On their way back to Lunette’s laboratory out in the woods, she asks, “So, now that you guys killed the archbishop, what is our next move?”

“If we are going to cause more chaos, we need to find some way to expose the truth about the king’s death. I guess we could also find a good person to lead this Empire. Whoever the next archbishop is probably won’t fit that bill,” Kayde starts to think out loud.

“Then why don’t we stay in the city? Lay low until we see how they handle the archbishop’s death? It might give us some insight as to who really holds the power in this empire,” Kali suggests, thinking that the best plan.

“I don’t want to just hang around in this place, it makes me uneasy. I’ll stay out here; let me know if you need me for anything,” Drakthar tells them, not wanting to go back into the city.

“I’ll stay with him,” Kali immediately backtracks, not wanting Drakthar to be alone.

“Here, take this,” Lunette hands Kali the key to her laboratory.

“It’s the key to my place; you guys can use if in the meantime. I’m okay to stay in the city for a little while,” she offers.

“Thanks,” Kali responds. She and Drakthar turn to walk away while the others head back through the pipe into the city.

On their walk back to Lunette’s hovel, Kali tries to break the silence with small talk, “Do you think they will be okay in there? Lunette isn’t all there mentally, if you know what I mean, and Gwendolyn isn’t in the best headspace right now”.

“I trust Kayde,” Drakthar responds, confident that, whatever trouble the other two give him, Kayde will be able to pull them together.

“I guess…” Kali trails off, her worries not quelled by his answer.

She begins to think about how everyone has been down lately, leading her to declare, “I wish we never came here. It was a mistake, and now we are all suffering from it”.

“I don’t regret coming. This is what Xander and Kayde wanted to do. They backed me up when I wanted to kill Orrin, and they came with me when I insisted we go to the Marshlands to fight you and Sharn. They helped me every step of the way, and now it’s my turn to return the favor. I need to make sure they accomplish their shared dream… what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t?” Drakthar tells her, not questioning for a second coming here.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just… never mind,” Kali stops before she digs herself a deeper hole. As they walk silently for a few minutes, Kali replays what Drakthar said in her mind.

“Wait,” she realizes, “You said you came to the Marshlands to challenge me?”

“Yes, I knew Sharn would be there, but I wanted to fight you as well. Ever since I first met you at the Iron Legion’s encampment I knew you were strong. Of course, I wanted to fight you,” Drakthar admits, unintentionally telling Kali something she wanted to hear.

“I always just assumed you only went there to challenge Sharn, and you just stumbled across me,” Kali notes, allowing the smallest of smiles to creep onto her face.

“I know I can sometimes be harsh, but I really do respect you as a warrior; I always have,” he explains, not wanting her to take his usual attitude the wrong way.

Kali is shocked that he is saying all of this… he is actually flattering her.

“Where is this coming from?” She dares to ask.

“I’ve had much more time to think, you know, since Xander was taken. I’ve started to rethink how I’ve been doing things,” Drakthar elaborates, having had a lot of time to reflect while chopping down the trees surrounding Lunette’s place.

“Like what?” Kali desperately wants to know, thinking they may somehow grow closer from this.

“Xander, I should have fought him when I had the chance. Now, I don’t know if I will ever be able to,” Drakthar gives Kali the exact opposite of what she wanted to hear.

“That’s it?” She squeaks out, utterly dissatisfied with what came from his mouth, assuming it would be a confession of some sort. Drakthar nods, confirming that he doesn’t feel towards her what she feels towards him.

“Oh,” Kali reacts, trying her best to seem cool while her heart silently shatters as they continue towards Lunette’s.

Back in the city, Kayde, Gwendolyn, Fore and Lunette find an inn, making sure to wash the stink from the sewers off of them as soon as they get to their rooms. Kayde hears the other two knock on his door, the sound causing Fore to rush to the door and start barking.

As he goes to open the door for Lunette and Gwendolyn, he runs a hand through Fore’s fur to reassure him, “Calm down, it’s just the others”. Gwendolyn rushes past Kayde as soon as he opens the door and walks directly over to the table, slapping down the stack of papers she found on the archbishop’s desk.

