Chapter 49
As the sun filled the sky with it’s warmth, it’s rays of light peaking over the mountain tops and onto the base of the rebel army, what greeted the brand new day was a scene of devastation. The main building and hangar were almost completely destroyed by the fire, which the last stubborn flames were still being outed, the training area was riddled with the fresh corpses of friends and mostly enemies, pillars of earth were shot up into the air and earthen spikes some broken but many still intact made it nearly impossible to walk any where in a straight line, parts of the ground were melted or filled with scorch marks, and chunks of the wall had been blown off or encased in ice. Even though morning had just broken and the air wasn’t even warmed yet, many of the support personnel of the rebel army were busy, running up and down, salvaging what medical supplies they had and using them on the severely injured.
Aster had taken it upon himself to shift the bodies of those that had been slain by their enemy to one side, neatly placing their bodies next to each other alongside the only good section of the wall, as for the bodies of the invading soldiers, he had the ground itself swallow them up.
“Catch”, Barak said to Polaris, throwing a wooden container at him, as he walked towards where Polaris had been sitting, at the base of the wall right under where he had been fighting Aux, above him was a large spiked icy ball that was firmly frozen to the wall, next to him his sword stood stuck in the ground the splotches of blood that had been left on it now dried by the morning sun. Polaris looked down at the wooden container, then back up to Barak, undoing the lid he took a large gulp, the fresh water overflowing from his mouth down the side of is chin,
“water, really”, Polaris said, the disappointment could be heard in his voice,
“you know what I want to know, is what the hell was that”, Barak questioned,
“what was what”, Polaris asked, gripping the handle of his sword to pull himself to his feet, he looked Barak directly into his eyes,
“you refusing to go help where you were needed”, Barak said to Polaris, the frustration in his voice growing,
“Just because you’re the strongest out of us right now, doesn’t make you the leader”, Polaris said, resting his hand on Barak’s shoulder and gripping it tightly. In response barak held onto Polaris wrist, lifting his hand off of his shoulder,
“I was right where I was needed, fighting the person who attacked us, so stop trying to control me”, Polaris continued, pushing his hand back down onto Barak’s shoulder.
“what, what are talking about no one is trying to control you Pol, A building was on fire, ON FIRE, you were the best person for the job”, Barak said, pushing Polaris’ hand off of him.
“you’re unbelievable, so high and mighty always barking orders at everyone, I’ll say it again, just because you’re the strongest out of us right now doesn’t mean you can tell us what to do or whose best for what”, Polaris said, ice began to creep on the wall behind Polaris, his breathing became heavy and a slight frost exited when he exhaled. Barak looked down to Polaris’ hand, he had his sword gripped tightly, he hadn’t even noticed when it was pulled from the ground, but the tip of Polaris’ white blade was pointed in his direction,
“you know what, forget it you need some more time to cool off so do whatever you want to”, Barak said, turning his back to Polaris, “none of us are Zaraar, everyone here is just trying their best”, Barak walked away from Polaris. The sight that met Barak as he walked across the training area was bard with a large table overhead, he turned to side and put it down, the tabletop had haphazard burn marks all over it and smelt of charcoal and smoke, but that could just be the smoldering building, Barak admitted. Out of the entry way of the burnt building came Amon and yumi, carrying what Barak recognized as the maps and scrolls from in Amon’s office, well what was left of them anyways, Amon placed down all that he had in his hands and arms, unfurling the largest one he had been carrying.
“Everyone gather around”, Amon shouted, feet shuffled slowly those who were injured but could still move slowly made their way over to the table followed by those who weren’t injured, everyone dragged their sleepless feet to the table, many sat and few stood, the lack of motivation and the slight stench of despair lingered through the air, so palpable you could almost feel it. Amon looked around at the faces that looked to him for strength, that looked to him for hope, he could see their sunken eyes wanting for rest, the bloodied bandages that held their bruised, broken and battered bodies together, he knew today would be a tiring day for the healers who were here, he could hear the uneasy shuffling of feet, he knew that there was nothing he could say to boost their morale, but he still had to say something, but, he also knew that there was no going back now, they had all passed the threshold of no return, he swallowed the air in his throat, that had run dry at the sight of how things were,
“Guys listen, this is not looking good, frankly it’s even worse than it looks, After the assault last night, they barely left us with a days worth of food, they burnt all the rest, along with damaging the living quarters and destroying some of weapons and armor reserves”, Amon explained,
“not to mention, some of us have died, and almost all of us are injured, so were are no where close to full fighting capacity, but we can’t give up right now, this is a setback but with the healers we have now, and the ones on their way here with Krio we should be able to get most of you back into fighting shape”, Amon continued, sliding his hand across the large map on the table. Zack walked up to the table, his left arm, shoulder and ribs all bandaged up,
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“Did I just hear you correctly, Amon I get it, you want to help us get back our homes, and you feel some what responsible because it’s your bother that’s spearheading this war, but look at us man, we are tired, injured and in no shape to fight”, Zack said, slamming his fist down onto the table,
