Six Rulers

8

Chapter 8

Sage

Olivin bounded through the halls and down flights of stairs until we came to a rough wooden door that seemed out of place in the gleaming silver and platinum and the shiny rosewood. She opened it and beckoned me through. "C'mon, we don't have all day."

The castle shook again, dirt falling from the ceiling of the narrow passage I found myself in. It was dug straight out of the dirt; rough beams lined the top and sides of the tunnel for what I assumed was structural integrity, not the aesthetic.

Olivin shoved around me. "Geez, Sage, you're in my way."
"You shoved me in here!"

She smiled cheekily. "Liv Greene, Queen Menace, at your service."

She forged on ahead, half running, half speedwalking. Her Chucks slapped the hard packed earth as we moved. We finally came to an incline, which led to a metal ladder.

"Alright. Let's find this fireballing jerk and-" she paused. "I'm out. I got nothing."

I laughed. "Your intentions were clear."

She started up the ladder. At the top, she pushed open the manhole cover at the top. It slid onto the asphalt of the road above with an awful grating sound. She clambered out of the hole, then helped me up. "I think I hear something," she pivoted to the left. "Nope. Just some hobo in a dumpster."

"There!" I whisper-shouted to her. Something dark blurred at the corner of my vision. Olivin whirled, sprinting down the alley after it. The figure tried to dart out into oncoming traffic, but Olivin flung out a hand, her purple curlicued tendrils of magic flying out and ensnaring the fleeing figure. It shrieked, writhing in her grasp. Olivin pulled her magic back towards where she stood.

"Sage I caught one!" she smiled triumphantly. "Now let's see what's behind Curtain #1!"

She used her magic to throw back the hood of the cloak-like garment the figure was wearing, revealing...

I almost passed out.

"AXEL?" Olivin cried. "WHAT THE HECK, MAN?"

Axel wriggled, trying to escape Liv's magic. "Let me go! Let me go!"

I struggled to breath. First Dylos...were all of my brothers doomed to go bad like fruit left on the vine for too long?!

"Are you the one flinging fireballs at my castle?" Olivin demanded. "Don't even think about lying."

He didn't say a thing. He just kept on struggling, his light brown skin covered in a sheen of sweat.

"ANSWER HER, AXEL." I thundered. Quite literally,I might add. The sky let a Zeus-worthy rumble; a spear of lightning forked through the sky, brightening the knot of dark grey storm clouds that were gathering overhead.

Olivin smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile. It was a psychotic, 'I Just Escaped From The Mental Hospital' smile. Her fanglike canine teeth gleamed. "You might want to answer, Ax. You should know how Sagey gets when she starts thundering."

Axel's face paled. "T-they made me!"

"Who." I paced closer. "Speak."

He tried to form words, but no sound came from his lips.

"It's your call on what we do, Sage," Olivin looked at me, her sapphire blue eyes burning.

I inhaled. This was tough. He was my brother, but he also attacked my best friend's home. He might have been coerced by our other brother, who is currently acting like he Freaky Friday-ed with a sociopath. I loved my brothers, and didn't want any of them to be in pain or anything adjacent to pain;if I was the one causing it, that's a different question.

"Take him back to Darkmoon," I said. "If Dylos wants him, he can come get him."

Olivin gave me her real smile;there was nothing rare about it, but it still made me smile, like dominoes falling in a line. She was infectious–her smile, her energy, her chaos. It was one of the reasons why I'd befriended her when we were younger. I revelled in her company.

I smiled back. "Let's get him back. Text Syric and tell him we caught one."

—

"HOLY- WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" Olivin screeched when she saw Syric.

I didn't say a word.

I was too busy laughing.

"Don't. Even." He held up a hand. "Dude got away."

Syric had very clearly been shot at with fireballs. His mess of brown curls was singed, and he had ash on his face. He smelled like burnt hair, and there was a burn on his forearm. It was beginning to heal, due to his half-Elven heritage, but it still needed to be bandaged.

"That was not how I imagined tonight going," Olivin sighed. "He attacked me twice in one day. That's got to be some sort of record."

We started for the castle doors, where a pod of soldiers stood trying to determine the structural integrity of the building.

"Give it to me, people. How much damage is there?" Olivin approached the group.

An orange-haired soldier spoke up."It's not looking good, Your Majesty. There's a great deal of damage to the streetside portion of the castle. One of the balconies is completely gone."

"We know." I said dryly. "We were out on it a second before it exploded."

The soldier startled. "Ah, I–uh-"

"Keep speaking."

"Well, the damage is extensive enough that the Queen and everyone else who lives and works in Darkmoon cannot be in the building while the crew is repairing the place. One of the fireballs caught the War Office on fire and destroyed a very important weight-bearing beam. But, it's in a very awkward and hard to reach spot, so it's going to take a while to get to it."

"Oh, so it's like shaving your legs," Olivin mused.

"How long do you think it's going to take?" Syric asked.

The soldier winced. "Probably a few months."

"A FEW MONTHS?!" Olivin burst into flames, purple sparks flying. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! OF ALL THE THINGS-"

I summoned a raincloud over her head and made it pour. The water drenched the angry little woman, but barely affected the flames. She proceeded to say some very iffy things to the soldier, including insulting his mother for giving birth to such a stupid child. By the end, they were in tears and the flames surrounding Olivin only got wilder.

Before she could insult them further, I grabbed her arm and led her away.