Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 68

I smelled the coffee shop before I saw it. Bridget must have brewed another batch. That probably meant the conversation between Sakura and Myrina had gotten pretty intense.

When I finally got close enough to see the place, I breathed a sigh of relief. If they'd gotten into a fight, I'd be able to see the collateral damage from here. I swung open the door and Cyra followed close behind me. As soon as I appeared, Myrina shot up from her seat.

Her eyes locked onto mine like a beacon, and I could tell by the sharpness in her gaze that they'd been talking about me. It seemed that Myrina had something to tell me. She waited patiently for me to approach, though both she and Sakura looked like they were ready to burst at the seams.

"Carter, we need to talk," Myrina began.

"Nice to see you too, little sis..." Cyra shook her head as her younger sister completely ignored the bigger woman.

Bridget poured Cyra a cup of coffee as she sat down with us. Once we were all seated and Cyra took a sip, I prompted Myrina to share what was on her mind.

"Alright, Myrina,” I said with a grin, “spill."

Myrina wrung her fingers together, then took a deep breath. "So, Sakura, Bridget and I were talking while you were gone. We've been doing a lot of dancing around the subject, and Sakura asked me a very important question lately. Why haven’t we… um…” Her cheeks turned a bright pink. “Why haven’t we been together yet?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Because of your family and your traditions, that's why."

Myrina nodded. "That's what you said before," she replied. She reached out and grabbed my hand in her own. "But shouldn't that be my call? They're my family. It's my price to pay."

I frowned. "Myrina, you shouldn't have to pay that price. You shouldn’t have to pay any price for us to be together."

Myrina blew out a breath. "I want to make our intentions public. I want to let the family know what I'm planning. Mother will support me… some of the elders, too. They like you—especially after seeing how you fought alongside us. We don't have to do the formal battle yet; we can schedule one several years out in the future."

Cyra leaned forward, her face grim. She glanced between me and Myrina. "Myrina... you might want to reconsider this. I've been in your seat more than once. It's never turned out well for me."

Myrina gripped my hand tighter as she glanced up at her sister. "This is different. Carter's different."

Cyra looked me up and down. "He is different. But..." The big Amazonian balled her fists, her jaw clenched tight. The jovial smile she'd worn when we’d arrived had disappeared. "It's..."

"It's what, Cyra?" Myrina asked, chin raised as though daring her sister to try to change her mind.

Cyra growled, shook her head, and then abruptly stood. "You won't listen to me, anyway. You'll learn for yourself soon enough. I need to get back to the palace. I only came out this far to make sure Carter got back safe."

She stood and shot me a glance. "Carter, remember what I said earlier."

I nodded, surprised at Cyra's sudden change of mood. Then again, maybe it wasn't so sudden, considering what I knew had happened to her last lover. This conversation had to have brought up bad memories for her. The door swung shut behind Cyra as she departed, and soon it was just the four of us again.

"This is a big step, Myrina. Are you sure?"

Myrina nodded. "Dead sure."

Her hand gripped mine tighter, to the point that she was halfway out of her seat, certainty painted on her face. What had Sakura said to her while I was gone?

I let out a breath. "Alright then, it seems we need to go see your mother.

***

Kyrina was in the middle of a meeting with the Clan’s Elders, so getting a meeting with her was tough. I didn't have much time left on Themyscira, though, so Myrina was eager to get us in to see her, now.

"We need to see my mother," Myrina told the guards, her voice urgent.

Both guards looked skeptical, and one of them let out a sigh. "Your mother and the Elders are busy. You can't just interrupt them for any little thing."

"This isn't just any little thing," Myrina insisted. "It's important."

The guards shrugged to one another, then stepped aside. "Alright, but make it quick. Don't waste the Elder's time."

We entered the room that Kyrina and the Samhain Clan elders had taken over and used as their command center. Now that the city was theirs, most of what they were doing was dividing up the loot. I wasn't surprised to see piles of gemstones and enchanted weapons being sorted into piles.

"Mother," Myrina began, "can I talk to you? Alone?"

Kyrina glanced up from the table where she and the Elders were dividing the loot.

Elder Thalassa was the first to respond. "No need to pull your mother aside, Myrina. We're all family here. Speak freely." Though her words were kind, she glared at me with narrowed eyes as she said this.

Myrina hesitated, but then shrugged and forged ahead. "Alright. I... I wanted to let you know..." she coughed to clear her throat.

Kyrina raised an eyebrow, setting aside the coins she'd been counting a moment ago. The eyes of the other Elders were all on Myrina.

