Book 4 | Agent 34 and the Last Gem

Chapter 57 | In The Middle

"Arenia, Marque, and Ismara—you will be positioned in the front of the group when we infiltrate the fortress. Me, Vrängr, and Sercon will be in the rear. Agent 34 and Ben will be in the middle. Agent 34 is the one we must protect at all costs. He has the highest chance of defeating Braunick since their blood relation, and if needs be, at least reason with him," The dwarf explained. "Barjual will take us up there at once. The other two dragons will stay down below and help the soldiers or try to tear down the castle. Whatever is more important,"

Everyone nodded, accepting their positions. Thad was about to tell everyone to get some rest when he realized Agent 34 was staring blankly at the ground. "You good, 34?"

"Thad, if I'm the one with the highest chance of beating my brother then why not put me in the front?" He asked.

"Because we need to protect you to get you to Braunick so you can beat him," Thad explained. "If you died before we even got to him, you don't know how screwed we would be,"

"But the thing is," the elf began. "I highly doubt that Braunick will kill me. Yes, he will torture me to no end, but I don't think he has it in himself to kill me. I can be used as a shield. His guards might try to kill me, but you saw how I was with that squid on the ship—I took it out in ten minutes tops practically by myself. A giant squid, Thad. Something twenty sizes bigger and stronger than me and you put me in the middle?"

"Agent 34—I understand where you are coming from. The thing is, Braunick might not kill you. There's still a chance his mentality has gone off the edge and he will kill his own blood and I'm willing to bet it has. He's been cooped up in his castle quietly since he came to rule. He's plotting something. If Braunick has been quiet for two months plus, then he has something up his sleeves. He might not be able to kill you, but can you kill him?"

Agent 34's face went blank at that question. He had never thought of that before. To kill his own blood would be something that could be unforgivable in the family heritage, especially if it was someone as closely related to you as Braunick was to him—Braunick was Agent 34's twin brother.

"I–I don't know," the elf explained. "I don't exactly think of him as family. He is in the same bloodline with the same parents as me, but if my parents were here right now, they would not consider him part of our family if they saw the circumstances. Killing in general is not something I typically like to do. But if I have to do it, I'll do it. I'll do anything to save Renya,"

"Good to hear," Thad said. "but as I said: he has something brewing in that castle that we don't know about. We have to proceed with all of the caution we got and make absolutely sure we make it to him. You're the last hope, 34. You are the only one capable of killing Braunick. We have to get you to him at all costs. Do you understand why you're in the middle now?"

Agent 34 nodded. "Yes," he said quietly.

"Good," the leader of the Destigems said. "Now go rest. Tomorrow, we continue onwards on our trek to the island,"

The group of Destigems shrunk as many walked away in different directions to different tents. Some went to eat, others went for sleep. Agent 34 stayed, looking over the footprints left in the dirt where each of his friends had been standing as they talked over the battle plans. Like all of the other footprints along the shoreline in the sand, each step left a tale. And for his friends, their footprints left a tale of war. Agent 34 stepped away from the group of footprints, leaving his own in it. The elf walked off the shore and onto the grass towards the tents that were on the top of the hill.

The footprints stayed behind him, laying in the sand until another being walked across them and left their own tale.