Chapter 45:

Chapter 42 - A Presence I Know

An Original Sin

I felt guilty. But it was necessary. They needed our strength. I was sure of it. We were good enough for Aqlli to need us.

I called out to one of the guards to get everybody else.

Moments later, Ame, Sy, Inda, Kaya and Dominic all showed up in the room. No matter how confident I was in front of the random soldiers, it was really hard to show it to Ame.

I didn’t want to put them into a fight that they didn’t want to fight. I had to ask. I took a deep breath and spoke.

“...Please join me in the final war. I want to win with all of you.”

I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst.

Ame laughed.

“Okay!”

Kaya also laughed.

“Eh? Nell actually wants to fight?!”

Dominic nodded.

“I wouldn’t let you fight without me.”

Sy looked to the side.

“Alright… I’ll join!”

Inda smiled as if she didn’t even need to answer.

I wasn’t sure what else I expected. But I was still happy. I was really happy.

There were only three days to prepare, so I had to hurry.

I told everybody about what Aqlli told me. About the army we had and the final act beginning in three days.

Ame looked a bit worried during the explanation. I couldn’t tell what he was worried about. There was a hint of disappointment in his eyes that drilled deep into my heart, but I convinced myself that it was about something else so I could continue on.

I told Sy to gather as many of the regular military members of Jeti as he could, using his influence as a Beckwith to convince them to fight.

Dominic went with him to advise them of our plan. Kaya and Ame went to speak with the Jeti publishers about exactly what to post.

This led us to the first problem.

Inda.

I didn’t know what she was supposed to do. My plan to fight went directly against her father’s wishes, and the job I prepared for her was to distract him.

I had to change something.

Inda tilted her head at me.

“Nell, are you sure this is a good idea?”

I felt slightly offended. I knew that she didn’t think I was weak, but it still hurt me. I didn’t know why. I knew that, logically, she was correct to question me. But my brain couldn’t handle that.

I wanted her to trust me. I had promised Kaya that I wouldn’t let L’eau hurt her. That’s when I discovered a form of trust that I had never seen before.

I spoke to Inda.

“I promise. I know what I’m doing.”

Inda grinned.

“Alright. I’ll trust you~! Put me to work, king!”

I knew she was being sarcastic, but it didn’t matter. Even if she was fine with the plan, I still felt bad. I told her to stay with her dad and help him prepare.

She nodded and left the area. This would allow me to gather soldiers without Aqlli noticing.

I spent the rest of the day writing in my notebook and checking on everybody. I felt sorry for the press after seeing how Ame was forcing them to print out thousands of draft documents while Kaya bossed them around. Thankfully, the drafts worked. Sy passed them around to the military members and brought them to a remote place near the mountain Ame and I had trained on for the first time. After the first day, he had gathered 10,000 soldiers. I was shocked. I didn’t realize that there were even that many people in the Jeti Army.

I turned to Dominic and asked him a question.

“How many people are in the Jeti Army?”

He scratched his head.

“About 150,000. It’s a lot more than most other countries, because the top 100 commanders get free cars.”

I looked back at the people. Every single one of these people joined for a reason. They were all looking at me.

I didn’t want to let them down. I knew I wouldn’t let them down.

I walked past as everybody cheered.

Dominic began to instruct them of our plan. After about two hours, it was late enough to sleep.

So I did. It wasn’t easy to fall asleep, because I kept thinking about falling asleep while trying.

Every time I felt like I was about to go unconscious, my brain understood that I was going to sleep. That acknowledgement stimulated my brain, causing me to not sleep. This repeated for multiple hours, until my brain was rendered unable to think. The cycle ended before I realized it, as I woke up in a room that I had forgotten I fell asleep in.

I got out of bed. The activities I were about to do didn’t feel normal. This was the first time I had ever felt like I had a job instead of a group of fun tasks.

But I did them anyway.

I checked on Ame.

I checked on Sy.

I slept.

The day was over.

I woke up.

There was one day left until the fight. I immediately went over to Ame and Kaya to ask what was going on.

As I opened the door, Kaya turned to me.

“Nell! Look! Look at the polls!”

Kaya held up a piece of paper to my face. There was so much data that I didn’t know where to start.

My eyes were thankfully drawn to a graph in the middle.

It showed that 67% of the citizens of Jeti accepted me as their new leader.

I didn’t know what kind of things they were producing to make my acceptance rate that high, but I was glad.

I spoke to Ame.

“Today's the last day. Please come near the hill on the Jeti-Baum border when you’re ready.”

“Aye Aye, captain!”

I looked down and blushed. I was fine with leading everybody else, but I didn’t like leading Ame. He was the leader.

Not me.

I walked out of the room and made my way over to the Jeti-Baum border. The second I turned the corner, my eyes widened.

There were 120,000 soldiers all lined up. There were too many people. I didn’t know what to do with all of them. I didn’t know if my plan would even work with this many people.

I stood in front of all of them. The sun was already beginning to go down. I took my time walking over, so it was no surprise.

I yelled as loud as I could to get their attention.

“Everybody!”

They all turned to me as I continued speaking.

“Today, you will get what you wish for. As a people, not as a person, you will fight! You are Jeti! Be proud! The gates will open, and victory will be ours! The dead can be proud that they fought, and the living can be proud of the dead!”

