatehouse that much of what Ezio suggested he did made sense as to why they found it so easy in certain places to get what they wanted.
Infiltrating the Tower
First Tower of Berne Peak
"For whatever it was worth I believed him. I looked in his eyes and it told me that he was being truthful. In this world you really have to trust your gut, and my gut was telling me to go all in on this."
With Ezio done telling him what was happening William told him he needed some time to think and that while he trusted him, he needed to plan on the best way forward. Ezio told him that he had control of the first tower, and thus he could get some of William's men inside that tower if that would make him feel better about the whole thing. William liked this plan, and it was then that he asked whether or not Hanna Arryn, and her sister Aria were safe inside the city, and Ezio told him that House Arryn was now in hiding in the city outside of Byron Arryn who was being forced to sit and watch Allison's body be violated by Sean Lovie. Andrew was thankful that Hanna was fine, and because of this he told Ezio that he would have his anwser in an hour. With that William called in his commanders and they discussed their options about how to move forward. After talking for some time it became clear that they needed to gather more troops, and especially Andrew wanted to have some of his up and coming leadership involved so that they would feel important to him. He planned to travel to Forks where he would meet with these leaders and make them aware of their involvement and then they would launch the attack. He got Ezio back in the tent, and he told him that he needed to allow his men to take control of the first tower, and that this would amount to his test of loyalty. Ezio agreed without hesitation and left with Jasper, and Leven to make the arrangements of which Franklin Brent would volunteer to command the first forces into the tower. Emmett was left in command of the siege while William was gone alongside the commanders, and this would be the situation that was left as William left for Forks. Franklin Brent would lead a force of men alongside his friend Dexter Hill, and several others of whom they would enter the first tower using massive ropes hung down by the loyalist Arryn rebels within the tower.
Meeting in Forks
"It took days to travel to Forks, and days to travel back to Berne, and thus it's hard for me not to wonder what might have been had we of just moved against the fortress with just House Lovie's forces. Atleast I got to see Bella, and it was in the comfort that she offered me that I knew exactly why she was the one for me."
After talking to Ezio and having silently infiltrated the first tower with his help William accepted that this was the only plan that had any quick hope of success, and he now felt incredibly rushed due to the threat to the people inside the city of which there were many that he cared for on a deep level. In order to do this he needed the most elite force he could get, so he begin calling his banner houses in, as well as commanding several houses travel to Forks to meet him. All the houses that had been called clearly had to send representatives but when they arrived this mission clearly could be seen as a silent attack that didn't require huge numbers. House Crane, House Swan, House Scarlet, and House Lovie were the houses that would be leading the attack along with leadership from many other houses in Lucerne. Alongside this House Skane, and House Starke were sending numbers led by Robb Starke, and Torgon Skane of whom would join the other forces in entering through the main courtyard once the towers had fallen, or in the worst case even if they didn't fall. As William waited for Bella to arrive so that he could see her, he spent many hours talking with the leadership of the houses that were
going to be involved of which included Orival Crane of whom he wanted to one day be a very important figure in the Kingdom of Lucerne, and he made this very clear to Orival as they talked. The Arrival of the reinforcements also brought news that House Jestife had started a revolt taking control of Brill, alongside a spreading rebellion elsewhere which were being handled by loyalists in House Clegane, and House Tyrell. In his talk with Orival Crane he and Hedrik discussed how William was trusting heavily in this traitor of the True Sons of Lucerne, and also discussed how his older lover Amber Heard had been captured likely as a last minute threat to William in order to make him turn back. It was late when Bella arrived in Forks, accompanied by Freddie Highmore, and Wilhem Martell - alongside a large force of House Martell, and House Shephard of whom were also sending forces to join the attack - and when they did he said his quick hellos to Freddie and Wilhem before he and Bella made their way to stay in room in the House Swan estate of which he was technically a member of House Swan. After being together romantically he talked openly about how scared he was of seeing Sean there, and also he feared that he was going to be made to make a choice in that final room between killing Sean and keeping his old friend Amber alive. Bella already knew of the old relationship between the two, as Alice had told her of this long ago, and because of this she understood that he didn't simply care for this girl, but he in fact loved her. Bella tried to make him feel better about it, but there really wasn't much you could say to that horrible of a situation so she just held him while he went through it all with her. That night he left Bella who was sleeping and went outside to speak with Leven of whom brought him a response letter from Brooke of whom had quickly sent a letter after William's had reached her. William would read the letter with Leven and Brooke sent her emotional support and told him how much she loved him, of which Leven at that moment didn't believe but didn't want to upset William.
Discovery of Betrayal
"I saw you once Your Grace. It was at the Battle of Minus Ithil. You were slashing and stabbing at the monsters and for a moment I stopped. Just stopped and watched you. All the fighting surrounding me and there I was watching you move like a god. I knew then that you were my king."
— Edric Nighting
It was at this point that Edric Nighting would arrive in Forks where he had made the decision to turn against his family and reveal the plans of his family. Edric Nighting had several weeks before this begin hearing talk from his father and older brother that they planned to rise against House Scott and murder the Scotts in the city before taking control of Tree Hill itself. He would watch his brother in secret as his brother James Nighting II. followed Brooke Scott watching her movements, and watching her himself he discovered that she was the mistress of William Lovie III. through listening in on a conversation between Brooke and Haley Scott. Learning of this relationship between William and Brooke the loyal Edric Nighting would depart Tree Hill by horse with his friend Hanzal Grightling heading towards Forks where they had heard William Lovie III. was meeting with his wife and the leadership of Forks. Arriving at Forks the two would quickly gain an audience with the king of whom was surrounded at the time by Charlie Swan, Leven Martell, and Bella Swan, and seeing how influential the group was Edric would immediately tell the king what he knew which horrified the group of whom had already rallied their forces and was planning to move out the next day to Berne. Realizing the main forces still needed to go to Berne he would command Jasper Hale to lead a secondary force to Tree Hill in order to defend the Scott's once the Nighting's moved against them, and after discussing it was decided that Jasper would move south through the province of Rosten where he would summon a force from that province's lord in House Elric alongside Northern Tree Hill's lordn in House Guntbold and then lead them southward to Tree Hill.
"Tell me Jasper how it is fair that your love for him is more valuable then my own. He doesn't love you any more then he loves me. So tell me the truth why you must always stand by his side?"
Following the breaking up of the meeting Jasper, Leven, and Bella would follow William back to his tent where Jasper would convince William to take him with him to Berne and instead send Leven to Tree Hill. Making up excuses about why she needed to go instead of him Leven was left shocked by what Jasper did and thus limply accepted this change of plans, and with a kiss to her forward she and William would say goodnight and following this Jasper and Leven left the tent. Leaving the tent Leven would follow Jasper trying to get him to explain himself, but he refused until she became quite agitated leading to an argument between the long time friends. Fighting loudly forced Jasper to take the argument into his tent where he would reveal that he did not trust her abilities to protect William considering how in love with him she was, and following this she would punch him in the face before returning to her own tent. The next day William, Jasper and the larger force from Forks would leave the city leaving Leven and a few hundred men at arms and knights to move south towards Castle Elric where she would go to defend the mistress of her beloved.
Sneaking Inside
"This was the moment thousands had been waiting for. The moment my brother's madness would finally come to an end."
When William Lovie arrived back at Berne flanked by the forces of House Swan, Scarlet, Crane, Starke, Martell, Skane, and many of their vassals he entered the command tent and prepared alongside his commanders the method by which they would do this. Ezio told them that the only real way into the valley of Berne was to take control of the towers defending the passes, and this was possible since they controlled the first tower. From the first tower they would attack the second tower, and then the third, and fourth control towers which would allow them to bring the entire army into the Valley where the defenders would be unprepared for their entry. Once this was achieved they must take control of the fifth tower which was inside the City of Berne itself and was connected through a long tunnel which could be locked from the inside meaning if they failed to take it before they were noticed it would be shut and they would have to attack the main walls.
With this plan in place William Lovie would send the forces of House Scarlet led by Darion, and Saiden Scarlet to enter the First Tower where they would push their full forces and they alone would be responsible for working alongside the rebels in order to take control of the towers. They would be assisted by the Order of the Golden Dragon of whom was forced to follow William Lovie of whom was going to assist here alongside Edward Cullen and several members of the Order of the Blue Dragon, as well Orival Crane would convince William to let him join the forces attacking the towers. Entering the tower and joining the Arryn loyalists, and Franklin Brent and his forces that had initially taken control of the tower from the rebels and had held it while the main forces gathered. At that final moment Robb, and Jon Starke joined the assault group and this would force William to also take Wilheim alongside with him as Wilheim now wouldn't take no for an answer.
"The Towers all held so many moments where everything could have gone terribly wrong. It was by the shere luck of the dragon that we were able to sucede as easily as we did."
With the main force now preparing to enter the first pass into Berne they only needed to see the response from the second tower to know when to move in, and they would get that call the first night as they would be signaled by a flag hanging from the wall set out by the tower forces. The Tower forces would wait until night, and that night as they moved forward the few guards meant to make sure such infiltration of the towers were not possible were rebels and thus they allowed the tower forces to infiltrate the towers, and within they found the mercenary forces of Sean Lovie in the form of the Stormblown. The fight for the tower was swift as with most of their forces asleep the few on sentry duty found themselves being attacked by a huge number of troops flooding into the tower. As the Stormblown moved to raise the alarm they found the alarm room locked, and when they finally broke inside they found inside several rebels of whom killed the Stormblown that tried to enter the room. With the tower taken Orival Crane would raise the flag thus giving the main force the safe call to enter the first pass. Torgon Skane alongside the other commanders would move their forces alongside the Elves and reached the very edge of the first pass as the attack move forward, and during this they also moved forward with the siege machines that everyone hoped they would have no need of using. At the third tower they would basically be allowed in as the rebels had taken complete control over this tower, and the few members of the Stormblown that were present inside the tower were barely able to get out of their beds before they were killed by the vengeful rebels and the incoming Lucernians.
"I watched each flag go up and each time a piece of me felt better as I knew my king was safe for yet another moment. It was his bravery that made people love him, but in these moments his braveary was horrifying for those of us who were forced to watch from afar."
— Joshua Jackson
The fourth tower was the true test of the attack as while it was held by the forces of House Krinner who was a member of the rebellion the tower held the largest contingent of the Stormblown outside of the city itself. Robb Starke, and Wilheim Martell alongside Robb Starke would lead a contingent of forces east of the tower to cut off any kind of relief once the main attack went forward, and with that the main assault could begin on the fourth tower. As the Lucernians made their way into the tunnels approaching the fourth tower they were spotted by a Stormblown soldier of whom alerted the rest of the force to a betrayal, and with this becoming clear the forces of House Krinner would assemble under the command of Danzal, and Benjamin Krinner of whom defended the tunnel route heading towards the fifth tower so that none of the Stormblown could warn their comrades, and inside the tower House Krinner under the command of Oskar Kinner the defenders would block the gate into the alarm room thus preventing for a time the forces of the Stormblown from gaining entry to the alarm. A fierce battle would commense between the defenders in House Krinner and the Stormblown. As the forces of Lucerne attempted to enter the fight they were forced to attack through defended barriers quickly set up by the forces of the Stormblown in order to resist the attackers. During the fighting here Darion Scarlet would become famous for defeating the Stormblown second in command in single combat after they entered the last room of the tower and it was held by the Stormblown second in command. With his death the rest of the Stormblown slowly surrendered, and with that the flag was raised and the main army understood that the way into the valley was clear.
The Final Tower
"The Sound of that horn going off could have meant the massacre of our entire force. It could have meant the deaths of thousands but the bravery of the three Arryn brothers. They could have stayed hidden and not risked death but instead they did what was right and resisted a tyrant and they saved thousands. History may say that I won that day but I know the truth of who was responsible for our victory."
As the main army moved into the valley silently in the darkness of the night the tower forces moved into the tunnels approaching the fifth and final tower. Ezio had told them that they had to get to the other end without being stopped or else the way would be blocked and there would be no way in except a truly viscous fight for the valley. As they entered the tunnel and were only two minutes away everyone including the main force heard a massive horn go off, and the rebels told William that someone had set off one of the alarms of the towers. With this all sense of stealth went out the window and the tower force charged into the tunnel in the hopes of reaching the gate controls before it was shut. As they ran down the tunnel they watched as the massive portcullis gate was slowly shutting, and then suddenly as they were getting closer it slowed and then stopped and they could hear the cries of battle at the other side, and as they reached it they entered a brutal battle between members of House Arryn and the Stormblown who were trying to shut the gate. With the entry of the Lucernians the battle went away from them, but the Stormblown survivors were able to retreat in good form and make their way towards the Berne Keep where they would blow the alarm horn again and the Stormblown throughout Berne would retreat to the keep alongside those still loyal to Sean Lovie although that number was very slight now that House Arryn was in full rebellion. With the stormblown in full retreat the defenders that were on the wall moved completely into the rebellion allowing the main force to enter through the front gate, as the rebels opened the gate letting them inside. The rebels, and the tower forces would move throughout the city, and kill or capture anyone still flying the colors of the Stormblown and as well as this making sure that everyone knew that the city was Lucernian again and they had nothing to fear.
Battle of Krinner
Main Article : Battle of Krinner
"As the Stormblown mercenaries, and the other True Sons were pushed back more and more the call from Sean was not for them to pull completely back, but instead it was for them to attack the estate of House Krinner where much of the women and children alongside nearly all of the nobility of the city had fled too. Thousands fleeing into the estate were never under the belief that they would be under threat, but that was proven wrong the moment the forces appeared near the walls."
— Paul Arryn
As the Lucerne forces took the final tower before the wall there were some who suspected something was wrong, but all orders were that everyone stayed inside so no one was allowed to leave the inner fortress to investigate, and in order to occupy the forces he had at alert (and in order to further make sure the defenses failed as was hinted at by Sean Lovie during the final duel with William) Sean would command that they attack the House Krinner estate of which was the site of the retreating nobles of Berne. While the commoners and the vast majority of the population had fled into the deeper sections of the city, and to the walls where the more Lucernian houses guarded it was the nobles that fled into the estate of House Krinner. Other then the nobles and politically far more important then that was the fact that Alistair Bedregen had retreated into the Keep alongside Thomas Lovie of whom was the true target of Sean Lovie this late in the fight. News reached them late that Alistair had gone there following the attempt on his life and Thomas and when it became clear this was where he was Sean would send basically everyone available including most of the defenses of the tunnel in order to try and kill Thomas. The estate itself was a sort of mini castle that was built into a large cave deep in the northern section of the city and was defensible from one large tower that covered the entire entrance, and from the ramparts built into the gatehouse.
"Massing on the walls I could make out the hundreds of attackers that swarmed all around the courtyard. I knew what they would have to do to take us, and I just prayed we were strong enough to resist."
