Ascension: Quest For Revenge

The Twins (Part 2)

He followed Jack’s instructions; after ten minutes, he drank the potion next to him. It surprisingly tasted sweet. Pain slowly left his body; his headache went away. After another minute, all the pain was gone. Axel physically felt much better after the sleep; but mentally, he was distraught. He despised sleeping because of the nightmares.

He slowly got up from the bed and looked around. There were cabinets near the wall with all sorts of medicine kept in them. Axel opened one and found the medicine he was looking for; a blue potion in a small vial. He took it out and drank the whole thing. This would prevent him from sleeping for another four days, while keeping his body mostly healthy.

He walked out of the small room into a large hall with pillars supporting the structure. He saw many weapons lying on benches and warriors in armour walking around the place. There were a lot of wooden doors on the sides of the building; most probably leading to other small rooms. A wooden staircase was at the end leading to both upper and lower floors.

One of the people approached Axel. He was wearing red and black armour. Axel asked him for directions, then headed to the room the twins were in.

He walked in and saw that the two were talking to someone through a Blue Emerald. He closely examined the image in the emerald from the distance and realised it was Belle.

He walked closer and sat on a chair next to the table where the Emerald was kept. The twins were the ones who activated the Emerald; hence Belle couldn’t see Axel through it.

Belle continued her report to the Colts: “—chased him down. Eventually he gave up the weapons. We can go ahead with the raid as planned.”

“Good, that’s great,” Luna said. “I’m glad you volunteered for this mission. We can use warriors of your skill.”

“We’re pretty skilled warriors too, you know,” Jack said to Luna. Belle laughed. “I don’t doubt it. Well, as long as it gets us closer to taking down the king, I’m in. Is Axel awake yet?”

“Yes. We’ll explain him everything by the time you get back.”

Belle sighed with relief. “Thank God. Well, I’m on my way. I could use some sleep.”

The Emerald stopped glowing and Belle’s image disappeared.

Luna put the emerald away and turned to Axel.

“Right… It seems explanations are in order.”

“That’s right,” Axel replied.

“Well, uh, I don’t know where to start.”

“Let’s start with where we are,” Jack said. “This is our hideout. Our base of operations.”

“How did you acquire this building?” Axel asked.

“We didn’t,” Luna said. “Some nobleman in Bluegate had received this building as a gift by the king, and was tasked to monitor the people here. Of course, what he was actually doing was recruiting people against Ender, and training them. He was the first one to establish the rebellion and begin recruiting others.”

“He recruited us,” Jack said. “Unfortunately for us, he died. We’ve been leading this rebellion since.”

“Wait,” Axel said. “You mentioned ‘monitor the people’? What’s so special about the people here?”

“Ah. You see, mate, our very gracious and fair king Ender divided the city of Bluegate into three; this is called the ‘Lower Clouds’. A very creative name indeed. This is where the poor people live.”

“Poor? This is considered poor? That’s unbelievable.”

“Well, you lived in Rayfort for five years,” Luna said. “Naturally you find this to be odd. I’d imagine the rich in Rayfort live about as well as the poor in Bluegate.”

“There is a very small guard presence here,” Jack explained. “Well, when the city’s not in the middle of a festival. And the guards and people here are much less suspicious. We hide in plain sight. If we were set up in the Middle Clouds, our rebellion would be squashed within a month, let alone five years.”

“I’m guessing the small cloud at the top is the Core, or the royal castle.”

“You guess right,” Luna said. “All royal operations of the city are held there. It is still a sizeable location; about as large as a small town. Pretty close to the Middle Clouds; almost hovers right on top of it. But we’re not too concerned with it as of now.”

“We’ve begun secretly taking control of the Middle Clouds,” Jack continued. “A lot of businesses between nations take place there, and most of the people there support Ender willingly. That combined with the fact that the guard presence there is incredibly high, has made things naturally difficult. However, if we take control of it, Ender will be left mostly defenceless.”

“Recently, the king has begun suspecting that the centre of the rebellion is in the Lower Clouds. And with the chaos in the trials down in Rayfort, the guards have tripled in number. This means that there are now fewer guards in the Middle Clouds. Our people there have been separated; they hide in a secret bunker with no backup and no form of contact.”

“And to unite with them to take down the Middle Clouds,” Axel said, “You need to reduce the guard presence here.”

“Exactly. The good thing is we don’t have to sneak around anymore. Our focus is speed, not stealth. The festival of Nimba began day before yesterday and will last for three more days; Ender can’t recruit more soldiers during this festival. If we finish off the guards in the Lower and Middle Clouds before the festival ends, we can finally take Ender down.”

“What’s so special about this festival?” Axel asked.

“It is a festival honouring the new empire,” Jack explained. “As every year passes by after the end of the Great War, one more day is added to the festival. Currently we sit at five. We’re hoping we can end it here.”

“Why did it take you two four years to get to the Middle Clouds?” Axel asked. “I’m not questioning your skills; I saw how you fought against the assassin, and maintaining a secret base under Ender’s nose is very impressive. Which makes it all the more puzzling how you haven’t already taken him down.”

“It’s difficult for us to recruit people,” Luna said. “When this started out, we were too small and too weak; about four, five people trying to take down an empire. Ender had killed off most of the opposition, and the guards kill everyone who enters here through the trials. Most of the remaining support the king. Not many people left to help with our cause. Then slowly, the people here started to realise how terrible the empire really is. Some citizens joined the rebellion. Some guards defected and joined our cause. Our army slowly grew.”

“How did you two survive the journey here?”

“Because of her,” Jack said. “My sister is incredibly adept at hiding from danger.”

“Shut up,” she commanded. “I can turn invisible, and we can share our powers with each other. We were able to become invisible and sneak into Bluegate.”

“You can share your powers?”

“That glowing vein and eye thing?” Jack said. “That was us sharing our powers. Pretty cool, I know.”

“We can discuss that later,” Luna said. “Let’s focus on your part in this.”

“We went through a great deal of trouble to get you here, Axel,” Jack told him. “Had it been under any other circumstances, you would’ve been killed the moment you stepped foot in this place. Luckily, we took care of that.”

“With your help,” Luna said, “A few focused raids on specific parts of the Lower Clouds will allow us to quickly advance to the Middle Clouds. And from there, we can take down the king.”

“We have four days. Today included.”

“We’ve planned on taking down two areas of the district today. You and Jack will attack the tower in the centre, while Belle and I will focus our efforts near the Economic Square. Each with a small group of warriors, of course.”

“I’m in,” Axel told them. “When do we begin?”

“Our spies report that Ender plans on making an announcement at noon today,” she said. “That’s about eight hours from now. Once the announcement is done, we’ll plan our missions accordingly.”

“Sounds good. Until then…”

“Until then, we prepare.”