Wyn only hesitated for a moment when she heard the high-pitched noise screech through the air, sending shivers up her spine and launching her adrenaline into overdrive. She knew that whistle, it was a signal that they had used in times of trouble since they were children.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she became aware of the threats around them as she hadn't been before and she grabbed Caelur, who had not worn his weapons that night, pulling him down and to the side as she drew one sword. She continued the movement, catching a blade that had been meant for him and booting the attacker in the chest. The kick was hard and vicious, sending the man flying into the dazed and startled crowd that had not yet begun to realize the threats around them. There was stunned, useless silence despite Nerini's yells somewhere in the distance, calling for Guards, telling everyone to get out of the way.
Wyn didn't see Nerini but knew that she didn't have time to look for her friend as the fight began around her and the others, on the dance floor, noting grimly that they were surrounded.
She didn't hesitate past that, tossing Caelur her drawn sword as he straightened before pulling her other one out, along with a dagger from her boot. She turned to meet another sword with an overhead cross as the sounds of shrieks and yells and the screech of metal on metal picked up around them. Distantly, the sound of people running for the door filtered through her awareness as she continued to counter the slashes and thrusts coming at her.
Beside her Caelur caught a blade with her sword, shouldering the attacker away, and grabbing Lyana, pulling her between the two of them. The girl was unarmed and still a novice as a fighter, leaving her helpless, her fists clenched as she watched the fighting going on around her. Wyn spun and caught another blade coming for the Prince, drawing a grin from him as he spun his sword to kill the attacker. He may be a Regent who was used to being protected, but he was a trained fighter and seemed to fall into fighting in tandem with her quicker than she expected.
At her back, Kannein fought with the ceremonial short sword and dagger he had allowed himself to carry tonight, as Rael cursed over choosing to not wear a weapon that night, momentarily as helpless as Lyana.
Shiar fought on her other side with his short sword and dirk, circling to keep the Queen safe between him and Kannein. All of them under the pressure of being inadequately armed in a frantic melee of unknown attackers and panicking people. Nerini's paranoid words rose into her mind then and Wyn knew that if they survived this fight, her friend would never shut up about balls being horrible places again.
***
"Rael! Catch!" Nerini pulled her sword from where it had impaled a man wearing servant livery, tossing it across the dance floor to her friend who caught it easily in a splattering of blood that probably destroyed the Queen's white and gold dress. Nerini then used the man's body as a shield, shoulder him into another attacker before cutting that second man's throat in the resulting confusion.
Other than tossing the sword, she was unable to help her friends as she found herself ringed off by four more attackers for the time being. Nerini grinned all the same, her expression dark, pulling out a dagger to act as her second blade and growling as still more attackers came after her. With all the fighting she had been doing, it appeared that she had made a target out of herself.
***
Rael caught her friend's blade, spinning out from the protection of Kannein and Shiar to meet the slash of a man wearing cook's clothing, head butting him before running the sword through his stomach and shoulder checking him away. As he fell back, she grabbed his sword and began fighting in full form trying to make up for standing helpless for so long. She was not going to stand by and watch her friends fight for her life. Rael could and did hold her own, cutting through those trying to overwhelm Kannein and Shiar, then turned her fury on the ones who tried to separate her from Wyn and Caelur, who were also fighting to protect Lyana.
Glancing around after several heated moments of battle, she noticed a turning tide as the Royal guards of both her and Caelur as well as the other nation's Guards arrived to aid in the fight in full force.
Soon enough after that, she was standing in an eerily silent ballroom, with blood seeping along the floor from the bodies cooling around them. Rael grimaced, panting breathlessly as she watched the last few fighters taken down by armoured guards, more still surrounding the group of the six of them.
She glanced at her friends, then over to Nerini, who was pointing to two unconscious courtiers, directing the Guard to take them into custody. Hair loose from the fighting, expression still dark, Nerini looked ready to continue fighting, as if she was upset that the Guard had ruined her fun.
It was the dark side of Nerini that had come into being when she was working and training with the assassins and street runners of Illumnia. A violence that she hadn't had before those years, even after coming back from Cleandria and its trials.
"The Speaker of the Council was killed." Caelur murmured, frowning and glancing over to the man who was laying almost peacefully several feet away with his throat cut from ear to ear, surrounded by a growing pool of blood.
"Find the rest of the council and ensure they're all alive and under protection." Kannein snapped to his man at arms who had arrived as the fighting died down.
