"Mono/Dialogue"

  'Inner thoughts'

  Narration

  [Message/communication apparatus]

  Date: November 1091

  Location: Somewhere in the Northern Kazimierz – Western Ursus Border.

  POV: Nyx

  It has been hours since I left the Capital of Kazimierz.

  My bike raced through the dimming light as fast as I could; reckless beyond what was advisable, but I must. Trudging through the rocky ground, hellbent on flipping me over, tall grasses that might or might not be contaminated with Originium, and even the occasional wildlife I ran over or rammed.

  I really couldn’t give a damn, my heart is racing so fast it would have had ceased if not for my freakishly strong body. This feeling of helplessness is not something I can easily swallow, because when it comes to them… I cannot feel anything less than abject worry.

  I can’t contact Dad, I can’t contact Lina, and I cannot for the life of me contact Wdirosa. Thankfully, my message got through, and the liaison in charge of vilge affairs had assured me that they received the envelope before I was thrown in prison. However, I can’t help but worry about the uncertainties that are creeping up.

  Unfortunately, the rest is up to them, and I hope the Mobile City does not need to surface. It barely has any protections, and while I trust the Sargonian to fulfill their blood debt, otherwise that is literal damnation in their culture, I don’t have confidence in them to st that long.

  Call me paranoid, but each time I was crashing headfirst to a problem (often handed over my p almost out of nowhere no less) shits hits the fan real quick. I have proof of my growing paranoia.

  Back when Lina was almost killed by stupid fucking mortar retards, with Nelka gotten badly injured. Next would be when I narrowly got myself crippled or even wrung myself to death because of Arts overuse back in Toron County. That time I got fried alive by cunt-sucker taint-fucker Emperor’s Bde, who has eldritch fucking horror or two sealed in them. Then that one twink ass King of Vampire who sucked my blood.

  For the st one, I hope he got eversting poisoning from that.

  I need to make sure time and again, but the reality won’t change, I’m cut off from having any chance of communicating with Wdirosa from my end, and I never feel so much terror as I am now. Nelka had confirmed that she lost contact with Wdirosa, without warning or signs whatsoever.

  This whole debacle had escated beyond some basic ideas. I was meant to entrap those stupid conflicting factions to sign a coherent front and take the heat away from Margaret while I think around. So why god? Why am I looking at a problem magically transformed into a national catastrophe with fuck-who-knows how many can of worms I must open?

  “Fuck the Adeptus, fuck the K.G.C.C. and fuck all these people who can’t stop making a mess I must clean up!” I worked overtime for this shithole of a country no different than an intern or troubleshooter. I need to bait the Extremists, I need to coax and reassure those greedy fucks, and I even need to sacrifice my whole public reputation.

  “Can’t these fuckers stop having tits up every five second whenever I wasn’t looking!? If it isn’t an illicit conspiracy, they seem so gung-ho on going to war in whatever fvor suits the weather! What the hell is wrong with this world?!” I can taste iron in my mouth, it feels like I just woke up in another dimension willed to manifest goddamn contingencies left and right.

  Luckily, I managed to snag a comms link to a moving Cordelian convoy, they informed me that they’re being mustered to Wdirosa due to an emergency. Thank god for the Terran Morse code, which managed to get through, but even that was spotty. How and who the hell had fgged my communications like they know it? I don’t think anyone knows either, since not even Conrad is privy to my, really, untraceable communication bunker.

  I cannot rule out a catastrophe that is causing a bckout, but come on… Having it occur on every single point is just absurd… God forbid, Catastrophe had hit Wdirosa… I have made many decoys and false links, but how come it happened? Did someone discern the real one from the fakes?

  That could mean… you got to be shitting me…

  Am I dealing with someone who can see through streams of possibilities or someone so clever and resourceful that my little power consolidation game had almost fallen apart? Did they see past time and space to look at every possibility to influence how I will act? Does it mean I have no choice but to try and eliminate them then? I really can’t help theorizing on the worst case scenario, can’t I?