It was this spot that the forces of the Stormblown, and the other True Sons loyalist houses would move towards in heavy numbers in order to try and complete the commands of Sean Lovie. Some three hundred Stormblown (including many of their most elite members, and two of their top three commander) alongside some four hundred more True Sons loyalist (of which only the fifty from House Ignirt would actually take part in the battle while the rest simply miled about faking interest in the siege. House Ingirt would be this only truly loyalist element due to the fact that Lord Beren Ingirt's daughter Lia Ingirt, and heir Harren Ingirt were captives of the prince and he was basically blackmailed into supporting Sean Lovie's forces out of fear for his two children. The forces of the True Sons would charge out from the shadows and attack without even a call for surrender, as they were commanded to destroy them and thus no surrender was neccessary or warrented. Charging the walls they suffered accurate and deadly archer fire from the large tower that surveyed the courtyard, and the archers on the ramparts. During this charge Lord Beren Ingirt would fall with an arrow to the neck and with his death the forces of House Ingirt fell under the command of Beren's brother Brandon Ingirt of whom would silently slip away with most of the relief forces moving them towards the prison where they would take part in the taking of the prison. With no cover the Stormblown and others got to the walls much diminished but still with high strength, and once at the gate they bashed at it with quickly made battering rams and climbed the sides of the wall to get to the ramparts, while hoisting a large ladder against the tower.
"I could see Trailen Dorin`s heir, and Danzal Krinner standing on the ramparts, and from their position they were able to shoot anyone that came up the ladder to the tower without any cause for fear from the ground. On the tower they were just massacring those on the ground with a nearly endless stream of arrows into their ranks. At the gate I stood with my shoulder against it alongside my men as we tried to buy more time for the archers to thin their numbers even more."
The men attempting to get up the ladders and climbing the walls suffered terribly as the tower was able to hit the men climbing with ease while the ramparts were hitting the men climbing for the tower, and thus it all came down to the gate. During this initial fighting the defenders on the walls were joined by Alistair of whom desperate to make sure that Thomas survived would take a bow and fight on the walls where despite his age he would fight bravely before being hit by an arrow from the ground, and fell dead at the age of nearly seventy three. It was near this point that Vaedin Stormblown`s next brother Sordin Stormblown was also shot through the chest by Danzal
Danzal Krinner would make a further name for himself during the battle as he led the tower in its attacks and coordinated the fire very well.
Krinner of which led to the final Stormblown son in Tolin Stormblown fleeing the field, and taking several other high level commanders with him as well. By this point the other houses of which had been milling about watching the siege, would retreat and pull back to their respective estates of which they decided was the only logical thing they could do as they would be most likely targeted by the Krinner estate for their believed betrayal. The battering at the gates was shattering it, and it was only a few more minutes before it finally came crashing down. Moments before it went down, Paul Arryn would gather with his most elite men, and forces of the loyalist houses, and prepare for a charge out of the gate. Warning the wall and tower that they were charging out, they opened the gate and smashed into the unsuspecting attackers outside the wall. Pushing them back the force fell back and was cut down from behind, killing nearly the entire force attacking but the loyalist forces returned into the keep to repair the gate and didn`t persue believing the larger force was incoming. At this point as the line melded together Hanna, Aria, and other noble ladies would move into the front and do their best to relieve the men by bringing water, and other supplies while helping to repair the gate.
Taking of the Prison
Hunting a Beast
Morrigan would serve for the final time Bill Lovie in his command of her to go to Berne and murder Forder Braxton and stop him from killing several of the prisoners. By this point she was till under the directive of Flemeth to assist Bill Lovie and using this directive she would be more then happy to serve Bill Lovie who was beginning to attempt to silently assist his son one last time before he lost himself to madness completely.
"I don't have much time before my mind is taken over again by the monster. Go to Berne and stop Forder Braxton. The monster in my mind has ordered him to kill as many people as he can in Berne, and I need you to stop this from happening."
It would be Forder Braxton, and his son Markus Braxton that would be sent to Berne by James Lovie II. to represent the dealings of the Circle of Magi and a believed loyalist faction, although Bill Lovie had no intention of ever assisting Sean as he wanted William to gain victory, but this was not known by Fordor of whom arrived in Berne to find the city in Chaos and surrounded by the Lucernians. Traveling into the city through Magi he would meet with Sean Lovie and at this point he would join the upper tier of the leadership of the True Sons of Lucerne executing several loyalists alongside his son, but it would be only a few weeks before the city came under assault by the Lucernians. During the battle Fordor and Markus would wander the city of Berne killing at random as was their command by James Lovie if/and when the city fell, and reaching the prisons hoping to kill as many valuable hostages as he could before leaving Forder would be shocked to find Morrigan his old Circle of Magi partner waiting in the gallows before the prison entrance surrounded by the dead bodies of the Stormblown mercenaries guarding the prison.
"You think you understand what Bill Lovie truly wants of you? Do you think you even have the slightest idea what that madman wants of you. This great king of yours killed hundreds for doing nothing more then asking why they should serve a madman. You stood by...I stood by as he murdered these men, women and children, and then we did it again...You come here because of reasons you could not even hope to understand. He commanded you to come here and murder innocent men, and women, and children, and at the same time he ordered me to come here and stop you. What kind of king do you follow? What kind of man do you worship at the feet of? What kind...I'll tell you now that you shouldn't follow a man who gets your son killed..."
— Morrigan
Confused why Morrigan was resisting him he told her he was only doing the work of James Lovie, and at this she would retort saying that so was she and then launched a killing spell at Markus, but it was deflected killing the two guards accompanying them, and then fighting Forder, and Markus who barely managed to resist her strength. As the three fought Forder, and Markus were no match for the more powerful Morrigan and Forder dropped his wand surrendering, but after surrendering he expected to be allowed to leave but Morrigan instead slew young Markus and then prepared to kill Forder but he unleashed a Magi blast at her and was able to escape through hidden tunnels.
Duel with Sean Lovie
William carrying Amber
"Forgiveness is never easy. Bitterness is easy. Hatred is easy. But forgiveness, that's a tough one. Sometimes, people say things they don't mean or do things they can't take back. Sometimes we do things we can't take back. So we feed ourselves to starve the pain. I have to believe that's what happened to Sean."
With the civil war all but over the moment had come for the final confrontation with his brother. There wasn't really a doubt in anyone's mind who would win in a fight the difficult part of the coming fight was the fact that Sean had the emotional advantage through his capture and hostage taking of Amber Heard the first love of Andrew. The room before the throne room was gaurded by James Nighting II. of whom laughed at them for not realizing that House Nighting was truly on the side of the True Sons of Lucerne. James and the three House Nighting men that were with him charged William and his group, and after a brief fight the four were killed by the far superior forces of William. Jasper held James down, and with a wave William commanded his death and Jasper ended his life. Surveying the rest of the room there were bodies stacked in the corner, of which not all were adults, and the the scope of the atrocities in this city were becoming clear. William before entering the throne room ordered Wilheim Martell to return to the camp at all speed and send word that House Nighting had betrayed them. They all knew that if House Nighting turned then who knew what sort of alliance might be present outside of Berne and with a large quantity of the loyalist forces besieging Lucerne they could be open for a betrayal.
Amber Heard never thought she was going to survive to see William again, and the sight of him caused her to leap up and great pain as the chain around her neck kept her stationary.
Before entering the final room William would also command Robb, and Jon Starke to lead forces to make sure that no holdouts would cause them any problems, while he briefly met with Alleria Windrunner of whom would wish him the best in the next room as she knew something about fighting siblings. She attempted to one last time make sure he understood that his brother had made his choice and that no amount of sympathy from his side would change what Sean had become. When Andrew entered the throne room of Berne flanked by Jasper, Edward, Emmett, Faye, and his elite guard they found Sean standing alone with nothing but the bound and strapped form of Amber Heard keeping him company. Looking around the room briefly he could see the ruined corpse of what he assumed from the words of Ezio was the poor Allison Arryn, and all along the wall he could see broken corpses of men and women that had obviously fallen victim to Sean's madness.
"He sat the way you would expect any psychopath to be sitting when they were idle. He just had nothing in his eyes, and I had to try to force my mind to even remember a moment that he didn't look that way. My brother was gone. He was lost into madness, and no matter what he said he couldn't leave this room alive. After all the years and the pain he was going to pay for everything he had ever done."
As he entered the room Sean remained silent but the look on his face told Andrew that Sean had a plan and whatever happened this plan was something he believed could work. Amber Heard never thought she was going to survive to see William again, and the sight of him caused her to leap up and this led to great pain as the chain around her neck kept her stationary. Laughing at what had happened to Amber through the fact that she was crying and holding her neck the situation turned as William charged forward only stopped by Sean holding his sword to Amber`s neck.
``Really brother. If I were you I would take a couple of steps backwards.`` Everyone stopped as he held the sword to Amber`s neck. I held my hands out to make sure he knew I was willing to atleast talk this out. As I did I noticed the windows in the corner of my eye which I noticed had archers in them. ``Thats right you listen to me now.`` Everyone just stood in place and I hated having him control even an ounce of anything in this world. ``Now that I have your attention tell everyone to leave. This is between me, you, and the bird.`` I looked behind me at Jasper and his eyes told me there was no way he was going to leave, but I knew he had to if I wanted to try and find a way into his mind and to somehow save Amber. Knowing about the windows I had to hope that there was some kind of back entrance into the throne room, and from there perhaps they could infiltrate the windows and gain the upper hand. Moving closer to the men I whispered to the group so lowly that poor Emmett with his poor hearing was forced to come nearly to kissing level.
"We need to do what he says.``Seeing the rejection in their eyes I stopped it immediatly. ``There are windows all along this room, and I need you to get in them so that we can get a handle on this. Emmett, and Edward I can`t tell you what to do. If you want to go with Jasper and the windows then so be it. I would prefer if you saved as many innocents as you could. The rest of you wait in the last room and give those poor souls a cleaner end....they deserve better then to be piled in the corner like garbage. If I should fall.``Edward stepped forward``If I should fall you all must make sure under no circumstances does he leave this room. He cannot be allowed to survive this no matter what happens. Now go. We have little time.``Relunctantly they begin filtering out of the room to the sound of laughter from Sean behind me. ``Yes Sean you have us exactly where you want us, now tell me what you want.`` His laughter was the first thing that happened before he grabbed a key from behind his back and undid the chain around Amber`s neck. Pulling her farther away it took everything in me to not move forward and attack him on the spot.
``I don`t want anything brother. You see that`s the trick. You had the same repository of books that I did, and let me tell you something about the villians in a story. Sometimes the villians want something. They want gold to build a mighty castle. Or maybe they want a women." He swayed as he spoke flayling his arms about like a mad man. " In the end brother It doesn`t matter what they want, it just matters that they want something. You see its important that they want something because for this reason these villians you see, they can be bargained with. They can lose.`` Knowing where he was going I interupted him.
``And let me guess. Your the kind that wants nothing.`` Standing up taller before he spoke he pulled Amber closer to him, and I could see the tears flowing from her eyes. I tried my best to comfort her with my eyes, and her eyes followed suit with mine, and I could tell I had calmed her down. He pushed her to the ground holding the sword so close to her neck I could see a bit of blood fall before raising his face to me again with a twisted look to his face.
``I don`t mean to interupt your longing towards the Arryn whore. " He stared at me clearly trying to make sure that I got the message. "Good. Now that I have your attention again I'll tell you the secret." He looked so excited to say it, as if its was some secret. "I'm not the villian brother. That honor is for you.``
``In what twisted world do you live where your not the villian. You are the same man who sits on a throne covered in the innocents that hes killed. Your the same evil that tried to molest his own sister, and now dares to threaten such a innocent as Amber Heard.``
"Its all a matter of perception." He pulled Amber back up to stand in front of him, and he begin to pet her hair causing a whelp from her. It took every piece of my control not to burst forward and kill him where he stood for touching a hair on her head.
Controlling my increasing rage I spoke to the monster standing before me. "And what perception is that?"
``The perseption that comes from knowing the anwser to this question." He stopped and stared at Amber before looking back at me. "What makes her innocent my brother. Is her innocene borne from the fact that she opened her legs for you whenever you pleased...``
``How dare you...``
"It is an honest question. I want you to tell me how this girl. This piece of meat. I want you to tell me right here, and right now what makes her innocent. "
"She hasn't harmed anyone. She hasn't done a thing in this world other then be a good person."
"And that makes her innocent, does it?"
"Yes it does."
"Your a fool."
"You wish to brandish words around like a bunch of fish wives then do it your way. Or do you want to finally become a man and face what you've done."
``I get this moment brother. You forgot through your youth, that unlike you the rest of us out here in the world have things happen to them. Your the villian along with this whore because of what you have allowed to happen. One does not blame the virus for infecting its victom. You blame the monster who created the virus, and you my brother are the reason I am the way that I am.``
``You want to find a way to escape the person that you are you need to find someone who cares for even a moment for whether or not you live or die.``
``There it is right there. Don`t you see. It was that uncaring neglect. Outright hatred at times that left me utterly alone.``
``You don`t get to blame becoming a monster on the fact that you and I weren`t best friends.``
``I have the sword. I have the damsel. Those mean I get to say, and do whatever the fuck I want to do. Do you understand what I`ve done. Do you have any idea the scope of the things I`ve caused.`
Death is the End
"As the minutes went by my brother fell into a darker and darker place, and despite knowing I should be pulling him back, I hated him so much in that moment that I basically pushed him off."
Watching his brother implode in front of him, and basically throw him in front of the bus for everything that had ever gone wrong for him in his life, wasn`t something that William was able to accept. William would begin badgering Sean and insulting him to the point that his brother begin to reveal to him certain darker acts then anything anyone had ever thought he was possibly involved in. Sean told him how he had become obsessed with seeing the death of this particulary noble girl of whom he refused to name but said she unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and that this obsession had followed him for years. Finally one night he had been invited to dinner for the first time in months and was told by Bill to not criticize anything throughout the meal or else he was never eating with them again. Tasting something horrible in the meal he ignored it and kept eating, and following this he said that a dark entity would offer him assistance and when he accepted he begin hearing terrifying voices in his mind. After going through all the terrible things he had done throughout this time he finally got to Berne where he told William that he just wanted to die. He just wanted to
Amber watched as Sean appeared to fall apart in front of her, and all she could think was that she just wanted to live. She just wanted another chance with William. It didn`t matter that he had remarried. She just wanted to be with him again.
escape all the pain that he was constantly bombarded with, but that as time went by nothing he seemed to do incited anyone to kill him, and this annoyed him even more. Sean would tell him that he had broken and abused Hedrik Clegane's now wife in Rachel Wood, and that he was responsible for the rape of countless other noble girls, and that he was specifically attempting to escalate it so that he could die, but no matter what he did he continued to escape justice. Sean would reveal to him how that night he had attempted to kill Alice it was as if this voice in his head was literally screaming, and it was screaming to ravish Alice. He had honestly been incapable of stopping himself, and despite trying he found himself constantly moving towards her room, and he had been glad that William had assaulted him. He told William that he had been forgotten by their father when he made the spell removing Alice and that he had followed her to Forks where he had watched her for months but was stopped by men of Bills from revealing anything to her.
