Date: July 24th, year 1286 Location: Headquarters of the Fourth Branch, Crystal Rose
Nyx and Vanessa materialize in Agnes' office, in a flash of violet light. Moonlight was illuminating the room through the giant bay window, outlining Agnes' silhouette standing in front of it, looking at the capital below.
- "Oh hey Agnes!" Nyx calls.
- "?!" Agnes swiftly pivots to face them, white light emanating from her hands as clumps of feathers begin forming around her. She squints at them, before her eyes widen in shock. "Nyx?! You're safe!"
She quickly walks over to them, then stops to look at each of them separately.
- "First order of business… Why are there two of you?" She asks.
- "Oh I think it's Solomon's power lingering." Nyx replies. "It shouldn't last more than a day."
- "Solomon?"
Nyx quickly goes over what happened in Solomon's realm, making sure to leave out most of the actual conversation she had with him. Eventually, Agnes summons a raven on her shoulder.
- "Call Julian to my office." She orders, and the raven flies out of the room. She turns back to Nyx and Vanessa. "There's no way all of this took you two days."
- "Two days?" Nyx repeats. "Maybe time goes slower in Solomon's realm. I know that can happen sometimes."
- "No, Lord Solomon just cried for two days straight." Vanessa comments. "I was doing my best to not say anything, since you were having a moment, but you also sobbed for a few hou-"
- "That's enough out of you!" Nyx puts her hand on Vanessa's mouth.
- "What is she talking about?" Agnes frowns. "I can believe you met the god of Magic, given the state you're in right now, but I don't think he would cry for any reason."
- "That's because he wouldn't!" Nyx replies before whispering to Vanessa: "Don't say anything about this to his followers, he's not going to like it."
- "Ah." Vanessa gasps before going quiet.
- "You know I can hear you, right?" Agnes sighs.
- "She's finally back?!" Julian yells as he kicks the door to the office open.
He was wearing a formal white shirt with black straight pants, and a long purple cape was thrown around his shoulders. On its back, a large white symbol of the Arcane Guard was woven into the fabric, and he had an empty short sword sheath attached to his belt.
- "Hi Julian!" Nyx greets.
- "New outfit?" Vanessa comments.
- "Yeah I'm officially a- what the fuck." Julian rubs his eyes, and blinks a few times. "I think I'm seeing things."
After Agnes recaps what happened to him, he sits on a nearby sofa with his legs crossed.
- "Okay, so basically you somehow spent two days there and got nothing?" He says.
- "That's not true…" Nyx looks out the bay window.
- "So there's stuff you're not telling us."
- "Uh… Yes? What do you humans say again? It's a bit personal."
- "Cool. Cool, cool. Great, even." He pinches the ridge of his nose. "So this whole situation is a straight negative."
- "Why?"
- "The Second Branch demanded we be investigated by the Church of Solomon, our common patron organization." Agnes answers. "Their director is basically losing it because he can't accept that we're unable to explain why his prison was turned upside down after we walked in. He thinks that we brought Radiance with us."
- "Which isn't completely wrong…" Julian comments.
- "Yes, I can't necessarily blame him, but we can't tell him what we learned about the Church of the Eternal night, or he would probably take action against them. And I'm sure that would antagonize Lady Night enough to put all of us at risk."
- "Oh that's not a problem anymore!" Nyx cuts.
- "What?"
- "I'm done playing nice! Lady Night is the enemy of the entire planet, and everyone needs to know that!"
- "...You know what will happen to us right? She's much more powerful than you. Think about Beatrice."
- "You're right, but I can get stronger!" Nyx reaches inside her pocket and takes out the small marble of cosmic energy she extracted from Regulus.
- "Oh, that thing." Julian rolls his eyes. "What is it, a bomb? You're gonna blow us all up with Lady Night?"
- "Nope! It's a fragment of me!"
- "...You know, I figured it'd have to be something like that. There were too many things tying it all back to you."
- "...So, what do you think?" She asks, a hint of worry in her voice.
