Pulling his cloak up on him as he leaves the palace, Duvainion now just wanders about the streets of the city, still trying to figure out what to do. Which, in turn, means that he's also moving fairly slowly, and not even entirely paying much attention to his surroundings either, as he's just lost within his own thoughts. As he does so, though, he actually ends up holding onto the strange weapon shard, that he had transferred into his pocket, rubbing the strange rune on it seeming to help calm him a bit, for some reason.
Now, though someone seems to be tailing him from the shadows, seeming to have seen him coming from the direction of the palace. The shady cloaked figure tries their best to stay out of sight, from anyone, as they silently follow Duvainion.
Though soon enough, Duvainion ends up hearing a faint barking, which incidentally end up snapping him out of his thoughts, it seemingly coming from nowhere, although no one else seems to be able to hear it, and he soon figures out where it's coming from. He then discreetly looks to his shadow. He at first tries to ignore it, but soon enough he decides to see why Buddy is barking from within his shadow, so he then heads off to try and find a more discreet area. As he does, the people traveling around him start to get a bit more sparse.
Seeing their chance, the cloaked figure then starts to follow Duvainion closer, now. With Duvainion preoccupied by trying to find a lesser populated area, his hand isn't in his pocket anymore, so the figure then decides to quickly and quietly slip in close to him, and slips the strange weapon shard out of Duvainions pocket, assuming that whatever he was holding onto had some sort of value to it. He then quickly takes off, as silently as he can.
With a bit more frantic barking coming from his shadow now, Duvainion soon stops. "What is it?" He whispers quietly, though also a little annoyed, to Buddy, who is still within his shadow. Although, he soon notices, though a bit too late, that the shard is gone, and this just panics him slightly. Though after a moment, he actually manages to sense a few sparks of mana lingering in the air, being able to tell almost immediately that they're from the shard, he starts in the direction of the mana sparks. "You were trying to warn me, weren't you? I'm sorry. You did good, Buddy." He just quietly whispers this to him as he follows the occasional mana sparks.
Soon noticing that Duvainion seems to be on his tail, the figure then starts to go faster, now twisting and turning through the various alleyways of the city, almost seeming as though they were an expert at this sort of thing.
Though despite the fact that he's trailing behind, Duvainion doesn't give up. After thinking about it for a moment, he then decides to try using his shadow walking ability, but this time decides to put a bit of a spin on it. Instead of just simply walking through the shadows to try and catch up to the thief, Duvainion actually jumps into a nearby shadow, and then pops out of another shadow further down, using it almost as some sort of portal connecting to the other shadows, and just keeps on doing this, a sort of shadowing hopping, maybe, as he now starts to get even closer to the thief.
The thief eventually decides to come to a stop, not seeing any signs of Duvainion behind him anymore, seeming relieved now, he lets his guard down. He then decides to actually check out what he had stolen, now, looking at the shard, and turning it about in his hands. "What is this thing?" The shard, still it's bright silvery color, actually now has its carved rune in a deep and dark purple color, versus its original light blue. But seeing as the thief had never seen this shard previously, before he took it at least, he isn't even aware of this oddity.
Duvainion, having already caught up to him, now silently exits the shadows from behind the thief. He seems fixated on the shard for the most part, and as the rune on the shard glows ever so slightly brighter, the shadows around the thief then start to extend and grow, soon turning into strange dark tendrils of shadows, now creeping towards him. The tendrils then start to tightly snake up his legs. This catches the thief off guard, surprising him. "Sh*t!" He tries pulling away from the strange shadowy tendrils, but the tendrils just keep his legs rooted where they are to the ground. "What's going on?" As the tendrils start to get higher up on his body, now at about his lower torso area, he just starts to panic, not understanding what's going on.
Not wanting to question about the tendrils, Duvainion then goes around to the front of the thief, who just looks at Duvainion as he does so, and starts to reach for his dagger. Though before he can get it, the shard, now a rather dark grey color instead of its usual silvery, though with the struggle, neither if them seem to notice the color changes on the shard, and the shard then starts to struggle in the thiefs grasp, and he just tries to keep a tight hold on it, as it tries to pull out.
