Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. Any and all OCs and original locations belong to me unless specifically stated to belong to someone else.
Soul Remnants
Chapter 28
The retreat from the battle was an effort of complete and utter chaos. What had started as an orderly and tight formation soon turned into just a large group of men, women and horses desperately trying to get away from the metallic monster firing at them from above. Sheik had located Shun in the mess and was holding tightly onto her reigns and trying to lead her away from the danger. Jeryd was ahead of them, clearing a path with strength that belied his relatively thin frame. They'd both lost sight of anyone they knew in the press, and as far as Sheik was concerned it was every man for himself at the moment.
The road they'd chosen as an escape route was effectively a funnel, and it prevented the remainder of Riveth's army from moving at any greater pace than a slow trot. The soldiers pushed and shoved at each other, most begging those ahead of them to move faster, to lead them out of the killing ground the road was quickly starting to become.
Another deafening boom and at least a dozen of Riveth's soldiers at the head of the group were obliterated in an instant along with a significant piece of the road. A loud horn continued the sonic assault, scaring the soldiers witless.
And as if the airship chasing them wasn't bad enough, there were still plenty of enemy soldiers at their heels, cutting down the fleeing army from behind.
This is one hell of a mess! Sheik thought, wondering what he could possibly have done to deserve all this.
His ears popped, and he cast a glance behind him to see several of Agon's men running into a seemingly invisible wall before being violently hurled backwards. One of the brothers, he thought. He still wondered how he could possibly have missed the possibility that the two of them were magic users. Every sign had been there!
Riveth was injured. She was being carried by five of her soldiers, Rial following closely behind, flanked by either Ard or Erd—it was impossible to tell with their face obscured by the mask. The other brother was farther back in the group, doing his best to hold back Agon's men. Another pop, another dozen of them flew backwards at breakneck speed.
The airship above them roared as the output of its engines was adjusted, giving it a better view of the fleeing troops. It must have been like shooting fish in a barrel, the gunners surely enjoying themselves as they fired at a nearly leisurely rate. Some even missed on purpose, it seemed, their only goal being to scare the living hell out of the—to them—tiny ants on the ground.
There was no plan anymore. No one knew what they were doing; they were just trying to get away from the horrible thing above them and the murderous bastards behind them. Sheik had no idea how long the road stretched on ahead or even where it ended up. If it led them to another open field like the one they'd just left behind, they were all dead. Not that their prospects of surviving were any better here, but still...
"Of course this had to happen on the one windless night of the year!" Jeryd shouted ahead, growling to himself as he was forced to push a stumbling man aside. Sheik felt like he should have said something to stop the human, but he realised it would simply fall on deaf ears. Survival was the only thing on their minds now.
And then an idea struck him. "Windless?" he asked.
"There's no way in hell that thing would've been stable enough to follow us like this on a windy night!" Jeryd answered. "Would blow it right off course!"
Sheik looked at The Chimera, and then at Ard or Erd at Riveth's side. A plan formed in his head.
"Jeryd! Take Shun!"
He didn't even wait for the human to acknowledge what he had said before handing Shun's reigns over to him and starting to push his way towards the injured Riveth. The general was obviously not happy with being practically carried and waved her arms angrily at her supporters.
"Just leave me be! I can walk by myself! It's me they're after anyway!"
Rial and the others didn't seem to notice her ravings. Upon spotting Sheik, he nodded curtly.
"Glad to see you're still alive!" he said.
"You too!" Sheik replied. He looked at Ard or Erd, who also nodded at him. Erd, then. Sheik had a feeling Ard wouldn't bother with pleasantries like that. "I need your help!"
"What with?" Erd asked.
"Getting that bastard off our backs!" Sheik replied and pointed upwards. "If we don't do something about it, we'll all die!"
"I assumed as much!" Erd replied dryly. "You have a plan?"
"I think so, but I need someone who can use magic!"
"Tell Ard, I cannot leave the general's side!" Erd motioned towards Riveth, who was currently throwing fists at anyone she could reach. "She must be protected!"
"Will Ard agree to help me?" Sheik asked. "He doesn't like me very much!"
"He will if he knows what's good for him!" Erd said. "Tell him I said that!"
