Romulus
Romulus recruited about fifty men with his own money to go find out where Noah was, but they weren’t going to march around the endless forest or go in by themselves, but pretend to be guerilla fighters trying to make contact with the People’s Lord to get into their good graces.
Each of the men they recruited was directly affected by the People’s Lord. They either lost food, money, or a family member to them and likely wouldn’t rat out Romulus and his operation. Options were becoming few, and there was nothing else he could do.
However, over the next month, not a lot of things happened for Romulus, but things across Leozan were heating up. Lucius had just died, and he was invited to the funeral. He wanted to go and see Nero but couldn’t in case something happened back home. Nero would understand.
Romulus wondered what Kosta thought about Lucius's death. They were all dead now, and Romulus felt like Mydrazan had been killed himself, but he wondered what an atheist like Kosta was thinking. ‘Did he know this would happen?’ Romulus thought. ‘Was he happy? Maybe there was no Mydrazan looking down upon us?’ But Romulus dismissed those ideas. The griffins being mortal didn’t mean that Mydrazan didn’t exist.
He also wondered what the reaction on the other continent was. Did those brutes of Roran think this was a victory for Gomaism or a defeat for the believers of Mydrazan, even though what they viewed as heretics lost the legitimacy to their sect of the religion?
Winter became Spring, and there was still nothing. The guerilla fighters made contact with the People’s Lord, but there was no information about any hideouts. The People’s Lord only met them on certain farms and gave them instructions from there. At least it seemed they believed they were actual guerilla fighters.
Most days, Romulus didn’t see Kosta or Smith. They were chasing the best leads they could while he spent most of his day at an abandoned military encampment as their base of operations. There were about 100 tents still up, but now there were only about three or four people at a time, most of who were using the military encampment to avoid the foot traffic in King Harbor or have sex in secret.
In the first week of March, Romulus was sitting in his tent bored out of his mind, when Kosta walked in. He looked conflicted. Not happy or sad because the amount of uncertainty he seemed to be in wouldn’t allow him to feel either one. There was enough mud on his face that someone could mistake him for a Borzor. He stood in front of Romulus and told him something a superior officer never wants to hear from his subordinates. “We have a problem.”
He took a seat on a small stool and asked Romulus to take his feet off of the small table that separated the two. Romulus complied even though he thought it was a strange request and let Kosta explain what the problem was.
“I was trying to find whatever I could in the forest, and wouldn’t you believe it; I ran into someone from Honobor. He wasn’t there when you first arrived but was the one giving me instructions on the position and held the job before me. He seemed like an honest man and everything, but now I found him, bleeding out in the woods, pressing his exposed leg wound into the last couple of gray snow piles.
“I walked up to him and called out his name. He looked up and became terrified. He tried to run away, but I comforted him and said that I wasn’t going to hurt him, besides, the pain he was experiencing wouldn’t let him go anywhere. That’s when I noticed he was in all black and had more blades than a man could dream of on his belt. I immediately knew what happened and asked him if he was part of the People’s Lord now.”
Kosta paused before nodding. “He was, but I knew that he wasn’t in any danger, so I asked him if I could help. He shook his head and said that would probably bleed out in the woods. That led to the obvious question of how he got here; and why he was bleeding out. Apparently, the squad he was with got into a disagreement; and it got violent. He wouldn’t say what they got into a disagreement about, except that it had gone on for days. Eventually, a less stable member of the squad pulled out a sword and started slashing. It came down to my friend and the insane People’s Lord member, and my friend was able to best him. He even pointed to where his body was, and I saw the man decapitated about thirty meters away with his head not far from the body.
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“I couldn’t bring myself to let someone bleed out in the forest, or more likely, leave him to kill himself to end it more quickly, but I knew if I helped a terrorist to safety, I would probably be executed. So, I decided to promise him protection if he told me something. It took a bit of convincing for him to believe that I would help him. Not because he didn’t doubt my will, but because he thought he wouldn’t be able to make it to a doctor before he bled out. I ended up asking him if he had any family. He said yes, and I asked him how it would make him feel if they were told that he refused to be helped and died in the forest.
“What did you ask him?” Romulus asked, growing impatient at this long story.
