Raphael admired the ring.
But without light, he could hardly see it.
Several streets down from the museum, Raphael stood on the corner of an alleyway, hidden in the shadows between wealthy apartment buildings. Across the brick road, he could see the river which travelled throughout much of Paris and across the water the dying down festivities of Fete de Paris. He wondered if they had missed the fireworks.
He heard scattered footsteps.
He ducked into the alleyway, frightened it might be police officers searching the area. The footsteps featured voices, moments later he saw the glow of a lamp as an older, hunched couple, dressed in cosy eveningwear, shuffled down the street from the festival, sharing a quiet laugh. Raphael smiled, relaxing as he stepped back out onto the street and leaned against the wall.
When their light found him, he offered a hat dip, to which the old man replied, tipping his own as they slowly scuttled past.
Something almost knocked him over.
He looked under his arm to see a small child wearing a bag over their head clinging to his side. "Anita!" He suppressed a smirk as the masked child let go of him.
She backed away from him, her voice a barely audible muffle. "How do you know it's me?" she asked.
Raphael suppressed his eye roll, but couldn't contain a scoff. "I doubt many Parisian children are running around at midnight wearing a sack on their head."
She appeared physically disgruntled. "Fine. Get this off me!" She tugged on the knots she had tied.
"Alright, alright. Just stay still." Raphael kneeled as he started fiddling with the knots, counting them mentally in his head. She had managed ten knots. "Glad to see your knot tying has improved, Ann," he commented as his fingers began cramping, "not a complete waste of time." Anita remained silent.
Raphael pulled on the final knot and loosened the bag, gently pulling it off Anita's head to see her grumpy expression. Her once neat bun was now riddled with lumps and loose strands standing on edge and draping down her face. Raphael chuckled at the sight of her hair, but his smile dropped as tears swelled in her eyes. Her jaw clenched as she wiped her eyes.
"Anita, are you hurt?" He pressed a hand against her forehead and her cheek, quickly examining her for any injuries. She stood there passively, eventually shaking her head.
She wiped her eyes, pushing away any of Raphael's attempts to comfort her. "That was a stupid plan!" she snapped, "A stupid, stupid plan!" She punched him in the shoulder and started bellowing about the stupidity of the plan.
Raphael sighed, glad she wasn't seriously injured. He sat down on his legs as he watched his friend pace back and forth, flailing her arms and patting her arms while she tried to hide her overwhelmed blubbering. At one point she squatted on the ground with her back to Raphael, rocking on her heels as she murmured something to her.
"He held a gun to my face, Raphael! A gun! How do you charismatic your way out of that?" She kicked the brick wall before returning to her outrage. "That Inspector Leroy thinks he's such a big wig amazing investigator with intimidating tactics and guns and a deep voice, but he's scary! And he knows it!" Her voice was cracking as she stopped pacing and faced Raphael, "He scared me, Raphael. He threatened me!"
Raphael felt breathless but nodded, holding out his arms. "Come here," he requested.
Anita begrudgingly obeyed, embracing Raphael and trembling in his arms. Raphael stayed silent at first, gently rubbing her back and offering a mere presence.
There were only a handful of people who had a presence. Some have intimidating, dominant existences, while others adopt a more docile feeling, special ones were able to hop between the two. Raphael, like his Father and Mother, could show a caring presence, people felt safe around him when he held them. He, himself, could recall this feeling with his mother, in particular, a maternal presence of comfort and safety, while his Father's felt more like a shield, a barrier that protected from outside threats.
Raphael, by some miracle of nature, knew how to display both.
Anita's breathing started to calm; her scrunched hands relaxed as she rested her forehead against his shoulder. He finally spoke, "I'm sorry, Anita. It was a foolish plan, and I shouldn't have put you in danger. I promise I won't do that to you again."
Anita spluttered, softening her sobs against his shoulder. He could feel the tension in her jaw as she stood on her own. "No, I want to destroy that Inspector," her eyes flared with determination and anger, "He can't get away with making threats like that."
Raphael was at a loss for words, eventually nodding, his amusement airy. "Alright, then."
