Morthia was hopping from one foot to the other, she was so nervous. Today was the day that she was going to hear her mother's voice after so long. And not only that, but the whole empire would hear it too, if their plan worked. Drayk had told her that they needed to meet up with someone first, before going to the ministry. But who were they going to meet, in this stinking alleyway so close to the palace. She looked at him and then at the book in her hands, it was still the same book and the chip which contained her mother's journal was still in there.
"Would it help if I said calm down?" Drayk asked, and she simply shook her head. "Good then I am not going to bother. Crux was a real sport this morning, after he confronted you." Morthia closed her eyes and moaned. She had to lie to her father about a quiz, and her father had confronted Crux. Who in return confronted her, she of course couldn't tell him the real reason why she was inside the library. But he was luckily willing to make the lie a reality, so now she had a real quiz about the history of the empire. Maybe he will forget about it after all that is going down.
"So, I am really meeting the princess in person. Do I need to consider this a honer or a thread?" A woman appeared from out of nowhere.
"A bit of both, Omega." Drayk replied. He turned towards Morthia. "Omega is the leader of the Blackmarket and the person that is going to help use with our mission."
"Help? I thought you were going to pay me?" Omega said. It was not easy to get a good look, but Morthia was able to decipher a few details. The woman had blond hair, gray eyes and was in her late thirty, or mid-forties. Drayk sighed and smiled.
"Of course, we are going to pay you." Drayk said and Morthia looked at him confused.
"I thought we were going to broadcast it?" Morthia said, but he shook his head.
"Do not laugh, Omega. She is never being inside the ministry and those not know a thing about it." Drayk said, while pointing at Omega. Morthia saw from the corner of her eye that Omega nodded.
"Listen princess, and listen carefully. I know the building better then anybody else. My grandfather worked for the ministry, and one day he didn't get back home. My grandmother together with my infant father, rushed towards the building to find that her husband was killed. A beam had fallen down and landed on top of my grandfather and another worker of the ministry. He was taken away, and my grandmother needed to do all she could to survive. Because the ministry and the court did nothing, she didn't even got his last salary. Because it was being used to clean the street of their blood. This because they needed more then one floor."
"Don't most buildings started out as one?" Morthia asked and Omega nodded.
"Yes they do, but this only states that this one store was already in use when they build the rest. Bringing those who worked there in danger. But hey those were just people, nothing to worry about." Omega said as if it was nothing. Only Morthia could see the anger burning in her eyes. Probably because her family was effected by the build.
"I thought the building started as a one store, just the computer chamber. But when the Dark web and the Black Market started to rise up the building got their additional nine stores." Drayk said and Omega rolled with her eyes.
"Is that what they tell you, well that is only part of the story. Those are indeed ten stores, but the building was always designed to have ten. But yes it started out as just one store, when they started using it. However, the other nine are only housing servers, that are powered by Dragonfire Crystals. No human is able to walk there because of the heat those things radiate. But that does not stop use from trying it with spacesuites. But I do not need to tell you that getting to the elevators is indeed difficult, those dragons are holding tight. What no one seems to notice is that the building has a secret basement, which contains the office of the Minister. And if you know the way that one is easy to get to." Omega said, and then reached out her hand. "May I have it? So that I can get to work." Morthia gave her the book.
"The chip is under the seal." She said quickly. Omega nodded and wanted to leave.
"One more thing, the triplets and her grandparents. Is it possible to take them off this ship?" Drayk asked, Morthia bit on her lip and Omega nodded.
"They already are, they are on their way to Valeron. Far outside the reach of the Dragon King." Omega said before she left. Morthia took a deep breath, this was really happening. She just trusted her mother's voice and her story to the leader of the Blackmarket.
"She didn't even tell use her price." Drayk said. "Do not worry, if Omega says she is going to something, she will. She has some code of honer." This didn't set her at ease, what calmed her nerves a bit was the fact that her grandparents and her siblings were safe. "Come on, they need some distraction." Drayk laid his hand on her shoulder and guided her out of the alleyway towards the large building that was the ministry.
