A Small Spark

Amaris leaned heavily against the trunk of the tree. Well, maybe not tree. It wasn’t real. It was a fake tree in a forest of fake trees. The sun shone brightly in the sky, telling Amaris that it was just after noon. The sun was fake too, like everything else in this place. She started to wonder, for the millionth time, what a real tree felt like. But she knew she would never actually touch a real tree. All the same, she wished the tree beneath her was real. Damon looked over at Amaris from tree number six. She still didn’t understand why King Ahab insisted on numbering the trees. It seemed like a giant waste of time and resources to Amaris. Granted, she knew nothing of these things. She was nothing more than a commoner, a peasant. Her opinion didn’t matter. Or, something to that effect, Amaris hadn’t been listening when Damon was ranting about it. “They coming or what?” he said. She shrugged in reply. She knew there was supposed to be some sort of meeting near the forest today. Venturing into the forest was illegal for two specific reasons. Ahab had made the forest out to be this incredibly dangerous place that even walking into could bring death. (That death was from him, of course.) Amaris had lived in the forest for ten years. She had not been caught. She had not died. The forest was perfect safe.. The other reason, of course, had to do with the oxygen tanks. Amaris glanced around the area. They were standing on a tree branch about thirty feet into the air at the edge of the forest, overlooking the large meadow that separated the forest from the castle gates. She never particularly cared for this area of Atlantis. It was too out in the open, too visible. Anxiously, Damon sighed and climbed higher on his tree. Standing on the highest branch for a moment, he then easily maneuvered himself form branch to branch until he stood beside Amaris. She raised an eyebrow at him. “Anyone we know?” she whispered. He nodded, a serious expression flickering across his face. “I don’t–” He stopped when he heard a noise in the distance. Sure enough, the three figures were striding towards them. She immediately depicted who these people were, but as to why they were there, she was at a loss. They stopped about twenty feet away in the large, open meadow. It was almost laughable to look at them. The lady wore a long, elegant dark green dress. And though the dress concealed them, Amaris knew she was wearing heels. Beside her was a tall, skinny man with light brown hair. He, too, was familiar to Amaris. The last man held the same color hair and eyes as the other man, but he was shorter and rounder. Yet, he was unmistakable. His presence demanded attention and fear. He was the one her eyes fell on. “Let us go further in,” suggested the skinny man. The other man shook his head. “Here is fine, Castor.” The skinny man looked nervous, like he knew how this meeting was going to end and it terrified him. “What is it that you want, Brother?” asked Castor. King Ahab glanced at the forest. He was standing close to the electric fence, which he had probably dictated to be turned off at the present. Amaris glanced at Queen Aveline, slightly wondering why the woman was with the others. She looked disgusted by the forest. She was very much out of her depth. Amaris pulled her knife from its sheath on her belt. “You heard, I am certain, the nasty rumor that Jonathan’s daughter is still alive,” commented the king. While he spoke, his eyes flickered around the trees. Dirt was beginning to corrode his expensive purple robe. That robe alone, Amaris knew, could have fed a small village. As she was contemplating this, Duke Castor caught her eye. There was something there that made her wonder what was going to take place. His sword hung on his left hip. He knew the cost of drawing it. Castor’s eyes snapped back to his older brother and sister-in-law. “Yes,” Castor answered. “Of course, they are not true. She was a miscarriage, as I recall.” “And yet the people hold out hope that she is still alive. After all these years, too. It is strange. Who do you think would create such rumors?” His tone implied that he already knew the answer. Ahab began to circle his brother. While he was shorter than Castor, he was a thousand times more deadly. “I know not, my king,” Castor replied with a respectful tone, but even Amaris knew it was a lie. “You know she is alive, do you not?” interjected Aveline. “You have helped her, have you not?” Aveline was overstepping her boundaries, leaving Ahab completely unhinged. His hand twitched slightly as though he was trying to repress the urge to strike her. “If she is alive, my queen,” Castor returned, “then it seems Alstor will not be the next ruler. She would be next in line.” Amaris wanted to tell him to hold his tongue. The daughter of king Jonathan never saw the light of day. Castor starting that rumor