The Last Swordmaster

Lair of the Angels

The screaming beeps of my alarm clock roused me from my deep sleep. I slammed the power button in annoyance as Jack sat up, rubbing his eyes. Somehow, in our sleep, we'd managed to separate, and he was on the left side of the bed. I giggled and hit his arm. "Guess who ended up on the right side?"

He grinned sleepily leaning over to kiss my forehead. "I suppose I'm even a gentleman my sleep, huh?"

I rolled my eyes at him before getting up. "I have to get ready," I told him before he could even open his mouth to complain. "I don't have long before we're supposed to go."

Jack stretched and leaned back, watching me pick a dress from my closet. I chose a white, above the knee dress with vertical black stripes and paired it with some black pumps. I needed to look as non-threatening as possible. I also grabbed two thigh sheaves for daggers, and I grabbed a belt with the sheave for my sword. "I'm changing, Jack, so you'll have to leave."

With a long sigh, he dragged himself out of bed, moving like a zombie over to me. I was facing my mirror, away from him, so he put his head on my shoulder and hugged me for a moment. "Good luck. Make sure to come back in one piece for me."

"Don't worry, Jack. I'll be fine. I'm sure. Now, go get some more sleep. You're acting like you were up all night."

"You don't stay this pretty for a hundred years on only six hours of sleep, darling," he yawned in the middle of his sentence, let me go, ruffled my hair, and walked out, closing the door quietly behind him.

A smile lifted the corners of my mouth. He was really something. For the time being, though, I had to push all thoughts of him out of my head. I needed to focus on getting ready to leave on time, and what exactly I was going to say to the angel swordmasters. I rehearsed several different speeches in my head as I took off my pajamas and lifted the dress over my head. I smoothed it out as soon as it was on me and cleared my throat. I was getting nervous just thinking of what to say. If I stumbled over my words, I would probably cry from embarrassment. I had to stay as calm as possible.

I heard a knock at my door as I was fluffing up my bright red curls. "Scarlet? We still have a few minutes, but I'm ready when you are," Eve called. 

I slipped my pumps on. "I'm ready, just let me grab my sword." I grabbed my shining, sinister, beautiful looking sword from under my bed and slipped the daggers into the small pockets of fabric that I'd tied around my upper thighs. Nobody could know that those were there, but we needed all the weapons we could get. Anything could happen. 

When I opened the door, Eve rose from the chair across from mine at the desk. "Are we ready?"

I grabbed the notes off of the desk and folded them into the pocket of my dress. The pockets had zippers, so I zipped them up to keep them safe. "Now we are. We'll just open the portal with the mirror. I don't feel like wasting more time on this trip than what we need."

Eve sighed and followed me over to the magical mirror on the wall. "I hate teleporting. This piece of garbage always messes me up."

"I know, but it's the fastest way," I reminded her, an apology in my voice. She had the worst portal sickness of all of us. I tapped the mirror's edge and cleared my throat. "To the angel swordmasters."

The image of their mansion appeared, an extravagant building made of white marble with golden accents. Eve and I both reached our hands to touch the mirror, and once we did, we felt the ground beneath us fall. The world went entirely dark, and the only sound I could hear was my own pulse. After a few moments of heavy darkness, we landed on the solid ground again. Well, it was technically a cloud, but it was close enough. The angels, of course, lived in the sky.