Chapter 22
Plans to topple the first Pillar
Allie, my brothers, and I walked up to my office and the meeting room. Jasper, Doran, and Paige were already there waiting. Over the next half hour, the masters, Roger, Steve, Liana, Julia, and Zeke, filed in. Chase, Lizzie, and Patrick showed up soon after with Baker and Shyft’s leadership of their teams.
Once everyone was seated, I stood. “First, I would like to introduce you to Allie. She is a member of a quazimilitary organization that has helped us in the past. I am trying to barter an alliance with them, so she is here to lend advice and gather info for her organization.” I squared my shoulders and then continued. “We have been given information of the location of one of the Pillars. We know the defenses of his stronghold and we know how to get in. We have a chance to take the fight to the demons now. I wanted to bring this information to all of you. This is not just mine or my brother’s decision. This is a decision for all of us.” I stopped talking to let the information sink in. Doran looked pensive, lost in thought. The rest of our leadership looked nervous.
Allie was the first to speak up. “So, what you are proposing is a joint attack on the stronghold of this Kokoda? Do you think we can do anything?” she seemed dubious about our chances. I looked at Doran.
“Can we mass produce arcanium? If most of our crafters focused on it, could it be done?” Doran juggled the numbers in his head and then said,
“If we put a good, solid, two months of work into the refining process I think I can have us several hundred pounds of arcanium made. It won’t be easy, but I can get it done.” I nodded and looked at Allie.
“We can make a limited arsenal of weapons and ammo for us and your organization. This way we all would have a fighting chance in this battle.”
Allie stood and said, “Ok then I guess I have to get back to HQ to debrief the leadership on what is going on.”
I looked to the rest of the Sanctuary leadership. “Are you all in?”
The others stood and said as one, “It’s a good day to die.” My brothers and I smiled.
“It’s a better day to live.” The three of us responded full of pride. I added, “Ok then, so we are doing this.”
After the leaders left my office, Allie and my brothers stayed behind. Allie was standing by the window staring off into the coming dawn. She looked pensive and conflicted. My brothers were studying the map that Kira had given us more closely. I stood up and stretched.
“Allie how long do you think it will take to get an answer from your organization?”
She looked back at me and shook her head. “I have no idea, could be a week or two months, hell they may not even allow me the chance to answer at all.”
I nodded. “That’s what I figured, since you are just an operative you have no control over the ultimate decision. Well I guess you will be departing when the sun comes up.”
She smiled and said, “Yes I need to get back to my troops and back to HQ for debriefing.” I looked at my brothers and they stood up and headed to the door.
As we filed out of my office I said, “Well Allie you have two months to try to convince them to join us. We attack whether or not you are with us.” She made a sound of acknowledgement as we continued down the hall headed for the dining hall where her comrades were.
We arrived at the dining hall to find her men entertaining a group of the guards with stories of their time fighting the demons. When we approached the guards straightened up and left to head back to their posts. Allie talked to her teammates for a few minutes. There seemed to be mixed responses to whatever she had told them. Some of them seemed a little disgruntled. The others got up quickly and readied themselves to move out.
We watched them leave the front gate and I sent Shade out to open a portal back to the town we had come from. Once they disappeared from sight, I looked at my brothers.
“Guess it’s time to talk to our teams and fill them in on the mission at hand.” My brothers agreed and we separated to go talk to our teams. I took the long way around the compound to the Spectres woods. I walked through the trees until I arrived at the large open walled building, we had crafted for the Spectres to reside in. All my troops were enjoying their breakfast in the open-air dining area. As I entered someone called everyone to attention and before most of them had even stood, I waved them to relax. “We are not a military. You do not have to stand at attention every time I come into the vicinity. You are my trainees, yes but, that doesn’t mean I am any different than any one of you. That being said, I need volunteers for a mission that is critical but also very dangerous.” Almost immediately every Spectres in the hall stood. I chuckled, “Let me tell you what the mission is then I will choose from those that want to help. We need 40 people from each team to have a chance. We have received intel about the location of one of the named demons, Kokoda. This is our chance to attack the Pillars directly and possibly cause some real damage.” I continued with the finer points of the intel for the next 20 or so minutes. By the end of the briefing, I asked again, “So now that you know what we face I need volunteers.” Every member of my Spectres stood with their right hand across their chest. They were all ready to fight for the mission of Sanctuary and for humanity. I felt a wave of gratitude and pride in my team. I looked over my team and said, “There are things that terrorize the night.” Everyone responded with, “We are that which they fear.”
