Introductions part 1

Late in the morning, not long before the sun would reach the peak in the sky, a pair of figures met deep in an alleyway, hidden amongst floating buildings. The buildings themselves were beautiful, decorated in sky blue and gold, making them almost blend into the sky if one was to look at them from the right angle. Clearly this area was fancy, a place dedicated to the rich and high status, and yet these two met in an area that was as hidden as possible in this fancy area of the kingdom.

“I’m surprised you of all people called me here. I figured after what I did, you’d want nothing to do with me.” The first figure said.

“While I don’t agree with what you did, I understand your motives for doing it, so I am willing to put my issues with you aside for now.” The second figure replied.

“… In other words, you have something that needs getting done that you can’t get done yourself, and you think you can take advantage of my ‘motives’ to manipulate me into doing it for you.” The first figure said, his tone suspicious.

“You’re as sharp as I expected. That’s exactly right, I do think your ‘motives’ will make you want to do what I am about to ask. It would be a waste of time and an insult to both of us for me to even imply otherwise.” The second figure said. “So, I’ll cut to the chase. Since our new king took up the reigns, a group calling themselves Anaktités has been causing trouble and trying to, in their words, ‘return to the reign of the true king’ AKA the old king. While for the most part they’ve been more of an annoyance than anything, recently our intelligence agency has discovered something that leads us to believe that is likely to change very soon.”

“They got their hands on a summoning ritual and summoned someone, didn’t they.” The first figured asked knowingly, irritation entering his voice.

“Essentially, yes. In the last report I got, they had gotten their hands on a ritual and were in the middle of preparing it. That was a few days ago, and I’d estimate that they would have summoned the person this morning.” The second figure said.

“So you want me to deal with this group, and you’re using this summoned person as incentive for me. If you knew they had this summoning ritual, why didn’t you stop them, or contact me earlier to get me to stop them?” The first figure demanded angrily.

“My man on the inside couldn’t stop it, otherwise he’d blow his cover. As for why we didn’t contact you sooner, you don’t seem to realize how difficult you are to get a hold of.” The second figure remarked. “Now, I’ve laid out the bait, and I can also promise appropriate compensation as well. Will you deal with this problem for us?”

“… Fine. Give me the info, and I’ll deal with this pest problem for you.” The first figure said.

The second figure wordlessly handed him a piece of paper, and the first took it also without a word. The first then turned around and walked away before disappearing as if he were never there in the first place, the only evidence he was there being the echo of a strum of a guitar.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Well then Mina, allow me to formally welcome you to the Anaktités.” Athan declared as he brought Mina into the main hall.

The sight that Mina was greeted with was a humble one, but also told her quite a bit. The place was the main hall of the building yes, but it was so much more. The room was large and fairly rustic, made completely of a rough white stone and gold wood, with a straw thatched roof over their head made of red straw. The place was very big, something that the people there clearly took full advantage of.

On one side of the room there was a training area, complete with a couple training dummies made of red straw, a small archery range, a place with a lot of odd burns and damage which Mina excitedly hoped was for magic training, and even a forge. On the other side was a med bay and a library, as well as a lot of boxes. Then on the opposite side from where they were, there was clearly the dining area including the kitchen.

The place was also pretty busy. Over in the training area there was a man and a woman sparring with swords, the forge beside them primed and ready for performing maintenance later. Over in the med/library area, an elderly woman was teaching a boy younger than Mina something from one of the books, while a teen girl was cleaning up the med bay area. Then over in the kitchen area another somewhat younger woman was cooking with help from a boy that was about Mina’s age.

Athan’s words as they stepped into the room drew everyone’s attention, and all except the old woman and the boy she was teaching turned to look at them. Or, more specifically, look at Mina. There was an awkward moment if silence as everyone stared, and despite never having been the shy type, Mina found herself wanting to hide behind Athan to avoid their stares. This was broken though when the man who was sparring over in the training area walked over, allowing Mina to get a better look at him.

The man was on the shorter side, about the same height as Lefteris, but he was visibly more muscular, looking bulky even through his sky blue armor. The man had short straight blood red hair, and he also had a dark blue cape that was just like Athan’s.

“So, this is our ‘destined hero’ huh?” He asked. “I expected someone who’s supposed to repl-I mean supposed to be chosen by Uraina to be taller.”

“Perhaps, but it is not our place to question who the gods chose.” Athan said while giving the man a firm glare. He then turned back to Mina with a smile. “Mina, allow me to introduce Dory, our main man on the front lines and one of the people who will be teaching you.”

“Um, hello Mr. Dory.” Mina said somewhat awkwardly, sticking out her hand to shake his. Dory ignored the hand in favor of glancing her up and down, looking at her with a critical eye.

“Well, you do look fit for your age I suppose.” He eventually said. “I’ll let Agapi train you for a while first, then we’ll see about getting you some actual training.”

“Oh sure, make the girl even more nervous by saying she’s not good enough for you to train. That’ll go over well.” The woman Dory had been sparring with said sarcastically as she walked over.

This woman was actually taller than Dory by a bit, and she had dirty blond hair that was almost cut down to a boy cut. In terms of body proportions, she seemed a bit off. She reminded Mina of the memes she’d seen about not skipping leg day with how her upper body was visibly bigger than her lower body, chest size included. In terms of clothes she wore a dark blue set of armor that seemed to have all the joints missing for some reason, and underneath that was even darker blue cloth. Also, she wore a black cape that went only half way down her back.

“Would you rather I lie to her and tell her she’s not?” Dory said with a scoff. He then turned and walked back over to the training area and picked back up his swords to practice alone, leaving the woman glaring at his back for a moment before turning back to Mina.

“Sorry about him, he’s just cranky because he’s out of a job thanks to the new ‘king’.” The woman said kindly as she instead shook Mina’s hand. “My name is Agapi dear, and I suppose I’ll be training you till Dory stops pouting. I’m looking forward to teaching you.”

“I’m looking forwards to learning. Are you going to teach me magic? Or, do you just use swords?” Mina asked somewhat hesitantly.

“Magic, swords, bows, whatever you like. I’m not exactly a specialist, but I’ve picked up quite a few skills over the years. Particularly recently. Though I’ll admit, I’ve never met someone goddess powers before.” Agapi answered, curiosity clear in her eyes.

“I’m sure we’re all eager to see what kind of capabilities little Miss Mina holds, but for right now we should finish introducing her to everyone.” Athan cut in, and Agapi let out a disappointed sigh.

“Alright. I’ll let you go then. See you soon Mina.” Agapi said, and she also walked back over to the training area.

“See you soon Miss Agapi.” Mina called out to her back.