by Tj Dixon
Then Peter moves his right hand towards my left breast and I quickly push it away. He looks at me in confusion. He doesn’t seem to understand why I resisted and looks hurt. Really hurt. In fact tears fall from his eyes.
“Peter, I’m not Hades. I’m Hermes.” I tell him urgently. Peter looks at me and blinks. Then he wipes his tears away.
“Why was I crying? What were we doing?” Peter asks in confusion.
“Um, that’s a bit complicated. Could you move over?” I ask, very embarrassed by our current positions.
“Yes, of course.” Peter says and moves off of me. He sits beside me and I sit up too. My emotions are a real mess right now. It was only briefly, but just now I really thought that I had won Peter’s heart. I would have been happy to do anything with Peter, even what he seemed to want to do. Doing that with him when he isn’t his self and when he thinks of me as someone else would be unthinkable though.
“Who is Hades?” I ask.
“She’s a star and one of my best friends.” Peter says.
“A star?” I ask incredulously. How could Peter mistake me for a star and how could he be in love with a star?
“Yes. I think she was my very first friend, though we haven’t spoken much lately.” Peter says sounding a little sad.
“I think I want to go back.” I sigh.
“You don’t want to continue our date?” Peter asks in surprise.
“I’m sorry but I’m really not in the mood now.” I answer with a deep sigh.
“Did I do something bad to you just now?” Peter asks sounding really worried.
“Sort of.”
“What did I do?” Peter asks even more worried now.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t really explain it. It’s nothing that bad, but I just want to go back.” I tell him, really not wanting to go over the details with him.
“Ok, but I’m really sorry.” Peter tells me and he seems really sincere. I feel a bit guilty. It really isn’t his fault. He wasn’t himself, but even so I’m really not in the mood to continue our date now. “Maybe we can go on another date another day.”
“Yes, that would be good.” I say, really happy to get a second chance. Let’s start this afresh another day. Hopefully Hades won’t interrupt our second date.
“Do you want to port back?” Peter asks.
“No, let’s at least go back under the sea.” I say, now almost wishing I hadn’t suggested ending our date, but then I remember Peter’s hand reaching towards my breast and I’m glad I called an end to it for today. The swim back should give me time to calm down before I have to see Rin and Midori again.
Peter ports the empty bags back to Rin and then takes my hand. I consider refusing but I don’t want to put more distance between us. Peter lifts us up off the ground with flight magic and then slowly lowers us into the sea again. We go right down to the sea bed again. My water flames are still as bright as they were when I first lit them. I’ll have to put them out before we leave, because whilst burning a little water to give us light isn’t an issue it wouldn’t be good to just let it continue burning the water forever.
We float along the seabed and see a few more unusual fish but we don’t say anything. The silence feels awkward and I’m the one who created it by acting like I did with Peter, but I can’t bring myself to break it.
As we approach the shore I sense a lot of magic. I sense fire and earth elements first but that’s just because they are my elements. Peter looks at me and I nod. He tries to port us but something blocks it so he increases our speed and brings us up out of the water. It doesn’t take long but by the time we reach the shore the magic has stopped.
Looking down I see the beach is a wreck. In places the sand seems to have been welded together to form a sort of rock, or turned into metal shards, or been covered in bright green goo. Worst though I can see what must be corpses. Some are still wearing bright mage robes but others are charred corpses that are barely recognisable as human. I look at Peter in horror and he looks back grimly.
Chapter 23 (Peter)
I want to land and take a closer look to see if I can work out where the enemy went, but one look at Hermes and I realise that would be a bad idea. Hermes has seen someone die before, but only rarely. She’s certainly never seen a true battlefield like this with corpses everywhere. At least not human corpses. The skirmish we ported into between Trinity’s company and the enemy was much smaller than the battle here and cannot be compared with this.