was only going to get himself killed. “Alstor will be king,” Ahab told him, “whether this rumor is true or not. I want you to find out if she still lives. Find her and dispose of her.” “I will not begin a crusade against the dead!” The duke’s voice was louder than before, his, outrage echoing in his voice. “Looking for her would be as pointless as looking for Jonathan’s son.” “What do you know that I do not, Castor?” Ahab wanted to know. Castor remained silent as a ghost. Whatever he knew, he was determined to keep it from his older brother. “Brother, if she is out there, she is not going to know who she is, much less want to rule the country. I think your son’s position is safe for now.” There was a look on Ahab’s face that told Amaris the was not worried about that. It was something else that had him on edge. “You will do as I command, Castor,” continued the king. “Or else what? You’ll send me to Flykai with the other prisoners? You’ll make me your little pet? Keep me with you wherever you go? Well, Brother, you’ve already given me that. There’s nothing you can do to hurt me.” “Is that why you have been working with that band of rebels? Is that why you leaked the information about the girl? Because you are bored?” The king motioned to his guards. Suddenly, Castor drew his sword and attacked the king. For a second, Amaris wanted to yell out to him and tell him to stop. But she did not. Instead, Damon and Amaris watched as the Stratos, Ahab’s secret guard, came forward to beat and arrest Castor. They dragged his body out of the meadow as though he were some kind of dog. Amaris muttered something along the lines of “come on,” and headed off towards the treehouse on tree 4642. It was not much, but it was the only home Amaris had ever known. She collapsed on the couch in the main room. The treehouse, itself, was special. It was spacious and equipped with weapons for any occasion that may come about. Cameras, computers, and televisions lined the walls and tables. Behind the living room, there was a small kitchenette that rarely held extra food. In the back, there was one small bedroom. That belonged to Amaris. Damon had his own treehouse on tree 4643 which mirrored Amaris’s. She waited a few moments before leaning forward and typing away on the portable computer she had left on the table that morning. She was going over the security cameras from around Atlantis. Notifications from the Rising arrived before her. She hated Matthias for that. She did not even bother with the time to read through the paragraph long pleads to join them. She would help them occasionally when it benefited her, but she was not going to be a part of this war. She did not want that, it had nothing to do with her. She could feel Damon’s eye on her. “Did you have anything to do with that rumor Ahab was talking about?” “That was all Castor,” he murmured with a defensive tone. He was completely a part of it, she knew him well enough to see that. “Remember that time we agreed we were going to stay out of their asinine drama?” He just stared at her. After a few seconds, long enough for her to think that the conversation was over, she looked back to the cameras. “I think you’re more invested in this world than you think you are,” Damon said. She ignored him. Looking down at her watch, she realized what time it was. Quickly standing up, she left her computer to climb out onto one of the branches. There, she grabbed a vine and swung down to the ground below before heading towards the fence. Damon followed her closely, trying to prove that he could keep up her. It was still a competition after all this time. Once out of the forest and the fence surrounding it, they moved quietly and quickly to the nearest village. The Village of Asvor. She knocked three times on the first house she saw. It was an old house that gave the impression that no one had lived in it for years. It was larger than most houses in Atlantis and had a porch that wrapped around the entire house. The once blue shutters now looked a grotesque grey and the whiteness of the house was all but a distant memory. Six houses lined this road, most of them completely empty. The others, she knew, contained the elderly that had been long forgotten by society. She looked around and kept to the shadows. Even though there were not any Keepers around, one could never be too careful. Creakily, the old wooden door swung open and they entered the house. The large staircase was the first thing she noticed as it was not a grandeur afforded to many Atlanteans. Damon led the way into the parlor the next room over. Matthias was there, sitting on the couch. His brown hair was longer than the last time Amaris had seen it. He looked excessively tired and determined. With Matthias was a man and a woman that Amaris had known for years. Absentmindedly, her eyes glanced around the room, taking it in. Above