"Right!"
As Sheik pushed his way through the crowd, carving a path through to the back, he started to doubt his plan. It would require a bit of power, this... Someone elbowed him in the face by accident, but he hardly noticed, his attention so focused on the grey-clad youth just ahead. Several of Riveth's men broke away from the group, turned around and readied themselves to face the approaching enemies. Even now they remained professional, sacrificing themselves to save their comrades. Ard must have noticed Sheik approaching, for he turned around and stared at him as he stopped in front of him.
"I need your help!"
Ard didn't even reply, only snorted as he turned his attention back to the approaching soldiers.
"It'll save many lives!"
No reaction.
"Erd said that you'd better do it if you know what's good for you!"
The mention of his brother made Ard turn back around, gaze at Sheik for a few seconds before grunting quietly. "What?" he asked.
"Can you create wind? With your magic, I mean!" Sheik asked.
Ard nodded.
"Strong wind?"
Nod.
"And lots of it?"
Hesitation, and then another nod, though this seemed more careful.
"I think you know what I want you to do!" Sheik said, looking pointedly up at the airship. "Get it out of our hair!"
Ard looked up, sizing the ship up before looking back at Sheik, who could have sworn he saw an eyebrow twitch underneath the hood. Then he nodded one final time before running past Sheik, as if trying to catch up to the leaders of the group. Sheik followed him, wondering if he was going to ask Erd if he was serious, but then he started to climb up on one of the huge rocks that littered the sides of the road, trying to get to a high point. Standing on the rock, Ard cocked his head to the side, looking confused.
And then it started. Sheik's head began to feel heavy, and it felt like someone was wrapping cloth around his ears as the background noise gave way to the almost comforting hum of the very minute amounts of magical energy in the background being spent.
I didn't think of that, he thought as he watched Ard starting to wave an arm around in the air, apparently visualising the air streams he was trying to manipulate. There's so little magic in these lands, but these two are channelling it as if there's an endless supply!
A mild breeze began to blow around their heads, leaving everyone's skin tingling slightly and tearing away any doubt about where it came from. It grew stronger and stronger, and the dust from the road was starting to swirl around them.
Ard grunted loudly and pointed at the airship, which was already starting to wobble in the air because of the unexpected gusts.
Everyone heard the sudden gale, and one could see that the crew of The Chimera had not expected anything like it as the airship lurched through the air and disappeared behind a cliff, nearly crashing into it. The sudden disappearance of their air support seemed to discourage Agon's men from pursuing them as wildly as they had before and were currently trying to regroup further up the road, giving the fleeing army some much-needed breathing space. Sheik couldn't help but smile in relief.
All isn't lost, then.
He turned his gaze to Ard, intending to congratulate him despite being a rude bastard, but his words died on their way out when he saw the boy stumble off the rock, hitting the ground hard with a groan. Sheik ran over to him, trying to see if he'd been hit by an arrow or something, but Ard slapped his hands away.
"'m fine," Ard slurred, trying to stand up but failing miserably. His knees didn't cooperate at all, buckling under his weight. "'ust tired..."
Sheik rolled his eyes and seized the young warlock and hauled him to his feet, putting Ard's arm around his shoulder. The act of creating those winds had completely sapped the youth's strength.
"Don't even think of starting to protest," he growled. "You're in no condition to walk!"
Ard remained silent, looking down at the ground.
With the airship terrorising them gone and the soldiers behind them regrouping, the remnants of Riveth's army seemed to calm down a bit, and their retreat became more professional, more controlled. With everyone forming into orderly ranks, they could once again actually get moving at some semblance of a good pace. Every now and then, they heard the loud hissing of the ship's steam engines, but they did not see it again.
They reached the end of the mountain road and hit a path that led through a thick forest. They followed it for a time before spreading out and setting up several smaller camps well away from the path. It was a strategy very similar to the one the Hyrulian Remnant had employed during their withdrawal to the Lost Woods. Of course, with Riveth's men being so few, it was much less impressive.
But at least they were safe. For now, anyway. The trees provided a roof to protect them from the prying eyes of The Chimera if it ever managed to get back on course, and Agon's men seemed to have stopped their pursuit altogether. It was a welcome reprieve.
