22. THE LIBERATION


Her lifeforce seemed to recover painfully slow, to her anyway. Violet touched the bulky jewels of her necklace that were hidden under her cloak. They helped her with accuracy, but didn't hold spare energy of their own.

It didn't matter to the slave drivers on Beira what the weather was like. Four hours later the sun began to rise, the storm of dark gray became a storm of white. It hadn't lessened. Violet was leaning against the wall, swathed in blankets, and she watched how the testificates opened a closet and handed out additional sets of jumpsuits, these were fattened with a layer of wool inside, and came complete with fat gloves, shoes and hats with earflaps and goggles. She didn't have to ask - the testificates were expected to swing picks at the compact ice under any conditions.

She did have one question though, "Is there a spare of those in there?"

"Afraid not, miss."

They all had numbers on the back, big for more visibility. They were like cattle. They started trailing out together rather miserably. The man Violet had spoken to the most lingered by her for a moment.

Violet said, "In about eighteen hours from now, hopefully an uprising will start on Felson. I can't guarantee anything, but if you time yours with theirs, either way a lot of testificates have a chance at getting freed."

"Gramercy," he nodded and then left her.

She was a little thrown by the old speak since these fellows spoke modern English, but she supposed he picked up the word from foreign testificates who were shipped here.

Violet spent a further two hours just pacing, hoping the storm would die down. She was alone, walking around that oranging heater which kept this place liveable. When she couldn't stand to wait any more she chanced another look outside. The winds were still unforgiving, a flurry of powdered white beat against her face. She couldn't wait any more. Violet went back for a blanket and wrapped it around herself. She was about to close the door behind her but left it open. Violet still couldn't see well but she remembered the angle she'd ran to get here. She faced that way and then charged into the biting cold.

She staggered on the little piles of snow that were blowing across the ice, but she didn't fall. She huffed out breaths while clinging to the blanket as it flapped madly away from her lower half like a cape. While straining her vision she found herself willing the fence to appear. Before she could get too scared that she'd run the wrong way, she recognized the building and then turned toward the right until the fence was in view. The portal sat within.

A fierce wind ripped the blanket from Violet's grip and it was sucked into the sky. She piled on the speed and her hands were already hot with magic before they could stick dryly to the bars. She began her climb. It was something a testificate probably couldn't manage, but she forced her way up without letting the cold stun her, though it was a ripping thing. Probably too cold for most people to manage, but like she did with sword fighting she tried to make the pain fuel her. It was like the cold shards in her chest that tore her up every now and again. She could use this pain. With a grunt she got herself over and slid down, her feet ached because she got down a bit too fast but she shook it off and ran to the transporter while her hair whipped around her face.

Helghast must have a way to shield himself telekinetically because this was just too much. Violet pressed her hands directly onto the vents. She tried to hold still throughout the buffering and not think about the fact she was inviting hypothermia. Her magic seeped in and after using all her focus she turned to see the portal bright with purple. Violet ran in.

When space stopped shifting she was standing in the obsidian room. Bits of snow were by her feet and stuck to her cloak. She could feel the cold floating off her as she acclimated to the new temperature of her surroundings. Violet was trembling from her head to her toes, but that was better than when you stopped shivering. She went to the wall and slid down.

If anyone came in they'd see icy or wet patches on the floor, then see Violet spotted with snow. She didn't have the strength to try scanning. She sat shivering until she gathered enough strength to rip her dampening cloak off overhead then toss it into the middle of the room. She rubbed her arms, her hands, her legs.

Eventually she made herself stand. She picked her cloak back up and shook out the droplets. She tried spreading out the wet puddles with her foot to look more inconspicuous but that was a wasted effort. She folded the cloak up over her arm and noticed her pale skin had a bluish tinge. Violet focused on where Eadie might be, hopefully he was one of the servants cleaning somewhere alone. As Violet scanned she saw that most were in their sleeping quarters. It must be night on this world. She stepped out into the corridor then, remembering her pretend limp whenever she heard the sounds of others nearby.

She needed to keep in mind how much time had passed since she spoke to Larry. She had under sixteen hours until things would supposedly start happening. Violet didn't see Eadie in the corridors, so she went to the level and then the area where Helghast had left the castle earlier in the day. She walked the appropriate distance from the stairs and came to a door this time. She tried it and it was locked.