  Wait, wait, wait… Kyrie had told me about the self-exiled Sarkaz subrace… Cyclops. If I’m not wrong, they can and are always capable of seeing through the future about hints of their demise or death. Sounds like a depressing people, but what does it have to do with me? I never even met a Cyclops, and I don’t think I ever offended them personally either.

  Speaking about vision, didn’t Gawain, the Beast Lord I met after my duel with asshole Emperor’s Bde, had hinted about vision too? He said that someone is expecting me… crap… the details are fuzzy or I’m going mad…

  What do I do, what do I do… should I chase after that Banshee friend of mine to Sargon? Or should I try to find the Beast Lord somewhere in Victoria? I know I need to focus on what’s happening right now, but it doesn’t change that I must pre-pn forward. What on Oripathy ridden world is happening right now? This whole mess makes me regret trying to py nice on the national TV.

  It will honestly be much easier for me to commit arson and terrorism and then cim I’m doing it as revenge. That is if I’m that stupid. I can inflict severe damage, not to boast, but I ultimately have weaknesses. I can no longer imagine myself putting an arrow through either Lina or Dad to get at the one holding either hostage, as an example. I won’t doubt that if such a scenario happened, I would regret having my dreadful reputation.

  Whatever… those can wait. What cannot wait is the asinine bullshit happening across the damn border.

  What the fuck is Ursus thinking?! Are they asking to be an international pariah or some shit grandiose shit? Is this really on me? Did I make a mistake in trying to give them the benefit of the doubt? Even if they have justification, Columbia and Leithanien had begun encroaching on the Kazimierzian economy. K.G.G.C. is good at attracting foreign investment, and they can pull some strings.

  Leithanien won’t allow the Land of Knights fall, my jobs there had shown just how screwed up is their unity. Kazimierz is a convenient rock in case Ursus turns their attention on them, and with deterrents of fighting three fronts, Ursus shouldn’t do something so stupid. Their Empresses had also boxed in Ursus with an alliance with Lungmen, it was defensive if I’m not wrong, but a false fg operation can happen.

  None of that treaty matters if the civil war was not prevented. I can only count on Kiril to fix that mess of theirs…

  Margaret will inevitably be sacrificed, huh… He can send her away… as infected, Margaret has enough fame to make it hard for either side to just cast her without great justification. Even if I can walk freely around the city, there is little reason or need for us to debate; it is simply the logical step. The people can be bise, but the nobles and those businessmen who profit from them won't.

  Good god, this county is fucked so badly in the ass I don’t even understand how they could exist.

  ‘I hate how it comes to this, I cannot drag the rebels hard enough that Kiril must make a sacrifice… That’s going to destroy his reputation. He has been pushing for bills on the infected so hard that if he exiles Margaret as an infected, he will be vilified. It will damage the infected trust. But if he pulls through… Margaret will be a martyr because political intrigue and familial betrayal… the Adeptus’s extremist can’t propped up an Infected as their cause either… that is just asking for trouble.’ This damn flip-flopping nation is made on top of compromises which the idiots cannot fathom but will be forced to py along anyway.

  Infected are just worse than sves, they’re being seen as a biohazard and fuel. Those who can profit will certainly impede any notion of compromise on this bottom line. This world is pin disgusting. I had tried to make the infected somewhat fed well, but it has been deyed over and over.

  Now with Kiril pulling his way to save Margaret and this nation from civil war, it will push the emancipation a few years more, but there is nothing I can do. I had been using infected as my subcontractor in both private and CM, my stunt to pull the heat away from Margaret cause me to lose shit ton of favor. It sure stung, but it also gave me a convenient excuse to distrust them.

  Infected Monarch… yeah, it ain’t happening unless a great rebellion or some shit happened… yet…

  ‘Victoria will do all in their power to stop that, they have infected the popur movement. I know that Columbia is a nd that utilizes infected as pioneers, but hearing about Margaret being hailed as one of a kind Monarch is going to cause them issues. An infected Monarch will provoke the nd to burn in fires of revolution.’

