Roughly a week later.
London and the rest of the world, Lady Memento, the only person who could handle such a multinational threat of the Third Revelation, was arrested by the authorities and outed by the public. Rumblings about magical females fighting along with military outfits were inconclusive. And, of course, there was the Stygian Society, who were now at a standoff with the Royal Order of the Black Wing.
The Stygian Society’s primary objective is to serve and protect the Royal Order of the Black Wing. This bloodline traces back from the first generations of black-winged diaras like Lucifel. Stygian Society is a collective group of Daemon Knights broken off into smaller groups and commanded by their sovereigns.
They usually work in the shadows and protect the royal bloodline first, yet they protect everyone else who is not. Most even work with law enforcement or a part of law enforcement.
Despite their daemonic heritage, the Stygian Society is a virtuous group of nephalems. With the Stygian Society, it was about business and the principle of the matter: to maintain the balance by any means necessary.
Their headquarters in London was near the city’s heart as they rented out a four-story building that stationed 170 people, all of whom were Daemon Knights working on the impending crisis.
One Daemon Knight was working diligently. Wearing her issued Daemon Knight uniform, she was about 5 ? feet tall and had a slender hourglass figure. You would never know since she always wore baggy clothing or her uniform. She always wore her long black hair that came down to her back in a fashionable bun. She had green eyes but always wore glasses due to her poor eyesight.
She walked into the office with purpose as she stood outside the door that read ‘Administrator Susanoo Halberstam’ who around this time didn't work underneath a daemonic monarch as she was a part of the separation between both parties. Susanoo was considered to be a Ronin.
Even though she was a Ronin, she had an excellent record of completing S-ranked missions. On the flip side, she had a bad reputation for not working well with others and defying regal authority.
Marco heard a female voice with two knocks on the door, “Come on in, Miss Bennett!” Immediately, she went into the office and closed the door behind her.
Marco and Susanoo shook hands as they sat down. Susanoo still had her signature blood-red eyes, but her black hair with caramel brown and blonde peekaboo highlights was shorter than usual.
"So glad to see you here, Miss Bennett. And if you were three hours early today. Impressive!" Susanoo praised with a cute smile.
But Marco knew better; underneath that cute smile was a cold and ruthless individual. Still, she played it off as she was completely nervous underneath, "Thank you, Arcana."
"You don't have to call me that. Just call me Miss Halberstam." Susanoo insisted while she took her attention, reading off Marco’s resume. “I see you completed your training last year while attending Oxford for your undergrad degree and traveling abroad to Harvard in the United States. Earning a master's degree in cultural anthropology and a bachelor's in demonology. You are well-versed in dark arts and chaos magic. According to our evaluations, you are ranked 'A' in both." She then paid her attention to Marco as she smiled again. “Very impressive.”
“Thank you, Miss Halberstam,” Marco obliged.
"With many accolades and recommendations. I do believe that your days of being a scout are officially over. That is why we are giving you your post." Susanoo announced with a smile.
Marco's eyes lit up as she almost cried upon hearing the good news, "thank you, Miss Halberstam! Thank you!"
“In Lancashire...” Susanoo mumbled under her breath.
“I’m sorry?” Marco wondered.
Knowing she had to repeat herself, she sighed deeply, “You’re going to be posted in Lancashire.”
This confused Marco, "But that's in the country. And my hometown."
“Yes, so you don’t have to worry about living far away from home anymore!” Susanoo said with a reassuring smile.
Then Marco’s worst fears crept into her mind, “Are you sending me home in the lowest of keys!”
“No, we are not.” Susanoo defended.
“Then can I stay here in London?” Marco suggested.
“Many scouts are coming in, and we have to cycle the ones who are ready,” Susanoo quickly answered.
“In other words, you want to get rid of me! Why?!” Marco accused.
“But you said you wanted to go back to Lancashire,” Susanoo reminded when she read off her paper or pretended to, “Didn’t you say, ‘I would love to go back to my hometown and have a family, especially with a man like you, Dante!’” Susanoo said with a smirk.
Marco should have never trusted Susanoo. Even when what she said was out of context, Susanoo took that as a serious threat to her pursuing a relationship with a man she barely knew and only met once. This was indeed an abuse of power.
“I guess I’m going to have to go above you...” Marco bellows.
