Moon Kingdom: Fair Warning

Ava

      Early in the morning, Ava arrived back at her apartment. She recalled that Athena had arrived home, and brought an unusual number of guests with her. She also remembered a sort of nightmare in which three birds and a man had come at her violently; but that was a fuzzy recollection at this point and seemed less important than what she had learned at the party.

It was Diana who was already awake when Ava stepped inside. The others were still asleep because of how late they had stayed up the night before. If Diana wasn't so worried, she would have been sleeping too. However, she sat up and stared anxiously at the Spiritess pendant that Sonya had snuck into her bag the day before.

"Good morning," Ava greeted her politely.

"Good morning," Diana said, distractedly, "I'm Diana- a friend of Athena's."

"Ava." Ava unnecessarily introduced herself, "What's that?"

Diana held up the pendant and watched as the early morning sun glinted off its surface and cast a beam of light through the air and onto the dusty floor. "A reminder of home," She said vaguely.

Ava was feeling rather impatient to tell her news. What she had heard was beyond wild. She felt certain that she could not have imagined it. Athena, who was sometimes a stick in the mud but at least was rather intelligent, would know what to do about it. As for this blonde woman sitting and moping, she wasn't sure she cared at all to tell her.

"Oh!" A muffled voice came from the floor where Klaus had been sleeping, "You're both awake already. Good to see Ava awake and not naked or screaming."

As he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, Klaus faced the two women. Ava's mind filled with the memory of the nightmare she had and recognized Klaus's face as the one from that very vision. The night before she had not recognized him because of how dark it was, and that he was sleeping on the floor.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked with a scowl, turning to Diana, "Is he your husband and you kick him out of bed for some reason?"

Diana blushed. "He's another friend. We aren't married."

"Oh well," Ava shrugged, "That's becoming more common now I suppose. Nothing to be ashamed of around me. I mean, nobody's even faithful to their spouse these days anyway. You know, just a few days ago a man's wife left him here with us. I woke up and Athena had left a note saying she'd gone off a bit and Eddie, this man who was here, got quite interested in me. Married and everything and his wife our recent guest and all."

Diana blushed a deeper shade of red. Klaus looked a bit shocked but hid it behind a short laugh. Neither of them were familiar with such promiscuity. Diana herself was particularly embarrassed, as until recently she had dedicated herself to a chaste lifestyle. Klaus was less inclined to embarrassment but himself was raised to proper monogamy and lifelong marriage. His own father, despite other flaws, always was faithful to his wife.

"Well, don't be too judgemental," Ava continued, "A lot of men are at it with these solar parties. They're a good lot of fun anyway. Some of these men though- like Mark! I've seen him around with plenty of women; he's always sneaking around. No wonder he wants to sacrifice his wife to the sun god. Poor Martha! He probably wants her sister or some twisted thing as such."

"Wait a minute!" Klaus stood up with a shocked look on his face. "Go back to that part about sacrifice- is that man seriously going to kill his wife?"

"Well, that's what he said at the party." Ava hadn't meant to reveal her news like that but it had come out anyway since it was at the forefront of her mind.

They were shocked. Diana felt sick to her stomach just hearing about it. Klaus was equally disgusted. He walked over to the beds and woke Athena and Bree as gently, but as quickly, as he could. This was an insane development in their situation. He hadn't realized they were dealing with such insanity. Athena in particular needed to hear about this.

"What's wrong?" Bree asked, sitting up on the bed and stretching her arms. She recognized the distraught looks on her friends' faces and felt something must be wrong.

"Did we sleep too late?" Athena asked. She felt warm and groggy and so tapped her ring and sent a flurry of snow into the room to cool it down. Ava opened her mouth to catch a flake that fell towards her.

"Ava has just mentioned something that might affect our plans." Klaus explained, "It's still early but we might need to deal with this quickly before we try your idea."

"What is going on?" Athena asked Ava, "Tell me everything you told them."

"Tell her even more if you can," Diana suggested, "But if the details get more explicit I might have to excuse myself."

Athena was concerned. She wondered what Ava could possibly have told them that would make them so worried. Diana, having just left a very sheltered life, may be prone to exaggerating how crude or immoral a story was. Klaus, on the other hand, was a modest man but certainly not unfamiliar with the ways of lesser men. At least, Athena hadn't gotten that impression from him.

"Well, I was at a party down the street. You know all the parties that people have in honour of the sun and the warm winter?" Ava began.

"I'm familiar with them." Athena affirmed, "We've had some here."

"Yes, and so people last night were partying and worshipping like usual," Ava explained, "I was there drinking but since I came late I wasn't completely drunk yet. Anyway, this man and two women started talking to the crowd outside and probably people inside could hear as well. They spoke rather loud and boldly saying they were prophets of the sun god."