Operation Heathrow

Chapter 9: Freedom from the Beacons

A/N: Here I decided to take out some scenes in the game world as were happening during Chapters 6-8 since I feel they would work better as their own chapter.

In the game world, as dawn approaches around the prison camp where Perserian political prisoners are held, several rebel cells have banded together to attack it. Clavet casts a sandstorm spell from the top of a dune to create the cover required to let the rebels approach the camp.

"Halt! State the purpose of your visit!" a guard asks the rebel myrmidon.

"I'm lost in a sandstorm! I seek refuge to wait out the storm" the rebel myrmidon asks for help while the magical sandstorm rages downwind from the dune.

The guards hold the myrmidon in a tent while he waits for the right moment to strike, hoping to draw out the guards as much as possible. And then flee the camp towards the rebel positions on the other side of the dunes.

Inside the camp, while the guards are away from the camp to chase the rebel myrmidon, the prisoners look for food and drink. Especially since they were deprived of both while captive.

"Finally! A chance to eat!" a prisoner exclaims upon finding food.

"So... thirsty!" another prisoner gets a bucket of water to distribute among his fellow prisoners.

But both guards and rebels climbing the dune have it harder to get to the other side of the dune because of the magical sandstorm. Thus forcing the rebels to rely on the other wizards to hurt, and perhaps kill, as many guards as possible before they get to the top of the dune while the sandstorm is still brewing. Such as alcohol clouds cast by the other two alcohol wizards Clavet kept harboring in Karine's home. Who promptly pull back and cast different spells, either fire or electricity.

The surviving, if drunk, guards now lack in coordination as the magical sandstorm decreases in intensity. And then the other rebels charge towards the guards' positions, with a few getting hurt by the guards swinging weapons wildly but no deaths.

"Now that the guards are alerted to our presence, let's mop up the remaining guards and save the prisoners! After that, they can seek refuge wherever they want!" Clavet, one of the rebel cell leaders, issues her orders for her cell.

The question is: would the prisoners rather fight or seek refuge in another nation? The other rebel alcohol witch is left wondering about the prisoners' reactions as they leave behind a bloody mess of dead prison guards on the dune.

When the rebels arrive at the camp, they see the prisoners feasting on the guards' food and drink, and the rebels break the balls and chains of the prisoners.

At the same time, Clavet starts speaking the uncomfortable truth with one of the prisoners the rebels just saved from thirst and starvation in the desert.

"It appears that these angelic beacons are what tie some of us to another world. This means that, so long as these beacons exist, we won't be able to gain this world's freedom" Clavet explains to the prisoners the rebels just set free.

"The question is... how?" the prisoner is left wondering exactly what the freedom of this world means to her, on top how it's earned.

"Whatever we do, otherworldly intervention is necessary to get the beacon removed from anyone who wears one"

"What do you mean by otherworldly intervention?" another prisoner asks her, left wondering as to how.

I'm not sure I would have much success in recruiting ex-beacon wearers myself if I'm still a beacon wearer. Of which the events in Perseria set off a chain of events who caused some people to have their beacons removed. From what I heard about it, getting an angelic beacon removed doesn't cause any permanent side effects, beyond, of course, the loss of angel-borne immortality, Clavet reflects on what the grapevine told her about what happens to ex-PCs in the game world after the character is deleted from a game server.