Jeryd had followed Riveth's group and was waiting with Shun for him and Ard as they arrived.
"I was wondering where you'd gotten off to," Jeryd said as he took the unresisting Ard off of Sheik, looking slightly awkward as he had no idea what to do with the boy next. "That was a good plan."
"You're the one who gave it to me," Sheik said, patting Shun on her neck.
"Ah, so I saved the day then, did I?" Jeryd asked, grinning.
Ard made a grumbling sound which sounded suspiciously like "No, you didn't, it was me," but it was impossible to be sure as his words were still heavily slurred.
"What's wrong with him?" Jeryd asked.
"He's exhausted," Sheik replied. "Magic takes a lot out of the user."
"I see—"
"Thank you for taking care of my brother," Erd said, suddenly appearing behind them. Sheik had gotten used the warlocks' ability to appear out of nowhere, but Jeryd still visibly jumped in surprise. Wordlessly, Erd took his brother and led him away, speaking quietly all the way.
"Those two really don't say much, do they?" Jeryd asked after a minute.
"They don't need to, I think."
Riveth was in surgery. That is, if being propped up against a thick tree trunk with two men holding her down and Agneta doing her best to clean and stitch the wound closed could be called that. She was cursing and threatening to tear the heads off everyone involved, taking special care to single out her nephew, who was standing a few feet away and shaking his head at the display, claiming that blood bonds meant nothing in the light of the current situation. He gave Sheik a knowing look as he passed, silently saying, "Save yourself."
But Riveth wasn't the point of Sheik's interest at the moment. He found Ard and Erd sitting among a small, enclosed group of trees a little distance away from the others. Ard was out like a light, being held by Erd who himself was sitting against a tree. As Sheik approached, he heard Erd whispering to his brother.
"You did well today, Ard. Everyone owes their lives to you. I'm so, so proud of you..."
He looked up when Sheik stepped into their little sanctuary. He'd taken off his mask and hood, revealing the silvery, blond head of hair. He was smiling.
"I can't thank you enough for helping him," Erd said. "Everyone was too busy making sure that Riveth and the other officers were okay to notice him."
Sheik looked away, not sure if he deserved such praise considering how much Ard annoyed him. "I only did what was right," he mumbled.
"No, you could easily have left him there to be captured or killed," Erd countered. "I know you two don't like each other at all, but you saw past that and made sure that he made it back to me. Thank you." Ard mumbled something indecipherable, which only made his brother smile and squeeze his shoulder lightly. "He can be a bit of an ass when he's awake, but when sleeping...like a lamb, I tell you."
Sheik nodded, feeling a bit awkward. "May I sit?" he asked.
"Of course," Erd replied, nodding. "I've wanted to talk to you, anyway. And I assume you have some questions as well."
"I'm that obvious, am I?" Sheik asked as he made himself as comfortable as he could on the damp ground.
"Well, yes," Erd said, smirking. "But I also assumed you were curious about our...magic, after seeing it in action. It surprised you, didn't it?"
Sheik nodded dumbly. "Yes, but only because I know that practicing magic is outlawed in Lumina. I cannot help but wonder if...if..."
"If that is the reason for why our parents left us to die in the forest?" Erd finished. "Yes, that is very much the reason for our abandonment. Our family was not wealthy by any means, and sometimes we did not have enough to around, but food was not as big an obstacle as I made it out to be." He clenched the fist that was not gently rubbing his brother's arm, sounding bitter. "I was the first to show signs of having the gift. We were playing in the barn, Ard and I, and we were wrestling in the hay, just doing what boys at that age do. We started arguing about something—I don't remember what—and then I pushed him. Harder than I meant to, and he went over the edge of the loft. I'm not sure how I did it, but he never hit the floor. Instead, he floated a few inches off it. I remember suddenly feeling very tired, and then the levitation stopped."
Ard mumbled some more, which softened his brother's gaze slightly.
"My first use of magic was used to save someone. Surely it could not be as evil as the stories we'd been told claimed?"
"How old were you?" Sheik asked.
"Five," Erd replied.
"What happened then?"
