Monty perked up. This was it—the moment he was waiting for. After years of serving the Royal Government faithfully, he was going to be rewarded with a command position. Perhaps Grindaull thought he could handle a strategic military position—or perhaps a coveted Regent position, watching over one of the major cities. The thought of ruling his own city, and making an endless supply of thetinum to line his pockets filled Monty with complete and utter joy.
“Thank you, Your Grace,” he said, with a genuine smile—one he had not made in what felt like years. “And what new position would you have me fill?”
“Oh, you misunderstand me Monty,” laughed Grindaull. “You will no longer be serving the AzzaNation Royalty, in any position.”
“…I don’t…understand Your Grace,” said Monty confused—his dreams of ruling a city falling out of his grasp.
“Well, I did enjoy your gifts—so as a thank you, I have decided to spare your life. However, you still failed me miserably…So you must be punished. I have decided to exile you from AzzaNation—effective immediately. If you are not off this planet within the next twenty-four hours, you will become a wanted criminal and will be treated as such.”
And just like that, his life was over. Monty was dumbfounded. He didn’t make any arguments or pleas for mercy…how could he? Once the king had made up his mind, the matter was settled. Monty had failed. Plain and simple. His schemes saved his life, but he was still being punished. How could this happen to him? He had such a bright future in the Royal Government—he was on a fast track to a Regency, and then it was all taken away from him. Like a rug being aggressively pulled out from under him, he was left falling, with nowhere to land. But try as he might, Monty couldn’t blame the king for his decision. Grindaull was only responding to the events laid out before him.
In the exile’s mind, there was only one person who deserved the blame—the one man who caused him to lose his beloved king’s approval. Monty swore to himself that he would get revenge on the man who did this to him if it was the last thing he did. He made a promise to himself and the universe—right there in the Great Hall of KL’en, that he would kill Leo Exe.
CHAPTER TEN
T he walls of Fort Koivisto appeared tall and menacing, even from their view at the edge of the tree line. Sixty feet tall and made of solid tythril, there was no way to break through it. Placed in the middle of a valley outside the Boundary Woods, its walls and giant central tower had a full 360-degree view of anyone who would be foolish enough to approach.
I’m out of my element, thought Diandra to herself, as she double-checked the placement of her gloves and sleeves. She had never done anything like this before. It was one thing to hide in the woods when Master Allee was trying to scold her, but attacking the fort was another beast entirely. But even as her worries and fears raced through her mind, she couldn’t help but feel pride as well. She always wanted to live out the stories of old and fight for peace and justice. She wanted to do something with her life, instead of tending her garden for eternity. She thought about her parents in that moment and wondered what advice they would give. Would they be filled with fear, wanting her to retreat home as soon as possible? Or would they urge her on this rebellious route? She had no way of knowing, but somehow, she suspected they would lean towards the latter.
“Do you want a turn, Diandra?”
She broke away from her thoughts and saw the set of binocs Leo was offering her. Such strange ways mortals seek to understand the planes. If only Kahl was still around, she thought. If only I wasn’t a descendent of a wing-cutter.
“Sure,” she said, taking the electronic binoculars from Leo’s hands. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” he said with a shy smile. The young man had a nice smile, and gentle eyes. When Diandra looked at them, she wouldn’t have guessed that there was also a burning fire underneath. The speedster fascinated her more and more—this man she was meant to work with, yet knew nothing about.
“Where are you from, Leo?” she asked, a little too forcefully.
“I—ugh…I’m from KL’en…” he said apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.
“Oh…you lived in the capitol? That must have been rough?”
“No more than any other major city. It was just more…patriotic. Which I couldn’t stand. I left as soon as I graduated from the Royal Academy there.”
Diandra nodded, trying to understand. The truth was she didn’t. Her time in New Valley gave her a glimpse of city life in AzzaNation, but she had still only spent a few days there.
“I’ve only seen New Valley, I’m afraid,” she said, bashfully. “But what I saw of the Royals’ treatment of the poor made my blood boil. I don’t understand how anyone can let their most vulnerable fall through the cracks like that.”