"I watched the first archer fall and in that moment I saw Jasper nod at me from the window followed by Emmett standing in the window with his own bow prepared to launch an arrow at Sean, but foolishly I believed I could talk him down. I also knew that any attempt to fire at Sean would most surely end with Amber`s death as Sean was too much of a coward to go down like that. I did know one thing though, with the one window down, it was only a matter of moments until the other three went down as well, and when that happened their would be an opening."
William watched as Sean devolved and saw Jasper kill one of the archers in the window thus revealing to him that they had found a way into the windows. Seeing there were only three other windows he waved away Emmett`s offer to kill Sean from the window as he knew it would end with Amber`s death. Sean seeing the look on William`s face
would demand to know what was so interesting that his brother was ignoring him, and when William could not appease him enough Sean slashed Amber across the shoulder with a blade narrowly missing her head, but still causing serious damage. Seeing this Sean would pull a lever behind him which the moment after he did all the windows slammed shut with Stone portcullis, and the gate they had entered from also was barred with portcullis. Rushing to Amber he knocked Sean to the ground, and picked up Amber. Picking her up he realized instantly how bad the wound to her shoulder was as it had cut far too deep for anyone there to heal her, and he panicked knowing she was going to die. She held him tight, but he could feel her grasp on him loosening as her life left her. Closing her eyes he let out a cry as he believed she had died, and he held her tight crying into her shoulder before kissing her hard on the lips and then gently laying her down before moving towards Sean who was slumped against a post nearby.
"As I walked to him, I knew this was the end. He would die in this moment. I didn`t expect him to be crying."
Grabbing Sean by the shoulders he found his brother crying, and Sean grasped onto Williams arms as if to try and hold onto him. There was no resistance, and as William held the sword to his chest he held a moment and looked into Sean`s eyes waiting for his last words. Sean in that moment would tell William that Bill still lived and had gone west to France, and would begin to start an apology when William stabbed him through the chest and covered his mouth with his hand. Looking behind him at the lifeless body of Amber he would proceed to be overcome with rage and strangle Sean as the last of his life left him. Getting up he walked back over to Amber, and ignored the sounds of crashing as his men attempted to break there way through the gate, and the windows. Kneeling beside Amber he ripped some cloth from his tunic and covered her wound not wanting her to be seen like this. As he wiped her wound her arm would move up and grasp onto his, and her final grasp for life would continue and it gave the two former lovers one last chance to talk to each other.
I could almost feel her leave me as there was a lifelessness to her eyes, and when I did I gently let her down to the ground. I left a kiss on her lips before closing her eyes and taking a moment to stare at the girl I had loved first in my life. She was the innocence of youth. The kind of person who is always the victim of monsters like my brother and that sad fact just left me more angry then any other death I had seen in my life. I had seen good men die in battle, but to look down at Amber and realize that she was just innocent, and had still died hurt me deeply.
Hearing a sound come from Sean I gave one last kiss to her lips before letting her go, and turning around to find my brother. He had moved himself into the corner and was shaking while holding onto a large flag. As I went towards him I couldn't make out what he was saying, but to be frank it was not going to matter what he said. Sometimes men are just guilty and words cannot escape that fact.
Reaching Sean I grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him to face me, while I took out a knife and held it to his throat. Turning him had revealed what the noise was as his face was covered in tears, and the sight of the sword made him pull himself towards it.
``Please William. Kill me now. I cannot live the things in my mind anymore.``
``You murder someone as innocent as Amber and you dare to look for pity now.``
``No pity brother. I want mercy.``
``You do not deserve mercy. The things you have done are beyond imagining.``
``Then punish me William.`` At these words I threw the dagger away and a look of sadness went to his face, before being quickly replaced by understanding when I pulled out my sword and aimed it towards his chest.
``No punishment in the world would ever be far enough to be justice. You deserve so much worse then I could ever give you.``
``You are right brother.`` Sean begin to shake, and I swear I saw somesort of cloud come from his body towards the roof above us, and as it did he looked up at the roof of the room and a look of peace went over his face that just horrified me. I didnt want him to feel peace while she lay dead. He didnt deserve to feel anything even close to that. The things he had done were too much. ``I think its gone.``
``No more talk.``
``Perhaps just one more thing brother.``
``Say your last words and be done with it.``
``Our father went west. He went into the ruins of France.``
``I will find him and give him the true death I will soon give you.``
``I hope that you do William. I hope that you avenge everyone who has been hurt by him.`` I felt such overpowering rage as I looked at him that my eyes must have been showing it as he looked at me with a realization that it was over and he closed his eyes. ``Goodbye Will...``
Before he got the words out I stabbed him through the chest piercing his armor between the plates and he let out a sigh before going limp in my arms. I let him down with a loud bang as his body hit the floor, and leaving behind his body I went towards Amber wanting to just hold her one last time. Kneeling at her body I pulled her closer and held her tight to me.
As I held her in my arms crying into her hair I felt her arms clasp themselves around mine and I looked into her face hoping beyond hope that she would live. I held her face with my hand and begged her to wake. My other hand held her wound with everything I could trying to somehow stop it. I pleaded with her, and I watched as her eyes flickered open. I hugged her tight knowing in my heart that I would want to always remember the feel of her life, as she was perfection, and it was a tradgedy that it had taken all of this for me to realize that. ``William...
``It`s alright my love. Just rest my sweet, Edward will come and...he will...he`ll find a way...``I hadn`t realized that I was crying until I couldn`t see from my eyes anymore, and I felt her hand wipe across my cheek clearing me of the physical signs of my sadness.
``William I love you...Thomas is your son.`` I didn`t understand. She had left, and no one had ever said a word. How many lies had been told to keep this from me. ``It was my doing. Don`t blame anyone but me for keeping it from you.``
"They all lied about where you had went...I loved you with everything in myself. I would have protected you from everything.`` Her eyes closed as the pain must have overwhelmed her. Looking at her shoulder the blood was smeared all across my hand as it was too large a wound for me to keep from gushing.
``I thought I could protect you. He told me he would kill you...he held a knife to your throat and bid me to leave. I`m so sorry William. I`m so sorry you never got to see him grow.``She stopped and coughed out blood, and I knew she was going quickly. The shoulder just kept bleeding through and I couldn't even bear to look at it knowing there was just nothing to fix this. ``You must promise me that you will protect Thomas from everything. Protect him the way I never could.``
``He lives Amber. You saved him. My brother would have killed everything to have killed any son of mine.`` I kissed her on the lips gently carressing her hair before looking into her eyes again.
``I tried my...`` Her eyes closed and her arm went slack for a moment before I shook her gently and she opened her eyes again. ``It doesn`t hurt anymore. You have to promise me William. Promise me.``
``I promise you Amber I shall protect him. I shall love him, and cherish him as the son that he is. He shall never know pain, or anguish, or sadness. I shall love him as I love you.`` Her eyes begin to once more close, and I selfishly shook her again.
``Stay with me Amber...just hold on please...``I shook her again, but this time her eyes didn't reopen and just staring at her I could see that I had failed to save her. She coughed one more time and her eyes opened somewhat and she looked at me again.
``I`m so sorry Will...I`m so sor...``Her eyes remained open, but she just never blinked. Holding her I couldn't feel anything as I knew she had died. I would never hear her voice again. I would never know her touch again, and I let out a scream which I could barely control.
Following her grasping of his arm the two would talk briefly as she bled out but she held on for long enough to make sure William knew that Thomas was his child, and the two would heart sadly say goodbye to each other before finally she bled out from the horrible wound on her shoulder. It was several minutes of banging on the door with William crying into the hair of Amber before the rest of his men were able to get into the throne room, and by this point the Battle of Berne was over with the remaining forces of the True Sons of Lucerne either dead or having surrendered, but for William it felt increasingly like a hollow victory. As Faye, Jasper and Emmett tried to console him and help him with Amber he would refuse without words picking her body up and carrying her out of the throne room before collapsing outside of the inner keep where he would be helped up by Faye. He whispers to Faye that he needs to take her out of the fortress so he can bury her, and Faye goes ahead clearing the gatehouse, and letting the front gate open where William carries her all the way out of Berne and reaches the Valley of Berne where the large Lucernian army awaits and it is at this point that Alice meet him and he finally surrenders Ambers body to Jasper and breaks down in Alice's arms.
Meeting a Son
"You are too young to understand my son, but know that I have loved you, and I will always love. The world will be tough on you because of how you were born, but understand this. You shall always have a place at my side. You will always be a member of my house. You are my son. You are our son."
With Thomas sleeping William gathers with the Lucernian army leadership and following a long discussion on their next steps he commands his friend Hanna Arryn be brought to him, and then the meeting breaks up and joined by Jasper, and Edward he returns to his tent where saying goodbye to them he goes into the tent and finds Alice sleeping on his bed holding a sleeping Thomas. Looking at the scene in front of him he starts crying as he thinks about the loss of Amber, and at the sound of his crying Alice wakes up and gets out of bed gently leaving Thomas in bed and the two siblings hug. Thomas eventually wakes up to the talking of Alice and William and Thomas at first only wants Alice, but William goes to him and talks to him about his love for Amber and when Thomas reveals that Amber had talked about William to him almost every night William tells him the story of how he met Amber of which was a story that Amber had told him a thousand times before.
Control of Berne
"I would name you the Arch Duchess of this place if you would let me."
Meeting with Hanna Arryn the two old friends discuss a more personal view of what happened in Berne, and Hanna reveals to him the depths of some of the things that happened, but also refuses during their conversation to come with him back to Lucerne telling him that Aria needs her more. Discussing Aria, and her father Byron it becomes clear that he needs to speak with Aria and asks Hanna to bring her to him something she agrees to if William agrees to be lenient on her father of which William agrees to out of love for Hanna. The conversation ends with Aria and William agreeing that in one month it will be the leadership of Berne that will travel to Lucerne to meet with William and the Kings Council who will decide the future of Berne. William Lovie III. leaves Berne with the majority of the army but leaves behind several thousand as a garrison of the city under the command of Dylan Steinmare, and this garrison is under orders to further the control of the crown over Berne who at this point there is still fear may be mixed in its loyalties.
The Underfort
I come here on the wishes of the King of the Valley. My brother wishes for the two of us to become friends again. Too much has happened between our two people for us to ever be as indifferent to each other as my father forced upon us.
"My brother was conquering the east, and I knew we had to further secure the lands we already had. The Dwarves were the first step in rebuilding what our father had lost us. "
With the conquest of the Riverlands, and Fairmarket, the situation in the east was dramatically becoming one of major strength for Lucerne, but Alice and William discussed the need to rebuild ties with the Dwarves if nothing else then to secure their rear. Alice would command the construction of a small fort called the Underfort northward from the direction the Underway had went. The Underfort was constructed close to two mountain valleys of which they were able to get into using old Dwarven tunnels, and inside the valleys (mainly the western one named the Valley of Drael) they would construct farms which would feed the population in the Underfort and form a home for those living in the fort. Using maps they had in the House Lovie library they were able to make their way north enough to be met by Dwarves from Thaig Aeducan. Telling the forces in the Underfort that they wished to meet with the Dwarves the meeting was accepted and the Dwarves sent a large diplomatic troop to meet them at the Underfort. Alice Lovie would gather a force of some one hundred men at arms, and Leven Martell, Nicoli Machieveli, as well as several other nobles and head to the Underfort where she planned to meet with the Dwarves.
Thaig Aeducan under Clan Snowblown understood they needed the human assistence and were more then willing to entertain alliance talk.
"I had no reason to believe the Dwarves were anything but our allies. In his own writing my father had spoke of how he had been insulted by the leader of the Dwarves years before and since then had gone out of his way to cut off contact. "
The meeting took place in the Underfort and Alice would meet with Dori Snowblown of whom introduced himself as the Senator for the Thaig of Aeducan. They would meet for several days and over this time Dori would explain to Alice much about the history of the Valley of Lucerne, as well as the mountains. Revealing to her that despite the assertions of her father the Goblins were not defeated after the Driving Tide, but in fact were slowly overwhelming the Dwarves due to their superior ability to replace losses. Dori would send one of his sons in Tori Snowblown to go with them, and he became the squire of Leven Martell despite his vastly superior age. Alongside this trade deals were signed and promices made of further advancement of their relationships.
"I was born in Karak Mulgar. Have you read of this place?"
"My Great Grandfather and my brothers original namesake wrote long on the Dwarves of the Mountains. In this writing he wrote of two major cities in Mulgar, and Izor."
"It is good that you have read on my home. Your people I find are always missing knowledge on the small things."
"I'm glad that I do not disappoint you Lord Snowblown"
"You do not disappoint me Lady Alice of House Lovie. I to may follow the trivialities of nobility princess. The reason I bring it up is not to embarrass but to tell you of who I am. I was born there you see princess. I was born there, and it was a place of pure beauty. The way you describe your home makes me long to see my own, but do you know what the worse of it is?"
"What is the worst of it?"
"I shall never see my home again. I can still see in my mind every inch of my former home. I may see it but the pain of that is horrifying as the monsters that fill these mountain peaks have taken the reality of my home and left only memories for me."
"The Goblins are a threat to everything that lives."
"I'm glad you see that more clearly then the Numenorians of old who first came here."
"The Numenorians Lord Snowblown?"
"Surely if you know of my homeland young one, you have heard of the Numenorians?"
"I know of the Numenorians Lord Snowblown, but I never knew they were so widespread in the area."
"For years my lady they built their cities around the area your city of Forks now lies. For years there numbers grew, and during this time all was well." His son entered the room alongside Leven and he waited for his son and Leven to take a seat before continuing. "'Then one day our trading partners were just gone. Their vast city of 'Zeor-Ahrami was in ruins. Thousands upon thousands dead."
"What could have killed so many. The Numenorians were not a weak opponent." The maps of the old world showed that the Empire of Numeron had ruled over most of Europe outside of the valley we now lived. They had battled and destroyed every oponent they had ever fought, and only fell to their own failings. It seemed strange they could fall so easily in the night.
"They were not. Unfortunately they were knew to the land. In this inexperience they discovered their enemies that lie deep in the world that are extremely dangerous. The Spiders of the western depths of the mountains had been stirred by the Dark Lord Sauron and had done his bidding."
"What happened after their city fell."
"They sent two large armies to the valley attempting to destroy the Spiders but each time they came they heard nothing from their army and after losing two armies they built a great tower where your Castamere ruins now stand and they forgot this place."
"The largest Empire in the history of the world just forgot about it."
"Even the powerful, and the wise are afraid sometimes."
Learning Hard Truths
You think that you know everything, and then he comes back and shows you how wrong you were.
"I should have been used to the lies by this point. At some point he just became a sort of running joke in my life constantly appearing and telling me something else he had failed at or caused to go wrong."
