Chapter 3: The Midnight Heist
1142 Words
Chapter 3: The Midnight Heist
The darkness of Arroz was never truly black; it was a sickly, artificial amber, powered by the stolen essence of the moon that hummed through the city’s veins.
Inside the Wanderers' barracks, the air was thick with the scent of damp stone and the rhythmic breathing of exhausted students.
Nyxus sat upright in her cot, her eyes snapping open. She didn't need a clock; the tides of her own blood told her the moon had reached its zenith. She slipped out of bed, her movements as silent as a falling feather.
"Going somewhere, Goddess?"
Nyxus froze. Quira was hanging upside down from the rafters, her dark hair sweeping the floor.
In the shadows, Pisces sat cross-legged on his bed, his dragon-slitted eyes glowing like emerald embers.
"The Mayor's office," Nyxus said, her voice a cold rasp. "He has the structural maps of the Iron Cage. I’m going to take them."
"You mean ‘we’ are going to take them," Pisces corrected, standing up with a fluid, lethal grace.
“You might be a Semi-Deus, Nyxus, but you don't know the layout of the Administrative Wing. But I do."
"I don't need help," Nyxus hissed.
"You need a distraction," Quira dropped from the rafters, landing soundlessly.
“And I’m very good at making things go boom."
Nyxus stared at them, her face an unreadable mask of ice.
For a moment, the impulse to strike them down for interfering flared in her chest. But she suppressed it.
Efficiency was her only god now.
“Fine. Follow. Stay quiet. If you get caught, I don't know you."
The trio moved through the Academy’s corridors like ghosts. Pisces led the way, his heightened senses detecting the vibrations of the guards' footsteps before they were even audible. Quira clung to the shadows of the ceiling, her demonic nature allowing her to blend into the darkness.
They reached the Mayor’s wing, a place of opulence that sickened Nyxus. Gold-leafed doors and statues of human conquerors lined the hall.
"Guard rotation in thirty seconds," Pisces whispered, his ear pressed to a mahogany door.
"I'll take the roof," Quira signaled, vanishing into an air vent.
Nyxus and Pisces slipped into the office just as the heavy tread of armored boots passed by. The room smelled of expensive tobacco and old parchment.
Nyxus headed straight for the massive oak desk, her hands glowing with a faint, silvery dimness — just enough to see.
"Search the cabinets," Nyxus commanded.
She began rifling through the Mayor’s personal ledgers. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the entries:
Essence extraction: 80% efficiency. Subject: Luna. Stability: Declining.
A cold, sharp pain lanced through her heart. Her grip tightened on the ledger, the paper beginning to frost under her touch.
"Nyxus! Focus," Pisces hissed from the other side of the room.
He pulled a hidden lever behind a painting of a dragon being slain. A wall panel slid open, revealing a safe.
“It's magically sealed. I can't break this without a loud dispel."
Nyxus walked toward the safe. She didn't use a spell. She simply placed her hand on the lock. She thought of her mother’s screams, of her father’s clipped wings, and she let a fraction of her moonlight — the cold, destructive side of it — seep into the metal.
The iron lock groaned, the metal turning brittle and crystalline before shattering into dust.
"Impressive," Pisces muttered, pulling out a heavy roll of vellum.
“This is it. The blueprints of the Iron Cage and the ley lines of the city."
Suddenly, the red alarm stones in the hallway flared to life. A high-pitched screech echoed through the wing.
"Quira?" Nyxus snapped.
"Not me!" Quira’s voice came from the vent above. "The Mayor has a blood-scent ward on that safe! Get out now!"
The door burst open. Two Harpies in golden armor flew in, their talons extended, screeching a deafening war cry. Behind them, a Human Sorcerer raised a staff tipped with a fire-gem.
"Intruders! Kill them!" the Sorcerer yelled.
"Pisces, the map! Go!" Nyxus ordered.
The Sorcerer launched a torrent of liquid fire. Nyxus stepped forward, her silver hair whipping around her face.
She didn't hide anymore. She threw her hand out, and a wave of pure, freezing darkness collided with the fire, turning the liquid flame into black ice that shattered on the floor.
One Harpy dived for her. Nyxus ducked, grabbed the creature’s leg, and slammed it into the desk with a sickening thud.
"Pisces! Window!" Nyxus shouted.
Pisces leaped through the glass, his body glowing with a blue aura as he shifted partially, scales shimmering as he caught the ledge below.
Quira dropped from the ceiling, kicking the Sorcerer in the chest before flipping out the window after him.
Nyxus stood alone for a heartbeat, facing the remaining Harpy. The creature hesitated, sensing the terrifying aura radiating from the girl.
Nyxus’s eyes were no longer black; they were twin full moons, glowing with a murderous light.
"Tell the Mayor," Nyxus whispered, her voice echoing with the power of a thousand nights. "The moon is rising."
With a flick of her fingers, she sent a blast of concussive shadow that sent the Harpy through the wall.
Nyxus turned and leaped out the window, vanishing into the night just as the Elite Guards swarmed the room.
Back in the safety of the dark barracks, the three of them leaned against the wall, breathing hard. Pisces tucked the map under his cot.
"We got it," he said, looking at Nyxus with a new-found respect.
“But you almost leveled that wing. You're going to get us killed or caught."
Nyxus pulled her cloak around her, the coldness returning to her features. The lunar glow in her eyes died down, leaving them hollow once more.
"I did what was necessary," she said flatly.
"You saved us back there," Quira said, leaning against a pillar.
“You could have left us to the Harpies and taken the map yourself. Why didn't you?"
Nyxus turned her back on them, lying down on her cot.
“A weapon is only useful if it has all its parts. You and Pisces are parts of my plan. Nothing more."
"Right," Quira whispered, her amber eyes shimmering. "Keep telling yourself that, Goddess."
In the corner of the room, Antheia, who had been pretending to sleep, watched them with wide, tearful eyes.
She didn't know what they were planning, but she knew one thing: Nyxus was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen.
And yet, as Nyxus lay in the dark, her heart hammering against her ribs, she couldn't shake the feeling of the heavy ledger she had read. Her mother was dying.
I will kill them all, Nyxus vowed into the silence. And if my 'parts' get in the way, I'll break them too.
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