Chapter 28

The next day, Ianite was ready to face the guys and confess and ask forgiveness. Ianite teleported to Adventure Island, invisible, and she teleported me afterward. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was there already.

"Wow, nice of you to show up," Tom said jokingly.

"Yes yes, Ianite and I got a bit of a late start, whatever. At least I showed up, didn't I?" I said, grinning. The others just grinned back at me. I sat down at the camp fire next to Sparky.

Her presence got closer and she became visible again. A few of the guys softly let out a breath, they were surprised, I could feel it in their presences.

"Boys, I think it's time I tell you everything, about what happened in those books." She delved into this big speech about her mistakes and what she did and how she learned from them. She promised to never do that again and that she'll be better from now on. She asked for their forgiveness. Sparky, of course, forgave her. The others did as well, even her brothers. I stood next to her and put an arm around her.

"See, I told you Sparky would forgive you." She smiled.

"You did."

"How about we go for a meal at the Dine at Nite, huh?" Hermod suggested. We all agreed and Elytra'd there. As we got closer, I felt Gandus' presence. I warned everyone to be on guard. They nodded and as we landed, we all got armor on, except for the gods. They obviously don't need it. I led the group.

"Gandus? I know you're here. Would you please talk to me?" Gandus came out of the restaurant.

"You'll never change me Lucky Fire." She now noticed that I'm wearing armor. "So, you're all armored up. You don't trust me, do you?"

"I'm just taking precautions. I know how you are Gandus. Though, it would be unwise to pick a fight with all of us here." She looked at us all, then spotted Hermod. She smirked.

"Oh Hermod, you were the husband that got away. Or, I suppose I am the wife that got away. Unlike boats, I am not content sitting idly around awaiting your attention. We could have ruled the seas together. You, my fearless captain. Me, a wizard of the highest order," she said softly and somewhat dangerously. Uh oh...

"Guys, circle around Hermod, protect him. I have a feeling she's gonna do something," I ordered. Everyone moved at once, but before the last guy could get there, Gandus made her move. She quickly snatched Hermod up and hovered above us.

"Nice try! I'll be taking him with me. Now, I can either unalive you all, or,I'll let him loose if you give me the Elemental stones. You have 2 weeks..." She disappeared with Hermod, leaving us stunned. I recovered first.

"Ok... this is not good... if she gets those Elemental stones, she'll have the power of a god... and her being allied with Darkness, this isn't the best scenario. We can't give her the stones though, we'll need to think up of a rescue plan. We're gonna need to find her hideout and then we might be able to find Hermod." The others all agreed. "Ok, we all will split up and go looking next week. Right now won't be best, she'll be expecting it. We'll give it some time. I just hope Hermod can hang in there that long." Everyone nodded. We all took off our armor and departed. We couldn't just go on with our plan to hang out at Dine at Nite if one of our friends got kidnapped by Gandus.

"You did very well back there. It's too bad Gandus still got to Hermod..."

"Yeah... even my psychic power couldn't save him. I warned the guys and directed them, but it wasn't fast enough."

"Lucky, you can't blame yourself. It was just a bit of bad luck. It's ok. We'll rescue Hermod. With your wits and ideas, we'll find Gandus' hideout, find Hermod, and rescue him." I smiled a small smile.

"Yeah, we will find him. He'll be safe with us once again. As to the plan... lemme think of one. I did say we'll split up next week to find Gandus' hideout. It'll leave Gandus' defenses down and we'll be able to, hopefully, have the upper hand. We shouldn't go alone though. We'll split up into teams of two. Ok, we have Sparky, Dec, Orion, Karl, Tom, me, Mianite, Dianite, and you. That's 9 people... well, we'll have to go with one team of three. I'm thinking the gods go with their followers, so because there's 2 of us following you, that'll be the team of three. So that leaves Orion and Dec to be in a pair. Perfect. We have the groups."

"That sounds like a great plan. Let's call a meeting tomorrow and relay what your plan is to everyone. They'll all still be upset that Hermod still got snatched to gather again so soon." I nodded and we cuddled on the loveseat for a while, discussing random things. Nothing too eventful happened the rest of the day, so next day, I called a meeting to everyone and met them at Adventure Island around the campfire. When the last guy showed up and sat down, I got right down to it. I gave them all my idea from yesterday.

"That sounds like a great plan. No one is alone, there's enough people to split up into a wide range of area, and we can communicate telepathically when one of the groups finds something," Sparky agreed.

"Yes, it does sound like a good plan, but what if Gandus finds us?" Mianite pointed out.

"Mianite has a point. There's always the possibility. We'll be ready for her. We'll bring our best gear. Does everyone have good, powerful gear?" Only Sparky nodded. I sighed. "Mianite, Dianite, could you kindly help your followers out... they're gonna need it. Then, what about Dec and Orion?"

"I'll help them out," Ianite offered.

"Thank you Lady Ianite," they said. She smiled kindly at them.

"I myself have decent gear, so I'm just fine."

"Alright, so we've got our plan. I'm liking the outcome. I'm confident we'll rescue Hermod," Sparky said. The others agreed. I grinned with a healthy pride. Now the guys were talking amongst each other, all of them confident in my plan. Ianite leaned against me and I put an arm around her.

