19

A man stood over a group of bleeding bodies. Slowly, the gun fell from his hand. He squinted painfully and grabbed at the blood pumping from his abdomen. “I told you to let it go!”

The man looked at the small display set up on a table. It showed the clans rashing away as the Maribara’s leashed massacred them.

“If you’d listened to me we wouldn’t be in this mess….”

The man turned and stumbled over the bodies lying on the ground. Some had been his loyal supporters. Some his most ardent opposition. He stopped a moment to look down at the face of one of his most trusted friends.

“Sorry, for this to be the place where we part ways... “

He stumbled through the door. The hallway on the other side was silent. They’d just had a secret meeting between the clans leadership.

He was the only one left now….

Strangely the way the man felt now that he’d achieved his lifelong ambition is not nearly what he’d been hoping for.

He felt only emptiness. Nothing mattered anymore. The clan he’d fought so hard for was now a mere annoyance.

Having power, which had cost the lives of his friends …

What was that really even worthy?

“Sir, are you alright?” A medic asked. They were in the clinic.

“How long have I been out?”

“A while sire, we’re still looking for the people who did this to you.”

“Don’t bother. Quickly get me a phone.”

It only took a moment after the medic had rushed out of the room for him to return with a phone.

“Call the Harcourt clan.” He spoke over their look of surprise. “Tell them this is Eres Rakai leader of the Rakai clan. I want to discuss the terms of surrender.”

Clara and Teresa were standing in front of a large building. From the outside it seemed innocuous enough for a three story building.

But further inspection would reveal that the windows were barred and the place was surprisingly well protected for a building with no signs of life.

Teresa finished speaking into her ear. She turned to Clara. “That was the Rakai clan, they’ve agreed to submit to us.”

“It’s a bit late for that don’t you think?”

The tides have already turned after all. Whether or not they were willing she would have them kneel regardless.

Teresa nodded. “Yes, but you should agree regardless. I’ve been informed that their clan has suffered a terrible calamity. Only one elder survived.”

“It’s an opportunity you mean?”

“Yes.”

“Very well, send the word, I accept his allegiance.”

“At once, Milady.”

“Now then, let’s go greet our guests, why don’t we?”

They entered the building, the guards quickly making way for them.

Inside an elzorian man was waiting for them. “Teresa, sir,” the man saluted.

“At ease.” She said, and the man lowered his arm. “Is there anything to report?”

“No sir, all of them have remained docile so far. As soon as we mentioned their partners they quickly stopped making a fuss.”

“Good. Have you brought him?”

“Yes. He’s currently with his wife and child.”

Clara stepped forward then took over, “Take us to him.”

They left the entrance and headed further into the mansion. The corridors were crawling with Harcourt guards. All of them saluted respectfully when they saw Teresa passing by. Clara couldn’t help but notice they weren’t even aware of her existence. Teresa did too, but as soon as she wanted to start berating the guards Clara pulled her back and said, “Don’t worry, I am sure they don’t mean anything with it. It’s logical that they would be more familiar with you than with me. “

They walked through a hallway with doors set into the sides at even intervals. Standing in front of one of the doors a pair of guards holding rifles waited. Their guide opened the door and they entered the room.

Inside was a family of three. One man, one woman, and a daughter not more than 12 years of age. The man was someone Clara was familiar with, he was the head of the Sage Guild Clara had talked to when she’d went for a meeting with them.

“Well, well, Radam, pleasure to see you here.” Clara smiled slyly as she walked over to the couch the family was sitting at.

Teresa stood to the side of the couch. She waved a hand to the guide, the guide nodded then gestured for the four guards standing at the walls and they all left the room.

“Miss Clara, I wasn’t expecting this.”

“You know, I was expecting your call earlier. I’m very disappointed to see that you’d delayed our meeting for far too long.”

“Things have happened.”

“Yes, I’ve heard about your… meetings with the Maribara mage.”

“You knew? Then why…?”

“Yes, I know, I also know how your orginisation works Radam, you wouldn’t have given in if you had a choice. So here we are, and now you’re here. I’ll be taking care of your family’s safety for the time being. And no need to worry about the other members, I’ve taken them in as well.”

Radam nodded. Slowly coming to the realisation that he would now be moving according to a new person holding the strings.

Seeing that he understood Clara continued, “Now there is only one thing I need from you. Your loyalty.”

Radam gulped, “And if I refuse?”

Clara looked at the small child that was staring back at her. “It would be unfortunate, but I can’t allow your group to roam freely. I almost let you slip through my fingers once. So if you insist on refusing, I’ll have to keep you and your group locked in here. I’m sure you understand.”

Radam nodded, “That seems very compassionate of you.” It was true, she could have threatened to have them killed if they didn’t comply.

“I’m not someone that would chose needless violence if I am given the choice. Besides, what I want is your loyalty; if you do not offer it to me willingly it’s as good as useless to me.”

Radam bowed his head, the woman sitting beside him followed along, “I cannot speak for the others, but me and my family will concede to your wishes, and we hope to prove our loyalty to you.”

“It seems you’ve already come to a decision even before I arrived.”

