Cassandra saw the panic take over the Legionites. Even Serafina and Chizoba.

“I said full power!” The scrawny man screeched at the people working the ship.

“We’re trying!” One of them yelled back.

Cassandra looked around at the panic. She immediately grabbed the robes of the person standing next to her, flinging them against the wall. Someone locked eyes on her behind their hood, and she punched them in the face before they could do anything. While everyone was confused, she grabbed the axe, destroying the locked doors of the airship with one lumbered motion. She jumped out, surrounded by ice. Julian’s bear let go of the airship in order to catch her, and then let her down gently.

“What is this?” Cassandra yelled, looking enamoured at the bear.

“My experiments paying off!” Julian yelled back, watching the bear grab the airship once again, only for it’s grip to loosen a second later.

“Oh crap, I’m out of bugs.”

“Hey, you there?” Cassandra asked. “Make an ice spear to the airship. Right in the middle!”

The girl nodded, spinning her spear before slamming the tip into the metal, creating a trail of ice that quickly exploded into an iceberg once it was underneath the trapped airship. Cassandra ran up the iceberg, axe in hand, making one mighty swing to the centre of the airship, causing an explosion underneath it. the explosion undid all the previous icicles as the Legion airship crashed to the ground, and the flock of Legionites quickly rushed out just before it exploded. The scrawny man looked towards the ship with genuine anguish, muttering something to the wreckage before Chizoba grabbed him and ran to the next airship with several others in tow.

Cassandra looked at the wreckage and the man’s anguish. She knew what just happened. She misaimed.

All the other legionites ran to the next airship, and the spear girl launched into a sprint as they started it up. She thrust the spear downward, and the icicle barely scraped the surface of the now escaping airship.

“Wait, no.” The girl whispered. “Oh shit, mom’s gonna kill me!”

“Excuse me.” Cassandra asked, tapping her shoulder. “Just who are you?”

The girl in the jeans and grey hoodie stood still for a second, before removing her hood and turning to face Cassandra with a determined smile.

“Name’s Willow, from Vannana! Glad I could help!”

Just as she made her announcement, Ola stumbled out of her office.

“Willow, I thank you for the save.” She said, still disoriented. Possibly the same guy affecting Cassandra’s airship hit her. “Which is why it really pains me to do this.”

“To do what?” Willow asked, glancing around the dock.

“Cassandra, please stand back.”

Suddenly, several armed guards circled Willow, all aiming guns towards her head.

“Yes, Freyja. She’s here.”

Ola was forced to use the weapons testing facility as a makeshift jail cell, seeing as she’d never hear the end of it if Willow was put in an actual one. Willow looked out of the window with sad eyes, before banging on the wall.

“Lemme out, dammit! I’m the reason you’re still alive! Also, I’m your damn niece! Is this how you treat your niece?”

“That’s your niece?” Julian asked, tilting his head to the side, trying to make sense of it with two working eyes. Turns out having two working eyes is pretty cool.

“Yep. Just doing this because my sister-in-law will be vicious if I’m lucky.” Ola sighed, then went back to her phone.

“You’re landing now? Okay, I’ll bring her out.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Ola unlocked the door and Willow sauntered out as if she wasn’t screaming a second ago. She was brought to the dock with Cassandra, Julian, a slightly limping Roxanne, and two guards surrounding her. Once they got to the dock, a new airship was landed with four people in front of it. The two at the back were your standard guards, but the woman in front looked over the horizon until she locked eyes with Willow.

Her mere gaze was the type to command attention. Even in her casual wear of a thin ice blue dress and a circular necklace with a white gem embedded in it, all topped off with a blonde ponytail. Behind her was a black guy with a buzz cut and a white polo shirt.

“Hey, mom.” Willow said casually, trying to break her gaze by focusing on the spear.

“What were you doing?” Freyja asked sternly, a few obvious cracks forming in her composure as the words left her mouth. Julian felt the need to stand to attention and fix his posture just by being within a few meters of her.

“Well, I heard the distress call as I woke up and…y’know, felt the need to step in.”

“By stealing the Vannana spear and stealing an airship without any prior notice?”

“I left a note in my room. Besides, if they got the Inariu greave, the only real counter would be another relic weapon, which I know for a fact I wouldn’t be allowed to bring if I told anybody.”

“And what if the airship fell from backup Legionites?”

“I don’t know!”

