Chapter 11:
Diana took advantage of the dark of night in order to descend back down to the town. Under the moonlight she could see her own radiating much like Leona's did in the light of day. She felt far stronger and possessed more energy than she had ever done before though she was far from clued in on how to use it. Diana could see better in the dark than she could before, using this to her advantage as she snuck her way through the township and back to her apartment.
The door of her apartment had been kicked in, the entire place had been ransacked and Diana wasn't surprised by this. It had been multiple days since she disappeared, they would have been looking for her in order to continue her punishment and then when they couldn't locate her, they would have wanted to exile her from Mt Targon. Her bookcase had been knocked aside, the hole in the wall that held the remainder of her stored notes had been discovered and the notes taken. It didn't matter now; she knew what she needed to know.
Diana wondered what Leona was thinking about her disappearance. Was she worried? Was she disappointed? Diana figured she would find out soon enough. She had made the decision to call out the Elders for their hiding of the Solari's dark past, she needed to know when they would be gathered together. She left her apartment, the door still hanging off its hinges and found herself a lone guard on patrol. With her new found strength she brought the man to his knees and gripped him by his throat.
"When will the Elders and the Chosen be meeting next?" She demanded of him, she could see his eyes locked on the brand on her forehead as he tried to find his tongue.
"T-Tomorrow. T-They have a meeting to c-confirm your exile." Diana could feel the man tremble in her grasp. No one had been afraid of her before now; she found she liked this more than she would have thought. She examined his face as she considered what she did next, she couldn't let him leave as he would just warn them of her presence but she couldn't kill him either, it would defeat the purpose of interrupting the meeting tomorrow.
Diana settled for knocking the man unconscious and dragging him back to her apartment, she tied him up in what used to be her bathroom and figured that would be enough to keep the man away from warning anyone until it was too late. Diana wasn't particularly thrilled about the idea of confronting the Elders in the middle of the day, she wasn't well versed in how her new abilities worked, if they were anything like Leona's time of day can affect the strength of them though she could easily use them at night. She could be making a careless mistake, walking into this meeting during a time of day where Leona is at her strongest and while she knows nothing about her abilities or how they work but she was willing to take that risk. She wasn't going to this meeting looking for a fight, though she figured she would find one anyway, she wanted to bring out the truth the Elders had been hiding from everyone, including Leona.
She patiently waited for day break, watching from a rooftop in the distance for the Elders to make their way into the temple. Diana secretly wanted to be able to see Leona, waiting even longer just to see the woman again in her golden armour. Eventually her patience was rewarded by the sight of Leona making her way through the front gates, she watched for a moment before finally making her move and heading for a closed off former entrance to the temple. Most are unaware of this entrance's existence but Diana knew far more than most from her years of curious researching.
Diana found herself inside the temple though on the far side of where she really wanted to be, she was near the sun room where she had spent two months of her life being punished. She did her best to make her way through the temple without being discovered, knocking men unconscious whenever she had to. She found herself standing in front of the giant gold plated double doors of the council room, internally she felt herself sneer at the grandeur of this place even more than she would have before being Chosen.
Diana forced her way through the doors, gaining the attention of every Elder and Leona within a heartbeat. She found her way to the centre of the room, where she had been forced to kneel in handcuffs only two months ago. Diana was in a very different position now, she was the only one in the room armed, the only other who possessed magical abilities was Leona, she had the upperhand. She could feel the entire room's eyes locked on the brand on her forehead.
"What have you done?" The head Elder called out. He was asking her a question he already knew the answer to, he recognized the brand and knew what had happened during her disappearance.
"You already know the answer to that, I have been Chosen. Does anyone other than yourself know what really happened to the Lunari? How well have you kept that secret?" She asked him in return, knowing he wouldn't answer, that he couldn't answer. She continued. "The Solari ruthless murdered the Lunari, the Solari committed a genocide and eliminated another culture as it was different to yours. You choose to hide that fact as no one is around to remember what really happened, to criticize the actions committed by previous Elders and you continue to hide their secret." Diana's eyes scanned the room as some of the Elders spoke to one another, considering what Diana had said. Her eyes found Leona who was staring at her intensely, she couldn't read the emotion on the Chosen of the Sun's face. Everyone's attention was brought back to the head Elder as he stood up, his wooden seat making a loud scraping noise against the marble floor.
"You are a heretic." Diana took in a deep breath after hearing this, she expected that this would be how this goes but she had hoped for another outcome. "Chosen," He started again, turning to look at Leona who broke her stare to look back at him, "Since our guards are too useless to prevent her from coming this far, a woman with no combat training, you will have to execute her yourself."
Diana kept her eyes locked on Leona, hoping for the woman to get up and defend her, waiting for it. Her heart sank when Leona did nothing. This time the woman wasn't going to defend her, wasn't going to save her from the Elders, would she die by Leona's sword? Leona was hesitating, she wasn't standing to kill her or standing to save her, she was conflicted and Diana could see it.
Her stare was broken when two guards forced their way through the doors behind her, they hadn't stayed unconscious as she would have liked them to, she would have to work on that. She removed the crescent shaped blade from its holster on her back, she wasn't sure how to use her abilities but this would be test run if there ever was one.
Diana took advantage of Leona's hesitation, of the weakened guards and the defenseless Elders. She swung her blade, casting out moonlight and killing many of the Elders and the guards who were attempting to stop her. She wasn't going to let them execute her, she would kill them all before it got to that. The only one in that room that she didn't end up killing was Leona, she couldn't bring herself to do anything to her other than knock her unconscious to give herself time to escape.
Diana returned to her apartment before departing Mt Targon, choosing to leave a letter for Leona to find if she wished to look. Diana felt betrayed by Leona's hesitation to try defend her and she chose to ask Leona why in the letter as she wrote it. She told Leona where to find her if she would like to come talk to her, Diana hoped that without the Elders Leona would be reasonable and would understand her actions but she also feared that she wouldn't be able to forgive her for murder.