When Stars Collide

Chapter 9- Beauty is just an illusion - Leo

When my eyes flutter open, I am greeted by Eric’s grin. I grunt as I try to get up and I find his family in the house and his dad, trying to gut me alive. The color leeches from my face because I remember when I stole the Caryan relic from his shop… that landed him in a tough financial situation.

“Did you know you’re a lucky bastard, Leo? You’re somehow still alive,” Eric says gleefully and when I finally spot Ioannis’ face among the crowd, I nearly kiss him for it. He came back for me. When he finally gets to my cot, I call out his name.

“Ioannis! You came-” he punches me in the face and his glasses nearly fall off from the effort. Now, why the hell did he do that?

“You fool! I thought you died!” he cries, crushing me in a hug and I can hear how worried he is. I hug him back and Estella clears her throat. 

“Eric called us. Said the goddess brought you here, but I think he just did it to drag me here,” she says rolling her eyes while Eric tried to flirt with her. I smiled at her and grimaced at the pain. I raise my shirt and find myself with only a couple of bruises.

What the hell? How did my bruises disappear just like that?

“So, you’re all telling me that a goddess saved me?”

“Yup. Leo, you should have seen her. She was beautiful and call me a sinner, but she was so beautiful I wish I could’ve been her lover,” he grins cheekily and Estella elbows his ribs. Eric whimpers and stalks off, angry at the jab.

“You’re delusional. Why would a goddess save me? I’m nobody,” I tell them and Ioannis sighs.

“No. You’re somebody if the goddess chose to save you. To think that a goddess saved you… Leo, you’re really lucky,” he grins and slaps my arm playfully and then looks away. 

“Yia Yia won’t be happy we took this long though,” he frowns and sure enough, Yia Yia stands outside the house, tapping her right foot and holding her dragon cane we all learned to fear. 

Yia Yia Abrezis was the leader of our clan of thieves called the Ravenbelldt. We were the biggest thief clan in the underworld and were dedicated to stealing from the rich and… not giving to the poor, but more like putting things where they truly matter. 

In a black market, we got paid and they’d return everything to the museums where they came from or simply melt the things we found, remaking them into new weapons and new tech that could help poorer communities to stand up against the rich. 

We weren’t the bad guys. I swear, we’re good guys too. It’s just that the means in which we do things aren’t always the most honorable or completely right, but since when have we ever been saints? I stare at Yia Yia and she comes walking super fast for a 70 year old lady and she hits the three of us with her cane. We all wince, but we don’t protest because we know that Ioannis is the one who ends up paying the price for my protest or for Estella’s. 

“You afkans! Where were the three of you and why did you not get the relic?” she snarls at us and Ioannis reveals the ivory relic we found. It was a staff that expanded, but the ivory was blue and became lighter to being almost white, like the actual color of the staff. She tries to grab it, but Ioannis takes it away.

“Ioannis. Hand it over,” he shakes his head, his eyes narrowed at her. Me and Estella look at him and his hand is thumbing the staff. He’s trembling and we know he’s going to make a run for the staff.

 I wouldn’t let him get killed for his ambition. Not now when I had survived the fires of hell to get it. It was too much trouble. Almost like a trouble magnet and I wanted to get rid of it, to get paid. Then we could eat and laugh all of this off. That’s how we worked. That’s how it always worked. Why defy Yia Yia now if we know how it will end?