  Which is why, this is the best bet, huh… Kiril will impress that Margaret has no backing if he exiles her. Coupled with how I fell from grace, and even a step away from being branded a criminal… this is the best compromise he can gain. It is funny how we are really idiots.

  It can cause political unrest that will divide people, but they can’t do much about it. A war caused by the infected will not be in the moderates’ interest; they had fought tooth and nail to give the infected a better life. Yet…

  Infected or not, politics always take the lead.

  Feels like my mind, heart, and body are moving in three different directions.

  “Fuck, I need a goddamn vacation…” I need to stop shouting aloud though, this is the wilderness, yes, but it won’t make this damn bike any faster. While I bite my damn tongue to numb the pain and distress, my ear piece came alive with report.

  [Ma’am! We reached the outskirts of Wdirosa, and we linked up with another convoy-. I don’t have time for that.

  “Cut the shit! Status report!” Goddamn it, I am a mess.

  [U-Understood! The vilge is on fire, and there are mass casualties! W-We had rendezvous with outlying patrols!] I can feel my heart drumming like thunder, my fists are shaking so hard my bike starts losing its control.

  I tried so hard to make sure that no one could breach the defenses unless with overwhelming firepower and numbers. Those devices weren’t cheap, I even need to handle dirty work to gain them… all for nothing.

  “C-casualty report?” I taste nothing but ash and growing dread deep inside. My subordinate began listing everything they managed to gather so far.

  [The patrol noted that at least two hundred people lost their lives, and many more were left wounded or in critical condition!] My face is pale beyond measure, but I need more information before making any hasty conjecture.

  “H-how is the progress then? Can you hook me up with the primary line?” My voice is so weak and feeble, air and my increasing fear almost caused me to crash on an unseen defide. I had managed to avoid, only to snag my rear tire on a rock, a stupid rock!

  My body was rocked by a tremor, almost tumbling over nothing, by the next obstacle in front of me. An angry growl tore through my mouth because I knew it, situation would just worsen from here.

  [M-My dy!?] They heard that, huh? This day is just getting better.

  “Don’t worry about it, me, just hook me up with the current line if you can!”

  [It might be unstable because the jamming might still be in effect, but we’ll try our best. So wait one.] The communication soon went dead silent. Terra has a screwed up communication line that I learned the hard way.

  Unlike the simple matter of changing between radio waves, everything uses Arts. So the men need to recalibrate the exact frequency and how to bounce it back; communication casters are priceless because devices or terminals rely heavily on infrastructure. Then guess who is bleeding manpower at the moment? Me.

  Because I cannot utilize any lines that have been prepared beforehand, I need to assume that the communication towers or cables to link the network were severed. Judging by how it looks, this is the perfect way to initiate an invasion, but I don’t think Ursus is stupid enough to try it so close to winter.

  Whatever Ursus is doing, I just hope that Lina got out. She is not made to be a warrior, and even my lesson on her had been rather limited to focus on self-defense. I do not wish to see the day she must fight for her life, not again. Especially because Lina has a traumatic experience with war, and I know how she tried to hide her PTSD, but she keeps telling me that she got it under control.

  I… don’t believe her…

  … I had embedded a therapist with one of the orphanage staff, and others who don’t need to hide… I feel like shit for doing things behind Lina’s back but… Anyway, they were tasked primarily to monitor Lina first and others as a secondary responsibility. It is selfish, but I really can’t stomach anything happening to my daughter. I doubt I can stay sane if I see so much as a bruise that came not from her clumsiness.

  [Nyx? Come in.] This voice… dad? Does that mean Lina is also still there?!

  “Dad, is that you?! Why the hell- I mean, you are back in Wdirosa!? Where is Lina? Did she stay too?! Is she alright I-” He cut me off with a sigh, relief and worry underneath his tone.