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Once I set my teams in motion choosing who would be going on this mission and who would have to stay behind to take care of the Sanctuary, I left to head to the forge. The forge was in full production with all our smiths and some others from the other teams helping with raw arcanium production. I took off my trench coat and joined in with the production. By midday I was drenched with sweat. Liana prepared a nice lunch for us to help us keep up our energy. By afternoon most of the others had run out of steam leaving Baker, Shyft, Doran, Jasper, and myself to continue the process until the second shift of crafters showed up. We worked through the night and then for most of the day after that too. It was nearing midafternoon on the second day when one of the doctors we had, Louis, came down to the forge and advised us that we needed to take a break. He said he understood that we had a lot more stamina and energy than most normal people but operating at that capacity for that long was bound to catch up to us. We agreed and took our leave of the forge heading off to bed.
Over the next course of the month, we spent all of our time in the forge. Our stock of Arcanium was getting quite large. I was getting worried because I hadn’t heard from Allie. I hoped she was ok and that she didn’t get into any major trouble because of us. Shade left to get eyes on the location we were going to. Without seeing a place he couldnt make his gates. Once we finished with the production of the arcanium Doran, Baker, and the other smiths started arming our teams that were going with us to take on Kokoda. That process took about 3 weeks of constant working in the forge. Once finished we collected our teams and had one last meeting.
I stood on the stage in the Auditorium looking out over the members of sanctuary. They looked scared but determined.
“Ok everyone, all our preparations are done and all of you have gotten your arcanium weapons, armor, and ammo. Use what you have been taught. We will be separating you into mixed teams that will have very specific missions. We will be leaving tomorrow morning so get to know your teams. From now on when you are sent on missions these are the teams that you will be in.” My brothers and I went from person to person giving them team assignments. We had roughly 120 people, so we made 10 teams of 12. Once all of the teams were created, we left the assembly hall and went to the Dining hall. As I rounded the corner I looked up to see Allie and her team standing by the front door with a few of our guards that knew them. Allie had a big smile on her face that told me the Organization was in this fight too. We walked up and shook hands with our friends.
“You just can’t stay away, can you? Must be the food or something.” I said jokingly.
“Well, it definitely isn’t for the company that’s for sure.” Allie shot back with a sly grin.
We all entered the dining hall to find a magnificent feast created by Liana and her chefs. The spread was amazing with several types of meat, vegetables, fruits, salads, soups, and desserts. We even had beer that was made by one of the kitchen staff that had brewing experience. It was very stout but had notes of honey and made the entire meal that much more enjoyable. Everyone from the teams ate and drank and enjoyed themselves. The feast wasn’t only for us, but it was in our honor. Everyone in sanctuary enjoyed the huge meal and the ever-flowing beer. Allie and her group also partook in the meal which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Everyone that was going to be part of the attack team went to bed early. I went to my room and laid in my hammock listening to the sound of the occasional whistle of wind through my open window. My mind was full of what the future would hold. I fell into a deep, alcohol induced sleep.
I awoke a little before dawn. I got out of my hammock and got dressed. I headed down to the dining hall to see if Liana had any of breakfast started. The hall was abnormally full for this time of morning, but it seems as if most of the departing teams were having trouble sleeping as was I. I chatted idly with a few of the people that were waiting for their food. About 30 minutes before the meet up time my brothers walked into the hall ready and geared up. Everyone had a somber, quiet mood about them. Obviously nervous and anxious about today’s attack on the demon hierarchy.
My brothers and I walked out into the entrance hall to await the rest of our teams to arrive. Within the 30 minutes every one was in the hall fully equipped and ready to go. I stood in front of them and cleared my throat. “You have all volunteered to go on a mission that is dangerous but important in our fight against the demons. I thank every single one of you for your dedication and perseverance. You all have gotten very far in your training and now that all of you have been awoken, you have the means to take this fight to the max. This fight will test you further than we safely could. Remember your training and stay in constant psychic connection to your team. Those of you that we gave command positions to please stay in contact with your team leaders. Let us make this be a bad memory for the demons. Let’s make them sorry they ever fucked with the likes of humanity.” All of the Sanctuary teams raised their weapons, and I raised my bow and said,
“Today is a good day to die.” They all echoed back, “It’s a better day to live.”
We all headed out of the main doors and walked through the gate to the field in front of the property. Shade flew overhead and gathered a large pool of his shadowy energy to create a large enough portal to accommodate all of us. Once the portal had taken shape, we all stepped through.