Though the shard soon manages to rip out of the thiefs grasp, also giving him quite the gash on his hand as it does so, and then just drops to the ground near Duvainions feet. Though as Duvainion picks it up, he just seems confused, not entirely sure what just happened.
The thief, looking at the cut on his hand, just seems to panic a bit more, now. "Who... Who are you...?"
Though Duvainion either just ignores him, or hadn't heard him, as he just stares at the shard. "This is... the same one, but, it's different?" The tendrils have also seemed to have stopped their pursuit upwards on the thiefs body, as Duvainion had gotten distracted by the shard.
This just seems to confuse the thief a bit, and he tries to again pull away from the tendrils, but to no avail.
Duvainion then looks to the thief. "Why?"
"Why? I have to survive, too, you know. Even if it means stealing from little rich brats, like you."
"I don't even have anything left to my name, except for my title, and barely even that, as it is. I... I just want to be able to help my people, but I'm too young and weak to even be able to do anything."
"Weak? I wouldn't exactly call this weak." He just gestures to the shadowy tendrils wrapped around him.
"I don't even think that I'd be able to do that again, anyways. I don't even know how that happened in the first place." The shard soon turns back to its original silver and light blue coloring, and as it does, the tendrils also start to recede.
As the tendrils do so, he now manages to pull away from them, backing up a little.
"...I... I just wanna go home..."
"Then why don't you? If you've got enough status to be able to visit the castle, then surely you've got enough money to actually afford a good place to be able to go back to."
"...It was taken over, and my people either killed or taken away... I only have what I've got with me now, left..."
"Oh... What town was it? It has to be one of the ones near the border, I'm assuming? They're usually the wealthiest, other then the capital."
"..." Duvainion then takes his hood off, revealing that he's actually an elf. "I'm from the Elven capital, actually. It was destroyed and taken over by the Orcs..."
"The Elven Capital? Don't you all have some of the best defenses and soldiers in the land? How did the capital end up falling?" He just seems a bit bewildered by this news.
"I don't know. I never had to deal with any of that stuff, before. I just know that all of a sudden I had to leave my home with my bodyguard, and when I looked back, the city was destroyed and overrun by Orcs..."
"Then... It won't be long until this capital falls, too... Is there really no safe place from those d*mned Orcs?"
"I was originally here to ask the king for help, but he said something about having his own troubles, and not wanting to attract the Orcs attention." Duvainion confesses.
"Of course. This is why I hate nobles. They don't do sh*t about the real issues, and only look out for themselves. Including that pompous jack*ss that calls himself the king."
"Well, later on the princess was able to at least soften him on it a bit, but not by much, honestly. I still need to try and be able to provide my own army, first. But... I have no clue how to do that..."
"Well... I guess maybe there are a few good nobles... But why would you have to bother with that? Surely that's something that the king and queen would have to deal with?"
"... I do not know what could have happened to mother and father. But seeing as how I have not heard anything about or from them, I can only assume the worst..." Duvainion now seems to be trying to rely on his royal etiquette in order to keep himself from finally breaking down over everything that has already happened, though it only just barely seems to be working, as he had been slowly getting more and more upset over their talk previously, just simply from talking about it.
After a moment, he seems to piece it all together, now. "You... You're the Elven Prince, aren't you?"
Duvainion soon just nods, still trying to keep it together, still only being just a child, after all.
"I may not exactly know what you're going through, but I still know how it is to not have anything, either. I'm sorry..."
"...I don't want to have to deal with any of this... I just wanna go home, back to before all this happened... But... I guess that all just sounds kinda entitled to you, doesn't it...?"
"Sorta. But... I can sympathize with another kid, in a similar situation, at least." He then pulls his own hood down, now showing that he's probably only few years older then Duvainion himself. He also has slightly pointed ears, but they're hidden by his dark hair. "No one should have to go through this, especially a child..."
"...I really don't even care about leading the place, I just want to be able to get my bodyguard back. She was more of a parent to me then even my own parents..." Duvainion just seems even more down, now.
"Well..." After thinking for a moment. "Maybe I can try and help you with that?"
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'm Nicholas, by the way."
"Duvainion."
"Well, Duvainion, you obviously can't go in alone. And assuming that she was captured, she probably doesn't have very much longer left, honestly."
"R-right..."