Her lady brought a finger in front of her lips as to tell him to talk quietly. Noticing that, he looked down at what she really meant. Aefia was fast asleep on top of her lady's lap as she snuggled her wolf like it were her pet. She was pretty badly injured, and blood was dried up against her face, proving that the battle was a successful one.
"How was it possible? Wasn't she supposed to be the weakest one?" Helio asked. "I think she owes us multiple explanations, starting from the time she had dissappeared and reappeared in the underground dungeons. Where was she, or who exactly is she?"
"I am not sure too, but what if she was a reincarnate?" Her lady asked. "You have probably read multiple stories from our worlds about how people got reincarnated into the stories they read? And they change a terrible fate for that world or their own world, maybe even someone's terrible fate?"
Helio thought for a while, it was a possibility but if it really were, she would still end up explaining to the others any time sooner when she realizes the fate she wanted to change had been given to someone else. He looked at the wolf that was sleeping beside her, while recalling how it knew everything about Aefia or maybe almost everything.
He poked its ears the way he had remembered Aefia doing so before leaving for the mission. By pressing on its ear tips and holding the snout, it caused the wolf to jolt awake, thinking Aefia had awaken already. It opened its eyes with a quick movement that caused Helio to move back.
Puppet looked at Aefia's face to see that she was still in her deep sleep of recovery, and found it odd that she was in the custody of someone else. It quickly stood up and bared its teeth at her lady and noticed a reflection in her eyes and looked back to notice Helio with a terrified eyes.
It spun around and looked into his soul as if ready to rip it off. "I know that my owner trusts you as a colleague, but I don't trust you as my owner's teammate. If you are trying just anything, I will snap off your ribs." It threatened him as it left hissing sounds after every single words. "But if you are here to help her, than kindly finish your work and get away from her."
Her lady tried to touch its head to calm it down, but it staggered back and was almost ready to attack the two people surrounding Aefia. It got into position, ready to pounch on her in order to wake her up. Just in time, Helio held a hand in front of its mouth as it mistakenly bit down on his finger. He screamed without his voice while trying to bring his finger out of Puppet's mouth.
"Calm down, we don't have any intentions to harm her." Her lady spoke while silently moving Aefia's head away from her lap to make sure she demonstrated that. "We just had some questions about her, but we don't want to disturb her too." She whispered as she had set Aefia down on the ground.
Puppet let go of Helio's hand but it still seemed mad at her lady. They were both left in confusion until they noticed that Puppet was looking at Aefia and then at her lady. "Put her back on your lap," it finally said. "Make sure she is comfortable, and don't try anything to wake her up, or I will break every single bones of your skeletons, both of you."
Her lady quickly put Aefia back on her lap like nurturing her own child. She looked at Puppet to confirm that everything was alright and let out a sign of relieve, but Puppet still didn't gain its cool. A few seconds later, it sat down anyway while shutting its eyes.
Helio tried to tap it thinking it had probably gone asleep, but before his fingertip's could reach its fur, Puppet spoke up. "I may only answer three questions that you guys have, but that too will be based on what kinds of questions they are."
"Then what about-" her lady started to ask, but was silenced when Puppet raised a paw to stop her mid sentence. "I am curious myself too, how do you guys not have the patience to ask her by yourselves and want me to answer your questions? That way, am I not breaking her trust on me?"
Just when her lady was about to reply, Puppet dissappeared as its pixels flew away and flickered like stars. For a very long time, silence was shared between her lady and Helio. Then, Helio found the courage to speak up, "Maybe we should let her choose a time to tell us about how she really knew all of this. Even if she did tell us a little too late, we should understand that she had her reasons. It's not like she would be betraying us, she is trying her best to keep us safe."
"And she is also making us work along side her. Have you taken that into consideration?" Her lady asked with hesitation in her voice, meaning this was the question she was thinking about asking her.
"And did you want to ask her why she was doing so when she could just have done it herself?" Helio asked a little mad. "Well who was going to guard the other worlds that she saves, while she was away facing the Torture Cell? She had said once before that she needed everyone to be strong, get stronger and remain strong. Have you ever seen it like this that she was actually clearing the bigger threats while we were left to deal the smaller ones?
"This universe isn't frozen and the Torture Cell will continue with whatever goal they have, but they are a huge group of entities to deal with and the destruction isn't put to a stop. At the scale of the entire universe, don't you see how every second, a planet is getting destroyed and there are more planets then there are stars in all galaxies itself." Helio tried to explain as he searched for more words.
"Whatever she is trying to make us do, could result with us having to take care and stall the destructions while she went to destroy the Torture Cell itself. We aren't really side characters she wants to control, we are supposed to help her clear her way so she can move on faster. I have also overheard a small conversation that she had with her elemental animal, ones regarding what she planned on doing with this team she has formed."
Her lady suddenly got more interested into the conversation as she kept her ears sharp around the words she was about to hear next. "What is her intentions then?" She asked due to her lack of patience.
"Once she stopped the destruction of the planet we are staying in, she was going to handle a bunch of interstellar missions that she was assigned and she was looking forward to entrusting us to clear any threats a certain number of enemies might bring us. Meaning, while she was over at those missions, we will have to handle a few more tasks left in this dimension before following her over to the next dimension." Helio let out a deep breath.