If the enemy are hiding I don’t want to put Hermes in danger either so it would be best to get back to Rin and Midori. It is possible they may be in danger too, so the sooner we get back the better. There is still a port block up so we’ll need to fly, but it isn’t far. I just hope we’re not mistaken for the enemy.
My decision made I send us hurtling through the air towards the house Rin and Midori should be in. Nobody attacks us which whilst good, makes me worry about the fate of the mages who should be defending this town. Were they wiped out in the attack? I certainly hope not and even more I hope Rin and Midori are safe. Damn, why did I choose today of all days to go on a date with Hermes?!
I quickly drop us down and land us on the ground just in front of the door to our temporary house. I knock urgently and call out. “Rin! Midori!”
“Peter?” Midori’s voice answers in confusion and the door opens with magic. Rin and Midori are standing there just in front of the two chairs, obviously having just gotten up. I breathe a sigh of relief.
“You’re both safe.” I smile and my nerves are relieved a little.
“Of course we’re both safe. What happened?” Rin asks in confusion.
“There was a battle at the beach. Didn’t you notice the magic?” I ask as I enter, with Hermes following right behind me.
“No.” Rin answers with a frown. It was powerful enough that I don’t understand how she could have missed it. It must have been pretty loud too, given how bad a mess the beach was in.
“Didn’t you at least hear the battle?” I ask in confusion.
“There’s an enchantment on these houses to keep sound out. Only sound that originates within a couple of feet of the door will be allowed into the house. These are mainly aimed at tourists so it would normally be fairly loud without the enchantment. People partying through the night and that sort of thing.” Rin tells me.
“Oh. Ok.”
“So the enemy interrupted your date?” Rin asks sounding angry, but not at me.
“No. We had finished and were on our way back.” I tell Rin who frowns in confusion.
“Already? I thought you’d be gone most of the day. Did you get bored because there wasn’t much to do?” Rin asks worried.
“No we had a good time, but…” I say and glance at Hermes. Hermes winces.
“What went wrong?” Rin asks sounding even more worried now. I look to Hermes to answer that, because she never did tell me exactly what happened.
“It’s nothing.” Hermes says looking down at the floor and blushing.
“Nothing?” Rin asks in disbelief. Then she glares at me. “What really happened Peter?”
“I don’t know.” I admit honestly.
“Then what do you know?” Rin asks coldly.
“All I know is that I wasn’t myself for a while and when I came back to being myself I was crouched over Hermes and…” I start to say but Rin takes a step towards me and her eyes are now glazed with ice. Literally.
“Peter… If you ever hurt Hermes, I swear I’ll make you pay.”
“I didn’t hurt her, or I don’t think I did.” I say, taking a quick step backwards. Rin staring at me like this is much scarier than a hundred drakes.
“Did Peter hurt you?” Rin asks Hermes sounding rather calm despite her icy stare that is still directed at me, but Hermes shakes her head. “Really?”
“Peter didn’t hurt me. He just thought I was someone else for a while.” Hermes says and Rin blinks. The ice disappears from Rin’s eyes and she looks at Hermes i
n confusion.
“Who?” Rin asks, and I remember Hermes question earlier so the answer isn’t a surprise.
“Hades.” Hermes says.
“Wasn’t that the name of a star?” Rin asks with a frown. I must have told her at some point.
“Yes. She’s a very good friend of mine. Or she is normally. I haven’t spoken to her much lately.” I tell Rin. Didn’t I talk to Hades recently though? What did I talk to her about though?
“Ok, but how could you mistake Hermes for a star? They don’t exactly look alike, do they?” Rin asks me.
“No. There’s a bit of a likeness, but they don’t look that similar.” I say and everyone stares at me like they think I’m crazy.
“How do I look similar to a star?” Hermes asks dubiously.
“Your auras are a little similar.” I tell Hermes.
“Oh, ok.” Hermes says sounding a bit stunned.
“Rin’s is closer to Hades’ aura though.” I say and Hermes laughs. Rin on the other hand blushes. “Their personalities are closer too.”