"We kept it a secret, of course," Erd said. "We were kids, but we weren't stupid. We knew something bad would happen if our parents found out. I started to practice, though. I realised I could do many different things apart from levitating objects. I could create fire out of nothing, make water freeze in an instant! Of course, being very inexperienced, I couldn't make the effects last. They only lasted a few seconds at best."
"Ard showed signs of possessing the gift a few months later. He grew jealous of the things I could do, and started trying to do them himself. And that's when the very fundamental difference between my brother and I came to light."
"And that is?" Sheik asked as Erd began to pull at his brother's mask and hood. His hair was the same colour as his brother's, though kept slightly longer. There were braids in it, for some reason. But Sheik focused on his face, and saw that it was identical to Erd's, right down to the slight bump on the bridge of his nose. A light sheen of sweat covered the sleeping brother's face, showing his exhaustion.
Twins, he thought.
"That while we both can do magic, Ard's the most powerful one," Erd finished, smiling at the surprise on Sheik's face. "I have greater control of my gift, but I cannot channel nearly as much energy as he can. The power of my spells isn't even a fraction of his."
"I see," Sheik said. "I assume the difference in power resulted in something unpleasant back then?"
"Yes," Erd said, his voice quiet. "Of the few spells I could do at the time, the one where I created fire out of thin air was the one that fascinated Ard most of all. He tried to do it himself, and a few times he managed to make wisps of smoke appear, but that was it, no flame. He did not have the...control required for it. That's when he grew angry and used the aggression in an effort to make the fire appear. I felt it then, how the energy was drawn to him like moths to a flame, haha, and he created an absolutely gigantic fireball that blew out the side of the barn and set fire to the adjoining field."
Erd paused and stroked his brother's hair, still smiling as Ard protested against the action even in his sleep.
"That was it, really," he continued. "Our parents took one look at us, came to a silent agreement and took us far out into the woods, blindfolding us so we wouldn't know which way to go and tying us up so we wouldn't be able to follow them back."
"That's awful," Sheik said.
"Not as awful as the next few days," Erd said. "We had just turned six, and we knew nothing of how to survive on our own in the forest. We got lost. Ard was a mess, he kept blaming himself for our situation, but I think we both knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. We were thirsty, we were hungry, and at one point we were being tracked by a pack of wolves. They were going to finish us off on the fifth day, but then...a voice called out, and we ran towards it, not caring who the owner was. The wolves were hot on our heels, and then we burst out from among the trees, and we came across General Riveth and her army of exiles. Turns out that it was her voice we'd heard, angrily scolding a supply officer who had misunderstood an order or something like that. The wolves backed off, but now we were suddenly the objects of interest in the middle of a camp of eight-hundred soldiers."
"What happened?"
"We were terrified, naturally," Erd said. "And when Riveth stepped forward to ask us who the hell we were, Ard's survival instincts took over, and he produced another fireball. It dissipated before it could do any damage, luckily, and while the rest of the camp became wary of us, Riveth simply smiled, as if she understood what we had gone through. And that was it, really. She took us in. Fed us, clothed us, and loved us like we were her own. I still do not understand why, but...I'm glad she did. She sent for books about magic, taught us how to read them and let us practice and gain control of our powers. In return, we swore to protect her with our lives. It was the least we could do in return for everything she did."
Sheik didn't know what to say. He usually didn't in these cases. Instead, he only nodded in understanding.
"We owe her everything," Erd said, tightening the grip on his brother as another pained scream from the general in question could be heard. "It was just a flesh wound, but it still hurts to know she's in pain..."
Neither of them said anything for a few minutes.
"He doesn't hate you, you know."
"What?"
"Ard. He doesn't hate you. He's just afraid of whatever's inside you and the threat it could pose against Riveth." He smiled. "In fact, Ard's quite curious about you, but he's too shy and proud to allow himself to speak to you normally."
Sheik suddenly felt embarrassed. He'd been so certain that Ard despised him that he hadn't felt any guilt for disliking the youth just as much back, but now...
"Well, the...creature inside me does not seem to have any interest in harming your general," he said, side-stepping the like issue completely. "It only likes to torment me in general. You can tell him that."