“What is this?” Kayde asks while picking up the paper on top of the stack. His eyes focus on a familiar face pictured upon it.

“They are personnel files, specifically those that were gifted with the ability to manipulate space by switching two objects,” Gwendolyn finally breaks her months’ long silence.

Lunette walks closer to the table to get a better look, “The pile seems a little light, I would have thought more people have command of such powers. At least, that’s how they advertise it”.

“Hold on, they don’t have the Scientist anymore… the reason it seems light is because they don’t know how to give people the powers without him. It makes a lot of sense that only this many have Xander’s ability,” Kayde concludes, remembering that The Scientist fled from the Sacrosanct Empire a long time ago.

“It is even less than what you think, look,” Gwendolyn points down to a row below the pictures on the files. Kayde starts to rifle through the papers finding a majority of them to read: Status: Deceased.

Kayde starts to sort out the ones that are already dead from the rest.

“Nine! There are only nine of them including Xander! That means… if we take them out, this will go a lot easier for us,” Kayde’s tone gets more and more optimistic, the worry of those like Xander being the source of many of his doubts.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“I take it you already saw Xander’s status?” Kayde smiles up at Gwendolyn, knowing it is exactly the news she needed to hear.

She nods, “Yeah, it says rogue, but captured. That means he’s alive”.

Lunette takes a hold of Xander’s file, examining his picture.

“I can see why you are so sad, he is cute,” she comments, admiring Xander’s face. Gwendolyn swipes the paper out of her hand, not appreciating what was only meant as a compliment.

“Hey, relax, he’s not my type; I want to be prettier than the men I sleep with,” Lunette jokes, while also trying to avoid a fight.

“I am relaxed!” Gwendolyn declares, storming out of the room with Xander’s file.

Kayde doesn’t let Gwendolyn’s exit faze him, immediately moving on to the plan now that they have this information, “We should search the city. If we find these people we take them out one by one. It will need to be when they are isolated from the others... and we need to get them down before they even realize what is going on; the ability they all share makes them too slippery otherwise”.

He realizes mid explanation that Lunette is not paying any attention to what he is saying. She has the same look on her face as when her mind is drifting about, thinking of other things.

“You there?” Kayde asks, starting to approach her. The lack of response prompts him to poke her cheek a couple of times. Lunette feels the cold finger press against her face and she comes back to the moment.

Once Kayde notices that her eyes are focusing again he asks her, “What are you thinking about?”

“Oh… Sorry, I was actually thinking about you,” Lunette readily admits, not considering what she might be insinuating at all.

She begins to elaborate, “Specifically I was thinking about your bodies’ composition. You are an AI, but much of your body is made up of human parts. I was lost in thought about how all of it functions together so efficiently.

“These would be better questions for The Scientist, he is the one who made me. I’m just living, don’t know how, and I don’t question it cause it’s still working,” Kayde puts his hands behind his head.

“Maybe... I would definitely bring it up if he were here... but for now even you could answer simple questions. Like do you bleed?” Lunette begins to ask away, interested in learning more about the walking enigma before her.

“Yeah,” Kayde answers, not bothered by her line of questioning.

“What about waste?” Lunette moves on.

“I mean you’ve seen me eat, it doesn’t just magically disappear,” Kayde responds in the affirmative.

“Interesting, do you have any other bodily fluids?” Lunette asks, slightly less cold and methodically as the previous questions.

Kayde spits onto the floor, “Yeah, I’ve got saliva”.

“You know... I’d like to study your body in depth, now that we have the time,” Lunette slowly creeps closer to him.

“Okay, that could be fun,” Kayde agrees, not too sure where this is going.

“Great! Now take off your clothes,” Lunette wastes zero time.

“What? At least buy me dinner first,” Kayde can’t resist the opportunity to quip.

“Come on, you said I could study you,” Lunette pushes harder, convincing Kayde she really is only doing this for scientific purposes.

“Fine… but only for you to study, nothing else. I’m only saying this before you see things you can’t unsee” Kayde makes it perfectly clear before he starts to undo his shirt.

