The Courage of an Alliance

Chapter 7

"Oh my, I greatly apologize for your tragic loss."
"The pain is slowly fading, but I feel as though the count will not be avenged until Paul and Taby are brought to justice." The Emperor was speaking with Jun inside the Imperial Palace.
"While you are visiting, feel free to use any of our grand suites in the palace."
"I will be content with any room, but my one request is that there is a giant mirror." The Emperor looked puzzled with that request, but sent a butler to show him a room that fit such a request. When the butler finally introduced Jun to his room, he had a door slammed in his face and heard Jun say to leave. The dark apprentice looked through his bags and finally found a strange gem. It was black and smooth, yet it did not shine. He placed the gem next to the mirror so that they would touch, but then Jun didn´t see his reflection in the mirror, he saw Safra.
"Boy you have done it!"
"Well the Emperor was dull as a rock when I was explaining the story, but everything has seemed to work out. Now all that I must do is kill Elder Rhea at the ceremony in two days."
"Actually our plans have changed. Paul now has the Elder´s Insignia. Do not worry, I sent Sskai after him so he is most likely rotting somewhere in the Jade Sea, but you have a new mission. Paul and his allies have no idea that we know all that we do, so you must create the illusion that their plan is falling apart. When you use both of the insignias to break the seal, we don´t want more heroes than we need there."
"Well then, what must I do?"
"It all goes like this. . ."

Taby, Mystery and Elder Rhea were walking through the valleys on their way through the valley. They all took this walk very leisurely, since the ceremony was still only two days away and they didn´t want to deal with the issues in the city. In the meantime, Taby and Mystery were asking many questions about their abilities.
"So how did you think that I would be an assassin?" Elder Rhea looked tired.
"Because the stars told me"
"Well gee, for a bunch of dots in the sky they sure have a lot to say."
"They sure do, but do not fret about such a thing for in due time you shall become closer to the stars as well."
"But what makes me so different from all of the other assasins out there?"
"You will be one of the very few to be able to use the shadowstep technique."
"Shadowstep?"
"Yes, it is quite a fascinating ability. You are able to teleport from one location to another without anyone noticing." Taby seemed content with that answer, so then it was Mystery´s turn.
"What about me? What makes me so different from all of the other mesmers?"
"Ahh good question. Other mesmers only have minor abilities, in other words magic show tricks. You on the other hand can use your abilities to battle."
"I only know so few spells though."
"Be patient and new abilities shall come to you." Suddenly Taby shouted.
"WAIT!" Mystery and Elder Rhea stopped talking and looked forward to see someone that they didn´t want to see. Someone who has been haunting Taby´s dreams ever since that night in the Aspenwood Forest. Someone named Jun. He was not alone though, for he had about 6 imperial guards around him.
"Well hello you three!" The three of them just stared at him in awe. "If you wont do the talking then I will. It has come to my attention from a Kurzick source that you are in danger of assassination, Rhea." Elder Rhea had eyes of anger for once.
"Yes I am, and the murderer is standing right in front of me."
"Why this is no time to kid around. These imperial guards are going to take you back to Cavalon and keep you protected there until we find this man accused of these crimes." Four of the guards walked towards the Elder, but Taby stood in front of her.
"You cannot do this Jun!"
"But I can which makes it all the better. Oh and by the way, that´s Count Jun Heltzer to you."
"You are the same despicable creature that I have come to know and hate."
"Such big words coming from a criminal! That reminds me, you are under arrest for the assassination of Count Zu Heltzer. Third girl, you can go and forget that you saw anything."
"The name is Mystery and I don´t think that I will."
"Well then that leaves us in quite a predicament. Good thing the Elder isn´t here to see any of this!" Taby and Mystery turned around to see Elder Rhea pulled away by the two guards origionally behind Jun. All that they could see was a look of sadness and defeat in her eyes. "We have two ways to settle this, ladies. The hard way or the harder way." Taby was furious.
"I will pick the way that involves kicking your-" Jun was quick to interrupt her.
"The harder way it is, then!" And right after Jun spoke, he flew a bolt of lightning at Taby. Mystery was quick to counter with a forcefield, sending the bolt flying back and hitting two of the four imperial guards. Taby then rushed forward and right before directly attacking one of the guards, she dashed to the side and stabbed him at the side of his stomach. "Well now it seems to be two on two!" Jun looked over to the other imperial guard to see that he wasn´t moving. It was almost as if he was frozen in time. Mystery had a smile on her face.
"Courtsey of myself, Jun. I hope that you like it because you´re next!" A wave of energy came from Mystery and started heading towards Jun, but he summoned a bolt of lightning from the sky to hit her in her exact location. She went flying backwards but was caught by Taby, who then helped her to her feet and whispered something.
"Maybe we should use both of our abilities together."
"How?"
"I don´t know, just do something!" Both of them dashed away from eachother to avoid a lightning bolt headed towards them. "Wow, Jun. That ability is getting kind of old."
"You are right, maybe I should try something new!" Jun clapped in Taby´s direction, making a boom that made her fly backards. Mystery was quick to react, grabbing her telekinetically and setting her on the ground. Taby started sprinting at a great speed towards Jun, when Mystery got an idea. She used a great amount of her energy to create new images of Taby, so Jun wouldn´t know which one to attack. All of the Taby´s were running towards Jun while he was picking them off one by one. This technique was not efficient enough, for Taby jabbed him in the arm, not having a clear shot at the heart. Jun screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
"Well Jun, it looks to me like you have lost." They all suddenly heard two chuckling voices.
"That is utter blasphemy I tell you!"
"Hehe, that´s my name!" Mystery and Taby looked up to see Bliss and Blasphemy standing above them. Mystery was shocked to see them there.
"Why are you two here!"
"Because our buddy Jun here was about to die, and we can´t allow that."
"Nope, because he needs to live in order to free Shiro!" Jun was on the ground, still in pain.
"I don´t need any help."
"Well by the looks of it you do!"
"Most certainly! Now you just sit back and let us take care of these cretins." Blasphemy raised his hand for an attack, but was interrupted by a bolt of fire from behind him. This sent him tumbling to the ground. Bliss turned around to see what it was, but then he was shot down with what seemed to be a giant snowball. Mystery and Taby looked over to see a woman in a purple dress and dirty blonde hair. She appeared to be Tyrian, and had a face that was young. She shouted to Mystery and Taby.
"Come on before those two recover!" Without question they ran over to her. Bliss and Blasphemy looked up and had voices of rage.
"Where do you think you three are going!?"
"Yes, I mean the party just started!" Mystery and Taby were standing by the woman and a whirlwind surrounded them so they couldn´t be seen, but when it ended none of them were there.
"What is this?!?!"
"I must say that I am baffled!" The truth is that none of them went anywhere. Mystery made them all invisible and they were sprinting as fast as they could away, with the help of a strange gale. Once they all knew they were far enough away, Mystery stopped the invisibility. Taby spoke to the woman that saved them.
"Thank you very much, we are in your debt. What is your name?" The woman spoke.
"I am Seiuchi Fantasto. You can call me Seiuchi for short. I was out in the valleys to meditate, and I saw the whole thing. I came in when I saw that you were in trouble." Mystery laughed to herself for a little bit. "What is so funny?"
"Well with that purple dress people might think that you are in the Jade Brotherhood." Seiuchi looked at her, puzzled.
"But I am in the Jade Brotherhood. I am one of their leaders." Taby and Mystery stared at each other with a loss of words. After attacking four guards and getting help from a leader of the Jade Brotherhood, they now knew that they were the criminals that Jun depicted them as.

- Written by Muscle Man Paul