Midnight armor

Silence hung over the meeting room, and the lack of discussion after what we all just witnessed showed how dire our situation appeared to be. I kept looking around face after face, trying to ascertain each individual commanders reaction.Tatiana's face seemed the most out of place. She had a wide grin, and her eyes were shining with excitement

"An abyss creature of the great purity? Hell yes! I haven't had a decent battle in ages!" She said with glee, everyone else turned to look at tatiana with disbelief.

"You really live up to the name of "tatiana the Beast, " don't you?" Gram replied after hearing her wild proclamation. The judgemental tone in his voice made it apparent he wasn't giving her a compliment.

Right as tatiana was about to retort with something that could most definitely be considered a daring insult, gwen spoke the authority in her voice not shaken in the slightest even after seeing the problem at hand.

"Enough! This meeting room isn't a place for your childish taunts, nor is it a place for you to shout with excitement over the possibility of hundreds if not thousands of lives being lost!" Her statement had silenced the room instantly.

"Tatiana, gram, you two will get your divisions together and spearhead the assault. It's an abyss creature of great purity, which means it will be strong enough to handle multiple acsended, and don't forget it has a horde of lesser creature's with it as well acting in tandem." They both nodded at gwen in acknowledgment before starting to stand. However, she wasn't finished. Quickly sitting down, they waited patiently for her to complete the rest of her orders.

"Erith, I want you to pick the strongest members in your division capable of venturing outside the walls and attempt to get behind the horde. If successful, this emergency could be handled in a matter of hours. I don't even want to think about what will happen if we fail." She finished, her instructions were clear to everyone in the room. Except for me....'What the hell am I supposed to be doing then?' I thought with curiosity.

'She has to know having me in the field will be a good advantage, right? Or is there something else in store for me? "These thoughts kept spinning in my head while I watched the other division commanders and the strange woman lola leave the room in a calm yet hurried fashion. After they were all gone, it was just me and gwen left in the meeting room. Before I could even begin with my questions, gwen stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Yes, I know, you are wondering why I didn't issue any orders to you, aren't you?" She said with a knowing smile. Which seemed to only agitate me. Opening my mouth to answer, I was cut off again from speaking.

"It's simple ranika, me and you will be the fallback plan. In the event the first, second, and third all fail, it will fall to us and the troops under our command to hold back the monsters while the civilians evacuate." She finished, her tone was solemn.

"That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't it be more effective to have four divisions attack the horde rather than three to increase our odds of success?" I questioned back in a flat tone. I was agitated that I couldn't go help. I hated feeling useless. I only have eight more days till I'm actually powerless, and in situations like this, I'd rather devote the strength I do have right now, while I have it.

"There's another reason I'm not placing you on the frontline ranika." She began. However, I wasn't hearing it. I was growing more and more frustrated listening to the ridiculous reasons she had. They made no tactical sense to me.

"I swear if it has something to do with you wanting to "protect your dearest little brother" I'm going to fucking snap gwenavere." I said while cutting her off. The anger laced in my voice was becoming more apparent.

"ITS BECAUSE I DONT TRUST YOU ANYMORE RANIKA!" She yelled, her calm look and pose of authority gone, replaced by sheer emotion.

"Did you really think I wouldn't know that armor was from your home? Did you forget who the authorities fucking report to?! You disappear for two days, and in that time I had a god damn relic brought to me with reports saying it was retrieved from your residence along with mulitple items deemed illegal and restricted..." Her voice had started to tremble while she began to stand up, moving closer to me.

"The whole time I've known you you've always seemed to be upfront with me, but after witnessing your outburst in the vault after seeing the armor I'd be blind not to know you are hiding things from me...so if you want to help, please...please just tell me what the fuck is going on with you. Otherwise..I'll have no choice but to keep you away from the fight, I have no use for people I can't trust to watch my back in battle.." She finished, tears had started to run down her cheeks. The betrayal and desperation written on her face like a neon sign.

Looking down feeling a sense of guilt I began to question if it was worth letting another person in on my problems. Hell I still had to let olivia in on it, otherwise how would I explain the next ridiculous time I die, potentially right in front of her? It all felt so overwhelming, I didn't want to freak gwen out or worse make her think I'm lying about the whole thing and make this whole ordeal even worse. As I struggled with what to do gwen hadn't even moved, I looked up at the small commander a woman who wasnt even in her thirties yet, who seemed to have the weight of the world on her and i was reminded of all she had done for me.

From welcoming me into her city, to giving me a position in the military that she herself commanded, and then to top it all off we had grown close over the years. I may hate it when she treats me like her brother, but it was also comforting to have someone besides sophie in my life who actually cared about me. She hasn't given me a single reason not to trust her, while on the other hand I've been keeping a huge part of my life shrouded in darkness, far away from her thinking that it was best she didn't know.

'Well either she believes me...or things are about to get very awkward..' I thought, while mentally preparing myself for the insane explanation I was about to give her.

"I die every ten days gwenavere." I said bluntly. She looked taken a back by my sudden statement, opening her mouth to question me I stopped her.

"On every tenth day I become vulnerable to anything and everything. I could slip and fall down some stairs and lose my life like any normal human, or like recently I can take a fucking golf ball to the head and die...after I die it takes one to two days for me to return, and once i do the process repeats itself, over and over again. This has been going on for close to three thousand years now, the texts and things I was keeping in my apartment was my research on how to make it stop." I finished, a bit of relief in my tone. It was nice to just let everything out, of course I have sophie to talk to but there's nothing I can say about this that she doesn't know, so it's become more redundant over the years to speak with her about this.

"The armor you are currently keeping in the vault is my personal armament, it was handcrafted by clan for my "talents", if the government wants to understand the runes I'm more than happy to assist....you are right gwen. I've kept far too much from you and I'm sorry, I really am, I just thought it best at the time. After all doesn't this sound a bit insane?" I chuckled lightly, trying to lighten the depressing atmosphere in the room.

She seemed to be weighing her response very carefully as she processed everything I had just said. Her face was thoughtful, but there was a very apparent doubt in her brown eyes, the struggle to believe me or write me off plastered on her face. After what felt like hours under her gaze she finally responded, I just didn't expect her to sound so calm.

"I think I understand why you didn't tell me initially...that does indeed sound like something a lunatic would say. I want to believe you, I really do but I'm going to need some evidence or proof of this ranika...it just sounds far too outlandish to believe." Her tone was light, but the doubt was still there hidden beneath.

Thinking of how to make her believe me a thought struck me like a bolt of lightning. 'The armor...they can't access the runes or even understand them fully. If I activate it maybe that will show her im not lying.'

"Take me to my armor gwen, I think that's the only way to show you without waiting the ten days.." I said with certainty.