Outer Olympus

Outer Olympus: Chapter 25

Viola watched the Chalice be brought up with a predator's eyes. KF coils for a pedestal? How fancy. How wasteful. How easy to sabotage. Already, plans were forming in her head. The Chalice itself was so ornate that it'd be worth a fortune even with a lack of magic powers, but the Magistrate seemed more than confident in them. She had, from a distance, overheard his conversation with Lord Hunter; she made a mental note to check who he was when she got back. It sounded like they had some ambitious plans; shame they were going to come crashing down around them. Malcolm gave a history lesson (Viola had never even heard of the Archetemy people before) and then the two men took a sip.

The room changed instantly. Viola didn't have a refined sense of the supernatural the way Rune did, but she could feel the difference immediately. Everyone occasionally got that little sense they were being watched, that leftover instinct from when humanity had needed to regularly worry about predation from the wilds. Viola had never felt that sense so sharply needling into her like a moth being pinned to a display case. She moved, taking care to look natural, to put the bodies of others in the crowd between her and the Magistrate. It was too late. She made eye contact with him for a brief moment and saw the recognition in his face. She felt so stupid; she had only ever conceived of the Archetemy Chalice as a prize, never as a threat. The Magistrate turned and walked to a man in a suit standing with arms crossed by one of the doors a few feet behind him.

"That little girl in the blue dress is an intruder. Apprehend her," he said. Viola swallowed, as time seemed to slow down. In this one moment, she had to shift her thought process from that of predator to that of prey. The man nodded to other members of the security team around the room. They were all probably Enforcers, just dressed in formal wear rather than armour to not disrupt the aesthetics of the night. Viola had to take them very seriously. She thumbed the dial of her communicator.

"Abort," she instructed her friends, and turned to leave slowly. Sprinting for the exit would be a mistake, she had realized. Though the Magistrate, now possessed of mystically enhanced senses, could see her easily through the crowd, the Enforcers only had the description of "that little girl in the blue dress," someone many of them wouldn't have even noticed before. They would have trouble picking her out, which she'd lose if she made herself identifiable by running. For the first few seconds while they gathered themselves, at least. She saw the Enforcers tap their comms, looking confused. Taroh must have shut down internal communications when he got the signal to abort. Viola smiled, at least someone was on top of things.

"No, her, there!" the Magistrate yelled in frustration. Around her, she heard the topic of conversation shift to that there was an intruder. The Enforcers pushed their way through the crowd, closing the distance to her faster than she'd like. She was in trouble, she knew, but she kept her cool, still not breaking into a sprint. There'd be Enforcers in the next room too, and she didn't want to give herself away to them immediately or they'd cut off her only chance of getting away. She needed an opportunity; something else to get people's attention. She considered smashing one of the tables of drinks, but she couldn't do that without eyes going to her. She had known Rune for a week and was already concocting plans that required telekinesis.

"Geode, I need a distraction," she said into comms. No point being completely silent if her cover was already blown.

"I'm already on it," Geode responded, and seconds later, the sounds of an explosion resonated from above, cutting through the grating sanitized violence contained in the music of Populi Rhodes. "Rendezvous at Alpha," Geode continued. Alpha was the codename they had given for the train route, which meant that explosion had probably been whatever alternative vehicle escape route Geode had prepared. Still, it had the desired response; the sound of the blast set the room into a chaotic panic. People were running all around; many of these people had been in Outer Olympus during the war, recognized the danger of artillery strikes and bombings and didn't want to be anywhere near them. Viola at last, broke into a sprint, shielded from suspicion by people around her doing the same. People screamed. A rebel attack, these people assumed, those darned lillithists attacking the noble and just like they always did. Viola supposed they were only half wrong.

Enforcers moved in continued pursuit, even as Viola weaved through the crowd and tried to break their line of sight. Things were better now, but she still wouldn't make it to the train at this rate. She needed something more. She had made it out of the room, away from the supernatural gaze of Malcolm, but danger now came from all around her, as the Enforcers struggled to communicate over the panic. There had to be a play here. She was a social creature; she only had so many tools to use during a moment of actual physical conflict.

And then through the crowd, she saw the flash of white robes.

"Marcus!" She yelled. His eyes fell on her immediately. Concern filled his eyes, as he began to move towards her. This was, Viola knew, a colossal risk. However, she didn't have a single doubt it would work.

"Scylla!" He yelled back, "are you okay?" She nodded, and suppressed a smile, she could see behind that genuine concern an excitement in his posture, something going wrong like this meant he'd finally have a chance to be the hero he'd always dreamed of being.

"I'm fine!" she reassured, then gestured to a staircase leading to above, "I saw the intruders go that way!" Marcus's face hardened, and then he grinned. She had him, he was not going to question for a second the cute friend he just made giving him the chance to be the one to save the day. He grabbed a nearby Enforcer.

"You! Make sure she gets out of here," he ordered, and it took a moment for Viola to process if that was a good thing or not. He then walked towards her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "This Enforcer will keep you safe. I'll deal with whoever's responsible for this." He beamed, "I told you my powers were for more than party tricks."

"Hey. Stay safe yourself, okay?" she replied. He looked so cocky and self-assured, he thought her faux-worry was just adorable. He nodded, making his way past her towards the staircase she had pointed to. She hoped Geode wasn't going to use that route to get to the train.

"Where to?" The Enforcer Marcus had summoned asked her. She was a muscular woman with short, red hair, eyes scanning the room for threats rather than looking at her. It was strange; Enforcer armour was so obliterative of identity, she didn't think of them having features like this. Except Kase, but that was from extended experience.

"To the Foyer rear hall. I bet I can find my dad there," she replied, and the Enforcer nodded. Behind them, Marcus gathered the Enforcers who had been chasing Viola and led them up the stairs. What a good boy. It was a shame to have to burn his trust in her now, but she didn't exactly have other options. She walked with the Enforcer through the rest of the party, and realized what a stroke of luck this truly was. Those who had gotten the message that a girl in a blue dress was to be apprehended would see her and presume she had been captured, and not make any effort to interfere. Marcus really did know how to make a girl happy.

"Do you think it's dangerous? People were talking about a lilithist attack," she asked the woman. Got to break her attention, find a way to lose her and rejoin the others, "I heard they like using bombs and mortars." There was another explosion from above. She hoped Geode had done that one on purpose too.

"Don't think so. That doesn't sound like a mortar blast hitting a building. Besides, the lilithists around here are toothless. Not like the ones planetside." The Enforcer reassured her. Viola refrained form correcting her that the rebel forces on Rockwater tended to be from anti-lilithist rebel factions; the average loyal citizen of the Hegemony didn't have lessons in ideology given by Sasille Shepard.

"Hey, what's in here?" she asked, seeing the staircase that would lead her to the access point to the railcar. She ran down, and the Enforcer made a frustrated noise and ran after her.

"Don't just run off. I'm trying to keep you safe," the woman said, and then a bolt of crimson lightning knocked her off her feet. Viola turned to see Rune casually sitting on the railing a level above in the stairwell, miming blowing smoke off her fingertips.

"Fun party?" Rune asked with a smile.