Daughter of Nox

Chapter Thirteen

Freya barely managed to keep her feet under her as she burst through the window. She felt the window give before she heard it, the panel letting out a loud pop as chunks of window spun free of the whole like shrapnel from a bomb. Pieces of the superheated polymer sizzled against her uniform, and she could feel a piece of it settle against her cheek with a burn so hot she nearly screamed.

A world on high alert met Freya's senses as she staggered from the reception and into the chilly Noxian air. Klaxons poured into the night, while crimson warning light swirled over the grounds from the nearby Sphere. Overhead, a Ministry gunship swooped low over the reception hall and started its slow descent to the ground. The troops inside would be Father's, she knew, dispatched from the nearest garrison as soon as the alarm had gone up inside the reception.

Freya shot a look back through the clear walls of the reception, half-expecting to see the muscle-bound rebel to come barreling out of the same window she had. But the woman was nowhere in sight. She heaved a sigh of relief.

"Small favors," she said to herself, then started toward the gunship.

A ramp had dropped from the side of the ship and a platoon of Caretakers had begun filing out of when Freya reached them.

"Uh, Hey!" Freya raised one open hand palm out toward the troops and kept the rifle pointed toward the ground. The last thing she needed was to be shot by overzealous Caretakers after surviving being choked to the point of passing out, nearly trampled to death by panicked Founders, and shot at by Separatists.

The nearest Caretaker swung around to look at her. Freya noticed both the officer stripes on the neck of his armor, and the skeletal bird of House Averni emblazoned on his chest. The Caretaker leveled his rifle at her, and Freya came skidding to a halt.

"Whoa!" Freya said, and dropped the rifle. "We're on the same side."

The Caretaker's helmet moved up and down as he sized her up, and she could almost hear the gears turning in his head as he tried to make sense of finding this ragged looking young Founder in a very singed, very tattered uniform.

"You are not cleared to be in this area, Mistress. This is an active hostage situation, and we have intelligence that the Separatists are planning another attack on the Sphere" The officer gestured to a pair of the Caretakers with the markings of lower ranking soldiers. The two Caretakers holstered their weapons before moved toward her without hesitation. "Please allow my troops to escort you to a safe zone before we engage the enemy."

"Your intelligence is wrong." Freya pointed back toward the ongoing chaos inside the reception. "The Separatists aren't here to destroy the Sphere. They're here to take down MinNet."

The officer turned and started addressing another soldier who'd just come down the ramp. If he was listening, he didn't show it.

Freya felt panic ramp up her heart rate as the two Caretakers reached for her wrists. She knew that they'd never listen to her so long as they thought she was just some spoiled brat Founder who needed saving from herself, so she blurted, "My name is Freya Airm, First Marshall Ascending of Nox, and you will listen to me."

Both Caretakers froze in place, their hands mere inches from her. The officer, who had just seconds before acted as though she hadn't been there at all, now turned from the troops he was directing to look at her.

Freya forced her voice into something resembling calm before speaking again. She'd only have one chance to get these soldiers to listen, so she needed to make sure she spoke with the sort of professional authority that soldiers like these would respect. She needed to speak to them the way her father would.