Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!  I'm returning to writing after my holiday break, and so here we continue with Part CII, getting closer to Part CVIII and the closing of Book III: The Quest.

Part CII: Rebellion

Date: Kapton 7th, 114 A.U.

Oldin lifted up the newspaper to see the front page cover of the vote that had been gotten in during the wee hours of the morning.  A Senate vote of 62-38, barely squeaking by the 60% majority needed to revoke the previous arrangement where Astrid had been given complete control and connections to the Xavier Team.  After a long week of Iraina publicly revealing much of his discussions with Astrid and pressuring for a vote to give him the power he claimed he deserved, he had finally gotten it.  And so after much lobbying, the votes were in, compete with five senators who had once been stalwart supporters of Astrid reluctantly switching sides to give the win to Iraina.

The bell ringed.  “Come in!” Oldin said and looked up as ex-Governor Astrid came in.

“Ah, Astrid—it’s good to see you again,” Oldin said as he put down the paper.  “Although after reading about last night’s big news, I suspect that this isn’t going to be a very enthusiastic discussion.”

“No,” Astrid said, pursing her lips.  “Iraina got his way.  Again.   And in doing so, he’s completely screwed up everything for the Xavier Team.”

“Not to rub salt in a wound, but you were kind of asking for it.”

“What?!”

“Come on.”  Oldin stared at Astrid square in the face.  “You know, as much as I may have wanted you to win in the election, I think that Iraina was right in this matter.  It took much winning over for me, but honestly, since he is governor, he ought to have a right to these privileges.  And given that you weren’t willing to share them with him, I think that you got what was coming to you, regrettably.  Some more tact in dealing with Iraina might have been advised.”

“I had thought that I had my loyal group of 43 that would be able to resist any attempts by Iraina to push it through Senate,” Astrid said, pursing her lips.  “Unfortunately, they were not all as loyal as I thought.”

“Regardless,” Oldin said, “it’s old news now, I suppose.  Do you still have any power?”

“I still have my position,” Astrid said.  “Albeit with the power to be the sole communicator of the Xavier Team stripped from me and given to Oldin.  Which probably means that I’m reduced to a figurehead with no real power.  Since I strongly disbelieve that Iraina would actually call me for advice on foreign policy plans that involve the Xavier Team.”

“Probably correct,” Oldin said.  “Either way, I wish you the best regards in the situation.”

“Yes…” Astrid said, pausing as she thought.

Oldin cocked his head after a minute of silence.  “Did you have something to say?”

“Ye…” Astrid began, but then she shook her head.  “No, no…  That’s it.  Thank you.”  And exchanging goodbyes, she left.  Oldin watched her go thoughtfully.  Somehow, he didn’t think that Astrid had just come in there to exchange talk about the vote.  She had come into the room wanting something from him—he was sure of it.  But somehow in the course of the conversation, she had changed her mind.  It shouldn’t matter.  Whatever her private thinking was, it shouldn’t concern him in this matter.


There was a running of steps, and Oldin looked up to see two Araelian guards come in, quickly looking around before exiting.  He stood up, perplexed to why his work space had just been invaded.  “What-”

“I’m sorry,” came the voice, and Iraina stepped in.  “I hate to interrupt your work, but have you seen ex-Governor Astrid?”

“She left here five minutes ago,” Oldin responded.

“Crud.”  Iraina snapped his fingers before wearily sitting down in a chair.  “And the subway left two minutes ago.  So she’s long gone by now.”  The subway was located only a block from Oldin’s headquarters.

“Why are you looking for her?” Oldin asked with curiosity.

“I assume that you’ve read about the vote that happened last night and the significance of it?” Iraina asked, gesturing to the newspaper on his deck.

“Aye, I did,” Oldin responded.  “Astrid and I were talking about it while she was here. But why is it so important that you find her?  She ought to be back soon enough.  She doesn’t take long trips away from Araelia, or you could just phone her if you have any questions.  Though why are the Araelian guar-”

“She took off with them,” Iraina said, interrupting.

“What?”

“All the communication equipment that she’s been using these past couple of months to talk with the Xavier Team,” Iraina said.  “They’re gone.  From what we could gather, after she heard the vote, she packed up her stuff, grabbed the communication equipment, and high-tailed it out of here after stopping to talk with you.  After learning from an unsuspecting aide that she was coming here, we tried to get here in time, but apparently, not soon enough.”

"Wait…” Oldin said, his mind reeling.  “You mean-”

“Yes.  She stole the communication equipment and there’s no other way for us to communicate with them,” Iraina said bitterly.  “Upon losing the vote, she’s decided to take things into her own hands.”

Oldin pursed his lips.  “I see,” he said, before sighing.  “I tried to warn her—to try to help her to understand how she’s on the wrong side of this.  But…  I don’t know.  She’s too prejudiced against you for some reason.  And so I guess my talk didn’t do anything good.  I almost wonder if she came here to ask for my assistance before realizing that I wasn’t on her side in this issue.”

“I see,” Iraina said, sighing.  “Given this development though, do you think—with the dwarves—that you could-”

“Of course,” Oldin said, waving his hand.  “Think nothing of it.  I’ll alert the dwarven government and the rest of the FRI to keep an eye out for her.  Ex-governor Astrid is now a criminal and a fugitive that has stolen government property.  And she has just made our Wanted list.”

