Wisdom and War

Chapter Sixteen

"Do you think it's true?" Joaquin asked me as we stood in the middle of a room on the Erevna floor, testing the newly upgraded weapons. Maiko and Elias were on the other side doing the same thing but their weapons were focused on chains and blades while ours were on guns and swords.

I picked up a rifle and aimed it at the target that was placed on the far end of the wall and shots rang out through the room. There was a single hole right in the middle of the tarpaulin when I stopped and Joaquin did the same but with a pistol instead. "About Morana?" He nodded his head and ghosted his hand over the other weapons laying in front of us, choosing which one to test next. "Not really. He is her father but it's been almost a hundred years. There's a chance that Morana may be angry because of the fact that her father never came for her." I moved on to the shields that have been laid out, which would most likely be used by the Fura, and moved over to the targets as Joaquin picked up a shotgun.

"I agree." He said before lifting the gun and firing at me. I quickly lifted up the shield to cover my body and heard as the bullets came in contact with the metal. I looked down at my feet and saw the bullets falling to the floor as the shield refused to be penetrated. Joaquin must've noticed this because he began focusing on one part of the shield to break its exterior but the weapon held up. "It's not a good risk to take."

He dropped the gun and I admired how the shield barely had a scratch, apart from the part that Joaquin continuously shot at. Giving the Erevna who were in the room an approving look, I set the shield down and moved on to the others. A gust of wind caused my hair to stray away from my face and I looked to my right to see Elias standing there with his hands placed on his lips. Maiko was still on the other side of the room testing some blades, but her eyes kept moving over to our direction.

"Can you guys speak louder? I can't hear you from the other side of the room and I would very much like to know what you two are gossiping about." Joaquin and I rolled our eyes on instinct as Elias flashed us with a grin.

"We aren't gossiping."

"So what's the scoop?" He ignored Joaquin's remark and leaned on the table that was holding the weapons, eyes gleaming with anticipation.

I went over to where the daggers were and grabbed three black ones. They were nothing like the daggers from my own collection because these would all be used by the Fura. "Orion thinks he can talk to Morana." I said and without another word, stretched my arm out and flung the three daggers to three separate targets, each one hitting the smallest ring in the middle. Grabbing three more, I repeated the move and they all hit the space right beneath the first set of daggers that I threw.

"I doubt she'll even let him get a word in." Elias said and I restrained myself to agree with him verbally, but it was obvious that Joaquin had the same thoughts. "Wait, I'll get Maiko." He disappeared and then he was suddenly right beside Maiko. They spoke for a few seconds before Elias grabbed her arm and then they were right in front of us the next beat. "Orion thinks that a little father-daughter reunion can stop Morana from waging a war."

"Isn't that a little far-fetched?" Maiko wore a worried look on her face and I nodded my head because it was exactly that. In the years that Joaquin and I worked with Orion, we learned how to take care of one another and watch each other's backs, but compared to what we had with Elias and Maiko, it was different. We've been through more and have spent years building up a bond that would beat the one we had with Orion to a pulp. There's a certain balance that the four of us bring with Joaquin and I being the ones who mostly thought with strategy- what to do and what not to do- while Elias and Maiko would be better when it comes to social interactions that were needed for the job, or anything that required a positive form of emotion. With how long we've worked together, we came to know how the others would think and at some point, we could already decipher what our separate thoughts would be and they'd always be the same. It's like sharing the same mind.