With an irritated groan, Astra pulled herself from her relaxing bath. Quickly wrapping a towel around her body, she left wet footprints along the floor as she padded her way over to the door, wringing her hair out as she did so.

She yanked open the door, just in time for a small fist to gently swing down and hit her in the chest, as the door they were about to knock on disappeared so suddenly.

A young teenage girl with long, blonde hair stood in front of Astra. She wore a casual, modern maids outfit that all the castle worker wore, and her face was scarlet with blush as she looked up at the Storm Goddess with an expression of pure panic. She quickly pulled her hand back, holding it as if it had been shocked.

Her mouth opened and closed, her brain malfunctioning as she desperately tried to process what she was looking at, what she had done as well as remember why she had come here.

Astra stood in the door, crystal infused water still dripping from her soft skin as she waited for the girls brain to reset. She raised her eye brow, letting the girl go through the motions and a small bout of hyperventilating later she was finally ready to speak.

"T-t-t-t-the Lord wants to see you!"

She spat out her message, before quickly turning on her heels and sprinting away down the corridor. However, she only made it a few steps before stopping, turning back and hurrying over to the thoroughly confused Astra.

The maid rustled around in the front pocket of her apron, before holding out a slip of paper in trembling hands. She was biting her lip so hard that it was bleeding, and she looked like she was ready to burst into tears as she shuffled from one foot to the other nervously.

Astra slightly leaned away from the girl, worried she might blow up or worse, actually start crying. With two fingers she plucked the paper from the girls hand, which caused the maid to let out a deep, long held breath.

The girl clenched her eyes shut, took another lungful of air before desperately shouting.

"Imyourbiggestfan, IloveyousososomuchandimreallysorrythatItouchedyourboob!"

The barrage of words were spat out even faster than before, her entire sentence compressing into one long string as it was spewed in a single breath, before the girl turned and sprinted off again. But not without tripping and stumbling over her own feet. When she rounded the corner, Astra could still hear her frantic footsteps as well as her beginning to wail in embarrassment.

Astra blinked softly in confusion, before closing the door and heading back inside her room. Sitting herself down on the bed, she placed the note down on the bed next to her so she could read it whilst she continued to dry herself off.

It was quite the cryptic message, in that it gave her very little to go on. All that was written on the page was a location, and quite a vague one at that since it spoke of a large tree with hanging fruit in the middle a field of crimson grass.

It took her a few minutes to figure out that it was in the old park, not terribly far from the old library they used to use as a base. But that didn't make much sense, that was one of the first areas they had cleared, simply because they had been there for so long. The assault of the Hemogoblins also helped cull beast numbers nearby there.

Unless... something so terribly dangerous had been lurking and had only just been discovered or... or what if it was Lightbringers people invading them?

Astra clicked her tongue at her idiocy, taking such a casual attitude towards all this in a time of need. She could only imagine what Seth was doing, what he was fighting off, while she was sitting here drying her hair.

Crackling lightning surrounded her body, forcing the water to evaporate rapidly in all places but her hair, the wind would take care of that. She quickly threw on the closest clothes she could find, summoned her armour on top of that.

Holding out her hand, her fingers crackled with energy as her sword, already in its sheath, flew across the room and landed squarely in her awaiting grasp. By the time she was putting it on her waist, she was already launching herself through the corridors, racing past the maid girl who was curled up in a ball, muttering softly to herself in the middle of the corridor.

As soon as she hit the courtyard, lightning coursed around her armour and she launched into the air, leaving a pure blue streak behind her as she soared like a rocket. She lifted high into the sky, reaching the peak a hundred metres above the castle before a thunderous boom echoed out as she shot across the sky in the blink of an eye.

Wind whipped at her hair, throwing it in every single direction and dragging any semblance of remaining moisture from it. Some strands even got in her face, but she chose to ignore it.

Flying like a bat out of hell, Astra carried herself with the power of her electromagnetism, burning through her reserves of electrical energy. She flew directly towards the library, then took a sharp turn in the air and headed towards the old park, cursing herself for her laziness the entire way.

She wouldn't be able to live with herself if something happened to that dolt while she was sleeping in a bath. It would simply kill her.

Gritting her teeth, Astra forced every ounce of speed she could out of herself, streaking through the air like a missile until she finally saw the tree in question, it's folilage standing tall amongst the fields of green leaves of the trees around it.

Pointing herself down, she didn't even slow down, simply flipping herself over and landing feet first. Her heels dug into the ground, carving deep furrows into the crimson grass and throwing chunks of earth into the air around her.

At the same time, her sword leapt from its sheath on her hip and landed in her hand once more, it's blade gleaming wickedly and crackling with energy, ready to cleave through... nothing. Huh?

Astra slowly stood up straight, rising from her dramatic landing pose and looked around in confusion. The area was completely serene and beautiful, or at least it had been before she carved 10 metre long twin ditches in the once perfect crimson grass.

Apart from that, however, there was no death, no destruction. No horrible creatures or mad cultists out for blood. Apart from the damage she had dealt, there was not even a single blade of grass out of place.

Looking around in utter confusion, Astra finally saw the only other individual within the clearing. Standing under the shade of a towering tree, which had glistening fruit dangling on vines hanging from its branches, was the man she was here to see, the real version of him.

Instead of the Lord, fighting against an unknown enemy that he desperately needed her help defeating, Seth was garbed in smart yet casual clothes and was currently slightly hunched over, paused in the middle of laying a tartan blanket on the ground beneath the tree, in the circular area close to the trunk where there were no fruits hanging.

He was staring at her with the same mix of shock and confusion as she was showing. He quickly fixed the blanket, stood up straight and spent a few seconds fixing his appearance before looking at her with a warm smile that made her heart flutter.

"Y-you're early and uh... a bit overdressed for the occasion."

"The occasion... I don't understand, what's going on here? I thought you were in trouble or something and I..." She lifted her sword, awkwardly miming the act of cutting with it, before blushing deeply and hiding the sword behind her back. She nodded to the blanket he was laying out, clearing her throat awkwardly.

"What's with that? Are you planning on having a picnic or something."

Seth laughed softly, rubbing the back of his head as he looked at the ground, avoiding her eyes as blush crept onto his cheeks.

"Ah yes, Actually. That was the plan. I'm guessing that my messenger didn't deliver their entire message properly."

"Oh uh... No, she got a little... Something happened and she just gave me the note, with no details."

"Ah well... You got it right. I was indeed wanting to have a picnic here, and I was actually hoping that you would join me, that's why I invited you. Just you and me, like a date. If that's something that's something you think you'd enjoy."

He gestured to a small, woven basket that laid on the blanket behind him, as well as the bottle of wine with two glasses. He turned to her again, shuffling nervously as he waited for her answer, a soft, awkward smile creeping onto his lips.

A smile that made her heart nearly explode in her chest as her face turned completely red.

'A... Date? Oh...'

It was at that very moment, Astra suddenly became very aware of the absolute state of her hair after rushing all this way and giving it the wind drying treatment, as well as the fact that she wasn't entirely sure what she was wearing underneath her armour.

Please god, please make it that in her desperate grab for clothes that she happened wear car crash underwear.