Leo stared at the ground knowingly for a few seconds, lost in his own thoughts. “…It’s not easy for anyone out there.”
Diandra decided not to press him anymore, as she pulled the binocs to her eyes. When she looked through the eye holes, the fort became large in front of her. She saw clearly the grey, solid metal walls surrounding it. There were patrols walking those walls, and a pair of soldiers seated in the eighty-foot-tall tower that was center to everything. None of the guards looked especially dangerous, but the massive white-plated ELC cannon situated in the tower made Diandra’s neck tingle.
“That’s an ELC cannon?” she asked, to no one in particular. “I doubt I could stop a blast from one of them.”
“You won’t have to,” said Jacob, who was drawing in a notebook. He looked up every now and then to peer towards the fort and then went back to his drawing. “If we do this right and fast, that cannon won’t be a problem.”
“How do you figure,” she asked, skeptical.
“Leo’s got speed, so he can search the fort, while we distract the guards. If we can hold them off long enough for him to find Zane, then I can teleport us out lickity split! In and out. Bing Bang Boom!” He snapped his fingers, making guns with them and smiling.
“I still don’t see how that plan neutralizes the cannon.”
“Diandra, Diandra, Diandra…you seem to keep forgetting. I have an awesome ability? The sweet amazing power to teleport? I’ll take us into the tower after we drop Leo off and we can hold off the Royals from up there.”
Diandra considered it. It wasn’t the worst idea she had heard. At least if they had distance from the soldiers, there was less of a chance one of them would spot her tattoos. “Alright. It’s stupid. But it might work.”
“That’s how I operate Big Blue!” Jacob laughed and tore out a page from his notebook. He got up and threw the piece of paper in front of his comrades. It was a rough blueprint of the fort, made with as much detail as he could fill in. The walls were incredibly detailed, down to the last measurement, while the interior was left blank.
“How is this supposed to help us?” asked Leo. “We’re teleporting past the walls, right? Don’t we want to know the layout of the rest of the fort?”
Jacob looked at them with a sly grin. “You’re absolutely right Speedy!”
He grabbed their arms and they were gone. At first, Diandra couldn’t make out where they were—her eyes were being bombarded with wind, but as she felt her body falling faster and faster, she quickly realized they were in the sky. She focused her eyes and managed to make out the shapes of Jacob and Leo. The wise-ass teleporter was laughing as he let go of them and began swimming through the air. Diandra did her best to remain calm, but her body was petrified and she let out an involuntary scream.
“Shhhhh!” she heard Jacob yell back at her. “We don’t want the ground folk to spot us!”
She followed his pointing fingers with her eyes and saw Fort Koivisto below them, approaching faster with each passing second. She felt another scream in her throat, but she squelched it with her hand as she covered her mouth. A few feet away from her Leo was going through a symphony of emotions: excited, scared, angry, sad, petrified, and the
n giddy beyond belief as he let out a roar of laughter. His arms and legs were spread wide as he laughed among the clouds. Diandra couldn’t help but smile at him, as she copied his movements. Soon they were laughing together, and once they were close enough, Diandra reached out and grabbed Leo’s hand. He looked at her with his nervous smile. They were so caught up in the fun of it all, that they didn’t even notice Jacob return, grab their waists and teleport them back to the woods.
Every time Jacob teleported them, there was a moment of disorientation, but this time was something else. Diandra felt her head spin nearly off her shoulders, and she fell to the ground with a thump. As she lay on the ground, looking up at the clouds above her, all the colors of the world seemed to blend together into a giant blur. Slowly. Ever so slowly, did her vision return to normal. And when it finally did, she saw Leo recovering next to her. He gave her a knowing look, as if to say What in Kahl’s name was that! She giggled softly and saw Jacob a few feet away from them, finishing his drawing.
The interior of the map was now as detailed as the outer walls. He had labeled the courtyard, entry points, barracks, latrines—everything that was in sight from their aerial view.
