She jumped a bit as another explosion went off, probably closer this time it seemed. Then she zoned back out again.
As long as she wasn’t effected, she wouldn’t care. Her aunt could do whatever she wanted with her money, so there wasn’t really anything for Emilia to care about here. Though she supposed it could be a bit upsetting to the people involved.
A small square of cloth caught her eye, and she wandered over to a shop window. The cloth was a flag, the kind that could be used as a children’s toy.
She leaned in to look at the colour better, “Mmm … that could look nice.”
She slipped out her phone, snapped a picture, and continued her walk. She could sample and save the colour later, then it would go with every other reference she had.
When the smoke cleared, Lazare was standing in a circle of destroyed rubble. They rolled their eyes and ran after the man. After bursting out onto another large road, they turned and started down the road, following the guy down the road a bit and into another alleyway. They were only a little way into the alley when they found the man. He was dead, probably because he'd figured out a god was going after him and chose the better option. Lazare growled and turned back around. The only good thing about this whole thing was that there was one more thing that could convince Emilia that she should actually help. Maybe they should find her… but first they had to make sure the news actually picked up on this being Crin's work. It was only a quick stop and might make her take them seriously.
Emilia got to the next bend on her path, then turned on her heel after seeing how many people were there. They’d probably all been running away from wherever the explosions came from. So she’d just have to take some shortcut instead.
She sighed, reaching to put her hands in her pant pockets, before remembering there were no pockets. It annoyed her that she couldn’t do that, and that she wasn’t wearing a sweater with pockets.
She ran her fingers over the brick wall as she turned a corner into an alleyway. If she was navigating properly, then down this way would lead past all the people.
Lazare walked out of one of the many news stations, having planted quite a few clues leading to the fact that Crin was probably taking over everything. Now to find Emilia… which would be rather difficult since she'd taken all the business cards off her person. Time to run around the city until they found her. Wonderful. At least they would be getting all their exercise from this outing. They started running, turning themselves invisible again since they would be running a little faster than normal humans could. As an afterthought, they also made themselves able to walk through stuff, just so they didn't have to expend energy moving around people. At least they were practicing using all the different types of magic they had at their disposal. Another plus!
Now Emilia was just running out of things to think about. That was also on her because she didn't want to think about flowers anymore … or her drawings, or anything else that happened today.
The sunlight became a bit dampened in the alleyway, as one would think. The temperature had dropped as a result, but it couldn't have gotten that cold anyway. A bit of sun still shone in through a stained glass window on one of the buildings and at the end of the alley that opened up to a street.
As Emilia had hoped, the alley did open past majority of the people, though there were still quite a few people out. It would only make sense though, in a city full of people. As sacrifice for her avoidance of everyone, she'd be walking directly into the sunlight. Even her nearly black sunglasses couldn't completely protect her.
After practically running around the entire city, Lazare finally found Emilia. They were a bit out of breath from all the magic use they'd done that day, of course from running around an entire city. Lazare paused for a few seconds, trying to figure out exactly what they were going to say. In the end, they just decided to go for it. Before they dropped their invisibility, however, they turned their hair and eyes into more natural colors. They didn't want Emilia to get unwanted attention from other mortals because a god was talking to her like they were best friends with her. After checking around to make sure no one was really paying attention, Lazare dropped the invisibility and fell in step with Emilia. "So, have you changed your mind yet?" They asked, looking at her.
Emilia paused, still registering what was happening. Then sighed.
“You’re back again? Already? What makes you think I changed my mind? Like I want anything to do with you.”
So much for a relaxing evening. Emilia would probably just be up and waiting for her to be told the world was ending.
It ticked her off too, that this Lazare guy here was so persistent. Why wouldn’t he just find someone else? There were so many other people out there, and some probably better suited for saving the world. How could she even believe anything he said?
There were probably whole groups of people who believed random stuff like that. Lazare was supposed to be the God of Chaos or something like that … so how could she trust that he wasn’t the one who started this in the first place?
"I am back. Did you miss me?" Lazare grinned at her, though it didn't last long. "Well, look at this." They held up the sword and pointed at the spot where Crin's symbol was etched. "Someone stabbed me with this. One of Crin's fanatics. And another one of her followers blew up a police station. I'm sure you heard that?" They raised an eyebrow before continuing. "Before he… disappeared, the bomber said something about letting people know what's in store for them. Which just might be wide-spread destruction. You live here, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to get destroyed, right?" They asked, looking at her hopefully.
