The Guardians of the Relic

Glohone watched Emily from the rooftop of the building across from her apartment as she walked home. He wondered why Alastair insisted they still keep an eye on her. She didn’t seem in any danger to him. They were wasting time and he was growing impatient. He turned his head when he heard a sound from behind him, and in a flash he was on the floor with a knife at his throat.

“Athena,” he said with a gasp. Athena was dressed in full black. She wore a leather jumpsuit that was zipped up to her bust. It fit snugly to her slim body. Her straight long red hair covered half her face as she leaned forward to study his face.

“Glohone?” asked Athena startled. In that moment he grabbed the knife from her hand, flung it aside, and pushed her over so he was on top of her. She struggled to break free, but he pinned both of her hands down with his.

“Let go of me!” she screamed. As she wriggled under him he stared at her. She was exquisite, he thought. Never in all his years had he ever seen a woman as beautiful as Athena Morelli. She stopped wriggling for a minute. The light of the moon shone on her face and her eyes glittered. He was tempted to kiss her, but fought the urge. Love was for mortals. He had no time for it.

“I will let you go as soon as you tell me what you are doing here.” He remembered Izdel telling him she was in town, but he didn’t pay much attention to him. Glohone never really knew when to take Izdel seriously.

The last time he had seen Athena was when her twin sister Fay tried to help them track down Alkron. Fay was a powerful witch, but even she couldn’t track him down. Athena went everywhere with her. The sisters were inseparable. Athena was not like her sister, though. She had no magical powers but she was a skilled fighter, more skilled than any warrior he had ever seen.

“I don’t need to answer to you,” she said. She managed to free one hand and attempted to hit him with it, but he caught her hand mid-air.

“Yes you do. What are you doing outside Emily’s apartment?” asked Glohone. He was slowly beginning to lose his patience now.

“I haven’t got time for this. You don’t understand,” she said. She kneed him in the stomach. He fell back instantly. She got up and ran. Before he could even scream for her to stop, she jumped off the roof. He ran to the edge and saw her climbing down the building with a rope. She looked up at him when she reached the ground and then disappeared into the night.

* *

Emily entered her apartment exhausted from her long day. She switched on the light and looked at the clock. It was just past eleven. Jessica had suggested at lunch that they go for drinks after work since the one hour lunch break was not enough time for them to catch up. She had tons of stories to tell from her lawyer days in London. Although Emily only had one drink, the time had just slipped away. She took off her heels and felt immediate relief; they’d been hurting her feet since halfway through drinks. She thought about calling out of work. Jason did say she was working too much and needed a break. She wanted to go to that antique shop across town and see what Izdel had been talking about. After a hot shower she got into bed and was out the minute she closed her eyes.

Emily woke the next morning to the sound of Lady Gaga singing Just Dance. Obviously Daisy must be home, she thought with a smile. She remembered that she promised Daisy she would go furniture shopping with her. Today was the perfect day to make good on her promise. She got out of bed and called Jason to tell him she wouldn’t be coming into work.

“It’s fine babe, you really need a holiday. What do you have planned for today?” asked Jason.

“Nothing much, just going to relax a little bit and then maybe Daisy and I will go shopping on the far end of town. The last time we were there for breakfast I saw some shops I’d like to check out.” She really only wanted to go to one shop in particular, but she could kill two birds with one stone by taking Daisy along.

“Great. See you in the evening then. Enjoy the day.”

“Thanks, you too.” She hung up the phone and went next door to see Daisy.

She used her car. It had been a long time since she drove it. It was an old beat up, green Daihatsu Terios. Emily had bought it when she turned nineteen.

Daisy strapped herself in the passenger’s seat. “Nice car,” she said

Emily just smiled. She couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not. “Michael keeps telling me I need to get rid of this piece of junk so he can buy me a nice new car. But I don’t see the need to change it.” She hardly ever used the car anyway, except on weekends. She lived near all the places she needed to get to daily.

“Oh no, I wasn’t being sarcastic Ems. I like it. My dad used to own a car just like this. Same color too, brings back memories.”

“Okay. You be sure to tell Mike that you like it, then. It may be old but it still gets me from one place to the next,” said Emily.

“I will definitely tell him that.” She smiled. “You know your brother is really wonderful. He took me to the ballet last night. It was so romantic.”

