Page 8 of Taurus's Quest
“Excuse me?”
By her clueless expression, she had no idea what Taurus spoke of. Maybe Olivia had gotten it wrong.
“Never mind. Can you sit tight while I dress?”
She glanced around. “Will I be teleported again if I don’t?”
“Not likely, but you never know with Tower.”
“Can’t I come with you?”
He opened his mouth to say no, then thought, why not? She’d obviously not believed a word he said. Might as well show her the truth. After all, they had ways of wiping memories if required. “Sure, but hope you don’t mind stairs.” Clutching his towel, he opened the door and swept his free hand. “After you.”
She took a hesitant step, then another, before striding past him and stopping short in the hall.
“This truly isn’t the shop.”
“Told you,” Taurus replied, joining her to see Tower had returned to its usual aspect. Winding stairs led up and down to the various levels.
“What did you say your name was?” she suddenly asked as he began to climb.
“Taurus.”
“Like the tattoo on your back,” she murmured. Kind of hard to miss, given it spanned the entire width.
“Yup.”
“Your parents named you after the constellation?”
“Not my parents. It was given to me after my rebirth as a Zodiac Warrior.” Might as well start laying it out.
Laughter erupted, and he half-turned to see her pausing on the staircase, expression bright with mirth.
“What’s so funny?”
“All of this. Here I’ve been taking this all so seriously when, in reality, I am dreaming. I must have lost consciousness in the basement of the shop. Hopefully not from any undetectable gases.” She chewed her lower lip. “Perhaps that was why the room was locked.”
“Everything you’re seeing and experiencing is real. I was chosen by the Astraeus to be one of their avatars on Earth with the task of serving and protecting humanity.”
“Protecting them from what?”
“Monsters. Great evil. Galactic threats.”
“Aliens?” she mocked.
“Yes.” He continued to ascend, and she skipped upwards to keep pace.
“Let me guess, there are twelve of you defending Earth.”
“Thirteen now. We recently freed the Astraeus known as Ophiuchus, so now have an extra warrior on the team.”
“Wait, when you say recently freed…” She paused on the stairs again and began muttering to herself. “That is the constellation that likely started the chain of events with the Milky Way and the planets, which, in turn, will cause the asteroid to shift trajectory.”
His turn to halt. “What asteroid?”
“The one that recently entered our solar system, named 8675309 Odyssey. Everyone believes it will bypass Earth. However, according to the Antikythera mechanism, the planets have slightly shifted their orbits. If the results from the device are correct, this will cause this asteroid to veer from its projected path and crash into Earth.”
“Holy shit,” he muttered. “How does Aries not know about this?” Probably because their usual seer hadn’t been able to predict anything of note lately.
