Poppy couldn't stop looking down at her Vox, hoping for any sort of notification to flood her runic screen.
"He isn't going to answer, don't ya know? The Phoenix is dead..."
Neo chuckled, his face twisted and covered in ruthless scar tissue, tinted with grayish skin under his bright blue hair.
Poppy laughed at the boy her age, as he returned swiftly to the art of training.
"You resemble a snake much better now." She said, furrowing her eyebrows.
Neo frowned, reaching up with his freehand and touching his own face with a look sadness in his eyes.
"Chase is not dead." Poppy mentioned triumphantly-leaning back into the bleacher seat and checking her Vox once more.
Standing underneath the wooden ceiling being held together by newly inserted scaffolding, Neo set his wooden sword against a wooden rack, resembling that of his own blade.
"What is his plan?" Neo eventually asked with a sigh.
Poppy shrugged, looking up at the ruined ceiling of the combat training classroom.
"Probably just buying time for now, but I could see him even baiting my sister out, although that wouldn't be smart, because she is nearly exceeding that of eleven star output..." Poppy pondered aloud.
Neo scratched his snake-ish chin-eventually speaking up. "No, it has to be more than that. Chase isn't a coward, and he is damn smart when it comes to strategy in the field. I bet he is gonna go on the offensive in about a month. I bet him and The Unity even try allying with a kingdom or two. Possibly The City of Factions as well as King Mare's people."
Poppy raised an eyebrow at the boy.
"What?" She asked with confusion.
Neo tilted his head, unable to pick up on social queues.
"You said something smart..." Poppy said, almost in disgust at the thought of this idiot being useful in any way.
Poppy stood up, as Neo continued to think in silence.
"I need to contact King Mare... He still owes me a favor..." She said, proudly stomping out of the room.
...
Steadying herself, Poppy lightly knocked on the door at the top of Phoenix Academy.
As she waited, her eyes flashed around the cramped hall outside of the Headmaster's office. The memories of Le'ander, the last true child of Orion. It wasn't just the effect that the death would have on the students, but on the political and continental scales.
She knew it best herself, her father was now the only family left with royal blood, especially with the news of the self-declared child of Blaze-fell in a suicidal fight against The King of Corruption.
After impatiently tapping the tip of her ivory boot against the floor boards, the door swung open with a small gust of wind blowing into Poppy's face.
"Yes?" The visually assuming blind girl with brunette hair, and a silver veil over the top half of her face-said with a tilted head.
"I would like to speak to King Zephyr. It is concerning political alliances." Poppy said with a proud tone in her stern voice.
The girl who could be none other than the newly recruited seer known as Ivy-strained a forced smile and waved her hand towards the stairs, leading up to the newly built lower platform of the office.
"Watch your step..." Ivy muttered, swiftly putting a foot in front of Poppy's as she went to step forward.
Poppy frowned in response, simply stepping to the side. "I get that you are blind, but please mind your footing."
Ivy clearly showed visual anger behind Poppy, but the Ivory Princess only snickered as she climbed the staircase.
Once she reached the top, she wore a look of confusion.
"What happened to the original layout?" Poppy asked.
In front of her, lie a simple cozy office with no grand windows, or even a second platform for that matter.
"This place required change..." The old man behind a small wooden desk spoke shakily, with his crimson eyes focused on the small parchment before him.
Poppy shrugged to herself and stepped forward, lifting her head a little as she did.
"Um... King Zephyr, there is nothing on that paper. So ignore my rudeness in asking why you are staring so intently at it?"
The main raised his head slowly, his long ivory hair rustling behind his head as his deepened ruby eyes lifted with a glare.
Poppy felt fear.
She had rarely spoken to the man in the handful of months she had known him, but for some weird reason she felt like she had known the man for the entirety of her life.
And that gave reason to strike fear into her soul, although she did not truly "Know" the man, she had indeed seen him fight in the both of his forms.
He could slaughter her in seconds if he wanted too. In fact, she had originally questioned why it had been Chase and not Lithica or Zephyr who were sent to fight Rider. And now it only deepened her concern.
...
Zephyr wanted to die.
Why did it have to be now of all times that his own daughter would hold a surprise meeting when the newly appointed king had other matters requiring his attention.
He cursed ever helping the boy-rubbing his own eyes violently.
Steeling his nerves, Zephyr erased the thought of being this girl's father, as she did not truly know him, and neither did she know that he was her true father. So, in reality Zephyr had nothing to worry about.
But that was like throwing a rock in the sea and expecting it to float.
Zephyr rubbed the original crimson eyes once more as the copy impatiently awaited a response to the question that had gone in one of his ears and out of the other.
"Excuse me, could you speak up? I didn't hear what you asked." Zephyr quickly regained his composure with what he thought was a solid excuse.
"Are you kidding me?" Poppy snarled with clear annoyance.
"I know right..." Ivy who had returned to her station (Her reading corner, since she usually preferred standing there and reading over her own job) chuckled to herself.
"Gods damnit Chase..." Poppy muttered under her breath, as Zephyr's eyes continued to dart between the both of the girls who were clearly insulting him.
Zephyr could only internally curse himself as he awaited the terrible air to go away.
"Anyway, I have a request concerning the future war..." Poppy said slightly louder than the last time.
Zephyr immediately shook his head. "No, there will be no wars in the near future."
Poppy frowned, and Ivy laughed aloud in the corner.
Zephyr's eyes shot towards Ivy.
"What? You don't need a seer to tell you that the world is going to shit. Nobody with a brain actually believes someone strong enough to kill Rider of House Night could die to an explosion. Meaning that with Le'ander being dead, two kingdoms having fallen in the recent years, and possibly the rightful Grand Paladin was slowly growing stronger in some corner of the world."
Poppy nodded at Zephyr as Ivy spoke, notifying him that this was indeed correct.
"It would take true ignorance to not choose a side. Nobody is truly happy under the rule of Zen, and it would take a fool to not even feel the slightest curiosity of the "What if?" scenario before us. For the people, choosing Chase's side would mean denying the war that decided the next countless generations, it would be a chance to at least see if the outcome of that war would have truly changed anything..."
Ivy was obviously right, and Zephyr could not act like an oblivious idiot in front of these two intelligent girls.
Of course he knew of the war that would come, in fact... He knew the scale of it, and it was far greater than just the possibilities of a new king...
It meant risking what it meant to be human, and truly asking the question...
What is a king to a god...?