He rose, dusting off his pants. "Can I see the ring?" Anita asked, wiping her eyes for a final time.
He nodded, "Of course." He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Anita, however in the dim light she could scarcely tell it was the ring at all.
"Feels nice," she admitted rubbing her fingertips against it, blindly feeling the inscriptions etched in its exterior.
She passed it back to Raphael, who stared at its shadow. "We'll need to examine this when we get home," he informed, "Make sure it's not just a knock off."
"Do you think the Inspector is bright enough to switch them out?" Anita asked, following Raphael onto the street.
The young thief shrugged, "Perhaps. I have greater doubt in the museum not being comfortable displaying a cheesy knock off, even if they had grounds to believe the 'Phantom of Paris' was coming to steal it." As they spoke, they walked further down the street by the river, until they got to the first bridge. A pair of lonely lamps shone dimly at the mouth of the bridge.
Anita hopped onto the stone railing, glancing down at the water gushing below her, while Raphael held the ring up to the dim light. He could see the jade colour, raising an eye when he noticed the engravings were a lighter shade of green. He leaned on the railings by Anita and sighed, eventually slipping the ring over his right ring finger. The moment the ring wrapped around his finger, all the inscriptions glowed.
Raphael released a yelp of surprise, jumping back from the railing so quickly he lost his footing and landed on his backside. The ring came off, and the glow gradually subsided.
Anita had seen it as she stayed on the railing away from it. "How did you do that?" she asked, her eyes stuck in a widened expression.
Raphael rubbed his ring finger, scared perhaps it had burnt his finger or inscribed something into his skin, but he saw it was unaffected. He leaned forwards and picked up the ring again, this time with greater caution. "Should I put it back on…?" Raphael rarely asked questions with uncertainty, making Anita feel uncomfortable.
She leaned away from it. "It didn't hurt you?"
"No."
"You certain?"
"Positive."
She shrugged, utterly unsure.
The young thief sighed, suddenly nervous, as he rolled the ring in his fingers.
"If it makes you feel better, I'm willing to cut your finger off for you," Anita informed.
This statement momentarily jarred Raphael. "You kind of hate me right now, don't you?"
She gave him a broad smile, "What gives you that idea?" she spoke comically through her teeth.
Raphael smiled, "You're a real friend, Ann."
She shrugged, "I try."
Her strange banter relaxed Raphael as he put the ring back on. Similarly, the inscriptions glowed, clearly displaying every line and twirl of its 'letters' looped around the jade band. Unlike before, he wasn't as frightened by this, but ready to throw the ring into the river if it started dissolving his finger. After a moment of nothing, he examined the ring on his finger.
"Still functional?" Anita quizzed relaxing.
Raphael bent his finger and nodded, "Seems to be." He attempted to follow the cursive writing until it met the feature of the ring; a beetle with green jewels as eyes. Too enthusiastically, he pulled out his Father's coin and compared the two. Anita leaned over to look as well. "This is the same," he informed, looking to Anita.
She smiled, rising to her feet and stretching out her arms. She made daring twirls on the stone balustrade, visually more excited than Raphael. She jumped down to the brick pavement, "So what do we do now?" she asked.
Raphael hummed in thought, flipping the coin twice before replying. "Proceed with our original plan for the moment. Once that's done, we need to find out more about this," he replied, holding the coin in the same hand he was ringed.
The glowing inscription reflected in Anita's wide eyes. "I'm getting quite excited about this."
They watched as the ring's light began to fade until it was just a jade coloured ring. He tapped her on the nose, "In the morning though. It is way past my bedtime, and even further from yours."
At the mention of bedtime, Anita looked sleepy.
She denied it.
"Help!" someone called.
Both turned to the other end of the bridge, shrouded in darkness, the festivities dying down in the far distance, the streets surrounding the lonely bridge were empty and silent, aside from the gentle rustling of the brook beneath the bridge. For a moment, the two thought they had imagined the cry, but, "Someone help!"
Loud footsteps approached quickly, a silhouette in the darkness became more apparent, and soon a young girl was running towards them. Upon seeing them, her call for help became more direct, "Please! Help me!"
