Warsong | Celeste Academy Series Book #4

Chapter Twenty-Two ⚜ Star Fall

"That was insane," Valeriana said as she sat on Keelan's bed, watching Brindon from the corner of her eyes as he removed the nest of arrows on his back. He set it down against the wall while Keelan stood beside him, kicking off the dirt from his shoes. Eres, on the other hand, pulled on the curtains of his windows and drew them close, casting one last look at the crowd of curious citizens that gathered below.

Valeriana expected a commotion, but not to this extent.

"Why did you ask for a Celestial Knight, kavá?" Keelan asked as he pulled on his outer jacket and took it off, leaving him in his casual tunic. "I doubt an event of this magnitude actually needs the handling of one."

"No. It's not the incident itself that actually needs the attention of a Celestial Knight, livouda." The strange word rolled out of his tongue in a manner that sounded so exotic, Valeriana felt the urge to ask him to say it again. She gazed between Keelan and Eres and figured livouda must mean something along the lines of younger brother.

"Then what does?"

"Valeriana, your bag please." Eres motioned to the backpack hanging around her shoulders.

"Oh, yeah, right." She took it off and opened the flap to reveal the sealed artifact. She took it out, fingering the neck of the small, wooden carving. At the contact, she felt a small thrill of energy trace her fingertips, making her shiver. She felt what it wanted to do—break free. Not to mention the ribbon that Eres wrapped around it before to seal the energy was starting to look somewhat frayed.

Wanting nothing to do with it any longer, she handed it to Eres as though she was handling sludge from a septic tank before pulling back and scooting a bit further from it. Eres took it into his hands discerningly.

"I may be wrong . . ." he said.

"You mentioned something about the artifact of vices from before. What exactly are they?" Valeriana asked.

"According to the sources available, these artifacts raged havoc in the Great War thousands of years ago. But after the demon lord Valdis was defeated and the demons were suppressed, they were destroyed. I'm not really sure if this is genuine. However, if this is an artifact of vice, it's not in its prime state as it was before," the future lord explained.

"But why would something like that appear in a small city like this one?" Keelan asked. "If it's so important, why would they stake it?"

"It's because of you," Eres nodded to Valeriana.

"M-me? Why? Oh . . ." she trailed off when she realized what that meant. Usually, when she came into contact with anything demonic, it would be repelled. However, this time, she was affected like the second time she was victimized back in the academy. They found a loophole to her defenses, probably to get rid of her once and for all. However, they failed to take into account the white jade sphere which trapped the demon and saved her in the nick of time.

When reality came crashing, she found herself blowing a large sigh. "They actually gambled so much just to kill me. Or am I being too narcissistic here? Because I might not just be the reason."

"You've seen how much they pay attention to you, Valeriana," Keelan said. "And the fact that your ability is very detrimental to them, especially if you get the next blessing. They're seeing you as a threat to their existence. They probably want to put an end to this."

She thought to what Chavi said from before and recalled her words. They would stop at nothing. She was that big of a threat, huh.

"I suddenly feel so special," she muttered before a small smile curled on her lips and she laughed. "And here I was feeling so useless the past few months."