"And like we said the last several times, she's not interested!"
Willow stood arms crossed at the tall creep looming over her with a fake smile plastered against his face. She was the only thing separating them from the door to Luminita's throne room.
"But we wish for a little conversation, my dear." The man replied. He was tall and skinny, decked out in a pristine sky blue suit and a small lightning bolt pin. There were two guys next to him, but they were significantly shorter. This guy was probably obsessed with his height, and needed a constant reminder of how very hard he worked for it. "After all, we just want to show our support any way we can."
"You said that two days ago, we let you in two days ago, and we kicked you out two days ago. Now get lost."
The man tried his best to maintain his smile. But both knew that he was doing his best to stop the scowl building up.
"Well, I suppose I'll take my leave." He said calmly. One of his men handed him a pamphlet, which he then handed to Willow.
"Just know, miss. Not entertaining an outside audience might not give the best impression. Be sure to let Luminita know that."
Willow balled up the pamphlet and tossed it at the cultists. Landed on the head of the leader, who made an audible noise of discomfort. They left escorted by soldiers, leaving Willow to pick the paper up and toss it into an open bin. First try. Hey, times were stressful for everyone, including the cleaning staff. She stepped back into the throne room, where Luminita and Javier were waiting.
"They gone?" Javier asked. Willow responded with a tired nod.
"Good."
He was as openly sick of the Zeus cult as she was. Luminita just breathed a sigh of relief that they were in fact gone.
"How am I meant to deal with them?" Luminita whispered.
"Well, they'll give up eventually, right?" Willow asked.
"I don't think it'll be that simple." Javier sighed. "If Luminita shows any weakness during discussion, then pretty much any loser with an agenda could come for her."
"Okay, surely we could call someone to help in the meantime and show her the ropes?" Willow asked. "Like, I get there's a lot going on right now, but surely Gurpreet or something could help us out."
"Gurpreet?" Javier asked.
"Well, his relic was stolen, so It's not like he's busy. Probably."
"You know what, I doubt calling him would hurt." Javier said reaching to call his mother. She'd probably have his number. Or maybe she could talk to Luminita about this stuff.
He rang the number and waited for her to pick up. Nothing happened.
"Nothing?" Willow asked.
"Eh, she's probably just having dinner or something." Javier shrugged.
Nuria looked out the window of the castle. There was a small crowd of young people building up outside the castle, and several of her guards were stuck blocking their entrance. Some of the brigadiers brought weapons which they were attacking with, while Nuria and her husband were stuck inside their castle. A few guards were huddled around them as they made their way through the light brown walls of the castle, watching the windows just in case something happens. A window broke next to them, and everyone stood in anticipation at what would come in. After a solid twenty seconds, nothing of note.
But just as they continued their trek out, a beam of light pierced through one of the guards behind Nuria, and a dropping noise a second later. The light was so blinding that it stung Nuria's eyes, and it was only out for a second before piercing a hole in the wall. Behind them was a flaming arrow through another window, with the astral arrow quickly fading as the fire spread.
"They're after the dagger." Nuria whispered to her guard. "This has to be something to do with the Legion."
"So what's your plan?" The guard in front of her asked.
"We're destroying it."
Everyone circling her tried their best to contain their composure.
"My Queen, please reconsider-"
"My orders are final." She said calmly.
She strode through the hallways on her way downstairs, crossing the spiralling staircase to the second of three floors downward. A beam of light immediately shot past them, with a young guard peering out and immediately getting shot in the head by a second beam. His head almost disintegrated, with only a few smears of red across the orange walls remaining. A laugh rang out throughout the hallways as Nuria was huddled towards the bottom floor. Another beam hit the wall, just past a guards head. They tried not to panic with the knowledge that without the spiral design, they'd be dead. They moved on, they had to.
At the bottom floor, the crowd was starting to get louder. The names of guards were being called out outside a little after the sound of metal falling to the ground. Right beside the staircase was a door that contained the Roperia dagger, nested in between two grand staircases you would see when you enter, just below a giant orange flag with two daggers parallel each other. Nuria quickly pulled the key from her bosom and unlocked the door. Just as she stepped inside the hall, another set of beams went off. When she looked back, the remaining guards and her husband all had holes inside them, dropped dead on the ground. Nuria held in her reaction. She could cry later. She quickly locked the door hoping it would buy a little more time, before setting her sights on the hallway. It was a grand hallway once used for indoor balls, but ever since she moved them outside and left the indoor work to Mia and Freyja she didn't have much use for it. Now it was nothing but a spacious area to store a dagger and several years worth of dust. At the end of the hall behind a series of pillars was the glass that stored the dagger. It was meant to be the strong stuff that could withstand small blasts, but any Legion members willing to go this far could probably get past that.
She looked around for the right pillar of the four, two at each side, that had a small switch at the back that blended in with the rest of it. The glass went down and revealed the dagger. She briefly looked back, and the door was still locked. The grabbed the dagger. It had an orange handle and a rose coloured blade. Perfect condition like it was never used. She wasn't even sure what it did, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that it would never matter again. She tried stomping it down, but that didn't make so much as a dent. As she scrambled around the near empty room looking for something to bash against the weapon, the door was blasted open.
It was another light beam. Nuria didn't know what to do, so she just hid behind one of the pillars. She tried to stifle her breathing and come up with some kind of plan to escape. They both knew she was in here, so her only option was to run out while their back was turned. Another beam was fired to the back. The person looked like a young man, straight blonde hair combined with a light yellow t-shirt and jeans. He looked so…ordinary. But that didn't matter. His back was turned and it was obvious he didn't know where she was, so she was ready to make her escape.
Then the ringing started.
Her phone was on silent, but she never thought to leave it behind. She checked for a brief second to shut it off, and it was Manuel. The footsteps began approaching her, echoing heavier in her mind. When a hand revealed itself, she sprang up and sliced forward with the dagger. The man sprang back, before aiming a finger forward and charging it. One second later, and she was dead.
He checked the dagger. No signs of imperfections. In fact, did she even know the whole point was to reflect things? One look at her corpse suggested it was lost knowledge.
"Fall back, men." He said as he opened the doors. He calmly put a hand on a guard's shoulder, just before dodging an attack from another.
"Yeah, you might wanna look at what happened to your friends." He said, putting on a fake look of regret.
The guards did as he asked, and he strolled back to his ship. All it took was one blast from his fingers, and the people left him alone. As he got back in his ship, he stabbed the dagger into the table before sauntering into the cockpit.
"Hey, Jane." He said casually. "Daggers in the living quarters, be sure to get that back for Chelic. I'm gonna grab another ship and make a detour."
"Sure thing, number three." Jane replied calmly. An ordinary response from an ordinary girl. Whatever.
"Again with the number three stuff. I keep telling you, the name's Levin! Anyway, I'm off to visit some old friends, we'll work on that when I get back."