An Empire of Betrayal & Order 3

Dastan had returned to his home, but couldn't sleep due to his stress piling up about Phlox. He trusted Walter that they would handle everything correctly, so he tried to be patient and not act rashly.

As he was sitting on his sofa contemplating everything that went through, he suddenly heard a knock on his front door. That made him jump on his feet, believing that some miracle happened and the operation would begin shortly.

However —

“Dastaaan! Are you in?”, a familiar voice different from the one that he was expecting to hear called out to him.

“Tsch!”, Dastan clicked his tongue as he walked toward his door to open it, “It’s just you Arol?”

As the door opened Arol’s presence became apparent to Dastan’s eyes.

“What do you mean it’s just me? Who did you expect this late in the night?”, Arol spoke to him in a complaining voice.

“I mean…Nevermind. What do you want? As you said, it’s quite late in the night to pay me a visit if it isn’t something urgent.”

Both went to sit on the sofa’s soft cushions and Arol began talking.

“Well, I’ve been meaning to ask you how it went with Walter. Since we found the Dwellers together, I was hoping I could join the squad that will be sent there as well. I couldn’t sleep well anyway because my mind couldn’t stop picturing the innocent victims in the village…”

Dastan closed his eyes briefly and made a wry smile at Arol’s words.

“I get it, Arol. It’s the same for me as well.”, Dastan said trying to sympathize with Arol, “However, I don't believe you have to worry. Between you and me, they are already preparing an adequate unit that will deal with the Dwellers. It will be prepped and sent first thing in the morning from what I heard.”

The dim light inside the living room of Dastan’s apartment flashed out for a brief second as Arol reflected on Dastan’s words.

“Isn’t morning a little bit too late for that? And despite that…who is preparing that task force that will take on that task?”, Arol said in a puzzled manner.

Dastan then tilted his head as if not comprehending entirely Arol’s question.

“What do you mean who? Wolf of course. Such a mission can’t be handled by anyone other than him.”

“Wait a minute.”, Arol said as he stood up, lifting his index fingers to signal Dastan to stop, “Then why was he walking toward the main Edelstein building with just Saffron, Zeal, and his brother Niye?”

Dastan stood as well with a perplexed expression on his face.

“Just these three? And one of them is Niye? We all know he isn’t exactly the best fighter in Edelstein; at least yet. Are you sure it was him?”

“I am positive. He wore his classic hood. The question is, what are they doing, lurking in the night when there’s something of such grave importance that requires Wolf’s attention?”, Arol said seemingly confused.

Dastan put his right hand under his chin while trying to think everything through and instantly spoke out loud.

“It seems there’s only one way to find out.”

The moon’s pale light was shed on the three figures that were now walking in Phlox’s forest. They were trying to be as quiet as possible, as they wanted to not be seen or heard yet by anyone there.

“They should be around here, based on the report.”, Saffron whispered.

“We need to be careful till we reach them. We don’t want to grab their attention till everything is ready”, Zeal followed in the same manner as Saffron’s speech.

Wolf then turned to face the two men that were whispering behind him and spoke to them like trying to instruct them.

“Don’t worry. Niye should be done with the bridge to Elys by now and we will notice the Dwellers first anyway. When we see them, remember, I will call out to Niye to see if he is ready, and after that Zeal will use his vocal powers to guide the Dwellers to that very bridge — ”

Before he finished his lecture, Saffron jumped in to finish his sentence.

“ — And all the Dwellers will be lead toward Elys, slaughtering everything while making it easier for us to take control of the Crystal cave…”

Wolf nodded at Saffron’s words, when suddenly.

“I…w hy, wh yyyy”

“Pa yy…PAA YYYY”

Wolf widened his eyes and extended his hands trying to stop everything near him from moving.

“We found them…”, Zeal said while gulping silently.

“Let me contact Niye and we will begin shortly.”

Wolf then put his Opal [chameleon powers] into his necklace and called out to Niye.

“Do you hear me, Niye? Are you ready? We found them.”

A low-pitched voice that reminded him of Niye entered Wolf’s mind as he said his name.

“Copy, brother. It’s all set here so you can begin the operation.”

“Great. Zeal, it’s your turn now.”, Wolf said in a commanding voice.

After Dastan and Arol's discussion, they decided to go to Edelstein HQ to see for themselves what Wolf was up to, but to no avail. What they found was an empty building.

So, they determined that they needed to go to Phlox by themselves to see if Wolf had carried out a mission without informing Dastan.

Dastan knew that Wolf wasn’t very fond of him, so he believed that he just neglected him on purpose. However, something was still bugging him. So, he and Arol took the early train to Phlox.

“Should we begin our search from the spot we were lying around near the river?”, Arol spoke out to Dastan quietly.

“I suppose yes.”, Dastan nodded to his question, “We shouldn’t get caught by anyone of Wolf’s squad, or else we will face a lot of trouble. So, I believe that this is a safe place to begin our investigation.”

At that moment —

“What, in the name of Heilig, is that…”

They both got shocked at the sight of a bridge made of mud starting from the riverbank they stood that connected it with Elys’ side.

“Why is there a mud bridge here? And more importantly…who made this and why?”, Dastan spoke in a confused manner.

“It’s made of mud, Dastan…That means — ”

“It means that we need to hurry, Arol.”, Dastan told him in a vividly disturbing voice.

The moon had now begun to faint away with the early sun’s glow starting to show itself as the two figures run toward the bridge that was leading to Elys.

This is a side story featuring characters Vierizen Kingdom from my work-in-progress novel, "In The Ashes of Forgiveness", originally published on Medium.

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