“We have a problem.” Harper, Head of Internal Defense, slammed down a large file on the table.
“What could be so important that you had to call us all here at this daemonic hour.” Tyson, Head of Magji Defense, yawned.
The sun has yet to rise. Everyone was forcefully woken up or interrupted from what they were doing this early in the morning to come here by Harper. Everyone knew it had to be an emergency of some kind, but that didn’t mean they had to like it. Harper gave each of them papers from the big file she had brought.
“Zoey Winters again, huh? This little brat just can’t stay out of trouble, can she? Tyson chuckled as he skimmed through the report.
“This would certainly cause chaos and panic in the magji community…” Head of Safety, Daniel, murmured in a worried tone.
“We need to put a stop to this little hellraiser immediately.” Head of Justice, Arthur, slammed his fist on the table.
“Harper.” The head of Magji, Xavier, looked at the woman who brought this meeting together. “Tell me the stances held by the major powers.”
“Those from the Connate Faction disregard her words. Those from the Learned Faction have taken up to insulting her. The problem is with the Mercenary Faction, who reverently look up to Winters’s teacher, Victor Khan. She’s managed to convince them of this Attack on the Magji World somehow, and they are doing everything they can to prepare for this battle. It’s scaring those who don’t have the power to defend themselves, and they are submitting complaints with us to do something about this daemon attack.” Harper explained.
“So some little weaklings are afraid and crying to us. Doesn’t mean we have to do anything about it. Just say we’re handling it or something and leave it at that.” Tyson advised.
“If we admit to handling it, that would mean that there is indeed an attack coming soon from the daemons.” Harper narrowed her eyes at Tyson’s thoughtless words.
“I believe a better word would be investigating and then claiming we found no such evidence of any attack. That will surely calm everyone’s nerves.” Daniel suggested.
“It would certainly soothe the nerves of the weak and prevent others from being infected by the Mercenary Faction’s foolishness.” Arthur agreed with Daniel’s plan.
“Okay. How should we deal with Zoey Winters for causing political and social unrest in the magji world?” Harper looked to Xavier.
“We’ve already given her a warning before. Arthur, have your men capture and imprison her until we have this situation under control. Then we’ll publicly punish her for her actions so that the people can rest in knowing whom to target their unpleasant feelings upon.” Xavier decreed.
“I think there’s someone you’re forgetting, boss.” Tyson reminded him with a snicker as he looked at Arthur.
“Hmm?” Xavier looked at Tyson.
“She is Victor’s student, remember? Do you think he’ll just sit back and watch as we capture his student? Don’t you remember him killing our bosses like a year ago?”
“Ah, you have nothing to worry about. Continue as ordered. If Victor dares to break his oath, the Balance of the World will handle him.” Xavier assured them.
Unknowingly, his words caused a huge wave of relief to pass through the current Council heads. Everyone was worried about getting killed by Victor, just like their predecessors. It was a rather public event and only reinforced Victor’s image as The S-Grade Magjistar. But if the Balance of the World restrained him, then they could do whatever they pleased with his student!
“I’ll handle it right away, sir.” Arthur got up from his seat. “Is there anything else I must know before I leave, Harper?” He asked.
“She may not be an easy magjistar to capture. I recommend using your full force to apprehend her.” Harper thought back to her notes on Zoey Winters.
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“...” Arthur took a second to process Harper’s words. “Acknowledged.” He nodded and walked out.
“Can we go home now?” Tyson yawned again.
“No. We need to discuss further on the speech to give to the people.” Harper shut down his suggestions.
“We may also need to prepare for the potential resistance from the Mercenary Faction,” Daniel spoke up.
“Resistance?” Xavier wanted him to elaborate.
“You know how closely those people followed the words of Victor, right? After his attack on our predecessors, trying to collaborate with the Mercenary Faction has been difficult. No matter how we tried to gain their trust, all attempts failed. We are essentially burning all bridges with the Mercenary Faction by capturing Victor's student. How do you think they will react knowing that the new leaders of the magji world have captured Victor’s only student?” Daniel asked.
“Violently. Those bastards are only good for using their fists and not much else.” Tyson realized the near future might be very exciting for him.
“Tyson. Harper. I expect you two to collaborate with each other to investigate the Mercenary Faction. If Daniel’s hunch is true, I want you two prepared for anything. If it is true they intend to go against us just for some child, exterminate them. We don’t need magjistars willing to disrupt the peace and stability brought by us.” Xavier ordered. “Daniel, you stay on standby for now.”
“Yes, sir.” They responded.
“We’ll have another meeting later in the day to discuss the speech to soothe the citizens’ nerves,” Xavier added. “You are dismissed.”
______________________________________________
“Tink and Zoey’s Dream Team!” Tink excitedly flew around.
“Still nothing…” Zoey was frustrated as she drained the daemons into magji shards.
“What’s wrong, Zoey?” Tink asked, flying in front of her face.
“We’ve visited all the locations, but we still got no new information to help us stop the attack.” Zoey balled her fist.
“Daemons are just sneaky like that. That poison daemon or whatever would have never told daemons like this about her plans. It was impossible to find her to begin with.” Tink shrugged their shoulders.
“Why couldn’t he just give me her direct location instead of wasting my time!” Zoey smashed the nearest wall to pieces. “I’m trying to save peoples’ lives!” Zoey was fed up and hit a dead end in her investigation efforts.
“Why are you trying so hard to save people, anyway?” Tink was curious.
“Because it’s the right thing to do?” Zoey was confused by this question. Wasn’t it common sense to help people if you could?
“Yeah, but you did all you could, right? I mean, we tried to tell the Council, and even after they kicked us out, we started telling other people. If they don’t believe us, that’s on them, not us.” Tink held their hips.
“That’s not...” Zoey paused.
She knew where Tink was coming from, and in a way, Zoey didn’t disagree with them. It was no skin off of her back if she tried to help people, and they told her to fuck off. That just meant they got what they deserved for not bothering to listen to her. Now that she thought about it… Why the hell did she have to save the magji world anyway?
As long as she warned her friends and told them to prepare, what did those other strangers in the magji world have to do with her? Zoey wasn’t a hero. She would never identify as a hero. Heroes were suckers that sacrificed everything around them for their justice. Zoey didn’t want to sacrifice anything of hers for the freaking magji world of all things. In fact, the number of good things she could talk about in the magji world could be counted on her fingers.
Magji, mahna, some of her magji friends, Victor, daemons to farm for experience, cavons being able to exchange with USD, and that’s all that Zoey could think about at the top of her head. Zoey threw up her hands as she gave up on this investigation. Why not let the magji world suffer a bit? What have the important people in the magji world really done for her? Sure, some innocent people might lose their lives, but that was happening all over the world. Even if Zoey gave her all into investigating this attack, that didn’t mean she would be able to stop it anyway.
Sure, she might show up at the attack to farm some experience for her skills but forget trying to stop it before it began. She did all she could with what she had. Zoey looked at Tink. Only because of them, she could clear her head and avoid the suicidal hero route.
“Thank you, Tink. You’re right. I don’t owe this much to the magji world.” Zoey told them. “Let’s go home.” Zoey planned to stay with her family to prevent them from being targeted, even with the daemonic tools planted at the house by Prometheus to protect them when she was away.
“Right!” Tink sat on Zoey’s shoulder as they started to leave.
Just as they were leaving the abandoned amusement park, they were stopped by a large group of uniformed people. There was a person wearing a white colored uniform that was starkly different from the people behind them wearing black uniforms. He looked at Zoey with a stern look on his face.
“Zoey Winters, you are under arrest.” Arthur’s men rushed forward.