Empyrean

Chapter 25

Chapter 25-Fenix

The Rising Sun Café

Morning, 27th of Pachon, Year 612

            Emilia has agreed to help me save Serena. But it is not going to be easy. After some very careful espionage I have discovered that she is being held in the imperial dungeon, in the palace. That means we are going to have to climb all the way up to the Violet and get to the place during wartime, not an easy feat. Emilia thinks today would be the best because there is going to be an assault on the Yellow sectors today. During the commotion the imperial army will be pulled down the hill to prevent the rebels from taking the next color. We will use this to sneak through the fighting and speed as fast as we can up the hill to the palace. If all goes well, we will only have to fight the relatively few Violet Alexandros.

            Emilia walks in dressed in her blood red tunic that she hasn't been allowed to wear until this. I have dressed my self similarly in clothes that would denote someone of a higher Epoch so that we won’t get shot at from a distance if they can’t see our wrists. “Are you ready, Fenix of Empyrean?”

            “Are you ready, Emilia of Earth?” I ask back.

            “So Empyrean isn’t close to here is it?”

            “Not even close to not even close.”

            “How did an eight year old manage to get here from all the way over there?”

            “There is a temple out there in the desert. I will show you sometime. I think it is time to go.” I don't dodge the question, but I know I don't answer it either.

            “Before we go you need to have this.” She taps the wall in quite a strange way and a sword seems to materialize from the wood. It has words on the side in my language.

            “I haven’t seen my language written down in so long.” I know that she cannot read it. How she learned to speak my language is still beyond me, but reading it is nearly impossible for a foreigner. “Where did you find this?”

            “As you said, there is something out there in the desert around here. My mom came back one day, gave me this and said she had to go, forever. She is the one who taught me to speak like you do. Only now do I realize why.”           

            I smile and take the sword with both hands. I am going to have to kill more people today, a lot of them. I don my frown and walk out the door with Emilia on my heels. Yesterday she called Lucille to come take care of her son, Amadi. I am surprised she named him that. It means ‘free man’ in Igbo. Lucille is a lover not a fighter. Whenever I stole money in the past year she was always the first to try and distribute among the families of the Zenith and even the Red. If something were to happen to Emilia, Lucille would be the best proxy possible.

              Emilia’s café is almost right next to the border with the Red so it doesn't take us long to get Orion’s main force in the Red sectors. We slip in and march with them up to the Yellow border. I am surprised he has trained them with such discipline the only thing they really lack is a constant uniform. They all look like street rats with clubs and swords. There are a few guns among them, but they are all at the front so there isn’t an onslaught as soon as they break the wall. Orion is also carrying a gun and marching at the front of the battalion. It’s funny. Orion wanted me to fight in his army and now I kind of am.

            It takes us an hour or so of marching and then getting into positions before the wall is taken down by a huge battering ram that Orion designed. It’s genius really. The ram hits in five distinct places to cripple the metal so that the sixth hit causes it to fall backwards, still flat as a board and crush anyone who is standing on the other side. We hear the successive gong, gong, gong, gong, gong! All is silent. For some reason the sixth resounding gong! And crash doesn't come. Orion has stopped.

            “What is going on?” I whisper to soldier standing right next to me.

            “I don't know.” He replies just as confused as I am. “We were supposed to attack right now.”

            Then the impossible happens. Orion climbs up onto a building to the left of the wall and screams to the silent congregation. “Fenix! I know you are down there. You don't have to come out. But if this Blue-born knows about how we might be able to defeat the Emperor as well as whatever you want out of her I am fine with you going to get her. I won’t kill her.” He yells it out in Greek. Since it isn’t commonly spoken only a few of the soldiers understand him.

            I hiss to Emilia. “What did you tell him?!”

            “I didn't tell him anything!” She hisses back. There is whispering among the soldiers so ours sound no different than theirs.

            “This is what we are going to do my brothers and sisters.” He says in Common Speech. “We are going to direct the fighting to the left side of the wall. This will make the fight a little more difficult, but it is necessary if we are going to win this war.”

            With that he signals for the battering ram to make the sixth hit. The sound echoes through all of our ears and the wall falls just as is expected. The soldiers run over the fallen wall fitting twenty abreast through the open archway of the Red-Yellow Alexandros headquarters.

            Bullets fly. People die. The smell of blood fills my nostrils. I have killed plenty of people in the past few weeks defending myself as Orion and the Emperor have put a price on my head. But this is different. I have never seen two armies with dead men and women running at each other to fulfill some purpose they can barely understand. The Alexandros on the other side are fighting to keep a status quo they don't understand, and the poor people on my side of the wall are fighting for an elusive sense of freedom. Emilia stares right into my eyes and I know that this is real. We have to run to the right side of the wall and weave our way through the Epochs all the way to the top. It will take a while and we will have to kill people, but we can do it. I draw my sword and run.

            More bullets fly. More people die. We are now in the Yellow sector. The two of us have our swords drawn and are standing back to back against four Alexandros. They have guns, but it doesn't matter. We are much faster. None of the bullets make their mark and they are dead in a matter of moments. The blade reflects the light in such a beautiful way. I never seem to make pleasant memories in the Yellow sector

            We continue to run and after a few more encounters we are out of the brunt of the fighting on the right side of where the wall used to be. We sneak out of the fight and are running a roundabout way to the Orange border. When we make it there we take a look to see how fortified it is, in two words, not very. But our predictions were correct as we see a flood of Alexandros coming through it to help defend the Yellow border. It lasts for two minutes.

            After we are sure it is over we walk through the border trying to look like citizens, hiding our wrists. We make it through probably because no one cares right now and we are off running again through the Orange. We are met with no resistance up until the Blue border in which we had to kill a dozen or so Alexandros to get through. A similar situation happens at the Indigo border. But there is literally not even a border to get to the Violet sector. I guess they just think no one would ever be able to make it this far. No matter. “Emilia wait out here.” We stand outside the front entrance of the palace. I have never been in this way.

            “What? Why?” She asks incredulous that I would bring her all this way for seemingly nothing.

            “This is the only day so far in Pachon that it hasn't rained. Enjoy the sun. Roll in the sand. Only I can do this. I am the Angel of Death, the Black God. Goodbye Emilia.”