Origins (Book 4 of Alfireán age)

Guardians

The ornate throne room door slammed shut behind them, and Alf sighed heavily. "That didn't go well," he muttered, wiping sweat from his brow.

"You can say that again," Zaphaniea grumbled, struggling with her hair, which had turned frizzy in the humid atmosphere. "Talk about a hostile environment! They were out for blood the moment we walked in."

"Yeah," Rex agreed. "But you sure didn't help much by being so secretive about your past and abilities," he said, leaning against the forest-green walls with his hands resting behind his head.

"Hey, I didn't sign up to have a bunch of poli-ticks suck me dry," the grand champion retorted, finally managing to straighten her crimson hair into some semblance of order.

Rex rolled his greenish-brown eyes and opened his mouth to respond to her bad pun when Scarlet materialized. "Alf is the one who nearly blew it," the maid declared as her brown-haired sister appeared beside her.

"Yea," Pony scrunched her young-looking face in confusion. "Why in the world did you try to tell them about how Vackzilian killed you?"

Everyone stopped in their tracks and stared at the sisters.

"Were you in there with us?" Alf asked, wiping his sweat-drenched hands on his silk outfit. He was surprised to see the maids; they had practically disappeared since their arrival in Merinia.

"Of course," Scarlet stated, crossing her arms over her asian robes as her green eyes glared at him imperiously. "We were there before the officials even arrived."

Alf shook his head. The maids' telepathy and ability to turn invisible allowed them almost unrestricted access, but he didn't exactly agree with them spying on other nations' major political meetings. Maybe I should say some-

"Hey, don't change the subject," Pony interrupted his thoughts with her hands on her hips. "Why in the world did you try to tell them about how Vackzilian killed you? If Olivia hadn't stopped you, they would have thought we were all crazy!"

Alf fidgeted a bit, then said, "They're going to be putting their lives in our hands if they make us their new guardians, so I wanted them to know the whole truth."

"I know you want to be honest," Olivia said softly as she formed a water spell in the humid air, "but simply telling them you are a dragon kin and one of Drakovian's High Lords was the best thing to do in this situation. None of the officials were in the right heartspace or headspace to hear about the miracle of your transformation."

"Heartspace?" Zaphaniea scoffed as the grass murals shifted under her feet, and she plopped herself down on the cool, earthen floor. "More like a fearspace. They all looked like scared rabbits teleported into the middle of a fox den."

"Yeah, well, Vackzilian and his minions can have that sort of effect on you," Rex countered, pushing himself off the wall and pacing restlessly through the chamber as they waited for the king's verdict. "You fled for your life the first time you knew they were coming, and I was nearly killed by that Dy'Ixion character."

"Well, duh," Zaphaniea said from her new position. "Anybody with two brain cells to rub together would've done the same thing."

"Yeah," Alf muttered, recalling how they had lost to Dy'Ixion. He knew it was only by God's mercy and grace that they had managed to defeat the dark-magic lunatic who was bent on devouring everyone in the city.

Olivia frowned as she used her water spell to remove the new sweat stains from Alf's tunic. "Wait," she said, momentarily distracted, "Where is Silver?" she asked, noticing the absence of the eldest sister.