I needed to group them together in my brain. My pride as an individual would be destroyed if I didn’t.

I wouldn’t be special. This was what I needed to do.

I continued speaking, even louder.

“You have thirty min-”

I saw Ame from the corner of my eye. I unconsciously lowered my voice when he walked forward. I didn’t want him to see me yelling like this. It was an odd feeling to have an ego in front of some people, but being unable to show it in front of others.

Right after, I saw another person walk over.

It was Inda.

Everybody was here. I didn’t have an excuse to stall anymore.

I closed my eyes. The technique I would attempt to use to travel forward to the battlefield was not one that I had ever used before.

I would try to connect one point in space to another, using a string of RME. This would create a portal that we could walk through in order to not alert Aqlli.

I closed my eyes. I searched for the place in my head, but I couldn’t find it.

No matter how hard I tried. Even if I did find it, I wouldn’t be able to connect it. I was stupid to think this was possible.

We had to walk.

I opened my eyes, only to hear something inside my head.

‘Do you need help, Nell?’

No. I didn’t need you. Shut up.

‘It pains me to see you fail. I’m going to help.’

Before I had a chance to object, 11 massive portals appeared behind me. I stared into them as the dark sky of the border between L’eau’s ocean and Cittaglia stared back.

I didn’t want this. We were going to walk. We were going to start the war on my terms.

“Don’t go in the porta-”

My sentence was cut short as Ame jumped into the portal with a smile on his face.

I fell down to my knees and sighed.

Dominic picked me up by the collar of my shirt and spoke.

“You’re our leader right now, Nell. It’s okay. Don’t get overwhelmed. You’re doing great.”

He was pitying me.

I nodded as he carried me through the portal and onto the battlefield.

…

We arrived, but I couldn’t focus. There was a presence watching me. A presence I knew very well.

Thousands of soldiers stood behind us. The light of the moon shined upon me as the grass was covered by my shadow.

Ame stood beside me. Dominic stood beside Ame. Sy stood beside Dominic. Kaya stood beside Sy. And Inda stood beside Kaya.

My eardrums almost burst as I heard a violent yell from my left.

“NELL MOREN! GET OFF OF THIS BATTLEFIELD!”

Aqlli gripped his sword so hard he almost shattered the hilt.

I yelled back to him.

“Shut up! We’re here to help!”

He turned his head to Inda. There was no happiness on his face.

He was terrified. It looked as if he was about to throw up.

He grit his teeth and tried to calm down.

I took this opportunity to look around at the other people.

The first person I saw was the one that shook me to my core the most.

Marē laid down on a mattress on the grass with a pillow and blanket.

He was sleeping.

I had no time to think about him. I had to pretend he wasn’t there. I looked around some more and saw two people. That was it. There were only two people besides Aqlli and us.

I heard Aqlli yell.

“Fucking Hell Kam! Where are you?!”

I then heard the other two people speaking to each other.

“Hey, Rumi, should we start?”

“If that is your wish, I will not object.”

They began to walk forward. They were finally close enough for me to see.

The first one was somebody I knew.

Ra Namseong, The Sun God. It was the king of Laptaan, and the person who even Aqlli was struggling against.

His hair was a sharp red-orange. It was barely long enough to cover his forehead. His clothes were dark enough to blend in with the surrounding area.

The second person was somebody I had only heard of in passing.

The king of Ujurak, Rusted Steel Rumi Sulmojnë. He was the oldest person I had ever seen. He was about 64 years old. His skin was darker than Inda’s and he held a cane. His hair was long, gray and falling off. I was almost sure that if he turned around I would see a bald spot. He was wearing a long warm robe, with white and a green too dark to make out.

Rumi was one of the smartest kings, and he had teamed up with Ra, who was one of the strongest.

This was an issue.

An issue I wasn’t entirely sure that I could handle.

Ra grinned as flames shot out of his hands.

“Are you ready, people?! When I’m done, your flame won’t be so fuckin’ eternal!”

He shot forward faster than I could see.

He was right in front of me.

His palm was in front of my face.

I was going to die.

“Just kidding~”

He moved his palms away from my face as he propelled himself into the sky. He launched a blast of fire so pressurized that the explosion disconnected my brain from my ears for a moment.

Hundreds of soldiers behind me had died. The ones that survived the blast were screaming and running.

I needed to do something. I needed to speak to them.

But I was frozen.

Rumi walked up to me. I still couldn’t move. He stared into my eyes in silence before raising his cane up to my neck.

A metal blade came out from the bottom. Before I could react, he stabbed into my throat and walked away.

I I I I I

I couldn’t think. I was going to die. I tried to speak, but the words fell through the hole in my throat. Blood flooded out along with the air I was trying to breathe.

All I could do was watch.

Ra shot towards Aqlli. Aqlli could easily block his attack. I knew this.

He held his sword up to Ra and sliced him in the chest. Blood came out of Ra’s mouth as he fell down.

But he wasn’t angry.

He laughed.

One second later, a spike of rock shot out of the ground fast enough to create a sonic boom.

The spike shot directly through Aqlli’s skull. It slammed into his brain.

And it killed him instantly.

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Nell’s Notebook: Page 62

When a human gets comfortable, is it a good thing?

Comfort through inherent value is a myth.