"I'd prefer if you told him yourself," Erd said. He looked like he was about to say something more, but clamped his mouth shut. Sheik gave him a questioning glance, and his resolve seemed to break. "What...what exactly is inside you?" he asked. "I can only sense it as a black, malicious mass. I can't pinpoint a form or anything, and it resists any prodding."
"It's...a long story," Sheik said, not really wanting to get into it all again. "But it is ancient, and angry. At one point, I thought we had destroyed it, but it was wilier than we thought..."
"It clings to you, I've noticed," Erd said. "It's like it's festering inside..."
"It certainly feels that way sometimes," Sheik admitted.
"Do you want it gone?"
"Nothing would make me happier...apart from seeing my friends again, of course."
Erd looked uncertain for a few seconds, but then a grim determination came to his face. "We do not know how to destroy it," he began, causing Sheik to focus entirely on him. "But...with proper preparation, I think...I think Ard and I can contain it, prevent it from actually doing anything to harm you or anyone else."
Sheik raised an eyebrow. "Why would you do something like that for someone you barely know?"
Erd shrugged. "You strike me as someone we can trust. And I do believe we owe you one for saving sleepyhead here."
Sheik scratched his neck. It would certainly be nice to not have to listen to Speil's ramblings and to be certain that it would never be able to harm anyone, even if it meant having to be its prison. Link's face flashed in his mind's eye, and he made a decision.
"All right, I'm certainly willing to try," he said, nodding to Erd. "When do we start?"
"A good night's work, I'd say," the geriatric councillor said from behind his desk. Unlike so many other bureaucrats, who liked to draw focus to how much they toiled away for the benefit of the people whom they worked for (which was usually a lie) by stacking piles upon piles of papers on and around their workspace, Rehm kept his immaculately clean, almost to the point where it looked empty. It made Agon nervous where he stood, because it demonstrated that Rehm was beyond all pretence now. The charade was over. The councillor beamed at him. "Wouldn't you say, general?" he asked.
Agon cleared his throat, trying to keep himself from jumping at every little mechanical pop or grinding noise that issued forth from the metallic skeleton around him. He didn't like The Chimera. He didn't like the idea of being suspended far above the ground with nothing but a bit of gas and cloth to keep him from becoming a patch of bloody mush. Rehm had insisted on meeting him here, in the king's cabin, which he had commandeered for himself. No one was about to argue. He was on the king's business, after all. The general had tried his best to make the councillor meet him down on the ground, but they were supposedly on a tight schedule and would only be able to stay there for another twenty minutes or so, after which they would be forced to head to the nearest refuelling station. He had been slightly disappointed by the fact that he wouldn't be able to see Rehm try his hand at climbing down the rope ladder.
"General?" Rehm repeated, giving him an innocuous yet pointed look. "Don't you agree?"
"Yes, sir," Agon replied, feeling awkward. He was out of his element, far away from his comfort zone. It was not just because of the fact that he was standing in the heart of this mechanical monster, but also because Rehm's demeanour had changed drastically from the last time they'd spoken. "A-a successful campaign."
Rehm grinned. "Successful does not even begin to describe tonight's triumph," he said happily. "Not only have we vanquished most, if not all, of the traitorous General Riveth's army and her pathetic rebellion, but we have also finally field-tested this magnificent warship." He stomped a foot on the wood-panelled floor for emphasis. "And we have redeemed you and your name in the eyes of the king! All the while removing those...undesirable elements of your army," he added.
Agon sighed. "That is only if the king accepts your, quite frankly, cock-and-bull story." He linked his fingers behind his back, trying to look anywhere but into the older man's face.
There had always been a certain...thoughtfulness to Rehm's face, a look that told everyone that, while he seemed pleasant on the surface, he was always thinking, planning, analysing, strategising and scheming on the inside. But now...now he looked like a predator that was closing in on its prey. It was as if some dam behind his eyes had burst, spilling forth all the of the councillor's intentions.
"Cock-and-bull story?" Rehm asked, almost sounding offended. "Hardly. News does not travel fast during wartime, general. How were we to know that the men who carried out the sacking of those villages were actually Riveth's? That you had headed out to avenge those innocent deaths personally? That I only arrived just in time to aid you in your quest to defeat her rebellion before it even started?"
