Chapter 14

The Panic

Hearing the announcement by the Reaper drew forth a myriad of emotions from Meredith. She made precisely none of them appear on her face; not in the present company. She continued putting that act up as the commanders spoke with Emil and Eddie, and then gave their final orders to Tempest Squad. Fear, worry, anger, a readiness to fight; all these settled into her bones, but she had no idea what to do with them.

If Marcus held the same emotions, much as she doubted it, he was very much in control of knowing what to do, taking charge in a way that only he could.

“Roy, batten down the hatches. I want a full perimeter defense check. Amelia, rouse all of the Guardians. The Order has made their intentions plain, and I’ll be damned if we just sit and let it happen. In the event Tempest Squad allows some to slip through the cracks, we need to be ready,” the chief commander instructed of those closest to him. Masters was the first to leave, his bellowing voice finding its way to the cafeteria they had long walked away from.

“Guardians, rise. Those of you in Flare Squad, follow me for perimeter checks!”

“What about myself, sir?” Raymond asked, saluting with a bow to indicate how at service he was.

“Raymond, I need you to gather our skyship pilots, and contact the squads outside the castle. You have an authority as acting commander from this moment,” the man said. Meredith could tell; in spite of these dire warnings, even Raymond couldn’t stop the twitch of his lips that belied his happiness. His loyalty and effort had been rewarded. Marcus gave him little else, turning to his final commander with grave words. Meredith listened very intently. “Cynthia, if you still have contacts in the Order, you’d do well to get information. Can you reach out to them? The time is now or never.”

“I can do my best, Marcus. Perhaps Raymond will see if my old squad found anything, too. Either way, I’ll see the mission done.” Cold as ice, she stalked away, her platinum hair swinging behind her. All that remained was Amelia, watching her companion go. Meredith knew there was something underneath that exterior, one she didn’t display to Marcus, whose eyes trained themselves upon Meredith and the others.

“Assist your brother if he needs it, Miss Childs. Prepare for battle.” Meredith perked up at Marcus addressing her, and she came to nod. The order was meant for Vivian as well, and the two girls spun on their heels to chase after Raymond, leaving the commander behind.

“Mera,” Vivian hissed, her voice drowned by their footsteps, but still audible in Meredith’s ear, “was it me, or did Eddie look like he very much wanted to say something?”

“He did,” Meredith agreed. “I couldn’t tell you what, but he had figured something out. Something must have reasoned in him at the Metropolis.”

“Do you think it was about Jay?”

“No…given their conversation I’m starting to think…” Meredith would have slowed down at the pieces fitting together in her head, but they were instead as a whip behind her, causing her to speed up. Her brother was within her sights. “Tempest Squad is away, called away. And they’re the best offense force in the Corps. Heck, only Flare Squad of the four main squads is on duty. That can’t be mere coincidence. Not right now. There’s an infiltrator, too. But how far does it spread? And what is their target? Why is only Tempest Squad seemingly in their sights?”

“They’re removing our defenses?” Vivian was genuinely asking a question, not yet putting it together. Meredith refused to stop and explain, the fear gripping her heart. She bounded up some steps and yelled. “Ray!”

“Mera, what do you need?” Raymond asked, turning back at the top of the steps. It was less busy than Meredith expected it to be, until she realized that Amelia had yet to make the all-encompassing announcement.

“Ray, I think…I think you’re in danger! Or Tempest Squad!”

“What are you talking about?” Her brother wanted to bolt, she could tell. Meredith tried to tell him, but her tongue stumbled over itself, and his talk of loyalty returned to her. She shook her head, knowing she couldn’t let it deter her in the slightest.

“Everything. They’ve been targeting you. I think they might be using the confusion of all this to assassinate you.”

“That’s ludicrous, Mera. And is this really the time?” Meredith bit her lip, with Vivian hanging back to stay out of the confrontation between the two. “Our Corps is about to possibly face the biggest threat made on our organization, and you would have me worry over being a target that gains them nothing?”

