The fall of Terra fortress. Chapter 3

After their meeting on the forest edge, they both returned to the fortress and reunited with Mother Terra. Despite some hiccups while organizing lodgings for all the surprise guests, the rest of the day proceeded without any incident. Ignoring the tension present during their arrival, they celebrated a banquet to welcome them into the fortress, gave them a guided tour along the bodyguards through the spaces they were allowed in and even a quick glance at the vault of pearls of knowledge. Even then, they didn’t have time to see their visions that day.

The night arrived and the light of the sun shut down as suddenly as it had arrived. The mechanical sun had started its secondary phase and absorbed the heat it had released during the day, while transforming the sky into a completely black mass without any discernable shape or light in it. The darkness was so absolute, that even the flimsy lights that escaped the windows were insufficient to truly illuminate any of it, as if the exterior resisted showing anything outside the fortress.

When night arrives, it’s impossible to move in the exterior without carrying any dependable light source, which makes vigilance both impossible and unnecessary. All the patrols of the fortress moved to the inside, making sure that none of the guests were trying to enter the private rooms of Terra.

Forces don’t need as many hours of sleep as humans do, so Fay decided to stay awake the entire night. Terra warned him that she was gonna have a private meeting with King Mayhem and ordered both him and the patrols to stay away from her library. He didn’t agree with it, but followed her commands as given. She wouldn’t ask for such measures without a valid reason and she would never be coerced by Mayhem to take them if she didn’t desire to.

Or at least, that’s what he decided to believe.

The library was not her first choice to have their meeting, but she had to concede after the king asked for the reunion to happen there. If she interpreted his intentions correctly, then refusing would put her in a worse position than actually letting him in.

After all, she doesn’t have anything to hide, does she?

Of course, some rules were put in place. The king was not allowed to touch anything inside the room, and just like with any other room, the darkness was almost absolute in front of them. The only thing that allowed them to see each other was a single candle put on the table in between them. In the darkness, they couldn’t even distinguish each other's faces properly, the expressions each made hidden by the shadows.

With confidence that no one else was watching nor hearing them, both could leave all pretensions aside. And even though they were anything but, they could finally start talking to each other as equals.

“You arrived a week early. Did something happen?” started Terra, cutting to the chase.

“First, I would like to ask you to relax, it was not my intention to catch you by surprise nor anything on the like. I received trustworthy information that my convoy was gonna be attacked in a week when I had prepared to come to this place, so I decided to make the journey immediately to throw off any possible attacks. That’s also why I had to come with some soldiers, the smallest squad that I considered I could be safe with.”

He responded with neutrality, with what felt like a practiced speech. Showing as little emotion as possible, Terra decided to respond in the same way.

“Even if I were to take your words true, you didn’t give any warning beforehand. You also possess a communicator.”

“True, but the real question is how the fact of our little scheduled meeting got leaked in the first place. Given the possibility that the communicator was the leak, I decided to take no risks. It’s quite possible that there was a spy in my castle, but it’s also possible that someone catched our personal communication line.”

“I think I know what you are trying to imply but I think you are exaggerating the facts. I know they are acting with more rashness than usual, but I find it hard to believe that the revolutionaries would plan to perform such a sloppy attempt on a king. Certainly, if they did, they didn’t hide it well if it leaked back to you.”

“Leaving aside my sources, I have to start by stating something that I could not let be public for very obvious reasons. Not long before I made the decision to come here, my castle was invaded by one of those revolutionaries. They took the place of one of my guards, infiltrated my castle and attacked everyone on his way, including my royal guard. He managed to kill several of my soldiers, but fortunately they managed to take him down before they hurt my knights or me.”

Terra looked at him for a moment before responding. Unlike him, she could ascertain his features with a certain degree of clarity, even in the darkness. She tried to find any sign of insincerity, but could not find any.

“If you are being truthful, then I have no problem with your visit. I’ll give you my protection until you leave my borders, I won’t allow an incident of that kind to happen on my land.”

“I’m deeply glad that you see me fit to receive your kindness, great mother, although there is a certain detail about it all that doesn’t quite make sense for me and I think you could dispel my doubts”

“Just ask, with confidence.”

Mayhem moved slightly to the side and got something out from a case in his belt. In the darkness, even she couldn’t see it before he held it in his hand, illuminated by the candle.

It was a revolver.

“Where did you get that?”

“The assassin that infiltrated my castle did so with many of these. I’m aware that only Gun has access to this kind of weapon, so I decided to consult you before bringing this matter directly to him.”

Without giving any warning, Mayhem removed the safety lock and shot the weapon, the bullet going through the door of the room. The booming sound it released resonated through the room, echoing even further away. It was impossible for the guards to not notice it, even if they were far away.

“What do you think you are doing!” Said Terra, taking the weapon away from Mayhem’s hands.

“As you can see, it’s a real weapon, not any kind of imitation. Certainly I doubt the revolutionaries could replicate something like this without access to his pearls of knowledge, so he has to be involved in this. This is a very grave matter, Terra.”

Terra ignored his words and rose from her seat, going through the door to examine the bullet hole. It had completely gone through the thick wooden door and it incrusted itself on the stone wall after it. Several guards from the patrol had run there to see what was the source of the sound, but Terra dismissed them with an indication of keeping the patrol going with normality.

Before returning to her seat she put the gun away, making sure that Mayhem would not be able to take it back.