“What do you mean my personality is closer to a star’s? What sort of personality does this Hades have, anyway?” Rin asks sounding half confused and half simmering with anger.
“Hades was brought up as a princess, so she can be quick to take anger, but she will stand up for friends no matter what happens. That’s the only reason why I’m still alive despite… despite what?” I ask myself in confusion and then there is a sharp pain in my forehead that feels like I just hit a castle wall head first at full speed.
I literally fall to my knees and then fall forwards to the floor. The slight pain of hitting my head against the floor is nothing compared to the intense pain in my forehead. I am literally in tears.
“Make it stop!” I cry out but I’m not really conscious of anything going on around me. Eventually the pain does fade and when I come back to my senses I am taking deep breathes and my cheeks are soaked with tears. There is a small pool on the ground too that must have been formed from my tears. I look up and see Rin and Midori on either side of me and Hermes in front of me. They are all staring at me in shock. What happened?
“Are you ok now?” Rin asks.
“Sort of. Where are we?” I ask in confusion.
“We’re in the house we borrowed.” Rin says and I frown in confusion.
“What house? Why aren’t we at the academy?” I ask and Rin gasps. Hermes takes a step back and Midori’s eyes go wide with shock.
“We’re in Beach Town. Don’t you remember?” Rin asks weakly.
“What is Beach Town? Why were we here? A bounty hunt?”
“No. We got trapped outside the academy when it was attacked.”
“The academy was attacked? Is everyone ok?” I ask in shock.
“Yes, they should be safe. The academy is well warded now.” Rin tells me and I sigh in relief. “Do you not remember anything that happened since?”
“I’m sorry.” I say and shake my head.
“So you don’t remember your date with me?” Hermes asks quietly, sounding really, really upset.
“Maybe it will come back to me.” I tell her weakly, unwilling to lie even for her sake. It’s not like I could convince her anyway, since she would only need to ask for the details to realise I was lying. Hermes wipes her right eye as if wiping tears away. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Hermes tells me but her words are filled with sadness.
“We should go on another one.” I tell her. She nods and smiles but her aura reveals her true feelings. I take a deep breath and tell her firmly. “I will remember.”
“I hope so.” Hermes says and is unable to hide her feelings from her voice.
“It sounds like there was a battle outside. Are we still safe here?” Midori asks Hermes.
“Possibly not.” Hermes admits.
“We should leave here then.” I tell everyone calmly. Outwardly calm anyway. My true feelings are anything but calm.
“Are you still in pain?” Rin asks.
“Yes, but it could be worse. I can still fight like this if I have to. What are we up against? Elves? Humans?” I ask.
“Not elves.” Rin answers quickly. “Only the Fallen Angels command elves. We’re up against the empire, so probably humans or goblins.”
“We’re fighting two enemies now?” I ask.
“Yes.” Rin nods.
“Has Portalis fallen?” I ask nervously.
“No. Not as far as we know, anyway.” Rin tells me.
“Why were we here?” I ask.
“We were on our way to Utopia Camerona. My mother is there and so is Hinata. We were going to go via Heaven’s Fall. That’s the nearest place to Utopia Camerona that we can port to from here. We could port directly to Heaven’s Fall, but I’m worried about the people here. Cherry and Sherry’s mother is guarding this place and so is Aventurine’s sister.” Rin tells me.
“Then we’ll do everything we can to help before we move on from here.” I declare and everyone nods in agreement. The pain is actually almost gone from my head, which is a relief. “Is there anything here we need? It is possible we may not come back here.”
“Everything’s in my bag.” Rin says and pats her skirt pocket.
“Then let’s go.” I say and walk to the door. I take a deep breath and then open it. I didn’t know what to expect, but one thing I didn’t expect to see was what’s actually out there.
I quickly raise a wind shield and the five fireballs heading our way are thrown back into the ground between us and the row of goblins. Then lightning bolts are thrown at us, but I throw them back at the goblins. Three of the goblins are fried by their own attack, but there must be at least twenty goblins still standing.
