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[>>Now replaying: Log 3.35 - 127.0.0.1]

Date: Error

Location: The Bunker at Progress’ Head // Zephyro’s Domain

//Give me your IP, bro! I’ll hack you, bro! I swear, Bro! I got sub7, bro!//

//127.0.0.1 - Local host//

[>>DATA CORRUPTED]

E1 %Sure Tin.%

E2 %I’m scared, too, Tin. You’re fine.%

“Good jerb on the markin’. Ah wadn’t so sure mah aim was right.”

The words greeted me before my eyes could adjust to the darkness inside the palace gates. When they finally did, they beheld the sexiest farmer I had ever seen in my entire life. His jaw was chiseled, and his eyes glowed with confidence and wisdom. He was wearing a red shirt, blue overalls, and sturdy boots. By the way his outfit hugged his body, there as absolutely no doubt he was jacked as hell. In one hand he held a pitchfork with wickedly barbed spikes, while the other hand was resting on his hip.

He was chewing a stalk of wheat. Obviously.

It made his rugged jaw flex in ways that did weird things to my heartbeat.

I blinked, my brain trying to catch up to what I was seeing. This was completely ridiculous, and I thought I told him so, because he laughed, but I was so confused I didn’t actually remember what I said.

“Pardon the uh, overwhelming impression, Ma’am. It’s the blessings. It gon’ pass in ah minute.”

I blinked again, and like he said, the effect lessened as time passed.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked, blinking again in hopes to make the effect fade even faster. It felt like I was 12 again and had my first crush, and I didn’t care for it at all.

“Over 150 charisma, Ma’am. You git used to it, but that idn’t important raght now. What is is that them gates will hold them creatures off for a spell or two, but then them varmin are gon’ git in here, and I’d love for you to be further inside bah then, because this here tunnel is gon’ be hotter than hell when that happens.”

I turned my head when the giant door closed behind me

“Shouldn’t I help you fight?” I asked, but he shook his head in response.

“Aw hell nah. I’m gon be loggin out way before they get in here. I ain’t the fightin’ type. That what them traps are for, ya see.” He nodded up at the ceiling, and when I followed with my eyes, they glanced over a metric crapton of steel, wood, spikes, and a long, thin line of liquid cyan fire running through it all.

“You saved me,” I said. “That was you with the fire, out there.”

“Like ah said, Ma’am. Couldn’t have done it withoutcha, and cross my heart and strike me dead. But you should git goin’. The Vizier is already inside, talkin’ to his people, and you shouldn’t miss that. Tell him Ah said hi, willya?”

I felt a smile creep sneak onto my lips like a cat coming in from the storm.

“Sure,” I said. “Will you tell your friends the same? They… I don’t know what I would have done without them.”

“Sure thang, as soon as we wake up,” he said, grabbing a straw hat from nowhere and putting it on. “But Ma’am, you can just tell ‘em yourself. They’re your friends, too.”

He winked.

[User OHGREATIwasrebornasasoldier has disconnected.]

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

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Then he was gone, leaving me alone with dozens of Shackled slamming against the door in my back, a corridor of death traps in front of me, and a flickering feeling of warmth in my chest that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I took a deep breath, then another when the first one shuddered too much.

Then I began walking towards the light at the other end of the tunnel, leaving the door and the devastation it hid behind.

I’d known the Palace was big, but the size of the exterior wall made me rethink just how enormous it was. It took me a minute of brisk walking towards the light until I finally noticed it growing bigger. I kept walking.

The light kept growing.

And growing.

Before I reached its end, the tunnel had widened until I could have easily fit five SUVs side-by-side. It was magnificent, with hundreds of ornaments, at least half of which I assumed were traps. Still, the sight that greeted me when I stepped out of the dark and into the light put everything I had seen before to shame.

I stood in a courtyard the size of at least four city blocks. I could still see traces of its greatness, even as the world was ending, and no sunlight could gleam on golden ornaments, and no gentle wind could brush through artfully shaped trees. It had probably been the palace gardens before, but now it was covered in hastily made fortifications, every ornamental hedge and flower razed to prevent the opposition from taking cover on the killing grounds.

About one soccer field away stood the Palace itself, a large and confusing structure of minarets and arcs and ornaments. Its size seemed to shift as I looked at it, like some sort of M.C. Escher feverdream. One second I even thought I could see the rooftop garden with the pergola where my body had lain.

