When Valen stepped into the plaza where his sister’s execution was to take place, he almost had to stop for a moment to take in just how many people were assembled there. There had been so many firsts in his life recently that he supposed he should stop being surprised when he chanced upon another. Yet still, never had he seen so many people packed into such a small space. Or at all, actually.

The citizens of Lakevale had come out in droves, which, he supposed, made sense considering how different this execution was from the ones that took the lives of simple criminals. For one, even from here Valen could see Raenelir straining against a multitude of chains holding him in place, connected to a circle of strange machinery assembled in a ring around the Highborn wyvern. The powerful drake looked like he’d sustained a few wounds, but nothing too bad, which Valen supposed he should be grateful for.

If Raen had been too injured, their whole escape plan would have failed before they even had a chance to try it. Behind Raenelir, there was a large wooden scaffold, raised even higher than the Highborn when he could stand at his full height. Though Valen could not make out the details of the people standing atop it, the vague silhouette of his sister was enough for him to know it was really her.

Aevra was too small to make out from this distance, but considering her size he assumed that the little wyvern would likely be up on the scaffold with Hera, since she would be much easier to keep restrained.

“It’s do or die time now, Val,” Samuel said, speaking close and quietly enough that only Valen would be able to hear him. Though those words added more pressure to the weight of what he was already feeling, they also helped to keep him from caving under the rush of rage that had threatened to overwhelm his good sense for a moment.

“You ready?” Simon asked, from the other side of Valen. The Galar looked at them both. The three of them had donned cloaks of dark brown, pulled tight about their forms to conceal the leather armor and weaponry beneath, though their hoods were pulled back so as not to appear too suspicious. Valen himself had been given a simple short sword to use should the need arise, though hopefully he would not have to use it. His instruction in the use of his weapon had consisted of “hold the pointy end away from you” and “aim for the face or neck.” Not all that thorough, but for what they had to do, it would have to be enough.

“I’m ready,” he replied.

At that, they made their way into and through the massive crowd, though they would have a fight on their hands to get up to where they needed to be on time. People from all across Lakevale had come out in droves to try and get a look at the execution that had been important enough for a High Lord to show up in the city and pull their cowardly Governor out of hiding.

He hoped that the sheer number of Lakevale’s assembled citizens had been factored into Orik and Liza’s planning, because Valen was not even from this city and he could tell that it was far from normal.

He could see it in the looks that Samuel and Simon kept giving each other as they tried to force a path through the press to get closer to the scaffold. Not only did their plan rely on getting close enough before the Children began their attack, in order to avoid being trampled by the mad rush of people that would inevitably be trying to get away, they also had to simply trust that the others would be able to get into position as well.

Valen, thankfully, was able to work with the twins and slowly but surely they forced their way forward. It was difficult, an issue only compounded by the fact that the press of others and the heat of the day made him start to sweat almost immediately. Although it was later in the year, it felt as if the mid-Summer heat had decided to show up out of nowhere, and considering that Valen was also used to somewhat cooler Summers than those here in the lowlands - having lived up in mountains of the Divide his whole life - it was making things significantly harder for him.

Still, the thought of his sister and the wyverns being slain for all of Lakevale to see helped drive him on in spite of it all, until finally the line of Imperial soldiers assembled around the scaffold and Raenelir came into view.

They were almost there.

Somehow, Raenelir seemed to suddenly be aware of Valen’s approach, because the Highborn jerked his neck around forcefully enough that his eyes could hone in on his flightbrother. As soon as Raen saw him, the wyvern began to thrash about wildly, fighting angrily against his chains with a vigor that none of the guards, let alone the crowd of random citizens around them had been expecting.

There were screams of fear from the people at the wyvern’s sudden fit. Even many of the guards were quickly moving further away at the sound of the chains straining and creaking with the force of Raenelir’s rage.

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“Hold on, buddy, you’ll be free soon,” Valen found himself whispering under his breath. He tried to lock eyes with the Highborn, hoping that somehow, some way, the wyvern would understand what was happening.

Then, for some reason, it felt like his head was going to explode as pain ripped through him. He started to spasm, almost toppling over onto the ground, but he managed to catch himself by latching a hand onto Simon’s shoulder to stay upright. The twins were immediately coming in close, alarm in their eyes. They had no idea what was happening, and Valen couldn’t blame them, especially not when he had no idea what was going on either.

