Fireflight

Chapter Nine

It was late evening when Stolas opened the portal back to his palace. Everyone jumped through gratefully, and with a flourish of his hand the prince closed it shut behind him as he went through last. 

"That sucked!" Blitzo grumbled. 

"I can't feel my feet." Brenden muttered quietly. 

"Don't tell me we'll have to sit through another one." his boss said ignoring him. 

"Sir, were you even paying attention?" Moxxie asked. 

"No. Were you? I didn't know you were a masochist." 

"Yes, I was." Moxxie answered. "And no I'm not- Whatever, if you would've listened like I did you would know that an agreement was reached." 

"So that means we don't have to do that again right?" Blitzo asked. 

"Well-" 

"Just give me a yes or no answer, Mox." the other imp asked, cutting him off. 

"Yes." 

"Hot fucking damn! Does that mean our job is over?" Blitzo cheered. 

"No silly! We still need you here as extra protection." Stolas chided. 

"Why?" Blitzo asked. 

"Tensions are still high." was the answer he got as the prince left to get changed for dinner. 

"I'm going to be honest," Millie began. "I zoned out. What happened?" 

Loona nodded. "I never even paid attention. What about you Octavia?" she asked, as the girl's mother and father both left the room to ready themselves for dinner. 

"Not really, no." she answered flatly. 

"Well it's important that you do know! For our job!" Moxxie reprimanded them. 

"Oh dry up Moxxie!" Loona growled. "Spare us another one of your lectures." 

"My husband does not give lectures Loona!" Millie hissed back, receiving a middle finger salute. 

"It's probably important that we know." Octavia muttered. "I don't want mom and dad chewing me out for not listening." 

"I suppose I could explain it in layman's terms." Brenden spoke up somewhat timidly. 

"Go for it." Loona shrugged. 

"Right, well if I remember right, the Silver Legion is angry that a genocide in the Principalities is sending refugees into their territory. That and the fact that their soldiers have shot and killed people on their side of the border." the imp explained quickly. 

"Why are they killing them?" Loona asked. 

"Because the Macota people on that side of the border have been oppressed for over a century ever since their lands were conquered. Now they're demanding the right to become a part of the Silver Legion." Brenden continued. "If I remember right, there were a few terrorist attacks by Macota extremist. Then the governments in those eight principalities began imprisoning and killing them all." 

"That's pretty fucked up, I'm not gonna lie." Blitzo grimaced. 

"That politics." Brenden answered flatly. 

"So what are we here for? The treaty was signed right?" Millie asked. 

"Nothing was signed." Her husband shook his head. "Neither side could fully agree on the refugee problem, but they've agreed to stand down." 

"Yeah, that's about it." Brenden nodded. "I'm gonna go get ready for dinner." he said before bugging out. 

                                                                                                        [] 

That night at diner the group found themselves in deep discussion over the I.M.P crew's job. It was discussed that they would stay around for awhile in the case that their neutrality in the matter would bring trouble to them. Blitzo had questioned how their neutrality could caused problems, and Stolas explained that their friendship with the Chancellor, someone they had known for over a hundred years, had ostracized them from some of the other noble families who felt that they were secretly supporting the legion. 

"Not only are we at risk," Stolas had said. "But three other families also have good relations with the Chancellor." 

"Prince Henri has a lot of power in the principalities," Stella interjected. "After us, he is the second most powerful demon in the northern principalities, and he has influence over half of the noble families here." 

"So you don't get along, and your worried he might try to axe you off." Millie said. 

Stella stared down her nose at the small imp and nodded. "The noble families have formed long lived factions that fight each other over many things." She said to no one in particular. 

"So if they come knocking, then we can fight them!" Blitzo declared. 

"Sounds awesome! I can't wait to use those skills you taught me Blitzo." Loona said to her dad. 

"What? No, you'll stay here away from danger if we get into a fight." her dad decided. 

"What the hell Blitzo! Why?" Loona demanded. "You've let me go on other jobs!" 

"Those were small ones. You're lucky I let you go on the last one young lady!" Blitzo reprimanded. "This could be a full scale war. You're not ready, you're not allowed, and that's final!" 

Loona narrowed her eyes and glared vengefully at him before standing up quickly. Her chair fell back with a loud thud, drawing all attention to the already loud and noticeable argument they were having. Her body shook uncontrollably in anger, and her fur stood on end. 

"Fuck you dad!" she yelled, using the name she rarely called him. 

Blitzo opened his mouth to call after her, but stopped and slid down into his seat dejected. 

"Blitzo? Are you okay?" Stolas asked kindly. 

The imp failed to reply and instead stood up slowly before rushing out of the dining room towards his room. 

For the rest of diner, a heavy silence hung over the group.