Chapter 2

"You a guardian? Lotte, you're fourteen! Hell, you won't even do your homework without me watching to make sure you don't wander off and make chaos in my room-" Damian protested.

"I'm a lot older than I look," she firmly stated. 

"The little sister thing is an act. We are adopted, remember Damian?" She asked.

Damian flinched then scowled. "I couldn't forget something like that." 

'I was affected the most by mom and dad leaving - vanishing right in the middle of their divorce.'

Lotte squared her shoulders. "This isn't a hallucination or dream, or you indulging in my fictional fantasies like when I was seven."

"This is real. I'm a guardian, one of dozens. My job is to protect this world. Every so many years I was supposed to select a warrior and observe their Abilities. Then I was to guide them to a proper trainer. I specifically had to take my warriors to special trainers,"

"Trainers?" Damian parroted. "Training for what?" He asked coolly.

"Of course I didn't want to. But I have my obligations. This role is my entire life!" Lotte rambled.

"Training for what?" He tried again to get attention over Lotte losing it.

"Aftet I adjusted I realized I'm doing what made me happy for the longest time, until recently with all the surprise complications -" she continued.

"Training for what, Lotte?!" He demanded.

"Training to be made an example of." She sniffled. He stared at her blankly.

"You're training warriors for this world just to kill them?" Damian asked incredulously.

"There's a prophecy... A prophecy that a guardian would bring a warrior of change and be able to wield the Evil half Sword of Destiny. We already had a King to wield good half of the Sword of Destiny! The newcomer- He would obviously become a tyrant of Evil! Our world couldn't have that!  I was trying to find a replacement, so I wouldn't lose someone I cared about if I was wrong again, I really tried." Lotte sobbed, grabbing her brother's hand. He just stared blankly at her, although not pulling away either.

"I didn't want you to think less of me," she tried weakly. 

"You... Inserted yourself in my life,"

He thought of that memory of the time they went to the aquarium. When Mom and Dad hadn't yet divorced, and four year old Lotte ran around, wanting to see the dolphins only to trip and start crying. His younger self wanting to cheer her up and getting her a stuffed toy dolphin. 

"...Pretended to be a part of my family all so you could throw me to the guillotine because you could say 'sorry it's your job'?" He asked.

Lotte nodded miserably. Damian exhaled slowly, the anger in his eyes vanished. "Okay," he said calmly. 

He inhaled sharply and wiped her tears. 

"It's... It's okay. What you attempted isn't okay, any more than you choosing to leave me in the dark about your real life. But you tried to make amends. I can work with that, for now," he said coolly.

"I want a real explanation when the time comes up but I can wait until I deal with the pressing matter for the time being," he clarified. Lotte flinched.

"I'm not some prophecied monster who's going to throw away my life so some other guy looks good," Damian decided. 'Disappointed older brother tone..!' Lotte tensed.

He held out his hand, picturing a nice mirror or doorway to take him home, similar to how he got there. 

Instead, now in his hand, being gripped tightly as if to test it was real, was a sword.  It startlingly resembled the sword from his dream. The enormous black sword, reminiscent of a claymore. Up close, the blade was definitely six inches, clearly too wide for a claymore. In length it was almost five feet. The blade should have felt heavy, but it felt light which was a concern in itself. The front and back of the blade had a red line down the center with three interlinked circles. The inside of the circles matched the pitch black of the rest of the blade. The jagged cracks down one side indicated the blade had been split. 

In the dream it hadn't done anything, now the sword glowed, brilliantly pulsating a violet light. 

"Uh--" he looked at Lotte for help. Swords didn't usually answer his beck and call. 

Lotte however had the look of someone who's worst fears had been confirmed.

He blinked. 'This sword wasn't seriously the way they identified if someone was evil or not, was it?'

"Are you fucking serious right no-" he started to complain.

"We need to get away from people before too many passersby gather from the light of the Sword." Lotte exclaimed, grabbing his arm. 

"Yeah I'm sure no one saw that," he said sarcastically.

Following his sister they ducked behind a building, hiding in the sidestreet. Well Damian tried his best to make the sword as subtle as possible. Draping his jacket over the faintly glowing weapon. 