“There,” he said, triumphant. “I can definitely get us in now.”
_________________________
They had set up a small campsite inside the Boundary Woods. After Jacob’s air stunt, they all agreed that it was best to launch their attack the next day at dawn. While Leo hated the teleporter for doing his insane leap into the sky, without the slightest hint of a warning, it was still the most excited Leo had ever felt in his entire life. Being up high, feeling the wind against his face, gravity pulling him to the ground. He felt like a bird, soaring with the clouds. And then the most unexpected and heart-thrilling thing happened…Diandra held his hand.
Jacob was resting on his bedroll—leaving Leo and Diandra awake by the fire. The more the young speedster observed the Egon, the more he became smitten by her. He had never met an Egon before her, and she intrigued him to no end. What he knew about her people was limited. He had never seen pictures of one, or had one sitting in front of him, radiating like the sun. Diandra was strong and compassionate, and for some reason, she believed that together the two of them would save AzzaNation. He wasn’t sure if he believed that he could contribute to the larger picture of anything—let alone the fate of the planet, but when he looked at her, prophesy or not, he was glad to share her company.
As he took in the night’s view, he spotted AzzaNation’s twin moons shining light through the tops of the trees. Rewq and Jillion were their names, given to them by Kahl millennia ago. No one knew for sure why he chose those names, but the legacy he left had lived on. Everything about the celestial being known as Kahl was draped in intrigue and mystery. All that was known for sure, was that he found AzzaNation, created the angelics and then banished the demons to the Fifth Dimension. After he had finally found peace on the planet, he sent his message out into the rest of the galaxy, and one by one the different species of AzzaNation answered the call.
When Leo thought about the past and Kahl, he always wondered what the planet would look like if the god-like being had survived. Would Grindaull have still become a sadistic and cruel ruler, or would he work cohesively with the other species to create a planet that cooperated in harmony? Would Leo’s childhood still be filled with fear of revealing the truth about his evolved ability? Or would he be free to live his life out in the open, living a life of happiness and prosperity. In that world, he hoped that his father was still alive. After all, if there was no reason for Leo to hide who he was, then there would be no consequences of revealing the truth, and Karl Exe would still be breathing…and maybe, just maybe…in this perfect world, his mother would have survived childbirth
He quickly looked around the woods, trying to push his thoughts of his parents and a better, alternate AzzaNation out of his mind. There was no point in dwelling on what could have been, especially when it would involve doing the impossible and changing the past. AzzaNation was the way it was, and if Leo wanted to make it better, he would have to focus on the present. He leaned back against a tree stump and admired the trees around them. Small critters and birds chirped through the darkness. One small, black raven was sitting on a branch nearby their camp, and it strangely drew his attention. The bird was so small—so fragile, and yet so intelligent. It watched the woods, looking for food, Leo assumed. Then as Leo was observing the raven, the bird looked directly at him. Not as a typical animal, considering if the larger creature nearby was a threat—but as an equal, wondering what Leo wanted out of life.
The young speedster shook his head, and quickly turned his attentions to other things—clearly, he was more tired than he realized.
Diandra reached her hands out of her cloak and placed them over the fire, her tattoos peeking out. Leo hadn’t seen anything like them—their beautiful and complicated patterns. The ink moving in curves and spirals, separating and coming together for only a precise moment. His curiosity got the better of him in that moment, and he decided he would finally start a conversation with her.
“So—what’s with the tattoos?” he asked abruptly, hating himself the second the words left his mouth.
Diandra was caught off-guard and put her hands back into her cloak, embarrassed. Leo quickly realized how insensitive he was being, and tried to undo his mistake. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean anything by it—I’m just…well, you see, I’ve never seen an Egon before and, well—I think your tattoos are pretty—I mean, not to say that I think you’re pretty—I mean of course I do—but I ugh…”
Diandra watched him stumble over his words, and she smiled lightly.
“It’s alright,” she said, “I know you’re just curious.”
