Constellations

Chapter Two: Memories

"Thirty deca-phoebs later, the daughter had three girls with a local man that she had married. The oldest, Zora; the middle child, Aquila; and the youngest Vidalia. The three granddaughters learned of their heritage quickly and went searching for the dark energy that gave their grandmother the power she had in hope to infuse it in themselves.

"Unfortunately, they succeeded in their mission and gained unspeakable dark power. Crazed by their quintessence craving, the three found Xandora and slaughtered the crew to use the ship for quintessence extraction. We managed to evacuate most of the children. The men were either enslaved or slaughtered and the women were put in gas chambers. I tried to hold off the sentries that were under the control of Zora. I did, but fainted. They have, what I like to call, decoy quintessence. I used some of my last strength to initiate the spell. It basically comes up on their radar as the amount of quintessence they came for and then when they leave, the spell wears off."

"We need to go to Earth, gather the Paladins and the Galactic Coalition," stated Kolivan. "If the Xandoran speaks the truth, the universe must be ready."

"It's Folgail," deadpanned Maeve.

"We could just host it here on Altea. It'll be a lot faster. Preparations should be done in about ten vargas. So, the meeting will be held tomorrow morning," said Coran. "Get some shut-eye. We've got a long day of debating and arguing tomorrow."

The group parted ways, leaving Astraea standing there awkwardly.

"So, where am I staying again?" she asked. Freyja and Maeve ran back towards her.

"Oh, right!" exclaimed Freyja. "You're going to love it!"

Freyja grabbed Astraea's hand and bounded off down the hallway, Maeve trailing not far behind. They weaved through the castle's corridors until they came to a white door with blue lines on it. It opened and showed a white twin bed in the corner, an off-white vanity along the wall with an oval mirror above it. A brown desk was seated in the corner next to the bed and an empty bookshelf next to the desk.

"It's amazing," smiled Astraea, sitting herself down on the bed. "I can't remember the last time I had a soft, comfortable bed to sleep on."

"Don't forget about privacy," added Maeve. "and peace and quiet."

"Well not so much for you and me," said Freyja to Astraea. "Mae' snores as loud as those shipment trucks."

"That bad, huh?" smirked Astraea as Maeve growled at Freyja. "Well, I better start training. After all, I'm gonna need it. We all will."

Astraea walked out of the room and wandered around the castle until she heard swords clanging and groaning on the other side of a white door. She sighed and stared at it as it slid open.

She sighed in annoyance seeing Keith in a black muscle t-shirt and a pair of black pants with red and white combat boots. He dodged to the side to avoid the end of the Gladiator robot's staff. The Gladiator turned towards Keith and, with all the force it could muster, slammed its staff down. Keith put the blade of his bayard katar above his head to stop the attack. The male grunted and was pushed to his knees as the Gladiator pushed its staff down harder. Keith started panting and groaning in effort as sweat soaked his skin. Astraea rolled her eyes and pressed a button on the control panel and watched as the Gladiator powered down. Keith's eyes widened as he looked at Astraea.

"Why did you stop it?" demanded Keith angrily.

"I was saving you from a beating that would have you incapacitated by tomorrow," she said indifferently.

"Oh, like you could do better," he retorted.

"I can and I will," she smirked.

"Prove it," Keith spat as he walked to the control panel and pressed a button and slid two fingers up the screen.