"Another one! You guys can't sit down for once." The old gateman said before he flicked his hand and the gate opened letting Xaloc through.
Xaloc could not believe it, just like that.
"Surely, you did not think that this place was a prison where we would lock you up at will?" A voice rang from on top of the fence. It was a tall girl with a bow in her hand and a quiver of arrows over her back.
Xaloc could not easily forget the disdain that filled her eyes that night that Chad was beating him up.
What was she doing here? He thought as his body tensed.
"Good morning." He greeted her as he walked past the gate into the street. It was a mostly deserted street with different stores scattered about.
"You met Finoh yesterday, didn't you?" The girl, the disdain in her eyes returned back. "Considering that you left today, I am guessing you did not fuck him then."
Xaloc just kept quiet, letting the girl speak in hopes that she would let out some information, however her words made him annoyed.
"What do you want with me?" Xaloc asked directly, causing the girl to raise an eyebrow and jump down from the fence.
"Come with me." The girl said.
She did not wait for his reply as she led him through the street. Her pace was fast and Xaloc had to exert a lot of effort to keep up with her.
They walked close to thirty minutes and Xaloc had to admire the town. It was very beautiful.
The girl stopped at one small house and knocked. The knock was almost rhythmically.
The door opened and another girl came in. The girl was much shorter than Hina. She had her blonde hair tied up in a bun.
"Is he the one?" The girl asked. She changed the language from the normal Greek that Xaloc has been listening to every day to a more scratchy and high language. Xaloc did not know what language it was but he could understand it perfectly.
"He is." Hina returned.
"He is weak." The girl said with a snort. Xaloc tried not to change his expression when the petite girl called him weak.
He just looked at Hina. "It is considered rude to speak in a foreign language in another's presence."
The girl ignored him, twirling her hair on one finger, "Hopefully, he does not die."
Xaloc froze. "If there is nothing, I will leave now." He made to move only to find out that he was stuck to the ground.
The girl smiled at him, her perfect white teeth sparkling as she did. "I think it is ruder to leave in the middle of a conversation. My name is Rose. I am a descendant of Gaia. I have a little thing for Gravity."
She waved her hand and Xaloc could feel the force holding him down loose. He glanced around the small house but everyone was minding their business. His eyes caught the blue frightened ones of a middle-aged woman who was selling oranges and she lowered it, pretending that she did not see him.
"Don't bother asking for help. This is Lazar's territory and I am the vice captain." The girl, Rose grinned as she dragged Xaloc into the house.
The house was quaint. However, the scarcity of furniture and the dust on the wall told Xaloc that it was not used regularly.
The girl gestured for him to sit. Xaloc chose the less dusty seat among the four and sat down.
He glanced at Hina whose bow was trained at him at all times. Rose also noticed and smiled at Hina, "Don't worry. He can't leave this place."
She then looked at Xaloc, "For someone who was invited into an empty house with two beautiful women, you are way too tense."
"I have every reason to be. Hina, can you now tell me what is going on." The bad feeling Xaloc felt continued to grow.
The moment he had seen Hina on that fence, he knew she was waiting for him. Even though she acted as if it was a coincidence, he knew that it was not.
Rose smiled as she pulled out an object. It was a small silver box but she handled it with respect and something akin to fanaticism.
The moment the box was pulled out. Xaloc's every attention shifted to the box. He could see his Divinity thrumming, not the Domain of Sleep but the Domain of Night. He could feel it in his blood that whatever was in that box belonged to his grandmother.
"You feel it, don't you?" Rose said with a smile. "I could not believe it when Hina told me that the box vibrated the moment you walked out of the pod. You are a descendant of Nyx, the goddess of the Night. Pretty cool, isn't it."
Xaloc's eyes narrowed and he remembers the interest that Hina held towards him when they had met. His face creased, "You have been trying to get me to leave the compound."
Hina put down her bow, "Not really. I was never too sure. The box vibrated in your presence but you are just too weak to be a primordial descendant. I could always have you distributed to Lazar next week. Who knew that you would leave the compound today?'
The fact that someone had always been watching him, at all times, made his blood run cold.
"Did you need to go through all that?" Xaloc gave a disarming smile. "You could have just asked me if you needed my help. So what do you want me to do."
Rose chuckled and winked at Hina who sighed. She flipped her hair behind her shoulders and gave Xaloc an ornate dagger.
"Do you know what this is?" She asked with a smile. She did not wait for Xaloc to talk before she continued, " You must have heard of the Ragaronk. A big war that the gods fought. A lot of them died, a lot were injured and their temples were destroyed. It was long ago but sometimes we can get lucky and find the weapons or treasures of the gods. We call them divine Artifacts. This box seems to contain something from the goddess Nyx."
Xaloc's heart fell after he heard the information from Rose. He could see her smile and knew that this woman did not plan to let him leave this place alive.