I recognized Elder Caelia, with her arms crossed and both swords on her hips. Elder Elara was there, as well, massive and leaning against the table. She, at least, was smiling. There was a fourth elder present I didn't recognize, but I didn't like how close she was standing to Elder Thalassa.

"Mother, Elders," Myrina raised her voice as she met her mother's gaze. "Carter and I have decided to date. And if all goes well, we plan to have a formal engagement duel in several years to prove that he is strong enough to be with me."

There was a murmur of mixed reactions. Thalassa scowled, as did the Elder standing next to her. Caelia shrugged noncommittally, and Elara shot a glance to Kyrina, waiting to see the matriarch's reaction.

Kyrina let out a long breath. "I was afraid it would come to this."

"What?" Myrina demanded, arms crossed. "You're not going to try to tell me I can't do this, are you?"

Kyrina looked hesitant. She glanced between Myrina and me several times.

"Oh please, Kyrina, if you're not going to tell the girl, I will," Elder Thalassa said. Without waiting for a response, she turned to Myrina, sparing a moment to cast a glare at me. "Myrina, no, you're not dating him. End of story."

"What?!" Myrina's cheeks grew red as she turned on Elder Thalassa. "Why not?"

"Because it isn't in the best interest of the clan. Or of your family within it." Elder Thalassa curled her fingers and made a shooing motion at me.

The guards stepped into the room from the open door to grab me and pull me out, but Myrina stepped between them and me with her arms outstretched.

"No! Explain!" Myrina insisted.

Elder Thalassa let out a discontented sigh. "Myrina, don't be stubborn. If your mother was going to allow this, she would have spoken up already. Notice how she hasn't said a word?"

Kyrina appeared deep in thought, eyes focusing on the window of the small palace room as she gazed off into the distance.

"Why can't I date Carter? Cyra goes out with guys all the time!"

"And we're not fond of that, either. But it’s not like any of Cyra's dates would ever have a chance to win her engagement duel. We've been very careful to sabotage any budding relationship of hers that might cause trouble. It's bad enough that she is thinking about marrying, though. If we lose you as well, the Clan will be in trouble," Elder Caelia explained.

I turned to the Elder. "What do you mean by sabotage?"

Elder Caelia shrugged. "Just what it sounds like. Cyra can't be allowed to marry herself off—not to anyone in the D-Grade, at least. She can talk and flirt with young men of her own rank, but none of them can be allowed to win her over. It would be a waste of her talents, even if the man she matched with was slightly stronger. The Samhain Family has higher standards than the usual Amazonian woman, and not just because of some ancient tradition."

"Explain!" Myrina scowled. Her cheeks were red and her eyebrows were drawn tight together.

Elder Thalassa sighed. "It's interplanetary politics, girl. Don't be dense. You think the Samhain Clan would be as powerful and as important as it is if it were just us? A few C-Grade warriors and a matriarch?”

She snorted. “We'd be a continental power, at best, and not even a particularly major faction within the Amazonian Empire. We'd have to move to the capital to be anything more. But we're not. The Samhain Clan is known far and wide, and wealth flows into our lands from worlds far distant from Themyscira, despite our relatively backwater region and status."

"I know about that," Myrina waved her hand. "The Ancestors are looking out for us. Well, most of the time. This incident with the Shadefall Clan was the exception."

"Yes, they are." Elder Thalassa nodded patiently. "How do you think the Ancestors reached their current level of status?"

"By fighting for it!" Myrina replied instantly. It had the ring of something that had been drilled into her head since she was a little girl.

"No," Elder Thalassa's voice was cold. "They achieved it by marrying into it. The Ancestors are all married to extraordinarily wealthy and powerful men across the Arcadia Multiverse. Each of them worked hard for their positions, and many have climbed to the top of their imperial harems or their husband's planet's politics.”

The glare the Elder froze Myrina with was ice cold. “The fact of the matter is that has always been your family's true path to power. No Samhain main family member is meant to waste herself on an…” she glared at me again and snorted, “an ordinary man. You are destined to find yourself in the arms of a B-grade hegemon, a ruler of an entire world. Or perhaps even an A-grade one."

Privately, I had wondered about this exact issue. If I had taken humanity down a path specifically tailored toward elemental magic, and then done so again at the C-Grade racial evolution, me and my family would be highly skilled at elemental magic. All of my descendants would inherit my bonuses and be skilled in our chosen field.

That wasn't always a good thing, though. And it seemed the Samhain Clan's powerful racial boons were the solution for anyone who wanted to add some warriors to their wizarding family.

