The watch on her right wrist displayed 9:40 on the screen, Myra and her mother were obligated to hold their hands unless they wanted to be separated, and knowing both of their introverted tendencies, was not an option.

Chatter was booming all around them, everyone present around the Church was constantly checking their watches and glancing at the imposing door of the building nervously, they were all impatient to begin the ceremony. On contrary, the Windsors were excited for the ceremony to end to finally get out of this place filled with people that smelled like sweat and felt hot.

Seriously, the situation she was in right now reminded her of the first time she went to a concert with her friends in middle school. From the smell of the riot to the loudness of their chatter, which was screaming over the music at the time, was a copy-paste of it.

She was regularly tapping her foot to the ground and changing her standing foot out of nervousness. For once, she was hoping that the Divine Priestess would hurry to come down the stairs already, with enough luck she could even see her trip on air and break her legs in the process of unceremonially rolling down towards the crowd.

Myra smiled sadistically at the thought, which quickly evaporated when she was roughly pushed to the side by a tall man wearing all black hurrying to the front of the mob.

"Hey! Look at where you're going first!" She shouts loud enough for him to hear her, yet the man in full black clothing gave no reaction and kept snaking in the mass without looking back at her once. She growled something about never wanting to talk to another human being like that again before taking her new phone out of her pocket to play some games to pass the time.

She was in the middle of a quest when she noticed that the throng has been gradually quiet down, knowing what that announced, Myra stuffed her phone back in her pocket, cutting off the dialogue of a poor NPC, and raised her head. Sure enough, the golden locks of the Priestess came into view alongside her signature smile.

She stepped an inch closer to the people of the country, holding in her hand a strange object Myra identified as the Luminarium. Without joking, which god had the idea of shaping that thing this way? It looked like- she didn't even know what this thing could be similar to, the only thing certain about it was that it was shining like the sun.

"I wanted to thank everyone here for celebrating with us the Solar Ceremony." Mother Assecla announced loud and clear once an absolute silence washed over the crowd. "The previous Doves have served us well but it is now time for them to rest after looking after us all for these ten years of standing alongside the Divine. Let us turn the next page of our story and meet the new Guardians of the Land!"

A wave of applause and encouraging words immediately burst forth once she finished speaking. She smiled at the horde again before taking two steps back and brandishing the Lumenarium towards the sunlight, which was way stronger than the previous days, the action reminded her of Rafiki holding up Simba in the Lion King, one of her favorite childhood movies.

"Dii nos defendant et nos claudimus," She began, the religious silence taking place once again as soon her mouth moved. "Confidimus vitam nosotram ad te, confidimus tuo Divino iudicio, ut te dirige cum heroines in lucem." The more she talked, the more the Lumenarium lit up. The end of her sentence, which was pronounced with more fierce, triggered something in the object which burst in light.

A round of impressed gasps shaken the crowd as they all fix the light with a stare that gradually darken to a coal-black. Even though she already knew how the ceremony was going to occur, the process was still breathtaking, and despite her absolute hatred for the divine, she couldn't help but stare in admiration at the ball of light.

.... That was hurrying towards her direction.

'What the f***.' In complete denial, she looked around her to analyze the people all around her, she was surrounded by a wall of giraffes (That was how she very affectionally called the people who were taller than her, she often cursed the god of birth for giving her such a tiny appearance.), surely they would be the one selected right?

The glowing ball got even faster and rushed towards her before bursting into black fireworks, marking her with a weighing scale. Ten seconds of silence followed the mini fireworks where Myra barely had any time to process what just happened before a round of cheers and applauds rumbled from the crowd.

Sara grabbed her daughter's arm before yanking her towards the exit, somehow managing to skedaddle out of the mass without anybody trying to intercept them. In front of the church, the Divine Priestess Assecla watched the two of them leave with a smile on her face, everything was going according to plan.

The Windsors left the Solar Ceremony at full speed, hurrying to get to their car and drive out of here. The landscape flew by quickly, maybe because of how fast her mother was driving, which far exceeded the recommended speed.

"Mom...?" Myra quietly whispered, almost wishing she didn't hear her.

