A Dance of Two Worlds

The Turn of Loop

Chapter Forty-Four

The Turn of the Loop

Those who play with fire, most likely end up getting burnt

Aden

5L 21/21/21/14

"I want the forthcoming Celebrations of Freedom to be a grand affair just like the Celebrations of Unity."

King Marcus, Queen-Mother Miriam, HighMinister Benjamin, and Commander Michael were seated around a table in the King's private meeting chambers. Queen-Mother was doing most of the talking. "Every village and town must send their representatives. We need to divert people's attention from Paul's gimmicks and show them that we have the power to protect them. And destroy them as well, if needed," She added after a brief pause.

"Yes, Queen-Mother," Benjamin replied, "the invitations have already been sent. All preparations are underway."

"Let us turn our attention to some more pressing matters," Marcus cut his mother short and turned his attention to Michael. "Whom should we entrust the reins of our forces. We must finalize a name so that we can get it approved by the Council in tomorrow's meeting."

"Christopher is a very shrewd Commander and he knows that world better than any of us. He is the most obvious choice to lead. His deputy Alfred is the fiercest young man I have seen and my brother Roger is also there to assist them. One of my most trusted commanders Brian will lead the troops from here and hand it over to Christopher. All the instructions we need to pass on to Christopher can be relayed through Brian. I think we have enough capable men there to carry out our plan if the Council's delegation doesn't interfere in their decisions."

"The delegation is made up of spineless fools. Christopher will have a free hand. And if things get nasty, we can always use Christopher and these idiots as scapegoats to pin the blame."

"How many troops are we going to send there?" Miriam asked the commander.

"Around twenty-three thousand men," Michael replied.

"Then what about Aurae?"

"I am sorry. I didn't get your point?"

"If I am not mistaken, Paul's son John has escaped the house arrest."

"Yes, a week ago. He wasn't happy with his father's truce agreement. They had an ugly spat and a public fallout. He disappeared from the house the very next day."

"And you bought into this story? Are you really that dumb?" Miriam's change of tone took Michael by surprise. "That apparent fallout was just an excuse to smuggle John out of the house. By staying there Paul has ensured that we don't go back on the truce and by sending out John he has made certain that his fire of rebellion spreads to every part of Aden."

There was a heavy silence in the room. It looked as if no one had even thought of this possibility.

"What do you think they are planning to do?" Marcus broke the silence and asked his mother.

"If I would be Paul, I would attack and take over Aurae, right after the Celebration of freedom. Most of our troops would be gone to the other world, our defenses would be down and it would be easy to assemble all his men inside Aurae on the pretext of these Celebrations. This would be their golden opportunity."

"What do you suggest we do now?" Michael's gaze was fixed on his mother.

"Hold back some troops, around seven to eight thousand, to defend Aurae. It will be useless to win another world there if we lose this one here. Heighten the security on every entrance of Aurae. Turn it into an impenetrable fortress. All the walls and fences, that we built around Aurae in the last seven years to defend against the foreign enemies, might help us against our own people."