Probably not for the portal, there must be other things in this room. Seeing now as a good time to abandon subtlety, Violet shot a condensed burst of lightning into the lock. A bright flash of purple and the lock was burned out of the wood, rattling across the stone and the door yawned open. Violet stepped into a chamber decorated with grizzly statues. She saw bookcases, benches covered in notes, magical-looking artefacts. There was an orb atop a pedestal that shone with a lunar luminescence. Behind it was a giant brass armillary sphere with rubber tubes attached to it, winding along the floor to more machinery like black anacondas. Violet realised this was Helghast's private study.

At one end of the room was his portal, not the centrepiece but set up here for convenience. Violet ran to it.

She got it working and travelled through it.

About six guards were standing in a group and they stared at her. Violet stood there while the portal powered down behind her. She was indoors this time, forest trees were visible outside shuttered windows. With nowhere to run and a low likelihood of fighting her way through, she resolved herself and prepared to try being as convincing as possible. Helghast had sent her… to a world he was already on… and she had to convince them not to take her right to him... Just as she stood tall and was about to open her mouth one of them stepped closer.

"Violet?" It was Lydia. Relief flooded through her.

"Hey, how've you been?" Violet smiled.

"You know her?" Another guard asked Lydia, all of them were very uncertain.

"She's Helghast's apprentice," Lydia was confused.

"That's right," Violet told them all. "He's teaching me magic."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm supposed to get something for Helghast."

"But that doesn't make sense. Helghast would just get it himself?" The same male guard said. They were aware of his hands-on nature.

"It's not actually for him. It's for me. For my magical training. He's teaching me how to use the portals too."

The guards all turned together and started to discuss in low voices while Violet stood and tried to hide her anxiety. She could still hear them.

"Policy is visitors go straight to Helghast."

"She's not a visitor, she works for him too."

"But Helghast is the only one who travels between the worlds."

"She's his apprentice though, what if that makes her second-in-command?"

"She's also a prisoner, technically."

"Then why is she allowed to walk around wherever she likes and why's he giving her lessons?"

They all looked at her and Violet raised her eyebrows in a readiness to respond.

Lydia asked, "He didn't give you like, official papers or a holopad?"

"Afraid not," Violet muttered.

They faced each other again.

"No policy covers this specifically."

"Do we take her to Helghast?"

"Do you want to interrupt him while he's working?"

"Well so long as she's escorted it's probably okay..."

Violet interrupted them, "Lydia can come with me. The two of us can catch up." She tried her most convincingly friendly smile.

"Alright then," Lydia nodded and the others were all in agreement. "You guys let the captain know. I'll go with her."

Violet felt a swift rush of relief followed by a concern of where this scheme was going to take her next. Lydia walked over and Violet kept up the smile.

Violet started, "So, guess you can fill me in on how you're settling back into the swing of things here."

"Easily enough. How's the lightning, still improving?" Lydia turned to the exit and Violet walked with her, keeping up the play of acting normal.

"Yeah. The basics came easy but with the whole control aspect I'm slowing down."

"Bruce was clumsy for the whole day after you zapped him so many times," her eyes were bright with mirth at the memory.

"I hope it didn't cause any lasting neurological damage."

"Wouldn't worry too much about that. How're the guys?"

"Same as you'd expect. Still getting merry when the boss isn't around, which is pretty frequently."

"That'd be right. Bunch o' piss heads."

Violet managed a laugh and they were then following a dirt trail between the trees; through their leaves were various structures like technological spires and a switchyard. Lydia was actually someone Violet would enjoy a friendship with back on Lan'Tim. At the college she'd had many good friends and was fairly popular, but frequently it still didn't feel like enough for her. She yearned for deeper connections. She supposed that Lydia had also been stuck with the same people for however many years, a staff body of maybe a hundred that barely changed. That might be why she opted to become a guard at Helghast's castle. But maybe they also had yearly holidays back to whatever world they came from, Violet didn't know.

"Hey…" Violet slowed her walk just a bit and allowed her voice to sound a little guilty. "Helghast isn't going to know when I get back. While I'm here… think you could show me the factory?"

Violet expected Lydia to straighten up, be all duty all of a sudden and insist they follow their objectives.

Instead she watched Lydia slow, her lip pulled up at one side and the seconds trickled by.

"Oh alright, come this way. And if we need to stay out of sight I know a hidden path through the woods."

Violet's satisfaction was bordering mania now but she mustered all her strength to push it down so it would match the low-level mischief Lydia was feeling.

"This way," Lydia pointed to where the path split into three up ahead, they went along bumpy uneven ground then took a left. It was all trodden dirt and Violet had to be careful not to trip on the roots that snaked in and out.

A pair of guards walked by and greeted Lydia while ignoring Violet.

"Shouldn't you be with the captain?"

