Tara & Tal - A sword age

5. Chapter - The Last Day

"Alarm! Raise the alert to the highest level!"

Tara screamed through the entire palace. Tal followed her, his head lowered.

All the people of the palace gathered in the hall, confused about the commotion.

"Is that everyone?" Tara asked. "So our soldiers really ran off? Geez ..." She sighed.

Every single one before them was part of the palace staff - cooks, butlers, maids, and whatever. None of them had any idea about fighting.

"Okay, we need to improvise," Tara mumbled, walking past all of them. "This is bad, terrible even. It's not like the soldiers could have done much anyway, but ... hmm, I must think." Tara stopped infront of the door that belonged to their small armory.

Tal took stand beside her. "Can I ask you what the plan is?"

"Not dying, of course," she mumbled.

"And what is your idea to accomplish that?"

"What do you think?"

"By ... fighting, I guess."

She nodded. "They will most likely send some minor god, without much experience, so we just need to be smarter than him."

"Well, there lies the first problem."

Tara ignored his mumbling and said, "That'll be a cakewalk.

Tal looked at her for a moment, then he sighed. "You have no idea what to do, do you?"

"I know what I'm talking about. I'm not stupid! We need an army. A better army than the last one. And we need good weapons."

"Do that, I am going to bed." He was about to trudge off.

Tara grabbed his arm. "Hey, no, you can't just go, this is important!"

"Then admit it, you have no idea what to do."

Tara stared at him and ground her teeth. For a moment, she looked like she was about to explode. "Okay, fine, but you have no idea either! We are screwed!"

Tal placed a hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps. Let us just prepare the best we can and then face it the best we can. It does not help to lose your head."

"You're easy talking. I know it doesn't help, but ..." she let her head hang. "I don't know."

"Just take a deep breath, and then we can look if we find anything in our armory that could help against a god, calmly."

Tara took a deep breath. "Got it."

They opened the door and entered the armory. It was truly not a big one. Some swords and shields stood leaning against one wall, and single pieces of armor dangled from shelves, it was rather pathetic.

"Nothing of this looks magical," Tara noted. "I think we're better of sticking to our usual gear."

"The armor we used in the last ... battle?"

"Right, that one." She took another look at the pile of junk. "The rest we just give to the staff... I don't know how it would help, but it can't hurt either.

They did some prep work, handing out the spare armor and weapons to the staff and preparing their own. It wasn't much, but it was still better than nothing, so they told themselves.

A few hours later, they met up again.

Tara noticed a small blue crystal at Tal's collar. It was one of the Vanir-Crystals.

"What do you need this thing for?" she asked, confused.

"I just thought ... well, I think it looks cool."