"You again… I expect good news then," Esterine demands, right as she finds her all-giving and loving brother.
"Have patience, little one. Though I do have part of a good news to be," Alta says.
"I'm listening… go on."
"After you failed-"
"-don't you dare make me kick your sorry-ass."
"Listen to it completely, oh dear one. I had your men, who technically were my men-"
"-oh you little backstabbing son of-" Esterine interrupts again.
"-Quit whining!" Alta yells, finally having it.
"Scream at me again… and you'll regret it!" Esterine hisses, after a moment of silence.
"I'm sorry, I just got mad for no reason. Now listen carefully, will you?"
"Sure… you can keep talking," Esterine carelessly says, and her chair creaks.
"So, some of your men mistook… or should I say, on purpose, picked up some of the dead dragons' bodies."
"Ok… sadly I don't see the point. Care repeat?" Esterine yawns.
"Dragons. Esterine. If we get into their biology-"
"-we can have their powers and be stronger."
"Oh… I didn't think of it that way. Although yes, that is one of the possible applications, I guess."
"Then what else were you planning? To spot their weaknesses, you mean…?"
"That is why I like talking to you, little sis. You always have many more ideas than I do."
"And you somehow have the unique one than me."
"Sure… by this I mean to say is: we can test others who can be dragons and somehow get them to be on our side, and of course frame Parzival."
"He could be a dragon, since his son is one," Esterine gasps in realization.
"And Ivor too. Or their wives. At least Parzival can be out of the way, when we conspire him to be not worthy of being with the military… as he could be a plotting dragon."
"…and we rule when he and his wife join the dragons. I love it!"
"Though it is hard for us, when you are in here."
"Only if you get me out then," Esterine says, as her chair bangs back to the ground. "Or I can and will still help. Just because I'm one of the best science person you military can have, you can reason and meet me time to time."
Esterine truly was a prodigy for that.
"Yes, so start thinking now. I'll come back with information, when I get it."
"Sure thing, now be gone and let me get new ideas."
I walk backwards, slowly. And right as the door opens, I come forward, in my normal pace. And General Tsach's jaw drops by a bit. Yet he starts smiling at me.
"Tsach… General," I politely great and now.
"Parzival… no need for formalities, friend," he laughs.
"It's duty time sir. If we can meet tonight at dinner, then I'll call you as Tharizdun."
"Even I can't pronounce my own bloody name that well. You are always full of surprises, Parzival."
Even a five year old could say their own name. Having such an easy name as Alta, should have also gone with an easier one.
"Is that a yes or no, for the dinner, sir?"
"Sure, my friend… cadet, I mean," Alta laughs.
I walk past him, and we just smile at each other, as I enter Esterine's room.
"How are we feeling today, Alta?"
"Keep me in prison already. Having a room to myself gives me ideas," Esterine scoffs, uninterested as yesterday. Must be the dizziness caused by hunger.
"In prison you'll just mess up the others' minds and get them to your side. So no."
"What am I to you now, your-?"
"Don't you dare use that language in front of me, or your time here will be lesser."
"You can't cage me!" Esterine screams and hisses at me.
"You want me to fear you? I just want to remove those cuffs and have a one on one with you, but Ivor wouldn't approve."
"That boyfriend of yours…? Yeah listen to him, better for you," Esterine chuckles.
I clench my first, and even Esterine hears the cracking sound and stares at me, with shock. I punch the glass in front of me, forming a crack. Another small hit and it breaks, I take a small bit of broken glass and-
"Afraid of something…?" Esterine asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Clearly not if you," I loosen my fist.
"Then why stop? Because of this glass you can't break?" Esterine scoffs at me.
"Because… my boyfriend wants to be the one who ends you. And he'll be madder when I tell him about this incident. So, good luck with any of your next meetings."
*
"Who is this friend of yours we are waiting for, again?" Minerva asks.
"Tharizdun Tsach is his name. He is our general."
"He is a peculiar guy, but yes, our general too," Ivor adds.
Ivor was the back up. Back up for someone… who was late.
"Well, he has no time manners for one."
Late enough to piss Minerva off.
"This is important, please let's wait," I say, and Minerva nods, and heads to the kitchen.
The doorbell finally rings and I find Alta, right outside. Gentlemen attire… still onto fooling us so bad. He just smiles than apologize, and I point him to the inside. He freezes as he finds Ivor.
"Oh Ivor, you are here too?"
"A homeless man has to find a place sir."
His house was now in quote a messy state. After this Maison and Mally characters, who luckily left.
"This is your home too, Ivor," Minerva says, arriving to us.
"White shirt and brown pants, is this how you dress, Ivor?" Alta scoffs, in a disgusted way.
"All due respect sir, Parzival and I are wearing the same literal clothing. Why me…?"
"He lives here," Alta snickers with a smirk.
"Come on now, Tsach…" I place my hand on his shoulder.
As all of us sit at the table, with Alta on my right and Ivor at my left, I make sure that Min sits besides Ivor, after she gets food to the table, and not Alta.
