Vol.4 Ch.33 – Morning Oratory
Chapter 33: Morning Oratory
Elaine was slightly disappointed when she stepped out of the shower without Evelyn joining her for another round but when she took a look at her bed and saw Evelyn curled up on it like a small dog she couldn't help but smile.
“Let's get some breakfast in you,” Elaine said gently as she leaned down to caress Evelyn's cheek.
“Five more minutes,” Evelyn mumbled into the blanket.
Elaine genuinely couldn't tell whether Evelyn was just being a brat or whether she was playing it up to get Elaine to punish her but right now she had places to be and so she reacted to the whining in the only acceptable way: She started tickling Evelyn.
“Stop!” Evelyn giggled as she squirmed, “stop! Okay fine, I'm awake, you can stop now.”
Only then did Elaine relent, then she pulled Evelyn up.
“Take a shower, then come eat breakfast,” Elaine told me.
Elaine had been with Evelyn long enough to know that the redhead wanted to argue but then she clearly decided not to. “Yes,” she instead said, then added very very quietly, “daddy.”
Elaine froze and closed her eyes, mentally beating down the erection threatening to rip her boxer briefs apart. That sentence had been way hotter than it'd had any right to be. But she didn't have time to explore those thoughts now because she had a packed day ahead of her, of hanging out with Aurora.
**
“Who're they?” Alexis asked quietly as she stole glances at the staff table.
Sat next to Prudence, Jeanne and the Lieutenant General were two figures she hadn't seen before, one a gorgeous blonde that would have been the epicenter of Alexis' strike zone back before she'd met Elaine and a tall, dark and handsome man with long black hair.
“No idea but from the way they're sitting I would bet they're angels,” Ophelia, the team's vampire, said. “They seem to know Jeanne.”
“I guess that means we'll be sent on another mission then,” Alexis said, then glanced over to Aurora, who had frozen with a strawberry halfway to her mouth, staring at the two newcomers. “Aurora?”
“Yes?” the girl asked, snapping out of it.
“Do you know these people?”
The girl just shook her head, hunching in on herself.
**
When Elaine entered the cafeteria she saw most of her team already there, having breakfast. Her team was easy enough to spot, thanks to a plate piled ridiculously high with fruit sitting in front of a gorgeous pixie in a sundress. Except the little pixie seemed to be terrified out of her mind.
Elaine sat down right next to her, not even considering whether the girl was okay with touching, and asked quietly: “What's wrong?”
“There's two newcomers,” Ophelia said quietly. “She went quiet after noticing them.”
Elaine looked over, finding the two people immediately. They stuck out like sore thumbs. They didn't look like they had anything to do with Caulder, so...
“You can tell us, you know?” she said quietly, then gently touched the back of her hand to Aurora's thigh.
The girl responded by grabbing Elaine's hand and squeezing like she never wanted to let go. “They're called the Radiant Prism and the Acheron Vector. They hunt necromancers.”
Mariana sucked in a breath but Elaine didn't see how that would be a problem. After all, hunting necromancers was a good thing, right?
“And I was the liaison for the necromancer in Buffalo,” Aurora added quietly.
Elaine's lips pressed together. She wanted to say they wouldn't make trouble for her but Elaine's experience with angels was limited to Prudence, Jeanne, Jude and Leonardo and so while all of them seemed like reasonable people that didn't mean Heaven didn't have fanatic nutcases among them. At the same time, even if she could beat Jeanne in a sparring match she absolutely didn't want to get into trouble with either of these angels. But even so...
“If they try something I'll protect you,” she said.
“We'll protect you,” Mariana corrected.
“Damn right,” Ophelia said.
“O-okay,” Aurora said quietly.
Elaine took a chance and ruffled the girl's hair. Aurora leaned into her hand and the worry seemed to slough off of her.
“Now demolish your mountain of fruit,” Elaine teased.
Aurora puffed out her cheeks in mock anger but then grabbed a star fruit and dug in.
Right as she started Cassie smacked his palm against his forehead. Elaine wondered what he was on about but then he summoned up a golden apple and placed it in front of Aurora.
“Is this... edible?” Aurora asked, her expression caught between dubious and ravenous.
“If you don't want them,” Elaine said, “I haven't eaten yet.”
Quick as a striking snake Aurora grabbed the apple, then her cheeks reddened and she held it out for Elaine. “I-if you want it...”
“It's okay,” Elaine said. “I was just teasing you.”
The girl looked embarrassed for a moment but then gingerly placed the apple atop her mountain of fruit.
Just then the Lieutenant General got up from his spot.
Here we go...
**
“Project Divinity, listen up!” the Lieutenant General said, his voice amplified by the speaker system. He could have been whispering and the comm system of the CARDs everyone wore would have made everyone hear him but he was old-fashioned like that.
Wow, Rachel's rubbing off on me, Jeanne thought. Old-fashioned? He's centuries younger than me.
Of course that caused her to blush as she thought of Rachel rubbing off on her. She shook her head. Stupid dirty mind. She needed some alone time with Rachel to get her head back in the game.
“As you are aware, our main goal is to liberate the world from the Outsiders,” the Lieutenant General went on. “If we had not gotten side-tracked by the attack on the refugee camp we would have started our efforts already. And while the defense of the refugee camp was more important and most of you performed well above expectations there, we cannot afford to stall any longer. Our first goal is to liberate Buffalo, New York!”
A tentative cheer went up from the crowd. Nobody liked going out into hostile territory but everyone here had family they wanted to protect, family they wanted to give the world back to. The trip to the refugee camp had only reinforced that.
“In Buffalo we have multiple objectives. Our first objective is meeting up with the resistance group active in the area. The second is to find any evidence of Amadeus Caulder's involvement. And the final objective is to stop a necromancer we are assured is hiding within the city. And for this final objective we have reinforcements.”
He said the last while indicating Kaja and Omega and Kaja, angelic messenger that she was, took over for him.
Kaja was a small person and easy enough to consider cute and waifish. But only until you'd heard her Speak. No, not her normal bubbly way of speaking, not even the much more serious version of herself she showed when necessary, the voice that she used when delivering the Lord's word.
Kaja stepped up to address the crowd and even though she was barely over five feet tall she suddenly seemed to tower over everyone present, even more so when an enormous pair of white wings unfolded from her back.
“Children of man,” she intoned, “you have braved countless horrors to be here and you will yet face countless more. But do not lose heart, for you are doing what is just, you are doing what is right. You will march with the Lord's blessing, you will march under His banner. Let us praise Him in all our works! Let us burn out this evil and take this world back!”
**
She is incredible, Abigail thought as she entered the cafeteria just as that blond angel began to speak.
“Kaja is something else,” Rachel said quietly. “Stage presence like a superstar but only if she wants to.”
“So we're marching for Buffalo, then?”
“Yes,” Rachel said. “Though I didn't expect them to show up so soon.”
“I... see,” Abigail said.
**
Sometimes Mare liked the fact that her mind seemed to stretch out every moment.
While she spoke slowly that didn't mean her mind worked slowly. Quite the opposite, in fact. And so, while everyone was awed by the angel's admittedly incredible presence, Mare felt like she was the only person seeing through it.
This Kaja woman had used just the right words to get everyone riled up and she had given them a blessing, one that made them all stronger for days to come. But Mare hadn't missed the angel scanning the entire crowd during the speech. Was she just trying to find out who would be most useful to their objective or was she trying to find something else? Had she been scanning to find traitors? Or had she been scanning to find Aurora?