I throw my own lightning bolts at the goblins, but they shield. I increase the strength of my lightning bolts and their shields buckle. In moments all the goblins are dead. I open my senses wide for other enemies and realise the whole town is a battlefield. I quickly move from the doorway and let everyone else out.
“Good work.” Rin says as she looks at the charred goblin corpses. Hermes looks at the goblins as if she finds the sight and smell of the charred corpses a bit sickening. Midori just looks at them and smiles grimly.
“There’s fighting everywhere. We’d better hurry, or the town may be overrun.” I tell everyone and then pick us up into the air above the houses and hurl us at a nearby fight in what seems to be the main street running from the water right the way through town.
Below us are about a hundred goblins attacking from the direction of the sea. Twelve human mages are defending the street, but the humans are mostly shielding and their shields seem to be weakening quickly. We are well above the fighting and the goblins are so focused on their immediate enemies that they don’t seem to have noticed us.
“Attack now.” I tell everyone and then send a dozen wind slices at the goblins. Some shield but most don’t. The ones that don’t are instantly torn in half and even the ones that do shield seem to be hard pressed to keep their shields up. At the same time as my attack a hail of ice and metal, and about five lightning bolts rain down on the goblins. Even the ones who survive our attack find themselves under attack from the mages below, who are now facing much better odds.
A dozen fireballs shoot up at us from a few of the goblins who not only survived our attack but aren’t yet under attack from the mages down below. I dodge the fireballs though, and a hail of metal and ice shards quickly kills the goblins that sent them. The remaining goblins should be easily handled by the mages below so I find our next target and fly us to the other end of the main street.
There are human mages fighting human mages here and the ones defending the town are again outnumbered. The humans defending the town are wearing the same robes as the ones fighting the goblins so there is no need to guess who is on our side and who the enemy are. Behind the enemies there are a forest and a hill, but the enemies are fighting downhill against our allies. Not a huge adv
antage when both sides are using magic, but still an advantage.
The enemy throw lightning and wind slices up at us before we can attack. I fly us quickly from side to side to dodge the attacks, but no sooner than I have dodged one attack another attack is launched at us. They’re pretty accurate too and some of the lightning bolts even follow us. Hermes shields us from the ones that I can’t dodge. Every attack that is sent our way though, is an attack that isn’t sent at our allies down on the ground.
Rin and Midori send ice shards and lightning bolts at the enemy, but the enemy easily shield. These aren’t anywhere near as weak as the goblins we just killed. At least my head is no longer hurting so I can concentrate properly now.
A hail of fireballs hits the enemy from behind. It seems we have allies in the forest. Now the enemy are facing attacks from in front, behind and above. Not a great position to be in.
Facing less of their attacks I launch my own overpowered wind slices. Most are shielded, but some cut right through the enemies’ shields, and their bodies. Hermes continues to focus on shielding, which is very helpful, but does also make me wonder whether she is uncomfortable attacking and killing people. Not that I am thrilled by it, but sometimes you have no choice but to kill.
A white smoke appears above the enemy and all the attacks stop, so I stop my own attacks. The enemies’ shields have dropped and they seem to be handing themselves in as prisoners. I wonder how they’ll be treated, but most of all I am glad the battle is over and won.
I lower us to the ground near the mages emerging from the forest. They are all wearing charred robes as if they have been fighting constantly. I recognise Trinity Divine Flame among the mages. She sees me and walks over towards us.
“Peter, I am glad you helped defend the position whilst we returned. Our mages here seemed pretty desperate. We were heading out to rescue a patrol that got captured by the enemy. It was from the town guard and being led by Hilda Lightwood.” Trinity tells me and I gulp.
“Is she related to Cherry and Sherry Lightwood?” I ask in a panic.
“She’s their mother.” Rin tells me.
“Did you rescue them?” I ask urgently.