"This is Minerva, my beloved wife. And this is General Tharizdun Tsach."
"She looks like a pretty woman, a sight to see," Alta shakes Minerva's unsure hand, while Ivor gives Alta a glare which he'd give a pervert.
"You are a true gentleman, sir," Mimerva laughs lightly.
"Oh please… call me Tsach, no need for formalities." Alta said.
Tsach stays silent through the dinner. And even Ivor seems to have gotten used to it, by now.
"So, to what special occasion do I owe this dinner?" Alta finally breaks the silence, looking at me.
"So straight forward, such a gentleman," Ivor mumbles, without taking his eyes off the plate.
"Just wanted to catch up and talk about Esterine."
"Oh that, of course," he wipes sweat from around his neck. Quite interesting.
"So…?" the still-adapting Ivor asks, at a moment of silence.
"Well, what exactly is the full question?" Alta laughs nervously.
"What did she tell you?"
"Apart the usual death threats I get from criminals like her? Nothing much. Except that her organisation is called 'Saturn Organisation', and that her people will come to rescue their leader at any cost."
"Oh… not much informative, but thanks for trying."
"You met her too, what did she tell you?"
"Oh, she said there are more leaders and that even if she died they can replace and do better, and will get world domination," I smile as a smirk.
"Oh right, that part is what I forgot to mention to you," Alta laughs.
"That woman must die and I'll end her," Ivor says.
"Oh you'll be the one, don't worry Ivor." Alta approves.
I and Ivor exchange glances and I bop my head towards Alta.
"She called you as my boyfriend, Ivor."
Minerva coughs a bit, and drinks some water.
"The nerve of her… we need to find about her organisation and end this."
"I guess we must use our torture methods on her," I sigh.
"No…!" Alta objects, rather quickly than expected. "I mean… she is woman, we can't do that."
"Why not…? But this needs to end, Tsach."
"We will figure it out, just follow my plan and have patience please, Parzival."
"Alta… she said her last name is Alta, we need to find references, she could be saying something by that. Which she can't tell us directly," Ivor says.
"No… it's her fake name. We'll just be wasting our time that way. She'd want that," Alta implies.
"Well, that is the worst name I have heard. Alta… sounds like someone puked the name out," Ivor lets out a disgusted breath.
"I was thinking the same," Alta says from between his teeth.
"Does none of this really get on your nerve?" Ivor sighs.
"Yeah, we expected you to open up. Such a strong man you are," I wipe my hands with the napkin on the table.
"What are you people talking of?"
"Nothing you don't know of… Alta," Ivor look at him.
"Where?" Alta looks behind him
"Quit it already."
"You first."
He kicks me from my chair and grabs Ivor, as I groan on the ground. Ivor tries to get out of the strong grip, but fails.
"You both will just die tonight!"
As I get up, Minerva kicks Alta, while pushing Ivor to the ground. Alta just looks shook, but stand his ground. But that doesn't stop Minerva, she punches into his gut, upper-cuts his chin with her elbow, and jabs into his throat.
Alta slowly and steadily falls to the ground.
"What the hell?" Alta's hands shudder.
"Well, no can tell… damn rhyming!" Minerva kicks into Alta's nose, with the back of her foot, and he lays unconscious on the ground.
"Minerva…" I say, being surprised even when I knew her strength. "Are you alright?"
"Sure. But a heads up would've been great."
"We didn't expect that clearly too," I slap Alta's face, and he doesn't flinch.
"And how is it that you are so strong?" Ivor asks, holding his chest and throat.
"Well I… I got martial arts training from my brother." She smiles with her teeth, making me chuckle.
"Tarragon…? Wow, every woman requires self-defence training of that kind. Applause and salute to you, ma'am."
"And what will you people do with him now?" Minerva points to Alta.
"Military won't really believe us without proof," Ivor pointz
"Too many of their people are in it to protest against us," I point further.
"And we need answers from him."
"Sadly only we two can investigate him, no other investigators."
"So, we'll keep him somewhere the military won't think of."
"That is, Ivor's home."
"See? Except for the part where the two of you'd monologue and complete each other's sentences. And talk about the whole plan, point-wise… we make a pretty great team," Minerva slaps my shoulder.
"Chef of the team," we both say.
"The fighting part will be done by us, forever from now on," Ivor states.
"Don't patronize her."
"I will still be willing to fight," Minerva raises her first and goes into the kitchen, still with a raised fist.
"You always knew of her being so awesome?"
"Oh don't even get me started."
"So we'll eat dinner first and take him? Because I don't think he'd wake up any soon, after that kick."
"And punch… this is a crime scene."
"Last I checked, he's breathing. Relax guys," Minerva sighs from the kitchen.
She could still hear?
"Yeah, dinner first. Or we'll be next," Ivor simply sits down on his chair.
"You are on pick up duty this time, not me."
The kids… Saturn should never catch up to them. Hope they are doing okay.