  [Calm down, one thing at a time.] My trembling hands would have caused me to have another trouble if not for Dad’s admonishment. Swallowing my pooling saliva, I focus on his command.

  “Y-Yes… I’m… I’m alright now… sorry about that…”

  It is good that we can reconnect the communication line, but we mustn’t lose focus. The situation is not as dire here, but thank the Law that a group of your old comrades had arrived to lend a hand.] His soothing tone had eased my nerves that had drawn taut and were on the verge of snapping. Without realizing it, I had been holding my breath for so long, and my arms trembled as a result.

  Wait? Group? I don’t remember calling anyone else to keep an eye on Wdirosa other than Tond and… Oh… Mwi… My fucking bastard of a man… Thank you… Thank you so much… I love you so much. I should have kissed him back there, but the Grey Serpent in me chickened out. Whatever, I will when this problem passes.

  “I’m sorry, but it’s been a mess.” Levelling my breathing, I continue my words with more crity and calm.

  “Dad, did you and Lina get the letter? The message failed, didn’t it? Otherwise you shouldn’t be there…” Dad audibly inhaled another sigh from the other side, my panicky attitude doesn’t help my impression.

  [You have to put more trust in your subordinates, it won’t do to fault them for it. The message arrived as intended, Lina and I missed the crisis for the most part.] He reprimanded me through the communication link. I cannot offer any retort, because that is true. Even after being reassured, I immediately repsed that my subordinates had failed and they tried to mislead me with false information.

  “I see… I’m sorry… I cannot for the life of me concentrate, I cannot help it, Dad. It feels like the situation just keeps spiraling randomly, and I neither know the cause nor the rhyme and reason.”

  [You keep saying sorry nonstop, but if you feel as such, then head here immediately… regarding the situation, yes… I have conducted a preliminary inspection, and there are many puzzling and disturbing findings. We have discovered that while most defensive instaltions are intact, from the note you gave us, the link that connects them all was severed.]

  My face paled as the enormity of this mess came to light. I really cannot dismiss the potential that someone capable of understanding reality from a different angle does exist. I mean, who the hell could pinpoint such an attack? I made those traps myself dammit! Did someone just dig into my brain while I’m asleep, or can they see the future possibilities?

  But that doesn’t answer why now? If they want to screw me over, they can do it much sooner and with better precision plus lethality. They could have struck Wdirosa while I was having my extreme bout of depression, which is the perfect time to destroy everything I try to do.

  Or even earlier, where I was in a coma under Kal’tsit care. I do not doubt that Kal’tsit is really a fighter with a doctor as her side gig; she also has that weird spine dragon something as her companion. The Feline is not alone, though. County Toron’s soldiers were no slouches either after I made them what they are. So they will ultimately attack Wdirosa.

  [Nyx? Are you still with me?] I was so caught up in my mind that I forgot that I was talking with Dad.

  “Sorry, Dad, I was thinking about the many reasons for how to proceed. Let’s just say it is too complicated to expin now, so can you wait until I arrive? I promise that this time, I will stop withholding information from you and Lina.”

  [… I see, then I’m gd how you wish to open up. Best you hurry then, we need all the help we can get.] His sigh of relief should have been mine instead. I had been such a problematic daughter, but he never tried to force his thinking on me.

  Regarding information… maybe it is time to come clean about what I know… I just hope that neither Lina nor Dad reacted badly to it. Perhaps… I should share it with Mwi too… but I’m scared… Whatever, that’s a problem for future me, and I hope she can succeed. My prayers will always accompany her.

  “I will, I should arrive by dawn, and what’s the status of the Mobile City?” It is real damn lucky to have him as my dad. Shame that I’m not his biological daughter in this world… I know that Sanktas are empathetic by nature, so I can only wish…

  [We had decided to bring it to the surface, and it will take 4 hours or so to arrive; they are pushing the engine to its safest limit. I had managed to secure and recover the situation as best I could, but we might need to evacuate. Be warned, the one who attacked us wasn’t Ursus. I triple-checked the body, and I can be very certain they are not the Ursine Bck Ops division either.]

