Part 2
Neptis was having quite a bit of fun with these useless mages, but she really did need to speak to Taenya. Sure it's been nearly a hundred years, but she can't have forgotten her, right?
"I really do need to be going." Neptis said, her voice echoing as if it was two voices speaking slightly offset with each other. "I need to speak to Taenya, privately."
"You'll speak to me here!" Taenya replied, running into the room. She stopped to catch her breath, and hadn't noticed who she was talking to yet.
"Taenya!" Neptis shouted, overjoyed. She came to her after all.
Taenya looked up and the blood drained from her face. It was definitely Neptis, but the aura was nothing like she remembered. It was threatening, huge... divine. She felt insignificant in the face of Neptis's sheer majesty.
"Neptis... I..." Taenya didn't know what to say, so she simply knelt.
Neptis grinned. "Finally, someone who shows me the proper respect."
Taenya slowly rose, her legs shaky. She could barely wrap her head around it. This was definitely the same Neptis from a hundred years ago, but it felt like she was staring down a God. Neptis smiled, then spoke.
"Yes, no doubt you are struck mute by my majesty. These mortals have no idea who I used to be, after all." Neptis gestured at the other mages in the room, who were coming to grips with the fact that Taenya knelt before this strange woman. "Now that you are here though, I will announce myself properly. You speak to Neptis, God of War, Patron of Blood!"
Neptis's sigil engraved itself in the stone floor with the mention of her name. Taenya looked down at it and there was no doubt, it was a divine sigil, one that she recognized but didn't know from where. Taenya looked back over at Neptis, and noticed her clothing was stained red with blood.
"Neptis, why do I know that sigil despite having never seen it?" Taenya asked.
Neptis shook her head and chuckled slightly. "It took Eigengrau 3 weeks to explain that to me. Something about the flow of time. But come on Taenya, I really do mean it when I say somewhere more private." Neptis started to walk, leaving the room, Taenya rushing after her.
The mages left behind in the room started to study the sigil, including measuring the depth it was engraved into the stone. It all seemed normal enough until one of the mages made the mistake of touching the sigil with his bare hand, and the others watched in horror as the blood was drained from his body, partially filling the sigil on the ground, and leaving him a lifeless husk.
"Don't touch the floor! Seal the room! Get the Headmaster!" Another mage shouted, jumping to his feet.
The other mages began panicking, not sure whether to touch the dead mage or not. One opted to displace him onto the table, while 2 others ran to get Headmaster Lutz. By the time the Headmaster arrived, the creation and divine mages had looked him over, determined nothing could be done, and had covered him with a cloth.
"What happened?" Headmaster Lutz asked. He looked at the sigil carved into the stone floor of the room, and recognized it at once. "The War God..."
"That's what happened, Sir. We were looking over the sigil she left, when he accidentally touched it with his bare hand. It was like the blood was displaced out of his body, and filled the sigil."
"This room is off limits to everyone who wasn't here when it happened." Lutz said immediately. "Get me Professor Shotbolt and Lord Xilro. Don't touch the sigil, and get started on a burial for the poor man."
Is this who the mysterious visitor for Princess Taenya had been? The War God? Why was this sigil here? After some thought, the Headmaster turned to another mage.
"Find Taenya and her visitor, ask them to come here. Don't try to force them. I need to know what happened." Lutz said.