Ronke straightened up just then, hurriedly wiping off the tears while Abiola watched with crossed arms. "It"s fine, guys. It"s just been long we"ve seen each other so I"m sorta emotional about it." She lied.
"Yes, My sister has always been all emotional since birth." He played along, smirking.
"Oh-okay." Aeneas replied, dragging Denre out of the bubble. "Be fast, we will need to jump into a landing pad soon."
"Look, sister. If you were rejected before, now is the time to be welcome back." Abiola said as soon as the duo were out.
"Hmm..." Ronke nodded.
Once again, like every other unique Familiar, there was the innate longing to be accepted by their own people regardless of how much they had come to despise them.
"We know going through Orun Apaadi is suicide. But the elders have all thought about this. We"ve made plans, lots of plans."
"What plans?"
"You know we are quite skilled at making weapons. This time, we have made weapons that are in sync with low energy input of ours. Like this sack with me..."
"Uh" Ronke was taken aback. "What does it do?"
"It"s an enhanced Earth Agbara condenser. With little input energy from my soul, I can control it to condense so much energy from the aspectual laws to do more Earth manipulations than I could do before."
Abiola said, his eyes flickering as sand particles began drifting out the nozzle of the bag.
"Wow! What"s the energy rating?" Ronke asked, excitedly, watching as the sand particles formed a statuette of her on the ground.
This, this could mean everything for their people. With little energy output, her people would be able to stay together to ward off any attacks possible.
"How many other weapons are being made?" She asked, looking away from the statuette.
"That is secret info. But if you come with us, you"ll know."
"No!"
"Look, Ronke. All of these weapons are nothing, beside you. If you come with us, we have an even better chance of surviving the exodus. Think of the young"uns over who can"t defend themselves. They look up to you. Are you going to disappoint them?"
"Don"t you dare blackmail me!" Ronkes eyes watered again.
"It"s true! You and the other unique Familiars can help us. We"ll survive together."
"Why are you all like this? You are going into demon territory. You don"t know the terrain. But if you stay home, you know the terrain, we can build bulwarks, fortresses, trenches. We can engineer lots of things to..."
"At what cost? When we can just go to Earth and live at better odds with those weak humans. Where no one would ever challenge us..."
"Haha... really? Are you forgetting the Lesser Emeres down there?"
"No! But they do not occupy the entirety of Earth." He said, dusting his chin.
"It still doesn"t make sense. How many of you can even survive till then? This is madness. If you all stay back, we have more chances."
"What silly chances are there? Oh, because you stay in drakonian territory, you think everyone has firepower to now hold their own?"
"Wait! I work in CFR. I can put a word for us, with Lord Meados. He can send a force to defend us."
"At what cost? So that our realms can become drakonian territory? We have remained as Unclaimed Realms for millenniums and we will continue to do so!" Abiola ranted, throwing both hands in the air.
"At what cost? The cost of them annexing our realms is just a little price for life. Even if you leave to Earth, your realms become open to anyone"s occupancy? Don"t you see?" She cried, leaning forward while wringing her fingers.
Just what had the elders being planning. It was all wrong.. Completely!
If they could get protection, then why not take it instead of taking a very risky journey.
Abiola straightened up now, tilting to look at the street. Somehow, the people had walked around the dome, respecting the privacy or perhaps, the teammates of Ronke had done so.
They stood behind Ronke, outside the miniature dome, gazing intently and trying to read the facial expressions.
"Dragging this matter is pointless, Sister." He drew closer to her. "If you don"t come back with us and go with us, you will become a renegade Familiar. A traitor." He said, emphasizing on the last words.
Ronke was taken aback. Gasping with a horrified look on her face, she stepped back.
"N-no..." she whimpered, shaking her head slightly. "You people can"t do this to me."
"It has been decided already." Abiola replied sadly.
What in the seven heavens was happening? The Elders weren"t giving her a choice. This was a straight out order, escort us to Earth or get the traitor mark.
She"d become a vagabond, cursed to walk through the realms without a purpose for the rest of her existence.
And then, if it was really grievous, she would be branded a fugitive, forced to flee from the various hunters that would be sent after her.