Agon sighed inwardly. There was no way in the nine hells that Victor, naïve as he was, would believe that claptrap. Rehm was by no means a brilliant schemer, but this was probably one of the worst plans he had ever had.
"He won't fall for it," the general repeated, aware that the temperature in the room was dropping rapidly, the councillor's gaze hardening considerably. "We'd be lucky if he didn't have us both arrested." There was no choice but to push on. He hadn't climbed his way to the rank of general by not voicing his thoughts and opinions.
"Arrested?" Rehm asked.
"For everything," Agon said, shrugging. "The plan, the Royal Guard, the villages..."
"But Riveth burned those villages—"Rehm began.
"Be honest when you're talking to me!" Agon bellowed, surprising both the councillor and himself. "At least show me that courtesy!" He had no idea where that had come from, and he felt his stomach give a lurch when he realised he'd just shouted at Rehm. Unable to look at anything but his feet, he cleared his throat again and muttered, "If we cannot remain truthful around each other, then our plans will surely fail." He hoped it was enough of a recovery.
Rehm sighed. "Very well, general. Yes, King Victor certainly has more than enough reasons to have us arrested, and perhaps proof. But I think he also realises just how dangerous it would be to...reveal our actions to the general public." The councillor rose from his chair and walked over to the porthole behind the desk, looking out into the darkness. "Loose lips, and all that. He knows that if he publicises our actions, we will publicise his. King or not, he still...well, I think you know what I mean."
Agon kept his mouth shut, unable to tell if the slight quiver in the old man's voice was one of rage or amusement.
"We will most certainly be punished for our crimes," Rehm mused. "But so will he. And I do not believe our dear little Victor wishes to die just yet. In fact, it would not surprise me if the fool still thinks he can fix everything, that he can right all those wrongs."
"A-and if he doesn't?" Agon asked, finally able to use his voice.
Rehm remained silent for a few seconds before turning around and flashing the general the nastiest grin he had seen yet. "Then we will remove him. The only reason he is still alive is because of that damned decree, but that particular problem can still be overcome without his assistance...though it would be costly."
Agon gulped. This was all getting too big for his tastes. He wasn't even sure if he understood Rehm's goals anymore. Then again, the elderly man had never gone and directly told his fellow conspirators what his personal stake and gain in all this was. At first, Agon had assumed the man simply wanted the throne for himself, which was an understandable desire. Who wouldn't want to be king? Agon didn't, but he considered himself a man of simple taste anyway, and he knew firsthand the kind of shit someone of such a high status had to deal with on a daily basis—and he highly doubted he'd have the patience for it. But now it seemed that Rehm was far more interested in what was inside Prison's Peak than anything else, his insistence on having the mines there reopened and the Silver Guard removed growing stronger and stronger.
The Enlightened One? Children's stories. Old wives' tales. Fiction. Complete and utter bullshit. That was how the general looked at it. But Marlotta and Rehm seemed to be completely enamoured with the story. Having two grown adults like that, who believed in fairy tales, in control of a country? It was a worrying thought.
Clearing his throat for the third and final time, Agon saluted. "I believe I have taken up enough of your time, councillor," he said smartly.
Rehm blinked in confusion, but eventually nodded. "You wish to leave, general? Very well, the door is behind you. I will convey your gravest apologies for not telling anyone what you were doing up here to the king and have him restore your rank and remove you from the list of wanted criminals." He nodded again, as if urging Agon to leave. "And remember," he said just before Agon closed the door behind him, "Do not come back until you have identified Riveth's body."
The general's mind was occupied with worried thoughts as he climbed down the flimsy rope ladder to the ground. There'd been no time to build a ramp for the airship this time. Luckily, he had removed his armour before climbing up, so at least the rope wasn't about to snap under his weight. He returned to his men and ordered them to continue the search for the remains of Riveth's army while checking every single body on the battlefield to see if she had fallen there. Well over a thousand men and women had died that night, most of them because of the airship's fearsome weaponry.
