A young man, 20 or so if age, rose from his spot at the thrones dais. He bowed low and said his condolences to the sapphire king and queen. Slowly he left the throne room, he savored every sobbing sound of the royal bitch on the marbled throne, the soft murmurs of the western king, and the best sound to him, the sound of the onyx princess choking on her emotions of despair.

But far to soon he was out of the throne room in in the hallway. Four grim faced sapphire solders stood at the door, one of which walked the runner to the castles front gate. A smile flitted on the runners face as he strolled through the courtyard, he couldn't wait to get back to his master.

The moon had long ago risen and his child stars had shifted in to place. The lanky runner pulled his hood up and hissed softly at the horrid full moon. The gangly youth hated that silver disk more than he hated the golden one. But what annoyed him more than the sun or moon was those gods damned stars. They glittered at him coldly as if to ridicule him.

Stupid stars.

A wisp of a woman joined him as he reached the edge of the courtyard. A strand of smokey rubies seemed more like droplets of blood on her stygian skin than a strand of jewels. She turned her pitch shadow eyes on him and his eyes sidled tords hers. The lanky man nodded his head and like a wraith the shadow woman dissolved into nothingness.

And like his shadowy lover and their master he too was made of that wonderful darkness. The thing that made them, he would never understand but it paid him handsomely and would demolished the western Kingdome soon enough.

The lanky runner looked over his shoulder before he grunted and shrank. A inky raven took off from his place and headed south. In the dark of the night not a soul would see that raven until it touched down at its home in the castle of firesand. But for now all it had to do was wing away from Erabell's castle.