******
The building was in one word massive, a large collection of Dragonsteel and surrounded by Dragonfire Technology. There was no way that someone was able to get close to the building undetected, and Morthia prayed that Omega indeed had a way to avoid all of this. As they came closer an older man stepped out of the building, he was wearing a brown suit and his glasses were shimmering.
"Ahh, Princess, I didn't expect to see you in a place like this." The man said, with a honey glaceed voice. "Please tell me why we receive such an honor?" Drayk sighed.
"Minister Nakos Matter, the princess has a huge quiz tomorrow about your ministry. So this was a good opportunity to see it for herself." Drayk said, and she simply nodded.
"I am also planning to see the other ministries of course. But yours is featured in the quiz, so we are starting here." She said while giving him a digital note. "My father is alright with this, and gave me his blessing." Nakos looked at the note. "I need to know all that there is to know, when I inherit the throne." Nakos nodded and sighed.
"Well, there is indeed no better time to learn all that you can, then today." Nakos said. "Please follow me." He motioned them towards the door. Morthia was shocked to see the row, upon row of computer desks, all filled with neatly dressed personal. None of them looked up at them, all their gazes were glued towards their screens. The desks didn't have any form of decoration on them, there was not one single plant inside the large room. There were however two elevator doors, guarded by Dragon Guard members. She nodded towards them and they saluted her. A small drone started to fly in front of her. "This is our camera, I am going to use this visit to broadcast this tonight." Nakos explained, Morthia gave him a simple smile and again looked at the space.
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"Please tell me, all about what you do here?" Morthia asked. And Nakos started to tell about the ministry, she on the other hand was not paying much attention. She saw a glimpse of movement behind the elevator doors, but she was not able to show any emotion. She knew that all too well.
"After the Blackmarket started to set up their business on the Dark web, the other nine stories were added." Nakos said.
"And were was the base of operations, during this build?" Morthia asked.
"Where it has always been, princess. Right here." Nakos said, with a huge smile. "There were not many accidents during the build, only two to three workers died when a beam of steel fall down. But that was it." Morthia already knew the story, from Omega, but she was shocked about the fact that he told her that this was just a little accident. There were lives lost that day, and they didn't see the danger of it all. Nakos nodded. "The families were well compensated." This was a lie. So the man was able to lie to her with a straight face, that was good to know.
"That is good to hear." She said. "So are all this people collecting information or are they writing the news?"
"They are writing all types of news." He said. "The intellance part of this operation is upstairs, nine stories filled with servers that are powered by the Dragonfire Crystals. Which means that the other nine floors are so hot that it is not wise to come there." She nodded and then started to walk between the rows of desks. So this was only the front of the operation. She looked at the screens and saw a video playing of the fight of yesterday. But her gaze was not set on herself, taking down one Cult member after the other, her gaze was set on her father's face. He was enjoying himself, he was clearly enjoying himself. That man that she had called father, and daddy. Her skin started to cruel. The screen started to get foggy, and there was some sort of static.
"What is going on?" She asked, turning towards Nakos. Who looked shocked as well. Was this her mother's journal by any chance? The static made way for her mother's face. Morthia gasped and grasped Drayk by the arm, her mother had a huge swollen eye and a bloody lip. Her eyes looked frantic over the camera, before she looked straight into it.
"I know that my husband, has forbidden me to do this. But I have no one else to turn to." Her eyes started to tear up. "He made sure of that. My parents are not allowed to visit me, and my friends are just saying that I should be happy. Well, I do not know about that, this..." She pointed towards her face. "Is what he gave me after I refused to sleep with him and this is only my face, I have brushes all over my body. And this is only the first week of our marriage, I am really scared about what the future holds for me." The image faded for a moment and later came back. "He is a sleep now, after he forced himself on me again. This time he did not beat me, instead he beat up one of the maids I became close with. Well he was hurting that poor girl, he was telling me that this was all mine fault. And that I am to blame for her pain. Tomorrow, she would be sent off to one of the moons or planets to work as a slave in the mines. Her family would be informed that she had stolen something and that this is her punishment. I am so scared, to be kind to someone of the staff. I am scared that his next step is that he is going to hurt my parents." The image faded in and out, all of them told a brief experience of what happened to her mother. Then her father became visible, clearly not knowing that he was being filmed.