“I’m not doing that at all! I just think it’s a gaze into the Order’s intent!” Meredith shouted. Raymond turned away, truly intending to leave, but Meredith slapped her hand out to grab his wrist. “Don’t walk away from me, Raymond!”

“No, Mera! Drop it!” He threw her off, and she fell into Vivian. They tripped down the stairs. “This is not the time to doubt intent or our fellow Guardians. I will not jump at shadows or worry about my own life when there are more important ones at stake. That’s not what a Guardian does!”

“Damn it, Ray! I’m just telling you to be careful!” She stomped on the stone steps, planting her feet where she could. For once, her brother didn’t walk away, but looked at her. He was antsy. He wanted to leave. She knew all of that, but she wasn’t going to let him walk into an unknown situation. “Loyalty or not, Ray, someone is after people inside the Corps. They won’t stop, and there’s no telling how far their reach extends. They murdered Gaius without a second thought; what will they do to people who are unawares?”

He heard her words, and Meredith could see the lump in his throat moving while he swallowed. Then, as if in slow motion, he nodded, accepting her words as truth. “I’ll keep an eye open, but I will not distrust my comrades.”

“That’s all I’m asking,” Meredith finally relented, a shaky breath expelling from her lungs. He started down the steps, but thought better of it. She smiled at him. “Go, Commander Childs.”

He hesitated one more time, but smiled back. Then he was off, and Meredith turned around. She almost fell a second time, surprised to find that Amelia had appeared right behind them. Vivian let a squeak slip out, grabbing to Meredith and hiding behind her. Both girls remained on edge while the commander inclined her head at them with pursed lips. She only uttered two sentences. “Phone call from Brynn. Tell me everything at the taskmaster’s room.”

“What?” Vivian said. The commander was already flying off, wasting little time. “Commander, what is that supposed to mean?”

The ambiguity was left hanging for them to sort it out, infuriating Vivian. Meredith was less confused. She gripped Vivian’s hand and began dragging her forward, back down the stairs. There was only one meaning for what was said. Reviewing the conversation that had taken place just a few minutes ago, it became evident: Eddie had passed along a message to Amelia that only she understood, and she had delivered it in its distilled form.

The crowds flooding the hallways began to grow thicker, whipped into a lather by Masters’ orders. Meredith pushed through them, making sure to not lose hold of Vivian until she found the right set of stairs and began to race down them swift as she could. Not as many were there, allowing for smooth passage. When the duo touched the bottom, a screech was heard through the castle, a voice coming from the loudspeakers that were connected throughout. Many of the Guardians beyond came to a grinding halt, but Meredith didn’t stop, pushing them aside and moving on.

“Guardians, this is your Commander Chavez,” Amelia proclaimed through the speakers. The murmurs started up, and Meredith could feel it growing in the air: the fear. The news was spreading, the video having sparked that most primal emotion in all of them, leaving all of them exposed, not wanting to move. “A threat has been issued against our Corps. The time for inaction is over. Those squads available in the castle, group yourselves. The rest of you, meet in the assembly hall or the front gate with your other commanders. It is time we defend the honor of the Guardian Corps.”

Where Meredith expected a rising cheer, she received none, and for the first time she nearly stopped, banging into someone who was listening. When she backed up, she took a good look at the boy she’d run into. His legs were shaking, a mop of sweat on his brow. The news of an impending threat had caused him to lock up. Meredith wanted to reprimand him, but couldn’t find the words. She knew all too well how fear turned the legs to jelly, and left one nothing but a lump of flesh, quivering on the ground.

He wasn’t the only one doing nothing but shaking in their boots. Many of the Guardians in that hallway, young and old, were unmoving. Those that were mobile further split into two groups: ones ready to take up arms, and another making an exodus. Some even bolted for the phone room, like they were making a call to get them out of there.

