Chapter 77: False Dawn 1

Elania grimaced as Yolani inspected the damage to her flight harness. The battle had been intense, and the anti-divinity barrage had caught her off guard.

“I can’t believe this,” Yolani said with a scoff, her fingers deftly working on the straps.

“I’m sorry,” Elania apologized. “No one warned me about those energy blobs.”

They had cut through her easily, and she had spent a few terrifying seconds as a rag-doll, unsure if her [Regeneration] was going to kick in or not.

Ember chuckled. “We didn’t know either.”

Elania shot her a glare before letting out a huff. She lifted her arms, allowing Yolani better access to the harness. Yolani’s touch sent a tingle down Elania’s neck as she worked.

Ember let out a catcall.

Both Elania and Yolani turned to glare at Ember, who laughed and held up a bottle of ambrosia. “Care to join me for a drink?”

Elania shook her head. “That would leave us too distracted to function properly.”

“I know,” Ember grinned. “There’s a private room nearby where we could take care of those ‘distractions’ in a very fun way.”

Mercifully, Arlois entered the room, her gaze sharp as she glared at Ember. “Stop it. This is a serious after-action report meeting.”

Ember clicked her tongue. “I wouldn’t mind if you joined us too, Arlois.”

Arlois’ glare intensified, causing Ember to fidget uncomfortably. Finally, she put down the ambrosia and shrank back on her sofa. Arlois sat down, and Yolani resumed working on Elania’s harness.

“This is embarrassing,” Elania mumbled.

Arlois turned to her. “You did well, considering we didn’t know about their new weapons.”

Elania looked between Arlois and Ember. “If you knew that ‘anti-divinity’ weapons existed at all, why weren’t they mentioned?”

Ember shrugged and abandoned the ambrosia for a glass of wine. “They’re expensive and rare. They shouldn’t have had them.”

“It looked like the entire Lightbringer fleet had lots of them,” Elania countered, “so they must not be that expensive.”

Arlois nodded. “It’s likely they were given to them by the Monevoians. That would be the only way Tiria could afford to have so many.”

Elania looked to the side, frowning. “I have a question. And a problem.”

Yolani paused, concern etched on her face.

Stolen story; please report.

“What is it?” Arlois asked.

“I killed a bunch of paladins, and my karma was already low after Neftasu. Now it’s negative, and...” Elania extended one of her wings, lifting it up in the air. Her feathers were ashen gray, gilded with gold.

Ember choked on a glass of wine. “Oh, how the pure have fallen.”

Elania frowned and looked between Ember and Arlois. “How do I… pick my color? All four of you have colored wings.”

Arlois nodded. “That’s because our wings match our [Domain]. Since you don’t have a strong one yet, your wings represent your purity—or karma, as the [System] likes to call it.”

“Karma seems to be a useless measurement,” Elania grumbled.

Ember leaned back on the sofa. “It’s not useless if you want to pick between black and white feathers.”

Elania bit her lip. “Are there any other effects?”

Arlois shook her head. “There’s nothing about karma that should affect you. If you wanted to, you could restrict your followers’ access to your own powers by using karma as a limiter.”

Elania’s frown deepened as a thought struck her. “Is that why the Conclave monks needed karma for their skills? Was Eziel’s brother Tabbris limiting them with it?”

Arlois nodded. “That sounds plausible.”

Yolani paused, looked up at her with a reassuring smile. “I like you regardless of what color your wings are.”

Elania gulped, her cheeks flushing slightly. “Sorry, I’m just...”

Arlois burst into laughter, covering her face.

Elania bristled, demanding, “What’s so funny?”

“I never thought I’d see the day a full-fledged demi-divine would be self-conscious of their feather color,” Arlois managed. Ember joined in, her laughter echoing through the room.

Elania’s cheeks burned with embarrassment as Yolani patted her side. “I’m finished—for now.”

At least someone wasn’t laughing at her.

The door to the meeting room opened, and Elysia and Lyra entered. Arlois composed herself, straightening in her seat. “Good, now we can start the meeting and debriefing.”

Elysia’s expression was serious as she took her seat. “There is a problem,” she said.

The atmosphere in the room shifted, and everyone’s attention fell on Elysia.

“We’ve found evidence that there were Monevoian ships among the Lightbringer fleet,” Elysia said.

A chorus of sharp intakes of breath and hisses erupted from Arlois and Ember. Elania leaned forward. She looked at the others, then finally decided to ask, “How will that affect things?”

Ember’s expression darkened.

Arlois’ jaw clenched as she spoke. “It’s not good. It will likely give the Monevoians the justification they need to invade.”

Elania frowned. Did they really need “justification” for it? The more of the picture she got, the more she realized the Monevoians, and their Sun-person-boss, were more like an out-of-control bully that had just learned they could call the shots and no one would challenge them.

Arlois turned to Elysia. “How reliable is the information?”

Elysia’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Our recovery ships were forced to retreat when a Monevoian squadron entered the area and began recovery efforts of their own.”

Arlois’ fist tightened, her knuckles turning white.

Yolani shook her head. “Why were those ships in Joria with the Lightbringers? Surely it was their fault.”

Arlois shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. The Monevoians can spin it however they like—the fact is, Contian ships destroyed Monevoian ships in Joria, presumably a neutral power.”

Ember growled, her eyes flashing with anger. “It might have been the Monevoian’s plan all along—stir up the Lightbringers and cause an incident.”

Arlois frowned. “If so, we fell right into it.”

The mood in the room soured, the earlier sense of victory replaced by a crushing defeat.

Elania took a deep breath. “Where will we go?”

Arlois met her gaze, her expression weary. “We are already en route back to our normal location over Contia.”

Yolani’s brows knit together as she asked, “Can we avoid the Monevoians?”

Arlois shook her head. “It is unlikely that there will be anywhere safer we can travel to, and going out over the ocean has its own dangers. We are unlikely to survive that.”

Elania’s shoulders slumped as the reality of their situation sank in. She took a deep breath, steeling herself. “So we will have to defend—again.”

A rueful smile tugged at the corner of Arlois’ lips. “It’s a pretty shit year to be a Neftasuian, isn’t it?”