Chapter Two

The Irish Intention

Lavender set the table that night mindlessly, her hands shaking and her forehead sweating. Twice she nearly dropped the cutlery by accident, which gave her son, Laiv, quite a fright. When the kids had come home from school for the summer holidays, they hadn’t expected their father to have been arrested before they had come back, so they were innocent when they stopped their mother from her work and sat her down to find out what was wrong.

            “We’re not sure why he was taken away,” Lavender finished, after she had told them the story of what had happened a week ago, “All we know is that anything could have happened to him…”
            Laiv, being the eldest child, spoke up, hugging his mother, “Mom, I’m so sorry…if I had been here I could have helped…”

            Kurai also gave a sad face, but since she was only in kindergarten, she really didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation: she thought that her father had just gone off on a work project or something. So cute, those cute, undisturbed minds.

            Lavender hugged her children, and for a long time, the three of them sat together, pondering what had happened to the man known as Lightning: that is, under the doorbell rang.

            Laiv got up, walking cautiously to the door, and peeped it open, keeping the chain on the door. “Yes?”

            It was the mailman, Randle. “Urgent mail for Mrs. Lavender Bolt. Your mum in there, Laiv?”

            The boy nodded, thanked him, and grabbed the letter, shutting the door. He launched across the foyer, running into the living room around the stairs, and shoved the letter under Kurai’s head so that his mother could get it.

            Lavender cocked her head at her son, before taking the envelope and tearing it open. Inside, scribbled in nearly illegible handwriting, was a note. The stamp on the front of the envelope showed two sharp cliffs, and the words ‘Northern Mountains’ were etched around the outside rings.

            Lavender,

       I’m on the train to Westminster right now. Milieul wrote and told me about Lightning. You poor dear…I’ll be there faster than the Irish can blow their bagpipes! Just hang on, my little Irish sister.

       Love,

              Rose

            Lavender looked at the name scribbled at the bottom of the note, and laughed joyously. Rose was a mage of the northern mountains of A-U, a friend that had been special to both Lavender and Lightning for years now. Rose and Lavender were even known as ‘A-U’s Only Irish Sisters’ they were so close. To have a friend coming from the other side of the world during a crisis was enough to make anyone happy.

            Another knock at the door. Laiv got up again, running back down to the foyer, and cracking the door open a smidge. Outside, a lock of blonde hair blocked Laiv’s sight.

            “Hey, Laiv,” said the low voice of Edward, “It’s me, Edward. You probably don’t remember me…I last saw you when you were barely a year old. Tell your mother that I’m here with a friend of her’s.”

            Laiv shouted up to his mother, “Mom! Some guy called Edward’s here! Can I let him in?”

            Lavender smiled to herself. “Yes! Come on in, Ed!”

            Edward walked in as Laiv removed the chain, followed hastily by Milieul. Laiv gave a gasp at the sight of her, but the elf only smiled at him, accompanying Edward to the living room, where Lavender was seated with a sleeping Kurai on the couch.

            “Mili!” shouted Lavender, hugging her elven friend as she stooped down. She then shook hands with Edward, nodding. “What do I owe the honour?”

            “We’re here to help plan an escape for your husband,” Edward informed her seriously, one fist clenched at his side, very much like Lightning used to during a stressful situation, “in any way that we can.”

            Milieul nodded at Edward’s statement. “Yes. Lav, if there’s anything we can do to help…”

            Lavender was about to reply when the lights went down throughout the mansion. In the middle of the room, a glowing, spinning green circle of runes emerged, slowly speeding up in its rotation, until a wave of energy erupted through the house, the source being those spinning runes. A tube of green light shot up to the ceiling, as a person materialized there, hooded and cloaked. The circle and the tube disappeared, the lights flickering back to life as the hood was pulled down, to reveal a head full of gold-brown hair and sparkling emerald eyes with peachy skin.

            “Rose!” Lavender shouted again, overwhelmed at seeing her friend again after two years of horrible communication silence.

            “Lav!” Rose shouted back, hugging her Irish sister tightly. “How are you? Oh, how dumb of me…”

            “You know already, I think,” Lavender replied sadly, but still couldn’t hide the happiness that was seeing Rose again.

            “Indeed I do,” Rose replied, looking over at Edward and Milieul now. “Mili, good to see you. And you too, I suppose, Mr…?”

            “Elric,” Edward said, shaking hands with Rose politely, “Edward Elric.”

            “Edward, very good,” Rose commented with a wink, “Well, let’s get cracking then, shall we? Best not to keep the poor dear locked up any longer than he needs to be.”

            “Yes, let’s do this thing!”

            It was hours before the bloody gits decided to feed me, and the food wasn’t even half decent, either. If you’re stuck in a prison, you deserve at least seven meals a day, even if the food sucks. You only earn your prisoner’s respects by treating them properly. Well, if the leader of this joint wanted to get anything out of me, he’d have to be really good, ‘cause there’s no fat chance I was doing anything in this state.