“L--lady Everwood, ma’am! Um We can explain! It’s uh…. Uh it’s… Astra will explain!” Rin said before throwing me to the wolf. I scowled over at the traitor before quickly trying, and failing, to come up with a reasonable explanation. After all the stress over the past few days, I was exhausted and didn’t feel like trying to make up an excuse. Plus, worst case scenario she doesn’t believe me and just kills me. Or imprisons me again until we all die during the demon attack.

  “Rin and I are cultivators from the same sect. While investigating some ruins, we activated some kind of trial left behind in the ruins. Next thing we knew we were transported here, to Shironia, to participate in the trial. Four days from when we first appeared, Shironia is going to be assaulted by an innumerable horde of demons which will result in everyone in the city dying from either the demons, or when the city lord’s manor explodes. After I die, Rin and I are brought back to the same time and location we first appeared in the city.” I said, crossing my arms. It was up to her whether to believe me now. Rin, for her part, was staring at me, mouth agape. The woman, Lady Everwood by Rin’s admission, put her hand over her chin, not unlike what Rin had done earlier.

  “Interesting. It’s absurd, of course, but I don’t sense a lie in your words. Though should it be true that I am part of this trial, that must mean that Shironia has already fallen and the project was carried out. I suppose that means…” She said, mostly to herself. She sounded as if she were pondering a difficult riddle. She eventually realized where she was again and started slightly and my stare. She lightly blushed.

  “My apologies. I lost myself there. I am finding it difficult to believe. I don’t feel as though I’m merely part of a trial, but I suppose that I wouldn’t know if I were. That’s troubling. Hmmm… If what you say is true, then the trial must have to do with preventing, or repelling the impending demon attack. Trial or not, should demons be approaching Shironia with ill intent, I cannot allow such a dire fate to befall my city. I do not fully believe you, though your story would answer many questions about young Rin here.” She said, gesturing to the now blushing girl.

  “The issue now is that if I believe you, we do not have much time to prepare for an invasion by the demons. On the other hand, if you’re lying, or perhaps scheming something and I’m unable to tell, you could become the catalyst for whatever fell plan you are enacting.” She said. I tensed. If she didn’t believe me then I probably wouldn’t be able to get out of here.

  She stared into my eyes and I couldn’t move, stuck in place as her light blue eyes seemed to scour my soul. After what felt like an eternity she sighed.

  “I suppose for now, I have no choice but to believe you and keep an eye on you until the time you have foretold comes to pass. Should you be telling the truth, I may have a method to help you in this trial, that is if your words about being reborn are truthful.” She said, and I felt hope blossom within me. She got up from the table and began walking toward the door.

  “For now, we must make haste. Should you be truthful, we do not have long to rally our allies. We must prepare for the invasion, and, with any luck, we may be able to stop it and save Shironia.” She said, as Rin and I followed her out of the room.

  The next few hours were a whirl of activity as Rin and I shadowed Alexis, as I learned her name was, as she ordered her guild members, had messages sent out to various persons, and set up a meeting with the local nobility. Watching Alexis was very impressive. She exuded command and control, and everybody she spoke to had a look of deep admiration in their eyes. Just like all those people, Rin also watched Alexis with admiration. I wondered what quality Alexis had that enamored Rin so. It was exhausting to go around doing so much, and I wasn’t even the one who was doing any of the work. Despite all of the work she was doing, Alexis didn’t look any more tired than when we met her earlier today.

  “Alright you two,” Alexis started, turning around to face us after sending off her final message.

  “It’s been a long day, but we’re not done yet. We need to meet up with Avarus and Byron, and hopefully get a meeting with Calius before tomorrow. I won’t lie to you, Avarus and Byron won’t be easy to convince of your story. Avarus will probably reject it outright, while Byron won’t believe you, but will probably listen to me and help with the city defense. Calius might be the easiest to convince but…no...that won’t work.” She said, a frown marring her face for the first time today.

  “Why won’t it work?” Rin asked, a look of fear crossing her face.

  Alexis shook her head.

  “I forgot about that particular issue, but that will be made clear when we meet with Calius, just know that you may be in danger if we go meet with the city lord before your prophesized invasion begins. But first we must meet with the two other nobles in the city, Avarus Wren, and Byron Stromgeist. It will be borderline impossible to save the city without their forces behind us.”