Not just to kill her but to make her last days extremely painful.
No... No... No!
"You won"t let them do that."
"It"s beyond me, Sister." He replied, looking downwards.
"Even if it is done, who would escort you all to Earth?" Ronke screamed, becoming hysterical.
"We made plans. We would hire mercenaries to escort us even if that cost a fortune. Currently we are reaching out to The Coalition for a.s.sistance."
"You guys would never be able to pay up the debts." Ronke muttered with a wild look.
"They take our realms as more payment."
"What is the difference with the confederacy annexing your land and yet you still have it to yourself? Are you all not being unnecessarily silly."
"When it happens, let your conscience judge you that you refused to help your own race, forcing them into an enormous debt." Abiola replied, silently. He tapped his sandaled foot at the ground, raising up a little dust.
"You would have 14 days to reconsider your words. After which, you will be hunted for three days and brought back to the realms and then, you will be forced to follow us to Earth, accompanied by mercenaries even more powerful than you.
On Earth, you will take all menial activities and work out yourself. "
Ronke laughed, still hysterical.
"We are making pact with Babylonia, Arch Demon G.o.ddess of l.u.s.t to allow us escort by her incubus and succubus tribes. The Elders have really made lot of plans because we knew you would refuse us."
"WHAT?" Ronke screamed. "Babylonia? What? You think she now renders philanthropically help now? She"d ask for s.e.x. You all would mate with her and she would suck out your entire souls dry." Ronke eyes widened as she flailed her hands.
"The Elders are willing to take that cost. They have agreed to sacrifice themselves to Babylonia, a small price for the survival of our race. I also volunteered to join them."
"What?" Ronke gasped, eyeing her brother. "You wouldn"t dare."
"What? You think my libido is too low to satisfy the G.o.ddess of l.u.s.t? Heads up, I have a dragon down here." He smirked, pointing both hands between his legs.
Abiola exhaled, splaying a hand through his dreads again.
"Look, this isn"t our best decision but it"s what we can afford at the moment. I personally don"t like the plans. Mating with Babylonia would require our entire race of adults to reach a tiny bit of satisfaction. Only the young ones would eventually make it to Earth. And young ones in a new world, survival is quite poor." He confessed, looking somewhat downcast.
Seeing this, she moved closer to him, putting a hand on his bare shoulder as she looked into his eyes.
"Then, don"t allow it. You said you trained hard. I know you did it so that you can amount to something and now, now is that time to rise to amount to something. Stop their madness."
Abiola frowned, shoving off her hand and moving backwards simultaneously.
"No! The mercs will find you and you will come with us. Then we won"t have to deal with Babylonia. Ronke, you must come. Do not let us force your hand."
At that, her face hardened, a cold but yet relaxing look appearing on her face.
"Tell the Elders that I await their hunters. Tell them too, that I"m coming for them. And I"m coming to stop their madness." She replied.
Abiola simply nodded, bending down to pick the orb. As soon as his fingers curled about it, the translucent dome covering flickered off.
"You"ve chosen your path, sister. You have by your own hands taken the emblem of a traitor. I cannot be held responsible for what comes on you." He said,sullenly.
Just then, a large multicolored b.u.t.terfly drifted past. He squinted at the b.u.t.terfly for some seconds as the air rippled. In another second, his form s.h.i.+mmered, vanis.h.i.+ng entirely.
And in his place was a multi colored b.u.t.terfly fluttering away.
"Tell them, I await their hunters." Ronke whispered defiantly as the statuette of her swirled into dust.
She had had enough of the bullying of the elders. First they ousted her, now they were commanding her presence for a suicide exodus. And now, she would be hunted and dragged back to the realms, a renegade, to serve as a slave.
She knew what it would cost to refuse. But still, she was not going to accompany them. And if the Elders decided to be suicidal, then so be it.
"You good? " Aeneas asked, reading her face.
Ronke nodded, seeing the flying saucer that swirled to a stop, slowly on a pad.
"Sudden death, here we come." Ronke muttered, winking at Aeneas who smiled in return.
"SUDDEN DEATH!"
"Shut UP! so loud." Aeneas and Ronke exploded at Denre.