“What are you all standing around for?” Vivian shouted. The boy closest to Meredith looked at her, his eyes a blank slate that had vanished into the recesses of his mind. Another girl, closer to Vivian, was hauled up by the blonde. “You’re a Guardian, and your commander just gave you an order!”

“What’s the point? This isn’t what we signed up for,” the girl protested, weakly trying to wrest herself from Vivian’s hold. The blonde let go of her naturally, stumbling back into Meredith. “I just wanted to have something easy. We didn’t go through the trials to deal with more of them.”

“I…I want to go home…” the boy said, tears in his eyes. Meredith slapped him across the face, and his eyes blinked back into existence.

“Get over it. Your commander has given you an order, so follow it! Protect the Corps! Protect your fellow Guardians!” Meredith shouted in his face, feeling her spit flying. He watched her as she heaved, desperately wishing for her words to break through to him. At long last, he blinked.

“Y-yes. Yes. I’ll get my weapon,” he said. His body moved, slowly at first, but like dominoes, his momentum picked up, triggering the others to move with him. The bubbling doubt and insecurity remained, as did the fear, but Meredith took solace in the fact that not all hope was gone. Not yet.

“Come on,” she indicated to Vivian, rushing the final few feet to the phone room. A number were inside, calling their families or those outside the Corps. The panicked tone was set, but Meredith couldn’t help in abating it. She was here on a mission, and she found the first open phone to pick it up, dialing the first number she could think of to Brynn’s room. That yielded no fruit.

“Try Guardian Tower,” Vivian said, leaning on the side of the booth with her. “If Eddie and Tempest Squad were with them, it’s possible that’s where she’d make the call. It’d be the safest, after all.”

“Good point,” Meredith conceded, and she dialed said number. This time, the call was answered with the very face she was looking at. “I hear you have a message for me, Brynn.”

“About time you called. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever,” the pink-haired girl said, tying and retying her hair as if busywork. The sound of engines, through the line, could be heard soaring off. “I informed your Quake Squad to watch the Communications Tower. They ran off. But yeah, Eddie has a theory for you.”

“That Ray is the intended target of the Order, or something like that?” Brynn finished tying her hair, letting the ponytail beat against her back.

“You catch on quick. Did you hear the rest?” Unsure what she was referring to in the cavalcade of information they had received, Meredith shook her head. “Maria. I think your infiltrator is Maria.”

“That’s a problem. It could mean she’s anyone, but…” Meredith reached behind to scratch her head, fluffing her hair in the process. “I thought Maria was a Renegade. Wasn’t she?”

“Do any of us really know?”

The girl had a point, causing Meredith to etch her own face with a frown. So many pieces were in play, to the point that it immensely unnerved her. The murder of Gaius. The job sent from the Metropolis. Whatever the Reaper’s true aim was with the Weapons. Cynthia’s arrival. Every new piece felt like the Corps was just being stretched in another direction, pulled to its very limits. They didn’t know where to go or what to do. Every time they thought they’d find their direction, something else would happen, pulling them in another. It kept them unable to focus on any one thing, and each new addition only built upon that mounting fear that was stirring in the hearts of all the Guardians.

“It’s all a giant trick in some way. Some sick game they’ve thought up for themselves,” Meredith spat. Brynn offered no words on the other end, but the cogs could be seen turning in her head. “They want to drive the Corps to the edge of extinction, like it’ll snuff itself out. Started by staging an assault on Lacardia, then the murder of Gaius and-”

It was like a freight train, stampeding through her mind with revelation. Vivian was concerned, but didn’t interrupt, letting her reason her way through it.

“How did they know…?” Meredith asked, touching her fingers to her lips. “How did they know any of it…unless…Cynthia? But why murder Gaius? Because he knew the truth? Or had he figured out something else?”

“Meredith, start making sense. We don’t have time for ramblings,” Vivian said. She was stern and insistent, and Meredith looked into her friend’s clear eyes.