  “… What the fuck?” There are so many things going on in my mind.

  [That’s why I need you to be here soon-] The communication was cut abruptly.

  “Dad? Dad!? Dad, come in! Did I lost the damn signal?!” I rerouted the channel back to the previous unit. My anger mounts as I bze through the darkened ndscape.

  “What the fuck just happened?! My signal got cut off mid-way in!”

  [It can’t be helped, ma’am! Either the jamming to still in effect or other problematic setbacks have happened out there to incur instability; we will try to reestablish the comms at your earliest convenience. Otherwise, we can’t do much about it.] Fucking great…

  “Then try to inform the Hovercraft to go on stationary hold above the sky, tell them to activate the backup communication radio!”

  [W-we have that?]

  ‘Yes, we have! That’s the reason why I can pivot my Combat Information Center to be so flexible you numbskull!’ Alright, calm down. That was unfair to him, and it wasn’t the poor guy’s fault; it’s mine. I keep so many things under wraps that cause common lower grunts difficulty in understanding. Inhaling a deep breath, I reply.

  “Just deliver the command, and stop asking questions. Just do it, Adenaver will know what must be done.” My tone is now much ftter, the same tone I use in front of those I generally interact with daily. I can hear a sigh of relief from the other side, and I guess hearing me being so agitated was quite the experience no one wants to hear or, god forbid, witness.

  [Understood.] The line was cut off, and I focused back on the road. Should I try and check the bunker to see what’s wrong? I don’t know if I have time for it, unless… I stopped my bike momentarily. I rummage around the storage compartment to find an expensive reconnaissance drone, which can be ordered to conduct a rudimentary check and gives me stable recording or feed if I’m close enough.

  “Here you are…” Dismounting from my ride, I knelt to connect the terminal with my exoskeleton. With the infrastructure down, I cannot get a live feed, but it can return with what it had managed to gather by then. Activating the drone, I watch as it flies. The darkness of the night should be enough to keep out of sight, but this is the best I can do.

  This is the first time my resources were stretched to the fucking limit.

  I used to be able to muster a dozen men on a task, but now several teams are forced to pull triple duties because trustworthy manpower is in the gutter. Naturally, the most loyal and trustworthy folks are on the Mobile City.

  Hold on, Dad said that the Mobile City is 3 hours away from the vilge, perhaps I can connect with them? Judging on how shit is going down faster than I can think of a way to alleviate the damage, and perceived

  “Mobile City… Attack… Evacuation…” If I take into account the hypothesis of an enemy capable of scrying or perceiving possibilities… Did I just fucked up?

  A beat ter, I was about to immediately dial up the closest avaible personnel and teams on the Mobile City, but all this fragmented information left me with severe doubt.

  I was never always a step ahead, hell, I had even fallen behind, but this time I am reeling on what I must do next. No matter how much memory I have, how strong I am, or how resourceful I can be… I only have my fuzzy memories to rely on; otherwise, it boils down to pying by the ear.

  “No, no, no… I have nothing to base something to that extreme…” Because nothing will be easier to destroy the mobile city when it surfaces. The fact that it didn’t happen, and Dad told me how they’re 3 hours out… maybe this precognition, scrying, or whatever Terran tomfoolery coming out of the woodwork, is not that accurate.

  I must keep moving forward, to yet another shitstorm that is brewing…

  Location: Wdirosa.

  POV: Immanuel Vittorio

  “Nyx! Come in, Nyx!” I tried to wait for her answer, but judging by the jarring static, the transmission was cut off. My relief that she is on her way cannot be understated. I watch as the Silvernce Captain approaches me.

  “Transmission problem?”

  “Indeed, but there’s nothing we can do about it, is there?” He sighed before nodding at my words. There are many problems around the vilge, especially when I was confronted by the sight of Originium caskets meant for the deceased were back beneath the isotion building.