Bill Lovie had by this point come to accept the death of his son Sean Lovie, but became in his isolation saddened by the fact that his bastard children with Esme Portmane were stuck in Lorderon far away from the growing Kingdom of Lucerne. With this in mind Bill would concoct a plan to infiiltrate the city of Lucerne, and the Cloud Tower specifically so that he could tell William the truth of his extended family. Late at night Bill Lovie used all of his power to summon himself as a spirit into Cloud Tower bypassing the light defences of the Blue Dragon members that were in Lucerne. In this form William Lovie was approached by Bill Lovie who told him that he had fathered other children with a women named Esme Portmane in Lorderon, and that he was sorry for doing this. Bill in this moment apologized to William for creating all the damage and evil that he had created in his time, but he wanted William to know that whatever he thought this meeting was it wasn't the end because Bill was now completely gone when it came to morals.
I was awoken by a crash near the bed. Despite the loud crash I looked beside me and Bella remained asleep, and looking over I saw Ashley playing with the rattle hanging from above her bed smiling as if the most happy thing in her life was right before her. Getting out of bed I went to where the noice had come from and discovered nothing, but again I heard a noice. This time the noice came from outside the room, and I walked through the door finding darkness outside of the few candles that remained flickering. Following the noice into the next room I walked inside and nearly fell down when I saw my father sitting in a chair.
"Do not scream son I mean you no harm." Everything in me wanted to scream. Everything inside my soul wanted to lash out at him and kill for everything he had done. Back when I last saw him I knew only a sliver of what he had done. The massacre of a plague, the destruction of Tree Hill, the attempted destruction of Gondor, it just kept going and going.
"You give me one good reason why I shouldn't slash your throat and bury you beside the son you forced into madness, and made me kill." Seeing him brought up everything that had happened at Berne. I thought of poor Amber lying broken beneath me as I carried her fallen body back home. I thought of my poor son Thomas who would now grow up never knowing the love his mother had for him. I could tell him as much as I wanted but it wouldn't change the fact that she was gone. For whatever reason though with him sitting in front of me I thought of my broken brother. In his final moments I had seen him for he was. A scared little boy who had just wanted to be loved, and when he realized he couldn't have that, he broke.
"I'm sorry you were forced to deal with that, but I am not to blame for the madness in his soul." It was always an apology to me. Even as Alice was brutalized it was me he apologized too.
"He just wanted you to say one nice thing. How much different would he have been if you had said one god damn nice thing to him." For a moment he flickerered as if battling within himself, but in barely any time the battle ended and he continued.
"I didn't come here to talk of that boy. I came here to discuss more of the mistakes I have made. This is nothing but a spirit in the myst that I now inhabit, and already I have been senced by men better then I ever was. In the end I must tell you of things I have done wrong that you will never know if I do not." The vision of my father walked closer to me and insticively I stepped back, and the look on his face was momentarily quite sad, but he pulled that back and remained resolute.
"Thats a list too long for any man to keep track of." He had destroyed and entire city. He had killed hundreds upon hundreds of good men in the event many still believed was in fact a plague. He had created a spell to remove my sister from my life. All of this and I felt a chill at the thought that perhaps we had only scratched the surface of his failings.
"Perhaps it is, but I love you son and you deserve to know." I had never doubted his love for me, and that was the worst part of all his betrayals. I know that somewhere in his mind he honestly believes he's doing what's best for me.
"Say it and begone from here spirit."
"Long ago. While you were just a baby I visited Lorderon briefly on my way to the wars in France. During this time I met with a women. This women has three of my children. These three children do not have the shame of knowing who I am, or what I have done, and for that you must keep in mind. Find them in Lorderon, and make them whole. Do not make the mistakes I made with our family and hate those who deserve nothing of the kind."
"It never ends with you does it." He looked pained as he continued speaking.
"This will be the last time we speak son." His vision turned away from me and he rested briefly against a table, and I used that moment to loosen the strings on the dagger that I had hidden in my shirt." I know that may not pain you but for me that's the most painful thing to imagine in my entire life. I watched Kingdoms die. Watched armies destroyed in front of me. Those things don't even compare to the love I've had for you since the moment I first saw you. The first time I held you I knew you were it for me. You were the thing that would drive everything in my life, and I truly with everything inside of me wanted nothing more then your happiness. I know it all went to hell, and after this I'm going to be completely consumed by the things in my mind that are wrong...but I just want you to remember that you have a family now and you must protect it the way I never could. You must protect House Lovie. You must."
After this William would wake up his wife, and sister and as they talked his cousin Emma Bell came up as well telling them that Edward had arrived with several Order of the Blue Dragon members in order to see what had entered the Cloud Tower. Telling them what had happened there was shock around, and Edward reluctantly left not wanting to intrude as the Lovie's discussed the issue. They would all agree that the fault did not lay with these children as they were far away, and that they should make attempts to connect with them.
Finding Family
"It was a no brainer in reality. While I had some fear of what there involvement in the family meant, these were my blood. Blood is everything in this world, and if we abandoned them then we were no better then the father we hated so deeply."
With the decision made William took his sister Alice, as well as his cousin Emma Bell to Lorderon where he planned to welcome his half siblings into the family as well as welcoming this women that had given birth to his father's children. The group would be joined by many others as the King of Lucerne travelling to a province so far from home would bring about all manner of problems. House Lovie would enlist nearly three thousand men from the personal levies to travel with the force and Oberyn Martell was placed in charge of the defence of Lucerne while they were away. The Shadow Council would obviously also join with the trip and Leven and William would ride together for much of the trip while Edward would ride with Jasper of whom was cold to him for most of the trip. They would be joined at the gates of Lucerne by Hedrik Clegane III. of whom had left immediatly when he had gotten the raven about the summoning from William, and thus would join them as well. When Alice asked William how he was going to se easily let these new people into the family he anwsered her with the following.
"For whatever reason Sean never got along with anyone. I know in my head that there isn't a single kind word or accepting invite that I could have given to him that would have changed that but...my heart tells me not to make the mistake again."
As they made the trip the group found themselves nervous about what kind of people they would find as their new family. Emma Bell wondered outloud many times whether this was some sort of trap that had been carefully planned by his father, but when this was discussed most discarded it due to the belief that of all the things he had done Bill had shown no ability under any cercumstances to actually harm William. Travelling along the road they took boats waiting for them in Lole from the growing fleet of the Order of the Red Dragon. The group is forced to travel through the Trident where Walder Frey demands double the rate of usual passage from the Lucernian fleet as payment for the insults that Robb Starke had supposedly layed on them. Wishing to meet with Walder aboard the ships they were told he was to old to do this but William could land and meet him inside the castle. This was rejected diplomatically and the group continued without further interuptions to Lorderon where they arrived in the port to much happiness.
Meeting Family
"The idea of meeting them was one thing. Now we were actually there and had to actually meet these people who shared our blood."
Arriving in Lorderon they were met by Arch Lord Arthas Menathil, of whom many who had met him previously were confused by the shocking change in his appearance. Where before he was clean shaven and his eyes clear he now appeared to be ragged, and his eyes had changed in appearance to a near mennacing look. William would alert Jasper, and Leven to this change, and as this happened Edward saw that he was not consulted and was hurt deeply. The group doesn't notice as Edward is left behind and travels to a tavern, and they make their way to the palace where Arthas apologizes for his wife's absence but he cannot find her. Arthas has a fit that appears to be a siezure, and is taken away by several retainers, and following this they meet with Imlad, and Calia Menathil sister, and cousin to Arthas of whom would make arrangements to meet with Esme Portmane. Esme lived in the palace with her daughter and son while the remaining daughter lived in Arnor as a princess they were told. Esme arrived with Jamie, and Diane Portmane and the rest of the non Lovie members would leave the room as they discussed things. Esme immediatly knew what this was going to be about as she obviously knew who the father of her children were, and Diane also was aprised to the situation so it was only Jamie that they had to explain things to. Jamie would be clearly hurt, and William took him out of the room to talk as the girls all hugged and got to know eachother. Jamie and William would discuss many things, and eventually it came to his future and William said that he still had to prove himself but if he did he would be the eventual Lord of House Portmane and since it was being made into a cadet house of House Lovie his power would be heavy. Asking how this was possible when he was a bastard William made it very clear that he was no longer a bastard, and William's younger sibling and sole remaining brother would hug him so suddenly that Jasper nearly sliced him in two before realizing it was just a hug. The family would stay for several days before finally departing for the west where Diane returned with them while Jamie was left in command of House Portmane but would visit with Esme some time in the future. During those days they stayed William would also remain because he and Edward talked and he learned of the talk with Jaina and Medivh and he wanted Edward to look into this which he did with the help of Leven Martell.
Meeting with Medivh
The Tunnels beneath Lorderon were expansive and it was here that Leven would follow Edward.
"Noone trusted Edward anymore they just refused to speak of it. He was lost in his own little world, and here I was convinsed to follow him into some dark tunnel. Doing things for old time sake isn't a good enough reason to risk your life."
With William travelling with his wife and family Leven had some time to herself, and found herself in her room trying to get some sleep when a knock at the door brought Edward into her presence again. She and Edward hadn't got along since he left for Hogwarts and his declining status within the Shadow Council had become clear to all, and this had led to him becoming more distant to the members and thus even more reason for Leven to not be happy with him. The two would talk and he would eventually convinse her for old times sake to help him with something as there was noone elce he trusted to come with him, and he wanted someone with him.
He refused to tell me where we were going the entire time I followed him through the corridors. I knew we had time, but I wasn't used to being so out of the loop, and despite my long time as a friend of Edward there was a tinge of fear as we entered the increasingly dark tunnels beneath the palace. Finally he stopped at a door that had the sigil of an eye. "Do not fret Levia the secret shall soon be revealed." He went to open the door but I stopped him.
"I do not like keeping secrets from William, and in your current position I would think you'd be more careful of being seen as keeping secrets." I knew it was harsh, and from the hurt in his eyes I regreted saying it, but he had hit at a gnawing piece of me that worried what Edward's plans were. Had he come to the conclusion that with Jasper and myself as the right and left hand of William that he had lost his place, and that perhaps made him dangerous. Since he had joined the Blue Dragons he had been even more distant. I know he kept talking to William but I had barely seen him, and I know Jasper barely recegnized him anymore.
"Were not keeping secrets from William. He knows what I am doing, and he has blessed my mission."
"Then why all the secrets." I said it louder and more rudely then I had meant to, and I could tell he was torn by what to say, but after a moment he continued.
"The secrets are because the man were going to meet would be placed in great danger if anyone knew where we were going. I kept it a secret because here in Lorderon." He stopped and moved closer to me. "Were in a place none of us fully understand. This place is old. Older then anything elce we have dealt with, and I'm not alone in thinking that age may have corupted it." He turned back to the door placing his hand on the handle. "Do you not feel the darkness here. This place has darkness I have not felt since Berne." Without another word he opened the door and I followed him inside, and without meaning to as soon as I did my hand grasped my sword at my side. It disapointed me more then I thought it would in that moment that I still didn't trust Edward.
"I'm glad to see you Lord Cullen." I turned to the voice and saw a man sitting at a table in the corner nearly consumed by a large hood. He got up from the table removing his hood and looked directly at me. "You must be Lady Martell." He held out his hand, and not wanting to be rude despite my reservations of this situation I took his hand in return. "There is no reason to be frightened of my intentions Lady Martell, I mean you and Lord Cullen no harm." Noone frightened me. Certainly not this man. He had a sullen look to his face despite the smile that covered it. On his left cheek was a scar that stretched to his ear, and it looked like no sword or weapon I had ever seen as it nearly glowed blue. Whatever this man wanted, or whatever he was capable of he did not intimidate me.
"You do not frighten me Ser." He laughed before walking into the room and towards the back of the room. Looking back at me he waved at us to follow him.
"I am no Ser my Lady. I am Medivh a german just like you who happened to be born with the abilities as your friend Lord Cullen. I joined the Kirin Tor when I was young."He stopped for a moment and a splash of hurt went across his face clearly remembering a pain in the past, but he moved on walking further into the room as he continued talking. "Think of the Kirin Tor as the Lorderon version of your Blue Dragons, except for the fact that we serve no king. We serve Lorderon and the people that live within it. That means there are times. Times like now where our duty is to make those who are able to do something about problems, aware that these problems exist." He spoke with an aura of regality that made me think he was either noble born, or been around them long enough know how we spoke and what manurisms worked best in conversations.
"And what sort of problems exist here?"
"I still cannot believe that you don't feel the darkness here. Something evil lurks in this place, and I'm hoping that by working with Medivh we can destroy the evil." He looked at me as if I was some sort of alien for not being able to feel it, and it made me mad. Who was this man to bellitle me and what I could or could not see.
"I feel nothing." I said it with no emotion and turned my face from Edward as quickly as possible not wanting him to get anytthing from me.
"Be happy you fell nothing Lady Martell as the pain I feel when near him is unbearable." Stopping at the table he held his head down in a sort of ashamed look.
"You never mentioned it being a person before this Medivh." I felt a sence of relief that atleast I was not the only one out of the loop.
"I'm sorry for the lieing Lord Cullen but I had to make sure your Kingdom continued down the path of taking control of Lorderon this way."
"Who is this man that causes this darkness." Medivh raised his head an bid us to sit down which Edward did but I remained standing. I never liked the feel of a chair in these sorts of situations. Locking myself in just felt reckless, and I was anything but reckless.
"He was once a noble man. The people spoke of him in barely restrained whispers. They loved him, and his german bride from Kul Tiras. He defeated bandits learned his craft and everything was fine. " He stopped and looked to be in heavy thought for a moment. A smile crossed his scarred face as he must have remmebered the good times of this man. "Then one day, and I saw one day because I do not know what day, or what transpired. One day he was just gone. As if another had taken control of his body and replaced him with a demon. I was approached back then by several Magi from the Kirin Tor of whom said they had felt a terrible presence when near him, so I travelled to Lorderon to see for myself. When I did the two men had been executed for crimes created against them, but the truth they had told me remained. Walking near him was like walking near an empty space in the world."
"Who is this man you speak of Medivh."
"I know him as Azsharion Menathil, but in the toghnue of the germans he is known as Arthas Menathil."
The two would exit the tunnels with a new fear of Arthas Menathil of whome they had clearly been told by this Medivh was someone of extreme danger. Edward believed him without question, but Leven saw this Medivh as a misguided Magi that was clinging to fear and dillusions in his old age. Both of them though would meet with William and discuss the realities of what they had heard.
Wedding of Hanna Arryn
You truly look beautiful my friend. May the dragon always shine down on you as he does today.