“That was exceedingly dangerous, even for you” she said, anger seeping through the neutral voice she had tried to keep up to that point.

Mayhem stayed on his seat, looking where she had put the gun away, but unable to distinguish anything in the darkness that surrounded them. It took him a moment, but he responded affably.

“Sorry, I am sorry. I didn’t really think it through before doing it. For a moment I thought that you would doubt the authenticity of the gun and I thought there would be no better way to prove it than shooting it to the door. I didn’t want to damage anything inside the library after all.”

The apologetic tone was so fake that Terra could not even begin to take it seriously. She had suspected his behavior when he wanted to enter her library, and for the second time she felt that he was simply reciting lines he prepared beforehand. But what could be the point of it all?

“Someone could have gotten hurt by you, this is not a laughing matter, Gray”

“Yes, but I remembered that you had made sure that no guards would be patrolling around, so I concluded that there would be no one around to get hurt in the first place. Again, I’m deeply sorry, I was too careless about it.”

“I’ll interrogate Gun around the matter of the weapon soon enough. Is that the true reason of your visit?”

“Only part of it. I’m here because after the incident with the guns I decided to make a thorough revision of the castle to make sure nothing like this could repeat again. I didn’t feel safe in it, and your fortress was the only place that came to mind that I could be safe in. I could have asked Gun for help, but we are not quite on amicable terms and things could be very dangerous if we both reunite in the same place. After all, if they are trying to kill us both, the last thing we should do is reunite together and make us an easier target for them.”

“I understand. You can leave your protection on my hands. But if you have any other revolver you’ll have to give them to me, you have proved that you can’t take care of them or you may end up hurting someone.”

“I destroyed the other guns. The world is safer without weapons like those.”

“How long do you plan to stay on my fortress?”

“How about a week? It should be long enough to ensure the safety of my castle, and you can use the celebrations you prepared for my arrival for my departure.”

“I’ll consider it. We’ll have a reunion like this once I make my decision about this. I’ll speak with my security team about the possible threat of an attack. After all, the revolutionaries won’t take long to notice that you are here and I can’t put my people on danger, not even for you, Gray.”

“You are very humble, but we both now that this fortress is probably the safest place you have ever created on the land.”

“Flattery will take you nowhere, Gray.”

“Besides, you got Charles Fay on your side, there’s no greatest safety than that. I also saw some new additions, I think I saw Lazaro Kall as your new guard? That’s very impressive, I tried to recruit him for years but he refused all offers. It must have been difficult to bring him to your side.”

“You are a deeply insensitive and cruel man if you really tried to recruit him. And again, flattery will take you nowhere. If your idea was to scare the revolutionaries, you should have consulted Gun, that would keep anyone away.”

“The assassin had his weapons, Terra. We can’t trust him”

“That, we don’t know yet.”

“Terra. I know you two created a sort of alliance behind my back, but the truth is, I don’t really mind it. If I were in your place I would have done the same thing, but the situation is not the same as it was a decade ago. This world is turning very dangerous, and if we can’t put our entire trust in him, then we can’t trust him at all.”

“I’ll talk with him. I won’t mention anything about our meeting, but I’ll discover where the weapons the assassin had could have come from.”

“I see you are gonna ignore my mention of the alliance, It may be better like this.”

Mayhem relaxed in his seat, as if he was profoundly tired of the discussion they just had. Terra was also tired from it, but now that his excuses were out of the way, she could do what she wanted to do from the start.

“When I started, I told you to cut to the chase, and as much as everything you have told me is of greatly importance, you still refuse to talk about what you came here for. I allowed you in my fortress out of respect for your title, but my answer to your inquiry is still the same. I vehemently refuse”

Mayhem stopped his tired act and sat straight again, looking at Terra to her shining eyes.

“To the crux of the matter then. You probably are aware, but I got the catalyst in my possession. The only thing I need you to tell me is where the source is, nothing else.” Finally said Mayhem, with the sternest voice he could muster.

“I am aware, and that’s precisely why you can’t ever get to it. I don’t know how you found out about the dome, but that changes nothing. No one must ever get to the source.”

“And I agree completely, on principle, but my inquiry is purely personal on nature. All I ask for is the chance to get this out of my head. You know what is going on up here, and all I want is the opportunity to live a normal life, even if it’s only for a few days. You can keep watch over me if you want, I have no problem if you want to put any other conditions to my request.”

“You can say that now, and you may even be honest when you do, but I know better than to believe in that. When the time comes, you will not think the same, and hopefully, you’ll find it in yourself to thank me for refusing you today.”

Mayhem rose from his seat, looking at her in frustration, but when he couldn’t find the slightest waver on her gaze, he could only sigh in resignation.

“I highly doubt I’ll ever thank you for this particular matter, but I doubted that you would change your mind even if I asked you directly. I did not lie when I said that my castle is unsafe and I’m also not lying when saying that I’m taking measures for it now. If you refuse to tell me the location of the source, so be it, but I trust that you’ll still keep my safe, right? After all, you can’t put me in danger considering how little time we have left.”

“Appealing to my kindness, Gray? That’s unusual coming from you. I’m not cruel enough to take back my word when I say I’ll keep you safe, you don’t have to worry for that matter in particular. But, I hope you are aware that I’ll keep strict surveillance over your entire entourage during your stay. That’s not a problem, is it?”

“Of course not. Do whatever you must, as long as Mary and I are kept safe.”

“I know better than to promise you that, but I can promise that I’ll do all I can to make it so.”