XXXVIII ‖ mélanos

LONDON
June | 4 Months Later
Location: Elysium, Lethe

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Side-stepping, I managed to avoid the punch that was heading straight towards me. In reflex, I threw out a hook which Vivienne successfully defended herself from the blow. She pushed her arm out to re-establish some space while keeping me in range. Neither was I one to back down as I kept my arms up and bent my knees lower to firm myself in a combat stance. My eyes trained on her, always in anticipation of her next move.

She took a half-step towards me and whirled another punch before rounding a kick towards my side but I maintained my defences and raised my leg high enough to block her kick with my shin. The second my foot touched the ground, I jabbed two punches out to knock her back and swung a high kick in her direction.

Taken by surprise, she dodged low and smoothed the impact of the kick with a side roll. However, before she could recover her stand fully, I had gotten close to her to grip her by the waist. One inner-thigh throw was all I took to get her to the ground again as I grappled her to submission with an ude garami. Unable to withstand the pain of an arm lock, she let out a sharp groan and double-tapped on the padded mattress.

I quickly released my grip on her and she huffed out a laugh, "Damn, Iva. You've improved so much!"

"Talk about yourself, girlfriend," I grinned, breathless from the tough fight. Pushing myself off her, I laid on my back flat on the mattress as I tried to catch some air and pace my breathing.

From the peripheral of my sight, I saw Porter walking towards Vivienne. The end of my lips tilted into a smile when he mischievously placed a cold bottle of water on her forehead and they let out joyous peals of laughter together. 

"What made you so happy?" Jax appeared by my side and pulled me up to sit. I faced him, beaming as he dabbed the towel over my face to free my skin from the slickness of sweat. He praised, "You reaped your rewards from all the training, don't you think?"

"Doesn't change the fact that you train me like a spawn of Hades," I clicked my tongue. Grabbing the bottle of water from his side, I unscrewed it and took a few gulps to quench the parched feeling in my throat. I asked cheekily, "Do I get a reward?"

"Of course." He leaned close to my ear and whispered in a voice laden with tension, "How do you like to be spoiled?"

Heat rushed to my face and I threw a punch at him, which he dodged it successfully. A laugh bubbled off him and he complained, "That's not nice at all, sweetness."

"Your head is forever in the gutter!" I tutted at his salacious intentions and he only laughed louder.

From the side, Vivienne also cackled away and mentioned to Jax, "Iva is the grumpiest whenever embarrassed. You might as well get used to it, Jax."

"Well, I do love her cantankerous temper," Jax smiled, teaming up with Vivienne to tease me further.

"I'm just going to leave, I can't stand both of you." I rolled my eyes.

Just when I was about to storm out of the gym, the brace on my wrist vibrated and I turned it over. When I pieced the letter together to form the word reflected on the screen, my feet halted to a complete stop.

I jerked my head around and stared at the other three behind me. Everyone held the same worried expression and they nodded to as a signal that all of us had been assigned.

Assigned to a mass mission.

◩

Jax placed his palm on the reader and a monochromatic blue light flashed across, eventually granting him and the rest of us access into the conference room. The reinforced glass door slid open smoothly and revealed a dim room. Then, four pairs of eyes turned to look towards us and we recognised them as another group of Elites that was most probably assigned to the part of this mass mission together.

"Jaxen and Porter, it's been a long while." One of them smirked in our direction and I quickly picked up the hostility from the group of individuals settled opposite to us. He eyed Vivienne and I, before taunting, "New faces, you two must be the underlings brought over from Styx."

"Micah," Porter said his name in a warning tone.

"Morgiana must've turned senile." The lady beside Micah crossed her arms and sank into her seat, expressing her thoughts in a disapproving tone, "To think that it would be a good idea to bring two inexperienced chicks into a mélanos. No offence, but what's this? A kindergarten excursion?"

My intuition was right about their unfriendliness and I understood fully that they were trying to provoke us. Underneath, Jax placed an arm on my thigh in an attempt to calm me down, almost afraid that I would climb over the desk to bitchslap someone. I placed my hand above Jax's and gave him a slight smile, assuring him that I was collected enough to not let this instigation overwhelm my logic. Jax returned a small smile towards me before turning to face front again, holding no emotions on his face when he said icily, "Esme, your opinions are unappreciated."

"Losing Rhys and Olivia wasn't enough to break your overconfidence, Jaxen?" Esme shrugged. Crouching forward, she pressed her forefinger on the desk in front of her and spoke through clenched teeth, "This is a mass mission, not a laughing matter. Our survival is in everyone's hands and those two being here for six months is nothing compared to the rest of us who grew up and trained here."

"Esme, you can direct your disapproval straight at Viv and me," I snarled. "But you let the dead rest. All of us went through loss and grief, you wouldn't want us to dig that dark history of yours up and slap it across your face, would you?"