“It was the plan to begin with. I am sure you noticed, the members of the Sage Guild share similar ideals to yours. If it hadn’t been for those people threatening my family…”

“Yes, I know, but you’re here now, and I promise to do all in my power to keep them safe.”

Teresa helped as Clara stood. “Let’s go, Professor, I would appreciate it if you joined us.”

Clara turned and walked away, expecting the professor to follow along.

He did.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“To visit a friend of yours are you familiar with the infamous doctor Khostra?”

“Yes, that crazy genius.”

“Well, we’ve found evidence that he was under the Sage Guild’s employ.”

“What? I’ve never heard of this!”

“I’m not surprised, your guild isn’t really a centralized society is it?”

“Not really, I was just a figure head, more than anything.”

“Well the doctor’s been busy with something interesting. I’m sure you’ll like it.”

They left the building housing all of the capture/rescued members of the Sage Guild and headed to Clara’s laboratory.

Inside they saw Khostra working on a mechanical arm, and a robot standing next to him.

Khostra looked up, “Ah, miss Clara, good to see you.”

“Anything interesting?”

“Nothing too strange, about as you’d expect. Although according to the readings he should actually be in a much worse state, I’m putting it down to the fact that he shares a few key pieces of the divine guardians.

“Master.” The robot said. As it spoke the markings over its body glowed with a tranquil blue.

“T5, how are you?”

“I am well master.”

“Good. Is there something you want to say?”

“Yes, I’m not afraid anymore.”

“You were afraid?”

“Yes, I never knew I could be, but I was. Strange, don’t you think?”

“Yes, but then again, I’d expect nothing less from you.”

“I will process that as a complement master.”

Clara shook her head then smiled. She turned to Radam, “Well, what do you think?”

“Is that a mech?”

“Yes, the doctor was the one that came up with the technology, I just assisted him with the design.”

Khostra scoffed at this, “You can say you were only involved in the design, but who was the one spending the whole night criticising all of my work?”

Clara chuckled, “At least you finished it.”

“…Yes…” Khostra deflated. It was true, before Clara had come along he’d been stuck in a loop of his own design, it was with her criticism that he saw the short-sighted way in which he was going about his research. After that he’d made steady progress and soon the final pieces were complete.

His old collegues were all too taken up in his mad genius that they never sought to improve his workflow. And if they ever did he was sure he’d take it as an insult.

Clara on the other hand had no such problem. Each of her words struck directely to the heart of the matter, and she didn’t have to worry about offending the doctor, since she’d already decided that she was going to force him to cooperate. So she wasn’t really worrying about getting on his bad side.

“Khostra, I’m sure you know who this is?” She gestured to Radam Neihere, “He, and hopefully the rest of the Sage Guild will be working with us from now on.”’

Khostra shrugged, “So you finally convinced them to join you.”

“It was more me kindly requesting they join, or face the consequences. You may not know this but they were under a tight situation before I came along.”

“Ah, so one of the clans finally took notice of us?”

“Yes, the Maribara,”

Radam looked at Clara, “Why have you brought me here?”

She chuckled, “I just wanted to show you where you’ll be working from now on. Also, there’s a tiny project I need your organisation’s assistance with.”

She led them deeper into the laboratory. Until they came to a darker section, a guard stepped forward and saluted her. “Lady Clara.”

“Have you brought the subject?”

“Yes, they are ready.”

“Good let’s begin.”

They entered a room dark room, as soon as Clara stepped foot inside the lights went on, in the center of the room with shackles around his wrist was a man.

Clara greeted the man cheerfully, “Evening subject 334.”

The man stared at her hazily, she spoke to the leading guard standing next to her. “Have you drugged him?”

“Yes, he was putting up a lot of resistance.”

“Very well let’s end this. Marrisa, Corlov, are you ready?”

“Yes!” Came two voices from above.

“Sensors,” Lights came on and concentrated their beams on the man.

“Check.” Came the response from above

“CFG.” Thin pillars rose around the man and started glowing.

“Check.” The response once again.

“Start induction.”

“Induction start!” The pillars started humming, the hazy look in the man’s eyes vanished and he started screaming.

“What are you doing?” Radam ran up and pulled her by the arm.

“Professor, let go of my arm.”

“You,”

“Be calm, do you take me for someone that likes to kill needlessly. I do not want to see you or your family placed in a difficult situation.”

Radam’s eyes widened and as if for the first time realising his situation he looked around him.

There were rows of guards standing around him, and also Teresa that was looking at him with a promise of death.

He gulped, then let go of her arm.

“Now, have you sufficiently calmed yourself, professor?”

“Yes,” He gulped, “Now, care to explain why you are torturing this man?”

“That’s not really what you want to know is it? Your real question is, does this man deserve what is happening to him.”

“…Well, who is he?”

“I have many enemies professor, some I have simple ideological differences with. But then, there are those, the majority in fact, who I absolutely abhor. Do you really think this is easy for me?”

Radam looked into her eyes and frowned, “Yes, I do think this is easy for you. I can’t see any sympathy in your eyes. As if you were an immortal looking down at the ants beneath your feet, does the sanctity of life mean nothing to you.”

