"Anubis, you sly dog."
Amusement crept through Kento's voice, a smirk curled up on his lips as he peered out into the graveyard. Cye craned his head over to follow Hardrock's gaze and smiled a bit. The change had been subtle, with days of suggestive gestures and intimate glances since she had awakened, but now as they watched Iris and Anubis through the open door there was no denying it: a centuries-old love had reignited. They walked the cemetery's path hand-in-hand, fingers interlocked and voices laughing.
"It's about time," Cye remarked.
"Alright, you two," Mia warned.
"Ah, we're not hurting anything," Kento huffed.
Cye offered a small headshake with a bit of a grin, but as he turned his attention away from the door, his brow furrowed. It was brief, but enough to hook his friend's attention, and Kento's eyes followed his down the hallway just in time to catch a glimpse of silver hair vanishing into the library.
"Now what's he up to?" Hardrock glanced at Torrent first before pushing away from the window and starting down the hallway. After a slight shrug, Cye followed close behind, leaving Mia at the table alone.
Emerging in the doorway, Kento halted in his steps. Dais was seated on the ground, blankets folded up against the wall to maximize the available space. A large scroll of rice paper was rolled open across the wooden floor. At first, it could have been mistaken as a painting, but upon closer inspection it was clear the illustration was an extensive map, and while Kento was admittedly not the best at geography, he was quite certain the landscape was none he was familiar with. The Warlord was leaned over, carefully adding further details and topography.
"Whoa, Dais," Hardrock remarked, "what is all of this, man?"
A steely eye shifted up to gaze at him coolly, and the slightest smirk twitched up on his lips. Kento clenched his jaw a bit, but made the effort to hide his disapproval of the man's enduring, inherent eeriness.
"This," Dais announced, "is a map of the Nether World."
"Anubis wasn't kidding when he said you knew the layout of the place." Cye stepped past Kento and stood at the edge of the scroll now, squatting down and resting his elbows on his knees to examine it.
"What's it for?" Kento stepped in beside his friend and leaned over, hands planted on his knees for support.
"Strategy." Dais straightened up and shot a skeptical look at the warrior. "This is not the place to charge into without clear tactics."
"Right." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"You plan on sharing that with us?" Looking over their shoulders, they found Sage's cool, disapproving eyes and crossed arms. Ryo and Rowen stood at either side of him, peering in curiously.
"Clearly," the Warlord quipped. He observed the group quietly for a moment before offering a sarcastic, sweeping motion across the side of the map, gesturing for them to join him. The men exchanged glances, then filtered into the room with Cye and Kento and took seats on the floor along the map's perimeter.
Dais's fingers trailed gracefully across the parchment, agile like a spider's legs. "There are four gates into the Dynasty, positioned inside the city limit. But the Nether Realm does not obey the same physical laws as this world. Each gate, while close in proximity within the city, is an entrance to a different region of the Nether World." Ivory fingertips glided over inky black lines. Something moved in his peripheral vision and he looked up to the doorway to find another figure lurking in it. He smirked a bit as his eyes scanned upward. "Kind of you to join us."
Anubis offered only a stoic expression in return, stepping into the room behind Kento. Doing so, he revealed Iris, standing quietly behind him. She lingered in the doorway uncomfortably.
"Should I go?" She motioned to her side in the direction of the living area.
"No," Rowen answered, "you belong in this, too." Anubis looked back over his shoulder to her to exchange a glance, and she took a step inside the room.
"The eastern gate should be avoided," Dais continued, "it leads directly into the castle."
"Sounds like right where we need to be to me," Kento quipped.
"Talpa has meticulous control of the castle grounds. He can manipulate every space within it." The Warlord of Illusion shifted his cold gaze to Hardrock. "You would not even get through the gate before you were obliterated."
Kento clenched his fist, causing a few of the knuckles to crack. It was Anubis's hand that settled on his shoulder to calm him, and the warrior took a long, tense breath.
"Alright, so how do we get in otherwise?" he growled, his impatience crawling through his teeth.
"You don't," Dais replied coolly. "Our strategy will be drawing him out of the castle, into the plains of the Nether World." He traced over a large, open span on the map. "He maintains a measure of omnipotence here, but he is unable to warp the terrain as he does within the castle grounds." His finger slinked along his sketch. "The western gate leads into woodlands to the north of the castle here. This is the closest entrance to the palace without entering its boundary directly."
"The southwestern gate is the ingress to these valleys." Dais's index finger trailed down a lengthy, ragged line. "Ravines and steep gorges cut through the landscape here. And the northwestern gate opens into these dunes." He laid his palm flat on the map. "They offer little protection, but this is the entrance he would least expect."
Ryo's eyes moved across the grim faces of his comrades.
"Alright," he breathed, "so we avoid the eastern gate, and then what?"
