(( A/N -
*dropkicks chapter at you*
have an extra one today to make up for the gap- ))
Y/n seemed so cold. It made my heart shatter. I wanted to kiss her. I'd let myself accept it. I wanted to spend time with more than anything, but she'd been distancing herself. I'd let her stay in her old room, while I'd made myself a spot on the floor and brought in my trunk. Nobody objected, I was their superior now. I had a mission at the night market tonight, Y/N had agreed to come. She flew on the back of my staff, with P/N on her shoulder, she still didn't have a cure for her curse, or P/N's. She hadn't adjusted to it well. She kept forgetting and trying to cast spell circles, only for them to crumble in front of her. It made me feel bad for her, I wouldn't know what it felt like to loose my magic, I never had any in the first place, so naturally I wouldn't have any magic to loose. As we reached the night market, we landed. She was wearing a scout uniform, and I wore my new golden guard uniform. The guilt stayed a dull ache in the back of my head, slowly tearing away at me. We got off of the staff and started walking in silence.
"Teeth! Get your teeth!" I heard a vendor call "We got all varieties and qualities!"
"I even do trades" I turned to Y/N, a little purple demon had grabbed her shoulder, she turned to look at the thing.
The demon's four eyes widened as he realized who he was talking to "Oh, I mean, why would I trade teeth? That's illegal and unsanitary! But I mean if you're interested-"
I noticed three cloaked people walking towards an alleyway, presumably the people we'd been sent after. I tapped Y/N's shoulder and pointed. She nodded and we followed the people.
"We think that they're going to invade the emperor's mind with wild magic" I explained to Y/N
She nodded again, not saying a word
We stood, hiding as one of them drew a circle, while the other, who must have been a bard, played some instrument. The circle extended to several, and one of them pulled out a potion, drawing a spell circle over it. We ran out to meet the criminals.
"Halt!" I said "For crimes against he emperor you are under arrest!"
I pointed my staff at them, but then I heard someone.
"Y/N!!!" they called out and jumped up behind Y/N
The human! They looked to Y/N "Can I bug you with a few questions?"
The bard blew into their instrument again
"No! NO! Stop!" Y/N called out to the criminals "I forbid you to flee!"
She took off her mask, the criminals had left "HUMAN. Do you know what you've just done?"
I took off my mask too.
She took a step towards the human, and I heard a crack under her foot.
She looked down to the potion the criminals had been mixing broken on the ground.
For a moment everything was still, then the circle we were standing on illuminated in gold light, surrounding us and blinding me. I opened my eyes in a hallway, there were portraits on the wall, the human was there, and Y/N too. P/N and flapjack seemed to have vanished, and I didn't have my staff. Great. All of us were completely powerless. I heard Y/N yelling at the human, I picked up that her name was Luz.
"Well now that I'm in his mind, I can learn the truth for myself!" I heard Luz say
What was she trying to do? Y/N looked angry
"Not if I have anything to do with it" she said, she made a spell circle which crumbled, as usual "And you better have that owl lady lift that curse! I got jumped and couldn't to crap!"
I looked through the portraits. I heard Y/N and Luz talking about mindscapes and such. The portraits were interesting, one where there was Belos, and the owl lady titled 'Triumph over wild magic'. There was one of Darius, standing over someone, who seemed to be dead, and Darius seemed so sad. I sighed and joined the Y/N and Luz, who were looking at a portrait of Belos leading people out of a flaming city.
"You know, unfettered wild magic wiped out my family" I murmured "Everyone who knew too much got themselves hurt"
"Thats why Belos took in the survivors and dedicated his life to making the coven system!" Y/N put in "It's why he's so well liked" Y/N began walking amongst the portraits
"Our sigils protect us from ourselves, and make the titan happy" I continued
"We're the youngest golden guards to have ever been given a staff" Y/N said
Something crossed Luz's face "Oh so you're not...."
Y/N's gaze hardened "I don't want to talk about it. In any case, we don't know who the previous golden guards were."
I saw Luz peek around a corner but remained standing beside Y/N.
