"You are going to pace a rut in the floor," Noble watched her husband march back and forth across their bedroom. "Have you been doing this the entire ti I was gone?"
Fort paused midstep and looked up in surprise. How had he not heard her co in?!
"Only since I sent the kids to bed," he admitted. "I wanted to sleep, but I've gotten rather accustod to you being beside . I couldn't sleep."
"I don't know if you will be able to sleep any better after I tell you why I was called." Noble sat down on the swinging bed and patted the spot beside her.
Fort ran his hand through his hair. "That bad, huh?"
"It isn't good." Noble leaned against her husband when he sat down beside her. "It's the Skinwalker."
"Oh..." Fort's shoulders slumped.
"It has taken over a city in the Eastern Quadrant. The governnt has the situation contained, but so innocent bystanders got stuck inside and need to be rescued."
Noble let the words flow as they ca to her. She was still trying to process them herself.
"A whole city? That's insane! What did they need you for?" Fort's lips grew taut.
"They want to be part of the rescue team."
Noble shut her eyes, hoping her husband wouldn't see how much they were swirling.
"Team? Surely the governnt will be sending in a small army against that monster."
The ambassador balled his fist.
"Right now it looks like Saint Jet and I are the only ones considering going." Noble didn't need to see her husband's face to know it was turning deathly pale.
"Bee. That is not enough." Fort's mind raced. "Why didn't they ask Saint Kai or Saint Athena? Better yet, now that they are pinned down, one of the Sovereigns could—"
"From what I understood, Saint Kai and Saint Athena are tied up in their own pressing matter in the Dream Realm and will not be reachable in ti. The Great Clans have refused to help. I was not their first option, but I might be their only one." Noble felt a knot in her stomach at the admission.
Gui had said that Luna would find another way, but what other way was there? Other than having Jet go in twice or trying to force the army into the bubble and risk countless lives, Noble couldn't think of one.
"I was going to ask why you, but that question answers itself. You are the best candidate for the job," Fort rubbed his chin. "But that doesn't an you should go. Do you want to go?"
"I don't want to go, but I am not sure I could live with myself if I didn't," Noble sighed. When she opened her eyes, they were almost grey.
"What do you an? Don't tell that they held the money you owe them over your head. Are they forcing you to go to repay them for the Drear Academy?" Fort looked ready to go to war himself if that were the case.
Noble patted his arm. "No, it's not like that. They did say they will forgive what is owed, but that was an afterthought, not the motivation."
Fort furrowed his brow, "Then what could...'
"Director Luna asked personally. The people I have been asked to save are her husband, son, and their bodyguard."
"Oh," Fort uttered a single syllable for the second ti.
"Oh," Noble confird. "Now you know my struggle."
"How did this even happen? Isn't Luna in the EQSC? That isn't the city that was taken, was it?!"
Fort had believed the Waking World would eventually be overrun, but he didn't think it would happen so quickly. If the EQSC was lost, then the rest of Australia—the rest of the world would be soon behind!
"It wasn't the EQSC."
Taking a deep breath, Noble began her tale from the beginning. She relayed every detail that ca to her mind, both for herself and her husband to hear. By the ti she was done talking, she desperately needed sothing to drink.
Hurrying downstairs, Fort returned with two cups and handed one to his wife.
"That's quite a lot to take in."
"Ha, that is what I said to Gui." Noble's small smile faded. "I can feel that you don't want to do it."
"Why would I ever want my wife to go headlong into danger?" Fort didn't deny her claim. She probably knew how he was feeling even better than he did. "But I'm learning more every day that I can't make decisions solely based on how I feel."
The man unconsciously glanced down the hall where his daughter slept peacefully.
"You and Rain push to my limit. But I trust you both. You will make the right choice, whatever it is. I can't make it for you."
"The one ti I want you to forbid from doing sothing, you go and beco all noble." The professor wrinkled her nose.
"Where do you think I learned it from?" He raised his glass to his blushing bride. "So, trustworthy one, what are you thinking?"
"Has the therapy turned you into a therapist?" Noble tilted her head.
"Maybe, now quit stalling," the ambassador clicked his tongue.
Noble sighed. She had been doing exactly that.
"I think Director Luna was my champion when it ca to the school here in Ravenheart. She didn't even claim credit when it happened nor did she ntion her involvent today when I t her. The only reason I know is because of the clerk, Zeth."
Director Luna could have used that piece of information to influence Noble's decision—as leverage or guilt. But Luna had stuck to the facts and presented her request.
Noble respected her for it.
"I don't think I can stand by and watch Luna's family die when I can do sothing about it."
"You are a good person," Fort rembered his wife's desire to go to Antarctica a couple of years before.
She hadn't liked the idea of letting people die back then, but in the end, she realized that she could do more good at ho than on the battlefield.
This ti the battlefield was different, and the only way to help the ones in need was to dive into the action. At least she was a Master now and better able to protect herself.
"I also don't want to put our family in jeopardy. We have worked too hard and gone through too much for to die. I want to see our kids grow up. I can't bear the thought of leaving them without a mother."
Noble had already done that for too long.
"You've made your decision then?" Fort watched his wife's face carefully.
Her eyes swirled, colors clashed and crashed showing the war within herself. Fort wished he could take the burden from her, but he was stuck in the Dream Realm and unable to do anything about the situation so far from their ho.
Noble was oblivious to his gaze. Her thoughts collided. She wanted to do right by the innocent people trapped with the Skinwalker, but she didn't want to make her family grieve her loss a second ti.
In the end, there was only one option.
Noble knew what to do.
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