Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 87

The elders congratulated Myrina on finding a husband, and Kyrina promised to record it in the family records as officially as possible.

“With this, Elder Thalassa won’t be able to scheme against you in my absence.” Kyrina nudged Myrina in the side with her elbow.

Cyra nodded, eyes glassy and distant.

“As for you, Myrina. You’re getting married, not dying.” Kyrina held a finger up to Myrina. “While you no longer have any responsibilities to the Samhain family, I do expect you to lend a hand to your sister. You’re not in the C-Grade, so there are no restrictions on your presence here, unlike the Ancestors.”

“Right! Big sis, if you need any help I’ll come by and kick ass with you again!” Myrina pumped her fist in the air.

Cyra gave a dull nod.

“And me too. I’m happy to help as well,” I added. Cyra finally roused a little at my words.

“Well, don’t be quite so eager. I’d say give it a few months at least for news to spread and any schemes Elder Thalassa had of marrying you off to one of her allies to fall apart. Then you can help your sister. Cyra, I expect you to hold the family together. I won’t be around much longer, but I will come back as soon as I can. It depends on how much help your brother needs.” Kyrina shot a glance between her two daughters.

“I’ll stand strong,” Cyra promised her mother.

“As for you.” Kyrina turned to me. “I haven’t forgotten my promise of a few warriors to help you build an empire worthy of my daughter on your new world. As soon as you can set up a teleportation array, you are free to call on our warriors. Just please… use restraint. Things are not as stable as I would have liked, and it would not do to have too many of our forces out of position until Cyra has any rebellious elders firmly in hand or I’ve returned.”

“I understand. I won’t abuse your promise.” I smiled and shook my new mother-in-law’s hand. It was a strange feeling. It had been years since my parents died, so I wasn’t used to having any sort of maternal figure at all.

Fortunately, Kyrina didn’t make things awkward. She shot a glance at Myrina, who was squirming by my side. She was gently tugging on my arm.

“I think my daughter has something to tell you in private.” Kyrina jerked her head up the stairs. “Try not to be too loud. The rest of us will be filling out paperwork.”

Myrina practically dragged me back up the stairs and soon exacted her revenge for all my teasing during the duel.

When we finally finished, both of us were feeling much better. After our earlier exertions, we took some time around to relax in each other’s arms and talk a bit. Myrina filled in some of the missing details about what had been happening on Themyscira. Her last week had been just as eventful as mine.

Eventually, we came to the topic of what was going on back on Earth. Bringing her in the loop was especially important now that she’d be hiding out on Earth with me away from her family.

"So, Carter! Tell us what’s happening on Earth. You’re winning, right? Who’s left to wipe out?" Myrina asked.

"I was in a bit of trouble there for a while, but things took a turn for the best recently." I smiled as I quickly brought Myrina up to speed on recent events in Crownhill. Chiefly, my recent victory over Lisette, the last and greatest of my enemies.

"She was the last and trickiest of the Three Kings to beat. But now that she's finished, there aren't any major factions left on the shard. The trolls, ogres, Wolfmen, goblins, and now my fellow humans have all been crushed. We have peace at last—at least until the System decides to throw another shard at us.”

“I don’t know, but as soon as the System lets me, I plan on kicking your enemies’ asses!” Myrina grinned. “I’ll chop their heads off faster than you can blink, just watch me! Bad guys like that Alpha Wolfman you mentioned won’t be able to sneak away on my watch. They’ll show up and then bam! Dead. You can count on me.”

I chuckled. “I know I can, Myrina. I’m sure you’ll be a big help.”

Eventually, the pair of us headed downstairs gain to find the elders gone, but Kyrina and Cyra both sitting at a table. They were making several copies of an official-looking piece of paper with both mine and Myrina’s names on it in elegant script.

Back home, it would have been easy to make as many copies as needed with a photocopier, but here on Themyscira, making copies was a lot more laborious a process, and the two of them had ink-splattered fingers as they did their best to write the same couple passages in a neat and elegant manner.

“There you two are. One of these copies is for you.” Kyrina pushed one of the papers toward us. It was a thick and heavy parchment with our names in the center of a heart. It seemed like this was our marriage certificate.

I picked it up off the table and tucked it into my bag of holding.