There she went thinking about everything all over again.
She yawned, “There’s not much for me to accomplish here, so I don’t really care. And how could I trust that you didn’t start this incident in the first place?”
On the inside, Emilia was just really hoping that he’d go away. For good this time. She didn’t know what to think of the sword … or of this guy getting stabbed. If he did get stabbed. Bombers and terrorists, and whatever else went into that category, claimed stuff like that all the time. So, if someone said the world was ending, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.
"Ah, how dare you!" Lazare gasped, looking appropriately shocked. "I wouldn't do something like that! I mean, possibly, but only to people that really deserved it… and those dead police officers didn't deserve it." They huffed in annoyance. Yes, they totally could have done this. They had done it a few times, but not this time. This is what they got for everything in the past, wasn't it? If only they could give up on Emilia, since she'd already given up on them. But no, their heart was insisting on her. Maybe they should just go off the other side of the world and forget about everything. But they couldn't let Crin get away with this, especially since she had the skull. Lazare growled softly, grabbing the blade of the sword with their other hand and squeezing it. The sharp edge cut into their palm and fingers, drawing silvery blood.
Emilia watched Lazare. It seemed they were getting a bit angry too. As long as she was left alone though.
“Well … if we’re done here, I’ll be going now.”
It might not be the greatest time to exit, but Emilia still just wanted to move on. Crin could do whatever the hell they wanted, and whether or not the world was taken over … it wouldn’t matter.
To a god, this was probably only a minor inconvenience that could be ignored. This also brought up the question of why this was so important to Lazare. In a few centuries this wouldn’t matter anymore, right? So, Emilia was still left without a reason to care.
Lazare stopped walking, letting Emilia take a few steps in front of them. Maybe they should just let her leave… they could steal the skull from Crin, disappear into the void of space or whatever, and let it explode. It would probably kill them, but right now, death seemed like a pretty nice option. But no, they weren't quite there yet. Lazare started walking again, jogging a few steps to catch up with Emilia. "Please–" They only got out one word before they were interrupted by screaming ahead of them. A crowd was forming, and Lazare couldn't see what everyone was freaking out about. But the screams helped make sense of it. Much of it was unintelligible, but two words kept repeating: 'crazy'… and 'bomb'.
Much to Emilia’s dismay, Lazare was still trying and there were now more people crowding up ahead. Screaming and shouting too.
She made for another alleyway, still wanting to avoid what was happening. Now, it did seem a bit close- the explosions and the talk about Crin. Episodes like this happened sometimes too. Emilia didn’t want to be anywhere near here, being involved in stuff like this was stupid.
She was a bit curious about the situation, but it’d all be reported on the news later. Whether all of it was 100% facts, she didn’t care. Life would just go on anyway, or … if it was really happening- the city would just go up in flames. It still wouldn’t matter though.
Lazare was drawn through the crowd, and only realized when they were at the front that Emilia had disappeared. Fine, for now. They had to check who this person was. They moved around a person and saw whoever it was. Another fanatic, holding a detonator and wearing a mask. From the looks of it, whoever it was was going to set off the bomb, killing themself and everyone else around them. Normally, Lazare didn't really care, but Emilia was close and it was one of Crin's people. They snapped their fingers and the bomb at the fanatic's feet turned into a pile of flowers. While everyone was staring at it in confusion– most of all the fanatic– Lazare turned and headed toward where they thought Emilia might be.
Walking through a different crowd of people would have to suffice for now. It seemed like some of them were headed towards where she just came from. As usual, curiosity overtaking the crowds.
Hopefully, this would just mean that there’d be less people on her way back to her aunts. There wasn’t necessarily that many people there anyway, since her place here was a bit far. Who knew how much money her aunt had. She was probably just paying people to stay away. Though it seemed like a better alternative would have been to hire security guards or something, instead of bribery.
Emilia tapped her foot while she waited to cross the street. A child somewhere nearby was crying and whining, and it was very annoying.