Question of the Day: Should Astrid have run off with the equipment?

Part CI: Uniting Threads

Date: Kapton 11th, 114 A.U.

“We’ve finally gotten a signal from their radios.”

“What?” Zarien asked, jerking up his head to look at Rezja.

“We have a signal from the radios of your fellow Xavier Team members and have pinpointed their general location,” Rezja said.  “We caught it last night.  They’re near the capitol of the ancient Sla’ad empire.  I’ve already done the preparations to get a ship ready.”

“Wow,” Zarien said, taking a deep breath as he tried to catch up with everything had happened.  “When am I supposed to leave?”

“In half an hour,” Rezja said.  “Unless you had any reason to leave later, which I didn’t think you did.  Hazael and Sereth plan on going with you.”

“Sereth wants to go with me?”  Zarien raised an eyebrow.

Rezja pursed his lips.  “She didn’t volunteer for the slot if that’s what you mean,” he replied.  “But we need three people to go, and you’ve only worked with them.”

“Is Cortna coming?”

Rezja shook her head.  “I convinced her that she’d be safe here.”

“I see,” Zarien said and he took another deep breath.  “Well, as you said, there’s not much point or reason for me to stick around here much.  I’ll just grab my stuff and then I’ll be off…”  He thought for a moment.  “Once we reunite though, do you-”

“Just use your radios more,” Rezja said, smiling.  “Relay information to us through them and we can intercept them without the elves noticing.  We’ve got all the details worked out; Hazael and Sereth have a more detailed game plan since they were up last night when we got the message in.”

“I see,” Zarien said.  “Well, I’m ready to go.”

They had been flying for a couple hours since leaving the rebel ship.  It was going to be a one to two day’s journey to the old Sla’ad capitol and so they hoped to arrive there midday at least on the 12th.  Zarien looked at some of the gadgets from where he was up front with Hazael.  Sereth was in the back.  The two of them were still on almost-non-speaking terms following their disputes over Cortna.

"So,” Zarien finally said.  “I guess that they’ve found the Arglem here?”

“They think so,” Hazael replied.  “The Caves of Dragla they suspect to hold it.  They separated for unknown reason and thus used walkie-talkies.  They now rejoining together.”

“Strange that they’d separate,” Zarien mused.  “Though I guess that if they were trying to find it, then it would make sense to split up in order to cover more ground.”

After a while, Hazael leaned over toward Zarien.  “Your conflict with Sereth should end.”

Zarien bristled a bit at the notion.  “Our conflict?  Our conflict is not my fault.”

“Maybe,” Hazael replied.  “But do you really still want the fight between you when you leave?”

Zarien pursed his lips.  “I’m not the one who’s being all exclusionist and overly-protective,” he replied.  “Look—I don’t like this fight any more than you do, but I’m not the one that you should be looking at here.”

Hazael sighed before turning back to the driving controls, looking at the map as Zarien glared out the window.  If anyone was to be found at fault here, it was most definitely Sereth, the one who had started this whole thing. Him?  He didn’t have any fault in it.  None whatsoever.

“Well,” Hazael finally said in a louder voice so that Sereth could hear him.  “I hope that you can reconcile enough to accomplish our mission.  Rezja has many things he wants us to accomplish there.  We’re fighting an empire, and so unity is imperative among our ranks.  Even if you can’t be unified, maybe you can at least act like it and put a face on to inspire others.  Because betrayal and uncertainty in the ranks is the one thing that will absolutely seal the deal for our alliance.”

“The spy is ready and prepared to accomplish his side of the deal,” the Watcher said.  “Once we land, we’ll be all ready to take over.  They’re not going to know what hit them.”

“Good,” Emperor Jaigran replied, as he moved his piece on the board in the game that he was playing against the Watcher.  “Any interesting intel from him?”

“Only that which we already knew,” the Watcher replied, pondering the board.  “The Xavier Team has likewise discovered that the Arglem is likely hidden in the Caves of Dragla and are currently working to recover it.”

“Bother,” Jaigran snapped.  “How close are they to finding it?”

“Not close enough, from what the spy said,” the Watcher replied.  “They have to break through the caves a different way because of the immense landslide that the Sla’ad used and so it ought to take them a while to get in.  Besides, now that I think about it, I think it may turn out to be highly useful if they end up getting it first.”

“How so?”

“Think about it,” the Watcher replied, moving a piece.  “What do you think the Sla’ad put in there?  If they’re going to hide their whole treasure trove in this cave, you can bet that they’re going to protect it extremely well.  I’d be shocked if they hadn’t placed a whole arsenal of traps ready to trap the unsuspecting adventurer, in their attempt to make sure that no outsiders found it.  If the Xavier Team gets to it first, that only means that they get caught by the traps first.  And if they’re lucky enough to get past all of them, it still matters not.  There’s only one pathway out of the Caves of Dragla.  Once we land, all that we’ll need to do is put a heavily armed squadron around that entrance and that’s it.  They’ll be trapped like rats and will be easily exterminated.  And with the traitor on our side, they won’t know what’s coming.  They’re not going to know what’s coming until it’s too late.”