“Maria alone wouldn’t have been enough to get on the inside, surely. Not to do so much damage. So…what if…what if she was in contact with the one person in the Order who could do the most damage to the Reaper’s plans?” To press in upon her point, Meredith grabbed Vivian by the shoulders, holding fast while she dropped the realization she came to. “Maybe Ray was the target, and maybe he wasn’t, but I think the goal was to get Cynthia called back in naturally, so that she could help destroy the Corps from the inside.”

“It’s a crazy thought, Mera. You know what Amelia said. We need undeniable proof.”

“Then let’s get some, and now, before we’re out of time.” Vivian surveyed her with curiosity and just a touch of trepidation. “Caleb was there that night, but he wouldn’t say a thing. It must mean he’s waiting for something, or someone. Right now, Commander Frigas is reaching her contacts in the Order. What if it’s just the order to strike? We can’t waste the time to let her do that, so let’s ask Caleb, force the truth out of him.”

“I guess it seems like it’s the only way, but there’s no guarantee he’ll talk. Guy’s been barking mad for weeks. You’ve seen it.”

“He…he might talk to me.” It was a delusion of grandeur or self-importance at best, and Meredith knew that, but she was out of options to gamble. Vivian was aware, and with a jerk of her head, she relented. A cough reminded them both that Brynn was still there, waiting for them to acknowledge her once more.

“What do you guys plan to do? Can I help?”

“I think this might be Corps issues, Brynn, but thanks for passing the message.” Meredith waved goodbye and turned away, yet Brynn never closed the conversation. It allowed her the chance to look back. “But, if possible, can you keep aware of things? If worse comes to worst…”

“Mera, what do you take me for?” the pink-haired girl insisted. “I’m Brynn Taylor of the Home Guard. Your friend. You can count on me. In the meantime, I’ll go rendezvous with your Quake Squad. Be very safe!”

“You, as well. Viv, let’s get moving.” They left as quickly as they arrived, with many more still inside the phone booths, or jockeying to get to them. The hallways were no longer as congested, the people moving in whatever direction they desired. At the end of the hall, Flare Squad could be seen gathering at the front gate, but the girls didn’t head that direction. The absence of people made it easier to slip through to the desired stairwell. Meredith set upon it, but Vivian didn’t follow. “What’s wrong?”

“How sure are you, Mera?” she asked. “How certain that Cynthia is a traitor and that Caleb will answer you?”

“I’m not certain about anything. I just know that if there’s anyone who can answer questions, it’s Caleb.” Someone pushed past Meredith while she stared back to Vivian, the latter waiting at the top of the stairs. There was a pause, wherein nothing happened, but something was shared.

Vivian broke the barrier of silence. “I trust you, Mera. Go.”

“What’re you…?”

Vivian chose against answering, just uttering that one insistent word over and over again. It urged her to move forward while she turned around and ran. She had no guesses about where, but Meredith believed in one thing: she trusted Vivian, just as Vivian trusted her. Hoping for the best with her soul, Meredith started to leap down the stairs. Her Soul Vision switched on, and she could sense the scrambling throughout the entire castle. Marcus was dashing about the halls, and Raymond was in a single place. Their souls were obscured by the swarm of others, amounting to nothing but her own peace of mind as she zeroed in on the souls of the prisoners below. The one she was looking for wasn’t obscured from her view, still locked in place.

More importantly, she couldn’t sense the warden’s soul in the prison, or those of his subordinates, causing her to pick up the pace. She wheeled around the corner, charging through the hall and ignoring the silent elevator until she reached the stairs to the dungeons. Like the last few, she began to leap stairs, careful to not land incorrectly until she reached the bottom.

The cacophonous sounds of the prisoners beyond were vibrating the very walls of the dungeon, not a single person trying to get them under control. Had the warden fled in fear? Was the Order driving them all to escape, leaving their charges behind, all to become sacrifices, or worse, tools of the Order? The thought made Meredith shiver, but she didn’t abandon her mission, approaching the obsidian door and pulling on it. The barricade didn’t budge.

