Binary

Chapter Fourteen: The Stairway

Neri woke up with a start. Rain was sitting at the desk, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and inspecting the pages of the letter. It was still dark out, but it wouldn't be for much longer.

"Where's Xora?" asked Neri, pulling himself into an upright position. He had fallen asleep on the bed.

"She left to return the cipher a while ago," said Rain, "she's probably on her way back by now."

"And the message?"

"We got it finished," said Rain, sitting back in the chair, "it's even worse than we thought."

"What are you talking about? We came out here under the assumption that Lady Argus was committing a war crime."

"According to this letter," said Rain, "next on her list is high treason."

Neri suddenly didn't feel tired anymore.

"Did you say treason?"

"It says it right here," Rain said, "Lady Argus didn't just turn a blind eye to the destruction of Edgestone, she also housed its killers, trained them to pass as servants, and she sent them to the Keep with a letter of recommendation. Those invaders are there to kill the king."

"Give me that!"

Rain handed the letter to Neri.

"What are they going to gain by killing the King?" Neri asked.

"The invaders are going to take over Starlust," said Rain, "and when they have it under their control, they've promised to give Lady Argus the Steel Zone, on the Cirean Border."

"How do they expect to get away with that?" Neri laughed, though it was more out of fear than humor.

"Neri, if you're not going to read that letter, why'd make me hand it to you?" Rain grumbled.

"Sorry, it's longer than I thought it was going to be and you already read it..."

The door cracked open, and Xora slipped through, closing it softly behind her.

"It's done," she said with a sigh, "the halls were completely empty. Everyone is still asleep, except the kitchen staff."

"Have you read this?" Neri asked, waving the letter at her.

"Of course I've read it," she scoffed, "which is why I think we need to talk about something."

She sat down on the bed.

"This letter," she said, "is evidence of a conspiracy to high treason. It's my duty as a Skystorm to make sure this gets into the hands of King Stratus."

"After we take it to Vera," asserted Rain.

"No," said Xora, "we're not doing that anymore."

"What are you talking about? This message is proof that everything she told us about an evil cult is true, it even mentions the Hatred by name!"

"I know it's proof, Rain, that's what worries me. We don't know anything about Vera. We don't know if she'll let us keep this letter. I highly doubt she'll be thrilled about the idea of us taking it to the King, especially when she wasn't supposed to be showing it to us in the first place!"

"She trusted me with this, I can't just betray her without a thought," Rain snapped.

"Alright," interjected Neri, "let's give it a thought then. We have what appears to be damning evidence of a plot to kill the King of the country. We have two options with what we do with that evidence. We can take it to Vera, or we can take it to the King.