"Maria…?" Raphael's words were an airy whisper.
She ran with much urgency, clasping tightly to her violin, her hair in disarray as she sprinted towards the pair. Soon after, both Raphael and Anita heard a very distinct noise; perhaps a flute? It was a lovely, but a haunting tone in the dark of night.
"Raphael…!" Anita shook his arm; his ring was shining profusely, far more than before.
Maria slowed down upon reaching them, forced to lean forwards panting. Raphael caught her by the arm, which she leaned heavily on. She still hugged the violin to herself.
"Please, help me!" she pleaded.
Other footsteps became more apparent, a small crowd of them, running towards the bridge. However, there was also the click and clash of metal, which confused Raphael at first, until he too saw more figures approaching, dressed as what appeared to be silver knights.
Made up of half a dozen men, each armed in silvery metal guards, helmets that obscured their faces and on the breast of their armour was the beetle image; just like the coin, the violin and the ring.
But Raphael was too surprised by the cavaliers to acknowledge this straight away.
Each of them had a sword on their hip, who, when they stopped, had a hand hovering over the handle.
"Anita, get behind me," Raphael instructed. He pulled Maria behind him as well.
The knights parted down the middle to allow a lone man to approach. Unlike the others, he wore armour of gold and his helmet allowed Raphael to see a part of his face, however, hidden in the shadows it appeared. He had a very stern face and remarkably orange eyes.
"I wonder which one the leader is…" Raphael breathed. He took another step forwards, "Who are you?"
The man had a deep, throaty laugh reduced to a snicker as he boomed, "You may address me as Sir Lucian," he instructed, he held his arm out, imitating what Raphael assumed to be an attempted grand gesture but came off as artificial and strange. "You would do well to bow to me, boy." He had a thick Parisian accent, making his speech throatier.
Raphael was far too confused to be frightened.
"Is this some kind of… re-enactment? You guys look like you're from Napoleon's army from decades ago," Raphael commented, his smugness evident by his subtle smirk.
Sir Lucian growled, "You shall not mock the army of His Majesty!" he snapped.
Raphael and Anita shared a quizzical look. "'Her' Majesty," he corrected.
"What?"
"We're under the reign of our Queen, not a King," Anita informed meekly.
Sir Lucian gave a hearty laugh, prompting the chuckle of his knights. "I find your words amusing. That you truly believe the monarchy is correct," his accent was so thickly French Raphael almost misheard it, "But just you see, there are powers beyond even your own comprehension, boy! The Unknown Royal has been hidden for too long! Tonight, we help him take back his kingdom! And you shall hand over the girl, or we shall respond with violence!" All the knights revealed their swords, shiny in the lamplight, intimidating in size.
Raphael did well to keep his composure, the only sign of his agitation being his fingers aggressively rubbing against each other as if he was holding money. He spoke over his shoulder, "What kind of people have you hung out with?" His words were calm but harsh and full of accusation.
Maria was unable to answer.
He turned his attention back to these threats, holding is hands up in a form of surrender. "Gentlemen, I'm not a fighter-"
"Silence!" He pulled out his own sword, decorated far more than his fellow knights, and pointed it at the trio.
"Oy…" Raphael bit his tongue.
"Give us the girl, and that shall be the end of your night," Sir Lucian demanded, "We are peaceful beings, men of reason. All we want is the girl, we have no interest in you or your child there."
Even Anita stayed silent.
Raphael took slow steps back. "Sir, with as much respect as I can muster, this girl doesn't want to go with you, and I'm inclined to doubt her safety with you," Raphael continued to shuffle, "This seems quite unreasonable, and I ask that you stop pointing those at us, you're frightening my friends."
Sir Lucian began to lose patience, "If you don't move boy, we won't hesitate to toss your bodies in the river!" He closed the space between them swiftly, the pointed end of the sword being mere inches from Raphael's face. Anita grabbed the back of Raphael's coat at the mention of water.
Raphael remained calm, slowly dropping his arms as frantically started thinking. Taking a daring glance at Anita, he could almost hear her thoughts mirroring his own.
