Moving Pieces

‘Captain?’ Something felt off. Abeiron turned around in search of Simonides, but didn’t find him. Changing his sight, he pulled up to see where his Captain remained. “Captain Simonides!” he shouted, drawing all of his men to stop and turn. The soldiers froze with their Captain as a hostage. “…Captain…” Wrinkles of pain dug through his face.

“Captain Simonides! I’m moving MPs in now to rescue you!”

“It’s checkmate, friend.”

“But sir!”

“Follow the plan, Abeiron.” Simonides tightened his hand around the metal. “Initiate beta-four contingency. You’re in command now! Don’t let any of them escape! Do whatever you must to keep Atlantis—“

Abeiron fumbled with the device, hearing Simonides suddenly cutoff. “Captain! Captain!” He couldn’t hear anything more. The last sound he was left with echoing in his ears was the deadly cough of his Captain. His face turned blue and then white almost instantly.

Blood sprayed out of the wound in his chest where the sword poked through. Simonides’ eyes drew wide while his pupils shrank. The pain of the blade yanked out of him made him cough in pain. All of the strength in his body suddenly fled him. He fell to the ground.

“…nder, mmander…” A voice broke through the hazy. It was distant, but cleared up quickly. Abeiron opened his eyes. “Commander?” It was his assistant, a young Sergeant. He relayed many of his orders through him when not addressing the men directly.

Abeiron focused his eyes back on the horizon. Behind him the troops marched, most exhausted, but refused to give up. They were all determined to find those that killed their Captain. “I’m fine, Erasmos.”

“But sir, you’re not acting like yourself.” He had been with the Commander for only a year, but working closely with someone habits became easily seen patterns.

A bit of silence filled their void. Abeiron measured out his words and expressions. “I’m merely human as well, Erasmos. Even a day’s march is going to affect me.” Wrinkles dug around his eyes as he fought with himself. “It’s nothing to worry about.”

While he granted their march would exhaust anyone, the Sergeant remained a little suspicious. Something told him there was something else further down bothering his Commander. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be so bold as to make an assumption. “Yes, sir.”

His assistant was surprisingly observant. ‘Damn, I need to do better if he’s noticing. I don’t know how long I can keep this façade up.’ Abeiron’s mind wandered again. Part fatigue and part turmoil, it made it difficult for him to stay focused for long. ‘It’s been almost a day since we’ve started looking for you, Captain. But you don’t expect us to find you, do you?’

Chapter 218 – Moving Pieces

“What?! You can’t be serious, sir!” shouted Abeiron before he checked his voice. He couldn’t believe what his Captain just told him about his plan. It had to be a mistake.

Simonides waited until Abeiron restrained his emotions before continuing. His tent in camp might have been empty, but the walls had ears. It was important to him that his plan remained limited to those privy to its full details. “I’m telling you this because as confident as I feel about capturing them, real combat does not play out as smoothly as you planned.”

Abeiron still had trouble accepting what he heard. It couldn’t be right. It sounded like his Captain admitted defeat before the battle already began. “But we know everything about them. We’ll have victory this time, sir!”

“We have to stop thinking in certainties or absolutes with these kids. We’ve been overconfident, even arrogant in our belief that we can handle anything.” He preferred to believe he wasn’t as he described, but everything they did was routine. The kids were an aberration. “The reality is that there is always someone better out there.”

“But Captain, you can’t mean to just give up.”

Shaking his head, Simonides started to explain himself. “It’s not about giving up, but ensuring the peace of Atlantis. I must accept that it is possible for my plan to fail. If it fails I’m not going to give up the chance to keep Atlantis safe from those that might hurt it.”

“The men—“

“Won’t know about any of this. Abeiron, I need you to play your part in all of this. If I give you the signal, you’ll take command of the men. I will no longer be able to lead them, I’ll be considered a traitor for my actions.” Simonides stood up. He approached a pouch hanging from a pole supporting the tent. A paper surfaced. He handed it over to Abeiron. “This contains all that I fear will come to pass.”

Simonides pressed his hand to the table they talked across. He leaned in a little. “I need you for this Abeiron. If this comes to pass, take the men and follow after me. Keep up appearances, there’s far more at work than can be seen.”

The past weighed on him heavily. He was entrusted with this burden from his Captain. He always was ready to support him in anything, but started to regret a little the arrogance he had in believing he could do it. Hundreds of lives looked to him for answers. The only answer he gave them was to keep marching. ‘Is this the right answer, sir?’

Abeiron thumbed absentmindedly over the paper handed to him. The words on it troubled him nearly as much as the Captain’s plan. Fears of shadows and the unknown seemed to hang around Simonides in a way that Abeiron had not known. The man carried many secrets. He knew how Simonides maintained order in the South Gate. It was a heavy hand. It was a firm hand. It was a gentle hand. It was all those. It was how he led and why they followed him. It wasn’t something Abeiron could imitate, even in his wildest fantasies.

My most trusted friend,

There are so many things I don’t understand these days. Shadows lurk in dark, terrible corners. Death seems to be the only comfort for anyone. Yet I will not welcome it to reach the gates of Atlantis. It is for Atlantis’ future that I write this.

Everything I do, I do for Atlantis. Her future is the most important thing to me. The survival of our people.

What I am doing will be considered treasonous in our present day, but I believe the future will see my actions justified. The events of late trouble me greatly. Our intruders hold many secrets that I have only scratched the surface of. I fear the truth may be far more terrible and darker than we imagined.

