She pulled into the courtyard behind him and the pebbles were cracking under the tires of the bike which made her wince slightly because she dislikes the noise of crunching pebbles.

  It made her feel that the bike’s tires would burst or even worse break. From the pressure of the stones rubbing against the rubber. She sighed when she entered a free space and kicked the stand off the bike then turned off the bike.

  She took off her helmet and shook her red hair. From being pressed against her head.

  She got off her bike and walked up to Justin who was sitting on the hood of his car. She tutted at the nonchalant he was.

  “What are you doing?”

  Skyler asked him while crossing her arms under her chest. Confused by his positioning, she raised her eyebrow waiting for his response.

  “Well can’t I just sit on the hood?”

  Justin said and he smirked at Skyler who was staring at him with so much emotion. Since she didn’t really know what to say to him.

  “Yes, you can, I mean why aren’t you coming to sign me in?”

  She asked, pointing to the big black doors of the cathedral. She tapped her foot, Justin chuckled at her eagerness for being a protector.

  “Of course sorry I am just admiring the beauty of my car since I love my car since it was a present from my fiancé.”

  “Oh…”

  Skyler blushed at his statement then he grunted as he got off the car then gestured to her to follow him. So she did and he swiped his badge on a device on the doorway. It opened after with steam coming from the floor as it opened.

  She saw many people fighting each other in a different room which was separated by glass. She wondered if it was a special glass to stop any magic from breaking through and breaking everything else.

  Skyler saw that Justin was looking at her from the corner of his eye, which made her confused by the fact she didn’t know why he was looking at her.

  “Is that a training room thing?”

  She outbursts and Justin stopped and faced her which nearly made her bump into him. She grumbled at his sudden stop and pouted at him.

  “Sorry, sorry yes that room is where we train and get better when we face bandits and fragments.”

  “I see”

  She looked back at the training room and smiled at the advantages she would get to get better at fencing.

  “Justin I have another question, how do you get emergency’s”

  “From that room”

  He said, and pointed to another room where a screen showed the country. Skyler felt overwhelmed by how many red lights were blinking on the map.

  “You get used to it”

  “I see”

  Skyler said back to Justin trying not to get overwhelmed with information, she felt so out of her depth being in the headquarters. She walked to the room and touched the board and saw that it was interactive showing the area with street cameras of the area where she pressed on.

  “Cool that is cool”

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  She said with a childlike amazement, her eyes drifted around the different images. To her it was nothing that she had seen before.

  “Skyler”

  Justin coughed and she looked back at him, still bit in a daze from the interactive board. She went over to him and he started to walk further forward down the corridor of the cathedral, the quartz slabs on the ground clicked while they walked.

  “So what do you think about this place?”

  “Its pretty cool so far but a bit much,”

  Skyler said and Skyler looked outside of the coloured windows of different kings through the years of the country she pondered how much this would have cost to build this cathedral in the earlier years of the country.

  “Um Justin, where do I sleep?”

  Skyler blurted out while walking in the eerie silence of the cathedral which was strange but knowing it was a place of worship and well a place of justice it seemed to be fine to her at least.

  “That pillar over there”

  Justin said while pointing to a huge pillar near the rear of the cathedral, she nodded and waited for Justin to go towards it. Since she was getting pretty tired, from the travel from the aqua sector.

  They walked across the courtyard past another protector who was sitting and watching the birds and trees. Skyler was confused and concerned but just kept up with Justin.

  Until they got to the spire and went to the spiral staircase, which was very narrow with no space for another person to come down while they went up. Skyler saw how far up it went, she gulped since there were many rings of stairs.

  “Oh my”

  Skyler muttered to herself as she scaled it, her legs were screaming and aching with every step toward the goal that she saw. What she saw was a dark oak door with gold accents along the edges of its frame.

  “Just a bit more Skyler to your new home”

  Justin shouted down at her and she started to pick up the pace which in turn made him pick up as well. To her amusement she had made Justin make a grunt of disdain.

  She chuckled a little and she heard him sigh like he was looking after a child, to him that was kind of the case. He opened the door that was on the top of the spire.

  It revealed a small room with a single bed with a desk that was dusty and a badge was on the bed and a file that was open with a paper with many informative boxes to be filled in.

  “Welcome to your home for a while protector”

  “I like the sound of that”

  She responded to him happily since she was here the place that she dreamed of being. It was too unreal for her so she pinched her arm to see if she was dreaming but she wasn't. She was actually here in the headquarters in her very own room within it.

  She walked to the badge on the bed and grabbed it gently, her face beamed at the badge and then hooked it on her trousers.

  She walked to the powered off computer and used it as a mirror to examine herself wearing the badge.

  She was excited to have the badge since it represented the protectors, who protect people from fragments. Which she clenched her hands at and felt pity for the victims that turned to stone or even turned into one of those monsters.

  “Let’s protect Justin”

  Skyler said darkly but at the same time with determination and hope that she will stop the fragments from hurting anyone else. She saw Justin nodded at her with a grin, liking how Skyler was feeling and wanting to help her.

  “By away”

  Skyler was engrossed in her imagination of defeating fragments she didn’t hear Justin, he got a bit annoyed at but sighed and left which confused Skyler on why he was annoyed at.

  She shrugged at his action and continued playing and imaging herself as the protector for a bit longer until she felt like Justin was saying something serious about something that she needed to do so she ran down the spiral staircase.

  She decided to use the shadows to make a cushion as she leaped down from the third floor of stairs to the bottom. It made a bit of wind that blew the door open and blinked which made the cushion disappear and her eyes changed back to blue.

  She resumed running and she saw Justin, which she breathed heavily as she ran closer and closer to him trying to catch up the distance.

  “Justin what were you saying about?”

  Skyler shouted and Justin turned around and saw her stopping before him which surprised him and chuckled a bit by her actions.

  “Well like I was going to say that you have to meet the king to be actually accepted as a protector”

  “Wait the king?

  Skyler questioned and he nodded without saying anything else, which made Skyler nervous since she knew his secret daughter. She gulped and shook her head

  “Can you do it in my place?”

  “Why did I thought you would want to meet the king?”

  “I find the monarchy wrong. Why do one person be a king if we have a government for?”

  “I can see your point but it’s the law I don’t know why either but we have to”

  Justin said which made her think that she has to go, which she didn’t like one bit but she will suck it up and make an appearance to the king.

  She looked towards a castle that was in the centre of the sector and then looked down to her watch. Wondering to ring Luna to ask about how she is going to meet her father. She didn’t know how she was going to react

  But she knew that she had to for some reason, it would be courteous, she believed to say to the daughter that she is meeting her father.

  “Skyler?”

  Justin said, clicking his fingers at her which made Skyler flinch and looked back at Justin.

  “Huh, what is it?”

  “You were staring at your watch, you okay?”

  Justin asked worried about her and she smiled and put her hands in her pockets

  “I’m fine it was just a shock that’s all”

  Skyler said to Justin trying to keep focus on him rather than weighing the issue about calling Luna about the situation she was in at the moment. It sucked but she couldn’t show Justin that she was worried.

  “Ok then”

  Justin was suspicious but accepted her reason and pointed to the training room and she knew that she had to learn how to actually act in front of the king.

  She nodded and smiled at Justin’s gesture to show that she was thankful that he was offering to help her to get her prepared for the king

  “See you tomorrow Justin, I need rest”

  She yawned, wobbled and waved at Justin while she was going back to the spire. She got back into her room and flopped onto her bed harshly.

  She still wore her clothing and her eyes drooped and she breathed deeply into a deep sleep.