Of Rich Men and Marriage

There was a moment of silence before Daphne ground out, "I will not be marrying anyone."

"You will," Mrs. Phoenix said. "If you don't step up and take up the family business, and do it well, you will be wed to him the day you turn 17." (Over there, the legal age of marrying is 17.)

"I won't do it," Daphne said firmly. "I won't accept him in the wedding. Hell, I don't accept him now!"

"Come now," Mr. Sor grinned. "If you don't want to take up the family business, you'll be my wife. If you don't want to be my wife, you'll take up the family business. You have two years to make your choice, so no rush." He winked at her. "I definitely wouldn't mind you as my wife, though."

Daphne stood up quickly. "I need to get some air."

She hurriedly walked out of the Luxury Box. "Daphne, wait!" Loki called, standing up and going after her. The rest of them were about to get up as well, but Mrs. Powell said, "Sons, why don't you talk to Mr. Kale and Mr. Sor for awhile? Your uncle and aunt would like to talk with Daphne's bodyguards." The four of them reluctantly stayed behind.

Loki exited the door where Daphne was leaning against a wall, looking pale and sick.

"Hey," he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Do you want to talk?"

"I always knew they would do something to convince me," Daphne said hoarsely. "But I never thought that they would arrange a marriage for me. I thought they would disown me, maybe use their influence so that I wouldn't be able to provide for myself. I even thought that they might hurt you guys because you're my friends, and use that against me. But an arranged marriage- It's just an excuse for me to marry some rich guy, get our name under his money and power, and get rid of me to him."

"Can't you just... run away, or something?" Loki asked softly.

"I can't, because if I do, they might hurt you guys," Daphne answered miserably. "Even if you guys weren't my friends, they would use their power to somehow find me again. And now we know that they're influence is everywhere, so it'll be even harder for me to run. It's impossible, Lo. Either I join The Snakes, or I marry Mr. Sor."

"Then we'll have to solve the mystery about The Snakes before you turn 17," Loki said firmly. "We won't let you be wed to someone you have no interest in."

"Even if we find out everything about The Snakes, then what?" Daphne said, sounding defeated. "Even if we know every single thing, who's going to help us? Would they help 6 kids, or side with an extremely rich and powerful group?"

"You know what's the on thing we can count on? The higher ups will always want more power over each other. Their like snakes themselves. Once we find out enough, we can send a anonymous note with all the info. They'll use it to bring down The Snakes, so that they can get the power that The Snakes hold."

"We only have a few months, Loki," Daphne whispered. "My 16th birthday has already passed. By this time next year, I'll either be training to kill or be the wife of a man who is 12 years older than me. I don't think that we can disrupt an ancient group of evil Originals that easily, especially not in a year. We barely have anything to work with right now!"

"We won't let that happen," Loki took her hands into his. "As for not having any clues, we already have quite a few. We know who are the founders and we know what is their most frequent meet up point. As for not being able to find out enough by the time you turn 17, it's all the more reason to go back in and get investigating. I'm sure our friends are worried for you."

"Okay," Daphne took a deep breath. "I think I'm okay now."

She and Loki headed back in the Luxury Box.

"You alright?" Terrence asked sympathetically. "It must be rough."

"I'll be fine once we bring down this damn organization," Daphne said. "We should get searching."

"What about there?" Saltavore nodded towards a small room in the Luxury Box, tucked away in a corner. "I've seen our parents go in it before. If anyone ask, we're just exploring the Luxury Box."

"Good idea." The six of them casually strode up to the door and opened it.

"Pretty sweet," Nishan whistled as they entered. There was a white fur rug carpeting the ground, and the walls were made out of black marble. There were sleek white tables with seats and couches upholstered in black leather.

Loki was glancing around the room when his eyes caught onto the black marble walls. As he turned away, his screen flashed.

[Ancient Laufeyson Abilities that runs extremely deep is detected in those marble walls]

[The marble walls are enchanted in with a Laufeyson Ability, No Eyes and No Ears]

[No Eyes makes it so that no one with the Ability to see through walls, or technology that can see through walls, to see what happens behind the marble walls]

[No Ears makes it so that no one, even those with super-hearing Abilities or technology that amplifies sounds can detect what is said behind the marble walls]

"Huh?" Loki said. He filled the rest in on what he had just been informed of. "Maybe my system can recognize old traces of Laufeyson Abilities."

"I think it can only recognize things that has been heavily enchanted by a Laufeyson, and the magic runs deep," Seraphine said. "But it's good to know. This makes this room much more likely to be the room where The Snakes often do their deals."

[New Stealth Quest: Find an object with a vital piece of information in this room: +50 Xp]

[New Stealth Quest: Find an object with a vital piece of information in this room: +Mystery Reward]

Loki told them about the new quest, saying, "This means that there has to be something important here."

There was a loud roar from outside, and the announcer said, "The fourth last match of the day is over!"

"And hurry! We can't take too long! We only have three more matches before they come looking for us!" Loki added, all of them quickly splitting up to search.

They rifled through papers and books, but every time they found something that looked important and passed it to Loki, it was never it.

"We don't have time to read everything," Daphne hissed as she was flipping through a stack of books. "That vital piece of information is the one we need most! We only have on more match before they find us!"

"What about this?" Saltavore passed Loki a sealed scroll. "It doesn't look like much, but I can feel magical energy coming from it."

The moment Loki took it in his hands and looked at it, his screen changed.

[Stealth Quest Completed: +50 Xp]

[900/1200 Xp]

[Stealth Quest Completed: +Mystery Reward]

It's the right one! Stop looking and make sure the office looked the way it did when we came in!" Loki said as they heard a loud shout from outside. Approving roars followed and the chant of "Blood! Blood! Blood!" were deafening.

[Mystery Reward: Capture]

[Capture allows you to choose one object of you're liking, whether that object is sealed or not sealed, and capture every single detail of that object, from it's looks to the words that's contained in or on the object]

"I accept the mystery reward! I want to Capture this scroll!" Loki said in a rush.

[Scroll: Captured]

[Captured Scroll currently exist in the Special Inventory]

[The Special Inventory is an Inventory that has limitless space]

[You cannot choose to put things into that Inventory]

[Only the system may choose what to put into the Special Inventory]

"Put back the scroll quickly!" Loki tossed it to Saltavore.

Just then, they heard the door open...