They have abilities impossible for reality. They act in a way that goes counter to traditional thinking. And then there is the council. Their actions have been strange as of late. Add to it the name Eudokia Ismene. One most loyal to the crown than any, a traitor. Something I never told you, but all the intruders have execution orders on them.

It is only my speculation right now, but I believe the council is moving to hide something, something too huge for any of us to learn. The movement of the Omega Division is too big for a single person, even Eudokia Ismene. I believe we are on the edge of a conspiracy reaching to the council themselves. Something that they would kill to keep secret. I’m certain they’ve been moving in secret long before, but the current situation has created themselves a perfect cover up.

If I’m correct I will know too much. If they learn of what I know, they may come after me as well. So I must ask that you keep the status quo. Act ignorant and protect the men. Move as someone blind to the truth should, while keeping an eye open to the shadows.

I’m sorry I must leave this burden on you friend.

Simonides

He read it so many times in his shock that the words remained an echo in his mind. No matter what he tried, they wouldn’t leave him. Abeiron feared that these might be the last words of his friend. He didn’t want to believe it to be so, but he knew him to be far too accurate in his predictions at times. If things were as bad as he feared no one who knew even a piece of the truth would be safe. The Omega Division would silence everyone. It was easy to cover up things in the confusion befallen Atlantis with the intruders.

Buried deep within the standard ranks of the soldiers marching under Abeiron’s command was a common everyday face. It blended in with everyone else. They didn’t look any different. It was the way they wanted it. Slowly, over minutes they worked through the ranks playing up fatigue to fall out of the lines.

When the opportunity came, they disappeared from sight completely. No one knew they were even present. No one even knew they stood there for hours. Never missed.

Freed from observation, they put significant distance between the march. Eventually, they dropped their disguise. “Following them will no longer bear fruit,” commented Cosmas. He grinned a little knowing something. “I can resume my hunt.” The grin became a toothy one. The excitement of spilled blood overtook him a little.

A thin disc of metal grew out of the air in front of him. Once it was wide enough, he stepped on it. It finished its growth at just under a half-meter radius. Cosmas sat down before it sped off. “I have traitors waiting for me to find them!” A dark smile spread into a bit of laughter as he flew off into the distance.

She was lost, again. Part of the problem was that Atlantis all looked very similar out in the open fields. It was easy to lose the sense of direction unless familiar with the area. She should have been familiar with the area, but the loss of eyesight made things difficult.

Athene could only make so much up with the aid of her power. She couldn’t force her eyes to see anything. She relied on an echo system that transmitted the forms of everything back to her. Her mind processed it all. It still only gave her a fuzzy image, as she wasn’t accustomed to it. Finding the way out of a room or navigating a town was easy. When there was nothing to bounce off it became a void and she could only trust in her feet not to stray.

A break was the only thing she could do to recover her mental faculties and restore her concentration. Her emotions were so high on finding that man her powers stopped working and she didn’t realize it until she found herself lost.

She turned her hand in the air. “It’s still light out.” The heat of the sun was the only way she knew if it was day or night anymore. “I left when it was almost night. It’s starting to feel a little cooler again. I’ve lost another day…” Athene hated how much she lost in her search for him. “If I had my sight I’d already have found him. Damn that man…” Her mind faded out with constant whispers. Waking or not, he consumed everything of her.

Athene awoke to a distant rumble. The consistent noise was unfamiliar in the remote parts of Atlantis. It was more likely to see a cart and traders. However, she knew the difference between the two. Testing the air, she realized how long she slept. “Dammit! It’s night already.” The distant echo continued.

Curiosity led her to follow the noise. If something major happened, she needed to know. Following her ear mostly, she made good progress tracking it. The closer she got the clearer things became until she recognized it as the sound of marching. A large-scale march struck her as odd.

Monitoring from a safe distance, she used her power to shape out things. The numbers were larger than she imagined. She immediately went to the most obvious answer. ‘This is the South Gate men. Captain Simonides was gathering all of the forces together for an attack on the intruders.’ A thought came to her. ‘If they’re marching in the direction of intruders, I can get my bearings again.’

Keeping herself invisible, she moved in to get a clear read on the direction. She hoped to hear some idle gossip about plans. The soldiers had a tendency to talk. Anything she could learn would give her the advantage in her hunt.

She found her direction, but none of the soldiers cooperated with her. None of them seemed interested in talking. Athene didn’t understand it. ‘It feels odd. Like there is a gloom over everyone. What happened?’ She wanted to reveal herself and get some answers directly, but couldn’t risk it. The Captain no doubt was on the lookout for her.

Tracking up the group, Athene moved closer to the front. It was an hour later, but she finally reached upon what she needed. Two soldiers chattering between themselves bothered over the current situation.

“I can’t believe we’re doing nothing!”

“Why did the Commander order us to turn around?!”

“It makes no sense. We haven’t done anything yet! We haven’t avenged the Captain!”

“I want a piece of those bastards so badly.”

“Cut the chatter,” barked a superior officer, trying to maintain the crumbling morale.

Athene’s eyes widened, not understanding what she heard. ‘Avenge the Captain? What’s going on? They make it sound like…’ She couldn’t finish the thought. Athene hurried along the line. She had to know now. Her own plans didn’t matter anymore. She needed to go straight to the source.

In the front, she only found one person with a few behind. She assumed it had to be Captain Simonides. Using her power, she went more detailed on the scan forcing her mind to make sense of it all. It wasn’t Simonides, but Abeiron. She went to the others behind Abeiron, none of them were the Captain. ‘Where is he? What’s happened?’ Athene turned off her power, revealing herself to everyone. Her eyes hardened into narrowed lines. “Where is Captain Simonides?”