Gallagher returned the nod.

" I won't let a person die in front of my eyes. " She replied, turning her bow to aim at an assassin. He also had a crossbow, and she fired upon him.

But-
at the same time, he also shot his arrow at her, straight into the right side of her chest, just beside her lungs but not actually piercing them.(*wink*)

There seemed to be a strange pause in the air, as, in seemingly slow motion, the Empress fell back off her horse. The first one to react was Gallagher, who immediately caught her in his arms.

(xD naw I sleep sometimes, while usually waking up around sunset or the beginning of sunset)

(Pretty much how I am right now. Either sleep til dawn or sleep until sunset. No real in-between)

Giselle
Curse her luck.. She covered her mouth with a hand, berating herself for having not noticed that one.

Lowell
Lowell had finished off the assassin troubling him in time to witness this, his ears flattening almost immediately back as the distress was apparent on his face.
In a surprising show of speed, he made his way over, making sure to cover the Empress and Gallagher if any more assassins showed up.

(period.
Thank god I don't do school, or work)

Gallagher carefully stood in her arms, glaring at all the assassins ahead. His anger rolled off of him in waves. He then took off full speed past the remaining assassins. The quicker he got her back to the palace, the less chance there would be of her death.

He was quite fast too, despite carrying a 19-year-old woman in his arms. The assassins, seeing their target get away, slowly began migrating back into the forest. With the substances they dipped their weapons in, there was no way she would survive. At least, not without holy magic. But it would take at least 2 hours for the high priest-or any priest with enough holy magic to arrive and heal the Empress. By then it would be too late.

(ikr
I've had to deal with this weird sleep issue while working full time before
I think I was managing like 4 hours a night and honestly not sure how I didn't die ngl

also wow Es is useful for once who knew)

Lowell and Giselle looked between themselves before seeming to mentally agree on something. They left the boar behind as Giselle hopped on her horse and started off to the palace.
Giselle kept the reins of the two palace horses in hand, intending to use them as their reentry to the palace if anyone decided to give her any trouble over the wolfman tailing behind her.

Ezael
Es, for once, was not in the castle courtyard. He was thumbing through some books he had gotten from the palace library as he sat in the castle garden.
Some songbirds were resting peacefully over one of his arms, seemingly unafraid of the man's presence as he sipped at a cup of tea.

(yea until he gets killed of later cuz plot 101)

Instead of wasting time going through that entire crowd of nobles, Gallagher followed the scent, if one could call it, of strong holy magic. That led him straight to the priest he was wary over. But he couldn't let his hate decide whether or not Seraphina lived. He wouldn't allow it.

(good
he's been otherwise useless, LOL)

Ezael
Es almost spat his tea at the sight of the Empress, shakily setting his cup aside as the birds flew off.

"What has happened?"
He studied the sight of her and her labored breathing, knowing the signs of an impending death all too well.

" That's not important right now. What matters most is saving her life. Now. " He may have come off a bit menacingly to someone he was trying to convince to save her, but he wasn't worried about the tone of his voice at the moment.

Ezael
Menacing tone or not, he could sense the purity of Gallagher's intentions and motioned him to set her on the ground as glowing light began shimmering off his hands.

He carefully set her down. It was faint, but one could see the slight shaking of his hands as he released her. He felt a small tinge of pain from being in close vicinity to holy magic, but he ignored it. No pain could compare to that of losing her.

Ezael
Es noted this and motioned him to stand back a step. It was distracting enough feeling his distress thundering in his skull.
He knelt down and began to heal her and slowly purify her blood of the poison she had been laced with.