"That's ridiculous. The Samhain Clan is and has always been a noble family of warriors!" Myrina turned to her mother for reassurance, only to find her mother's face filled with uncertainty. "She's wrong. Right mother? Mother?"

Kyrina shook her head slowly. "It's... complicated, Myrina."

"Your mother won't be around forever," Elder Thalassa explained, eyebrows raised. "Did you know you have a brother? He's with your father—a strong man, if I've ever seen one. He's the reason wizard kings across the multiverse seek out the Samhains. Your family possesses one of the few warrior bloodlines powerful enough to breed true, even when paired with that of a B-grade wizard.”

“Just as our clan was nearly undone by the Shadefall exploiting a vulnerability to magic,” she explained, “many powerful wizard kings find themselves vulnerable to anything immune to magic. Some problems can only be solved through force of arms—at which point it is a good idea to have some fighters in the family."

"A brother?" Myrina asked in disbelief. "I have a brother?!"

Elder Thalassa nodded. "When your mother had two daughters in quick succession, she returned to her ancestral home to raise you both in the ways of her family. But your father will likely start missing his wife any day now, and soon she will have to return to him. By then, either you or Cyra must be ready to take your mother's place as clan matriarch."

Kyrina, pinching her temples between thumb and forefinger, finally spoke. "Yes, Myrina, you and Cyra have an older brother. It wasn't supposed to be a secret, it's just that he deals with politics on a planetary level. Until you and Cyra have power bases of your own, you'd be liabilities to him instead of assets. You won't meet him until either he or you are fully established."

Thalassa turned to Kyrina. "Enough of this, Kyrina. Tell your daughter to send this boy away. Now that Myrina knows how things are really done behind closed doors, she should know why she can't waste herself on this backwater villager from a newly integrated world."

Eyes turned to me, and I stepped forward. I met Elder Thalassa's harsh gaze with a flinty gaze of my own. "Earth may be a newly integrated world, but it won't be that way forever," I replied.

"Yes, mother!" Myrina latched onto my arm and my words. "Carter's doing a great job on Earth! He may not be that powerful now, but you promised him warriors and resources. He'll be strong and powerful someday, and a good leader. I know it!"

Kyrina's hands tightened on the edge of the table. Clearly, this was a conversation she hadn't thought she'd have for a long time. "Myrina, I like Carter too. But we have to think about the Clan. Just... give me a moment."

Elder Thalassa rolled her eyes. "Kyrina, I've seen enough of this. You were soft on Cyra and spared her feelings, and now my clanswomen have to follow her everywhere and make sure she doesn't get into the wrong sort of relationship. I won't waste those resources on Myrina, too. Fix this!"

Before getting Kyrina's response, Thalassa turned to the other Elders. "I call for a vote. All in favor of casting out this miscreant before he makes more trouble for the Clan?" She raised her own hand, as did the Elder standing next to her.

"Hold on a minute. What trouble have I caused you?" I glared at Elder Thalassa. "First, I completed quest after quest on behalf of your clan. Then I helped you sneak into the city and disable its defenses. After that, I built war machines that saved you weeks of slinging stones. More than that, I..."

I almost spilled the beans on my Mana Bombs, but I bit my tongue. Playing that card would be dangerous. Instead, I said, "I've helped you in a lot of other ways—some of which you don’t even know about. So what exactly is this trouble you're talking about?"

Elder Elara glanced at Elder Thalassa's direction. "He is right. He has been helpful." She crossed her arms, pointedly not raising her hand.

Elder Caelia had been moments away from raising her hand in favor of Elder Thalassa's proposal, but at my words she slowly lowered her arm. She had been the deciding vote. And with her, Elara, and Kyrina not raising their hands, there was a clear majority in favor of keeping me around.

Now all I needed to do was convince them to let Myrina and I stay together. It would be a hard argument to win, but if I proved myself—

Before I could even think of what to say, Elder Thalassa glanced to the fourth elder whose name I didn't know. "Enough of this farce. Do it," Elder Thalassa snapped.

The fourth Elder raised her hands and cast a spell, and suddenly the world started to blur.

I recognized what was happening immediately. This was teleportation magic. I tried to jump clear of the forming magic, but this time a barrier formed within it that prevented me from slipping through the rapidly forming spell. I could shatter it, given time, but like the other Elders, the one casting this spell was C-Grade.

I was outmatched in terms of raw magical power.

Myrina reached for me from the outside, but Elder Thalassa vanished into shadow only to appear right behind her. She grabbed Myrina around the waist and jerked her away from me.

I stretched my hand out, but the teleportation spell was too firmly established to escape. Then I was gone.