“Look, let’s think of it this way.” Her husband interjected. “Did she help them win? Because the greave is safe, we know that.”

“Yeah, she was pretty important.” Cassandra added, pointing to the wreckage while not looking directly at it.

“See? I think we can just chalk this up to a victory and say good job all round.”

We went in to hug his daughter, and Freyja glared at him, causing him to back off.

“Fine. We can call this a victory against the legion. Quite good in fact, I’d hate for my sister-in-law to lose her place on the council.”

“Thanks.” Ola said flatly.

“Now then, Willow can take the airship she stole back to Vannana to prepare for the ball. Ola, I will be glad to see you there.”

“Yeah the airship…” Ola started. “You know what, Willow can explain it.”

“The ship…got stolen after we secured the greave. The Legion has it now.”

Freyja had a blank expression on her face once she heard that. Willow backed behind Roxanne as Freyja clasped her hands together.

“Let’s just get you home. The ball is tomorrow, after all.”

“Okay okay okay, wait.” Willow said. “Why not…bring my new friends over?”

“And why should I do that?” Freyja asked. She knew the plot here. Get a subdued berating thanks to others being there.

“I think it’s a good idea.” Freyja’s husband nodded. “These are the people protecting the Skyspace after all.”

“Sounds decent, come to think of it.” Julian nodded with a hand on his chin. “Besides, we should probably thank the leader of Sandala for not sending anyone to steal the axe from us.”

“Oh, did you guys not hear?” Willow replied. “You guys are official citizens of Sandala now.”

“Wait, what?” Roxanne asked.

“Yeah. Something to do with Sandala not technically losing their weapon and still being allowed in the Lux conferences or something.”

“Well, if you must meet Kazumi, you’d be better off looking like you don’t cage fight for scraps.” Freyja muttered. “Get on, we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Everyone involved got onto the airship. Freyja and her husband led the way, with Julian and Cassandra entering afterward. Willow entered next, followed by Roxanne. Roxanne tripped as she went in, being picked up by Willow mid fall.

“You all good?” She asked.

Roxanne spent a split second looking into Willow’s eyes. Time temporarily seemed to stop around them as Roxanne tried to recollect herself.

“Uh…yes! Yes, I’m doing…pretty good!” She answered, quickly sitting next to Cassandra, who was just giving her a sly look.

“What?” Roxanne asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Cassandra replied, glancing at Freyja who was standing next to the airship’s pilot.

“Is everything okay back there?” Freyja asked. “Willow, check on the girl with the mechanical leg.”

“You okay?” Willow asked.

“Yeah, I just tripped.” Roxanne quickly replied with a dismissive hand wave. “My legs as fine as it can be right now.”

“And nothing needs to be done?”

“Nothing at all!”

“Understood.” Freyja gave a slight nod and once again fixated her eyes on the sky.

“So, Julian.” Cassandra asked. “You ever go to one of these balls?”

“Nothing on this scale.” Julian replied. “But I'll figure it out when I get there.”

“Don’t sweat it.” Willow interjected. “Once we get to Vannana you’ll be taken care of.”

“Oh thank god.” Julian mumbled. The idea of getting his own fancy threads made him nervous at best.

“So I’m guessing you two are going with each other?” Willow asked.

“Yeah.” Julian nodded.

“And what about you?” She asked, pointing to Roxanne.

Roxanne felt herself flare up inside. This girl who she just met was asking her to a dance. She could possibly call Dakarai, but the whole thing between the two was getting pretty awkward. And besides, it’d be a friend thing at best.

“Sounds pretty good, yeah.” Roxanne nodded in an attempt to look casual.

“Willow, I’ve already been in talks.” Freyja interrupted without shifting her gaze. “With miss Nuria if you remember her.”

“You cannot be serious right now.” Willow whispered to herself.

“Her son is about your age, and we think the two of you together would be a good show of our faith in the future generations.”

“Whyyyyyy?” She groaned. “Just say you don’t want me there with another woman.”

“Willow, we’ve discussed this.” Freyja said with a weary sigh. “I am more than willing to let you bend the rules and have women in your courts when you take the throne. But as a descendant of house Vannana, you will bear children.”

“Well, what about the princess of Sangaria? She can’t be that much older than me, right?”

“Luminita is actually going with a boy she found herself. His name is Mr. Bob Dobalina, if I recall correctly. They’re probably getting ready as we speak.”