Artemis Fowl: The Olympian Case

IV: Minerva's Resolve

"D'Arvit!" Holly growled, "What the hell happened?"

Minerva simply glared at her in answer, but couldn't hold it and faced down. Her temper and guilt was rippling through her system like never before: First of all, the portal had collapsed under her watch.

The only reason Artemis didn't question the stability of the portal was because she herself assured him that it was stable and well-tested enough to move on to human transport trials. She then felt immense guilt from it, for half of what drove her to say those lines was her impatience and arrogance, and especially her want to surprise Artemis. It made her jump in glee whenever she managed to catch her boyfriend unawares, and was even overjoyed on how happy he was when the project they worked on together reached its final stages three months earlier than expected; now she paid the price for it. Artemis even got injured from the blast of her failure, making it hurt even more as she stared at the scars that were open wounds just moments ago.

"It's my fault" Minerva bitterly replied, "I should've been more cautious; I shouldn't have let my emotions cloud my judgement" For a moment, Minerva regretted saying those out loud for her love rival to hear. Just great.

But the fire did not come; Instead, Holly sighed and grabbed Minerva's hands, "Hey, don't be like that-this was a joint project, remember? We all share the burden of fault here, even me. My job was to protect and watch over you two, but instead I ran ahead. Even when I had no idea what exactly was going on, my priority should've been the safety of the people I was in charge of. For that...I'm sorry"

Minerva was amazed of how straightforward and honest this girl was; if they weren't fighting over Artemis, she could picture them to be close friends. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. Still...

"Thanks, Ms.Short" Minerva genuinely thanked, feeling a bit better.

"Please, call me Holly, or Captain if you like" she replied with a smirk, "We might not get along, but we have one thing in common: trying to keep this idiot in line and out of harm's way. And since he does that a lot, we might as well get to know each other better"

Minerva laughed at that, and even if she was still suspicious in this girl's connection with Artemis, she had grown to respect her in this short span of time.

"Okay...Captain" Minerva teased, which she assumed must be her ranking amongst 'them'. Holly scowled in reply, flashing an amused smile, before facing towards Artemis and went serious. "So, what's the plan now?"

Minerva then frowned as the severity of the situation rolled back to her. She closed her eyes, deep in thought. No matter what reasoning she could concoct that resulted to the collapse of the portal, it all her to blame. This weighed heavily on her consciousness, and wondered what would become of their relationship due to her lack of insight.

She gripped her hands tightly, trying to force her tears away. He had trusted her, and she failed. How can he rely on her after all this? That is, if they could even make it back? This then alarmed and intensified her worries–what if they can't head back? She had recalled that Artemis needed the assistance from a robed figure, probably a person from 'them', who had spent large amounts of magic and symbols to work on the project–could they themselves replicate that? She had dedicated the images of the wards into memory in case it would be needed for future projects, but could they even cast these?

"Minerva, we can't wield magic like they could; you could say it to be a hereditary trait passed down with utmost secrecy and care, so much so that we ourselves are biologically incapable of replicating this power; believe me, I've tried"