As suddenly as the pain had come, it was over, and almost at the exact same time Raenelir froze and turned to once more lock eyes with him through the crowd. Valen could almost imagine a voice in his mind, catching him by surprise, though he knew it had to just be his imagination.

Calm.

With the commotion caused by the wyvern, luckily no one had noticed Valen’s strange episode other than the twins. Still, their concern was enough.

“Val, what in in all the darkness of the Fade was that about?!” Samuel hissed urgently into his ear, even as he and his brother helped their friend stand back up to his full height. A grimace crossed his face at the thought of the pain that had hit him, but he had no time for them to be worried about him when the lives of his sister and the wyverns were at stake.

“It’s nothing, I’ll be fine. We have more important things to worry about right now,” Valen replied. Though both brothers looked unconvinced by this, they also seemed to agree that they did not have time to talk about it any further if they wanted everything to continue according to plan.

“Fine. Just be ready to move, alright?” Simon replied, giving him a sharp look as he spoke. Valen was not about to argue with that. He gave Simon a nod of assent before turning and heading away from the twins. They had a different job to handle, after all.

He got as close to the stairs as he could from where the crowd was being held back by the guards, though he was glad he would not have to spend much more time shoving his way through the huge press of people. Valen supposed that he should be thankful that everyone was so focused on what was about to happen that no one spared more than a few angry words for him as he pushed by, though how much trouble they would have risked trying to start with Imperial soldiers so close at hand, anyways, he had no idea.

Regardless, he made it as close to his assigned position as he possibly could and then settled in to wait for the others to make their move. Once the first of the Children attacked the guards and the chaos ensued, he would make a break for the stairs. He tried to look around for the others that were supposed to go up with him to clear the guards on the scaffold, but he could not see them anywhere.

Which made sense, Valen knew; they were used to this. If he had been able to pick them out of the crowd, he knew that he would have needed to be more worried. Still, his newness to all of this made him itchy with nerves despite the reasoning he was attempting to do with his own mind.

He hated being nervous, hated having to be in this situation at all, but he also knew that his best chance at making it out of here alive would be to rely on his nerves to keep him moving and keep him focused. If he was nervous about something, at least he knew that it had all of his attention. That was a boon that he would take advantage of as much as he could.

Suddenly there was a sound like great gales of wind, and Valen found himself blasted nearly off his feet along with everyone around him as a shadow fell over the crowd. All eyes were drawn upward, and as if on cue a great roar echoed throughout the city, cowing everyone save for Raenelir, who looked up and let out an angry snarl of defiance even as the gigantic black scaled dragon descended.

Valen recognized it immediately as the same gigantic drake that had led the Blackscale Knights in their attack on the Galar Hatchery. Anger and fear flared up inside of him, warring with each other for dominance. Neither seemed to win out, and so he remained frozen there, simply looking at the massive form along with everyone else as it came to a landing with a massive, taloned paw resting on top of city hall, a tall three story building that creaked and groaned beneath the mammoth dragon.

The beast dwarfed the building. Raenelir at his full length might have been about three quarters the size of its head. Though Valen’s interactions with dragons were much more limited than with wyverns, he still knew a bit about the workings of dragon flights and hatcheries since he had grown up around drakes.

This dragon was, without a doubt, the Patriarch of its flight. Which meant that High Lord Velitarii wanted his presence to be known.

As their eyes followed the great dragon down on to the top of the building, the doors leading onto a large balcony swung open and out stepped the most dangerous looking man Valen had ever seen. He was clad entirely in black plate armor save for a helmet, which allowed his extremely pale skin, black but slightly graying closely-shaved hair and piercing orange eyes to be seen by all. The man had to be over six feet tall, made all the more obvious as a trembling, overweight fellow stepped out from behind him to stand next to him at the edge of the balcony, and several guards dressed in similar but less ornate black plate mail came out to line the rest of the overlook.

The man towered over all the others.

From his position near the front of the crowd, Valen was able to get a good look at them up there, and suddenly he very much doubted their chances of escape. The only thing he could rely on was that Raenelir should be able to outmaneuver and outrun the much larger dragon, especially over short distances, and that there was no way that they would risk unleashing the dragon on them while they were on the ground, amongst their own soldiers and the other people of the city.

Valen just had to hope that would be enough to get them out of there safely.