  I frowned. It sounds like we have our work cut out for us. I suppose It’s my time to do some work. I just hoped I’d be able to convince one of them to help, or to learn how to do so next time.

  My nerves were starting to get the better of me. The staccato of our trio of footsteps across the polished stone hallway were fraying my confidence. What if we were unable to convince them? Sure I would just start the trial over should we fail, but It would mean another chance lost and the pain from being reborn was wearing on me. I didn’t know exactly why I was feeling so uneasy, but before I could delve further into my thoughts on the matter, Alexis opened the large, ornate, doors into a circular meeting room. A large circular table sat perfectly in the center of the room, the polished dark brown wood a stark contrast to the nearly solid white flooring. To add a third player to the room’s color scheme, the chairs were a bright pink, which I felt was a staggeringly strange decision.

  Seated in the fluffy, pink, monstrosity to our left was a stout, muscular man with black hair and a full black beard. He was wearing a leather smock, but otherwise his clothes were normal considering the various outfits I’d seen the citizens of the city wearing. He looked over to us as we entered, and his eyes inspected both Rin and I, before moving to Alexis.

  “Lady Everwood.” He started, his deep, grumbling voice reminded me of a pile of rocks falling over.

  “I hope you’ve a proper reason to call this meeting. I’m a very busy man.” He said.

  Alexis smiled.

  “Yes, though it’s a reason you might have difficulty believing sir Stromgeist.” She replied. He huffed.

  “I told you to call me Byron. You’re much too young, and I’m much too old, to be worryin’ about all that formality. We have the demonic army breathin’ down our necks and each minute spent here talkin’ with that greedy pig and yourself is time not spent craftin’ weapons and armor.” He said, crossing his arms and frowning deeply.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “It’s quite convenient you mentioned the demonic threat sir Byron becau-“ She began before she was interrupted by the large set of doors on the other side of the room opened and a figure walked inside.

  The figure was a portly man of average height decked out in the most opulent set of clothes I had ever seen. They were pure white with gold filigree and the edges of the large robe were fluffy beyond all belief. Each of his fingers were adorned with rings with large gems inlaid within them. His wire thin mustache curled at the ends and his greasy, middle parted, hair curled up at the sides.

  The man ignored everyone else in the room and instead stared directly at Alexis for the entire time it took him to walk to the center of the room. Then he actually licked his lips while he looked at her and I felt a shiver crawl up my spine and linger at the top of my neck.

  “My, my, Lady Alexis Everwood, it is my pleasure to see you on this fine day. When I heard you wished to speak to me about something of import, I rushed to prepare. I assume you’re here to accept my proposal for marriage?” He said, twirling the sorry excuse for facial hair in one of his fingers. Maybe I’d purposely fail the trial once just to murder this man.

  I looked over to Rin, who was visibly seething and looked like she was about to pull out her chakrams and tear the man limb from limb, but she stopped when Alexis spoke.

  “Sir Wren. I do apologize, but I do not have time for jokes. I have called both your and sir Byron to this meeting to discuss what might be the survival of our fair city.” She said, a tone of seriousness having entered her voice that wasn’t there when speaking with Byron.

  The enemy of women still standing across from us spluttered for a moment before looking around the room and noticing that indeed, they were not alone. He frowned before sitting down in the furthest pink chair and Alexis took he spot in her chair. She lovingly pet the arm of her chair which made me think that I knew who was responsible for these uphol-strosities.

  “These two young ladies behind me,” She started, motioning to both Rin and I.

  “Have brought somewhat convincing evidence that a demonic army will attack Shironia tomorrow. I have called this emergency meeting to ask for the assistance of your two lordships. We must prepare the fighters, evacuate the civilians, and prepare as much as we possibly can before tomorrow.”

  The man who must be Avarus Wren, scoffed.

  “That’s simply preposterous. You know the city lord would have warned us had the demons been mounting a force large enough to attack us anywhere near this sector.” He said, doing his best to cross his arms.

  "To add onto that, why are we believing the word of two girls to begin with? What evidence have they provided to sway your opinion on this matter?” He continued, sneering at both Rin and I. I bristled at his attention, but he had a point. We were severely lacking in the evidence department. Alexis took a few seconds to respond to him.

  “I will admit, the evidence these two have brought will not be persuasive to either of you. But should we not prepare for them to be telling the truth? We are at war with the demons. They will eventually come for us. The difference between making the necessary preparations now for a demonic invasion and making those preparations later is negligible. I would implore the both of you to indulge me in helping with these preparations immediately.” She said. I had to admit, she could be quite persuasive. I gauged the looks in the other two nobles’s eyes and didn’t exactly like what I could see.