'We can't go back, they'd chase us and there's nowhere definite to hide. We need to get across the bridge, make it perhaps to the park or even a sanctuary, but they block our paths. We can only fight, jump or hand over the girl.'
Raphael gulped at all these possible options. Blindly, he reached behind him, managing to clasp Maria's hand. He heard her gasp, but didn't turn to look at her, instead he hardened his glare and saying, "I won't."
The words weighed heavily in the pit of his stomach, but Raphael stood his ground and held the glare with Sir Lucian, a moment lasting mere seconds felt like eternities. Sir Lucian ground his teeth, but nodded, "Even the noblest of men suffer from stupidity," he spat. He raised his sword, ready to swing.
Raphael acknowledged the threat once more, watching as the other knights unsheathed their swords. "Raphael…?" Anita's eyes became glassy as her chest began to heave.
He held his right hand out to Sir Lucian and his men, "That's quite enough, you're scaring a child!" The ring suddenly glowed with Raphael's sudden spike of anger, gaining the attention of the gold knight.
He widened his eyes as he recognised the hoop, "The Ring of Liberty…"
"Anita run," Raphael commanded quickly, taking the knight out of his shock. Raphael's hand disappearing into his waistcoat, "Run!"
Raphael threw a smoke bomb into the face of the head knight, enveloping him immediately in an unbreathable cloud, before rolling another three along the uneven brick bridge to his allies. They too disappeared amongst the smoke, a chorus of coughing followed.
Anita didn't hesitate as she sprinted through the artificial smog, disappearing. Raphael tightened his grip on Maria's hand, "Follow me!" He pulled her along, eventually, she ran on her own, holding on tightly to his hand as they navigated through the dense smoke.
Raphael knew they had moments. Designed to last minutes indoors, he had very little idea how long they would last when exposed to potential winds. The blind swipes of knights came from everywhere, Raphael was halted by an attack which smashed against the brick floor. He lost Maria's hand in the smoke. When the weapon was lifted he ran again, his eyes stinging as he lifted his shirt to cover his mouth. The smoke began to thin out, but Raphael had managed to escape the cloud and get to the opposite side of the bridge, finding Anita there. "Are you okay?" he asked holding her face in his hands.
She coughed but nodded. "Where's your friend?" she wheezed.
Raphael scanned around them and noticed she hadn't emerged from the smoke behind him. He cursed as he looked back to the haze. Maria stumbled out, coughing to the point she almost fell over. Their moment of obscurity was up, as one of the knights called out where they were.
Maria managed to start running when she managed to see again, but her small steps couldn't outrun their strides as one knight started pursuing her, sword raised.
Raphael raced forwards, determined to reach her before the knight did.
Raphael had never truly experienced a moment of fright, at least not the point of everything slowing down. He felt his heartbeat in his ears, throbbing quickly while time seemed to almost come to a complete stop. Maria came closer, reaching out for Raphael, the moment the pair touched everything nauseatingly came back into focus, as Raphael scooped Maria in his arms, turned her away from the approaching blade by protecting her with his body and held up his right arm to deflect it, his head turned as far away from it as possible.
The ring hadn't stopped glowing, but it intensified at the addition of a threat. The closer the sword came, the brighter it became until the two made contact.
A lime green light escaped the ring, latching onto the sword and etching spider web cracks in its metal, resulting in a maze of fractures. The impact eventually causing the weapon to shatter like fragile glass. The knight had been thrown back as the light pulsed and shook everything within a five-meter radius. Water was thrown from the brook onto the path, bricks were uprooted, one of the two lamp lights exploded, sending one side of the bridge into darkness, but most notably, everyone felt as if something had run straight through them. All the knights were forced the kneel over, all of them groaning in discomfort.
Anita rushed to the aid of Raphael and Maria, who had yet to unfurl themselves from each other. Raphael slowly opened his eyes, in time to see the golden pendant around the damsel's neck glowing a green, just like the ring.
Raphael slowly lifted his head, seeing the damage he had done, and looked at his hand; the ring gradually lost its vibrancy until it was, once again, just an ordinary-looking ring, and the pendant turned back into an ordinary pendant.