"William needed to get away as he had stopped living after Brooke died. While anyone around him might have not noticed any difference for those that truly knew him they knew he was a shell of himself. "
With the death of Brooke Scott, William had been forced to deal with it in silence until his break down with Alice, but since then despite promising to talk to her he kept it inside, and he fell into a secretive depression. During this time the only person he discussed any of his emotional problems with was Leven Martell of whom at this point he begin to become somewhat more then just friends with again, but despite this emotional shift between the two of them it never changed physically. Alice wanted her brother back, and tried many things to get him back, but when they did not succeed she found the perfect opportunity when their old friend Hanna Arryn prepared for her marriage to Harrold Krinner, and in order to support one of his oldest friends she was able to convince him to travel westward. Returning to the scene of so much death would have been more painful but nearly every member of House Lovie traveled west alongside the whole Shadow Council outside of Edward Cullen of whom was in Lorderon dealing with the Arthas situation. Travelling westward wasn`t such a huge deal for many of them but for Thomas that was the last place he had been alive with his mother, and returning there with his family was a huge moment for the young man. When the group reached the outskirts of Berne the army he traveled with would camp outside the gates and inside the internal valley before they entered the city. Greeted by all the lords and ladies of Berne and the entire province William and the rest of the group would smile and share great love once more when Hanna Arryn, and her sister Aria exited the gate and made their way to them. Hanna, and Aria led them inside the city, and they all marveled over the rebuild that had went on inside the city under the leadership of Aria Arryn, and it was then that they would begin mingling leading to William being pulled away from Alice and taken to meet all the leaders of the city.
I watched from afar as he stood on the balcony, and watching as my brother the king walked with several of the lords of Berne. My brother was planning the expansion of Lucerne`s assets into the west, and Lord Byron Arryn was no where to be found. I had heard from Hanna that he was now called the scared bird by those that served him when he was not around, and in a truth so horrifying it was almost laughable Benjamin Krinner had called him Lord Veregnst Arryn which meant scared bird in old German.
``Is it true that they call him the scared bird.`` Aria was a loyal girl, and intelligent beyond nearly everyone I had met, but I thought she would speak the truth to me. We had known eachother back in Lucerne, and our relationship was such I could trust her.
``It is true Alice.`` There was shame as she said it, and that pained me.
``I heard he was absent, and perhaps even pathetic during the time of my brother here, but to see him this way is sad.`` It was now legend how he had abandoned his dying niece, and then not even lifted a finger as Sean had stabbed his own wife. What sort of man can stand and watch that, and do nothing.
``My father is not a brave man. Not the type that instills love or adortion from his lords, or anyone really. My mother was perhaps the last one that loved him. Loved him truly for who he is.``
``What do you think could be done in terms of fixing the situation here.``Her honesty was something I truly valued, and despite not knowing if she could actually affect change I would listen to her advice and pass it on to William if he didn`t already know.
``I have spoken to my father of stepping down. Of giving up his power.``I stood up from the chair as I no longer saw William through the window and wanted to find out where he was going. As I did she stood up as well and we walked to the door where hearing us move Draco opened the door and followed us as we walked. ``I told him to move on because his people didn`t respect him anymore.`` That was a brave thing for her to say to her father. I knew from my own relationship with my father that when I resisted him I was put into a spell and had my memory wiped, so there were consequences for resisting those above you.
``What did he say to that.`` We reached the end of the corridor and I followed Aria as she led me towards the cathedral sized building that William had entered.
``He doesn`t believe me. He believes that he loved. He thinks the people have forgiven him, and anyone who tried to tell him otherwise he either ignores, or tells himself they are joking. There is no getting through to him I fear.``
``My brother plans to speak to him, and let us hope that has the effect of making him see what the truth is.`` I know that William knew it would be nearly impossible to remove Byron as he was still loyal, and despite his incompetence it would set a horrible presedent and despite hating their lord it would bring anger amongst far too many vassals around the valley and beyond. Power my brother said was precarious, and if he brought down Byron Arryn every single lord, and Lady in the Kingdom would wonder if the tyrant king was coming for them next.
``If anyone can convinse him to do what is right, it is the King.`` We reached the door and were greeted by the handsome Paul Arryn of whom had his wife Lucie Krone on his arm. Both bowed as was expected, and led us into the cathedral with a greeting.
Walking into the giant room I saw William arrayed against a massive group of nobles, with Jasper and Emmett directly around him and Jasper looked absolutely cold hearted seeing William surrounded. Leven walked towards me with the young Sansa Starke, and her new husband Harrold Hardyng. The two would bow before, me along with Leven of whom gave me a quick smile before standing beside me. ``Princess Alice it is a true joy to have you in our remote city. Your family has brightened this land in more ways then I can ever truly appreciate.``
``Hanna was one of our most dear friends growing up, and we wouldn`t have dared miss a chance to see her wed. The city has certainly been turned into quite the jewel since I was last here.`` I had never imagined myself returning to this place, but William couldn`t stay in one place anymore. He was losing himself more and more each day, and unless I could change the path he was on he was going to kill himself trying to see her again. It seemed so long since he was carrying the lifeless body of Amber from the city, and I couldn`t believe he had the strength to return here where so much bad had happened.
``Terrible business Princess. I never met your late brother, but I know that despite what he became in the end he was still your brother, and I`m sorry for your loss.`` I felt bad that I had never met her before. When we had travelled to Stormwind she was in Winterfell, and while I had met nearly all the Starke`s she and her brother Rickon were one of the few I had not had the oppurtinity to meet.
``I appreciate that Lady Sansa you are too kind. My brother did more damage to your husbands people then we can ever repay, and I`m beyond happy to see things becoming positive here.`` She smiled at me, and as she did I noticed how young she was. I had thought she was of similar age to me, but it was clear she was somewhat younger, and from the way she held Harrold`s hand she was very nervous. ``How have you come to like Berne Sansa.``
``It is the same sort of climate as my home in Winterfell, and with Harrold at my side I have been very well taken care of. I will honestly be sad to say goodbye to Berne.`` As she shared a smile with Harrold, I felt out of the loop. Where was she to go that would force her to say goodbye to the city. As if sensing my confusion Leven spoke up.
``The Kingdom will be very proud to have Harrold as the Lord of the new western province. I know that Alice was one of the most strong supporters of your rise Sansa.`` The young Sansa Starke looked shocked, and again I realized how distinct I was from even her scale of nobility. It would never really matter how high up the power tree someone reached, me and my brother were always going to be somewhat seperate from them.
``We decided to name the new city Greengarden, and I promice your grace that we shall turn it into a fortress against our enemies.`` His armor and tone made him seem quite the brave young man, and I wondered if the ruins of the west would claim him, or whether he would prove himself correct.
Meeting with the elements of House Arryn it did not take long to notice the absence of Byron Arryn of whom in public excuses were made in regards to his sickness, but once the required entrance was done and William followed Hanna, and Aria Arryn into the Palace Grounds of Berne the truth would quickly come out. William would during this time convince the Lords of Berne to begin an expansion into the western lands, and would bring in several allied Elves of the west of whom promiced their support in this action. When determining of whom would be the new lord of the state being formed westward it was determined that Sansa Starke and her new husband would form the leadership under House Hardyng. As the final days before the wedding came about William travelled the city with his family and Hanna as the night came he would make love to Bella but once they were done he left her asleep in bed and went to find Alice. Finding Alice he told her that he didn`t feel the same way for Bella that he had, and he didn`t know how to get it back as he loved Brooke. Alice and William would speak for nearly the entire night, and she was able to convinse him to not do anything rash, but once again she knew that he was sitting on the edge of a knife without Brooke, and for the first time she worried he might not actually be able to move past her death.
Hanna Arryn and William would sit for a time together and he told her about what had happened to him, and she saw the depths of love that he had for Brooke.
The actual wedding went by without problem, and following this Alice would accompany William and Thomas as they walked the ramparts of the outer tier of Berne. Walking along the walls William, and Alice held Thomas's hand as William told his son about the bravery of his mother during the siege of Berne, and for the first time in his life Thomas learned the whole truth of what had happened to his mother. Continuing to talk William discussed with Thomas his place in the family, and while Thomas was young he was old enough to understand that his father was telling him that he was not a base born bastard as William had legitimized him. The talk would brighten William somewhat as after Thomas left Alice was able to convince him that if nothing else he needed to be strong for his children, and grudgingly she included the two he had with Brooke in that number as well.
"So much had changed since we were children, but the simple fact remained that one of my best friends was gaining a husband and that was a moment to stop and thank the world around us."
Following an argument with Jasper it is Alice that goes to find Marcel Lovie II. and together the two stand on the balconies of the Arryn estates and discuss their relationship and how close the two have gotten over the years. As Alice goes to leave for bed Marcel gives her a gift and taking it back to her room she opens the gift discovering a tiny stone and beside the stone a note that detailed that the small stone was a magi device that allowed the two to communicate no matter how far apart they were and as she touches the stone which is attached to a necklace she feels Marcel's thoughts as if they are her own. Before leaving Alice would watch as Hanna and William discussed his affair with Brooke, and how he loved her so much that it felt painful just getting up anymore. William would also mention for the first time to her that he wanted to find the Dragons, and that he thought with everything inside himself that if he did then Lucerne could survive.
Arrival of Hillsbrad
"I thought for a very long time that I would inherit House Brent. I see now that was foolish. You have your heir, and I'm not content to sit here quietly as his knight."
— Franklin Brent
It would be following his taking part in the defense of Castle Stragnarax that a emotionally devastated Franklin Brent would return to Marburg where his wife Karyl Reyne is waiting for him alongside their son Davin Brent, and seeing her waiting for him he collapses into her arms utterly spent by the feeling that he got nothing from all his years of devoted work for his father. Sharing a moment together he tells her he is done running errands for his father and wants to rule something himself leading to him telling her that he was going to go and find his father and tell him that he needed to let him go and find his own lands. Meeting with his father his father would reluctantly send him to Berne where the wedding of Hanna Arryn was looking to be the beginning of what rumors were saying would be William's desire to expand into the lands west of Berne forming a new province there. Travelling to Berne with a small force and his wife he is met on the road by Dexter Hill of whom continues to be disliked by Karyl but their friendship leads Franklin to invite Dexter to join him on the road to Berne though in order to make his wife happy he travels at the front of the force while Franklin and his wife stay in the middle.
"I saw your coming in the water Franklin Brent. You and I were destined to meet here."
— Franklin Anikka Salburg
Delayed by a collapsing portion of the path through the Dragon's Pass the forces of Hillsbrad under Franklin Brent would arrive following the wedding of Hanna, and Harrold, but did meet the forces of the royal family on the road.
End of Brooke Scott
Final Moments with Brooke
If I had known the end was at hand, I would have done so much differently...
Alice Lovie was both jealous of the affection this Scott women had for her brother and for her friend Bella's pain. In this she had been spending considerable amounts of time attempting to turn William against her, but it was only recently that he listened.
"If I had known those were the last moments that I would have ever seen my beloved...I would have done things differently. Looking back now I can't help but hate Bella for being the reason it came to it at all. I know thats wrong, and I know what that means, but its how I feel."
William's return from Westbridge had led him from happiness in the victory over the Malfoys, and the time he spent with his friends, and Brooke into a return to the capital where his sister awaited him. William's time with Brooke had shown him without a doubt that while he loved Bella it just wasn't the same as his love for Brooke, and he didn't know where to place that knowledge as of yet. Entering through the gates his sister sprinted towards him and jumped into his arms holding him tight as his commanders looked on, and not even Jasper her near husband was willing to try and get between her and William. Alice would finally give way to the queen in Bella Swan who hugged him with tears flowing down her cheek, and William hugged the women back that he loved deeply, but he now knew he didn't love enough.
Following hugging his children deeply and his family that had come to greet him they walked through the second gate where the crowds of Lucerne awaited in massive throngs for their victorious king. William was obligated to go to a dinner hosted by many of the nobles of the city, and he held Bella and his children close as he remembered what it was like to be home again. Alice and Bella were able to get him away as quickly as possible and William would kiss his children goodnight before retiring to his room with Bella where the two would make love for the first time in months. As Bella fell asleep William coudn't sleep and left his room to find Alice waiting outside the door clearing close enough that she would have heard what had happened, but she doesn't seem to be bothered. Alice takes him into the library where William knows he is about to get in trouble from Alice.
"It is far past the time of continueing this affair. I gave you time sweet brother, but it must end. The people scream of your greatness, but soon the whispers of your affair will become louder, until the day comes that all the victories in the world wont shelter us from the noise."
Alice's agents had discovered increasing talk about William's affair with Brooke Scott, and this had her greatly worried as she had held onto the belief that it was nothing more then a fling, but having invited her to Westbridge she knew this was something beyond a fling. Alice told him that she had evidence that Brooke was once again contacting people looking for poison and although she had been unsuccesful so far it was just a matter of time until she found the supplies she was looking for. Hearing all this he promiced his sister who was crying and beggining him to do this for her, he promiced her that he would end things with Brooke, and told her he would leave within a few weeks to Tree Hill with Leven.
"What do you want from me Alice?"
"I want you to finally tell me if your going to do what is right."
"If you mean stop seeing Brooke I'm sorry sister but I cannot do that. She has ahold of something within me, and no matter how hard I try I cannot accept my life without her in it."
"It is far past the time of continueing this affair. I gave you time sweet brother, but it must end. The people scream of your greatness, but soon the whispers of your affair will become louder, until the day comes that all the victories in the world wont shelter us from the noise."
"How could people know about my relationship with Brooke."
"They know the same way that we know. You don't hide well. You called her to come to Westbridge? Did you honestly thing noone would notice the noble lady of House Scott coming to Westbridge and spending all of her time with the King."
"Maybe what people think isn't the end all for me Alice."
"It should be Will, but if your saying you need more I have more."
"What more could you have?"
"Morrigan reported to an agent of ours in the Green Dragon's that Brooke has entered into a number of poison shops. I can show you the letters, but the action speaks for itself."
"God Dammit!"
"William I'm sorry."
"Your not sorry. Don't you see that this breaks me? Dont you understand that without her I feel hollow."
"Think about Bella."
"If I didn't love Bella I would have divorsed her years ago and been with Brooke. Thats the problem. I do love Bella. I love her for everything she is, and I couldn't think of a more perfect wife."
"Then you need to forget about seeing Brooke."
William following this confrontation with Alice would go to the only person who he believed he could tell in the form of Leven Martell of whom would tell him how she sorry was about things, but as the conversation continued the weakness of William's emotional state came forward and he almost kissed Leven causing him to flee her room into the streets of the House Lovie estate. Finding himself out front of the home of Morrigan of whom he continued to have staying on the grounds he would knock on her door looking for her advise on things as for some reason he was drawn to her door (the reason being the Magi she was using on him driving him to seek her out.
"It was the last breathe of my life and I didn't even realize. I thought I had more time. I thought the glow of his love with keep me warm from that day forward, but I came to realize it was like the last glow of warm summer air on your skin. A cruel reminder of what you were soon to lose."