Clara started laughing, “Your very funny. If there was one person I was hoping would understand it was you. But seems I was mistaken.”

“You,” Radam growled, “Answer my question, who is this man.”

As he was speaking the man was still screaming in pain. Clara turned to him.

“Yes professor, I will tell you who he was.” She looked to the guard, a moment later the guard brought a small cloth bag and handed it over to Clara, “You will have to take my word for it. But…” From the sack she extracted a syringe and three sets of files with the photos of two woman, and a girl. They were Professor Radam’s wife and daughter and an unknown woman.

“Have you figured it out yet?” Seeing his stunned expression, “Yes, not so righteous after you’re at the other end of the knife now is it?”

Clara chuckled, she let the folders fall back into the sack, “But here’s the thing Radam, did you think this man was assigned to kill you and your family?” She laughed openly. “No, you were to be made an example of.”

“You, you must be mistaken!”

“What not taking my word for it? What, did you think that you are somehow special? That the Maribara would treat you any differently than they did their other peons? She clutched the sack in her hand and frowned at the professor, “Why did you betray your group Radam? Was it wealth? The possibility of a mage sneaking into the Sage Guild was close to null, that is until you went and weakened the security. But I still can’t understand it, what were you hoping to gain from it all?”

“I just wanted my family to be safe!” Radam shouted and fell back.

Teresa stepped towards him. Clara looked at him in pity, “You can be glad I don’t for unnecessary bloodshed. I’m sure you understand, compared to my family yours means nothing. If you do not comply or fail to convince the others of your group to join me I will be sure to finish what the Maribara started.

Clara turned around then spoke emotionally. “Status.”

A long list of words and numbers was spoken from the control center above.

“Activation code CC6TR8, Begin amortising of cataclysm field.”

“Check.”

The pillars stopped humming and the glow they’d given off vanished. But around the captive screaming infront of Clara a field of emerald appeared.

As soon as the field stabilized the screaming stopped.

But the soul shaking effect which had first come with the screaming continued.

The feeling lingered and slowly started building up, causing the guards to readjust and grip their weapons for comfort.

A single trickle of sweat flowed from the side of Clara’s face. Teresa stepped next to her and whipped the drop of sweat away.

Clara stared at Teresa who seemed totally calm despite the ominous feeling that was suffocating the entire room.

“You seem calm.”

Teresa’s only response was a chuckle.

From above came a report, “The subject has started responding.”

Clara looked over, the man was floating in mid air, his mouth was open and his eyes were staring out at nothing.

“Release cataclysm field.” She said.

“Check.”

The field surrounding the man disappeared. And he fell to the ground. His body started glowing, and strange moving patterns appeared on his body. Slowly he pushed himself up, then looked around him.

His eyes were glowing. Clara recognised the sight, it was similar to how Harcourt had looked in the projection.

Clara lifted a hand, the guards surrounding her raised their guns. “Clear.”

They shot and a large number of pins struck into the man’s body.

“Status.”

“Subject appears stable, the drugs seem to be working.”

“What about its energy levels?”

“It’s the same, but the eisen value keeps on fluctuating.”

“Interesting, package the subject up for observation.”

“Check.”

The guards stormed forward and surrounded the man, they slammed cuffs over his wrists and legs then started pulling him out of the room.”

“Professor Radam, I’m sure you already understand what I want from you and the rest of your guild.”

“Yes, you want to use our expertise to finalize your project.”

“Good, you do understand. Be aware that I only have two days remaining, if your guild does not want to sink with my clan then it should be sure to finish by then.”

Clara started walking away, she spoke to the leading guard. “Make sure he gets all the assistance he needs, I am clearing his access to the project. Handle the rest of the paperwork.”

The guard saluted then walked up to Radam.

Clara left with Teresa, now that her main project was taken care of she could focus on finding a way to apply the results practically.

The cataclysm field generator was effective, but it also had many flaws to it. For one the subject that used it would experience immeasurable pain, another thing was the destruction cause to the body by the field. Not ideal if you wanted to use it to boost a soldiers strength.

Clara already had an idea on the solution to this but she would need to experiment a bit on her own in the meantime.

“What do you think?” Clara asked when they were alone.

“I don’t understand Clara, just what are you trying to accomplish. Surely this isn’t necessary.”

“You think, that as we are we can win?”

“I know we can win, there are no indications that the Maribara sect will be able to defeat us. Especially now that they do not have the support of the other clans.”

Clara chuckled, “If only it was that easy. Whether we defeat the Maribara or not, we will still have to handle those outside forces. And then,” Clara looked up, as if she could see something other than the ceiling of the corridor, “those who come from above.”

“So you believe this is necessary?”

“Absolutely, besides, its not like I was planning to keep those people alive. We really don’t have the time for that. They stood in our way and so we cut them down.”

“I understand.”

“You don’t have to agree, this is my burden to bear.”

“You seem to be handling it well.”

“Each time I feel pity for those fools I think about how they’d attacked my people…But alas, even that isn’t a good way for me to handle my emotions. It’s a fine line between hatred and insanity. I’d prefer to get this phase over with as soon as possible. So I don’t have to think about it anymore.”

She hated questions which didn’t have answers.