In her head, Meredith cursed, but placed her hand on the door, feeling for its soul, to ask it to open for her. Prior to achieving that, she stopped, her head swiveling towards the warden’s desk, as abandoned as the rest of the prison. She left the door, shuffling around the desk and beginning to open drawers until she found the key ring sitting inside. Meredith snatched the keys and ran to the door, fiddling with them until she found the right one and turned it inside the lock. There was a satisfying click, and the door swung open with a deafening creak.

The abyss beckoned.

“Who’s there?”

“Hey, where’d everyone go? Let us out of here!” The cajoling prisoners’ cries fell on deaf ears. Meredith walked through the portal and into the deafening silence.

The space beyond was just as dark as ever, the usual drip still present. It smelled inside now, a likely result of what had occurred with Gaius, but the rank stench made Meredith wrinkle her nose. Her steps bounded off the walls, a clatter that announced her presence from the moment she stepped inside. There was a clanking, and Meredith guessed that Caleb was awake and alert, but she heard no more of it. The cells beyond were empty, and in the darkness, she could still see the dark splotch that had once been Gaius’s blood. She’d have to tell Emil his cleaning job sucked later.

“Well, well, well…come to pay me a visit, girl. It’s been a long while, hee hee hee.” Caleb’s face emerged from the darkness. Gone was the cackling mad Beastmaster, replaced with a man that was tame in all but his appearance. His freckled face stood out, and his once bowl cut was longer, draping over his eyes and ears, matted down. He licked his lips.

“It’s only been a few days.”

“Not since we talked. That’s been since the Abyssal Palace, right?” He drew closer, though his head was still restrained by his manacles. “You’ve grown up. Come to believe something different, have you? Are you here to ask about the goddess?”

“Hardly,” she said, exhaling. “So, what was all that babbling? Just an act for my benefit?”

“Maybe. Maybe everything’s an act. What do you think, girl?” His usual riddles were bringing Meredith to the point of irritation, an effect heightened by the licking of his lips. “You have questions.”

That wasn’t a question. Meredith responded with one. “Who killed Gaius?”

“You know the answer to that, or else you wouldn’t be here. No one asks questions without suspicions.”

“Why was Gaius killed, then? I know you know, Caleb.” He leered at her in the darkness. In spite of her attempts to suppress it, the chill ran along her body. The Beastmaster tilted his head, his shaggy hair drooping off his face like thin, soggy noodles, giving him the appearance of a filthy dog. He was weighing his options.

“Well, I suppose there’s little point in hiding the truth now, is there. If there was, you’d be finding alternate means of getting information, hee hee hee…” The laugh made her teeth stand on edge, and her body jump when his face got as close to the bars as it could. “It’s a gathering.”

“Gathering…? Gathering of what?” Knowing how unwise it was, Meredith came closer to the bars and bent down, all to be at the same level of Caleb’s eyes. “Were you gathering Cynthia here? Is that it? Getting everything inside the Corps for your strike?”

“Maaaaybe!” he sang, following it with a cackle that sounded like cracking whips around the cavern. “Tell me, how are your squads?”

“Caleb, answer me! What did Gaius know?!”

“He wouldn’t talk. Couldn’t take the truth. His faith in the goddess was weak.”

“Stop speaking in riddles!” Meredith banged on the bars, startling Caleb for the first time and causing him to draw back with rapid blinking. “What truth? Was it about Cynthia? The Winter? What side is she loyal to: the Order or the Corps?”

“Lady Winter…?” Caleb’s eyes grew wide, and then the grin split his face wide, his tongue waggling on all edges of his lips. “Eheeheehee…AHAHAHAHA! Perhaps instead of asking what she’s loyal to, you should ask who she’s loyal to.”