I saw how colour drained from Esme's face when I hit right through her fear at point-blank. Maybe I deserved an applaud for a great comeback but who haven't lost anyone in Elysium? It's a fucking thorn in everyone's chest — whether it was losing someone before the life in Elysium or just losing the random friend who sat by your side in dreadful mythology classes.

"Don't speak too high and end up failing as a liability." Another lady beside Esme intervened this conversation. "Esme had her reasons for being frustrated and all of us have the rights to be concerned about this ridiculous arrangement. This is Lethe and when in Rome, you do what the Romans do, underlings."

"Of course, Iva and I never expected a welcome," Vivienne laughed dryly beside me. "Though liability or not, it's up to time to tell the tale. I think it's rather absurd for everyone to assume that we would be a nuisance because the last recorded time for our missions had proven us to be worthy enough to sit here."

Before a retort could be thrown back to ignite another round of verbal war, the reinforced door slid open again and Seth revealed himself right behind Morgiana and Gia. At the sight of us, he walked straight in our direction, pulling a chair to squeeze into the space between Vivienne and me.

"Hey, Sethie," Vivienne greeted him with a playful smile and Seth only rolled his eyes in response. I let out a quiet laugh and watched him getting into his work mode quickly. Seth flipped the laptop screen up, typing speedily across the keyboard and the holographic screen in the middle of the conference table was activated in no time.

"Good afternoon, my children." Morgiana swept her fingers along the brim of her hat and continued, "I trust that everyone knows why you're here and I'm going to hold a briefing."

Morgiana moved towards her seat, her stilettos clicked cleanly against the smooth surface of the ground and she walked with grace and elegance. Settling down, her hand moved to press on a screen ahead of her and all of a sudden all our names flashed ahead of us. She breathed out, "I don't have the patience to wait for a round of self-introductions. Learn the names and everyone in this room are your partners for this mass mission."

My eyes scanned the names of the other four Elites opposite to us: Micah, Esme, Veronica and Nash. I also noticed how their gaze lingered longer over my name and Vivienne's before they turned their attention back on Morgiana. This isn't going to be easy. The words formed in my mind as I rested my back on the seat and swivelled the chair to face Morgiana.

"Anyone care to explain the tension?" Morgiana pointed out sharply.

"Do you think we lack Elites to the point that we had to beg the assassins from other branches to take our missions?" Esme asked rhetorically.

"Esme," Morgiana let out a small laugh before her voice turned strangely chilling, "I've always reminded that everyone in Lethe doesn't have to get along, but I expect professionalism. I don't accept questioning of my authority because I chose each individual for a very good reason. If anything, you're most welcome to give up on this mission, the five million payout and be excommunicated."

The room fell silent immediately and my jaw nearly dropped at the mentioning of the payout. Before I could question who we would be dealing with, Morgiana killed my curiosity by flashing lines of text on the screen ahead of us.

"Last call, any dropouts?" Morgiana said as she snapped the conference room door shut even before one can count to three. She continued, "Jaxen and Iva should be familiar with the Mysercoughs."

I zoomed into the name and assumed that this time, we are going to deal with the maternal parent of Lillian Myerscough. An icy sensation rushed down my spine when I suddenly remembered how Jax had forced the information out of Lillian. Perhaps they started to track her mother down the moment they had information on her. I also remembered everything that Jax taught me in our training together. I dared to ask, "Who is Tallulah Myerscough?"

"You're catching up rather quickly, my intelligent one," Morgiana smiled widely. "You'll be dealing with the primordial Titaness, Tethys."

I wished everything was a joke because remind me that all of us were only trained in combat fighting, guns and apotropaic magic, at most. And now we were summoned to be up against a primordial being who held control over the laws of nature. What in the actual fuckery were the Gods fucking us with? I nearly scoffed out loud.

"Don't worry too much," Morgiana mentioned, noticing the slight unease I held between my brows. "Everyone here is more than trained to take a Titan down. The glyphs of apotropaic magic were what sent those monsters to Tatarus in the first place."

"Why are we dragged into this dirty divine business?" Vivienne exhaled in exasperation. She pointed upwards, "The twelve are too busy minding their raging hormones to realise that the Titans and Titanesses are wreaking havoc on the surface?"

Unexpectedly, Jax coughed out a laugh and I jerked my head to the side to stare at him with disbelief. It was apparent that none of us found it funny except for him and Morgiana who found inappropriate humour in this situation. Clearing her throat, Morgiana sat straighter and focused back on the topic, "Vivienne, darling, I'm in no position to explain for the twelve in Mt. Olympus because my big boss is Hades and he would hate to meddle in the senseless issues of those above."

Morgiana continued, "Tethys wasn't one to dwell in the depths of Tatarus but her actions would no longer be pardoned. Sending her back would be all of our responsibility. If there are no more questions, the main briefing would begin." Morgianna tapped on the illuminated interface on the desk in front of her.

I looked at the baffling amount of information flashing ahead of me.

Am I ready for this? 

I seriously hope so. 

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'omáda' means 'team'
'mélanos' means 'dark'
tethys is the titaness of freshwaters

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