“First, I asked him if he knew the location of Noah, Lia, Benito, or the People’s Lord. He said no, and that he didn’t know where any supply bases were either. All the supplies were brought to the troops, not the other way around, so even if he knew the name, he wouldn’t know how to get there.
“I kept pressing to get any location out of him, but it quickly became apparent that he didn’t know anything. He must have joined the People’s Lord recently, but when I asked, he said: ‘I’ve met Noah, I’ve met Lia, I almost met Benito, but never have I met the People’s Lord.’
“I asked him where he met Noah and Lia, but he said it was in a forest. No different from where other People’s Lord soldiers dropped off supplies.”
“Is this going somewhere?” Romulus demanded.
“Do you have anything else to do?” asked Kosta.
“I suppose not.”
“So let me finish. He’s alive. I brought him to a doctor, and he didn’t lose as much blood as either of us thought.
“Before I helped him, I asked what he could tell me about the People’s Lord. He told me something that somehow none of us have considered.” Kosta took a deep breath continuing. “He thinks he doesn’t exist.”
Romulus's brain became numb at the suggestion. He listened to that entire story for something like this. “Excuse me?! You’re saying we have been chasing a ghost?”
“Let me explain. Has anyone produced a drawing of the People’s Lord?” Kosta asked. Romulus shook his head. “Has any low member of the People’s Lord met with their leader? Has he made any speeches to his supporters? Has he given any instruction to anyone except Lia or Noah?”
Romulus shook his head at all the questions but made a rebuttal. “How about this, alright? He is a terrorist! Of course, he doesn’t make speeches to his supporters! They are all underground chewing on last year’s harvest!’
“We’ve all been eating last year’s harvest. There hasn’t been a new one.
“You know what I mean. Is there anything else?” Romulus asked.
“He said that he saw a letter next to Noah from the People’s Lord. They had the same handwriting. He then saw a letter next to Lia from the People’s Lord, but also had the same handwriting as Lia.”
“Are you hearing yourself?” Romulus asked, stunned. “God, you believe that two of the highest-ranking People’s Lord members just have letters exposed like that to their inferiors? You think they killed a queen and a griffin by being that stupid?”
“If they were organized or smart, we would be 2 meters in the ground right now. We would have never made out of that farm.”
“How do you know he is not lying?”
“I don’t,” Kosta admitted.
Romulus sighed and wiped his hands off his face. “You said this guy is alive?”
“Yeah, he is at the doctor a couple of blocks away from here,” Kosta responded.
Romulus stood and said he was going to meet this guy in person, but before he could step out of the tent, Captain Smith walked. God, this is just perfect, Romulus thought. “Yes, Captain,” Romulus said.
“I narrowed down where the supply base is,” he calmly said.
No one spoke for a little while before Romulus asked how much he narrowed it down. “Twenty square kilometers.”
“How?” Romulus inquired.
“I interrogated a terrorist and disposed of him when he was no longer of use.”
“He means that he tortured someone and then killed him afterward,” Kosta clarified.
“Thank you, Kosta, I already had a very clear understanding of what he was talking about. How trustworthy is this information?” Romulus asked.
“More trustworthy than Kosta’s theory.”
Kosta and Romulus gave each other a glance. “You were shouting, captain,” Smith said. “I heard everything ever since Kosta said the source is still alive.”
“What did you do with the body?” Kosta asked.
“I burned it.”
“You burn—” Romulus tried to say before stopping. “We have a problem.”
“I told you,” Kosta said.
“No, not that problem, but another one. If you guys aren’t bullshiting me right now, which I am inclined to believe, the People’s Lord has a couple of members who have gone missing in the last day. Soon they will find that decapitated head from where Kosta was, and the smell of burned flesh will surely be noticed by someone.” Romulus checked his watch and estimated the amount of time he would need to get to his guerrilla fighters.
“Alright, new plan. All of us need to get to our men as fast as possible. Too bad I won’t be able to meet with your source, but I need to make sure he doesn’t run away. Kosta, find a superior in the city guard, no privates, and get him to have your man guarded until we come back. Do you know where our men are?”
“Yes, I do,” Kosta answered.
“Good, let’s go find out where this supply base is.”