“I know that, I know all of that”, Amon answered somberly,
“but we aren’t in a place where we can be backing out”, regardless of what ever happens now, come tomorrow we either go to them and fight or they’re coming here and this time they’ll be coming with everything they have, so we literally don’t have a choice now”, Amon Continued to explain,
“we could always run”, someone within the crowd said,
“I’m sure we can, but know if we run we won’t ever have a chance of returning things to how they were”, Yumi stated chiming in,
“we run now and I guarantee that in the future the mere whisper of a rebellion will be met with overwhelming force, just to make sure it never gets to this point again”, Yumi finished explaining,
“guys look, you all are tired and angry, your homes have been taken over, loved ones and family members have been slaughtered, friends taken right before your eyes, but guess what I’m from the country that’s doing all of that and I haven’t been spared by them either, I’ve watched my friends die, I’ve seen my family turn their blade against me, I’ve seen places I’ve known since birth burnt to the ground, so I know of everyone’s anger, I know of everyone’s resentment, I also know of everyone’s fatigue and exhaustion, but I just ask of you just give me one more day, stick with me one more day and it will finally be over, we will finally be able to rest the burden we have been carrying all this time, stick with me...one...more ..day, and the corrupt royal family of Dracht will finally pay for their sins with their life”, Amon Exclaimed, preaching this to the people around him,
One by one, the life returned to everyone’s face around, but not with joy, what was on their faces was raw unfiltered rage,
“the guy sure knows how to give a speech”, Aster commented, looking from side to side at the three others that stood next to him,
“ I get the distinct feeling that this isn’t going to exactly end well for us”, Levant stated,
“Well for once I’m actually excited about a fight, I have some unfinished business with that assassin”, Polaris stated,
“I see that we’re all in agreement, lets go hunt us some royals then”, Barak said, his all to familiar wicked grin peeling across his face,
some time later
Amon sat on top of the roof’s ledge, under him was the charred stone from the fire, he looked off towards the mountain range to the side of the base, it was early summer, and the rains had not been ready to fall yet, which made this the perfect chance to finish this foolish war, the door behind creaked open then closed again, he could feel the familiar presence approach behind him.
“I’m tired, it’s been months of non stop fighting, non stop loss, non stop death”, Amon said, taking a small pebble and throwing it towards the mountains,
“is that why you just told everyone that we are going to kill the entire royal family”, Yumi said, taking a seat next to him,
“that’s the only way I can see this stopping”, Amon said,
“and then what, the country will still need someone to lead it, who would that be you, bard or”,
“you”, Amon said cutting her off, “I don’t want it, and bard is more fit to be a soldier than a king, if any of the nobles were to get that kind of power we’d be right back at square one”, Amon said,
“it’s kind of you to offer Amon, but you’re the leader here not me, it would be only right if you took that spot”, Yumi said,
“besides I’m not sure we can actually kill Ea”, Yumi said,
“come on Yu, with me and you, and those four we should be able to take him out”, Amon said getting up from his seat,
“that’s assuming those four can fight after taking out the pillars and we can fight after taking out Your brother”, Yumi said,
“ and then there’s the other fact that if you do this there is no coming back from it, the people of this country who are loyal to the royal family will brand you a criminal and they would try to take you out to get power for themselves”, Yumi said,
“Has Aluric unnerved you that much, that you would really kill the lot of them”, Yumi questioned,
“to be quite honest with you I know my brother and the moment he realizes I’m out for blood against the royal family I know he’ll try his damnedest to try and stop me, so I resigned myself that I may also have to kill him”, Amon answered, yumi pulled herself up from her seat holding Amon by his jacket collar, pushing him back to the edge of the building,
“is your judgement so clouded that you would stoop so low down as to killing your only brother, the brother who was abandoned by this country alongside you as a child, the brother who suffered with you when your parents were killed ,are you now abandoning him also”, Yumi asked,
Amon just looked at her, as his back dangled over the edge of the roof, his eyes remained cold and unchanging,
“you want to question me about judgement, from what I can see your still the same naive girl who feel in love with my brother all those years ago, and is still coming to grips with the monster he DECIDED to become”, Amon stated, grabbing hold of yumi’s hand and pushing her back, stepping away from the edge of the roof,
“UGGHHH”, yumi bellowed, holding her palm to her head,
“ so what’s your brilliant plan, an all out fight with all the adventures of the Artemis Guild, and hopefully you win and then just recklessly attack the Royal Palace, hate to break it to you, but even if you do manage to win, the palace will be heavily guarded, so you’ll essentially have to fight two wars”, yumi shouted towards Amon,
Amon’s eyes still held the same cold expressionless gaze, “has your opinion of me dropped so low in the last couple of hours, why do you think I’ve been up here since this morning”, Amon explained,
“I’ve been coming up with a plan every since then, and I’ve just about settled on one that should work, all things considered”, Amon finished explaining,
“ but before I tell what we are about to do next, I have one question, are you still with me ?”, Amon asked, extending his hand towards her with his fist folded,
“as angry as I am with you, we started this together, plus you aren’t going to get rid of me that easily”, Yumi said, bumping her fist into his,