Brooke had departed from the main army alongside her brother Lucas at Stormwind, and travelled back to Tree Hill where she was rejuvinated. Her time over the past weeks with William were the best she had in years, and she finally remembered happiness. Lucas was happy for her despite knowing the consequences of what she was continuesly moving farther and farther into, but she wouldn't hear it and just couldn't stop smiling. When Brooke arrived back in Tree Hill she was barely able to stop herself from paying the driver more coin to get to see her children quicker, but when she did arrive she and her brother were met in the keep by the other members of their family, but most importantly to Brooke was the moment Riley ran to her, and Peyton carried Sigmund to her side. Settling back into life in Tree Hill she would meet with Morrigan of whom had become once again very close to her, and despite seeing a change in Morrigan she brushed it aside, and got closer to Morrigan. She would be tricked by Morrigan into visiting a shop that she didn't know what was, but it was done so that agents of the Order of the Green Dragon would see her enter, and thus report back to William that she was in fact entering a shop that specialized in poisons. Having framed Brooke of the attempted murder of Bella Swan Morrigan disapeared for a time, where in she was visited by Flemeth of whom gave her a new task which was to manipulate the situation that was coming from the arrival of the Man of Fear.
I went to open the door when I felt a pain so deep and so entirely in my body that I wondered whether I was dying. Was this how it would end? Would my life truly end walking to meet Lucas for a walk in the gardens? The pain became unbearable and I fell forward through the door onto the ground, which felt like water as I seemingly fell through it.
I don't know how long I was asleep but when I woke my face was in the dirt, and I coughed to remove it from my mouth. "Dear daughter you have truly made quite the mess of your dress." The horrible sound of her voice was enough to spring me from my coughing fit and bow beneath her as I had always been trained to do.
"Mother it is wonderful to see you. Where are we meeting?"
"I have pulled you into the fade sweet daughter. I'm sorry that you feel like death, but you must remember that you are dead."
"Yes of course mother. I am sorry for my failure in coming through." Her reminder of my death brought me back hundreds of years to the first time I had known what true life was like. Walking through the lush fields of northern Lucerne with my brothers I had known pure happiness then, and it was an insult to my brother's memory that I was this person now.
"Mention nothing of it Andrea, the time for apologies is over. I have a task for you." Sayin that sent chills down my spine. I wondered what it was like for a monster to do the bidding of a monster, because surely it would have been easier for her to convinse them. Then of course I remembered she didn't have to convinse me of anything. If she asked me to I would be helpless to do whatever she wanted, such was her control over me and my supposed sisters.
"What may I do for you mother?" I hated her. I wanted her to die, but what was I to do. Like a perfect soldier I couln't speak the words in anger towards her. It was simply not possible, the words just wouldn't come.
"You have become quite close to the Scott daughter I see."
"She is a friend yes. I have been ruining her reputation as you said to do, and it has led to many believing she is trying to kill Bella Swan. The King my great grand nephew visited just recently and told her he would never see her again." I wondered whether my beloved brother would even recegnize me when I went to heaven. Would he be waiting for me for the final fight against Aerene only to find me a ghost of myself.
"Thats very good work Ashley." She moved closer to me and pulled me up finally allowing me to stand in front of her, but I knew it was expected that I remained half bowed in her presence. Standing up though I was able to see that the Dark Man was in the corner, and seeing him this close frightened me. A man of nothing but pure evil, it was like an aura being sent around being this close to him, and I wished to remove myself from his proximity. "My daughter I need you to give Brooke these vials." She pulled vials from her cloak and handed them to me. "They will allow Mann von dunkler to see her perfectly in the Fade and quicken what might take longer then we have time for."
I had done this twice before and thus I was confused why we needed the vials. "Mother why do we need to quicken the pace. Surely the Man of Dark is capable of doing his job is he not." Despite insulting him he stood motionless and if he was insulted or could even feel that he made no motion to show it.
"No need to be rude to your brother Andrea." He was no brother to me. I had three brothers and none of them were this failure of a person. What ever he was once was gone, and now this Dark Man was nothing more then a shadow eating away at the light trying to taste whatever he once was. "The Lucernians are constructing a shield around the capital, and once that is done they plan to expand it out to other major cities of which one will surely be Tree Hill. If this should happen I don't have to tell you what would happen to your brother."
"They would surely kill him."
"They would murder your brother without a second thought." I smirked at him thinking on his death, but still he didn't say or do a thing that would indicate he was even awake. "So take these vials and do what you must do to make her drink them. Your brother will arrive within the days after this happens."
I wanted to kill her. I wanted with everything inside myself to step forward and plunge the dagger I held with a death grib into her heart. I could feel my arm shaking and thought to myself that perhaps one day I might be able too. This was the first time in my life that I felt an actual physical capability of stabbing her but I also knew that now was not the time she died. Now she got what she wanted. "Yes, Mother."
"Excellent." She stepped towards me kissing me on the forehead and then without another word she was gone, and I felt myself moving back over the veil back to the real world.
During this conversation between Morrigan and Flemeth some things changed that Flemeth in her arrogance did not see in that as Odin was continuing to release Morrigan from her corruption she nearly had gained the ability to stab Flemeth during the rage she had felt towards her "Mother". The second major change was the fact that she had in her own mind gained the ability to alter the commands of Flemeth which was something completely unimaginable before, and while she didn't fully realize it at the time it would be a dramatic change also. The final thing that changed was that Morrigan silently wanted to help her daughter Morrigan of whom she was coming to believe was her favorite behind only Halenia and in this regard she would return to the Korcani Wilds and have her devoted daughter Morhlese go back to Lucerne to watch Morrigan without saying anything and just help her where she could. Realizing that if Morhlese returned and secretly watched Morrigan she would discover that Morrigan was betraying the Korcani Wilds it would be Katarina that would request to go with Morhlese and wanting to send as much help for Morrigan as possible she would allow Katarina to go as well.
"The ride to Tree Hill was the most painful trip of my life. I had stood on the ramparts of Berne and known I was but minutes from possibly killing my only brother, and I didn't feel a quarter of the pain I felt travelling to say goodbye to the lvoe of my life."
William left nearly two months later from Lucerne in order to say goodbye to Brooke, and in the days preceding this it was clear to everyone that he was emotionally damaged by what he had to do. Jasper, Edward and Emmett had all nearly demanded to be there for their friend, but Edward was needed elsewhere, Emmett was dealing with problems in the west, and Jasper was needed to protect the household while he was gone so he refused them and took only Leven, alongside the hundreds of troops that would. Leven and William travelled by horseback with a troop of nearly two hundred House Lovie troops, and nearly the same number of Martell and Golden Dragon men. Travelling the road he would further confide in Leven of whom by this point was basically the only person who knew everything he had ever done, and was the only person he had never lied to about his actions. As they reached Tree Hill the two would tell eachother that they loved the other, and for Leven this caused her to cry and William held her to him. Leven at this point couldn't escape the constant ache in her heart over William, and begin in that moment to resist her earlier promice to herself that she would stop wanting to be with William. Following this Leven and William would compose themselves, and then she held his hand briefly as they entered the city that would always be a reminder of his greatest love, and greatest mistake.
Entering Scott estate he knew Dan wasn't there as he had commanded him to travel eastward to host a small squire tournmant in order to remove him from the city when he arrived, but waiting for him was Lucas and his beloved Brooke. Saying hellos to Lucas and the other assembled nobles he left Leven and walked with Brooke into the palace where they would hold hands once they were out of sight. Realizing there wasn't going to be anyway to soften the blow he got right into it not realizing that Leven had snuck into the palace grounds and was listening into their conversation while she had commanded a massive gaurd of the palace grounds to keep out anyone else from hearing. William would begin to cry as he spoke the words, and Brooke upon this enveloped him into a hug as well crying as she knew what he was here for the moment he had started crying. As William explained everything to her she broke down into tears even further and begged him not to leave her and promised him that she wasn't trying to kill Bella, but it was too late and she knew it. Brooke would tell him that she was pregnant once again with his child, and for a brief moment he thought about resisting what he knew he had to do, but as she kissed him he remembered the consequences of all of these things, and pulled away from the kiss and pulled her into a hug. Eventually pulling away from her he left the palace grounds and left behind him a broken Brooke Scott of whom lay unable to move against the side of the wall.
Goodbye Son
Sigmund Scott was too young to understand, but Riley was the oldest of his children behind Thomas and was very well aware of what his father was telling him.
"I think when they grow up they will believe that I didn't love them as I loved my children with Bella, but they would be wrong. i never loved or cared for any of my children anymore then another, and the distance between myself and my two boys in Tree Hill tore me apart."
Leaving behind a broken Brooke Scott William used all his remaining strength to enter the inner palace and find his two sons. Followed closely by Leven she stopped him in a hallway and as he tried to get away she just hugged him, and he broke for a moment hugging into her and not wanting to move. He didn't move it was Leven that released him and smiled kissing him on the lips before pulling him down the hallway towards the sounds of laughter. Finding Sigmund playing with Lucas and Haley Leven left to get Sigmund, and William bid all the servents leave. Haley, and Lucas left leaving father and son alone together one last time. Riley wanted to know what they would be doing together while he was in Tree Hill as whenever he visited he would spend time with Riley, but William was forced to tell him that this time he wasn't going to be able to, and really had just wanted to say goodbye to his son. Riley begin to cry realizing that this goodbye was more permenet as he saw Leven bring Sigmund into the room and William cradle Sigmund while staring into his eyes.
"Life is a cruel thing. You get up every single day of your life believing that you are doing something valable and that you are a good person. But what proof do we have of this other then the thoughts we tell ourselves, and the words said to us by those who want us to believe them. We are all monsters, and I became a monster when I walked out on my sons."
Riley and William would hug for many minutes, but finally he pulled himself away from another person he loved dearly kissing his two sons on the forehead before leaving the room, and Tree Hill for the last time. Riley would get his brother and find his mother of whom he knew would be in the garden as that was where she always went when she was broken by things like this. Finding her still crying in the garden he felt anger towards his father for not being stronger, but at the same time he blamed Bella Swan of whom by this point Dan Scott had been whispering about for many months. Anger towards Bella and Alice for forcing his father to do this, and for the first time he openly stated his desire to see Bella dead. And in the end anger towards everyone for not loving him as much as others who were no more deserving then he was of love.
Death of Brooke
"It was like looking at the most horrifying creature imagineable in your mind. It had no face that I could understand other then the hate filled eyes that just stared back at me. He whispered to me in my mind telling me darker and darker things. I begged him to leave. I pleaded for him to just tell me what he wanted, and when he told me I wished I had never asked. He told me I had to die, and that he wouldn't ever leave until I was dead. Needless to say I knew I had to see William. He would save me."
When Brooke returned to the alchemist three days later she found the potion ready for her, but as she walked out of the house she ran into a man clothed completely in black robes, and wearing a mask that showed nothing but the outline of his pure red eyes. This scared her, and she screamed to the crowd for them stop the man, and the crowd couldn't see him so they attacked a man that was just standing by her, and nearly killed him to protect Brooke. As she watched the Dark Man just stood there and watched. He followed her home, and she attempted to get him away but as she did this she realized that she was the only that could see him. She knew that if this was Magi related the only person who might be able to help her was Morrigan so she ran to find her all the while being followed by the Dark Man. When she arrived at the home of Morrigan she could clearly see him, but Morrigan played it off as if she couldn't and this sealed the fate of Brooke's sanity. Staying with Morrigan for a time she was held close by Morrigan of whom was trying to tell her it was just stress and not to worry about it, but on the inside she was dying as she knew the fate of Brooke was all but sealed with the arrival of the Dark Man, and noone capable of seeing him.
"When Morrigan couldn't see him, it was like an alarm went off in my mind that told me what I had feared all along. I was insane. Somewhere along the line I had lost my mind trying to kill Bella. I knew in that moment that this was once again something I could overcome. I could ignore him. I could accept that he wasn't actually there, and I could move past this."
She from that point on refused to accept he was there and went about her next days attempting to ignore him, but he begin to threaten those close to her, and she became scared once again to the point that she fled from him as fast as she could before she would take a carriage northward. She at first thought she had gotten away from him, but when she arrived in Lucerne she saw him waiting in the center of the gate, and knew that her time was almost gone. She entered Lucerne and when she reached the Cloud Tower she was met at the entrance by Alice Lovie of whom had had heard of her arrival in the town, and had moved to keep it a secret. Alice would take Brooke into the Sky Towers, and the two would finally get another chance at attacking eachother. The two would at first trade jabs at eachother verbally but as the fight continued and Bella arrived the fight became physical as Brooke physically attacked Brook of whom was the point of all of her rage, and the main reason that she was in the position that she was in. As this happened Emmett McCarty barged in and was able to get Brooke under control, and got her out of the Skytowers, and towards the Kings Keep where William was. Emmett knew how much Brooke meant to William and he did his best to keep her under control and safe as they moved towards the Kings Keep, and along the way he attempted to send for Leven but she wasn't in the city as she had travelled home briefly to Sunspear Hold.
"I thought that when I found him he would take out his sword and kill the Dark Man. I believed that the Dark Man would be gone once I found him, but when I opened my eyes and saw him I realized how wrong I was."
As she arrived at the Kings Keep she found William standing at a table surrounded by both Jasper Hale, and Robb Starke. As she approached completely in tears he took her into his arms and took her into a side room. In the room she continued to cry, and he couldn't get her to explain what was wrong, and it was as this was happening that she opened her eyes and saw that the Dark Man was in the room with them. This time when she saw him she didn't cry out or try and get away from him, she just accepted that she was gone. In that moment she looked away from the Dark Man and back to the William, and she would smile at him before kissing him on the lips. The two would be intimate one more time, before she said her goodbyes to him, and when he tried to follow her, he was stopped by Alice Lovie of whom didn't want him to get in trouble with the people if they saw what was happening. Watching her walk away was one of the toughest things he had ever done, but what happened next would be far more painful to not just William but to many people throughout the valley.
Brooke's death would send ripples throughout the entire Kingdom of Lucerne.
"I left the Kings Keep and just walked. I walked through the gates of Lucerne, and into the fields beyond. I don't know how long I walked before I finally saw him again. When I did he made a movement that told me to follow him. When I did follow him he took me to a waterfall I had heard William tell me about once before. He didn't have to tell me what to do I knew already. I don't remember quite what I said in my final goodbye to William but as I punged over the side of the waterfall I felt free of the Dark Man for the first time in a long time."
Brooke would leave the Kings Keep and walk for nearly an entire day before finally the Dark Man brought her towards a waterfall where he waited beside her for her to kill herself. Brooke in that moment took off the necklase that William had given her all those years before, and held it close to herself for a time before she finally set it down on the ground beside what she assumed would be the site that they would believe she jumped from. When she finally did jump off the side she carried with her the curse he had done to her, and in this moment she became a "Daughter of Flemeth".
A Desperate Gamble
Something has to change here. Were dying a slow death unless we do something out of the box.
"Everything was looking up from what people saw. They saw us taking the Riverlands, overrunning the bridge. But all I saw was the goliath in the north. They sat destroying everything and anything they wanted seemingly at will. How long could we last in that conflict. How long could all of our strength hold out against the endless fanatasasim of the Teutons. I had to change things. I had to make it different."