"What did you say?" He said, his voice was calm and collected. Like he had done with her, but Morthia could feel the anger.
"I am pregnant, with your child." Her mother said, her voice was shaking. Her father raised his hand and stuck her mother so hard that she fall to the ground.
"Well this is your reward, Brialea. And if you dare to give birth to a girl, I will kill the child the moment she comes out of your womb." Her father said. So Micheal had spoken the truth about all of this. He had spoken the truth about the abuse, the rape and the threats. He had spoken the truth about the fact that her father wanted to kill her. The image faded in and out.
"So I have spoken to Micheal, the commander of the Dragon Guard and he agreed to take me and my unborn child away from here. He is willing to risk his own life for mine, and I am grateful for that. We do not know where we would end up, but all I do know is that I can't take this journal with me. So this will be my last recording." Her mother said.
*******
The image faded out and then another image appeared, this time it was Commander Derock. Morthia looked at Drayk and he was as shocked as he was.
"Well Princess Brialea and Micheal are gone, and I found this little chip in her favorite book. No worries, I will put it back so that it will never see the light of day again. Or when someone wanted to show this to the wider public, who knows." He said, tears were streaming down his eyes. He looked so broken. "It didn't come as a shock to me that Carlos started to blame me for their escape. I after all was Micheal's second in command and I should have known what was going on. I did know, and I agreed with Micheal that Brialea and her unborn child needed to get out of here. What I did not expect was to find Carlos the night after that inside my home, his gun against my wife's temple. My nine-month-old son in his chair a few feet away, his little arms stretched out to her if he wanted to save her. But as soon as I walked in and laid my eyes on my poor wife, Carlos shot her. He shot her in front of my infant son, he shot her as some kind of punishment. I will never forget the look on my wife's face the moment that he pulled the trigger. I will never forget my son's cries. I will never forget Carlos's next words. 'Fail me again, and your son is next.'" Morthia's hand shot up to her mouth, now everything made sense. The image faded out and in, and commander Derock showed up again. This time, a much older version of himself. "Hello again, it has been a while." He sighed. "Carlos has informed me a few hours ago that I will be sent to Valeron to retrieve Micheal and Brielea. And that there would be children there, he also informed me that I should bring the children or otherwise my son would never leave that moon breathing. Drayk, my beautiful, smart boy. He is all that I have left from my wife, and I will do anything to protect him. The only thing is that I didn't find Brielea on there, instead I found her and Carlos's daughter. And I fear for her life, I fear for the lives of the other children. I fear for my own son, who clearly likes the girl. I am not the same man who I was 27 years ago, not after the death of my wife. Not after the constant fear." This time the screen went blank and everyone started to look at each other, in disbelieve.
"I know she had a reason, but I never would have dreamed that it was this bad." An older woman said to a man who nodded.
"I was working on an article about doctor Ildez's latest discovery around the time of her death, it was said she passed away from a heart attack." A man said, and this was enough to set them off. Nakos was no longer inside the room, and even the Dragon Guards who were standing at the door were joining the conversation. Morthia's attention however was on Drayk, he might also have heard the lie about his mother's death. Now he had heard that she was murdered by her father, while he was there and witnessed it all.
"Are you alright?" She whispered and he shook his head. That is when the one whose computer screen turned towards him, the employee, was a younger man.
"I am sorry for your loose, Captian Dryak. To find it out like this." The man shook his head. "That is rouge, but might I suggest that the tow of you make yourself scars. Before one of you suffers the same fate." Drayk nodded, took her hand and pulled her out of the crowed, out of the building and into the streets. She knew where they were heading, toward the palace, the truth was out there and now it was time to cut off the head of this viper. Her father had known where her mother and Micheal were living, he even knew that there were children. So this meant that he knows where her grandparents with her siblings are heading. She knew that none of them were ever safe, while her father was still alive and breathing. The only question she had for herself was would she be able to pull the trigger.