Daughter of Death

XIV

I suddenly have the idea to give the chapters names but if I did I would run out of ideas and name one of them something stupid
Like "I don't know what to name this chapter so here ya go"
...

THIS CHAPTER IS CALLED VOICES BECAUSE IT SOUNDS DRAMATIC

The interior wasn't much better.

    The walls were shades of blood-red and brown. The sculpture of Mars stood on the altar, holding a shield and a spear, a ferocious expression on his face. His statue was decorated with flowers, which was perhaps a little funny for the god of war. (Hallez tried very hard not to show her amusement.) The altar was piled up with food offerings of various kinds.

    On the walls to the left and right, overlapping in a fish-scale way, were shields. Ten of them in total, five on each side. They were exact replicas of the one Hallez had dug up in the Mojave Desert.

    Striding to one side, she grabbed one of the eight-figure shields.

    And her whole world seemed to turn inside out. She stood, the shield still in her hands, as her surroundings warped and shifted around her.

    Hal's eyes were wide. Her heart was pounding in her ears. She wanted to move, but couldn't. She could hear her every breath, and it was deafeningly silent. The world was a mess of colors, until it faded into black.

    Two familiar voices came out of the darkness, at the same time, in confusing harmony:

    "Alright, it's done."

    Something flashed through in the back of her eyes: a dark cave, a blinking red light. Then it changed: A dark room, light rays shining in from a small opening somewhere above, a familiar shape was in a corner, and a single word glowed in the darkness:

Neophyte

    Then, the world stopped shifting, and she was back in the Temple of Mars Ultor again.

    Hallez blinked, her hands tightening on the shield. She stumbled back, her heart pounding out of her chest.

    What the heck was that?!

    She felt a hand on her shoulder, and flinched away from it, turning around, a scowl on her face, before she realized it was just Lavi.

    "Woah, sorry," the daughter of Apollo apologized quickly. "You...alright? You just grabbed it and acted like you saw a ghost."

    Hallez sucked in a breath. "Yeah...I'm, fine."

    The ghost description is pretty darn close though.

    "We have it now, so let's go. Run, if you can."

    Lavi nodded. She must've seen how shaken Hal was, despite her best attempts to conceal it, and turned to the exit without another word.

    They ran out, through the Forum, down the hill, and towards the fortress in the distance. If it was possible, they ran faster than when they had come. The adrenaline rush was lasting a surprising amount of time, and Hallez thought, somewhere in the back of her mind, how bad the aftermath of it would be.

    They skidded to a stop as the people atop the wall, already running around in confusion, shouted and pointed at the two, especially at Hallez, and the Ancile copy in her hands.

    Swiftly, Lavi shot a white-shafted arrow, which, as before, exploded into fireworks of every color.

    "Shoot another," Hallez ordered, and she surprised herself with her stern voice.