The man on the screen was like a shadow, his dark hair covering his face as he bent forward against a bright light. A smile cracked across his face as he looked up into the camera recording him, and a dark hand reached up from his lap to push his hair back from his forehead.
"The Erth is a cage," Roald's voice echoed through the ship, and Alex noticed that everyone had a little screen floating in the air in front of them. "It is a cage created by the Scions to shield humanity from the rest of the world."
A diagram appeared on the screen, showing a set of two circles around a central point. The circles were divided into six each, each labeled with the name of one of the islands of the Twelve Kingdoms. A cross through the middle, cutting the horizontal and vertical planes in half, further divided the map into quadrants.
It was a map of Erth, with the Twelve Kingdoms at the center and the Fringes beyond as tiny dots of black against the white screen.
"This is Erth, as the Scions call it," Roald said. "The known world with the nightsea to connect it all. Not all islands across the Fringes know this, but most who hear this message will. You are not alone on your island."
"I'm not the only one seeing this, right?" Alex asked.
"No, it's definitely real," Li Wen said as Roald continued to speak.
"This has to be what the connections are for," Erin said. "That's an island core, right?"
"Yeah," Alex said. "He's using the core to broadcast this message across the entire Erth."
"That's dangerous, right?" Erin asked.
"Yeah."
Click.
A flash of light filled the room as Kali took a photo.
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Samantha Appleton, now also known as Sam 'Appleseed,' held her gun steady in sun-tanned hands on the man across the bar from her. He had his fingers woven tightly in a woman's hair as he stood frozen, a gun held at the woman's head. However, he no longer pulled hard against her hair.
She was in Red Dirt, a town on the island of Tombstone, and had just been eating lunch when the man across the room had decided that the woman had offended him. When she resisted, he had threatened to shoot the woman, and Sam had intervened. She blew one of her long blonde bangs from her face as she eyed the man in front of her down her revolver's sights.
That was when a screen appeared in front of everyone's face in the bar, and a man was talking like it was perfectly normal. Sam kept her gun trained on the man, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the barkeep had taken out his shotgun and pointed it at her.
The screen had paused their standoff, and part of her was thankful for it.
"It is a cage to keep us restrained and unchanging," the man on the screen continued. "We live on a world designed to keep us in chains. That is the secret they wish to keep."
Sam didn't take her eyes off the man. He seemed about as confused as he was drunk from his red face, but even he could tell that something was off in the room. He tried to rub away the screen with his elbow, but it only flickered as his arm passed through.
"Put the gun down," Sam said, keeping her voice low and cold. "This isn't the time."
"They want us too caught up in our own petty troubles to see the potential in this world. That was why they created the Twelve Kingdoms. That is why they discredited me and called me a liar."
"You can't have regrets when you're dead," Sam said, cocking back the hammer on her gun to emphasize her words.
Thump.
The man dropped his gun, his jaw slackening as the message continued. The woman scurried away, free from his grasp. The screen that floated in the air followed her, the message not stopping for their own particular problems. The man she held at gunpoint finally ran out of the bar, the screen following him every step of the way out.
"That was what I discovered when I went on my journey to find the limits of the nightsea," the man coughed. "I discovered a passage to a new world, the New World, and there I learned the truth of this world. I learned why we are all here."
Sam held up her gun, clicking the hammer closed and eyeing the barkeep. The barkeep gave her a nod and pulled up on his shotgun that had been pointed at her. Whatever was happening with the screen was more important than what they were dealing with.
Sam focused on the screen, thinking of Alex and their trip into the mines to find the island core.
"Are you caught up in all of this?"
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"I found the path out. I made it past Devil's Reef and through the Dark Meridian. I reached the New World, and there, I learned the truth."
Jack stopped running, freezing in his tracks as he watched the screen. Everyone around him in the crowded street on the island of November had their own screens. Some people were laughing, some were quiet, and some looked very confused.
Crunch.