- "About what? You causing the Touch of the Night?"
- "Yes. I just-"
- "Couldn't care less if I'm being honest. It's pretty clear you don't want it to happen, or you wouldn't have done what you did to Regulus. Or stopped that guy a few months ago."
- "...Thank you." Nyx has a slight smile.
- "Yeah sure. So what're you gonna do with that fragment?"
- "..." Nyx raises the marble to her mouth and eats it in one bite.
- "Not happening." Julian jumps from his sofa and grabs her chin, reaching into her mouth to retrieve the marble.
- "What are you doing?!" Nyx violently coughs.
- "I should be asking you that! Don't go around eating things that could actually be bombs if you tried hard enough!"
- "But I don't know how else to absorb it…"
- "You could probably pull it off if it was less concentrated." Julian glances at Agnes and Vanessa. "Could you take a step back?"
He firmly closes his fist, and the marble starts forming cracks in his palm. Black magical energy textured with stars quickly begins escaping from it, and surrounding Julian.
- "Alright, I'm just gonna trust you on this one!" He shouts. "If you fail, I'm probably turning into a Night Touched, or a corpse!"
- "What?!" Nyx shouts back as the energy starts filling the office. Julian waves his hand above his head, and an invisible dome manifests to contain it. "Are you crazy?! I don't want you to die!"
- "Then prevent it!"
Nyx raises her hands towards him as the energy swallows him whole. It starts converging towards her fingers, slowly but surely, causing a vivid burning sensation to spread through her body. She immediately feels like stopping, but Julian's words echo through her mind, and she tries her best to ignore the pain. After a minute of pure agony, the cloud of cosmic energy had been fully dispersed, and the marble was nothing more than a ball of glass-like material. Julian falls to his knees, breathing heavily.
- "Julian, don't do that again or I'll be really mad." Nyx says in all seriousness before unceremoniously flopping on the ground.
- "It worked." Julian replies with a grin. "I wasn't worried for a second, you're you after all. I just figured you needed a little motivation."
- "You're twisted." Vanessa comments, walking over to Nyx to help her up.
- "Maybe I am!" Julian laughs. "So how do you feel, Nyx?"
- "I'm…" Nyx starts, but she's interrupted by a powerful light emanating from her entire body. It then separates from her, forming a humanoid silhouette.
The light dies down to reveal a woman slightly taller than Nyx and Vanessa, wearing a classy white suit. Her long hair was white and silky, just like Julian's, and her eyes were a clear forest green. In place of pupils, she had white cross-shaped stars identical to Nyx's glowing in her eyes. She had very long elf ears protruding through her hair.
- "Things just got even weirder." Agnes comments. "I think I'm going to give up on writing a coherent report on all this."
- "Is it just me or…" Vanessa starts.
- "She looks like Regulus." Julian raises an eyebrow.
- "I do." The elf observes as she looks down at her hands. "How peculiar."
- "Who are you?" Nyx asks.
- "You?" The elf replies.
- "Yes, you."
- "No, I am you."
- "Again???" Nyx points her finger at the elf, and a dwarf star forms at its tip.
- "Hold on, she isn't like Lady Night!" Vanessa panics, jumping in between them.
- "Move Vanessa, I don't want to deal with two of them."
- "Listen to me!"
- "..." Nyx frowns and the dwarf star slowly dims.
- "She's another fragment of you given form by Lord Solomon's magic, I can tell. You have the same… vibe. But I think she got heavily influenced by Regulus."
As Vanessa says that, the elf walks over to Julian to grab his arm and help him up.
- "Urk. Leave me alone." Julian frowns.
- "And why would I do that?" The elf replies, tilting her head to the side. "You are my family."
- "And you're creeping me out."
- "...What is his problem?" The elf asks Nyx.
- "He doesn't like his father." Nyx flatly replies.
- "But why can't he like me though? I thought he did."
