"Sure!" Derek nodded.
"Good." She touched her long cat ear and a rune appeared close to it. She spoke into it, "Lydia! please bring me a book from the library. World of Runes."
A few minutes later, an averagely tall girl walked into the room with a very big book. Big enough that she held it with both hands and still had some difficulty walking. She was very fair-skinned. Fair enough to nearly pale. She wore glasses that sat on her small nose bridge complimenting her cute oval face and deep red lips
She had on long white socks with a white and black maid outfit that looked a size too small for her very curvy figure. The fabric that covered her torso had two big towers that allowed their edges to peep out, forming a deep cleavage that obviously enjoyed the attention of eyes.
If not for her never smiling face, and cold demeanour that subconsciously gave people the feeling of talking to a walking corpse, she would be considered a very attractive woman.
Bastet waved her hand again and runes appeared above the table and it was once again restored to its previous form. while Aesir and Derek stared shamelessly at the girl that just walked in.
Both boys looked at one another and Aesir smiled, while Derek nodded. The two suddenly gave each other a thumbs up. This two just had a conversation with their eyes alone and acknowledged each other. The topic of course was the girl in the maid outfit.
Tiny looked at their weird behaviour and felt deep down that something was wrong with this two, but could not just put a finger on it.
"Am sorry I am late Madam Bastet, I had to settle some issues with the griffons." Lydia bowed in apology.
Her bow let those things on her chest peak out some more and Derek and Aesir could feel their blood boil within them. They looked at each other again and felt like bowing to themselves in understanding each other's minds.
"Let me make introductions everyone. This is Lydia, she is my acolyte and will be your handler while you stay here." Bastet introduced.
Lydia turned to them and bowed again.
Steam was already about to escape the heads of Aesir and Derek. Then the next set of words that escaped Lydia's mouth broke their fantasy.
"Oh! fuck it. Am really sorry, you guys had to go through all that before you got here. It was my stupid ass fault."
"Oh! Heavens, what was with all the swearing just now." Derek thought to himself. He looked at Aesir and their both understood each other's thoughts. This girl had just ruined the image of a perfect maid for them. She just had to destroy all that allure with her foul mouth.
Aesir felt like banging his head on the table, While Derek covered his face with his palm in annoyance.
"I was supposed to welcome you on your arrival from the zodiac gate but I waited for some time in front of the gate the moment it opened but no one came through. After some time of waiting, something flew through and hit me on the head. pushing me back into the temple. When I woke up, it was with a splitting headache and Madam Bastet's angry face.
"Hmm! that story although vague somewhat made sense." Tiny thought to herself. She subconsciously turned to her friends and saw that all eyes were on her with frowned brows.
Apparently, What Derek bashed his head on when he was thrown through the gate was Lydia's head and that was the reason they did not make it to Bastet's temple immediately. She had to search all around for them. But she was still not sure mainly because of the number of tourists in the city. It was not until Derek commanded that man as a Writer did she confirm it was them.
"Wait! I knew that voice was familiar. You are that cat that brought us here?" Madeline chirped in.
Lydia nodded slightly.
"Are you also feline-like..?" Derek turned to Bastet.
"Hey!" Tiny wanted to stop him. That question felt inappropriate.
"It's okay, I can answer that. No, she is not." Bastet answered, "Then how can she turn form you might ask?" Bastet enjoyed the look of confusion on their faces.
"She is my acolyte. As my acolyte, she shares also in the wealth of my power. Like i also do to the House of Thembeka." She noticed that the confusion on their faces had reduced one bit, "Don't worry i'll explain another time. Right now, we are about to enter the beautiful world of runes."
Bastet kept on smiling. She always enjoyed an attentive audience.
"Right where do we start?... hmm!" Bastet opened the big book and her fingers ran through some texts. "Okay! we can do that!" She clapped her hands twice and the bright room suddenly deemed. She waved her hands and the earth beneath their feet was suddenly filled with runes and on the walls also. Runes of different colours and sizes. But there was one, Bigger than all the rest. in fact, it was so big, it alone sat high above their heads.
*cough*... Runes
Runes are like a broom. There is the bundle and also the string that holds it together. Although both together make the broom. The string is obviously different from the bundle. It is the same with runes.
Runes are of different kinds and types but generally, they're categorized into four which are also further broken down:
Basic runes: Primary runes, Foundational runes, Elemental runes, Soul runes.
Elder runes: Information on these runes are usually closely guarded and are only eleven in existence. Each for a noble family.
Royal Runes: Information about these are also a guarded secret and belong to the royal family. It is said that there were initially five in existence but two have been destroyed.
And Finally,
Origin Runes: These are the reason for existence itself. From them, all other runes were birth and are considered practically the pillars of reality. Only one has ever been discovered and its power was so great, that is said that it was only discovered because it was in the process of birthing a different universe.
Nobody noticed that while Bastet gave a description of the last kind of rune, Derek held his hand to his chest. He could feel something give out pride from within him.