  “Negligible??” Avarus shouted, unable to contain his disbelief.

  “You have no idea how much money it would cost to prepare this city for an imminent demonic invasion! We could cripple the city’s economy for months, terrify the peasants, and ruin our images with Calius?? Why should we risk everything based on the word of two commoner women?” He asked, growing red as he spoke.

  “I hate to agree with the pig, but we haven’t time to entertain such falsehoods. If the city lord doesn’t send out a request for the aid of the crafter’s association, I cannot help, not even as a favor for you, Alexis. Calius has tasked the association with near non-stop orders for armor and weapons. He fears a war is on the horizon and with the loss of her ladyship and the young miss I fear no one can divert him from his current path.” Byron said, a solemn look crossing his face at his own words.

  Alexis closed her eyes and sighed, nodding, even as Avarus scowled at Byron.

  “That is all true. It seems that I underestimated the callousness of my fellow nobles. Money can be regained, the citizens calmed, and Calius would be a fool to think less of us for being safe, especially when it may be the fate of the city on the line. I was afraid of this situation, but I suppose we have no choice. We will go meet with Calius and try to convince him of the threat under our nose, though I understand you both find it hard to believe considering the information we received just yesterday.” She said before standing from her chair.

  Byron had a dark look over his face while Avarus looked ready to chase after Alexis. Rin turned her nose up at the pair of nobles and followed after Alexis and I tried to get some information from the two nobles.

  “I understand you don’t believe us, but is there anything we could have done to help convince you to help prepare?” I asked. Avarus ignored me completely while Byron shook his head.

  “I’m sorry, young lady, but without the permission of Calius, my hands, and those of my crafters, are tied. Should you be able to convince Calius, I have no qualms with preparin’ for a possible demon attack, especially if Alexis believes you.” Byron said. I sighed, shaking my head. I thanked the man and caught up to Alexis and Rin, who were waiting for me, with my movement technique and we made our way to the city lord’s mansion.

  This was my first time making it inside the gates around the city lord’s manor, and I was a little jealous at the ease with which Alexis was able to get our group through them.

  Compared to the disharmonious opulence of the meeting room, the city lord’s manor was much more complimentary with its design and decorations. The hallways were lined with a sparse array of pictures, all depicting a stern faced man with a short, but full black beard, and similarly short hair. He looked regal and proud. The locations of the paintings in the hallway were strangely located. If the city lord were as narcissistic as a hallway of portraits of himself would indicate then I would except more of the hallway to be adorned with the opulent frames. Instead, there were perhaps five total paintings throughout the hallway with more than double that many empty slots, still outlined with a sturdy structure to hold a painting in place.

  I thought back to lord Byron’s words about the city lord losing his wife and child and felt a pang of sympathy grow in my heart. The missing paintings now made the hallway seem more somber and the number of missing paintings more obvious.

  We stopped at the door to the city lord’s audience chamber. One of the attendants standing guard stepped inside for a moment, and returned within a half minute beckoning us to walk into the audience chamber.

  We walked into the room, a veritable riot of blacks, whites, and shades of gray. Pillars lined each side of a solid black carpet staining a line across the opalescent marble flooring.

  Despite the pair of guards outside the chamber, no other soul was within the audience chamber outside of our group and the pair up on the dais, one in the throne and the other right beside it. The man in the throne was a much older appearing man from the pictures lining the wall. The throne itself matched the room, a patchwork of monochrome patterns not fitting well with the rest of the room. I tensed when I saw the man next to the throne. The same man in full scale armor who had executed me in front of the city lord’s manor gates.

  The three of us walked down the carpet, a solemn group of beleaguered cultivators hoping against hope that the city lord would believe them until we reached the bottom of the stairs leading up to the dais. We stopped all together and I felt the clear, but somber, eyes of the city lord. He didn’t feel like the same man within the paintings in the hallway. My musings were interrupted by a deep, regal, voice sounding out throughout the room.

  “Lady Everwood. I see you’ve brought guests. Pray tell, why have you called this emergency meeting? You’ve even had a meeting with both sir Wren and sir Stromgeist. I’m curious to know what has you so earnestly wish to speak with us all, and why you’ve brought two unknowns into the heart of our city.” He said.