The sun was just about to set.
The sky had that exciting dazzle to it and all the buildings on the other side of lake Olivia clumped together in a long, black, stripe. Henry was always out jogging this time of the day; that was a part of his routine that had stayed the same as long as he remembered. Through the amber park and across the bridge to the university. He liked to think that the area was safe now after all of the disputes over territory that had occured just this month, but he always carried with him a small-caliber handgun, just in case.You never knew when some vigilant would try to raid the university’s warehouses. He checked his holster again.
***
Henry slammed the door into the small boardroom open.
“Okay, let’s not beat around the bush, and let’s get the first council-session of year three started.”
The people in the room all looked up, halting their conversations, saving their voices for the inevitable loud debates that were to come.
Henry walked towards the office-chair at the short end of the table, furthest away from the door. He never liked that chair. Sloppily sitting down, he started. “You all know the new tiger-guys, right?” The counselors all looked at each other. The Dia Rì clearly was in a terrible mood today.
“I had the IB take a look at them from a distance, and they seem to have a lot more resources than we first thought, including an old military grade vehicle, a Leopard 2A6 we believe.” Henry sat back in his chair, fidgeting with a pen.
“well.. sir…” one of the counselors, Elizabeth, voiced. “Have the IB found out what their intentions in the Owell district is.”
The council looked back at their Dia Rì for confirmation.
Henry closed his eyes to think, he really wasn’t in the mood for this.
“I hardly think that’s necessary. Three of the four IB’s sent out were compromised. Only one of them was able to return with the information.”
The council broke out in discussion, ignoring the tired Henry, giving him some time to rest.
The councils session lasted for just over three hours, although the supposed leader of it was mentally absent the majority of the time, just throwing out some information for the rest to debate about now and then.
Henry got home early that day, still not sure of why he felt so drained. Something was about to happen, he just didn’t have proof for it to say it out loud.
Henry lived by the western coast of the Owellian-peninsula, in the current Dia-residence, named after his own position in the senate as the leader of the university of Owell in Canada. The world had gotten some problems since a major food-shortage caused by global warming, and the population rioted, resulting in many governments falling and anarchy taking their place. The university was lucky, and quickly established a democratically chosen hierarchy to avoid conflicts within the peninsula.
Henry got into bed, still with that bad feeling in his chest.
***
Gabriel woke up early that day, getting up from his bed like every other day and went down the cold marble-stairs of the outpost to the training-field to spar until breakfast. He had some spear-thrusts to practice. The outpost’s training-dummies were made of hay tied together to look like soldiers; they even had the outpost’s standard issue helmets put on them. The gravel underneath his feet was moist from the morning dew and the air was humid and cold. Whatever, he’d warm up once he got the tempo up. Run around the training grounds a couple of times, a bunch of pushups, some footwork, and then right to some good ol’ stabbing. One thrust, back, thrust again, block, repeat. Again, thrust, quick step back, thrust, block, step forward.
After two hours of repeating the same moves in at different speeds, Gabriel decided to take a quick break to catch his breath and drink some water.
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Just as he got to the well, armed to the teeth with a mug, one of the three scouts on duty this morning came riding through the metal gates of the outpost. Exhausted, the scout got of his horse and stumbled towards Gabriel. “Hah.. Huh, sorry Gabriel… but could you.. Hah, take care of my horse, i have to report in to the captain. Don’t worry, none of the others are in danger, but it is pretty urgent.”
Gabriel quickly took the reins from the tired scout.
“I’ll take care of it, be sure to get some rest after making that report, there’s no use going out there again if you can’t even walk properly.”
The scout ran up towards the captains quarters.
***
well… this is new...
Henry couldn’t believe it.
He woke up when the sunlight shone on him through his window, but all of his clocks in his showed 02:18.
“Did the electricity go down?” He scrambled to find his phone and get in contact with the electronics department.
He looked out of his window, and found that his house didn’t face the sea anymore, but a ginormous plain, followed by a pretty dense, natural forest.
“What in the…” Henry almost dropped his phone on the floor.
“Ray!” He called for one of the guards outside his room. “Ray! Could you go and check in with the sentries and see what’s going on?”
Ray came into the room, holding a walkie-talkie. “Sir, a distress-signal just came in from the senate. They want you in immediately.”
Henry quickly got dressed and got a sandwich made before stepping into his car.
“Sir, you should let me drive; for your own safety.” Ray tried to convince him.
“Not a chance, get in or stay here.” Henry put his belt on; the sandwich in his mouth.
He drove toward the university. “Well, seems like i will get a lot of more work the coming weeks.” He said as they drove past several houses with confused, newly-awakened people.
As soon as he entered the university’s doors, one of the four sentry-captains came to him with a stack of papers.
“Sir, we believe that all of the sentries in the outer districts have been exposed to some kind of sleep-inducing gas. Everyone fell asleep. This is not some prank or lackluster work-ethics.”
All the sentries placed on the edges of the peninsula claimed to all have fallen asleep right before 02:10, and woke up again 10 minutes later, and found this. The university was in turmoil, senators, counselors and secretaries running about gathering reports from the IB-agents constantly going in and out with new information.
The senate began a session. The high senator began. “Several reports, and i mean dozens, say that the entire peninsula has turned 180 decrees, and that the camp of the AF located outside of the peninsula has disappeared together with all the buildings in the area.
Discussion broke out.
At 03:54, the sentries at the bridge to the peninsula (that was the coast of it until just now)
reported in that three people on horseback sneaked around outside the border. They tried to take them in for questioning, but one escaped.
The senate made a decision. “I suggest that the Día Rí takes two counselors and talks to these people. do we have to vote on this?”
They didn’t have to vote on it.
The strangers were dressed pretty oddly. Rough tunics, trousers and boots. Armour also made of leather and helmets that could have come from a tv-serie full of dragons and royalties. The sentries even had to confiscate a pair of spears and bows with arrows. Not the modern kind either, the medieval sort, and they were well made too.
They were held at one of the sentry HQs. They entered a small, concrete room made for questioning, with over twenty IB-agents overlooking the conversation from behind a mirror-glass.
Henry leaned over the table, eyeing the the man and the woman sitting across of him. They looked quite unsettled now, nervously throwing a glance at the guns in the holsters of the IB’s now and then. Henry was confused. Their glances at the firearms lacked the shine and fear of familiarity.
But how would they not have seen a gun before.
He began. “So… you come at the behalf of the...Arelian union, is that right?”
The young woman seemed less scared, crossing her arms over her chest, mockedly answering.
“That is right, yes, and since you know that, i am surprised you still dare to treat us with such lack of hospitality.”
The guy at her right side looked at her, visibly nervous.
“Hey, Quinn… maybe we shouldn’t…
Henry interrupted him. “It’s fine, we’re all tired.”
He reached his hand out. “Henry, leader of the Owellian council, and the head of the Intelligence Bureau.”
The other counselors followed. “Devon, counselor of internal affairs.”
“Hanna, counselor of foreign affairs.”
The male scout introduced himself “Lucas, scout of the Uthara forest outpost. We don’t mean anything bad by coming here, but this city wasn’t here yesterday, and our captain was afraid that a certain grand wizard transported it here.”
“Do you possibly have a map over the area?” Devon asked the scouts.
“There should be one in my bag.” Quinn started looking through it.
“There. It’s on the whole continent”
She spread it out on the table.
“Well this doesn’t look like any continent i’ve ever seen.” Hanna said.
“I’m going to have soo much paperwork to do now…” Devon complained.