Stormhaze

Chapter 23: Echoes of the past

The sun had just set on Argead. Edras stood on the very peak of the abandoned Thoron tower, looking out to the distant Istendil palace. Beneath him stood the hollow husk of a concrete pyramid—the remains of what was once the main factory for Thoron cybernetics—now the current graveyard of Edras' uncle and grandmother. Knowing his grandfather would never return to this place, he had convinced the Rykes it would be a safe place to lay low... at least for a while.

Lorin's gunship stood idle on the ground, her crew shuffling in and out from its body with supply crates in hand. Missiles for the gunship. It had been two days since the assault on Argead, and Edras could finally feel the cold winds return after another day of solar flares—the aftershocks of the Stormhaze Event. But like the tremors after an earthquake, Edras knew more would come in the future.

"Have you figured it out yet?" Lorin asked softly, coming up from behind him.

"Figured out what?" Edras asked, slightly confused.

"Who owned the blue feather, of course. The one who made all this possible."

"Ah, Vithra," Edras said, "translated to 'honor trials'?"

"So... have you figured out who my mediator is?"

"No," Edras chuckled hopelessly, gazing out along the city. "Tell me."

"I won't. You have to find out yourself."

"Why?" he asked stupidly—the very translation was the answer.

"You're with us because I think you have the brains to outsmart Kilas himself. But you must prove it. Based on the time I used to figure it out, you've got roughly six days left, Edras... or I may be forced to let you go."

Edras felt an unexpected pain in his chest. Her last sentence shot through him like a bullet. It made sense she would only bring the most qualified... but still. Vithra; honor trials? How was he supposed to find out who anyone was based on that? And the blue feather... what did it mean?

"Can you give me a clue?" he said, trying to play it off as a joke.

"You already have all the information you need."

Edras breathed out in a heavy sigh. The task felt nearly impossible. "I'll do what I can."

Fireworks flashed in the sky above the Istendil palace. Even from such a distance they could hear the explosions and subsequent cheering of thousands of soldiers. The celebration of conquest is starting.

"Do you see how he does it?" Lorin asked, her face illuminated by the distant but powerful flashes.

"It's almost genius... frighteningly simple... genius."

"My informants tell me Zenobia was declared Supreme Anax by her own father some weeks ago... but if that is true, her position is in name only now. Kilas owns her army from tonight on. He can do anything with her eight thousand soldiers, and he knows it. It's only a matter of time before Kilas finds a way to remove Zenobia officially."

"Remove her? As in... kill her?"

"He's a monster, but I don't think even he would go that far. He loves her too much—almost to the point of obsession if my sources are correct. No, he'll find a way, he just doesn't know how yet."

"If... or when he becomes the Supreme Anax, what do you think he'll do?"

"If more solar aftershocks happen, his eight thousand soldiers will run out of Ezirell within a few months' time. Only the quarry in Ryken produces enough Ezirell to keep his army and the citizens going. To recapture it will be his first priority."