Tales of Arcadia: Mordred's Curse

Part 22

Just before dawn, Alma found herself crouching, hidden, in sight of the Mothership.

Irene crouched a couple feet away, watching the house carefully.

"... I should have my magic back," Alma grumbled suddenly.

"And... what is that?" Irene asked calmly.

"That would make this so much easier."

"And besides, this time on earth has been humiliating. I think I've earned them back," she added.

"Humiliation and humility aren't the same thing," Irene told her.

"Are you... Sure you haven't learned or felt anything new from everything that's happened during your time on this not-so-normal Earth?" Irene laughed weakly.

"... people don't like the way I act," Alma said after a moment. "At the height of the Pantheon's reign, everyone was too afraid of me to disrespect me, but now..."

"It's like I never existed. Sure I caused events that had a huge impact on your world's history, but no one except me and the other Olympians knew I was the one who caused them."

"It's probably a good thing it's not widely known you helped with those... Specific things... Heh..." Irene mumbled, "But this can be your chance to start to do things a better way- cheesy as it sounds, you probably CAN change the world for the better if you just convince them you're capable."

"Maybe." Amaltheia shrugged and focused back on the ship.

Irene smirked a little and looked around, noting that the others seemed to have finally made it out of view. "Alma, listen to me. When I say this is your chance to convince them, I mean it. Now, I don't deal with Greek gods as much as one might think, but assuming someone is watching this right now, you won't get your powers back if your heart isn't in the right place- or if they don't believe it is... When they send the message, they'll need me to go out there. You can join me, or you could stay, but it won't be safe without your magic."

Alma considered this as Irene fell silent.

After a long few minutes, Irene got the text.

She took a deep breath and headed out to the front of the house.

Irene spread her arms with a tired sigh, giving a quick peace sign to Alma as she spun around foolishly.

"I KNOW YOU KNOW I KNOW, TREVOR, OPEN THE DOOR!"

Mordred came outside (still within his force field), looking tired. "What do you want, Irene?"

"I want you to know that I know you know I know :(" Irene said in a confused tone, pouting a bit, now flapping her arms a bit.

Mordred sighed. "We're going to fight, aren't we."

Amaltheia chose this moment to come racing out of the bushes, questioning all her life choices.

Mordred's hands lit up with magic. "So be it."

"Oh my-" Irene mumbled taking a couple steps back as Amaltheia came running and Mordred started moving out. Irene readied her crimson fields in her hands and dodged a laser he'd aimed at her.

Amaltheia snatched a stick and tried to get around to flank Mordred.

At the same time, Krel, Cara, and Douxie burst through the front door, with all of Krel's automatons in tow.

Mordred shot fire at them, and Cara darted in front of the boys, pulling her serrator and summoning a shield in one motion.

Mordred jerked the stick from Alma just in time, breaking a good portion of it, and threw it to the side. His eyes were a proper fire tone as he backed to an area that gave him a proper view of everyone there.