For the first time in two years, Max and Tiffany had decided to break their rule about never acknowledging each other while at Ĉielarko Castle.

After interviewing as many of the servants as he could, none gave any valuable information. It was 11 PM and Max felt like he had wasted the entire day on nothing more than rumors. Yet the looks of fear on many of the servants still made him feel that something was wrong. He found it peculiar that most of the servants still staying at the castle were men or young boys and decided to meet Tiffany about the revolt.

"Hey," Max said.

Tiffany shrieked and Max apologized repeatedly. She felt strange, seeing each other in a place they shouldn't, after two years of pretending they didn't know each other. She noticed his blue gem was still outside his chest and was worried.

"Shouldn't that thing be inside of you, it's your heart," Tiffany asked.

"I feel stronger without it," Max replied.

"Let's...unpack that later. Please tell me you found a lead because I don't know what's happening!"

"You don't!? Aren't they spying for you?"

"That doesn't mean I control them. The only reason they listen to me is because the information we have given them has never been wrong."

"What happened before they started acting like this?"

"We had a meeting to discuss clearing Duke Blythe from suspicion," Tiffany explained. "They started working on it, but slowly a few of them started acting weird. It happened so slowly that ten days later it was too late. The strike began, and they never told me. Why?"

"I don't know...I'm sorry."

"I tried seeing the unseen, but that stupid anti-gravity generator at the bottom of the vale makes it impossible to use more than the basics of my power. Can you do it," she asked. "Electricity doesn't affect you."

"I can do it," Max said.

The door to Tiffany's room opened and Duke Blythe walked in. Max stood to attention out of pure habit forgetting that he should not have been in the room. Tiffany sighed in exasperation and told him to knock it off.

"Good evening, My Lord," they said.

"Yes. Good evening. Why are you here? I heard her talking to someone and listened outside," Duke Blythe asked.

"Why are you here," Tiffany asked.

"Don't dodge the question! I heard you two. You have lied to me about who you are this entire time!"

Blythe, like his older brother, looked disheveled from the lack of employees in the castle. His dyed, long black hair was in a loose ponytail that kept coming undone, he wasn't wearing a belt, and he hadn't shaved. Max thought he smelled a little too.

"I am who I say I am," Tiffany insisted.

"Why are you speaking to The Phantom Knight," Blythe asked. "Is he trying to teach you his ways?"

"No!"

"Then why?"

Tiffany and Max could either admit that Tiffany was a Weaver and have her possibly killed or pretend they were having an affair. Either option was not a good one. Max came up with an even worse lie on the spot.

"I am...arresting her..."

"You're what? For what," Blythe asked.

"I'm arresting her for...uh..uhm... indecency," Max said. "Yes. Indenceny."

"What!?"

Tiffany pretended to look shocked and remorseful and Duke Blythe felt he was going crazy. They were both going along with the terrible lie so much he was starting to think that he was in the wrong.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Many people have complained about her being in certain parts of Ĉielarko while wearing...revealing clothing," Max lied.

"It is not my fault I am beautiful and the women of the house are old and dry," Tiffany replied. "Their time has passed."

"This behavior will not stand," Max said. "I am taking her off the premises immediately."

His face twitched and he was trying his hardest not to laugh because Duke Blythe was looking around as if someone would appear to help him. As if someone were to agree that yes, this is ridiculous. Blythe didn't want to protest too much because Tiffany was not his wife. He gave a small nod and Tiffany pretended to be angry while Max escorted her out.

They hid in a nearby bedroom, Tiffany locked the door and held her body up against it as if her small frame could stop Blythe from pushing it down.

"Relax he's gone, we won't get caught for now," Max said.

A little ding went off, and Max's AIA appeared, Aetheria.

"Hello sir, I have an urgent message for you from the First Squad. Structural damage of the dam in the vale has been discovered. Corpses have been found. An evacuation process will begin in three, two, one."

A loud alarm went off through Ĉielarko Castle, screeching the same phrase repeatedly.