After a few wrong turns, Lazare finally found Emilia waiting to cross a street. "There you are!" They exclaimed, a feeling of relief sweeping through their body. They'd had a crazy thought that something had happened to her, but she was probably just escaping the crowd– and them as well. "Did you know there was another bomber of Crin's standing just a little way away from you?" Lazare asked. "They would have blown up the whole block if someone hadn't stopped them. That someone was me. You're welcome." Maybe if they just stayed near her long enough, she would begin to get used to them and not want them to go away. Or she just might hate them even more. But now they were nervous about Emilia getting blown up or stabbed by some random fanatic. So staying near here was probably best, at least for their peace of mind.
"Well don't you feel so proud, huh?" Emilia's eye nearly twitched purely from annoyance.
They were starting to sound a bit childish now, and a bit too proud. Why did they even need to tell her this stuff anyway? It was great and all to know that the block was going to blow up, but whatever happened, happened. Emilia thought that the heavens weren't supposed to intervene with this stuff either.
Why did this matter so much to Lazare? Why did she need to know? Something was just not adding up for Emilia, so it was either Lazare was bored or something or she was missing something. She opted for the first option.
She crossed the road now, slightly hoping to just get hit by a car. All she wanted to do was to just go water her aunt's plants.
"I did probably save your life, along with many others." Lazure shrugged, completely ignoring all signs that said that Emilia wanted them to go as far away from her as they could go. It was a conscious effort, though. They weren't blind. And even as they followed her across the street, their resolve was fading. Making Emilia sad or annoyed or feel anything bad defiantly wasn't what they wanted to do, but they were doing it for her own safety. Or was it just because they'd been given a reason to stick by her side? Lazare shook their head, almost tempted to whack themselves in the head with the sword they were still carrying. That would get them even more weird looks, though, so they decided against it. "Where are we going?" They asked, not really expecting an answer.
Emilia looked at Lazare, "I am going to water my aunt's plants."
Why can't you just pick up the fact that I need you to go away? By now, Emilia had for sure given up on having a 'relaxing evening'. She was about ready to shout in frustration, then again, Lazare also just happened to have a sword. So, if it was real … she was tempted to just stab herself. It was not a helpful trait to have so that you get irritated easily.
Lazare here, also just expected her to highly value everyone else's lives. Yeah … but no thanks. There'd probably be no escaping them either, since they were a god and all. Probably. She could only just wait for them to lose interest in her and go away.
"Right. Of course," Lazare sighed heavily. Emilia seemed really done with them. She had seemed done with them since the moment they'd first met her, basically. This was probably why they weren't the god of love– they were terrible at it. And they couldn't even tell her, because she would probably think they were making a cruel joke or something like that. They really were in a big hole. Although, it might be better that they stopped caring about her. She didn't seem to be all that invested in other people's safety and all that. Okay, that was what they were going to do. Keep walking with her and try to find all the things wrong with her so they could stop and go away and get someone else's help. This was such a good plan.
So, you can stop following me now.
She was also tempted to forcibly make them leave, however that would work. She didn’t want to start an argument either though. Probably end up cursed or something.
“Why are you so persistent? What do I have to do with all of this?” Emilia didn’t really think about, but she needed some answers. Since she wouldn’t be forgetting this that easily. Though, she might just beat herself up over this later.
Hopefully, this god here would just disagree with whatever emotions they were feeling, and leave her alone for good now. Hoping that didn’t seem to work last time though.
She was a bit relieved at the sight of pine trees ahead, knowing that she was almost to her aunt’s place.
"Why am I so persistent? Because you are the chosen one," Lazare insisted. "Even if you don't believe me, it's true." They really needed to figure out some sort of event to prove to Emilia that she was the chosen one. Maybe they could get Itzal to help them. He liked them well enough. "Seriously, though, what can I say to get you to believe me?" If Emilia told them, then they didn't have to think of a plan at all, which suited them quite nicely. Lazare looked at Emilia, only to see an orb floating in front of their face. One of the other gods were trying to call them, but it would have to wait. They casually batted the orb away, hoping Emilia hadn't seen it, only to have it come right back into their face. Lazare growled softly and grabbed the orb tight in their hand and hid it behind their back.
“Yeah,” she laughed. “Sure. There’s nothing to say. It doesn’t really matter who the ‘chosen one’ is, right? This can’t be that important either. Time passes differently to the immortal, so this will only be looked upon as a minor inconvenience.”