- "She's like an unholy amalgamation of Nyx and him…" Julian whispers as he tries to pull his arm away. In response, the elf yanks him and locks him in a hug. "Hey, let go! Don't think that you can manhandle me just because I let Angelica do it!" He wiggles around, and while the elf visibly struggles to keep him in place, she refuses to release her grip. "I'll end up stabbing you if you keep this up!"
- "Stop struggling and let me hold you. Or else." A powerful wind current starts swirling around the elf, causing her hair to fly upwards.
- "Vanessa, isn't she supposed to be in your head, like Nyx?! Call her back or something!"
- "She's not a dog." Vanessa sighs. "Plus, I have no idea how to do that. We'll just have to wait for Lord Solomon's spell to wear off."
- "Well, I'll leave you all to figure it out!" Nyx says as she walks towards the door.
- "Hey don't leave me with her!" Julian desperately yells.
- "Where are you going?" Agnes asks.
- "See Beatrice."
- "Oh. She should be in her room." Agnes raises an eyebrow as her gaze meets Nyx's. "...Don't do anything reckless, you hear me?"
- "Mhm."
Nyx makes her way down the stairs in the tower, until she arrives in front of Beatrice's room. Before she knocks, she hears sounds of clanging metal coming from inside. She reflexively pushes the door open, worried, and finds Beatrice in the middle of her room with a small iron sword. Angelica was standing next to her, with a wooden longsword, and was repeatedly smacking Beatrice around the room without a shred of mercy.
- "Nyx?!" Beatrice yells, throwing her sword away and running to hug her.
- "I'm back, sorry for taking so long." Nyx smiles at her, before looking up at Angelica with a dangerous glow in her eyes. "What are you doing to her?"
- "Hello cousin! I am training her in the way of the sword." Angelica replies, throwing her wooden sword on the desk that was pushed against the far wall of the room to make space.
- "You're hurting her though."
- "I'm the one who asked!" Beatrice chimes in. "She asked me if I wanted real training, and I said yes."
- "Hm." Nyx's eyes return to their normal light levels. "Okay then… Are you okay, Beatrice?"
- "I am! It would've been nice if you came back quickly, but it was only two days. You did a lot worse before, so I'm happy to see you so soon."
- "...Why does hearing that make me feel bad?..."
- "It's a good thing!" Beatrice jumps up to climb on her back. "That means you're really thinking about time now!"
- "...Probably. Talking about time, Angelica, can you help me? I'm going to do something Agnes would call reckless."
- "What is it cousin? Do you also seek my training? I will let you know, my methods are not for the faint of heart!"
- "No, I want advice. Also I need you to come with me."
Date: July 25th, a little after midnight.
A few hours later, Nyx and Angelica are standing in front of a familiar mansion in the dead of night, with a freshly replaced sign spelling "Headquarters of Variety Business."
- "I believe you remember your lines?" Angelica grins.
- "I do." Nyx nods.
- "Hey, what are you doing here so late?" One of the guards patrolling around the mansion calls out. "Wait, aren't you that Ironside woman?! I need reinfor-"
- "Shhh." Angelica moves faster than the eye can see, reappearing behind the guard and placing a hand on his mouth. "It's not me you should worry about. Believe it or not, I am merely a spectator today!"
Nyx deeply inhales, before shouting at the top of her lungs.
- "Director of the Fifth Branch! Or should I call you Lady Night?!"
Windows from neighboring homes light up, and the few passersby stop to look at her.
- "I don't care that you're threatening everyone, if you try to hurt them I'll stop you every time I need to!" Nyx inhales again. "I know you're the leader of the Church of the Eternal Night, and I'm going to let every soul in this city know, starting here!"
Nyx extends her hand towards the mansion, and an asteroid the size of a house forms above her. It flies towards the entrance, demolishing the heavy wooden doors and utterly shattering the front sign. A deafening sound resonates through the street as part of the structure collapses, revealing a group of panicked guards in the main hall of the mansion. They all take up their weapons and begin casting spells, as Nyx points her finger at them.
- "Prepare yourself, Lady Night! This, is a declaration of war!"