“Myrina can’t leave with me quite yet though. I’ve got one little issue to take care of. An issue named Lisette. I’ve mentioned her to Myrina, but not to you two yet.” I quickly filled Kyrina and Cyra in with what I knew of Lisette.

Kyrina held her chin in her hands, staring at me intently. "Carter, if things were finished back on Earth, you'd know. Actually, testing to see whether you’d laid claim to your shard was the first thing I tried with Thulga when Galbatorix pointed her out to me. I tried with my own teleporters too, but no luck. Your shard is still sealed off.”

I frowned. "Now that you mention it, I haven't received any notification like I did for defeating Crownhill County Prison. That's what happened after some of the other factions were defeated..."

Kyrina cast me a look of deep concern. "Carter, I'm certain of one thing. There should have been some sort of System notification. This was a System-mandated quest, and one of the most important area-wide quests the System ever gives. You would have gotten a notification that it concluded, along with the Shardlord title—since you would be the leader of the winning factions. That's an extremely rare and highly coveted title."

I flipped through my System menus. No title. No notification. Looking further back, the quest was still listed as 'in progress.'

Kyrina was right. If the System was going to recognize my victory, it would have by now.

"What do I need to do?" I asked.

Kyrina sat up, leaning on her elbow as she spoke with me. "The simplest thing to do would be to kill Lisette or any other enemy leaders you have in custody. That would grant you a victory."

I shook my head. "I can do that, but not until she fixes Kyle, Marcus, Terrance, Rick, and Chuck."

Kyrina frowned and ran her fingers through her hair, pulling some of it out of the tight bun on the back of her head. "In that case, you should try the next best thing. Get her to speak a verbal surrender—have her make an admission of defeat. You can have her sign something, too, if you want. Either is usually enough for the System to recognize that she lost. The surrender can be drawn out of her by any means necessary.”

The matriarch of the Samhain clan tapped a finger against her lips. “The System probably thinks there is a chance she could escape. Maybe she has some extra minions outside the city planning to break her out. Or maybe it considers your brainwashed friends to be those very minions.”

She shrugged. “I don't know. But if you get Lisette to say out loud that she gives up, the System should hand you the title and declare the shard-war over."

I nodded. "Done. I will take care of it first thing when I get back. And then I’ll come back for you, Myrina.”

“Not if I chase you down on Earth first!” Myrina poked me in the shoulder. “Hurry, add me to your party. I’ll scan your notifications to see when something happens. And it’ll let me hunt you down on Earth if you take too long to bring me back.”

I chuckled, then did as she asked. A moment later Myrina was in my party.

“You should take care of this Lisette person right away,” Cyra said. She’d been shifting awkwardly as she played third wheel to the playful banter between Myrina and me. “If the System thinks she still has a chance, then she might be planning something. Anything you need taken care of here? I don’t want to delay you on your trip back. The matter of getting Myrina to safety is urgent.”

“Yes, actually.” I ran upstairs quickly to fetch some of the bags of holding I’d brought from Earth and then discarded along with the rest of my clothes. When I returned, I handed half of them to Cyra. "Here. Food and basic hand tools from my homeworld. I wanted to sell them here in Shadefall. They should help with your current crisis.”

Cyra’s eyes lit up. “The people will owe you for this, whether they thank you or not.”

“Ha, well, they can thank me by buying them. I’m not giving them away. I am, however, willing to sell them cheaply. It’ll be good to get coin circulating again and get Shadefall’s economy off the ground.”

Cyra shrugged. “If you think it’ll work, then it has my blessings and aid.”

Cyra took the bags of holding from me. Myrina leaned over her shoulder as though trying to peek into them.

“What about me, Carter?” Myrina asked. “What do you need me to do?”

I handed Myrina several more bags of holding. “Here. These are templates and unenchanted materials for the workers here to start replicating. The people of this city are probably eager to get to work and earn some money to rebuild their lives after we destroyed their city. I'd like to give them that opportunity as soon as possible."

I smiled, leaned forward and got up on my tiptoes to plant a kiss on Myrina’s cheek. "See you soon."

I turned to bid goodbye to Cyra, but she was already briskly walking toward the door.

We hunted down Thulga again for a teleport back home and I hugged Myrina one last time, though if all went well, we would see each other again that very evening.

Thulga waved her hand, and a moment later I was headed back to Earth.