“I am happy for both of you,” she said

When Emily passed the Fire Empress she slowed down. Izdel said the shop wasn’t too far from the restaurant. She saw that there weren’t too many antique shops in that area, so she figured she would be able to find it easily. She spotted a parking space and pulled over to the side.

“Why don’t you go ahead, I’ll catch up with you in a bit,” she said.

“Okay, don’t wander off too far though. This neighborhood isn’t too safe,” said Daisy

“I won’t. I’ll only be a few shops away from you, promise.”

She waited for Daisy to enter a home furniture shop down the road before she got out of the car. As she approached the first antique shop, she saw an old lady sitting at the front desk with a cat on her lap through the window. The lady was reading the paper and stroking her cat’s back continuously. Emily looked around, but there was no one else in the shop except for the old lady. It definitely wasn’t the right place. She moved on to the next shop. It was much larger. She couldn’t see past the “open” sign on the door and the blinds in the window, so she went in.

An old man instantly looked up at her when she walked through the door. She recognized the two men in the corner who seemed to be arguing about something. They stopped talking and looked at her when she entered. Emily felt a bit uneasy since they all were staring at her. She walked to the counter.

“Hello Emily,” said Alastair.

Zugast whispered to Erhan in the corner. “I thought Izdel took care of the girl.”

“Quiet,” said Erhan discarding him.

Emily was shocked he still remembered her name. She glanced around the shop. “Hello…Alastair is it?” He nodded. “I hope you don’t mind, Izdel told me you owned a shop and I was curious.” She walked around.

“Yes, well, you are most welcome my dear. I do apologize, I hope we didn’t scare you too much that night in the park,” said Alastair.

“No, you didn’t. I was just startled, that’s all. Izdel explained everything.” She picked up an old clock on the table and studied it. “This is a lovely shop. How long have you owned this place?” If she was going to get any information, she needed to ask lots of questions. She just hoped she would get more of the truth out of Alastair than she did Izdel.

“We have been here for a long time,” he answered.

Emily didn’t even know the antique shop had existed before Izdel mentioned it, so she couldn’t really tell whether he was lying or not. She looked over at the two men in the corner. They were obviously pretending to be occupied, but she could tell they were listening to every word.

“Do you attend any of the town meetings?” she asked. Elgin was a small town and the Mayor had regular meetings to discuss any grievances the people might have. She attended some, when she had the time, but she didn’t recall seeing Alastair or the other men there.

“Yes, well, we do attend when we are available,” said Alastair.

“I grew up here in Elgin. I love this place.” She thought of her parents then, and her heart sunk.

“It is a beautiful place to live,” he said.

“Where did you live before Elgin, and what made you move here?” She looked at him then, “Sorry, I don’t mean to pry”

“No, it is quite alright. We are travelers, explorers you may say. We have lived in many places in Moray. But you could say we now consider Elgin our home.”

It was a vague answer. It didn’t really tell her what she wanted to know. She heard her phone ringing and pulled it out of her bag. It was Jason.

“Hey Jason. Hello?” She looked at her phone and saw that she couldn’t get a proper signal. She started walking around the shop to get better reception, but noticed she still couldn’t get a signal. I’ll call him back later, she thought.

Before she could put the phone back in her bag, she noticed a little box at the back of one of the shelves. This part of the shop had mostly ornaments. It looked familiar. Emily reached for it. It was the exact same jewelry box her mom had given her for her birthday. She had never seen it in any other shop before, and she had looked plenty of times. Her mom had told her it was an antique. She took it over to the counter.

“Is this the only one you have of this jewelry box?” Alastair put on his glasses and looked at the box.

“Well, it is a rare piece. If I recall correctly we only had two and this is the last one. It was made in Africa,” he said.

“Do you remember who you sold the other one to?” asked Emily. She didn’t know why she even asked. It was unlikely that her mother bought it from this particular shop or that Alastair would remember her.

“Unfortunately I cannot recall.” Alastair handed her the box again, but she didn’t take it. “Why do you ask?”

Emily didn’t want to be rude. Her dad always told her, the only way to get a good story is to gain someone’s trust. People only opened up to someone they could trust. It was a long method, but it always worked for him. Although, in this particular case it wasn’t a story she was after. Actually, now that she thought about it, she wasn’t sure what she expected to find here. Her phone rang again; this time it was Daisy.

“Hey Daisy.” Daisy was bursting with excitement. “Okay, okay, I will be right there. I’m on my way.”

“Sorry about that,” she said, turning her attention back to Alastair. “It was given to me as a gift. But never mind, forget I asked. I need to go, thanks.” She hurried out of the shop before he could say anything else.