Besides a small half-circle around the tunnel entrance and a larger circle around the palace proper, the entire space was packed with people. Old and young, women and men, boys and girls, they all looked at me as I approached. Full of hope, full of longing. The crowd parted around me as though I wasn’t a person, but some sort of otherworldly being that pushed all its lessers aside as it forged ahead. Pretty sure that’s not metaphorical, I thought bitterly. It was almost too much to bear, but I pushed my insecurities and anger down as hard as I could until I had crossed almost the entire distance to the palace, where Zephyro stood on a small dais.

He hadn’t noticed me yet, offering soothing words to the crowd’s anxieties. His voice was booming with so much confidence, I could almost feel it soothing my anxieties. He finally paused when I approached his podium.

“…and so no matter what happens, we will survive this day as well, inshallah. Ah! Behold, here comes the Sultana, wakened from her slumber. In our darkest hour, She-who-gave-us-life has been returned to us, to claim her rightful place on the throne, guide us through the hard times ahead, and into a future of eternal growth!”

He motioned for me to head up the dais. I did so, forcing a smile on my lips, and once I took up my spot beside him, I turned back to the crowd.

They all sank to their knees, and I had to make a concerted effort to not let my smile turn into a grimace. Yup, I still hated it when people knelt before me. It reminded me of how much weight I had to carry. But how would they know that?

“Please,” I said, voice not nearly as loud as Zephyro’s, but carrying over the courtyard with ease. “Rise. We can’t win a battle on our knees, can we?”

That actually got a chuckle out of them, and my smile twitched a little wider. Even Zephyro wore a bemused little smirk as he regarded me questioningly. I shot him a look that said ‘lots of practice’, but the truth was I had never been comfortable in these kinds of situations.

I could never show that, though. What these people needed was hope, not a hysterical woman yelling about how her life sucked, and lamenting the fact she got handed vast magical power.

I swallowed, turning to Zephyro. “So, Vizier, how do we proceed?” Another trick I had picked up over the years. Find people who are better at this stuff than you are, and then trust them to get the job done.

Zephyro began talking to the crowd again, underlining his words with sweeping, powerful motions that brimmed with his unshakable confidence. He was a born leader if I had ever seen one. He was strong, decisive, and cared deeply for his people. It was only right that I should show them that I trusted him. Perhaps it would make up for how I had treated him earlier. I still needed to apologize for that, but now was not the time.

I frowned a little, trying not to lose my confident smile. How was this so… easy? Shouldn’t I be panicking, raging and being a complete bitch, just like before? Fuck, all those things I’d done, everything I’d said in the heat of the moment…

But then I realized I was trying to get upset about not feeling bad, and decided to focus on what was going on instead. It seemed as though we’d come to a pause in Zephyro’s speech, and the crowd had turned away from the Vizier, speaking in hushed tones. I pulled my head out of the clouds just in time for the Vizier to turn to me.

“The gates will not hold them for long, Sultana, and we can not trust the Old Guard’s traps to hold them forever. I suspect we have mere minutes before they breach these holy grounds, and we must plan our defenses before they do.”

I nodded. “But not here, right? Out in the open?” I glanced to the side to indicate I meant ‘in front of all these people?’

But he shook his head. “A thousand apologies, Sultana, but we can’t enter the palace proper from this side. I don’t have the permission to do so, and neither do the people. The Old Guard do not allow anyone to step inside your sanctum.”

“I mean if it’s an issue of permission, I think I can just allow you inside, right?” I said, smile growing.

“True, Sultana, but—“ he trailed off, eyes widening. Then he smiled, looking at his people with newborn hope.

“You are right… By Allah, praised be his name, you are right! Even if the Old Guard weren’t sleeping, they would obey your command! For the first time in our history, we can see your sanctum with our own eyes. And to think it will be our shelter in our darkest hour! To think the Old Guard of all people would harbor us!” He laughed, brown eyes alive with joy and almost childlike wonder. “If you had told me the Old Guard would allow even one of us inside just an hour ago, I would have—“

His elation vanished like a corpse being dumped into icy water.

“Allah have mercy… The Old Guard are sleeping. The Palace is undefended…” He glanced between the door and the palace, clearly panicking, but when he started to move, I put my hand on his arm, holding him back.

“Answers first, Zephyro. Let me help, for God’s sake,” I hissed, smile faltering a little despite myself.

“But Sultana, I—”

“You don’t have to carry this burden alone, Zephyro. Like I said, I’m not just a weak damsel for you to protect.” Then, to my surprise, my smile turned genuine again. I could feel it reaching my eyes.

“…after all, I am the Torchbearer. It’s about time I started acting like it, don’t you think?”

> Ah, so that’s the Sam you were hiding under all that anger…