"I'm not mad if that's what you're thinking." She said, avoiding any eye contact with her daughter, preferring to focus on the road even though nobody was out there since they were all at the Solar Ceremony's banquet.

"We'll talk about this once we're home alright?" After these words left her mouth, an awkward silence filled the car which didn't help calm Myra's nervousness at all.

***

The little hand of the clock swung forwards at each passing second.

Tic, tac.

Droplets of water fell in a crimson cup.

Ploc, ploc.

Tissue was used to clean a cupboard

Fwoosh, fwoosh.

A series of curses flew down Sara's mouth.

"F***, f***!" She slammed her hand on her cupboard, the impact making everything standing on it vibrates. A long sigh escaped her mouth after her little outburst as her right hand came to cover the top half of her face.

'Of course, she had to be selected, this was all in that witch's plan was it not?' She wondered with venom lacing her tongue, suddenly sorry that murder wasn't legal.

She shook her head and inhaled deeply to calm herself down, as to not scare her daughter when she was going to talk to her, knowing full well that she was about as happy as her about the situation. Sara had other reasons to be displeased with that turn of events but she wasn't going to share them with Myra, not yet at least.

***

Myra was sitting on one of the sofas of her home for ten minutes, withering as much as in the car. She stopped twisting and turning her hands as her mother came through the door of the kitchen, a cup of wine in hand.

Most of the time, this action meant something like: 'This situation is too complicated for me to bear with it sober, don't ask any annoying questions unless you want me to knock you out with a spoon.' Oddly specific, but that wasn't the subject.

She sat on the opposite sofa, glanced at her daughter once before sipping a portion of the cup. The whole process of finishing drinking and putting the glass away on the table was made in silence.

"I already told you, I'm not angry." Sara calmly began, looking at her daughter in the eyes. "So what are you shaking for? I'm not gonna bite you."

Myra blinked and realized that her mother's words were true, she was indeed shaking like a leaf in the wind. "It's cold, that's all. If you were not angry, then why are you trying to get drunk?" Sara raised an eyebrow at the end of her sentence.

"Drunk? With only one cup of wine? I know I don't handle alcohol that well but who did you get me for? Your maths teacher?" That little joke tore a smile from Myra, triggering the memory of her last high school party where her maths teacher was exposed to the smell of red wine one second before acting dead drunk.

She still remembers how traumatized the entirety of the high school division was when she stumbled towards their geography teacher before kissing him... for a while. Her smile turned into a grimace.

"Please don't remind me of that dark period of my life." Sara laughed at Myra's disgusted expression, the latter stared at the woman with blank eyes. "I know that you're probably trying to distract me from our current conversation but we have to talk about it at one moment so..."

"What do we do?" Sara finished her sentence for her, she nodded in approbation. "Well, let me ask you a question as well, what can we do?" Even grasshoppers stayed silent.

"But there must be something we can do!" Myra lost her temper. "I can't just accept this!" She stood up with anger flashing inside of her amber eyes.

Her mother stayed calm by drinking another sip of her wine, with her right hand she motioned her daughter to sit back down. "As much as I hate to say this, the gods have already made their decision and there isn't any backing away now."

Myra let herself fall again and growled in frustration. "Try to see the best out of this situation instead, you've always complained about wanting to disappear every time you were talking in front of a public, with the Spy's power that won't be a problem anymore will it?"

...... She had a point.

"How do you even know about the Spy's powers mom?" Myra arched an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "I thought that type of information was confidential?" The small smile her mother showed faltered a little before it came back to its original position.

"You will understand when you're older." Her grin widened at her daughter's deadpanned expression. "And before you talk about already being 18 and very much grown up already, this doesn't have anything to do about secrets like how humankind doesn't have a chance to extinct but rather something about your legacy."

Before she could question her mother about that said 'legacy', her mother's phone emitted a loud ding, grabbing both of the women's attention. Sara took it out of her pocket and inspected the text's preview before grimacing.

"Is something wrong?" Myra inquires with a worried expression, her mother's face wasn't announcing anything good.

"No, not exactly... Mother Assecla has just sent me a text, you're going to move to the Nobilis' Fountain tomorrow at 7 am sharp. You are expected to begin your duties as a Mystic Dove as soon as possible."