“I’m sure,” Lunette insists, watching eagerly as Kayde’s chest, an amalgam of flesh and metal, is slowly exposed to her. As soon as his shirt is completely removed, she cannot help but to start tracing the transitions of metal to flesh on his body, “It’s like the skin was burnt and connected… They are really subtle, but you can still notice the slight burn marks”.

“And you still have body hair,” she runs her hand through the coarse fuzz on his chest.

“It makes me think you really are human,” she continues, mesmerized by the subject before her.

“Lose the rest,” Lunette orders, wanting to see more.

“You sure?” Kayde asks, preferring not to engage in this sort of activity at the moment.

“Of course, now come on,” Lunette starts to get impatient.

Kayde relents, stripping the last of his clothes.

“Wow,” Lunette audibly reacts, prompting him to immediately pull his pants back up.

“And now it’s weird,” he cuts her off; done with whatever fun she was going to have.

“Oh come on, I just want to examine you,” Lunette is disappointed, not able to get a better look.

“Nope, you are done, leave Fore and me alone,” he orders her out of the room.

“Okay, fine,” Lunette lets out a deep sigh, dejectedly heading for the door.

The next morning, Kayde, Lunette, and Gwendolyn disguise themselves and head out into the city. The streets are filled to the brim with people whispering to each other. The throng is steadily moving towards the largest city square in the center of the capital.

“Might as well see what is going on,” Kayde notes, beginning to follow the crowd. They file into the middle of the square, surrounded shoulder to shoulder with Sacrosanct citizens. Every direction is a sea of people, clamoring to know why they are all there.

“The king is going to speak, the king is going to speak,” they hear a man scream out louder that those around him. Kayde grins, knowing the king is dead and that there will have to be some explanation as to why he isn’t there.

Suddenly, the square is silenced as a man with long white hair, as tall as he is imposing, walks out onto the balcony above the plaza adorned in the finest silks any of them have ever seen.

He begins, the crowd hanging on every word that leaves his mouth, “I have solemn news for all of you today. Our great empire was struck with tragedy last night. Both the archbishop and the king, my brother… were murdered in their homes”.

His tone is grave, playing on the emotions of everyone listening.

“Smooth,” Kayde can’t help but comment, impressed by the decision to announce the king’s death along with the archbishop’s.

“Sadly, the king was never able to create a family, leaving us without a descendant to take his place. So now I will now, with a heavy heart, take up his duties. Hopefully, all of you will be able to support me and each other as we mourn this devastating loss,” he continues, displaying his mastery of swaying an audience.

This speech is met with applause, the people more than willing to support such a charismatic ruler.

“Now enough about me, I would like to introduce you all to the man who will be assisting me, as the new head of the Purity. I present, the new archbishop, Wulfric!” The new king announces with vigor.

The crowd’s eyes are now fixated upon the new figure beside him. Gwendolyn squints, recognizing him as the man with the sour face from when Xander was taken.

“It’s him, he’s in the files,” she tells the others.

“Yeah, Wulfric, I remember the name,” Kayde agrees, having taken a long look at all living people in the files.

Wulfric silently stands, not willing to speak a word in front of all these people.

The king, fully expecting this, begins to speak again, “Now that introductions are out of the way, let us move on to who committed these acts of treachery. While we are not entirely sure, our best lead is a woman from the desert and her accomplices”.

The entire crowd starts to jeer at the mere mention of the desert, all of them well trained to hate anyone hailing from there.

“Her name is Gwendolyn, the leader of a desert faction known as the Silent Brotherhood. While we don’t know what she is scheming, we do know that she is dangerous. We have already encountered her once, but unfortunately, she was able to slip from our grasp. Don’t be fooled by her appearance; her blonde hair and fair skin might make her appear to be one of us, but she is a vile invader, just like her murderous companions. We are unsure of how many are assisting her, but we do know of at least one man. He is a mercenary named Drakthar, formerly of the Iron Legion, a group that recently betrayed their alliance with us. Both of these people are threats to our great empire, and any sightings of them should be reported to either the church or the military. Stay away from them if you value your lives. That is all; with your help, we will be able to have justice for the horrendous crimes committed against us,” The king and Wulfric disappear from the balcony, having dropped a bomb Kayde never expected to have to handle.