A Piece from the Past

The man was wearing a black suit, with white garments inside. Mersoy didn’t remember seeing such people before, but from everything she had heard and read in the past year was enough to understand that he was a Tokreian, so were the other two guards sitting in the room. However, there was a certain distinction between the other two guards and the new man, Mersoy noted, because there was a shining golden badge on the left pocket of the newly entered man. It looked like a circle divided vertically into two parts, and the end of the vertical line was curved. Maybe that badge was exclusive to the higher officials, Mersoy thought.

The man walked past the other two Tokreians, who now stood up. He nodded at them and walked to the front of the cells.

“Mersoy. That’s what your name is, isn’t it?” He spoke in accented Dottonexan.

“Now that you are awake, tell me everything you know about that scroll. Before we have to get our hands dirty.”

Mersoy looked at him silently, and then shook her head, “No. I don’t know anything.”

“You are being warned. Unless you cooperate with us…”

“It’s not like you’d kill me,” Mersoy hissed, “If I don’t say anything, you’ll torture me, but you’ll keep me alive unless I tell you. And let me tell you, even if I knew anything, I wouldn’t tell you.”

The man chuckled, “You fool.”

He then walked to the other two cells. Nia and Aez were standing too, both had angered faces. Maybe he was the one who suggested that they had to be locked in too?

Mersoy squinted. Nia was clutching the scroll behind her back.

“Hand it over,” he said in a threatening voice.

Her body posture gave it away too quickly. Mersoy sighed. What now?

Nia’s face twitched, but then she quickly said, “What are you even talking about? You’ve searched us multiple times and you didn’t find-”

The man brought out a gun and pointed it to Nia.

“Do you want to live or die?”

Nia staggered back.

Mersoy suddenly noticed one of the other two Tokreian guards fidgeting, but quickly shot her a dirty look when she looked at him.

Strange.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to kill,” the man was saying, “By the law of your nation, people who are suspected of being rebels are killed. As the TDC pact is in control, we have the authority to do that as well.”

He sniggered. “Unless you cooperate, you’ll die. And by ‘you’,” he pointed his gun to Aez, “that brat is included too.”

Nia’s face twitched again, and this time she reluctantly stretched her hand and gave him the scroll.

“Leave us alone!” Aez said, “All we know about that girl is that she was in the forest. And there’s nothing.”

“The forest, huh?” the man chuckled, “I remember taking notes that you met her in Cridelford.”

“Well you heard wrong and it was on the way to Cridelford,” Nia managed. “But that’s not the main point.”

The man smiled creepily, “You wouldn’t understand. That’s the most important part.”

He walked to Mersoy’s cell now. “The same goes for you too. We could kill you any time we want.”

“That’d be nice of you if you killed me,” Mersoy hissed, “but trust me, trying to threaten me with death will never work. So shut up.”

“Very well.” the man retreated.

From the corner of her eyes, Mersoy noticed the two Tokreian guards sharing a glance at each other, slightly nodding and walking up to the other man - Mersoy was sure by now that this man was their boss or leader or something.

One of the other two whispered, “So, is this the real scroll?”

“Undoubtedly so,” the leader said, scanning the scroll from the top to the bottom.

“Well, it could just be a fake one produced by that girl,” the other Tokreian said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Oh no, I can assure you,” the man had a strange gleam in his eyes, “This is the real one. There’s no doubt about it.”

He muttered in a low voice, but Mersoy could still hear it. “Now that it’s done… no one will be able to find what happened back then…”

“If you say so…” one of the other Tokreian guards left his words hanging. Another one walked to the door, silently. The leader didn’t notice it, until there was a small sound of the door closing.

The leader was alarmed.

“Why did you close the door?” he asked, looking up from the scroll.

“Well you see,” the other Tokreian muttered, walking close to the man, and chuckling a bit, “We just want to - what’s the word - ah, investigate things.”

Then in the next second, he kicked the man above his stomach. The man was knocked over, grasping for his breath. Nia and Aez gasped at the sudden action, and Mersoy looked on silently.

Well. Let’s see where this goes.

The guards quickly bound the leader to a pillar, binding his face and hands.

“Brother!” Aez gasped.

One of the guards had removed his artificial hair, and a mask, revealing a tan face with black curly hair, that resembled Aez’s face. His face bore complicated expressions. The other Tokreian too, in the following moment, removed his mask and hair - and what was inside was the face of a woman. She bowed down and picked the chain of keys that fell from the pocket of the leader. She threw it to Aez’s brother, and he opened the keys of the three cells.

Mersoy walked out, and commented, “That was fatal. Targeting the solar plexus is a joke. If he dies, you’re gonna be screwed up.”

“That’s the best plan we could come up with,” Aez’s brother said, “Well, this just confirmed that whoever you are - you are from a fighting background. Are you a soldier?”

“Yeah, you can say so,” Mersoy shrugged.