Jack took a bite of the apple he had just stolen, now that the shopkeep he had taken it from had given up the chase.
"The Scions tried to hide my discovery, to label me a liar, but I am here today to tell the truth and show you the fruits of my plan, which has been over two decades in the making."
Jack could understand plans. Ahead of him, one of his other urchins had stopped to hear the message. Like all of his underlings, the boy was dressed in begging rags, and he would have blended in nicely if he hadn't stopped to gawk at the screen. The boy was supposed to be a distraction, but the screen had ruined that plan. Jack looked to the screen again, ruffling his hand through his scraggly black hair as he struggled to pay attention.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
This type of stuff had always been beyond him. All he really cared about was keeping food in his stomach for himself and his friends. Other islands, new worlds, those things were all something for people with the means to worry about it.
"Sayed would have a blast with it, though," he said, a smile creeping across his face.
"That is why I had to find a way to reveal it to everyone simultaneously. I had to ensure the time was right and everyone was ready. I worked with despicable people. I made deals with monsters to ensure this information would get out to the world. Listen well when I tell you all this. You are not bound to your island. You are not bound to live under the boots of the Scions. There are worlds of plenty to see, wonders you can scarcely imagine, and the way is prepared for those brave enough to try."
It wasn't that Jack wasn't brave enough to try; he just had a good thing going already. He began walking down the street, the screen staying in front of him, determined to convey the entire message. Jack gave it the kindness of feigned listening, but he had other plans. There were plenty of stalls to lift supplies from while everyone was distracted. He just needed to get his people to work.
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"I found the path out. I made it past Devil's Reef and through the Dark Meridian. I reached the New World, and there, I learned the truth."
Creak.
"What I am offering all of humanity is simple: the chance to do the same. I have worked tirelessly to ensure everything was ready for this day. I have been waiting for you, and it is time to spring my trap and reveal the truth to the world."
Bargen leaned back in his captain's chair, his massive size straining the chair's legs as he kept an eye on the screen in front of him. He sat aboard the Flying Dutchman, his hands on papers, as he did the real duty of every captain: keeping track of their income and distributing the spoils of the crew's efforts.
However, the little screen was proving the right kind of distraction.
"Even now, people are putting all the pieces in place for me," Roald said. "This message is the trigger. As I speak, hidden shipyards will build new ships, ready for the Dark Meridian, and send them to every shipyard on Erth. Designs for engines will be dispersed, along with guides created from the logbooks of my journey to the New World. The path is laid out for those with the strength and courage to follow."
Bargen thought back to warehouse stores he had seen in Undertown. Massive buildings lined the east side of town, where no one was allowed to go. He had heard of Roald and always labeled him a loon like everyone else did. He hadn't discovered squat, and that was the story everyone stuck to.
However, if what he was saying was true, Bargen thought about the opportunities that might exist outside the grip of the Military Police and the Scions. There were people in Undertown who would invariably be ready to exploit those opportunities.
That was just human nature and, by proxy, drim nature.
Thump.
"Boss!" Michael, his second in command, burst into the room, his grey drim flesh practically glowing in the light from the screen before his face. "Are you seeing this?"
"Aye," Bargen said. "I think the Underground Lords have been involved in this for a while."
"Thought the same," Michael said. "Explains all the stockpiling we've seen over the years."
"Who would have thought they were hiding something this big?" Bargen shook his head, chuckling.
There was an opportunity here; he just had to be ready to take it.
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"I have made a wave of information that the Scions cannot stop. My message to everyone who is listening now shall be clear. Listen to these final words as I lay my ship to rest and prepare for a better future for all of the people of Erth."
"Erick, what is it?" Klaus pulled on Erick's pant leg as Erick watched the screen unmoving.
Erick stood with a shirt in his hands, soaked with soapy water from the bucket before him. Klaus had been helping him wash his clothes before he went on patrol later that night. Now, he stood, listening to a man on a screen give a message about how the world was about to change.
