The Tale of Aeryn Glaze (UNDER MAJOR REVISION)

Chapter 12: Death and Terror

Before the sun had risen on the horizon, I was already ready for our mission today. I wore a thin coat that goes down to my thighs, covering my black bodysuit outfit. I had a leg holster strapped with throw daggers in it and a short sword strapped on my thigh holster.

Then, as I lean on the walls, I stared at Jonah who was still strapping a few daggers on his leather vest. He looked in my direction and then grabbed one of the bows that were hanging on the other side of the wall.

"You're not bringing your usual bow and arrows?" Jonah asks and then walked towards me.

"No." I shook my head. "I'd like to have a close-range fight this time."

"After what happened to you?" He chuckled and shove the bow to my stomach "Don't be ridiculous. We need some support if things got busy."

"The shadow demons are easier to kill if you fight them closely."

He ignored what I said and grabbed a quiver full of arrows next.
"You're great with bows."

I just rolled my eyes and then let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine," I said as I strapped the quiver on my back. Then as I roamed my eyes around the weaponry, I got reminded of what happened back in the mage headquarters.

We have agreed to the headmistress when she talked about us joining their yearly tournament after the mission. We're not even sure if we're gonna survive after this or we can come back from the mission. And the thought of it was ridiculous enough because why would they talk about it when we are in the middle of turmoil and we may fail the mission? If we fail the mission, the shadow demons would possibly attack Erether again. These people need to get their shit together because they lost their minds. But then, it's true that we needed to do this mission.

"So you think think the time in other dimension is different than here. The best we can do is to wrap up the mission in two to three hours and save the missing children." Ariyah said. "I didn't want to bring up about the tournament when we are talking about the lives of those missing children but I am confident that we can find them. We can get them back. However, I can only deploy my men if you agree to my condition. This isn't being arrogance. This is me having faith in my mages and your men. If the higher being gave us this gift to save the world, then isn't it right to assume that we can do anything if we use our abilities in the right way? This is a risk, as you said earlier. And we're also taking it."

I cocked my head and sucked in heavy breathing. I like that she's optimistic in this but being optimistic can only get you so far and after that, you will be disappointed.

"But if we can't find the missing children—"

"Then, we'll continue searching for them. We should try ceaselessly until we get what we want." She said, cutting me off, and then twitched her lips into a small smile. "If you didn't get what you want, that means you're not really trying."

I pursed my lips and then turned my eyes towards Grim. We were only waiting for his decision as our leader. Even if I have known him for a little while, I know that Grim will do anything to make things right no matter what it takes. At this time, it's all or nothing. And it's the only reason why our organization had strive up to this day because either we do everything or nothing at all. The right thing we can do now is agreed on the condition to do this and save the missing children that we should've already done a long time ago.

"Fine. But only if we find them all, we will abide by your condition."

Ariyah smirks in satisfaction and nods.
"That settles then."

During sunrise, we will start the mission right then. It was a hasty decision and a dangerous one at that but we all hope that our plan will go exactly what we wanted. Or even if it won't go as planned, we could at least find the children and take them back here in Erether. And I'm hoping, desperately hoping that we will save them all, especially Evy.