"How are you do-" I started
But she stuck up a hand, signalling for me to quiet.
"Emperor! You're here!" Y/N said, as a figure that resembled the emperor approached us "We beg for your assistance to return to the physical world so that Hunter and I can conquer your enemies, and so the human can ruin someone else's day."
A small child was waving his hands, standing behind the emperor. Was he trapped here too? The emperor's figure suddenly morphed into a tall creature covered in glowing eyes. I saw Y/N's eyes widened, like this moment set off something deeper in her somehow.
"Watch out!" Luz said, and threw a fire towards the beast. What she'd done I recognized as glyph magic, powered by the very essence of the titan. All three of us were thrown back by the blast. A hole tore in the wall, and all of us fell in a dark abyss. Luz pulled a paper out of her pocket, it had marks on it, which I guessed made up the glyph. She grabbed both me and Y/N and put a hand to the glyph. The ground came closer and closer, but about two feet away from falling to our demise a blue aura surrounded us and we stopped midair, before collapsing to the ground.
"Where are we now?" I murmured
We were surrounded by trees, with smaller, less formal portraits on them. Some of them had the faces of people torn away, the place was grey, and dead almost, like it had been abandoned.
"We must be in the emperor's real mind" Luz said, looking around
Y/N got to her feet, followed by me, then Luz.
"What do you mean the emperor's real mind? That gallery--" Y/N was cut off by Luz
"Was made of all the lies he tells!" Luz interrupted. "He's not who you think he is!"
I noticed something on the ground and picked it up. It appeared to be a grey-black bird thing. It blew away to ash before my eyes. My hand shook, but I grabbed it with my other hand and stood up again.
"We're probably being punished because you provoked his inner self" Y/N put in
"Well his inner self had a thousand glowing eyeballs!" Luz protested
"Oh no! Eyeballs!" Y/N said sarcastically. "You're so easy to scare"
She was talking just like she had at eclipse lake. Cold, and icy, like she didn't care about anything, or anyone. I missed who she had been before everything. Who she'd been when we first met.
"BOO" It was a voice, but it sounded muffled.
I jumped, Y/N did too, almost falling over.
"Luz where are you?" the voice said, it was the owl lady. Luz pulled some device out of her pocket. "Oh wait, Goldie, Blondie, you're friends want to talk to you"
We were both visibly confused, before we heard the chirping of P/N and Flapjack. Y/N made a dive for the device.
"P/N!! Flapjack!" she said
"Are you okay, have they hurt you?" I spoke into the device
"YOU BETTER LIFT THAT CURSE FROM MY PALISMAN" Y/N said into the device "Or so help me I'll-"
"Cool it Goldie, I will. Let me talk to Luz" Eda said, and, hesitantly, returned the device to Luz.
"So, Eda" Luz said, speaking into the device "We may kinda sorta be trapped in, uh....the emperor's mind"
"How in the world did you-" the owl lady paused mid-sentence "No we don't have time for that. Has the inner Belos spotted you yet?"
"Yes, but we were able to get away....with help" Luz said "Can there be two inner selves?"
"No" Eda answered "But I have heard of strong emotions materializing. Just stay safe. If you're devoured in his mindscape--"
Y/N cut her off "We'll be trapped! Dragged down into his subconscious forever. I read about it."
King spoke now "Well we're gonna get you out! We'll make a return spell as fast as we can"
Eda started talking again "Just don't loose the walkie-talkie. It's our only connection to you."
"You got it owl lady, over and--" Before Luz could finished Y/N called out
"Wait!" she said, and snatched the 'walkie-talkie' she spoke into it "We'll be home soon P/N, Flapjack. Stay safe." I heard chirping from the other end, then Y/N whispered something, followed by an "AWWWW" from the other end. She narrowed her eyes and tossed the walkie-talkie back to Luz.
I heard a rustling, and turned to see the child from earlier, watching us from behind the root of a tree. I didn't know what this mission would hold, but surely I was ready for it. After all, the emperor had nothing to hide. ((A/N - Yep. Nothing to hide. *cough* grimwalker *cough*))