Damian looked at someone who seemed jarringly familiar. The formal clothes were a bit of a throw off , reminding him of a scholar of magic, like in a storybook.

A navy blue coat with a thin grey undercoat over a navy blue blouse reminiscent of a fancy robe. It had puffy sleeves, decorated with the various gold star patterns and was long enough to touch the tips of the brown boots he was wearing. The robe was secured by a dark brown belt with a gold buckle and on his hands a pair of dark brown and navy blue gloves.

Loosely around his neck was a purple sheer scarf weighed down with platinum gold sparkling star decorations. Sitting down like an old man, the person was watching him with a curious gaze.

He was baffled at the clothes but recognized the face.

"Hi Nico," Damian said impassively. Next to him Lotte however went stiff as a board in horror. "Nico?!"

"Hello Damian." Then Nico did a double take, as did Damian and both were dumbfounded to see the other. 

"How are you here?!" Damian asked.

" I should ask you that! How are you -?" Nico started to ask then rested his gaze on Lotte who was trying to make herself even smaller and looked embarrassed. 

"... Oh," Nico remarked. 

"'Oh'?" Damian parroted confused.

"Lotte why is my friend, your brother here in the land of Terravalonia?" Nico asked 

"Listen; It's not what you think, it was an accident." Lotte protested. 

"I should hope so, mages can't easily tell lies," Nico commented.

"Oh so you knew about the villain for hire thing too. Or should I say villain for slaughter?" Damian deadpanned at him. Lotte hung her head even lower.

"Yes I knew." Nico admitted. 

"Did Riley know?" Damian asked. Clearly infuriated at the idea that all the people around him knew.

"No," was the response from both Nico and Lotte.

"I was trying to inform everyone that I hadn't actually found a Villain to wield the evil half of the sword of Destiny." Lotte stamped her foot. "It's not my fault he treats me like a actual little sister and got worried about me when I was gone too long!" She protested.

"See that's what I don't understand," Damian commented. 

Nico looked put upon, his amber brown eyes widening after a few seconds. "The Sword of Destiny was once whole but was split in a battle several centuries ago. One half meant to be wielded by a warrior chosen to embody a force of good and that ruler would prosper as long as the Evil half was inactive." He explained. 

"However the one holding the Evil half is fated to be a cause of destruction," Lotte explained looking at the weapon even though it was covered by Damian's jacket. 

"It was my job to find the appointed person who could wield the evil half of the Sword of Destiny. Right when I got used to them…" Lotte fell quiet.

"Let me guess they died?" Damian asked.

"They were taken away to be executed before they became real threats, especially if they were unworthy," she explained.

Nico nodded. "I was observing you too, I wanted to be sure Lotte's last choice was definite. If not I would just wipe your memories and we'd move on to someone else."

"Gee thanks for that backup idea," Damian grimaced.

Nico looked at the sword. "Guess I can't wipe them now. The sword chose you, of its own accord. I'd almost forgotten it could do that," Nico remarked casually.

Lotte looked as though she was going to burst into tears. Damian felt bad for yelling at her. 

"Hey, Lotte, I'm sorry I lashed out at you, I was wrong for that. You were just doing your job and when you had second thoughts, wanted to do the right thing." He apologized.

Lotte blinked away escaping tears and wiped her eyes. 

"I want a second opinion,"  Damian demanded at both the melancholy expressions. 

"Well there's a second person we can go see," Nico said standing up and suddenly seeming older and wiser than nineteen. Damian was a few months older than Nico as well as a few inches tall and for some reason felt younger. He half expected him to transform or something.

"We'll visit her at sunset, she'll be accepting visitors then." Nico informed them. Until then, we should find someplace to eat. And in your case stay," Nico decided.

Lotte tensed. "Can't we stay with you?" 

Damian looked at her "that sounds like we're imposing -" Nico interrupted by chuckling lightly. 

"I suppose just for one day it's permitted." He mused. However instead of going to look for a place to sleep they hung around talking about Damian's predicament. No one really had any alternative ideas to convincing the people he wasn't here to possibly start the apocalypse. Not when he was walking around with what looked like evidence.