Agon did his best not to look at the torn and twisted bodies scattered across the muddy field as he headed towards his tent. He shuddered as he stepped in something that made a very unpleasant squishing sound, but avoided looking down. The aforementioned tent was covered in mud and blood, a consequence of dragging it across the battlefield, but he didn't care at the moment. All he wanted was to be alone, just for a few minutes. He dismissed his officers and closed the flaps behind him, sinking onto his cot after kicking off his boots.
Logistics were a nightmare at the moment, he decided. He'd marched the army carrying nothing but the absolute essential of supplies. They were out of food and water. Naturally, he'd had supply convoys set out after them at a slower pace, but they wouldn't be here for days...or even weeks! And he highly doubted they'd be able to gather anything from the surroundings. Riveth had chosen her battlefield well—a bare piece of rock smack-dab in the middle of nowhere, ensuring that unless he could come up with something, this victory would be a pyrrhic one.
At least I managed to weed out the dissenters, he thought to himself. They'd been the first to go, in fact. He'd rearranged the companies, gathering all those whose loyalties were in doubt as well as those he suspected of being the king's hidden observers. He had hoped they'd destroy themselves against Riveth's frontline, but having The Chimera eliminate them all in one fell swoop...it was like a dream come true. After explaining what had happened to the other men, they'd quickly fallen in line, and Agon did not doubt that he was currently in command of the most loyal army in the world. They had to be, or the brass-and-steel monster would come for them as well.
Things were going well. They'd hit a few snags along the way, but those could easily be solved. Agon was not much of a multi-tasker—he preferred dealing with things one by one. He enjoyed arranging and ordering issues by how urgent they were. At the moment, food and water were at the top of his list. Finding and identifying Riveth's body was at the bottom. And that was how he was planning on dealing with everything.
And yet, a kernel of doubt was currently gnawing its way through his stomach.
Did I pick the wrong side?
General Agon never noticed the pitter-patter of unshod feet hurrying away from him when he left Rehm's cabin. He never saw the councillor's new assistant—a young teenage boy named Leonard, apparently—whom he'd been briefly introduced to upon boarding the airship, running as fast as he could to his own cabin.
Leonard's heart was beating wildly as he entered the small domicile, the meeting that he had just eavesdropped on having filled him with dread. His hands shook as he tried to open the inkwell on his desk. Victor had to know about this immediately!
As he filled his fountain pen and wrote shakily, reporting everything that he had learned while listening in on Rehm and Agon's meeting, he began to wonder what the councillor had meant by Victor's crimes. As far as he could tell, the king wouldn't be able to hurt a fly without feeling immensely guilty, and to imagine him knowingly committing terrible acts was almost impossible. The way those mismatched eyes lit up whenever Victor smiled was an amazing sight to behold, and Len simply couldn't connect the face to criminality. It was like pointing at a fawn and accusing it of committing genocide!
They were lying, he decided. There was no way the Victor he knew would be involved in anything heinous!
He finished his report and sealed it with wax, stamping it with the royal seal. He did not write anything on the envelope. Handwriting could be identified, and the seal would ensure that only those who were meant to see it would open it.
The airship was already on its way back south by the time he came out on the upper deck, wearing thick clothing to protect him from the freezing wind up there. He'd been given a pair of goggles upon first boarding the ship, the crew insisting that the feeling of dry eyeballs was the most unpleasant in the world, but Leonard preferred to not wear them, thinking they restricted his vision too much. There was just no way he could let himself miss the sight of anything up here, above the clouds, with the moon shining down and lighting up the deck. And down there, far below, the tiny pinpoints of orange lights, the signs of cities and villages slowly passing by. Dry eyes were a small price to pay for the ability to see this wonder.
The airmen toiling on deck paid him little attention—they were too busy with their work. In the short time Leonard had been on the ship, he had never seen a single member of the crew standing idle. There was always something for them to do. If they were not securing the rigging, they were cleaning the deck. If they were not cleaning the decks, they were monitoring dials. If they were not monitoring dials, they were maintaining the guns.
The guns...
Leonard rested his elbows on the portside railing and looked over the side, spotting the now closed gun ports. The carnage from the night before was still fresh in his mind. He'd been there, with Rehm, watching the battle from above before the councillor had ordered the captain to intervene directly. Leonard had watched as the deafening volleys from the airship's guns had reduced the armies below to nothing. It had left him short of breath, his mind racing with the atrocities that could be committed with a weapon of this magnitude. And it was in the hands of a man the king suspected to be a traitor. At least some of Riveth's men had gotten away. The look upon Rehm's face after the ship's captain had told him they had to call off the chase because of the unexpected winds had been terrifying.