"Special orders," Lydia said convincingly enough.

Once they were further along Lydia then indicated for them to go into the trees, "We can cut across from here."

Then they were brushing aside branches and shrubbery, Lydia seemed convinced of where they were going and Violet trusted her. Lydia's pace led them like a bold adventurer's, Violet's pace was steady and efficient as she kept up. After several minutes a building was visible through the canopy, but this was not to the scale of any of the others she'd seen. While from this angle it was still a basic shape, it was more comparable in size to Helghast's castle. A huge workstation where oil-smeared testificates assembled war planes and toiled at conveyer belts, and drove machinery that carried heavy parts.

"Let's go around and see it from a better angle," Violet tried.

"Alright," Lydia said and they travelled further around.

As they walked, both of them taking the lead equally this time, Violet was thinking of how she could separate from Lydia. She really didn't want to zap her into unconsciousness, but it was seeming like her only option the more time dragged on. Violet was rattling with her mind to come up with another way. She felt guilty, even though this had to be done.

"Let's not move too far away from it," Lydia cautioned. "On this side the anti-monster wards don't go much further. A hundred metres out and you'll probably still find creepers."

"I'd like a closer look anyway," Violet replied.

They could now see another side and Violet's jaw dropped at the hanger. Like an extended garage it was huge and she could see cranes poking out. It looked like the roof folded out for air balloon warcrafts. She could appreciate the size even more so - it was bigger than Helghast's castle. No wonder he was frequently away. Violet realised his castle was just a safe place kept separate from the worlds he managed, a place of rest and private study. As someone who loved his work and the empire he was building for himself, his heart was probably here instead of his house.

Lydia was peering up at it too, "If you climbed that tree there you'd probably get an even better view."

Violet felt tears rolling down both her cheeks. She pressed her hand into the back of Lydia's neck, under her honey-blonde ponytail and fired enough volts into her to render her unconscious. Lydia jolted with a strangled gasping and then she fell forward, Violet caught her before she could smack face-first into the ground. Sniffling, Violet leant her back against a tree. She felt sadness now instead of guilt, but resolved herself quickly enough and the crying stopped.

Okay, she regarded the factory. Thousands of testificate workers were definitely going to be overseen by guards as they worked. Helghast could be inside too. Violet needed to find a way to incite a riot. It was very counter to her usual sensible and rule-abiding ways. She started walking closer to it.

The forest sloped down into a small gully and Violet's shoes became sodden with mud. She scrunched up her cloak to keep the edges free of muck, making her way across with a disgusted expression and then climbing upwards again. Peering through the thicket she could see a paved area. A guard in diamond armour was strolling by. Violet could see no way in from this side, but around the corner something was jutting out. So violet crept along, scraping and flicking her mud-stained shoes through the grass. The jutting thing was a wide ramp that led to a closed shutter. Beside it was a door - her ticket inside.

Violet closed her eyes and focused.

The building was huge, and it strained her to try focusing on all of it. She was stretching her newfound sensing abilities to a range she never had before. Three guards patrolled the outsides but they were spaced out enough that Violet could run to that door without an issue. Beyond the door was an intimidatingly empty space. With no lifeforce in that room to light it up, it could be empty or not even a way into the rest of the building. Beyond that were the couple thousand workers doing their jobs. Above them were bridges where guards strolled and kept an eye on everyone. Violet noticed one lifeforce that was very different to the others: Helghast.

He was in another section with others, probably looking over a new war machine prototype. It seemed like Violet would be able to time her break in well enough, and there was enough equipment around that she should be able to stay out of sight even while under the guards' noises. When Violet came back to herself her mind felt like elastic and she needed to wait a few seconds for her head to clear. Then she waited for the guard in sight to lumber casually away before she broke out of the trees, running low across the concrete. She took the ramp and raced to the door.

While it was true that knowing where everyone was made her less nervous about getting caught, you could never be too sure. She reached the door and focused her lightning long enough to burn through the lock. That welding trick wasted a disconcerting amount of her lifeforce while her sensing used next to none. Violet got through the door and entered the mystery room.

It had seemed empty to her sense but was packed with so much machinery she could barely squeeze through. She worked her way in, inhaling dust and swatting through strands of web made by ordinary spiders. She got to the back end. It was dim but light was coming through somewhere, hopefully a door she could get through. Violet pressed her hands against the wall then started squeezing sideways toward it. Another locked door. She almost used more of her magic but the knob looked like cheap industrial metal. Violet looked around instead until she saw a collection of tools. She climbed over a forklift to grab a steady hammer, then climbed her way back. She braced herself and then swung down, the handle came clean off, and she heard it bounce free on the other side as well, she twisted the leftover spindle and pulled open the door.