"Cover each of the others." Pointing to the dunes, he continued, "Hardrock and Torrent enter the northwest gate. The terrain is most favorable to his armor, and the breach provides a distraction, but the distance prevents an immediate risk." The twosome exchanges furtive glances and nods.
"Strata and Halo approach the southwest. Stay in the highlands, on the east of the ravines. The cavalry is unable to traverse the gorges, so Talpa will dispatch archers, removing the long-range soldiers from the field." His eye moved to Ryo. "Wildfire and Anubis take the western gate."
"And what about you?" Ryo asked. He watched the man's jaw clench.
"He is without armor," Anubis acknowledged. His voice lowered now, his words heavy, "and this task is dangerous enough."
"We are traitors," Dais stated. "Sekhmet and Cale will be searching for us, for retribution for our betrayal." His eye settled on the plot of the tree-scattered plain. "The woodlands will offer some safety, however brief." Looking up to his former comrade, he gazed hard at the man. "You are the most powerful among them."
"I know," Anubis agreed. "I will lead the charge to face Talpa."
An uneasy silence settled on the men. Cye's troubled sea green eyes moved up to Iris, who had slowly sank to lean against the doorway. His gaze triggered his friends to follow. She was struggling to maintain a neutral expression, but as she pursed her lips into a thin line and crossed her arms, her despondency was palpable.
"Iris," Cye managed. She offered a small shake of her head.
"It is too dangerous for the Oblivion to enter the Nether Realm." Anubis's voice had a tenderness to it now.
"You're right." Iris nodded, though whether it was in agreement or to convince herself was not entirely clear. "Staying here with Dais keeps my armor and his soul out of Talpa's hands." Her voice softened, "and that may end up being our last hope."
The severity of her words were not lost on the warriors. Eyes shifted uncomfortably, and grim expressions painted across their faces. Rowen placed his chin against his knuckles apprehensively, blue eyes diverting from the doorway. Cye's lips parted as if preparing to speak, to offer some words of comfort, but he could find none. Iris lingered only a moment longer before the fear of betraying herself stirred her to turn out of the doorway and vanish down the hall.
Anubis watched after her briefly, swallowing hard. A pang of guilt struck through him like lightning. Looking back into the gathering, he found a collection of gazes settled on him in silence and closed his eyes.
A single, gnarled branch shifted in the breeze. She had been watching it for what seemed like an eternity, its distorted grey visage scratching furiously at her mind. It clearly did not belong here, buried within the beautiful purple blooms around it.
And yet here she stood, elevated and unmoving. Shears hung loosely in her grasp, rocking within the flesh of her palms. At first she thought the swaying of her body was the wind shifting the unstable wooden step stool in the soft soil beneath her. But taking a brief breath, she found it was in fact her own weight, teetering back and forth on the balls of her feet.
Numb. As the word crossed her mind, she realized all of her senses seemed to have suffocated; a low, unnerving ringing hummed in her ears, drowning out the rustling of the foliage above her. Her braided ponytail lifted on the breeze, but neither its tugging nor the sensation of the loose hairs floating about her hairline piqued her nerves. A bitter, metallic taste lingered on her tongue that she could not place. Not even the sweet scent of the lilac tree's blooms seemed capable of breaking through the smothering dread threatening to take her feet out from beneath her.
And now she could not even be sure the branch was grey at all.
"You have been watching that limb for quite some time now."
The voice was distorted in her ears, and had it not been so familiar it would have certainly startled her. Iris's eyes did not budge from the branch, as if hoping the sound would kick her senses. A brief, dry laugh escaped her.
"Yeah," she managed. "It needs to go."
"Does it really?"
Goddamn it. She closed her eyes and twisted at her waist, though she could not bring her eyes up from the ground to meet him.
"Maybe not," she confessed. Strong, tanned hands reached up, one taking the shears from hers and the other offered to her. She relinquished the tool and took a step down, allowing the robust arm to coil securely around her waist and lift her from the stool before placing her feet firmly in the grass.
Anubis set the shears down carefully. Straightening up, he found her body turned away from him and eyes still lingering somewhere within the tree's branches.
"I am sorry," he offered, his voice quiet.
"Wow, that's familiar," Iris breathed, her gaze falling.
His heart wrenched painfully in his chest as he understood.
"You, charging off into battle," she continued, "leaving me behind to wonder if this is when you don't come back." She managed to lift her head to look at him now. "Just like old times."
His heart felt like lead, dropping down into the pit of his stomach and leaving an aching void in his ribs. Quietly, he reached out to her and drew her to face him.
"It does not have to be," he said. He gently squeezed her arms to steady the trembling in his hands. I have already made this mistake once. I will not make it again.
Anubis caught the questioning expression that came across her face and took a long, settling breath. Quietly, he sank down to one knee, green eyes unmoving from her gaze. His tone was firm, and his face determined, a stark contrast from the tenderness with which he took her hands into his.
"Iris. I want you to be my wife."