"Thats all?" Her lady asked to confirm. "She is a great hide and seek player with words, so how are you sure that really is the case?"
"The main thing is, are you willing to help her? Otherwise you may leave the team, seeing how you aren't really interested in helping her." Helio spoke with a serious tone. "I just made that information up to see what you really were looking into hearing. Looks like I can't let any amount of information reach you otherwise you might use it against her."
"Are all of you going to be like this?" Her lady asked with a shocked expression highlighting in her face when suddenly, she realized what it really meant. "I understand, you don't want us to question about her personal life and goals. Very well, I should stay silent until she further tells us about what to do next." She looked at Aefia slowly recovering in her sleep.
***
"Wow, I didn't expect such a thing from her. Puppet is such an expert as an actor." Aefia told Helio. "So, when can we return?" he asked from beside her.
They weren't really in the world they seemed to be in, but Puppet managed to extract their souls to the dimension it had created with Aefia's absorbed elements. Helio was confused at first to see how he was still moving in that dimension but Aefia then told him how Puppet was playing his part for him while talking with her lady.
"We will return when Puppet gets the chance, her lady is still talking. That poor cub is having to face it all while we are here doing nothing." Aefia spoke. "Anyways, that's our last work in Hellas. We won't have any more work until a short while after the Banquet."
"After the Banquet? The destruction?" Helio asked.
"Nah...another stressful inter-dimensional mission. But I won't be there of course, I will be away on a separate mission. Which obviously I will do after I pay a visit to a place I had been meaning to see for a while now." Aefia spoke with worry and work pressure illuminating on her face.
"Where are you going to? I don't believe that you are going to the Demon king's palace again."
"No, I am going to Earth." Aefia spoke out while looking into the fake sky that Puppet had created. "Alright, we need to get back. Puppet has bought us just a few second worth of time."
Aefia finished her sentence and immediately jumped into the portal that allowed them to see what was happening in their dimension. In this journey, there weren't any problems with having to go through another dimension's passageway or going through the underworld.
When she had opened her eyes again, she was looking directly at her lady's face and sat up. She looked at her wounds to make sure Puppet had healed them before they returned and looked at the saddened Queen who sat looking into blank space. She instantly realized why she was about to cry, because Puppet was a rebellious little pet she had.
She looked at Helio with a annoyed, an angry face and threatened him, which she knew he would understand because he too had seen that it was probably Puppet's doings. "Is it so that you can't have a proper conversation with a royal family? What are you? Even a human?"
Sheesh, that was harsh. But I just don't know what else to say. Hopefully he understands. Luckily her son wasn't around or we were so going to be in our graves.
"I am sorry, but I promise that I wasn't meaning for all that to happen." Helio answered back while surrendering his hands. "But your wolf was the first one to threaten us."
"I mean, yeah I will talk to it later of course." Aefia smacked her palm on her forehead. Since Puppet had made sure to absorb the small amount of magic energy that she had stolen from her lady was consumed into that dimension, Aefia's features were erased and she looked completely normal.
"I am sorry for whatever my teammate has done to you. But he will receive the adequate punishment he is meant to inherit." Aefia tried to calm her lady done once she glanced at how her son was starting to suspect something off about his mother.
Aritea was feeding the dead beast's meat to the dragon while her lady's son was searching for any sort of useful artifacts he could find. Then Aefia remembered something, the search of the artifacts reminded her of the ice stone.
If I had remembered that earlier, I could have brightened her lady's mood. I really am starting to go insane.
She looked around the ground for the ice stone while constantly looking up at her lady to insure she wasn't planning on doing anything stupid. When she couldn't find it, she gave up and asked her hesitantly, "I am sorry to ask, but my Queen, have you seen the ice stone anywhere? I mean you had it, didn't you?"
Her lady didn't say much at first, then she slowly opened her hand to reveal the stone that was glowing a bright blue with a very faint sigil drawn into it. It was so invisible to the eyes that it seems like a ragged surface from the top.
"I had the stone with me for a long while now. I had been meaning to give you this for a long time, but you were asleep." Her lady said while finally smiling. "I except your apology but I will make sure you teammate regrets it." She shot a look at Helio that made him slightly nervous. "Oh, I almost forgot, aren't you going to need it for something?" Her lady looked at Aefia.
"Yes, I forgot too." She replied while picking up the bright blue stone. Without thinking another second, she crashed it like she had been told by the Guardians and all the stored magic suddenly escaped and shot up in the air. It flew like a firework was about to go off, but instead of that happening, it seemed to collapse back into the Earth and shake it violently, causing horrible winds.
The nearby land turned brighter and it suddenly started to snow. This really made Aefia confused and she glanced around for no reasons. "I am not sure if it was supposed to be like this...But maybe after we leave, the Guardians are planning on coming over to recollect it."
"Are you sure this was supposed to be how you had to do it?" Helio asked but her lady shot another angry look at him to silence him. Aefia noticed, and she slightly inwardly laughed.
"Alright, this task has been done. But the next mission is going to be a harder one." Aefia slightly breathed out while whispering. Warm breath was highlighted brightly in the now foggy atmosphere as snow settled onto her dark raven hair.