“What does that even mean?” Caleb’s screeching laughter provided no answer, and Meredith lifted a fist to bang on the bars again before she recognized a foreign sensation spreading up her body. Looking down, she noticed with horror that her feet were frozen to the ground. The walls were icing up, the manacles around Caleb becoming frozen, and the audible clop of a footstep resonated through the cells.

“You know, I really tried to sell you on the angle. I thought my alibi would have been enough to put you off the scent.” Meredith swallowed, and she tried yanking her foot out of the ice, but found it impossible to move, no matter how hard she tried. “But you’re like Caleb’s puppets: once you get a taste, you just don’t let go. And speaking of, Caleb, you talk far too much.”

“Starving for the company, milady.” Caleb’s grin told the story, and Meredith looked in the direction of the open door. Striding through it was Cynthia, her cold air making Meredith’s brain turn fuzzy, the vitals within shutting down as more and more ice encrusted her.

“You really ought not to have meddled, Miss Childs,” the commander…no, the priest said. “But I suppose I gave you reason to in Lacardia. That was the flaw in the plan, I think. At least from the angle of keeping you out of the picture and far away from your brother as possible.”

“What do you plan to do with Ray?!” Meredith screamed, finding it a challenge to talk, let alone raise her voice. Her fingers tried to grab her blade, but she could barely move them.

“None of your business, as your role ends here. I should have frozen you when I had you, but luck was on your side, Meredith Childs.” Cynthia stopped in front of her, and the disdain was evident. The true self she’d tried to hide behind her glasses, yet which always eked out, was there, plain as day. She came to Meredith’s level, and tilted her chin up, so that they could share in each other’s gaze. “This time, however, you don’t have the Violent Staff, and I’ll be sure to wrest the Earth-Splitter from your cold, dead hands.”

“I won’t…let you…” Using what little of her body was yet unfrozen, Meredith snapped forward, her head colliding with Cynthia’s chin and throwing her off. “You’re just a traitor! I will never let you take the Earth-Splitter! He is not yours to use!”

Terrill’s soul flared within the blade, burning with pride at her declaration. The ice on her figure cracked, flaking off her skin, but leaving all movement sluggish. Cynthia recovered, rubbing her chin, all control gone from her growl.

“You’re such a brat. Always fighting against fate like it’s something you think you have the right to control. Always interfering where you have no place to. What are you but a little girl who’s played with toys not meant for you?” Cynthia emphasized her point by pulling on Meredith’s short locks and yanking her head upwards. Meredith screamed, but found what control she could to spit at the woman. “You, who have defied the Reaper thrice…who are you?”

“I’m-”

Cynthia tossed her down now, the ice around her shattering and sprawling her on the floor. The cold had seeped into her limbs, leaving them numb and unable to work. She tried to push against the floor, but found she was like pudding, collapsing as soon as pressure was put on it. Above her, Cynthia created a dagger of ice.

“You’re nobody. Nobody and nothing. You’re no chosen one, so stop trying to be. Stay out of the way, and crawl back to the home you came from, alone.”

“She’s not alone!” Cynthia tossed the dagger down before the voice had yelled, and an arrow of light sailed through the room to nail it, breaking into one of the metal bars. The commander whipped around to see Vivian, bow drawn with fierce looks. She readied another blade of ice. “Sorry I took so long, Mera. Had someone to grab.”

Cynthia fired, and Vivian tossed herself to the side, rolling along the ground before she clumsily banged into the bars. The ice continued forward, only to fly into the air and crash into the ceiling. Footsteps followed.

“You know, I always had my suspicions,” their owner spoke. “But I trusted you, because Marcus did. Because Roy did. You had a strange willingness to go undercover in the Order, but we were friends. I thought there was no harm in it. And when you came back, I was happy…until Gaius was found dead. That was when it unsettled me. It pains me to know they were right to suspect you. To know that you wounded me and the others so.

“So, I’ll only ask once: what master do you serve, Cynthia Frigas?!”

Amelia had entered, and she looked livid.