The Planes Walkers

31. March of Desperation

   The skies were just as gray as Jet remembered. Calbar was only beyond the quarry that he was now in. He could see the Emperor's tower peeking over the city, just branched off the castle that he used to look up to in admiration. This time, the city smelled of smoke, sweat, and blood.

The cage door swung open. The soldiers began to separate the Spirit Elementalists as they came out. Jet looked at the numbers between him and the soldiers. He and Nadreen were going to get split up. Quickly, he turned to her. "They're going to split us up."

"What? They can't!"

"I don't know why, but it looks that way," Jet told her as he kept the line moving to avoid unwanted attention. There was no room for either of them to move around the Elementalists behind them. They were stuck in the inevitability that they were going to get split apart.

"Stay strong. This place looks awful," Jet said to her. Nadreen tried to remain calm. She wasn't happy about the idea of being apart from the only other person who knew this place was a sham.

"Find me, if you can," Nadreen said to Jet as he was pulled out of the cage. He nodded to her. The soldier pushed him to one side and pushed Nadreen to the other.

The soldiers escorted the prisoners roughly. Some of the soldiers wore strange devices on their chests that had a purple light coming from the center. Jet wondered why only some had it, but others didn't. The ones he had seen up to now never wore such a device. As he and several other prisoners were being pushed and prodded forward, Jet could see other prisoners working. They all wore the strange device too.

"Keep moving you lot!" a soldier shouted. One pushed Jet roughly. "No standing around."

Jet frowned back at the soldier, but kept moving down the path. The ground beneath them was muddy. With each splashing step, Jet realized how difficult it was to walk without anything on his feet. The soldiers all wore boots while prisoners wore nothing on their feet.

"Ah, yes, a new group of workers," a familiar voice spoke loudly, as if it were all around. It made Jet's skin crawl. It was the Emperor, standing on a platform at the end of the path. He had looked like he had aged a bit since Jet last saw him, though now he wore a suit of armor. Jet began to feel nervous standing in front of his brother's killer. His hands began to shake.

"The world outside the Empire is full of hate and envy. There is only hunt for power. There is only a thirst for war. War causes many innocents to die, their lives cut short. I would believe this to be wrong," Wrathel preached to the new prisoners. Jet looked up angrily at the man who was spewing lies to them. The Emperor continued, "You all were brought here to make the world a better place. Around you is a machine of change. With it, I can change the world. It will become something far greater than anyone could imagine. That's where you come in. With your help, we can build it together. Through only your works of labor, your sweat, can we remake the world."

Jet continued to stare at the Emperor. Wrathel returned his gaze through the crowd, Jet seemingly unrecognizable. The soldiers behind Jet and the other prisoners escorted them away. He wondered if the others actually volunteered to come here. Did the Empire promise them a new world? A world where they were free to explore and not be trapped in the Ahrura? He couldn't be sure what lies were told individually. There were no chains or shackles on the prisoners. Only the chest devices.

The soldiers pushed Jet and the others until they reached a barracks-like building. It smelled of sweat and mold. The constant rain and snow Calbar would get probably didn't make it easier to dry anything off. "This is where you will be staying," one soldier explained. Another soldier wheeled in a wheelbarrow full of the chest devices. "These will be a requirement to wear at all times. Whether you are awake or asleep, you must wear these devices as a physical contract. Once you put it on, you cannot take it off. You cannot leave the area. If you do, the piece will activate. You don't want it to activate."