Following the continueing growth in conflict with the Kingdom of Bolten William Lovie begin to come to the conclusion that he had to do something drastic or he risked watching all the good he'd done come crashing down around him. He had been constantly reading the diaries of his ancestors and from the writings of his great grandfater William Lovie I. he learned that the Dragon had changed everything. He came to believe that the success of House Lovie in the beggining was based on more then just the skill of William and that he needed the same trump card. William Lovie would summon from the Order of the Dragon Taylor Swift of whom he knew through Edward Cullen, and he grilled her for the truth on what the Dragons were really doing in the mountains. Taylor Swift would reveal to him that only the most senior of the Order had ever actually seen a dragon, and that she would summon a man of whom could tell him the truth of what they were. When he went to the shadow Council and told them that he planned on going to the Lucernian Mountains and attempting to meet with the Dragons, and from this he would bring them back into the fold. At first the others were so shocked by what he had said that they didn't take it seriously but when he didn't laugh along with them they begin to understand the truth that he in fact wasn't joking. At first noone spoke or even moved but after minutes of silence Jasper got up from the table and begin to become very angry that Andrew would even contimplate something so stupid.
Bella Swan would be unwilling to accept his decision as she believed this had to do with William missing Brooke.
"What could possibly be gained with your suicide? I honestly want to know what frame of thought your going through that makes you think you can just check out on us."
After the argument of the Shadow Council Jasper went back to his room with Alice where he begin throwing things around the room which obviously brought about the attention of his fiance Alice Lovie. When Jasper told Alice about what was happening she immediatly knew that she was partly to blame for this as she had told him during the trip back that he was as great as William Lovie, and that anything he had done would pale in comparison to what he would eventually be remembered for. Realizing this she immediatly left the room with Jasper - who was shocked that Alice had just up and left - and went upstairs to Andrew's room where she walked in on Andrew and Bella in the middle of having sex. Seeing this was the first of what would become a growing problem for Alice as she begin to accept some simple truths in her life that she had never allowed herself to accept before.
Telling Alice the Truth
"What do I say to him. How do I make him see that he need not die. For longer then I could remember I had seen my brother do anything he ever put his mind to, and thus was this one of those impossible things that maybe he could accomplish. If he was succesful the postives were unending...but...but if he failed."
When Bella had removed herself from William and they were properly clothed she sat down on the edge of the bed and apoligized to William for telling him what she had, and she begged him not to go through with the Dragon plan. Bella stood beside him, but she to wanted to know why William would be so absolutely reckless. Bella went through the lists of things that gave them an advantage in any upcoming conflict, and by this point Alice was tearing up but still attempting to help Bella by also saying all the positives of a future conflict with the Empire. William explained to the two of them that the situation was hopeless in the long run unless they did something drastic and he could only think of doing this. He had taken out cities, and annexxed half of western Westros but he still was nothing more then a peanut in comparison to the power of the larger Empires in Europe. The three of them argued back and forth for some time and finally Ashley would appear at the door and she had a bad dream, and wanted them to get her a drink. Bella would leave to help Ashley with that, and when she did William reached for Alice and pulled her into a hug and whispered to her the words that force her to take his side of the coming debate.
"I love you sister. I love you more then words could ever acurately state, and once upon a time I made a promise to you that I would keep you safe from everything in the world that could ever do you harm. For me this is the purpose. I can't keep you safe anymore without taking risks. The days are running short, and I can't fathom a world where I have to even contimplate your fall. I won't ever allow that to happen. So the next time you question my resolve or wonder whether you can talk me out of it remeber this. I go to the mountains not so that I can ride some dragon, or build a greater reputation. I ride to the mountains because this is how I keep you safe."
With the words said by William there was a sence of understanding between the siblings and she would help him to convinse Bella of the reasonings behind the decision, and despite wanting to believe that her husband could sucede where it seemed noone could Bella was not willing to accept his death and refused to agree but would support him. Bella would return carrying a sleeping Ashley of whom they laid in their bed, and then went out to the balcony. The three of them would talk, and this time Alice now supported him, and after basically being double teamed for many minutes William went inside to check on Ashley and Bella and Alice spoke, and Bella wondered what he could have said to her to make her agree to this. Alice refused to tell the truth, and instead simply made excuses for William and Bella left frustrated.
Keenclaw would be the only one of William's companions that followed him into the mountains.
"I flew to the top of that peak with nothing but a prayer at my back and the hope that a legacy only written about was true."
With the decision made and everyone basically giving up on resisting him outside of Jasper who was following him night and day in an attempt to atleast join him, William knew that the time had come. He simply needed Taylor Swift to come through for him and bring the man of the Order of the Dragon to tell him where he needed to fly to in order to find the Dragons. Days after the arguements and of Jasper following him, and Taylor arrived back in the city this time bringing Valian Kone of whom would meet with William after he commanded Draco Highmore to create a brief task for Jasper that would give William a few moments to meet in secret with the man. Once Jasper was occupied he would make his way to the Sky Towers esates where he met with Valian, and Valian would reveal to him the truth of the mountains. Valian told him about how the Dragons were barely ever seen but they had several nesting areas, and Valian would tell the king the location of two of them of which would allow William to find them, but he did warn him not too. William would convince Levan to trick Jasper into believing that William was going somewhere else when in fact he was leaving. The moment that William watched Levan take Jasper away from the Sky Towers he left a letter behind with Hayden Percy for Alice, Bella and Levan along with the Shadow Council before he got on Keenclaw and begin his flight to the north. His letters had told him that William Lovie had once travelled to the home of Stragnarax on his back and had said that the markings for the home of the Dragons of the mountains was marked by a large monolith some sixty feet high and glowing black.
Brooke Scott returned under dark reasonings, but in her soul she and William's love allowed her to pass through the Magi defences erected against her kind.
"There she was. She was just right there, and yet in that moment my mind still told me that I was seeing things. I had to be mad. Had to be crazed. She had fallen into darkness and now this was my mind creating what I believed she would be in this way."
As he flew he thought back over all the things that he had done, and contimplated the last minute decisions he had left in the letters and finally as he flew he saw a Black creature flying to him. In the distance he didn't know if perhaps this was one the dragons, but everything he had read and when Jacob had discussed them they were clearly white creatures. Seeing it coming closer he saw it to be a sort of horse with wings, and it carried a female rider clothed in robes. As they got closer he was horrified and shocked to see the rider to be Brooke Scott, he let go of the reigns in shock. Keenclaw kept steady as they flew upwards into the sky without William guiding Keenclaw, and the Griffin in an angry snarl trying to attack the Black pegasus that Brooke was riding on. Seeing Brooke nearly shattered all the control that William had been building up since her death, and as he reached out for her she calmed him with gesture. William nearly wept at the sound of her voice as they spoke, and she revealed to him that she wasn't just coming this one time but in fact he could find her again, and that all he had to do was think about where she might be in the mountains.
She looked just like herself but different in a way. Her spoke to me in a way that said that she was changed in some unspeakable way. "Brooke...how...could this...are you really here?" I didn't know what else to say in that moment. She continued to fly beside me and she looked at me with what seemed like the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"I'm here William. I've never left you, and I never will." She said it but even in her eyes we both knew it wasn't the way it was. This was a dream my mind created in what I must have felt were my final moments. How could this be true. She was dead.
"Its all so impossible without you Brooke...I don't want to fight anymore without you." The world was fighting against me at all sides. It was one thing taking the Riverlands, and dealing with the constant rebellions of that land, but when I took Westbridge it just opened us up to so many enemies. Now at war with the Boltens I just wanted to hold her and feel better.
"You have to William. You don't have a choice you need to fight. You need to fight for what we were." The past tense of it all just burned me. I wanted to change everything and was quickly realizing that the hopes of a child.
"I'm not just fighting one thing anymore. Its everyone now. All around me are my enemies and without you I just don't see...I just can't see anything of hope anymore."
"You are fighting for me Will. You are fighting for my memory every single moment you resist. Our children live only while you fight."
"They are so beautiful Brooke. Every time I look at Riley I see only you. He is a constant reminder of what I threw away, and sometimes....sometimes it takes everything in me not to send him away to remove the pain of seeing you in him."
"I'm still here William."
"Then stay with me. Prove you are here by staying with me now."
"It won't work that way Will. I will be here for you, but not that way."
"But its all so hollow without you here." I saw a tear fall down her cheek, and the moment it did I noticed its red tinge as if it was blood, and the moment it fell her hand recoiled to her cheek and the Pegasus begin thrashing about causing her eyes to panic. As he calmed herself the residue of the tear remained on her cheek as she spoke again.
"I'm sorry I had to leave you and I'm sorry I can't stay longer but know that this is what you need to do, and know that I'll be here for you." Her Pegasus started to pull away before I could ask her why her tears were blood or why she looked so scared, and my hands seemed unable to move to find the reigns so I yelled to her.
"How will I find you again?" In that moment there were so many things I wanted to yell but that seemed the most prudent.
"Search your mind William and you'll know the place to find me." It seemed after she responded my eyes closed with little control from me, and when I was able to open them she was gone as if she was never there.
As Brooke flew away the world seemed to snap back into focus as instead of feeling sad that she was gone, he felt the hope from the fact that she had said that he would see her again, and even if he believed her an illusion of his mind he somehow was okay with that. What man or women wouldn't want to see their loved ones again even if they were gone he thought. By this point Jasper realized that the things Leven had sent him to do were completely trickery and William wasn't where she said he would be, and the two would come together and get on their Griffins and attempt to find William before he was too far out.
The Monolith
"The collapsed Monolith would turn out to be quite the forshadowing for the Dragon culture that I would find at the end."
So caught into his own thinking was he that he only barely noticed the large black monolith the writings had spoken of. The Monolith was knocked down as if spit in half, and as he landed he sat for a moment on the ground before getting up. As he walked followed by Keenclaw he was alerted by Keenclaw to the arrival of Jasper and Levan who flew in behind him on their griffins. Wondering immediatly about whether his meeting with Brooke had been noticed this fear went away when Jasper responded that they had flew with all speed and only saw him finally when he was sitting on the ground. Realizing that he wasn't going to be able to convinse them to leave and silently happy to have his friends with him they walked forward towards very likely death. Jasper scouted ahead accompanied by Brightclaw the littermate of Keenclaw. While he scouted ahead Leven would try to get William to tell him what had happened, and despite his reservations about being thought to be insane he told Leven about seeing Brooke and despite the fact that she didn't think Brooke was actually there she held his hand as they walked to make him understand that she was there for him. He would give her a tender kiss as they walked and despite knowing why he had done it she couldn't help but wish it was for the romantic reasons that she wanted to kiss him
The Mad God
Main Article : Conversations
William had truly from the very beggining believed that if he was able to find the Dragons then everything would be alright. He had not taken into account that for centuries they had been being targeted by humans, and their particular dragons had been brutally betrayed by John Lovie.
"You never think that the thing that you have held so high in your praises will turn out wrong. A society. A culture. A Kingdom. An entire people spent their entire history worshipping at the feet of a memory. That memory turned out completely wrong when confronted with the reality."
As they walked forward holding hands they walked over the hill and saw Jasper flying towards them chased by an absolutely massive Dragon. Falling back over the hill they ran the other way only to find another dragon fly behind them and cut them off. The sides were then closed by more human sized creatures that were weaponized and didn't have wings but looked distinctly dragonoid. Falling back into a small circle they were joined by Jasper, and they watched the dragons approach them, and waited when the largest amongst them steps towards them and demands to know why they are here before they are killed. As Stragnarax nears them he visably recoils as he relizes that William Lovie's ancestor is amongst them and demands to know what kind of horrible taint William has since he is a decendent of the one that killed the honorable William Lovie I. William attempts to convinse him of his honor but Stragnarax throughout the conversation shows signs of madness and is unable to be convinsed and is unable to be persuaded to let them live and prepares to kill the group when Lornax arrives and stands between his father and the group. Not willing to kill his son he roars to the sky before flying away leaving Lornax, Flarnax and many Draknoids.
Fairmarket. The Riverlands. Lorderon, and Kul Tiras. Westbridge. All had fallen to our might. All had sworn the sword to the Valley of Lucerne. All that power, and yet I looked north and saw a great demon the likes of which I could not hope to resist. The Empire was the reason for growth. The Empire was the reason for everything we did. The Empire was the land that should have done great things for the world, but instead of this they did nothing. They allowed chaos to breed amongst them, and in that weakeness and failing they threatened to ruin the entire continent.
We stood in a triangle trying to make sure we covered all sections, but looking in front of me a this massive creature I couldn't contimplate survival. Its wings flapped and they had to go almost for ever, and the cruel look in its eyes made me question everything we had ever been told about the Dragons. As I stood staring at it I held my hands in the air to try and show it I meant no harm. Seemed prudent to tell the monstracity in front of me that I wasn't capable of hurting it but this was all I knew I could do. As I did this the Dragon's head which was twice the size of me fell back and a booming sort of laughter came out. Looking around the more human appearing dragons did not move or make any sign that they were going to so I spoke outloud. "We mean you no harm. We are friends of the Dragon." The Dragon stopped its laughter and moved closer to me staring almost as if it knew me. Leven nudged at my cloak, and I knew what she was suggesting so I grabbed onto my back and pulled off my cloak which held the sigil of House Lovie in the form of our dragon. "You see my family honors you with your image on our sigil."
Seeing the sigil the dragon made a step backwards before speaking. Its voice was frightening in its scale but at the same time if you closed your eyes you would have barely known it wasn't human. "I know your family well human. I suppose the man one destroyed the images of me while he destroyed everything else that was good of your people." Moving closer I felt a gnawing at my mind before I heard his voice in my head. "I know who you are William Lovie third of his name, son of Bill Lovie. You are the great-grandson of the man that murdered my child." Saying those words I knew immediatly that despite the imposibility of what he was telling me this was Stragnarax the ancient mount of William Lovie my original namesake.
"My great-grand father was a mad man...and I cannot believe that you would think we are all like he was. You Will..."
"You shall not speak his name. He was beyond anything you could ever understand. Perfection in everything he did, that man simply wanted his family and friends, and the people he protected to have the best of everything he could offer them. And what did that get him and his son. Death. Their honor got them death from your blood. You stand here and it is as if I stare at the ghost of William himself. It is a travesty that someone as tainted as you should have his looks."
"All I can say is that the mistakes of my great-grandfather are beyond apology, but I would like to have the chance to prove what I am capable of...what together we could be capable of." He gave another throat-ed cough, but this time he looked behind him and though I saw nothing he clearly did as he shook his head.
"I swore the day your blood killed mine that I would never enter that tainted city again unless I was going to burn the entire city to the ground." It was a common question among the scholars of my people. Why had the great Stragnarax not intervened and stopped John? Why had he not taken revenge? Why had he not done so many things.
"Why didn't you?"
"Every ounce of my being wishes to destroy everything in that blighted city but...but a man I trusted and loved made me promise once that I would never harm it. He made me promice to protect Lucerne, and to never cause it harm. He never made me promice to protect you though. " A mighty chill went down my spine as I was threatened by a creature that William had wrote had been alive for the creation of our world itself. Old beyond counting was this creature and I was in its sights.
"I am a part of Lucerne."
