“What?” said Marvin, genuinely doing a double take at Eobard’s words.

“What’s going on Mr Kon?” asked Marvin’s grandma, not having heard what the white haired man said before.

Eobard’s expression changed to a small, but seemingly genuine, smile as he redirected his gaze to the older woman. “Hello Miss Norrinson. I’d like to steal Marvin off you for a few hours. I have some academic work that I need to do, and I think it could benefit him in his education if he were to come with me.”

The dark haired teen in question had to bite his tongue in order to not reveal anything true about this ‘academic work’. It was one of the things he hated about this whole ordeal, lying to his grandmother about it.

“Well, if you think it’s for the best I don’t have any problems with it. I trust you to take good care of Marvin for me though, and not to keep him out too long.”

“Wait!” called Marvin, stopping Eobard before said anything else.

“What’s wrong?” asked the white haired man, looking impatient. Marvin could guess that time was running short, but he couldn’t leave without consulting his grandmother.

“Grandma,” said Marvin as he turned to the older woman. “I want to do the right thing. Help a friend of mine to do the right thing as well. But I’m scared that, by doing that, I will be no better than the people that are manipulating that friend into this current situation.” he rambled, trying to reveal as much as he could while at the same time revealing nothing at all. “Does that make any sense?”

“More than you think.” chuckled the old woman. “Marly needs your help. I understand that much.”

Marvin blushed slightly at being seen through so clearly, but he chose not to attempt to dispute his grandma’s claim, it wasn’t false anyway. “What do I do?”

“Help her. Show her the right way. Marly’s a bright girl, I’m sure she’ll see your point of view and understand it. But don’t try to make the decision for her. I may not know everything that’s going on, but I understand that much.”

Marvin nodded at the woman before hugging her goodbye and leaving the room, right behind Eobard. The two walked down to the presentation room in a tense silence.

Talking with his grandma really did help Marvin. He had been scared about possibly abusing Marly’s trust in him. But he wouldn’t be. He would only be presenting her with all of the information. Show her his own point of view so that she could decide on her own what’s for the best.

But that didn’t guarantee success on their mission. There was always the possibility of her siding with her grandfather, although he preferred not to think about that. The most likely option was that they would have to fight. And that wasn’t something he was eager to do, for a multitude of reasons.

In short, his decision had potentially put the mission in jeopardy. Had he decided to pressure Marly, or maybe even lie to her, use underhanded or emotionally manipulative strategies to win her over, they’d most likely had more of a shot.

“Are you mad because I’m going to let Marly make the decision for herself?” asked Marvin, sounding more like a child waiting to be reprimanded from his parents than someone about to go into what could be an all-out war.

“Of course not!” said Eobard, sounding shocked Marvin would even think this. “What? Did you think we were going to ask you to kidnap her and stop her from helping the Commander?”

“No!” replied Marvin indignantly. He wasn’t stupid, well not that stupid. “I could, I don’t know, lie to her or tell her that I would never trust her again? Things like that?”

“If you did things like that, you would be no better than Mallory.” replied Eobard. “He created her and Ava, raised them as a caring, if overprotective grandfather, fabricating familiar relationships all for this moment.

“It’s as your grandmother said, show her that there is a better way, and she will make the right decision. There is nothing more we can ask, and nothing more you can do. Still, be ready for a fight, you never know when something might go wrong.”

Marvin let out a long sigh, both out of relief and out of fear. There was a lot he didn’t know and couldn’t predict. Not to mention that he still thought that he wasn’t the best person to do something like this. Sure, Marly trusted him, but he had made too many mistakes, thought horrible thoughts.

No! He stopped himself from continuing down that train of thought. He would do the right thing, and he would see that better tomorrow with everyone-including Marly.

The two eventually reached the presentation slash secret teleportation room. Eobard took a deep breath, before opening the door and going inside. Marvin himself followed suit.

Eobard turned to Marvin, a serious look on his face.

“Here is your letter. You know how this works,” he said, taking out two from his pant pockets. He handed one to Marvin, keeping the other for himself. “We need these in order to get to our base, so don’t let go. Nicholas has managed to jam the Caelum Terra. He only opened this passageway for our own use. We only get one shot at this.”

“Jam the Caelum Terra?” asked Marvin. The many pathways of the Land of The Sky were a vastly complicated system of magic. How could someone just stop it from working?

“He’s extremely powerful, but it’s only temporary.” explained Eobard, taking in a deep breath. “They are going to catch on, and the Association may not have the raw power to deal with him, but they have the numbers. We only get one shot at this, are you sure you’re ready?”

He wasn’t. Not really. But he supposed that he never would be.

Taking in a deep breath of his own, Marvin did his best to prepare himself.

“I’m ready.” he said, clenching his fists as well as the letter he was holding.

Eobard took the letter out of the envelope, and Marvin did the same. Last time he had entered one of these rooms with a letter, it was Nicholas who did the transporting spell. He supposed that, when the man wasn’t around, this was how you got the transport to work.

Α familiar, yet painful, tingling feeling overtook his body. The feeling of pressure suddenly overtook his body. He looked over at Eobard, seeing that the white haired man was clearly much better at hiding his pain behind a stone cold expression. That, or he had gone through this enough times to not be used to it.

The letters disintegrated, and Marvin was forced to shut his eyes closed from the pain. As everything faded to black, Marvin began to truly grasp the importance of this event.

The Battle for the Caelum Terra, the Land of the Sky, had begun.