Chapter eighteen

Suddenly, they were interrupted by Ja'far running into the room, "Sinbad, Quick! There's been an intruder!"

Sinbad and Neah quickly looked to the general. "At this hour?" Neah asked, standing. It was at least one A.M by now, if not later.

Neah followed Sinbad and Ja'far as they ran to see who the intruder was, meeting up with the other generals on the way. They stopped in the middle of the quiet streets of Sindria, where several Sindrian soldiers were surrounding someone.

Sinbad walked forward, the soldiers parting for him. Neah took a few steps forward too, and froze when she saw who the intruder was. A sudden rage filled her entire body, and all thoughts left her mind. She pushed past Sinbad and stopped in front of the person. He was laughing and looking around saying, "I can't believe it worked! It worked! I'm in the Old Day-Hey!" He yelped as Neah grabbed him by the collar of his armor.

The magi gritted her teeth, "Who the fuck are you? How the fuck did you get here?!"

"Woah, woah," The man clad in white armor raised his arms in defence. "I mean you no harm. You see, I'm from the fut-"

"I know very well where the hell you're from," Neah growled. "How the fuck did you get here?!"

"Neah, calm down," Sinbad stepped up beside her.

"Back off, Sinbad," Neah hissed, still glaring at the man, "He's from MWS."

"MWS? How?" Ja'far asked.

"Ah, you've heard of us?" The man became confused. "How...?"

"Because I'm the one you're looking for," Neah tightened her grip. "And I'm the one that's going to rip your fucking heart out."

"Neah, stop." Sinbad ordered, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Neah turned her glare on him, "Why should I? You all know what they've done!" She looked around at the other generals.The black rukh around her were stronger and in much larger numbers than they ever had been. It was actually frightening to Yamraiha, who was the only other person capable of seeing the rukh. It was as if the magic birds were pulsing with dark intent.

"I know," Sinbad said, "but we need to interrogate him first." He held eye contact with Neah until she finally backed down, dropping the man roughly to the ground. "Now-"

Neah grabbed Sinbad's sword from it's sheath and held it to the MWS soldier's throat, "How did you get here?"

As surprised as Sinbad was, he didn't grab his metal vessel back. Instead he said, "Answer her."

"W-W-Well, I..." The man stuttered, obviously intimidated by the pair looming over him, never mind the soldiers and generals also surrounding him. "I-I'm sworn to secrecy, please."

Neah pressed the sword against his neck more, "Does it look like I care? Tell me."

"W-Well...MWS is using one of the...the djinn..."

"The djinn?" Sinbad echoed, eyes narrowed.

"I knew it," Neah growled softly. "Continue."

"A-And w-we've built a machine using one of the djinn's power to teleport large numbers of people..." The man spoke, "I was a test to see if it worked..."

"You're using Dantalion, aren't you?" Neah assumed.

"How do you know that?"

Neah wondered if she should tell him who she was. Deciding she was going to kill him anyway she said, "I'm Neah Andson, maybe you've heard of me. I'm pretty popular."

"You! Yes! I was told to find you!"

"And?"

"A-And..." The man paused, "kill you..."

Neah chuckled, "Right. So, why is MWS trying to time travel?" The man remained quiet. He cringed as Neah yelled, "C'mon, whatever they'd do to you if they knew you said this isn't nearly as bad as what I'll do to you if you don't fucking speak."

The man was trembling now, "Please, I have a family..."

"Yeah? I did too." Neah's grip on the sword tightened, "Speak."

"I'm not sure exactly, I'm-I'm not told much, but I think they want to erase magicians and djinn from history entirely..." The man added a bit quieter, "They're insane..."

"What? That's impossible. They don't have that kind of power," Neah frowned.

"A-Actually," The MWS soldier said, "the main members, the elites, I guess, they're real high up on the chain, they don't even use normal anti-magic weapons...So I've heard... They're supposedly god-like."

"That doesn't make sense," Neah pressed, "How? How are you anti-magic if you're using magic to fight magic?"

"We don't use magic...it's more like... Absorbing the essence of the magicians and djinn."

"Like their souls?"

"Yeah, you could put it that way," The man nodded.

Neah had so many more questions, but Sinbad asked his own before she could, "When do they plan on attacking?"

"When?" The man looked up at Sinbad. "Ah, 5/21...I believe...That's when they'll be completely ready.

"5 21? What does that mean?" Sinbad asked, looking back at Ja'far or another general who might know.

"May twenty first," Neah answered. "We changed the calendars a lot from this time." She glared at the MWS soldier, "What's the date right now in your time?"

"I'm not sure, it could be any time..."

"What is it?" Neah insisted, reminding him she still had a sword on him.

"U-Uh...5/18/2140."

"2140?" Neah echoed. "I've already been gone more than a year? That doesn't make sense."

"I-I swear! I'm not lying!" The man pleaded.

"Neah, how much time do we have, then?" Sinbad asked.

"Three days," Neah answered. "It's May eighteenth right now, sorta. We have three days to...prepare."

"Prepare?!" The man echoed. "You plan on fighting back?!"

"I'm not going to let my family suffer any longer," Neah felt the anger that had started to fade away return.

"Y-You're insane! You can't fight them!" The man exclaimed. "Their weapons...it's far more advanced than magic..."

"How do their weapons work?" Sinbad asked the man, "You mentioned absorbing the magician's and djinn's souls?"

"Yeah..." The man nodded, "It's almost like how metal vessel users and magicians used magoi... But absorbing their soul's power is much stronger and the person whose soul is being used can't regenerate it very quickly."

"Are all your weapons powered like that?" Sinbad continued to question.

"Mostly. Low-ranking weapon wielders just use magoi powered weapons, though," The man nodded. "The magi and the strongest djinn are used for the elites' weapons."

Neah's eyes clouded, "Yuki..."

Sinbad looked at Neah for a few moments, thinking back on what she had 'drunkenly' told him, "Neah? Are you alright?"

Neah's anger returned again, "I'm fine. Can I kill him yet?" She adjusted her grip on the king's sword.

"No, he could still be useful," Sinbad placed his hand on her hand holding the sword. "We'll lock him up for now."

Neah became infuriated at this, "What?! What if he gets away?!"

"He won't," Sinbad assured.

"We'll watch him," Sharrkan offered with a smirk.

Neah had forgotten the generals and everyone were still there. Slowly, she began to relax some, "Alright..." She waited until guards were holding the MWS man, then she removed Sinbad's sword from his throat. She watched them take him away, then turned to Sinbad, "Here," She handed him his sword, which she had only just realized was his metal vessel for Baal.

She took a deep, shaky, breath and tried to think straight. Neah began panicking when she realized everything that had happened was real, "Oh my god..." She looked around, the area was mostly empty besides her, Sinbad, and Ja'far. "What am I going to do?! I only have three days! Three days..." Neah ran her hands through her hair, barely noticing Ja'far and Sinbad's concerned looks, "Three days to get two fucking countries together?! That's impossible!" Her thoughts began racing.

"Hey, hey, Neah, stop," Sinbad tried to calm her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Stop. We'll figure it out, but you need to rest."

"Rest?! Then I'll have even less time!" Neah exclaimed. "And since when is this 'we'?"

"You were going to ask me for help when you came to talk earlier, weren't you?" Sinbad asked. "Besides, this is far more complicated than you originally thought. And now it's a threat to Sindria. So I will help you."

Neah was silent for a while before quietly answering, "Alright..."

~