His sweating stopped and he managed to calm his nerves a bit. He wanted to talk—but he was afraid he might continue spouting out nonsense. Instead, he just smiled and nodded his head. Diandra returned his smile and then continued.
“To answer your question, my tattoos are an ancient angelic technique. They work as conduits for energy to pass through. Normally, an angelic will use them in a specific place on their body to focus all of the energy they gather in a particular spot.”
“Is that why some of the angelics have the same tattoos on their hands?” asked Leo, remembering the tattoos on Raphael and Gabrielle.
“Yes, they probably use them for combat, but it’s possible that they use them for healing purposes as well.”
Leo tried to picture Raphael the brute healing someone. In Leo’s imagination, the angelic placed his hands on a faceless soldier’s open wound—pouring healing energy into the gash, the soldier groaned out of pain, and then Raphael got mad and punched the soldier in the face. The soldier died and Raphael cut up the body while swearing at the top of his lungs. Leo knew his mind was being ridiculous, but he still figured that the angelic was more suited for combat.
“Of course, Egons are a bit different,” Diandra continued, “We have these tattoos all over our body. They run from our hands to our necks and from our necks down the side of our body all the way to our feet.”
“Why?” he asked, “Why wouldn’t you just want to focus the energy you collect into your hands, so you can wield it?”
Diandra’s eyes drifted away from him, for a moment, and moved towards the soft glow of the fire. Leo could see the shadows of the flames dance across her face. It almost seemed like the fire was giving its attention over to her, as she was fixating on it.
“It’s difficult to explain…We don’t simply want to use the energy we gather…We strive to understand it.”
Diandra reached out to the fire, with one hand, and she began to withdraw energy from it. The red flames leaned in her direction and flowed into her skin, and as it did, her tattoos began to turn red. Soon, there were no flames left in the pit and Diandra was now glowing, shedding off bright light, around her.
Startled, by this sudden change in her appearance, Leo accid
ently fell on to the ground in disbelief. Diandra remained calm, raising her hands towards him, trying to reassure him that everything was alright.
“Don’t worry Leo—everything is fine. I am red because I’m keeping the fire’s energy the way it is—becoming one with it.”
She placed her hands over the pit and all at once, she poured the fire back to its original home on the ground. Just as the last flames were leaving her hands, she held on to the last ball of fire. She focused on it, and her tattoos began to glow blue. The energy of the fire began to dance and swirl, losing its red and orange tones, and then, as its original color completely faded, it turned into a matching blue of her tattoos. The erratic and blazing energy of the fire had been turned into a gentle blue ball of fog, that sat in Diandra’s hands—perfectly content.
“This is considered natural energy. Everything in the universe is made up of this type of energy. It lives inside all of us…in all of nature, and every living thing. Once it enters something, it takes on that new energy, whether it’s hot or cold—erratic or calm…or anything in between. One of the biggest mysteries of the universe is how this energy can adapt so easily. That is the mystery my people try to understand. There are infinite different ways this little ball can adapt and change.” She held the blue ball of fog up for emphasis.
“Why do you keep it as the blue energy then?” asked Leo. “Why not use the fire energy for more power?”
Diandra smiled knowingly to herself. “Oh…you can try. The energy of fire is not easy to control. It wants to dance and move whatever way it decides. You can move with it, if you’re skilled enough, but holding onto it for more than a couple seconds is impossible. That’s why Egons and angelics mostly use the natural energy. Once energy is converted, from the air or the earth—or ourselves, it takes on this state…and then it can be easily controlled and guided.”
She focused her attention on the energy in her hands once again. Her hands stretched away from one another and expanded the natural energy, making the blue fog grow and stretch with her limbs. Then she pushed her hands up and shot the energy above her. She continued to move her hands, conducting the movement of the energy as it moved and swirled around their camp. She smiled as she made the energy dance, turning it into different shapes and figures—laughing with each one.
The Chronicles of AzzaNation: Dawn of a New Age Page 17