Leonard had been sceptical when Rehm invited the supposedly traitorous Agon up for a meeting, but the man had clearly been rehearsing a speech that everyone was supposed to hear as he went on and on about how General Riveth had been behind everything and that the rebellion was now over. Rehm had praised the general and guaranteed his safe passage back to the capital where the king was sure to be overjoyed and perhaps even slightly embarrassed at the misunderstanding that had occurred.
"'s not going to happen now, of course," Leonard whispered to himself, patting his breast pocket where the letter for the king was safely nestled. His words were lost to the roar of the steam engines. When Victor found out about this, heads would roll. Or so Leonard hoped, anyway. He'd testify and gladly see the traitors arrested.
His contact was late. He checked his pocket watch. Five minutes turned to ten minutes, and ten minutes turned to fifteen. By the time he heard footsteps behind him, his nerves were starting to fray. He turned around and looked at the man who had been taking his letters for the king. As usual, he was wrapped from head to toe in thick clothing, obscuring his face and anything else that could be used to identify him.
"You're late!" Leonard said loudly, almost bellowing to make himself heard above the roar of the engines. His contact had not been late so far, and he certainly hoped this wasn't going to become a regular occurrence.
"Apologies!" the contact replied. "Other duties beckoned and I could not afford to blow my cover!" He held out a hand. "Correspondence?" he asked.
Leonard nodded and produced the letter for Victor, handing it over to the disguised man. "This must reach the king within a fortnight!" he declared. "Utmost priority!"
The contact nodded. "It shall be done!"
Leonard nodded as well and turned back to look out across the world, the exchange complete. He had no idea how the contact managed to send the letters away from The Chimera without being noticed, but he supposed that was part of being an informant—the ability to whisk away information with no one knowing. He grimaced at his own thoughts. It had sounded stupid even in his head!
With no warning, a sharp pain erupted at the base of his neck, just below the collar of his jacket. It was like being stung by a bee! He yelped and whirled around, rubbing his neck. What the hell was that? There was a small, raised bump in the skin where the pain had come from, just like an insect bite, but it had felt...sharper than that. But what else could it have been? He looked around; hoping that no one had seen his embarrassing reaction to the sting, and all he could see was the back of his contact as he disappeared below deck on the other side of the ship.
"Must've been a bug that hitched a ride from below," he muttered, still rubbing his neck. The bite was starting to itch already. He shrugged and headed back to his cabin, wondering why the ship was flying so wobbly. There was the usual amount of wind and the ship usually had no trouble with tackling that!
The sweating began by the time he had removed the heavy clothing he used on deck. His stomach began squirming after having his supper. The headache made itself known as he finished writing down the day's report as dictated by Rehm, after which he was dismissed for "looking absolutely dreadful".
By midnight, he was vomiting uncontrollably. He was drenched in sweat and his entire being was filled with a notion of such dread he had never felt before. His head felt like it was the size of the moon and it was impossible to gather his thoughts into coherency and his tongue refused to cooperate, his words coming out as a garbled mess. The ship's doctor monitored him with worry, but without the ability to communicate with his patient, he was left helpless as he watched the teenager slip further and further into dementia while soiling his bunk repeatedly.
At one point, Leonard was certain he saw the form of Rehm standing in the doorway to his cabin, holding a very familiar envelope in his hand.
And that was the last thing he could remember...
To be continued...
Late, I know, I throw myself on my knees and beg for your forgiveness! Anyway, I want to thank you all for understanding my reason for not uploading the previous chapter earlier and to say I appreciate all the well-wishes.
Anyway, I also apologise for not replying to your reviews, but circumstances, fatigue and not to mention work has left me with too little time to do so. But I promise to start replying again now! Oh, and thank you for the support, Fernanda S :) Tell Elly I say hi back :3
As for anyone who sees a discrepancy in Kafei's story...well, it's there for a reason that will become apparent later in the story. Have patience ;)
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