Nearby testificates in hard hats stared at her. There was a rhythmic pounding coming from a giant machine somewhere and the conveyer belt she imagined was carrying parts that needed assembling. Another big machine was raining sparks as it cut metal into shape. Violet could see the underside of a walkway and that they all bordered the perimeter of the cavernous main room. Violet stepped out and pulled the door shut, she pressed a finger to her lips and the workers were confused but stayed silent. She sidestepped until she was under the walkway, with her back against the wall she focused. She was still out of view of the supervisors, based on the directions they seemed to be walking. Now she only needed to find someone brave enough to insight a riot….

"Wise guy, eh?" A raised voice carried over and a few of the working testificates looked that way before putting their heads down again.

Violet kept moving sideways, staying in the shadows and squeezing between the different machines. The workers she passed would notice her and stare but say nothing. Violet heard more harsh mocking and got nervous when she realised some of the guards might be mixed in with the workers. She might get found. Still, the slowly escalating chaos drew her closer. She quickly tried her sensing again, some of the guards above had stopped pacing and were also staring over. Violet edged around a machine that was stamping with a big mechanical arm. When she peered over it there was a testificate struggling with both arms held behind his back.

"The boss is here so no-" another guard punched him in the gut and he curled over in pain "misbehaving."

By now Violet could recognise certain things about their kind. She could tell by the way he held his shoulders, even in defeat, that he was testificate with fight in him.

"He's on sanitary duties for the rest of the day. And I want you to remember that when you speak to me it's 'Sir'."

The guard smugly turned away while the one holding his arms started dragging him from the room. Violet looked around and charted a safe course to follow them. If she kept her head down and was careful, she could make it across. She had a good feeling about that fellow.

Making it across the room was fine, she stayed low past benches and ducked under the conveyer belt. She only paused once and that was when she saw a very young testificate, just a little boy, wearing a fitting hard hat and jumpsuit, stained with ash like the rest of them. Unlike his fellows though, the boy ignored Violet completely as he worked. She pushed away the sadness and continued along to a safe spot, then checked again before she was clear to dash down a hallway and take a left to where that testificate was currently alone.

She found him unhappily pushing a cleaning trolley in a bathroom. Violet cleared her throat and he looked at her.

"Excuse me, I'm here to help."

"Help me? How?"

"I'm staging a rebellion on all of Helghast's main worlds and then I'm going to expose his hideout."


He said his name was Finn, but instead of a fisherman he'd been a toolsmith in his village. Him and his fellows had been rounded up less than a year ago, though many of those working here had been slaves for almost a decade. Finn said he'd be locked up if he didn't clean, so Violet hid in a cubicle while he worked and listened to what she had to say.

He was pondering, "We could overheat the steam generator. Or commandeer one of the airships and crash it."

"You could?"

"Nobody ever has before, because they'd kill a bunch of us to make sure we'd never do it again. Kill you and everyone you were close to here." Finn dipped the mop into the industrial bucket again, rinsed it out, slapped it down and pushed it around the floor. "But if everything will come down on Helghast, now's the time to tear this place up and convince everyone we can run." Then Violet could hear the smile of overdue excitement in his voice, though she couldn't see it: "Finally…" It was hope, at last.

"If you have friends that feel the same way you do, I'm sure you can come up with something."

"How much time again, did you say?"

"By now it'd be about fourteen hours… We could probably act sooner, but that's the amount of time I gave that prisoner on Felson... We all need to hold out that long to maximise our chances."

"Gramercy."

Again, hearing that threw her for a moment, "...now all that's left is Helghast's castle."

"Do you have a plan for how you're going to get a message out from there?"

"I do."

More sloshing and mopping noises for a few seconds. "Best of luck with that."

"You too."

And then Violet needed to make her way out again. Since she hadn't had the heart to kill her, Lydia might wake up and stagger back to the others at any moment, having realised what Violet was trying to do. So Violet left Finn and snuck out, succeeding entirely thanks to being able to scan ahead and make sure none of the guards were in her way. Violet noticed that the other side of the fallen doorknob had been kicked under a workbench by someone who'd said nothing about it. She slipped through the door and later she was running outside for the trees once more.

Violet stayed near the path, following it back in the direction she'd come. She saw when the path converged with others into one and then further down was the building she wanted. Violet stepped closer and out came a guard. She was prepared to fight at this point, she was too close to her end goal, but instead the guard walked right by her.