  My mind whirled with numerous question marks, and I have no idea what I must do. Nyx will not make such a careless mistake… so who left something like that beneath the building? Does Cordelia have traitors in their midst? If so, they should have gone for the mobile city.

  I need a vacation…

  “Captain, how long does it take until everyone can be evacuated from the vilge?”

  “We are almost done to head over to the tallest hill, 10 kilometers from here. Sir Tond and his companions, along with three of my men, should suffice in protecting them.”

  “I see…” Looking out the window, I watch as the people are slowly being evacuated away from the vilge. The news that Nyx had managed to secure them a new home in Mobile City was met with awestruck, and for now, there’s little dissent.

  I am truly gd that the Wdirosan are such a resilient people. They had been used to rebuilding, and the older generation had made peace with the nd they had lived in for centuries. It is not like they can’t visit. Nyx, my daughter, will surely acquiesce to their request and accommodate their whims.

  “Sir.” Sil approached with an urgent expression on her face.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “We found something of interest…” She shows me a mark on a tree bark… something that belongs only…

  In the north.

  -

  -

  -

  -

  I made a brief trek into the jungle, and it is truly surreal how the vilge was bzing, but the forest is serene, as if the passage of time left it untouched. Foliage of old that has been regrown, time that shouldn’t have been enough but yet here I am. I sternly reprimanded anyone from following. If my fear is true, then we are dealing with a spread of knowledge that doesn’t belong in this world.

  I search through the tracks, steps of men and beasts coalesced to tell a story recorded, which portends a dire outcome. The cawing of fowlbeasts had long since lost to memory as I delve deeper inside, my Guardian Gun has been singing and ringing with Arts, warning me of an old foe… A foe that had taken Aurelia away from me.

  Every bit of unusual signs must not escape my sight, the rapture in reality or the idea that a blight of intellect that drives man mad… no such a thing had been spotted… except for one tree.

  There it is, a nightmare I had seen 50 years ago, a nightmare that is cloying and cwing in my heart like bck tar. The very same intangible monster that took Aurelia from me.

  Fondartals…

  A rune, symbol, or perhaps nguage belongs and is prolific in the north. It is not merely power but an inconceivable thread that binds future and past tightly with the present. At least, that’s what Aurelia had regaled to me. This mark on earth has been carved into the trees in sets.

  I watch with growing dread that many such signs had been used and promptly used.

  No wonder Nyx’s precautions and defenses were bypassed, this method of travel severs the very notion of logic and dictates its brand of rules. What terrifies me is how it went not exactly as pnned. Appears whoever used this abhorrent anomaly isn’t working alone.

  I witnessed many corpses lying on the ground, a grotesque parody of an infected corpse or perhaps a weapon. Biological weapons, favorites of those dastardly Colombians in their greed for control.

  As I was about to investigate and peer closer, my companion's arms signaled danger. A brush of death, a brush of shrieking earth, as one that shouldn’t be here… shows themselves.

  I evaded a bck crystal sprouting from the ground, my weakened and aging body still managed to do its duty. As, I meet eye-to-eye with another old acquaintance: bck gas mask, bck cloak, and the bde on their arms. The bck snowfkes surround me, but my heart is still. Not for mere posturing, but because this is a foe that my prime, inexperienced self has had to struggle with.

  “To what do I owe you this pleasure, Emperor’s Bde?” The bde does not answer; they merely unsheathed their bde, and I, for the first time in decades, chambered the sixth bullet. I do not intend to die, not when my death will cause distress to my daughter, but… I cannot and must not pin everything upon hope.

  [END OF CHAPTER]

  Author’s Note:

  Yo there, this is me, myself, and I, the author who is somewhat nervous. I got the job going, and I hope it went well.

  Anyway… Hooooo…. Boooooyyyyyy….. Nyx will rage like no other.

  Update two and perhaps the st one this month, but eh….

  Ciao