'They're all confident. They all believe in you. As do I.'

'Thank you, and I'm glad they believe in me. I can only hope things go well.'

'Believe in yourself, my champion, like we all believe in you.' I settled for a short nod. The rest of the week was uneventful, just everyone getting ready for our excursion to Gandus' hideout. Then the day came. We gathered at Adventure Island in our armor.

"Alright, everyone ready?" I asked. Everyone gave an affirmative nod and I led the way. My presence sensing really comes in handy for things like this. We sailed a while, until I sensed Gandus' and Hermod's presences faintly. I steered the boat in the direction I can feel their presences. As we reached the edge of the island, "We need to be quiet as we look around, ok?" I pointed my statement directly at Dianite and Tom.

"I know, I know... Trust me, I actually want to save Hermod. He's my bro. I want this to succeed." I nodded.

"Good. Alright, let's split up. Sparky, Ianite, and I will head over to the right." Everyone nodded and gave their direction so that no group went the same way, so now we split up. As we walked,

"Wait, Lucky, why are we split up? You can sense Hermod's presence and know when we're close," Sparky pointed out.

"Good question. It's because I want this to be a group effort. I don't want people to rely on me all the time. Sure, I'm to be the High Priestess, but just as a follower is with a god, the follower cannot rely on their god 24/7. They need some sort of independence. The same situation could happen with me because of my psychic abilities. I don't want that to happen."

"Actually, you have a point. You're very wise Lucky."

"I try my best. By the way, Mianite and Karl will be the ones to find Hermod. They're heading in the right direction." Sparky chuckled.

"So we'll be getting a telepathic message soon then I assume." I grinned and nodded. Ianite hung back, keeping watch over us. "What will we do when Gandus eventually notices that Hermod's missing?"

"We'll try to reason with her. If she strikes, then we retaliate." Sparky nodded slowly, thinking about it. We got a message from Karl and went toward where he and Mianite went. The rest of us got there at the same time.

"Whoa, everyone really came to rescue me. 'Ey, the keys are hangin' over there." I nodded, then made my way silently to the keys. I carefully took them off the hook then went back over to his cell and unlocked it. Tom and Karl helped Hermod and we made our way out of there. As we reached the boats,

"We really did it, we really rescued him," Orion said in disbelief.

"We did, but I will bet Gandus will notice sooner or later. We need to be on guard. She'll come to us in anger," I warned. Everyone nodded. We got to Adventure Island with no issue. We all congratulated each other on the success of our mission.

"Mianite, Lucky said something I think you'll appreciate." Ianite then reiterated what I said about independence of followers with gods and why I had everyone split up despite me knowing exactly where Hermod was being held. Mianite smiled.

"Lucky Fire, you speak very wise words indeed. You know, you've been doing very well in recent times. Dec, what do you think of making her a Priestess? No more Apprentice."

"I think that's a splendid idea. Lucky, you've been taking charge quite often in adventures and coming up with great ideas. I think you're ready to be promoted to Priestess. Do you accept the title?"

"Of course. I gladly accept the title."

"Then so shall it be. You are now to be called Priestess. Congrats Lucky." The others all were excited for me and congratulated me on becoming Priestess. I smiled and thanked everyone. We all went back to our homes. As I sat on my bed after cleaning my shoulder wound myself, I began thinking. Lucky isn't really my name. It's just a nickname, much like Karl's is Lrakinidas, Tom's is SynHD, and Sparky's is, well, Sparky. Well, that's what I call him. His actual nickname is CaptainSparklez. His actual name is Jordan, I'd learned. My actual name is Phoenix. Yes, I know, it's not a name you really hear ever. Whatever. I'm beginning to want to reveal this to Ianite. She'd told me her big secret, and now I want to reveal mine. I mean, this isn't big, but it's something.

'Ianite? Could you come to my room? I have something to tell you.' A couple minutes passed and Ianite came in and sat next to me.

"What's on your mind, my champion?"

"My name, Lucky Fire, it isn't really my name. It's just a nickname that my parents came up with when I was little. My actual name is Phoenix. I was named Phoenix because of the deep red of the sunset when I was born. My parents came up with Lucky because of my luck in basically everything. Fire because of my fascination with fire. Then I made Lucky_Fire1991 my full nickname after my village got wiped out in honor of my parents, but it really isn't my name. I wanted to let this out, and now, I don't know if I want to be called Lucky or Phoenix... I've become used to being called Lucky that... I just don't know."

"Phoenix huh? That's a beautiful name. I'd love to call you by Phoenix, or Nix as a nickname. Will you let me?" I smiled softly.

"Of course. You know, maybe I'll tell the others tomorrow. Lucky doesn't need to be my name to honor my parents. I can always honor them by remembering them and what they taught me growing up. Lucky_Fire1991 will still be my nickname, but I think I'll prefer to be called by my actual name. Thanks for listening Ianite." She returned the soft smile.

"Always." I gave her a quick kiss before she left for her room again and settled into bed. I'm very glad I told her, and now I'm excited to tell the guys tomorrow. I fell asleep after a few minutes.

A/N: my name in real life is not Phoenix fyi, although it would be amazing to have that name.