Brisingr and her company halted at the doors. Her guard went over to the pad and placed his hand on it. The pad scanned his fingerprints before doing the same for his eyes.

Brisingr narrowed her own eyeballs. The last time she’d been here, there hadn't been this many security measures. If you were a member of Yggdrasil, you could simply stroll in here without a moment's notice. It provoked the idea that you didn’t need to be afraid of the Commander, that she was only another person and one you could speak to easily.

Brisingr wasn’t sure if she liked this new change or not.

“Sorry about this. What with everything going on and all, Commander wants to make sure Yggdrasil is secure.” the guard apologized.

“You don’t need to apologize. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault this happened. No, I will be taking this up with the Commander.” Brisingr stated cooly.

The guard gulped and hurriedly turned away. Brisingr didn’t want to use her status like this but she knew her name was well known, for better or for worse. If she and the Commander had a fight, Brisingr couldn’t tell for certain who would side with which.

Of course, that was years ago. Now, Brisingr wouldn’t be startled at all if her name was uttered with enough scorn to fill a tub. She deserved it, after all, for deserting.

The door beeped and shined blue. The mechanisms inside whirred and the doors slid open. The guard stayed behind and gazed at the doorway meaningfully. He couldn’t go any further?

Shelving that aside, Brisingr took her first step back into the bridge and it felt like she was taking a step back into her old life again. Dozens of people sat behind desks, working furiously to combat whatever damage Atlas had done. Holograms floated around the structure, with a particularly big one in the center featuring Atlas. The seats were organized in a manner so there were 2 rows of 5. At the very front was the largest seat, currently occupied by her.

The Commander, draping her red jacket carelessly over her shoulder, leaving the sleeves empty, and orange hair in pigtails. Sticking out of her mouth was another one of those candies she loved so much.

When Brisingr entered, there was a sudden hush and Brisingr took this time to scan every face. She wanted to see what they thought of her.

To her surprise, not a lot of people hated her. There was anger going on for sure, but anger was very different from hate.

The Commander snapped her fingers and everybody went back to work, albeit discreetly sneaking a glimpse or two when they thought nobody was looking. Commander waggled her fingers for Brisingr to come over.

Gritting her teeth, Brisingr strode to her desk and used her superior height advantage at the moment to glare down at her. Commander didn’t seem too concerned, her smirk growing wider in response.

The standoff lasted several seconds before Commander sucked loudly on her candy and took it out with a pop. “Want some?” she offered.

“No thank you,” Brisingr said. Judging from Commander’s smile, she knew how fake each word is.

“Pity. Anyway, why are you here?” Commander asked.

Brisingr forcibly calmed herself down. Commander was the only person in existence who could get under Brisingr’s skin so easily. Mostly because of her I-Don’t-Care nature.

“I came because your guard asked me to.”

Commander arched an eyebrow. “Eh? That’s it? I thought for sure it would take more than that to get you to come.”

Brisingr’s face twitched. Was she not going to take anything seriously? Commander rolled her eyes when she saw her face.

“I think you have something you want to say to me?” she asked, looking the epitome of bored.

“Where’s Atlas?” was the first thing Brisingr said. Oh, there were a lot more she could yell out but her duty won out first.

Commander nibbled on her candy. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not an idiot. Only a Willful Construct can kill a Legend and I don’t have one. No matter how injured he may be, he’s still alive. And I won’t allow that.”

Commander scrutinized me. “So you’re going to track him down and cut off his head or something? Didn’t you hear yourself just now? You can’t kill him, you’re only going to poke the bear.” Commander said.

“Then I’ll lead Atlas to another Legend and have them both fight each other.” Brisingr declared.

“First of all, there aren’t any other Legends in the world at the moment. It’s only Atlas. And even if there were, can you imagine the property damage and casualties the fight would cause?”

“Of course, I would lead them to a secluded place!” Brisingr snapped. She was fed up with Commander acting like she was a child. “Besides, what will you have us do? Wait patiently for him to heal and come back? Need I remind you the longer he stays in this world, the more Arias he’ll create?”

Commander tapped her armrest and a hologram of the world popped up. Another tap and the map zoomed into a small dot on the west of Australia.

“He went to Australia? Why?” Brisingr asked. Australia was a large focal point for Arias, but it had little to no Legends appear over the years.

Then again, that would mean Australia wouldn’t be prepared for the destructive nature of a Legend.

“He’s probably recuperating. However, that’s not the point. He’s no longer in Neverstien or even Europe.”

“Which means we need permission to chase after him.” Brisingr finished. “Surely they’ll give permission?”

Commander shrugged. “Australia was always a laid-back continent. It’s too peaceful, not hardened to battle like the other continents. Must be the kangaroos, I suppose.”

Brisingr groaned. She did not need another riveting conversation about the beauty of kangaroos at the moment.

“But that’s not important. They think they’re invincible and as a result, won’t take any sort of action. They view Yggdrasil as more of a threat than the Legends which you, me, and anybody with a brain cell know that’s ridiculous but hey. Who said the government was smart?” Commander flicked her candy into the trash can which opened up on the floor.

“Fine.” Brisingr conceded. This really was out of their hands. “That doesn’t excuse what you did.”

Commander blinked and looked up at her dolefully, batting her eyes. Brisingr simply crossed her arms. “I am offended you’d think that’ll work on me.”

Commander blinked and reverted back to normal. “Eh, we have some pretty new recruits who are really cute. I bet even you would crumble to their power!”

“Commander.” Brisingr put heavy stress on the word. “The Treaty.”

Commander let out a long-suffering sigh and gazed out the 3-walled windows. Brisingr followed her line of sight, staring down at Neverstien in all its glory.

“The treaty. Something a bunch of aristocrats put together.”

“You sound like you don’t approve,” Brisingr noted carefully.

“Maybe. Some parts, I like. Especially in the food trade, I’ll die if it weren't for my candies! Europe just doesn’t make it as good as Asia. And ice cream, mm!”

“Commander.”

“Right. Back on topic. The treaty means well, but there are too many issues with it right now that I can’t approve of it either. And some of the time, it doesn’t even work.”

Brisingr didn’t want to do this but she needed to get this off her chest. “Like the way it didn’t work yesterday?”

Commander fingered idly with one of her sleeves and Brisingr slammed her hand against the armrest. Almost everybody in the room jolted at the sound by Commander only glanced at Brisingr lazily.

“Yes?”

“Why? Why did you let them do it? The treaty says that in case a Legend ever shows their ugly mugs here, a minimum of 5 teams must be selected to go out and face it. That’s the way it’s always been, Commander! And that’s not going to change any time soon!”

“I know that! I’m not an idiot!”

“Then tell me! Why were Thor and Eons out there alone?! Why were they forced to go out there, when the chances of dying were more than 87%?”

“I didn’t force them to do this! They did it on their own! Nobody listened to the distress signal and Atlas was tearing up the city and-“ Commander rambled.

“You couldn’t wait? Lay in some more heavy fire? I know Thor and Eons are the only official team but for god’s sake! There are dozens of people here who have just as much experience and power as them! The only difference is they aren’t official, but when have you ever been official?” Brisingr demanded.

Commander stood up so sharply that Brisingr stumbled back. She pointed a quivering finger at Brisingr. “Listen here! You cannot judge me for my decisions! They wanted to do it and we had no other choice! Maybe if we had more people, things would have turned out differently but it didn’t!” Commander tapped her chin and pretended to think. “Where were you again? Oh, that’s right! Over a country away!”