Ascension: Quest For Revenge

The City In The Clouds (Part 3)

They both stepped out of the platform and headed towards the Economic Square.

As they walked through Bluegate, they stared at the massive buildings across the city. They were all really well built. They continued walking on the main road.

As they continued, Axel said, “Something doesn’t add up.”

“What?”

“How did no one notice two people kill five guards in broad daylight?”

“Beats me.” She stepped aside to allow a carriage to pass by. “You think we were set up?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll soon find out.”

As they continued walking, they noticed a large crowd up ahead.

“What’s this all about?” Belle asked.

“I have no clue.” The two walked ahead to get a better perspective.

People were decorating the buildings and putting up banners. There was a performance going on in the middle of the crowd; some sort of circus. Guards were standing at the corners of the crowd, keeping it contained. Some guards were trying to get a view of the performances. There was a general feel of joy. Clearly it was all for some sort of festival.

Axel looked at the banners. They had “Nimba: The Festival of The Clouds” written in large and beautiful calligraphy.

“We need to cut through this crowd,” Axel said. “But no one else is leaving. If we try and go past it, it will look suspicious, not to mention it would upset the crowd.”

“We should go around it,” Belle suggested. “Maybe we can cut through there.” She pointed to an alleyway.

“Worth a shot.” The two turned to the left and went through the alleyway. Once they were through, they went across a bridge built above the road below.

As they kept going, a large shadow cast upon them. They immediately looked above, ready for a fight; but saw a giant floating ship. Its bottom shimmered like the clouds the city was built upon. It showered petals from above across the road they were walking on. It continued silently floating on ahead of them.

“Did this festival exist back when you lived here?” Belle asked Axel.

“No. Ender created it.”

“Then it’s no doubt devoted to his monumental ego.”

They kept moving through the streets, managing to go around the crowd. It slowed them down, but maintained their cover. They came across another bridge; it joined the middle cloud to the lower cloud. Below the bridge was a fifty kilometre drop back to Rayfort.

As they walked through the lower clouds, the two would spot guards patrolling the streets every five seconds.

“They really need these many guards?” Belle said. “I get that it’s a festival, and the city is prone to an attack, but this is just way too many.”

“He’s very paranoid. I would be too if I were in his position.”

As they continued, they saw posters on walls; all of them sung praise for ‘Ender the benevolent’, ‘Ender the just’, ‘The great king’ and so on. It was all p********a and false admiration for the king.

Most of the people who walked in the streets walked hunched over and nervous when around the guards, like they would be attacked or arrested at any second.

They slowly approached the Economic Square. Axel was surprised to see that it – for the most part – was the same as he had remembered it. Markets and stalls were organised neatly and sold fresh fruits and other items. It was crowded, but not nearly as much as the markets in Rayfort. The guard presence here was minimal. Most people around were talking about their daily lives; but every now and then Axel and Belle would hear the people’s thoughts about the king. Some called him brilliant; praising the fact that Ender had established such a large dominion over so many nations. Others argued that he established partnership with different races and groups, and then took control over them and killed off the opposition. Whenever such a brash opinion was raised however, it was raised in a lower voice, slightly louder than a whisper. Axel also overheard some talks about a rebellion taking place, and various discussions about how it’s a good thing that there is a rebellion to fight against Ender’s oppression, or that they created chaos and were no better than Ender. Some even gave death threats to people who spoke ill of the king.

“Well, we’re here,” Axel said. “Now we just wait for them.”

“Stay close,” Belle suggested. “It will be very easy for us to get lost here.”

They would slowly move around the crowd to not act suspicious; occasionally examining some of the items at sale.

As they waited, Axel suddenly heard something; a strange noise that he hadn’t heard in a long time. It was the sound of a Canet; a very small dog-like species that went extinct about twelve years ago. The last of its kind was Axel’s pet, until it died in the destruction of the war.

It couldn’t possibly be a Canet, He tried to convince himself. I must be hallucinating.

Yet Axel knew his senses were perfectly fine; there was no reason for him to hallucinate about something so random. And yet, he heard the sound again.

He turned in its direction. He looked for it on the ground, but couldn’t find it. The Canet continued making its unique sound.

Axel followed the noise into an alleyway that led out of the crowd, which luckily wasn’t guarded by sentries. The narrow alleyway led to a dead end; a brick wall of the same height as Axel. At the bottom of the wall sit a Canet; a small white furry creature with a dog like snout.

“How is this possible?” The animal brought back memories of his childhood, and thus his parents; this greatly disturbed him.

He slowly approached the harmless little creature, which continued to stare at Axel. Just as he was about to pick it up, it growled. That was very unusual; Canets are very harmless and unaggressive.

Axel backed away. “This isn’t right.” He gathered his thoughts and reasoning and realised immediately that this had to be a trap; but by then it was too late. Axel aimed his hand towards the creature, but it suddenly changed into a human; a man with completely black clothes, a hood and a mask on his face; an assassin. He pushed Axel’s hand aside and slashed at him with a dagger. Axel tried to dodge, but failed; the tip of the blade managed to cut his arm, and that was all the assassin needed.

The blade was laced with a neurotoxin that immediately entered Axel’s bloodstream, and made him dizzy and confused. He fell down on his knees, and had to fight his mind to keep his eyes open. Searing pain spread across his arms, but his mind was shutting down so quickly he couldn’t even scream in pain. He looked for Belle but she was nowhere around.

The assassin held up his dagger. His hand moved in a clean arc towards his heart.

Just as it was about to pierce Axel’s heart and end his life, a faint blue force field appeared out of nowhere. It was the shape of a small sphere and hovered in front of Axel’s chest, blocking the dagger’s blade.

Axel was quickly losing strength in his body. He fell sideways on the ground. He could see the assassin fighting against some sort of an invisible person; this kept him away from Axel. The assassin swung his dagger around in the air, seemingly like a mad man; but something invisible kept hitting him back, dodging his every move and creating force fields to defend.

Axel could hear faint footsteps and saw Belle arrive at the scene, led by a man with glowing veins and glowing eyes. The man shot a wall of force field towards the assassin, who got hit back. The invisible person revealed herself to be a woman in a suit made of a strange material. His glowing veins and eyes became normal again.

The twins…

Belle let out streams of flames from both her hands at the assassin; but he immediately turned into a bird and flew away.

Axel’s entire body felt lifeless. He could no longer keep himself awake. He began falling into the dreaded unconsciousness. The last thing he remembered seeing was Belle and the twins running towards him.