"Well, if you're going to go above me, then I have no choice. Do I? But I'll call him myself!" Susanoo picked up the phone and dialed three numbers in random order. In reality, the phone was off. But it was a queue for the Executive Administrator to come in. Then, a tall tiger kemonomimi with long red hair and green eyes came in. Marco was stunned that she came in so quickly; unbeknownst to her, it was a setup.
Out of courtesy, Marco shook the Tiger girl’s hand, “Miss Cynthia Devorah!”
Just like Susanoo, she was a ronin as well. However, she valued her college education more than serving a monarch, earning many degrees.
"This is the great Marco Bennett that everyone's been talking about. Right, Susanoo?" Cynthia fibbed.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Earning a master’s degree in cultural anthropology and a bachelor's in demonology,” Susanoo said with a condescending smile.
Cynthia then sat down next to Susanoo, “It brings my attention that you don’t want to leave London,” Cynthia explained.
“No, I don’t!” Marco denies.
"However, many others like yourself are in London, and we don't have any room for openings..." Cynthia said with a sad smile. "But at least you'll be closer to home and friends."
“I wish I had a job like that with no pressure!” Susanoo patronizes.
What a scowl on her face; she stared directly at her nemesis, “Yeah, no pressure...”
"So, you will be leaving in the next two days. We will let the mayor know about your arrival. Who knows? There might be a homecoming party waiting for you," Susanoo said with a smile.
However, Marco continued to stare directly at Susanoo but with a scowl.
Susanoo reached for the phone, pretending to be frightened, “do you want me to call him?”
“Go ahead, call him!” Marco challenged.
"You want me to call him? The squad leader?" Susanoo warned, slowly reaching for the phone.
“I intend to stutter, Susanoo, but I didn’t this time...” Marco insisted.
This received an eye roll as the fa?ade was up, “She made us, Daddy!”
Then, the squad leader immediately entered the room, but Marco was too angry to shake his hand. Yet the squad leader knew her anger and frustration, so he understood.
The squad leader looked a lot like her daughter, Susanoo, with red eyes in the same hair color. Yet, he was older. Susanoo gave up her seat as the squad leader sat down.
“Imperial Knight Morpheus,” Marco stoically greeted.
Morpheus nodded, "Miss Bennett. I've heard a lot about you--"
“Earning a master’s degree in cultural anthropology and a bachelor's in demonology,” Susanoo said.
“Yes, yes, indeed...” Morpheus blew off. “You must realize, Miss Bennett, that the two behind me did not sign off on you returning to your hometown in Lancashire. I did it. And I know what you're thinking: I'm falling on the sword for my... Jealous and territorial daughter, but I'm not. Miss Bennett, I don't think you are what you say you are. You being a wicca,” Morpheus explained.
This threw Marco into a loop while she tried to defend herself, “I don’t understand... I passed every test that you gave me--!”
“Humans tend to pass these tests, Miss Bennett,” Cynthia chimes in.
“That doesn’t make you a nephalem or witch,” Susanoo chimes in.
"We find many 'pretenders' who want to be a part of the Stygian Society. You need to find out how many run-of-the-mill humans are sensitive to aethereal energy. It is rather impressive. But for you to say that you have the heritage of a Wicca is rather upsetting. Suppose you are then shown no characteristics of a ‘Wiccan.’ And about your shift, you are past due to have one as the female wiccan has their shifts under age 15. You turned 23 yesterday." Morpheus points out.
Mortified by this exile, Marco decided to defend herself, “I am sorry to offend you, sir, but you’re making a big mistake mocking me...”
Morpheus scoffed at the idea, “No offense at all, and there was no mistake to be made.”
“I know one thing about the camaraderie I’ve built over the past couple of years in this office, and I know everyone outside my door has my back!” Marco probably stated.
Getting out of her chair and storming out of the office, she was met by everyone who fell in line with the Imperial Knight. They even had balloons and streamers ready. The celebration was wooden, and seldom as they knew, her days were numbered here in this office.
With her head down, she didn't even look at anybody. Marco decided to clean out her office today and pack her suitcase tonight. All waiting for her was a bus ride to Lancashire, her new post and home.
~~~
After Susanoo’s petty victory, she decided to go on an early lunch and see the city. It was there she met a young man with honey-brown hair and dark blue eyes wearing a dark suit in the park. Susanoo always looks drop-dead gorgeous when he is dressed up. It was like he was talking to a few dogs and having a conversation with them. When he was done, the dogs scampered away to their owners or had fun some rounds.
