“I am assuming you are all aware by now of why Ingram has come to you,” Lindiwe began, her dark-brown eyes roaming over them all. “What is your current plan?”
“Nothing,” Orpheus growled from the right. “The females have offered to go while we stay behind, and I will not allow Reia to come to harm like this.”
“That’s not what you promised,” Reia uttered up to him, her green eyes squinting into a glare. “You said if we can come up with a plan that we think will be successful, then you would allow it.”
His growl cut off into a huff as he darted his head away from her and everyone else. His hands tightened on her, like he feared she’d suddenly disappear if he didn’t hold her. The blonde turned her face to them all and gave a wincing apology.
“Ingram will come with us,” Mayumi stated. “As well as Emerie. But we have to wait until I’m no longer pregnant.” She gestured to Magnar and his bride. “Delora will take a bow and defend us from somewhere above if she can. We can float in our Phantom forms, so fuck it, she can just stand on a chandelier or something.”
He didn’t know why that made all four females giggle.
“Reia, Emerie, and I will take to the ground and fight with swords. We just need to grab Jabez’s hair to teleport with him, and if we attack him as one unit, someone might get the advantage enough to slit his throat. I may even be able to drive a dagger up through the back of his skull.” Mayumi turned her gaze down to Ingram, as he twisted his head back and up to look at her. “That’s, of course, if Ingram can’t rip his head off his shoulders himself. We will have a Duskwalker, but with how volatile their kind can be, we can’t rely on him. I’m actually thinking he’d be more useful mindlessly slaughtering Jabez’s army as they’re trying to get to us.”
“None of this is certain,” Orpheus snapped out. “You will all be picked off, one by one. The Demons are faster, stronger, and there is a chance Ingram will turn on you.”
“Yeah, but Ingram will also redirect to whatever is attacking him,” Emerie butted in. “He may turn on us, but he’s easily distracted. No offense.”
She patted his chest in apology, and he tilted his head at her for it. What she said was true, so there was no need for her to do this.
“I can make him chase me instead,” Delora offered. “If I shot him with an arrow, I might be able to grab his attention and fly away long enough for a Demon to take it.”
That, he didn’t like, simply because he didn’t actually want to be hurt. He knew arrows could be mean little weapons.
“All of you are willing to come forward and help?” Lindiwe asked as she bounced her stare between each of the females in the room. She kept it on Delora the longest, but then ended it on Emerie. “Even knowing that you may be harmed, eaten, and killed?”
“Yes,” was their collective answer.
“My sons have all chosen such brave women,” she complimented firmly, as she dug inside her feathered cloak. On her side was a bag strapped to her waist that Emerie was only able to peek at from her cloak hem shifting back. “Then I bring you our possible solution.”
She took out a small stone no bigger than a thumbnail and revealed it as it lay flat on her palm. It was blue, at first glance, but it pulsated with a golden yellow, as though it was filled with magic.
“This… this is our answer.”
“What is it?” Reia asked, her brows furrowing deeply.
“Weldir, the spirit of the void, has informed me it is some kind of sun stone.”
“Sun stone?” Delora asked, her full lips pursing. “Where did it come from?”
“It looks like the diadem I used to wear, the one that protected me from Demons. If you’ve had something like this all along, why didn’t you bring it to us sooner?” Reia bit out. “We could have ended this months ago!”
The Witch Owl cast her a hardened stare and closed her fist around it. “Because I only just obtained it.”
“Where did you obtain it from?” Orpheus asked, his tone sharp.
Lindiwe’s features fell as she opened her palm just enough so she could look down at it. “I… found it in Merikh’s cave after he disappeared. I can’t even see him with my viewing magic, but when I went to his home to investigate, I found this.”
“It has a similar magic scent to Raewyn,” Ingram happily chimed in, wanting to be part of the conversation.
When all eyes darted to him, he stiffened uncomfortably. Most of their expressions appeared confused about who that was, so he explained.
“We were chasing the Witch Owl and found ourselves within Merikh’s ward. There was a female there with grey-brown skin, white hair, and long, pointed ears.”
“Pointed… like an Elf’s?” Reia asked, dipping her head to the side and letting her hair curtain down.
“Yes, exactly,” he confirmed. “Merikh was keeping her there.”
“What was Merikh doing with an Elf?” Faunus asked, and Ingram only just noticed he was sitting upright. “He won’t talk to me, but he’ll fucking keep an Elf?”
“Who… is Merikh?” Magnar asked, his head tilting.
“The bear-skulled Mavka,” both Orpheus and Faunus said at the same time.
“I have never seen this Mavka,” Magnar grumbled, scratching a claw against the side of his fox snout.
“You wouldn’t,” Faunus stated. “He doesn’t like other Mavka. I’m surprised he didn’t kill you two,” he continued as he pointed at Ingram’s raven skull.
“He has. Many times,” Ingram rebuffed, although not permanently, since Merikh never crushed their skulls. Merikh always won. “But he always let us rest under his ward.”
“The point is…” Lindiwe cut in while shaking her head. “Merikh is gone, and so is the Elf. I think they went to the Elven realm, but I cannot see where he is. However, they left this behind, and it could be what saves us all.”
“How will a stone help us?” Emerie asked. “I know Demons can’t withstand the sunlight, but that doesn’t look very useful.”
“To be honest, none of us can wield its magic, not even me,” Lindiwe admitted. “Weldir is able to, but he doesn’t have a physical form in this world. However… we can break it, and it will be like a mini explosion that consists of sunlight.”
“Even Jabez is not immune to the sun,” Mayumi added while cupping her jaw in thought. “When I met him, I watched it burn him. This could definitely work.”
“Brilliant!” Reia squealed as she bounced to her feet, only to be dragged back into Orpheus’ lap with a quiet growl. “We can smash it against the ground in Jabez’s castle and fucking blow the place up! We’ll kill him and any Demons within his radius.”
“Exactly,” the Witch Owl said, as she drifted her gaze to Reia. Lindiwe didn’t smile – she didn’t even look pleased. Ingram didn’t know why, but he thought there was a tiredness to the dark creases under her eyes. “Whether Merikh meant to or not, he has handed us the answer. Now it’s up to us to do the rest.”