The command sent a group of them running to follow through with his orders, desperate to make up for not having been there to aid in the fight itself. He strode after them, his expression nearly as foreboding as his sisters as he jumped into action as Aupana's commander. Rael let out a slow breath, watching as Shiar's men turned to do the same thing, though her eyes glanced back to the furious form of Nerini who had not yet approached them.
***
Wyn looked to Nerini who was using her feet to flip one of the attackers over, frowning down at the man's face in thought. Wyn forced herself to speak up, seeing that distant fury in her friend's gaze. "You just had to say it? Had to bring up the point that it was a ripe situation for someone to attack us, hmm?"
Nerini paused, looking over to her friend before offering a sheepish shrug, her words containing an amused sarcasm as the battle high began to fade from her. "It was conjecture. You all looked like you were having a lovely time, I'm sorry your dances were ruined."
"We need to know how they got in here, how they moved so easily." Rale said, their jests short and glancing around to illustrate that they needed to stay focused. "They were dressed as every manner of trusted person in this place, they infiltrated every level."
Nerini nodded to the two Aupanan women under guard. "They had help. And I'm sure there are others."
"Someone doesn't want the Alliance to last out its first year." Shiar murmured softly, looking around, noting where most of the councillors looked injured, or at least harried after having mounted their own attempts at self defence. "They wanted to kill anyone who had anything to do with anything."
"You think now is a good time to propose your plans for a Palace Guard, Rini?" Wyn queried softly, accepting her sword back from the Prince, sheathing it along with her other one.
Nerini chuckled and shrugged, smiling gently to her friend as she accepted her sword back from Rael. "I think, perhaps, the idea will be well received by most before we leave for the winter."
Kannein walked back into the room, still scowling. "The other councillors are alive, it seems we distracted or disrupted the plan of the attack. Other than those two women, we have only one other attacker still breathing."
"Conscious?" Shiar asked suddenly, letting out a slow breath as Kannein nodded. "I can talk to him to see if I can get any information."
"I'll walk your sister back to her rooms" Nerini said softly, moving to drape her cloak around the Lyana's shoulders and lead her towards the doorway, noticing Lyana hadn't done more than stare at the growing blood pool around her with a stunned sort of shock since everything had ended.
"Would it be too much to ask you to stay with her?" Shiar frowned, watching his sister for a long moment, clearly noticing the girl's shock as well.
Nerini shook her head, offering a careful smile. "Not too much at all. Go, do whatever you do. She'll be ok."
"I'll go with them." Wyn offered, smiling to him and moving to catch up with Nerini and Lyana as they walked out of the ballroom.
"Wait." Caelur started after her, catching her in the doorway with the hand on her arm.
Wyn looked after Nerini who continued walking with Lyana, murmuring to the girl, then back to Caelur, tilting her head to the side. "Yes, M'lord?"
Caelur shook his head, offering her a smile, clearly trying to make sense of the situation around them. "You saved my life back there. Twice. At least."
"You caught a couple blades meant for me as well, Caelur." She smiled to him, reaching out and squeezing his arm. "It's alright, we don't keep track of these things, we're friends."
"You fought well. I just wanted to thank you." He looked at his feet, spreading his arms wide, looking helpless for a moment. "I am not the most familiar with this, I was raised to believe a man should be saving the woman. There are some who would see me as weak for needing you to protect me."
Wyn gave him a hard look, before shaking her head. "I have no time for people like that, Prince. I protected you, because you needed it and you were a target. No different than if I had no weapon and someone came after me."
"I'd tear heaven from the sky itself to help you, Lady Wyn." He took her hand and kissed it quickly.
"And that is what being a friend, a comrade at arms, is all about, Caelur. For I would do the same." She smiled to him, turning her hand in his and squeezing it. "I was enjoying our dance before that all happened, you know."
"Does that mean you will come to Sellexu this winter?" He watched her blush and shake her head, smiling wide.
"We'll talk about that in the morning, when we're not covered in blood and shaking from the remnants of a fight."
"I will hold you to that. I'm your first meeting in the morning." Caelur smiled to her, grinning wider as she snorted in a very undignified fashion and walked after Nerini and Lyana.
Wyn almost regretted the short dalliance of that conversation as she moved through the eerily silent hallways towards Lyana's apartments. She would have felt unnerved but for the movement of the Guards around her. Wyn pretended not to notice the fact that two of the O'vara soldiers followed her to where she was going, thankful for their steady presence as her own level of shock began to settle in. She recognized the two female soldiers and was rewarded with friendly grins as she glanced in their direction, letting out a slow breath as she realized that even after so long, they still viewed her as an O'Vara.