41 Conversations

----------------- At this, she ties up the female assassin, then leaves the place to go look for someone else to fight. -------------------

Robyn, Ruby, Jasmine and James all met up outside the house of the thirty-first aura signature. They had intentionally left this one for last, seeing as it was inside a house, so they figured that was the one not originally counted in.

(James) "Since it's coming from inside the house, there can be one of two possibilities. This assassin was already inside and knows the owner of this house personally…"

(Jasmine) "Or it could be someone from inside our clan that has something against either the King, the Queen, Liana or Lillian."

She turned to Robyn and asked,

(Jasmine) "Could you figure out which one it is?"

Robyn nodded and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she raised an eyebrow as she said,

(Robyn) "Liana."

She glanced at Ruby, who had a strange smile on her face, but didn't say anything.

(Jasmine) "Should we all go in or─"

Before she could finish her question, Ruby spoke.

(Ruby) "Can I handle this one?"

Jasmine and James both raised an eyebrow, but Jasmine nodded and said,

(Jasmine) "We'll be out here if you need back up."

Ruby shared a glance with her sister and simply said,

(Ruby) "I won't."

And with that, she knocked on the door of the house, the three others having hidden themselves out of sight.

*

A minute later, a lady opened the door.

It's not her.

(Robyn, through mind-link, to Ruby) "Ask for a girl named Stella."

(Ruby) "Hello, I'm looking for Stella?"

The lady's eyebrows pinched together slightly but she turned her body and shouted into the house:

(Lady) "Stella! Someone's here to see you!"

A girl with purplish-blue hair and remarkably light pink eyes came to the door and raised an eyebrow when she saw Ruby standing at the door.

(Girl) "Hi, I'm Stella. You're the sister of the Chief of the Copper Blades Clan, aren't you? Why are you looking for me?"

Her hair was down, reaching her waist, and she was wearing a t-shirt revealing her slim arms, along with shorts revealing her just as slim legs. Ruby simply raised an eyebrow and nodded.

(Stella) "Erm. Okay, do you want to come in?"

She moved her body to the side to allow Ruby inside, the lady from earlier having left to do something else. Ruby followed Stella inside and sat on a chair that Stella gestured to.

(Stella) "So… to what do I owe this visit by the sister of the Chief of the Copper Blades Clan?"

(Ruby) "Ruby is fine."

(Stella) "Ah. Alright then. Aren't you always sticking to Miss Elizabeth when you're here though? Why are you here?"

She seemed to realise something and said,

(Stella) "You actually don't know anything about me except for my name, do you?"

Ruby shrugged.

(Stella) "Okay then. My name is Stella Dusk Collinia, I'm a General in the Silent Shadow Guard, although most people don't believe it when I say that. What else. The lady that opened the door earlier was my mother, who I live with. I don't have siblings and my father passed away before I was born."

Ruby believed that she was a General. Though her body didn't exactly scream 'powerful', Ruby could feel the power coming from Stella's aura alone. She also knew that although her magic power was probably quite powerful, Stella preferred using physical strength to fight.

(Ruby) "Do you have any personal contact with your Chief?"

Stella nodded.

(Stella) "I'm one of the Generals she goes to when she wants something to be done, among others."

Ruby nodded.

(Ruby) "How do you feel about Liana?"

Stella frowned slightly at Ruby's seemingly odd question and spoke slowly,

(Stella) "Liana is Chief's guest, right?"

Ruby nodded.

(Stella) "She's quite okay. I haven't actually seen her personally, since Chief hasn't called me to do anything since she arrived back, but I've heard about her. She does stick to Chief quite a bit though."

Ruby noticed two things: first, Stella calls Lillian Chief as if it was her name. Yes, it was her title, but it still seemed a bit odd to Ruby. Still, Ruby didn't think much about that. The second thing was that Stella's feelings changed slightly when she said her last sentence.

(Stella) "Why?"

Ruby smiled and said,

(Ruby) "You should be careful to think before you act from here on out."

Stella looked confused for a moment, then remembered something she had heard once, although she wasn't sure if it was merely a rumour.

(Stella) "The rumour that you can tell a person's true feeling's, along with being able to hear their most hidden thoughts. It's true isn't it?"

Ruby merely smiled and stood up.

(Ruby) "Thanks for having me and answering my questions. Remember what I said."

Stella moved to walk her to the door but before Ruby reached the door she spoke and asked one last question:

(Stella) "Are you with Miss Elizabeth?"

Ruby stifled a soft giggle and spoke,

(Ruby) "No."

Stella smiled understandingly and simply said,

(Stella) "All the best."

(Ruby) "You should be telling that to her instead."

With that, she opened the door and stepped out, Stella closing the door behind her.

*

The other three saw her exit the house and followed her for a distance before revealing themselves again.

(James) "How come you didn't do anything to her?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow.

(Ruby) "What could I have done?"

James frowned. Robyn smiled slightly and explained,

(Robyn) "I set my skill to detect if someone had bad intentions, not necessarily evil or harmful intentions. As it turns out, Stella didn't even know of these feelings."

Jasmine was simply listening to their conversation, piecing the pieces together one by one. Just as she had finally come to a conclusion, Ruby spoke again.

(Ruby) "I can't possibly punish someone for liking someone else and as a result being jealous. I myself know that feeling."

She was open about her feelings and never took an extra step to conceal her feelings for Liz, but at the same time never blatantly said it either.

