Tiber had since made it back to the Neptune by himself while Ganon and the remainder of the men waited for him on the beach head.

He gingerly knocked on the door to his own Captain’s suite before slowly opening it.

“So, have you secured your precious mana stone?” Xenia said sarcastically as she stood beside the bed and finished dressing herself.

Tiber made no reaction to her sarcastic remark and quickly walked up to her, “I’m afraid I may have a favor to ask of you after all.” He gulped and finished by saying, “Other than staying out of my affairs, that is.”

Xenia smiled while playfully tilting her head and turned to face him squarely, “Okayyyyy, fine! I’ll get the mana stone for you. You could’ve just asked in the first place, you know.”

Tiber maintained a serious and somewhat solemn expression as he looked into her smiling gaze, “You can try if you like, but that is not what I have come to ask of you. The stone is too well protected. Not even Ganon can break the barrier.”

Tiber shook his head and continued, “No, someone beat us there tonight. Someone slaughtered the soldiers on duty. One of them was even flayed down to the very last piece of skin upon his body. It was horrific.”

“Can I let you in on a little secret?” Xenia became giddy with excitement at the sound of someone telling her about her own murdering spree.

However, Tiber interpreted her playfulness as distracting off-topic discussion, “Just listen. Those were Warlord Ganon’s men. He intends to exact a toll for their deaths. My favor I have to ask of you is… will you willingly go with Ganon in order to save my men?”

Xenia inched closer to Tiber and ran her finger down his chest, “And why would I do that?”

“Ganon is a powerful warlord of the East. Maybe the most powerful. He will send you far and wide throughout the eastern hemisphere of the world to fight his battles for him. You sought knowledge, yes? What better way to gain knowledge than through your own experience?” Tiber tried to put forth his most compelling argument to Xenia, and she paused in thought for a moment.

“This Warlord Ganon. He has an army?”

Tiber nodded, “He has a formidable army. He originally relied on his power alone to carve out his territory in the east. With each victory he adds soldiers to his swarm and kills those unwilling to pledge fealty to him. His army has grown so vast that he rarely finds need to do his own warring now.”

“Then you might just have a deal, Captain Tiber.”

“Might?”

Xenia turned and pushed her back up against Tiber’s chest while looking back over her shoulder at him, “I’ll agree to your deal so long as you promise to me that the next time you see me, you serve me.”

Tiber furrowed his brow, “Serve you?”

“I’m an empress where I come from, Tiber. So yes, serve me.”

Xenia reached her hand up to his cheek and caressed his face, pulling him closer to kiss him. They locked lips and kissed for only a moment before Xenia cut it off saying, “And by serve me, I also mean fuck me.”

“So long as you don’t smother me to near death again.”

Xenia pushed off from his chest and whipped around to face him with a smile, “Oh it could be so much worse, Tiber. I could skin you from head to toe.” She then assumed an evil smile and turned her chin slightly down with her eyes looking up at him, “Or I could impale you on a wooden spear.”

Tiber had a ghastly expression on his face as he realized he had not told Xenia about the wooden spear full of speared men, “It was you! But how? My men said no one was in or out of this room all night.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Shhhh, darling. I’m a very powerful ally to have. Keep me and my strength our little secret, and I promise to support you and your men to great heights in this world.”

Tiber nodded his head, and a smirk broke his expression, “So not even you could break the barrier, then? The mana stone was still right at home on its roost among the podium.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But let me tell you this. The next time we see each other, Ganon’s army might just be my army. How does that sound?”

Tiber let out a belly laugh, “If that is your ambition then I am afraid this will be the last time we see each other for he will kill you outright should he catch wind of such a plan. You are strong, yes. But Ganon is stronger, I assure you, Xenia.”

Xenia gave a half-smile of amusement at his disbelief, “Then why not up the ante? If I am still alive, I am going to torture you and fuck you in any way I deem most desirable to me next we meet.”

Tiber cleared his throat, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“You’re right. We don’t need to make that deal. I don’t need your permission at all. I guess you had better hope we just never meet again then, yes?”

Tiber frowned yet acknowledged to himself this had been a great success in convincing Xenia to leave with Ganon to save his own men, “Ganon did give me a time limit, so we should be off.”

“Yes, let’s go meet this warlord! How exciting!”

__________________________________________

On the other side of the world, in the capital city of the western hemisphere, within a shrouded government building, an alarm went off.

Within the level 3 security clearance floor, the highest security clearance level, red alarms spun, and sirens wailed.

An engineer ripped a tracing from a printer and ran from his laboratory, down the hallway, and into a large office.

“Sir! This is a seismic tracing I received only moments ago from the seaside mana stone podium in the eastern hemisphere.”

The man sitting behind a desk wearing a suit grabbed the tracing and inspected it closely, “What the hell does this mean? This can’t be right.”

The engineer slightly shook his head, “It means someone moved it. Someone moved the stone.”

The man in the suit shook his head as well, “It means they moved it and then… put it back?”

The engineer frowned and took the tracing back from his boss to inspect it again, “I… I guess. Yes, it seems someone would have picked it up and then… put it back.”

The man in the suit pressed a button on his desk silencing all active alarms, “Your tracing is a false alarm. No one powerful enough to break the barrier surrounding that stone would waste all that time and energy doing so, only to simply set it back down.”

“I… I am sorry, sir. Protocol states this must still be reviewed by the committee.”

The man in the suit grumbled, “This is your ass if I catch shit for this!”

The man grumbled for a moment before then calmly asking the engineer, “Whose stone is that anyways? Does it fall under the protection of the Starfallen Empire?”

“No, sir. It falls under the purview of the Holy Light Empire.”

The man in the suit shook his head, “Well, fuck. We might catch some shit from them, but the people who should be worried are those damned warlords in the east. The Holy Light Empire will almost certainly send an emissary to investigate. They consider the stones to be holy relics.”

“I’ll run it up the chain, sir.”

“Yea, yea, go ahead.” The man in the suit leaned back in his chair and softly said, “It had better be a false alarm.”

________________________________________

Only hours later, within a large mansion with gothic-style architecture seated deeply within the capital city in the western hemisphere, a young woman knelt before an elderly woman in crimson red robes.

“Another visit so soon, child?” The elderly woman looked down upon the kneeling younger woman.

“Yes, Reverend Mother. The engineers in the data center have been abuzz with excitement. They say they received their first ever alarm regarding a mana stone. Not just any stone though, the Zealot stone under guard of the Holy Light Empire.”

The elderly woman smiled, “So our savior has returned and finds herself in the east?”

The young woman cleared her throat, “The engineers say it is a false alarm. They say the only way for it to be a true alarm is if someone had picked the stone up and then promptly placed it back down.”

“I can only imagine the power and cunning of our savior. We may not understand her plan, but I can guarantee there is intent behind this action.”

The young woman bowed her head, “Should I send word to our sisters in the east?”

“Oh yes, send word with haste. The Holy Light Empire will assuredly send someone once the committee notifies them. We will be there first though. We have no bureaucracy to hinder us.”

The Reverend Mother then stood and paced in front of the younger woman, “We must let our savior know that she is not alone in this big world. We must let her know that we have been toiling hard in preparation for her return. And most of all, we must protect her from anyone who would do her harm in this world.”

The Reverend Mother then stopped pacing and outstretched her hand pointing to the exit, “Now go! Send word!”

The younger woman rose to her feet and ran out of the room as fast as she could. The Reverend Mother sat back down and grinned to herself, “What a clever way to send us a signal. She is certainly cut from the same cloth as her family of old.”