"I don't know," Erick whispered.
The message was a change, and a change was what Erick needed. Agnes no longer haunted him since he took in Klaus and adopted him. He was still a guard working on a new outpost, but perhaps he could work a little bit harder. A promotion would allow him to learn more about what was happening.
"But what do you stand to gain?"
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"But what do you stand to gain? I see you all out there, you vagabonds and outlaws who live on the fringes of the world to hide from the authority of the Scions. You crave freedom, to get out from under the thumb of power, wealth to make yourselves kings, the power to do as you will, and the truth of what this world really is."
Lucien stood in the middle of a bloodbath, holding the last man up by his neck as he sputtered and choked. A screen had appeared in front of Lucien's face not long ago, as well as in front of the dying man he held. He had paused to listen, as he wasn't in any danger, and the man could wait until the message was finished to die.
Images flashed in front of him. Pictures of cities made of emerald and gold. Land unsullied by human hands. Strange people that Lucien had never seen before. Lucien smiled as he watched the screen. Roald had found precisely the perfect motivation to bring Lucien into the fold.
"To those who are brave enough, there is a world beyond this one with opportunity. There's wealth and power beyond imagining for those willing to grasp it. If you want to find the truth of this world, travel through Magnus Hortus."
Several images flashed across the screen at those words—however, the first name stuck with Lucien. Magnus Hortus, the island of heavenly delights, rested at the center of the Twelve Kingdoms. He knew of Roald in passing, a man sanctioned by the Scions after he returned from a journey to test the limits of the nightsea, but to think such a secret rested at the center of it all.
"Hah!" Lucien laughed, tightening his hand around the man's neck. "Did you hear that? New lands beyond the reach of the Scions. New worlds to test my strength and find worthy opponents. I had found my life boring, but that such a grand opportunity should fall in my lap!"
"Grrk—" the captain sputtered.
Lucien sighed, gripping the man's neck tighter as he gurgled. Lucien didn't actually want to hear his words, of course. The excitement of new possibilities simply overcame him. He was some lowly captain in the Military Police, out to find Lucien and bring the ex-Apostle in. Lucien had barely spared the captain any attention as he slaughtered his men. Such power was beneath him.
Crack.
With a twist of his wrist, Lucien killed the captain, dropping the man to the ground in a bloody mess and looking up at the moon above. If there were ships to find, he would have to commandeer such a vessel. He would take the captain's ship for now and find a port away from his current island with people on it. Surely, if Roald's words were to be believed, it would be child's play to find a ship that could sail in this new world.
"Let us go," Lucein said, stepping over bodies and blood as he headed toward the grey ship in the distance. "We will find new prey in this new land that will satisfy. If not, we will simply kill anyone who tries to stand in my way!"
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"If you are ready and willing, go out and take it—journey to Magnus Hortus. Find the entrance to Devil's Reef. Brave the Dark Meridian. Climb the heights of Olympus and reach the New World. There, you will find humanity's legacy. There, you will learn the truth."
Grayson shook his head as the screen continued to play its message. For the moment, his chase was forgotten. He stood on the precipice of a new era. If what the man on the screen said was true, then the Military Police would have much more to worry about than his missing ship. Drake stood beside him, equally enraptured by the message.
"The fool actually did it," Drake hissed. "He went through with his plan."
"There was a plan?" Grayson asked.
"I knew a man named Roald long ago," Drake said. "He had journeyed far and wide and discovered something the Scions wanted to keep hidden. He was someone I let go because I thought the smear campaign would be enough to keep him silent."
"And look how that turned out," Grayson whispered. "Looks like he's getting his revenge."
"The chaos this will cause," Drake whispered. "How many will run for the Core now that they know the truth? How many will die as they push their way to Magnus Hortus?"
"Break out of your cage, Number Eight. Find the truth. It will set us all free."
Grayson spat into the snow. "We still have an outlaw of our own to catch!"