This time Emilia’s eye really twitched out of pure annoyance. Though, hopefully now that she was basically at her aunt’s, she’d be left alone.
She could see the gate up ahead now, and some of the plants she had been waiting to water. She could spend the rest of the day now, angrily watering plants. However one did that.
Lazare sighed. They should probably answer that call now that Emilia wasn't working with them… again. The orb in their hand buzzed insistently and Lazare let go of it. The orb flew into their face and buzzed again. "Fine, I'll leave you alone. But if you need to call me…" Lazare shrugged. "I'm sure you can find a business card around your apartment somewhere." They smiled at her and pressed the orb. Lazare disappeared, reappearing inside the throne room of the gods. Itzal, Finlai, and Elief were all sitting in their thrones, looking weirdly worried.
"Took you long enough," Finlai said in annoyance, glaring at Lazare.
Emilia finally sighed with relief once she reached the gate. Unbelievably glad that there was hope she’d be left alone forever. Her theories were confirmed regarding her apartment being filled with those business cards too.
She pulled off her sunglasses and stuck them onto her shirt, no longer needing them since the trees locked most of the sun. She dug out a ring of keys from her back pocket, them jangling as she searched for the right key. Then she kicked the gate open.
"What do you want?" Lazare asked, crossing their arms and glaring at the three gods.
"Have you heard who has the Skull of Finlai?" Itzal asked, looked at Lazare.
"Yes." Lazare nodded slowly, a plan slowly forming in their head. Maybe if one of the other gods told Emilia that she was the chosen one… just maybe, she might actually believe them. Then again, they didn't really believe that would happen. "As it happens, I've been researching that. Crin Marchesi has it. And I have a chosen one."
"Are they actually a chosen one? I don't think we have one," Elief said, her brow furrowing.
"She is not, but there is a very slim chance we could convince her that she is." All three of the gods sighed in unison and turned to talk amongst themselves.
Emilia pulled out the house key on her way to the door now. Why her aunt had a separate keypad to get to the hose was beyond her.
She’d just start with watering the outdoor plants first, so that by the time it would get dark, she could be inside.
After finally getting back outside with the hose and pair of gardening gloves, Emilia could try and find boots. Emilia was a bit too lazy to walk to the end and water the plants as she walked back, so to prevent her shoes from being ruined, she’d wear rain boots.
The pair of boots were spotted over by another of the house walls and replaced by her own shoes.
Lazare rolled their eyes and turned around. They loved it so much when the other gods summoned them, then ignored whatever they had to say and figured out their own way to solve whatever problem they had.
"Lazare, wait," Itzal called. Lazare turned back around and stared at him.
"What." They took one step towards the gods.
"Who is this chosen one?"
"Emilia Vantress," Lazare answered.
"And is she at all interested in helping us?" Elief asked, her eyebrows narrowed slightly.
"Not one but. Maybe if one of you paid her a visit, though…" They suggested, shrugging slightly. The three gods turned to talk amongst themselves again, and then Itzal stood.
"I'll see her," He said, walking over to Lazare. "Take me to her."
Emilia made her way to the edge of the property, after turning on the hose. Now she’d water the edges partway and then swap sides so she didn’t tangle up the hose or knock over something.
She adjusted the nozzle, nearly spraying herself in the face in the process. Though she was tempted to spray the water up in the air just to feel the relief of cold water.
Checking for the last time that she wouldn’t knock anything over, she started to water the plants.
“Let’s hope there’s nobody eating you guys.” Emilia said to herself, though partly to the plants. Insects eating plants here were a whole other problem. It was a good thing she had a lot of free time.
The two gods appeared right where Lazare had disappeared. "I think that's where she went," Lazare said, pointing at the house in front of them. Itzal took in the house, then looked at Lazare.
"What reason do you have for involving her in this?" He asked, tilting his head slightly and looking down at Lazare. They were happy he was the one that came because he was the one who hated them the least… but the height difference always made them feel weird. Itzal had almost a foot on them, even with their tallest pair of heels.
"She seemed like the right person. But I could always be wrong." Lazare said, starting towards the house. They could hear Itzal heave a sigh behind them, but they didn't look back. He would follow them.
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