Alastair felt relieved as he placed the jewelry box back on the shelf. She hadn’t asked him anything further about that night. He wasn’t sure he could keep up Izdel’s lie, whatever that was. He was in the clear, for now, he thought.

He realized that Izdel was still not back. He went to look for Glohone. They had not heard from him since the night before. He looked out the window, growing more concerned about Glohone. If Emily had come to the shop then where was he? It was unlike him to disappear.

* *

Glohone stood outside Athena’s apartment. He had followed her there. He had trailed her the entire night but still didn’t have any clues about what she was up to. All she did was follow a young couple for the rest of the night. Glohone didn’t recognize the woman, but the man looked a little familiar. He remembered seeing his face in the local newspaper in a small article. He couldn’t remember the name though. He noticed that Athena was more interested in the man than the woman because when the woman left, she continued to trail the man.

He needed to know what was going on with her. Why was she so interested in this man, and where was her sister Fay? It seemed she was in town alone. She had obviously been outside of Emily’s apartment for a reason; he just had to figure it out. The way her eyes had looked just before she ran off made him wonder. He couldn’t get that image of her out of his head. She looked like she was in great distress. Something was very wrong.

Glohone wanted to see where she went when she left her apartment, so he resigned himself to sitting and waiting. It was a quiet morning. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the gusting wind. Athena’s apartment was only three blocks away from Emily’s. He had been to her apartment only once before. As he waited he contemplated his options. He could wait outside on the bench until she came out, or he could just go in now. He was getting tired of waiting.

Athena was very stubborn and he knew she would not tell him anything. He could make her cooperate, but they weren’t allowed to use magic unless under certain circumstances. Alastair would not be very pleased with him, since he had left Emily unprotected. He decided he’d rather not make things worse, even though he still didn’t understand why Emily needed to be protected in the first place. If she didn’t know anything about them, she was not in harm’s way. But it didn’t matter what he thought. He had to follow orders. It was the way of the council.

“Glohone, there you are.” Glohone turned around to see Izdel standing next to him.

“Izdel, what are you doing here?” he asked, pulling him down to sit.

“Well, looking for you of course, but I see you took my advice,” he winked at him.

“What are you going on about now?” asked Glohone. He glanced at Athena’s building.

“You can’t hide it, Glohone, it’s obvious. I know why you’re outside of Athena’s apartment. Don’t worry, I won’t breathe a word to anyone. It will be our secret.”

“Keep your voice down you fool,” said Glohone. Glohone grabbed Izdel and pulled him down, they moved behind a truck parked on the side of the road. Izdel was about to say something when Glohone signaled him to keep quiet. They watched as Athena exited her apartment, locked her door, and walked down the street. When she was just about to turn onto the next street, Glohone whispered to Izdel. “Let’s go.”

“No, no...hold on Romeo. We are not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on here. I mean I know you’re crazy in love with her, but stalking is very unattractive to the ladies. Trust me”

“I am not stalking her,” said Glohone. He was losing his patience and she was getting away. But he knew if he didn’t tell Izdel what was going on, he wouldn’t let him go. “She was outside Emily’s apartment last night. When I asked her why, she refused to tell me, so I followed her. I think she is in trouble. I can feel it.”

“What do you mean in trouble?” said Izdel

“I don’t know. That’s what I am trying to figure out. We’re letting her get away.” He tried to leave but Izdel still blocked his way. His teeth clenched. “Move out of my way.”

“So what is your plan exactly, to follow her and get yourself killed?”

Glohone didn’t know what to do. All he knew was that she was in possible danger and they were just standing around arguing.

“Just hear me out for a minute, okay?” asked Izdel. “I want to help her, but what if she knew you would follow her and it is a trap? You don’t know what kind of trouble she is in yet.”

“I can handle it,” said Glohone. He knew Izdel was right but didn’t want to admit it.

“Yes, and I don’t doubt that you can my friend, but we still need more information and a plan.”

As much as he didn’t like the idea of leaving Athena alone, he had to listen to Izdel. He might give him a hard time now and again, but when it came down to it, Glohone could not be prouder to have anyone else by his side. “Okay, you’re right,” he said.

“Of course. I’m always right,” said Izdel.

Glohone eyed him. “Don’t push it.”

As they walked away a figure watched them from a distance. He hadn’t expected so much company. This was going to be harder than he had anticipated.