me, there was a ceiling fan that emitted no air. Behind her stood a long dead plant that the former owners had left. Her eyes landed on a smallish device sitting on the fireplace. She did not hesitate before she drew her knife and threw it into the camera, destroying it. Everyone in the room turned to look at her, but she did not care. She sat on the couch beside Matthias and waited for him to proceed. “That was Castor’s camera,” he muttered. His voice was deep and rough and altogether familiar. Across from Amaris, Kane, Shane and Damon sat in old, rotting chairs. She vaguely wondered why the twins were there for this meeting. She dismissed the thought as they smiled to her, she would learn the truth soon enough. Kane and Shane worked in Poseidon City, the richest city in all of Atlantis. The city was built around the numerous laboratories that were established in that area ages ago. Kane and Shane worked in one of those labs. Amaris had always thought they were smarter than anyone else in all of Atlantis. The front door opened with another resounding creak. Amaris glanced up to see who had entered the room. Anyone in all of Atlantis would have been able to depict who this man was. Adam. Pulling off his jacket, Adam entered the room and took the last seat near the fireplace. “Sorry, I’m late,” he murmured. Adam was the last son of King Ahab. Amaris had only met him a few times before this evening, but he seemed like a nice gentleman. He had the same dirt colored hair that belong to his father. Instead of the vicious, cruel grey eyes of Ahab, Adam had soft, kind blue eyes of the ocean. But what Amaris noticed the most of Adam was the dark circles that fell in rings under his eyes. It was as though the man hadn’t slept at all in months. Those hours of sneaking out at night were finally taking its toll on him. There was a light in him that Amaris did not understand. Damon told them about King Ahab’s meeting earlier. They did not seem surprised in the least. “What is this about a lost princess?” she asked them. They glanced among themselves as if sharing a hidden secret. Anger surged through Amaris. What weren’t they telling her? She demanded they tell her their secret. “The thing is, Amaris,” said Adam, “before King Jonathan’s wife died, she had two children. The first, a son, was stillborn. The other was a miscarriage. That was what they had told the public.” “Last week,” continued Kane, “the Rising leaked that they are both still alive.” “Why?” “Because,” Matthias interjected, “Castor believes them both to be. And either one of them could bring Ahab’s reign to its knees.” “Amaris,” Shane added, her voice softer than her brother’s, “we think it’s true. A few days ago, Ahab came to talk to Kane and me.” “And?” “He wants us to build something for him. A kind of…software,” Kane replied. “What kind of software?” Amaris asked, curiosity dancing in her voice. “It’s a translator,” they said together. “Apparently, there will be foreigners among us.” She had to frown skeptically. Foreigners here? This could not be possible. There were no foreigners in Atlantis. There hadn’t been in ages. Ahab certainly would have destroyed them from the moment they touched the fake soil. But then she understood. “This foreigner is King Jonathan’s son?” she asked. They nodded in answer. Adam had a pleading look in the front of his eyes. She sighed. “I don’t approve of your suicidal revolution, you know that.” “Amaris, you give people hope, whether you now it or not,” Matthias told her. He sighed and shook his head. “But if you won’t join us, we would like to hire you.” Finally, we were getting to the heart of this meeting. “What for?” “We want you to break a few people out of Kirio in Central,” said Matthias. “That’s going to be a little pricey,” she replied, a smirk plastered to her face. “500 doman.” The tension in the room shifted. Adam and the twins looked angry, she was asking for a lot of money from them. To be fair, they were asking a lot from me. “100 doman,” Matthias countered. “400,” Amaris offered. “Kirio is a very public facility. You’re asking me for a lot.” “It’s John and Lyla Stravos. You’ll do it for 100.” She considered him. “John’s in Kirio?” “Top floor.” She took a deep breath, knowing what they would be doing to him there. She should stick to the high price, she thought. The Rising was asking a lot from Damon and herself. She glanced over at Damon, he shrugged imperceptibly, telling her he was leaving this decision in her hands. “I’ll do it for 100.” Excitement flashed through the room instantly. When she returned to the treehouse that night, she watched King Ahab roaming around the castle through the security footage Damon and herself had obtained illegally. He paced around like a man planning, a man who was worried over the future. Amaris considered what she had heard throughout the day. And she knew. She knew.