Val and Nia looked at each other before running over to the other door in the room. There was a keypad to enter a code and Val quickly typed in the letters to spell out the constellation.
There was a green light the sound of something moving but…
"It's not opening!" Val called back as the pounding got louder. Then, they paused and looked at the door closer, before their eyes widened, "Oh my God! Nia, it's a puzzle!" They grabbed a corner of one of the panels and pulled it off.
Behind the panel was a hole in the wall, and looking through it, it definitely looked like it was leading to a treasury.
"None of the other panels pull off, Val!" Nia called, tugging at another once.
"Hurry up, you two!" Risále called, "We can't hold them off for much longer!"
"We're trying our best!" Nia yelled back, "Sorry, we're not geniuses like you two!"
Chaewon looked over her shoulder, "...You don't have to move all the panels! Just slide them around until you make a hole big enough to crawl through!"
Val called back, "Oh my God, you're a genius! Thanks, Chaewon!" They started scrambling to move the panels, Nia quickly following their lead, "Nia, do you think you squeeze through here?"
"Move one more panel," Nia responded, "I might be able to get through but you're like eight inches taller than me. And I'm not going to be in there alone."
Just as they made a hole big enough to crawl through, there was the sound of the door breaking behind them. Nia and Val whirled around to see that Chaewon already had her gun out and pointed straight into one of the guard's faces while Risále swung her metal bat into another one's head, "Go! Both of you! There should be a door on the other side. Seal it behind you!"
"What?!"
"Just trust me!" It took Val a moment to realize that it wasn't actually Risále who was talking, "We'll both be fine! You two are the priority! Get in there, get the Wings, and make sure no one follows you! There are multiple windows you can use to escape!"
Nia was hesitant for a moment, "How do we know what the Wings are?!"
"You'll know it when you see it!"
"But—" but Val grabbed her arm, nodding to her before looking back at Chaewon and Apocalypse-Technically Risále, "You'd better stay safe! All three of you!" They yelled before heading into the opening, Nia following them.
There were a few moments of silence before the sound of stone moving again signaled that the passageway had been shut.
"Apoca—Your Highness, are you—"
"She's gone," Risále replied, grunting as she kicked one of the guards square in the groin, causing them to keel over, "She's right, we can't risk her being out longer than needed or they might figure out who she is. She needed to get them to go and that was the only way she could think to do it."
Chaewon nodded, "Right. So, let's take care of this? I think we've been gone long enough that your boyfriend must be getting anxious."
Risále laughed, "Oh, no. He knows I can handle myself. I just need to hope that no one else has tried to sweep him off his feet by the time I get back. You will not believe the number of people I've seen practically leering at him."
The older woman sighed, "The drawbacks of having a hot partner. Everyone wants to fuck them and honestly, you understand everyone."
"We're both the wrong people to be saying that, Chaewon, we're both in polyamorous relationships."
"Well, yeah, but yours is closed and honestly, neither Elliot nor I have been with anyone in at least a year so it's like…Yeah, we're poly but also at this point neither of us has time to pursue a new relationship. Meanwhile, you on the other hand, need to make a move on my brother."
Risále blinked, "Where did that come from?!" She turned red.
"It came from the fact that all four of you are dating each other except for, you know, the fucking childhood best friends who have a relationship that just seems way more than platonic!" Chaewon blinked, "...Why does that sound vaguely like my and Elliot's relationship in a nutshell."
"It does?!"
Chaewon shrugged, "Oh well," She grinned, "I guess falling for your best friend can be considered a family trait then."
"He's not in love with me!"
"Sweetie, you're fucking blind if you really think that!"
The guard in front of them paused for a moment before clearing his throat, "...Aren't you both supposed to be worried about fighting us? Why are you… Why have you been talking this whole time!"
Risále turned to look at him, "No asked for your opinion, chump," She muttered before swinging her bat like a baseball bat.
Chaewon whistled, imitating the sound of a speedball, "And Manon hits a home run!"
"Okay, you're giving me too much credit. That was a second base hit at most."
"Do you think they'll be alright?" Val asked as the two watched the stone wall move into place behind them, sealing the passageway to the treasury.
"The faster we get this thing, the sooner we can get out of here. If we can just get it and go, then we'll be fine…I think," Nia muttered. A part of her was nervous though, there was a sort of dread creeping up her back. Shivering, she reached out and took Val's hand, "Let's go."
The treasury looked more like a museum than anything else, artifacts, jewelry, and other important objects were kept in glass containers held on pedestals.
"...It kind of looks like they were trying to show this stuff off," Val murmured, leaning down to look at a bejeweled crown, "What do you think our ghostly highness meant when she said that we'd know it when we saw it?"
Nia hummed, "It's got to be something obvious, then. You don't think it could literally be like…A pair of wings, right?" She didn't notice that Val had stopped walking.
"...No, no, I'm pretty sure she means a literal pair of wings," They pointed directly in front of them to a podium that was raised a bit higher than the rest, a silver butterfly-shaped ornament placed inside it with a spotlight bearing down on it.
The younger stared, "...That's so obviously a trap, right?"
"Probably," Val responded, sighing and stepping forward, "But what choice do we have?"
The glass container around the Wings was solid and firm, it didn't seem like it could be broken easily. Honestly, it wasn't like they had any blunt objects or weapons they could have used, "Risále's bat would have come in handy here," Nia muttered as Val walked around the podium, inspecting the glass slowly.
Then, they paused for a moment, looking at something intently. Within a second, they pulled out their bow and arrow, docking it.
"Wait, what are you—"
Without hesitation, they let the arrow fly.
"Val! What the hell?! Obviously, that's not going to do…" Nia trailed off as she moved around to see a crack in the glass, "What?!"
Val grinned, "There was a small chip in the glass already, barely visible. If you keep attacking a weak point of a structure, the structure itself will fall apart," They docked another arrow, "Step back. It'll put more force into it if I do it from far away."
Nia rolled her eyes, "Why would I need to step back, it's not like you're going to hit me…"
"I could make a mistake!"
"You literally cannot miss."
"...That's fair."
"If you do 'make a mistake' and hit me somehow, I know you did it on purpose, you bitch."
Val glared at her, "Keep talking and I might make multiple mistakes. Now, shut up and let me concentrate," They pulled the arrow back, squinting their eyes. One of the things Nia always found amazing to watch was the way that Val's eyes glowed when they were focused on a target, no matter the weapon they were using. The arrow flew faster than Nia could even keep track of and there was the sound of glass shattering.
"I can't believe that worked," Nia muttered, looking at the broken remains of the glass container. She reached towards the artifact between the glass shards but her wrist was quickly grabbed and wrenched away.
"Idiot! What if there's some other safety measure?!" Val hissed, pulling her back. They grabbed a shard of glass that had fallen on the ground and tossed it at the Wings. Seeing that nothing happened to the glass shard, they seemed to relax, "If there was some kind of invisible laser or something, it could have taken your hand off!"
Nia huffed and crossed her arms, "...I didn't think of that. But since you checked, we should be safe to just take it, right? Besides, they'd have to able to touch it if they were going to bring it out to show it off during this ceremony thing, right?" She reached out and picked it up.
Both of them held their breath for a moment.
For a moment, nothing happened.
"Well, guess we were worried about nothing," Nia sighed, stepping away from the pedestal, "Now, then. We should probably get out of here—"
The next second, she felt arms suddenly wrapping around her and yanking her to the side and Val's voice yelling out in panic and alarm.
That was the last thing she heard before the room exploded into flames was the unmistakable sound of beeping that she had missed before.