(Jasmine) "We'll just have to monitor her from now on then."

Robyn and Ruby shared a glance but didn't say anything.

(James) "I'm still confused."

Jasmine laughed and grabbed his hand as she said,

(Jasmine) "Remember a few years ago there was another guy in the guard with us before we became Elites that liked me? You hated that guy so much you almost broke his nose irreparably during a training exercise."

Pink tinged James' cheeks as he remembered the incident.

(James) "That─ That was because he came onto you and you didn't like it."

Jasmine used her other hand to face-palm herself, eliciting laughs from the two others walking with them.

(Jasmine) "James, that could hardly have been considered coming onto me. He just asked me out. He had no other intentions, and he was already so embarrassed about asking me out. He had no idea why you hated him so much afterwards."

(Ruby) "How long have you two been together?"

Jasmine thought for a moment.

(Jasmine) "He first asked me out when I was fifteen."

The pink on James' cheeks darkened.

(James) "She rejected me without a second thought."

(Jasmine) "You were fourteen! Besides, I really wasn't interested in you then."

(James) "I asked her again the year after that and got rejected again, although it seemed as if she had actually considered it, so I asked again about half a year after, and she finally accepted!"

(Jasmine) "He asked me to be his girlfriend a few dates later, so it's been about two years since then."

(Robyn) "James sure was persistent."

Jasmine shrugged.

(Jasmine) "I was waiting for him to at least be able to stand against me in a fight after the second time he asked."

(Ruby) "Wow. If I had to wait that long… I don't think Liz would like it very much."

They all laughed, but it was cut short by the person in question showing up in front of them.

(Liz) "Ruby!"

She jumped at Ruby, throwing herself onto her. Ruby caught her in her arms, already used to this.

(Ruby) "Didn't I tell you to stay in the house?"

Liz smiled innocently.

(Liz) "You never said that. Besides, I was monitoring the situation and I knew you already finished capturing or killing the enemies and I missed you."

The other three were all wondering the same thing: 'how are they not together already?!'.

Ruby put Liz back onto the ground and said,

(Ruby) "You can walk on your own legs."

Liz pouted and whined, completely ignoring the fact that there were others around them,

(Liz) "Whyyyy???"

Then she perked up and asked,

(Liz) "Then can I ride on your back?"

Ruby rolled her eyes but allowed Liz to climb onto her back and wrap her legs around Ruby's waist and her arms around Ruby's neck.

(Ruby) "You could have just waited for me to go back, you know."

(Liz) "I know. I missed you so I came to find you. Besides, Lil is done and they're coming out soon."

She then placed her chin on Ruby's shoulder and turned her head to the side before breathing out contentedly. Jasmine and Robyn both chuckled at Ruby's visible shiver at that. The way Liz had placed her head meant that she was breathing almost directly into Ruby's neck, and Ruby was just about wanting to drop Liz.

Either way, she didn't, and continued carrying Liz until they reached Lillian and Liz's house. Lillian and Liana had let them know that they had gone back already, wanting to change out of their formal clothing and not wanting to stick around the great hall for much longer.

(Ruby) "Beth. We're here."

(Jasmine) "Oh."

Robyn and Ruby turned to Jasmine who had a sheepish look on her face as she said,

(Jasmine) "James and I have something to do, so we're going to have to part with you here."

As she was already holding James' hand, she merely activated a teleportation spell and they disappeared.

(Ruby) "Jasmine seems more like the guy, to be honest."

Although Robyn and Jasmine were close, Ruby really did stick to Liz the whole time she was here, so she didn't really socialise with anyone else, so she wasn't very familiar with Jasmine.

Robyn chuckled and said,

(Robyn) "She does, doesn't she? But actually, James can be a very reliable guy when he needs to be. Otherwise, he's just happy to let Jasmine do everything."

Ruby chuckled and nodded, understanding what her sister meant.

(Ruby) "Beth, if you don't get off, I'm going to throw you off."

When Liz heard the threat of being thrown off, she quickly clambered off of Ruby's back. She had no doubt Ruby would carry out her threat, having made the mistake of thinking otherwise before.

*

Liz opened the door and led them into the house, wondering why her sister and Liana were still upstairs.

(Liz) "Can you guys wait here? I'm going to find my sis."

Robyn and Ruby nodded, both sitting down on chairs placed around the sitting room.

*

Liz walked up the stairs and then towards her sister's bedroom.

(Liz) "Sis?"

(Lillian) "In here, Liz."

Liz frowned at the sound of her sister's voice. Something sounded wrong about it.

(Liz) "I'm coming in."

She opened the door and entered the room, raising an eyebrow at the sight in front of her. Lillian had changed out of her formal attire into her normal stealth suit, but she was simply lying on the bed with her arm over her eyes.

(Liz) "What's wrong?"

(Lillian) "The conditions of the treaty between the Adrenian Empire and the Vayithen Empire."

She sent a short clip of her memory to Liz, the part where they discussed a specific condition.

(Liz) "…Wow."

She walked over to her sister and sat down beside her.

(Liz) "How do you feel about it?"

(Lillian) "I still haven't sorted it out."

Liz nodded.

(Liz) "Does she know that's what they were talking about?"

(Lillian) "I don't think so. She didn't indicate anything."

Liz nodded again.

(Liz) "Come on. You can't just stay in here. You can think it over tonight but not now."

Lillian groaned and pulled herself off her bed.

(Lillian) "Fine."