The Blade in the City

Prologue

                                     241 years after the split into empires

Clicks and taps of a computer woke Ashleigh from her sleep, she had fallen asleep in the corner of the computer room, at the time it had been uninhabited but now there was someone sitting at a computer tapping noisily at the keys. Sitting up slowly and stretching her back she called out to him.

"Who are you?"

He didn't look up from his computer only called over his shoulder, "Someone coming to use this space how it is supposed to be used, who are you?"

"The name's Ashleigh. This was the only quiet place in the building." as she said this he turned around and looked at her.

"Oh so you're a girl." He pointed out, raising some anger in Ashleigh. Of course she was a girl, how could he not tell? She'd been told she had a very nice womanly figure, how could this boy say something like that? "I couldn't tell due to your hair, you know most girls have long hair." So that was it, he couldn't tell she was a girl because she had her hair cut short like a boy. Some people were just rude.

"Long hair gets in the way of fighting, it's more useful short." she said in reply.

"Oh and before I forget, the boss wants to see you." He said, making Ashleigh confused. Who asks someone who they are if they already knew?

"Where is he?"

"His office. Where else?"

Rolling her eyes Ashleigh set off for the bosses office, his office was on the top floor, only people of higher ranks could use the elevator meaning Ashleigh had to walk six flights of stairs to reach his office. This wasn't bad for Ashleigh, she was used to it and it gave her time to calm down after the encounter with the boy. The bosses office was an open area with a couch by a fireplace and a large desk with floor to ceiling windows behind it. The walls were white making the room obsessively bright.

"Ah Ashleigh, you're here" he said as he stood up from his desk and made his way over to her.

"Yes, you called for me sir?"

"Indeed, I need your help." This brought on a wave of relief. She knew he would never have gotten too mad at anyone but it still made her nervous whenever he called to see her in his office. She always thought she was in trouble, like being called to the principal's office at school, but worse.

"You see I have this slight problem. My men are good but none of them are exceptionally good. I have you of course but I think you would need help, like your own group of youngins to lead by my side. Would you happen to have anyone in mind?" He asked, spawning thousands of questions in Ashleigh's head. Yes, she had always dreamed of being up in the ranks and working side by side with the boss who wasn't too many years older than her only four or five, this whole group of people were young, the oldest being thirty one and the youngest being her, sixteen.

"Of course, I actually was thinking of asking you to recruit a couple of my fellow students. I've been watching them closely for quite a while and I think they would make a wonderful addition to our group. You see they both are really smart, they can defend themselves quite well and just are perfect, plus they work extremely well together."

"Would you work well with them?"

"I believe I will, sir." A surge of happiness washed over her. She wasn't going to be the only girl in this place and not only that but she would have others her age to chat to, to say the least she was excited.

"Walk with me Ashleigh." Was all he said.

They walked to the elevator shaft just outside his office and rode down in silence. They walked past the training rooms, glancing through the large windows. Ashleigh could see the young men training with all sorts of weapons, mainly guns and swords.

They continued towards the exit that led out the back, they passed the computer lab and went out the back. Out the back there was a large field used for training, past the field was a garden where they practiced meditation or people just enjoyed the view. To the left of the field was a forest with thick dense trees some training was done in there as well. To the right of the field was a car park. They headed towards the garden. The garden was full of roses and other flowers, trees were scattered here and there providing shade from the summer sun, benches were placed at the base of some of the trees most of them had people sitting on them.

"You're probably wondering why I'm taking you out here." He said as he stopped to admire a rose.

"Yes, sir."

"Well Ashleigh, this matter needs to be taken seriously. No rose is without its thorns, as no action is without its consequence. Be mindful of the thorns Ashleigh. I'll give you a second to think if they are still the ones you want."

Ashleigh thought for a while as they walked through the garden. She believed these two were the ones they needed, yes they may have their downsides but she believed they were the ones.

"I think they will do fine, sir."

"Very well Ashleigh, who are they?"

"Their names are Josh and Alex, and I believe they are the best of our age."

"Then we had better hope we get to them before the enemy does."

"Yes, we had better pray on the moon and stars that we do."