Kathrine was doing some last moment adjustments in the mirror when she heard the booming voice. It was not just her, everyone in a three mile radius heard the Psionically empowered bellow.
While most were confused by who and where it came from, Kathrine instinctually knew it was her Apollo, despite it not sounding like him. Kicking her heels off, Kathrine began sprinting through the hallways of the palace in a desperate attempt to aid the man she loved.
As she arrived at the court yard, the queen and Valerica were also present watching with confusion. Kathrine also noticed golden armoured warriors nearby, looking on an taking among themselves. 'Praetorians?'
They mattered little to her now. She noticed across the way, Apollo underneath an energy dome next to another praetorian. Her heart sank when she realised Apollo was on the ground, but when she saw him moving and was currently safe, she could not take it anymore.
"Apollo!" She screamed and ran over. Some of the guards turned in her direction, but she did not care. She ran until she was at the dome and began banging onto it. "Apollo are you ok! You! Let me in now!" She growled with a deep rage, ignoring the status of the woman.
The female praetorian said nothing as the red haired woman continued pounding. She looked away from the woman and clicked the button on her waist, causing the woman to stumble in during her next hit.
"Your name Is Apollo? Intriguing." The woman said as she watched the red head dive next to Apollo, muddying her dress. "Apollo Are you ok? What just happened? I heard a yell and I just knew it was you! Who did this to you? What happened? Apollo what happened?"
I couldn't get any words out as Kathrine kept on grasping my face in different places to make sure I was ok. I tried to ward her off, but a fatigue took over my body, so I just let her continue to feel me up until she felt better.
In the meanwhile, The man I sent flying ran back over with a incredibly dishevelled appearance. An overly large sword from a statue had pierced through the mans stomach and 'Golden blood?' I noticed was dripping from the wound.
The man ran over and paused when he noticed his companion had erected her dome. "Explain yourself?" He asked confused while taking a battle stance. "I am intrigued by this Apollo man and you were being a dick, so I am protecting him." The woman said calmly.
The male praetorian did a double take after being called that, before squatting down, ready to throw hands. "So you are a traitor then? There are not many of us left, but I would rather kill of traitors then let the rot remain."
The woman was about to reply before a direct order was shouted by the person with the most authority present. "Stand down! All of you stand down!" Elaine said as she walked forward authoritatively.
In unison, every guard lowered their weapons to their side and the five other praetorians followed the woman casually from a distance. When she stood right outside of the erected barrier, she looked into the eye slits of the woman inside without fear and moments later the barrier came down.
Satisfied with the result, Elaine turned towards me and with a furrowed brow, asked. "Archon Apollo, as much as your company was pleasant this morning, if you do not have a good excuse for releasing a psionic attack in the palace grounds, I will have to charge you with treason and execute you immediately."
Kathrine looked at me with a panicked expression upon hearing that and held me tightly. I ignored her however, and nodded my head in the direction of the tube that I threw. Elaine followed where I nodded and walked over to pick up the tube, but hesitated upon her hand getting close. Something about it repulsed her. "What is that?" She asked as she unconsciously took a defensive position as she moved away from the device.
Before I could respond, the woman before me spoke. "An Anti Psionic weapon. It amplifies an anti Psionic field and projects it in a concentrated location. The Archon Apollo was in excruciating pain from the unjust attack from my ally and fought with his survival instincts to battle the thing that is the antithesis of his existence. Honestly my queen, he is lucky to be alive right now, let alone conscious. My ally acted beyond his position due to his purpose and will be punished internally for it." She said, moving her eye slits to look her friend up and down."
Elaine had naturally heard about anti Psionic material and had naturally avoided it. Just being near it made her on edge... to imagine being attacked by it. "Hear me! Archon Apollo has undergone wrongful punishment. By my right as Queen, I hereby give him my pardon of any crimes he has committed. Those who forsake my ruling by attempting to detain or injure him further will be met with justice!"
There was a murmur among the guards, especially where a massive man shaped whole in a wall was present, but the queen has officially pardoned the man, so they were no longer needed.
The man and the woman stared at each other for a moment before the man said. "You are making a mistake Nerissa. That man is a threat." The woman, Nerissa, said nothing, prompting the man to walk away in a huff, clutching the sword in his abdomen.
After the man was gone, Elaine walked over to me and asked. "Apollo, are you ok? Do you need medical aid?" I chuckled at the question and immediately regretted it as I began to feel queasy.
"I am fine, thank you. Though the anti Psionic material has left me feeling just terrible. I am sorry your grace, but I think I won't be able to attend the outing. And sorry for the damages. I can pay for them if you want." I was pretty bummed out by the turn of events. Not that I had that gross shit attacking my body, but the fact that I was now too ill to act like a tourist.
Elaine was surprisingly touched by Apollo's response. She expected him to throw up a storm about this and that, but instead, after suffering something she would never even think of trying out for herself, he apologised to her for not being able to go sightseeing?
As she processed that, Valerica and Hailey had already arrived and began checking on Apollo. "So I take it my tourist tour is cancelled now?" Valerica said looking a little down. "No you should all still go and enjoy yourselves. I am just going to sleep and sort out the banging in my Mindspace after that attack. I will be out for the rest of the day." I said, causing Hailey to look upset.
Kathrine tried to interject, saying she would stay by my side, but I told her there was no point and she should enjoy some girl time with her mother and niece. After 'convincing' Kathrine and also the rest to have fun, I turned to the queen and said. "I think your ship was swept by my attacker, so you should all go now. Just have someone ferry me to the opulence and I will be right as rain." I said and proceeded to yawn before wincing as my mind was still on fire, figuratively speaking.
Everyone was touched for different reasons at Apollo's suggestion. Valerica was proud of her new baby, Hailey was happy Apollo was thinking about her happiness and her relationship to her aunt and Elaine was touched that the man still wanted everyone else to have a pleasant time, despite his recent suffering. She also started to feel terrible thinking Apollo might have had ulterior motives last night.
"Of course Apollo, I will have a small transport ferry you shortly, in the meantime why don't we-" Elaine's train of thought was interrupted by another Praetorian, with an identical eye slit colouring to the previous man, walking over and standing right in front of Nerissa.
Nerissa in response turned around and allowed the praetorian to unclasp her cloak. "Are you sure Nerissa? We have not separated from one another longer than three days in millennia." He asked as he began folding up the purple cape into a triangle.
"I am sure, he has intrigued me and I wish to know why." Nerissa replied, causing the man to nod. "Very well, know this is not exile and you are welcome back once your curiosity has been sated." With that he turned on his heel and walked directly into the ship the queen would be boarding, for there needed to be a replacement after all.
Elaine understood from the context what was happening and her mouth went slack jawed. She was not the only one. As the other girls all showed a great deal of surprise, while Apollo, clueless to Spartari lore even now, just looked around in confusion.
Nerissa then walked up to me and crouched down again. "I now follow wherever you go. I will not leave until my intrigue has been sated. Now come." She booped me on my nose and then picked me up like I weighed nothing, and I weighed a lot as my Gyrokinesis was currently out of commission. "I will take you to the luxury ship. We can become more acquainted once there."