EVACUATION LEVEL NINE. LEAVE THE PREMISES IN AN ORDERLY MANNER.

People rushed down the hallway, they complained, and it was a mess when everyone in Ĉielarko Castle was not evacuating in an orderly manner.

"Wouldn't it be safer to stay inside if there are bodies near the dam," Max asked.

"Max, the dam is broken. If it's damaged too much the anti-gravity generator won't be able to hold the castle and the surrounding islands up! We'll die in the sky!"

"Oh."

"Don't oh me, let's go!"

"No, I need to get to the river and see what caused this. My squad is still there, and in trouble," Max insisted. "No brother left behind."

"I'm not leaving if you're not leaving," she said. "No brother left behind."

She sat on the bed, crossed her legs, clasped her hands, and smiled smugly.

"I see," Max said.

Max looked at the curtains behind the bed and found something useful. He took the long cords off the wall that helped the drapes move to the side of the window. He pulled them, testing for tension and how well they would hold up.

"What are you doing," Tiffany asked.

"Hold still," Max replied.

Max looked like he was kidnapping Duke Blythe's mistress in the middle of an evacuation. He ran with the crowd to the descension pad with Tiffany slung over his back. Her wrists and ankles were tired together using the cords from the drapes, and she screamed, she tried to kick, but Max was much stronger than her. She gave up after fifteen minutes of struggling but Max refused to untie her because he said, 'I know you too well.'

Tiffany could not blame him.

At the descension pad, it was women and children first.

It was a concentrated anti-gravity chamber that lowered people, vehicles, etc and the ascension pad lifted the same things. It was easily operated by a panel by a bored worker, but tonight the same worker was working up a sweat, making sure the rails weren't loose and the straps were strong enough to hold them down to the chairs. It was a race against the clock, because if the generator failed while on the descension pad, the people on it would suffer the same fate as those stuck on the estate.

Tiffany wasn't untied, even when put onto the descension pad because Max told the operator that she wanted to "never leave her beautiful home." He believed Max's lie and made sure she was strapped down to the chair when they left. He promised he wouldn't untie Tiffany until they reached the bottom.

"I hate you," Tiffany screamed. "If you die I'll fucking kill you!"

"I love you too," Max said.

He waved as she went down. It was more like she was going on vacation than escaping for her life with the cheery smile he gave. Near the descension pad, much to everyone's confusion, people were coming up. The First Squad of the Ĉielarko Knights had returned to the castle. The ascension pad they rode in on elevated their military vehicle, a black, beetle-looking flying vehicle that moved by using its large metallic legs.

Everyone got out of the way when the beetle moved off the pad and came to Max. He was excited because his comrades were alive, but when they exited, they were not so happy to see him.

"You did this," Sir Alta shouted. "I saw you down by the dam, destroying it!"

"What are you talking about? I've been here the entire time," Max replied.

Other people in the crowd said that they had seen him there for the past half hour while waiting for the descension pad to take Tiffany. Sir Alta ignored them. The other knights ignored him. They took out their plasma guns and shot at him, but Max didn't move because he was cornered. He covered his body in a layer of sharp static and the bullets were sucked into it, making his electrical aura grow bigger and bigger.

"Peko," Alta screamed. "Die!"

Max swiped his left hand to the right, and a gust of wind pushed the knights out of formation. It didn't push them apart very far because most of them were very heavy from their cybernetic upgrades, but it was enough of a break for Max to escape through. He dashed past them and climbed into the beetle but they wouldn't stop the chase. As the beetle rose in the air, Sir Alta hung on to one of it's legs, and Max could hear him screaming from the pilot's seat.

He ignored Alta, and pressed several buttons on the holoscreens, commanding the beetle to go to the dam. A warning popped up in bright red.

TEN PERCENT FUEL REMAINING. CONTINUE?

Max knew why they had taken the long way up to the castle and tried to take the beetle to the dam as fast as possible. Sir Alta finally fell off when Max turned slightly to the right, and hoped he landed in the bushes.