“Look, I don’t believe there’s an antisocial group hiding out in the forest or such,” Aez’s brother said, “After so many months, I don’t think that’s the case at all. And that’s why it’s important to know. Who are you and what is your connection to the scroll and this invasion?”

“How about I not tell you anything?” Mersoy said, sharply glancing at them with her blue eyes.

Aez’s brother frowned.

“What, don’t tell me you didn’t consider the fact that I wouldn’t cooperate with you,” Mersoy spoke, her voice was cold, “I don’t care about Dottonex or Tokrei or any other country. So don’t drag me to your stupid politics.”

“Well, I can’t force you, when situation is like this. All I can say that,” Aez’s brother said, “there’s a different air about you. It’s strange. But I can tell you aren’t a bad person at heart. After all, if you were so, you could have killed us easily by now.”

Mersoy sniggered. “I don’t like murdering unless it’s necessary, besides, it’s pointless to kill you two since you are obviously trying to help me. Well, rest assured. Like I said, all I am searching for is the truth. I wouldn’t want to busy myself with killing innocent civilians, so you can be sure that it wasn’t me who caused the other invasions - except the recent one. And I only killed those who opposed me.”

Mersoy walked to the bound up leader, and pulled the scroll still clutched in his hands.

Aez and Nia were quietly listening all the time, but now Nia couldn’t hold back her thoughts anymore, “Brother Aaron! How did you manage to disguise yourself as Tokreians? How come they didn’t realise there were fakes among them?”

“Well, it took a while. This plan was mine, and Ms. D helped me significantly. We were both suspicious when even though you two had given all the answers, you were still taken under custody.”

“All I can say is that,” the woman said, “They - Tokrieans - they are suspicious. No wonder Cridelford was against me when I tried to support them.”

“Your voice,” Nia suddenly said, “hold on a second - it’s YOU?’

“Hush,” the woman replied, “You know me?”

“You are the one,” Nia frowned, “You saw both Aez and me when we signed up for the anti-invasion army. Aaron-brother and you both tried to stop us.”

“You have a good memory. I like this.”

“Look, we don’t have much time,” Aaron said quickly, “At most, we’ll have five more minutes until more Tokrieans arrive in this room. “Whatever it means now is unclear. The Tokreians have links with the scroll. From the looks of it, the situation will be tense now that the scroll was discovered and taken away from them again. I don’t want any of you to stay here. Leave as fast as possible. Go to Cridelford.”

“I have identity codes,” Ms D continued, “Take them, and you can get to Cridelford safely. Take them to the court, and they’ll allow your entry,” she winked at them, “After all, I’m a well-liked Cridelford agent.”

“You are a Cridelford agent?” Nia said in surprise.

Ignoring her comment, Aez’s brother, Aaron continued.

“Let the Cridelford authorities know everything, while you are there. I don’t know if they’d even be listening to you, but it’d be a great help.” Aaron sighed.

And in the next second, there were voices outside, Nia and Aez tensed up.

“They’re here already?” Aaron said, his face dark. “That’s not good at all. Ms D?”

“Right here,” she handed three cards to Mersoy, Nia and Aez each. She looked at the window at the far end of the prison. “Plan A failed. Plan B then.”

She pulled out ropes from a supply box at the corner of the room. She ushered the three of them to follow her, and then she walked to the window. Throwing it open she looked down. It was roughly eight feet above the ground.

“You’ll be fine,” she said, “I’ll throw the rope below. The prison is at the rear end of Dottonex HQ, and so no one will notice unless you make sounds. Besides, Mersoy will help you.”

Nia and Aez shared a nervous glance at each other.

Mersoy sighed. She took the rope quickly and bound it at the frames of the windows. It reached the ground exactly. “Take care of the top part,” she said to Ms D, who nodded. And then she slipped down the rope, smoothly.

“She’s really used to it, isn’t she?” Mersoy heard Aez comment.

Then when she had crouched down at a position a bit away from the rope, Nia and Aez too, came down one by one. Thankfully enough, they didn’t leave the rope in the midway or the rope didn’t break either. When the three were down (and Nia and Aez too, imitated Mersoy by crouching next to her), the rope was dropped from above. Mersoy took it and wrapped it in a small bundle, she put it in a hidden pocket inside her outer garment. The next moment, there was the sound of a bullet, and a door banging open.

“Brother!” Aez was alarmed.

“It wasn’t him,” Mersoy said confidently.

And the next moment there were a few voices. Mersoy recognised Aaron’s voice among them.

“Yes, he’s there,” Mersoy nodded.

“How do you know? I can’t hear,” Aez asked.

“Long story short, as a part-fiend, I can hear things better than you,” Mersoy answered. “Let’s go.”

Mersoy walked stealthily, sneaking at bushes. Occasionally she looked back to see if the other two could follow her. They were coming, but their gaits were hesitant.

Without any words, she continued going forward.