Word might have already spread of her being here. Helghast's new apprentice using his portals under orders. Violet scrambled the rest of the way and saw nobody in the sciency-looking room. She weaved her magic in, when the portal was ready it was almost all gone. Still in disbelief that she'd made it this far, she walked through and after the dizzying transfer she was back in Helghast's study.

It was quiet. How long was she gone? A couple hours?

There was one thing left to do.


Violet waited in his study. She was already finished when the portal activated. She looked up as Helghast strode through and after noticing her he came to a stop. He'd come back early after hearing that she was in his world, he'd possibly heard about Felson too. Violet was currently sitting at his desk, in his chair. Her head was thrumming, just a single note of mania.

Helghast paused for what seemed like a long time, "What's the meaning of this?"

Violet started drumming her fingers against the desk for a short while.

Then she stopped, "I decided to take your empire down."

"...What are you talking about?"

"I figured out how to use your portals."

"How could you manage that?"

"Does it matter?"

He regarded her, his bewilderedness began to darken, "Violet… you know full well how easy it would be for me to kill you. Tell me everything you've done."

"I'm freeing all the testificates you wrongly enslaved and getting you arrested too. I'm here because I wanted to see how you react to failure."

He strode towards her, voice threatening, "If you don't tell me-!" He stopped short when Violet took her crystal ball from her lap and placed it on the desk.

Contrary to what Helghast had said, he'd not succeeded in extracting the magic from it. They were ancient artefacts as old as Lan'Tim. Once Helghast realised the job would be much harder than he thought, he'd locked it in a box, and put it in a magic jamming circle in one of his rooms to deal with later. Eadie had found it.

Helghast's hand was outstretched, it curled it into a fist, "You… harlot!" He screeched and telekinesis toppled the chair backwards and Violet gasped, blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. Her head was ringing, it felt like she'd been hit by an invisible battering ram. Her ribs were cracked but she could still hear him raging like a madman, "You betrayed me! I was your master!"

Helghast got a handle on himself and raced back to his portal. He started typing away madly at a side panel. Purple lightning flew by and burned through the vented box. He whipped back at her. Violet was lying on her side, having crawled out from behind his desk. His eyes were now insane with fury.

He stormed over to her, charging up a lethal amount of magic in his right hand when suddenly a dozen mages teleported into the room. In the same second cords of blue energy shot out and bound him. Helghast screamed in pain, falling to his knees. He was heaving, and Violet could feel an energy building in the room. His long dark hair was now dishevelled as it hung over his face, but something was making it rustle.

The mages began winding the blue cords over their elbows with careful precision, keeping them taut as they approached. Violet wanted to call out to them but was in too much pain. If they were mages, couldn't they sense what was happening too? All Violet could do was raise her hands, hoping she might instinctively shield herself again from the bomb that was coming.

Helghast roared and the cords whipped away, cutting through everything in their path like lasers and leaving charred lines in the walls. Now the mages were hunched down as Helghast got back to his feet.

Then the ceiling was torn off.

Debris rained down. Above them giant eyes pierced the dark, aglow with a purple rage. It was barely visible against the black backdrop of the sky, but leathery wings battered and redirected the howling winds of the outside storm. Teeth like daggers were revealed from a rumbling maw.

"No..." Helghast mouthed and Violet also couldn't believe what she was seeing.

An ender dragon and riding it, the one who had it tamed shone with symbols across platinum armour. His voice was muffled but clear, booming as if from magic.

"Helghast, you are under arrest by order of the emperor!"

There were more crashes still, even more ender dragons landing on the ruined castle, their claws scraping for purchase against the obsidian. Identical riders were upon them too. Violet could see at least four from where she lay. Helghast was standing so had a better view, his eyes moving around hopelessly while he panted. It seemed his great power was substantially drained after he tore himself free before. The dragon riders magicked blue cords of their own and Helghast was ensnared once more. The mages around the room were now back on their feet and joined in by adding their magic again.

Only two parts of Helghast were visible, his face as he strained uselessly against the bonds, and his boots as they started to raise him into the air. He could do nothing but grunt and heave.

"We'll make a clearing and begin the sealing there," a dragon rider spoke to the others, his voice cutting through the howling of the storm with ease. There were more shudders as the dragons lifted off again, followed by a multitude of wingbeats.

Violet felt relief and her head fell back against the ground. Was she dying? The last thing she saw was one of the mages rushing to her before he was swallowed by the darkness of her closing lids.


。。。


【AN: Whew good to get this done. I hope yall found it satisfying. Am wrapping it up officially next chapter.】