The beginning is with a mark

Ch. 12: infiltration

Francis arrived to a spades kingdom that was in slight chaos over their king. Francis sighed, "we are late...aren't we?" He asked basch. Basch stopped the nearest maid and she said that the king had been poisoned. "Poisoned..." Francis said quietly as his Ace Antonio came to his side. "Señor. I told Clubs about the warning, Mister Ivan seemed confident and not very affected. The Hearts are preparing their military, and us...we have started to prepare our military as well" Antonio said with a bow. Francis nodded in approval. "What about the queens?" Francis asked
"Our soldiers don't want to go into the Dark forest..." Antonio said with a slight exasperation in his voice.
"Reunite more Aces then, I need them" Francis commanded as Antonio bowed and left. Basch looked at Francis worried. "I have never seen you so worked up, your majesty" basch commented. Francis threw his hair back.
"Because I have never been messed around with during a war" he said plainly as he began walking to Alfred's chambers.

Alfred was asleep, as Francis walked in, seeing some bloody rags and a ton of grinded herbs used for medicine were around the room. Tori wiped his forehead from sweat. "Oh! King Francis! It's nice to see you, Alfred will be alright, I got the poison out, now he needs rest for atleast 2 days....he's almost in a slight coma but he will wake up" tori said as he began to wipe his hands off with a clean rag.
Francis nodded. "Who is authorized to be the royal while Alfred is asleep?" Francis asked. Yao stood forwards. "I am....but I can't do much without the Queen, regarding to military-aru" Yao murmured. Francis sighed again.
"I need the Queens back as soon as possible, Monsieur Yao. Can I have atleast some knights who are not coward?" Francis asked in a strict tone,
Yao sighed. "Talk to Mathew...he's the Ace-aru"
Francis let the room looking for Matthew. When he found him in the courtyard practicing fencing, "Francis? Hello...can I help you?" Mathew asked quietly.
"I need Knights, soldiers, with balls. No cowards. I need them for the journey into the dark forest to retrieve the Queens" Francis demanded.
Mathew nodded, "I believe our Nordic Knights will be perfect, but I can't risk leaving my own kingdom." Mathew replied.
Francis nodded, "I as a king cannot go...my jack can't either-" Francis began saying but basch stopped him. "I'll go for lily. She's my sister....she's all I have..." He said in a slightly sad tone. Francis nodded. "You can have my jack then...but I keep my ace." Francis offered as a last deal and Mathew accepted.

Alice had returned to the colorless kingdom, and she smirked as she saw Arthur. "He's good as dead" she said as she walked passed him. Arthurs fist turned to fire and he was about to punch her when Kiku held him back. The Japanese man was incredibly strong. "Aqua." He said as water poured over arthurs Fire and extinguished it. "Calm down, Alfred is not dead...he can't be killed easily" Kiku informed as he walked to dinner.

Mathias had accepted the offer to go into the forbidden forest knowing he wasn't one to go into such a dangerous place since he was scared of the place. Lukas had back slapped him in the head telling him to get over his little scary ass. The other Nordics had come too except for Emil the youngest. He stayed with the Ace of Spades in the castle protecting the Ill King. "Guys...the forest keeps getting foggier" Mathias commented as he started touching around to find his brothers but Lukas took him by the hand.
"Shut it big brother and let's keep walking" Lukas said as he walked through the fog holding mathias' hand. Mathias smiled at his younger brothers kindness and suddenly the Ace Of Diamonds, Basch stopped walking.
"Am I the only one who sees a castle in the distance?" Basch asked the group, the group of Nordic men began to squint their eyes to see through the fog but suddenly a voice began to talk.
"I'm glad you idiots made it, I was getting worried, The Awesome me would have to save the day" a voice said when red eyes appeared and a man with white haired appeared. A devilish outfit on. A joker, and next to him a little blonde boy with blue eyes. He looked at the Nordics rather scared of them.
"A joker? How come we can see you?" Tino asked as he held The tall Swedish mans hand.
"It's taking most of my magic to let you see me, but could ya do me a favor?" Gilbert the joker asked with a small smirk on his face.
The group nodded, and the joker smiled. "No matter what happens....don't let the copies take a sample of your blood or DNA. Now, I will let little Peter here take ya into the castle...but be careful since the magic doesn't work well in there" Gilbert said as he began fading away. The group of men looked at the small joker left, and Peter felt Intimidated.
"F-follow me" he said as he began floating towards the castle.
Berwald walked right behind the little joker and picked him up, holding him like a little child. Peter began protesting but tino only smiled, "let Sve hold you, he likes little kids! But I wanted to ask how come we can see you?" Tino asked Peter. Peter looked at the ground and back at the Nordic brothers,
"I'm still a joker in training. Magic for me isn't as powerful as The Jokers magic that my presence doesn't affect time and outcome" Peter said as the group got closer to the castle. The backdrop was closed with A lock and when Mathias was about to break the lock, Peter sighed and stopped him. "Don't be an idiot! All you have to do is this" Peter said as he took out a Bobby pin from his pocket and began unlocking the lock and un chaining the doors.
Mathias looked at Peter confused to see such a little kid be so good at entering an estate without permission. "Why'd ya have the Bobby pin?" Mathias asked him.
Peter blushed in embarrassment, "I....I sometimes braid some fairies hair...." He mumbled as he walked into the dark gloomy castle that held the Queens hostage. Inside the castles, there were some guards who were snoozing and bored. Peter peered from a corner and looked back at the Nordics. "They're normal people...no magic, no ability from what I can see and read from them" Peter informed as In a second Berwald had knocked them out. Mathias gazed upon the swede slightly confused,
"sve? You never actually take action unless you want to protect someone or something" he said as Berwald only shrugged.
Peter looked at Berwald confused and tino only smiled,
"sve is very confusing but he really likes you" tino said with a smile
Peter only nodded as they slowly walked through the castle until they heard voices from the dining room.
"King David the queens are here for dinner." A servant said in the room loudly. The est of the voices were muffled. Mathias walked towards the door when petter stopped him. Shaking his head violently, refusing to open.
"We can't rescue the queen just yet. Please I need more information for my superiors before we rescue them" Peter whispered to Mathias. Mathias began to ignore Peter when Berwald only began to drag Mathias away. Tino slightly panicked as he saw this,
"Sve? Sve?" Tino asked but Berwald only nodded and kept walking. Tino slightly sighed, "sve thinks you may have a point little joker" Tino told Peter. Peter Kirkland only nodded in return as he showed the way to a room which held the inexplicable magic that the Jokers so much looked for.