The young man would see Susanoo weeding back at him with a smile. He sighed as he courteously laid back with a smile. It was like he knew what happened long before anybody told him of anything. Still, he had to be diplomatic for everyone’s sake.
The two met up to speak about things, especially about current events.
Mainly, about work in general.
They took a stroll along the walkway.
“Dante, I heard about the missing persons cases that you have been working on for the past five months. It appears most of them were children who were abducted 15 to 20 years ago. Some numbered projects--”
“You know that is classified. I cannot talk about it with uncleared personnel,” the young man named Dante said.
His full name is Dante Stryker is also a Daemon Knight; like Arcana, he is the first knight of his roundtable. Primarily he works around the British Columbian area, protecting members of the Order of the Black Wing.
He enlisted in the Stygian Society at a young age and became one of the most stalwart Daemon Knights next to Arcana, earning mastery in Swordsmanship and Marksmanship. Dante is pretty much the go-to guy when it comes to ranger missions and rescue missions.
At a younger age, Susanoo was a bit cold to him and saw him as a rival. But eventually warmed up to him and became friendly, since those bitter feelings were a bit one-sided. She admired his strength and intelligence but fell in love with him for his shy yet confident nature, especially five years ago when she lost her mother in London.
“As an administrator in our United Kingdom division--”
“Then you should know, Susanoo, reassigning other daemon knights without notice could destroy the case.” Dante cut her off.
“She is not like us, Dante! She is a pretender!” She shouted.
He just laughed it off, “I bet you and daddy proved that with all of your friends…” He rebutted.
Usually, Dante’s kind demeanor is always present. But not today for obvious reasons.
“Look, you don’t have that many people to be on your side as it is. You and Morpheus have a target on your foreheads. You know Marco is not a threat to you. Just wanted to make an example for everyone.” Dante analyzed correctly.
Susanoo stopped him as he faced him eye to eye, “We don’t have the luxury of spoiling and coddling fakes.” She defended.
“And we will never know if she is a real one.” He dismissed.
Susanoo scowled as she swallowed hard, “you’re familiar with the lost Wicca culture.”
Dante shrugs, “It goes hand-in-hand with Black Shuck.” He said with a smile. “I thought these were the kind of nephalems that were extinct like us. But we adapted and evolved into what we are today. Knowing to myself, if there is one extreme that I am a part of this existence, then there has to be another that is out there.”
“Existing…” Susanoo is being sarcastic.
“That’s what Marco wanted more out of this entire case. She wanted answers.” Dante said as he pulled out a small Polaroid photo that had severely faded away.
He showed it to Susanoo, and it puzzled her.
“I did not know what it was myself until she told me what it was. A childhood photo, around twenty years ago.” Dante said.
“It looks like two girls…” Susanoo identified.
“Marco swore it was a boy in this photo,” Dante said as he folded the photo back up, “she told me that she didn’t need it anymore…”
“Then just throw it out!” Susanoo bellowed.
“Because unlike you, Susanoo, I would still like to make friends at work.” Dante insults. “You can be the most wonderful woman in the world towards me, but this isn’t working. I too have parents who have accomplished so much, and I have to live up to their expectations whether they want me to or not. Yet that was just the pressure I put on myself. Until I learned to let it all go,” him being truthful
Susanoo smiled, “did Marco tell you that?” Her being condescending.
Dante scowled. He could’ve just bit his tongue and just moved on, but Susanoo needed to hear this, “When your mother was in the hospice--”
The core mood became dark as the enraged Susanoo got in his face, “Don’t you even dare!” she warned. “My mother was a lot of things, but being insightful and spiritual on her deathbed was not one of them. It was the drugs talking.”
Dante looked away as he shook his head, “They are all forms of commitment and love that we all had to adhere to--”
“THERE WAS NO LOVE!” Susanoo shouted in his face as it almost got the attention of everyone who heard it.
Dante calmly took a step back as she looked into the eyes of the bitter woman, “A flower cannot live and grow without sunshine, Susanoo. Sometimes, you have to let the sun in.”
With those parting words, Dante walked away from her.
Breathing heavily, Susanoo felt like she was somewhat betrayed.
That photo. What was the symbolism behind it?