"A destructive and cruel part." Leven had ahold of my shoulder and I knew she could feel that Stragnarax was not going to see reason. I knew she wanted me to look back at her, but a part of me couldn't believe it would end this way.
"You cannot know that." I wanted to believe that I wasn't destructive but in my short time as King of Lucerne I had done my share of destruction. It had a purpose, but it was destructive none the less.
"I have seen gods. I have watched demons blot out the sky. I have seen extinction of races, and the near destruction of my own. I can see your mind human, and I see death."
"I'm sorry for everything that..." I felt the gnawing at my mind and he returned to speaking to me mentally.
"Its over human. Its time to meet your Glaurung and see what your capable of in the afterlife." I wanted to say something. Say anything really. Try and make him stop, but looking into his eyes you could just see how lost he was. Completely lost in bad memories, and regret and there was nothing I could do to repair what had been done to him in the past.
He opened his mouth and I watched as the fire billowed out of its mouth and came towards me, and looking back at Leven, and Jasper I smiled knowing I was surrounded at the end by loved ones. As I waited for the end a massive crash came in front of me knocking me onto Leven and flinging us into the snow. Getting myself up I checked to make sure Leven, and Jasper were alright before turning around and seeing another dragon between us and Stragnarax. You could still see Stragnarax behind him so large was he, but this new white dragon was still massive in its own right.
Stragnarax moved forward attempting to get by the smaller dragon, but the smaller one pushed his wings out pushing back Stragnarax who let out a hiss of a noise which forced us to cover our ears it was so loud.
For minutes they circled each other. No noises but the occasional hiss from Straganarax, but from the way he had talked before I believe they could somehow choose who they were speaking to in some incredible way. And then suddenly from behind us another Dragon dropped from the sky and without a sound moved to stand beside the other Dragon that was seemingly standing between us and certain death. With the arrival of the second dragon I felt clawing in my mind again and saw Leven fall to my right as she held her head.
"Leven!" I grabbed her by the shoulders holding her up.
"I feel something in my mind William." Jasper came and held her up as well, but he showed no signs of feeling anything, although knowing him he could be in any kind of pain and we would never know the difference.
"It's alright Leven. It's the Dragon." I'm not sure that was comforting but at least she knew now why the feeling was happening. I was shook by the feeling of flapping as Stragnarax smashed his wings on the ground before pushing the two smaller dragons out of the way and standing right in front of me.
"Your here for death human." His face moved so close to mine that I could see the scales all of his face, and the way crystals somehow dotted pieces of the scales making him look like some expensive merchants garb.
"I am here for this valley. I am here to keep us all safe from anything that would harm us." He hissed again at me.
"Your murderous great grandfather once thought the same way. I thought he was a good person as well. I thought he wanted to keep everything in the valley safe. I was wrong with him, but I will not watch as trusting another of your kind gets my people murdered."
"We need each other. Surely you see in this new world we can work amazing things if only we work together for the common good."
"I will give you this warning because my children have so foolishly deemed you worthy of protection." Looking around him at the two smaller dragons at least I knew who they were now, and which side they were on. "If you return here I will kill you. If you return here I will burn your body and drop you over the city I watched your ancestor build."
I wanted to say something. Once again I found no time though as the moment I had opened my mouth his massive wings pushed out and he flew into the sky moving deeper into the mountains.
"I had spent my entire existence hearing about the humans madness and violence but in this young human I saw nothing but hope. He was what would bring us out of the darkness and back to the light."
— Lornax
Lornax and Flarnax would attempt to better understand the reasoning behind why William had risked everything to come here, and why they should listen. William was able to come to a sort of understanding with the curious Lornax of whom he convinced he was no harm too and he simply wanted to regain what had been lost between the Dragons and the humans of Lucerne. Flarnax would make the argument that the days of the dragon were sliding away and if nothing changed they would be wiped out. Lornax would agree and they both said that if the time came for trouble or they needed help then they would be able to count on the White Dovah by their side. William as they were leaving made Lornax and Flarnax aware that the Dragons were rising in the east under the Empire of Dragonstone, and that these dragons appeared to be of the Red Dovah but were not led by a very large dragon as the White were. Lornax was shocked that the Red Dovah were reintegrating with the humans and this would lead to even more discussion of the need for the White Dovah to join with Lucerne, but both Dragons made it sadly clear that it would take time for the relationship to return to what it was, but the two of them were with Lucerne.
"I had known him for basically my entire life, and the ghost I had seen since she died was something different. Since Brooke Scott had died he had smiled just as much, but the smiles were not the true smiles of the love of my life. He smiled out of memory. He smiled because that's what he knew he was supposed to do, and not because he wanted to. But standing here holding his hand as he looked at me smiling I saw him again."
Return of Riley Scott
"Taking on mistresses. Sons coming home. The love of my life returning. What a confusing time."
William travel to Forks on their way back to Lucerne from Fairmarket. On the boat ride back after a long talk with Morrigan, she takes matters into her own hands and finally reveals to William that she wants him in what ever way she can have him, and despite his marriage he sleeps with Leven. Arriving in Forks they are met on the docks by Charles Swan of whom they talk with for a time, but this ends when Riley Scott arrives alone on horseback, and wishes to return with them to Lucerne for a time. Riley reveals to him that Dan Scott is conspiring to make him and heir and he loves his family and doesn't want to see them come to harm through the menipulations of Dan Scott. Leven goes with William as he talks with Riley, and after Riley leaves with Thomas for a while he tells her that he is amazed at the changes in his son, and as they watch as he spends time with Thomas, and longs to see his three oldest sons become friends. Leven once again talks to Morrigan of whom congratulates her on gaining William in the way she did, and Leven shocked to know Morrigan knew begins to take Morrigan into her confidence revealing the arrangement she offered William and he seemingly agreed to.
Meeting a Daughter
I am so sorry my daughter. I would have never abandoned you had I of known.
"Roslin do you think my mother is sorry. Do you think when she looks back at what happens here she will look back at it with sorrow. I wonder Roslin if she will look upon any of this as anything other then an annoying setback."
— Lucie Lovie
Following the attempted Coup in Stor Roslin Stor XII. would return to the capital with Lucie Lovie of whom told her everything she could about her life, and everyone was called to a council where they were told that they had the oldest child of the King of Lucerne in their hands. Following this discovery there were many in the council who begin saying they should barter her to the Lucernians, and this charge would be led heavily by Terad Ereham who had been implicated in the Coup attempt but had returned to the fold after its defeat. Roslin argued that if they did that William had shown he would never forgive the slight, and the weak willed Terad wilted under the pressure of Roslin's words and agreed with her idea of simply giving Lucie to the Lucernians asking nothing in return. The failure here of Terad to gain anything would further poison the mind of his son Tristifer Ereham III. to his father and would be the final straw which led to Tristifer turning completely on his father and taking control of House Ereham.
"My King I have a letter for you. My King the letter is said to be from a High Lady of Stor. She says shes writing in regards to your daughter Lucie."
While Lucie Lovie was being sent to Storhold and the letter was on its way to Lucerne the situation in Lucerne would be quite peaceful as the royal family prepared for the birth of another child of the main branch through Bella Swan and William Lovie, but as this was happening the lessening of the corruption of Morrigan would lead to a major reveal. William
Arrival in Westbridge
"I looked out over the side of the boat to the docks and saw a crowd larger then anything I had seen in a long while. Nobles, and their men all crowded around, and my first thought was what they were doing. My first thought was never that they were there waiting for me. It just didn't make sence."
Running From a Monster
"You have to die."
— Viggo Vortisson
Arrival in Fairmarket
"When we return Lucie I want you to understand one thing above everything else. Our distance. The time we spent apart. I wish that I could take it all back and you could be right by my side. The people you meet in Lucerne, they are by and large good people, but they all have their own wishes and desires. Some will see you as a marriage target. Some will see you as a threat. Whatever happens, and whatever is said I want you to know one thing. You are my daughter. You are my daughter and I love you."
Leven and William await with many of his children as the boat of Lucie Lovie pulls into the Fairmarket dock, and she consoles him as he gets nervous about seeing her. As she arrives before he can say anything of any real substance she is taken into a hug by Ashley Lovie of whom is followed by Thomas, and William also hugging her but Riley stands back beside William and is unwilling to hug this new claim to the throne. William decides on the advise of Lucie that they will return to Lucerne as quickly as possible and Leven and William stay the night together and then after that returning by caravan back to Lucerne. The second half of the chapter is their journey back to Lucerne.
Second Arnor War
Main Article : Second Arnor War
This right here is a line. If you cross that line my friend we are going to have issues. Stay away from Arnor. Leave it to its own devises and our two nations can have peace...If you threaten them, then I'm going to threaten you....It is that simple.
The Depression of Rachel Richardson
Death took over my whole life. I couldn't see my children anymore. All I could see was visions of what he looked like out their on the field of battle. Tell me how I move on without dying.
Rachel's Assassination Attempt
Main Article : Rachel's Assassination Attempt of William
— Rachel Richardson
Rachel Richardson would be emotionally destroyed when Marcel Lovie was killed during the expedition into Arnor, and she would try and confront William on her belief that it was his fault that Marcel was dead, but when she arrived at his room he was crying with Alice over the deaths of not just Marcel but of Natalie of whom they believed was dead as well. Seeing his pain broke her further and she would devise a plan to kill William who she believed was responsible for the death of Marcel, and putting this together she got inside the Sky Towers where she tried to assassinate the two but found that William was prepared in an event known as Rachel's Assassination Attempt of William. Following the success and failure of her attempt she was banished from the Kingdom of Lucerne and sent to a place of her choosing she would go to the Kingdom of Lahmia where she hoped that distance would help her recover from what had happened to her.
Death of Bella Swan
She was the queen. You murdered the queen of the Kingdom. What am I to do with you?
"I have loved her since the first time I laid eyes on her sweet sister. But the truth is. The truth of the matter is that I love others. It took me a long time to understand that doesn't diminish what I feel for my wife. It doesn't diminish what I had with Amber, or Britney. It doesn't take a thing from what exists between you and I. Its really quite simple sister. I love them all."
William Lovie III. would first be warned of the danger to Bella Swan early in her pregnancy after she became very sick and would have died had not Edward Cullen been able to intervene, but this was believed by William to be an attempt on her life by assassins of the Order of the Raven so he put his energy into stopping them believing he knew who was at fault.
Bella Dies
"We have another child soon my sweet king. This child will be a beacon of hope for the people of this land, and I love you so much Will for loving me this much."
With the pregnancy coming quickly Bella would be taken into the birthing room, and while she was in the birthing room Riley would make his last visit to her. While William, and the others were briefly out of the room meeting with her father Bella would ask Riley to give her some water and when he obliged he would put more poison into her water and with noone in the birthing room she would drink the poison not knowing the consequences of drinking.
Confronting the Truth
Coming to the realization that Riley murdered Bella he is forced to confront his son alongside Alice and the two are shocked when Riley admits to the murder right away.
When I was a young man I thought everything in my life would go a certain way. I would squire for a great knight, and he would put his sword to my shoulder one day and tell me I was now a true dragon knight. I would marry a beautiful girl that loved me, and together we would have a happier family then the one I remembered most days. I would rule the kingdom as a fair king, and the land would prosper. I was never squired because my father kept me in Lucerne for my childhood. I married a beautiful girl and had children with not only her but three other girls of which ultimately led to her death. My rule had definetly prospered the kingdom, but as the tally of my actions grew I begin to question how fair I am.
I walked with William and he held my hand as we moved down the hallway. Moving my hand to the door I looked back to see Will had followed me and it took only a small nod of the head from me to make him turn back. In my heart I didn't want to believe what was being said. I didn't believe it but just in the tiniest bit of reality that it was true I didn't want Will to have to stand there and watch his brother become a monster. My own brother had tried to rape me. Tried to kill me. My own brother had done that and William had still yet to recover from the damage of knowing what Sean was capable of. I couldn't let junior carry around that pain the way my poor William had too.
I must have been staring at the door handle longer then I thought because William's hand reached down gently holding my hand and moving it out of the way before turning the handle and opening the door to whatever this would turn to be. Walking down the hall I had this terrible feeling already, but the moment I saw Riley sitting at a chair reading something in me just knew.
"Son I need to ask you something." Riley must have been so enthralled in his book that William speaking caused him to jump a bit before a smile crossed his face at seeing William, and he turned to his father. "I need you to promise me son, that when I ask you that you will be honest. You will be true. And you will not be offended by the question."
There was no hesitation in Riley in answering William. "Of course father." William pulled a chair up from behind Riley and sat beside him before placing his arm to Riley's shoulder. I was well back, but I honestly felt in the moment this calm wash over me. Riley was so peaceful that this must just be some mistake.
"Do you know anything about what happened to Bella?"
"Of couse I do father."
"Riley tell us what you know."
Riley looked so confused as he stared at William. He looked briefly to me as if I would provide him some anwser to whatever was causing him confusion, but now I knew the truth and I was horrified. "I thought you already knew."
"Knew what son?"
"I made her go away."
"Made her go away?"
"I made it as pain free as I could." I could feel it all fall apart as I just lunged at him. I felt my hand connect with his face, but before I could strike him a second time William was on me holding me close to himself.
I was screaming. I don't really know what, but I was screaming. But as everything fell apart and I felt William's arms tighten around me holding me still I caught a look of Riley. He was so confused. He just didn't have anything on his face that said that he knew what he did.
Following this he is forced to banish his son Riley to Lorderon and following this he discovers Leven is pregnent with his child causing him to marry Leven in order to not father a bastard child, and the two are married shortly afterwards only weeks following Bella Swan's death.
Return of the Dragons
During the weeks following his marriage to Leven Martell Lornax the White Dovah arrives in the city and gives him one dragon egg for each of his children although there are two extra which confuses even William of whom does not know these two children and becomes fanatical about finding them.
Following the death of Bella Swan Alice Lovie realizes once again that her romantic feelings for her brother are coming out, and her decision is to leave the capital for a time while her brother spends time with his new betrothed Leven Martell, and she leaves the capital for northern Italy. Her arrival in northern Italy is met by great enthusiasm by the northern Roman provinces of whom see what happened with Ravenna as something they are interested in, and she settles with a large force of Lucernians outside of Venetia of whom grants them the stay.
Council of Venetia
Alice Lovie would host the Council of Venetia with the leadership of the four largest towns, and centers of power in northeastern Italy in the form of Milan, Turin, Venetia, and the fortress of Genoa.
Founding of Tyrol
Following the success of the Council of Venetia Alice would move her court from the camps outside of Venetia to the site of what would become Tyrol.
Main Article : Alice Lovie's Relationships
Bill Lovie - Father
Lisa Tyrell - Mother
William Lovie III. - Brother
Tristan Lovie - Brother
Diane Portmane - Half Sister
Natalie Portmane - Half Sister
Jamie Portmane - Half Brother
Emma Bell - Cousin
Sophia Lovie - Cousin
Michelle Trachtenburg - Cousin
Kristen Trachtenburg - Cousin
Lucie Lovie - Niece
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