Chapter 9 Part 3 of 5 (Patreon)

Kameela blinked against the light, her goggles adjusting to it as she stepped out with her rifle, Harrod and Edmond fanned out to her sides, the Alvans moving their own group out to cover the area.

The tower rose out of the ground in a wooded area, they’d climbed out of the windows.

An Alvan shot a creature that looked the same as the vines that twined together to create trees and link in overarching jungle cover.

A beast ran out of its burrow, Kameela fired, her round shot stopped it before it cleared its hole.

She could taste and smell the powder through her headdress, she tossed the rifle into her storage ring and had another rifle in her hands before the creature rested its head on the ground for the last time. She was tempted to shoot it again but had to remember that creatures in the Sub-realm wouldn’t show tombstones like creatures from the ten realms.

The other creatures hid or ran from the noise.

They waited several seconds before lowering their weapons.

“Up you go Edmond, Harrod.”

Harrod helped Edmond up and the Alvans sent up people through the trees with him.

They’d barely been up there a second, just long enough for Edmond to check the map updated before he dropped down again.

They hurried back to the top of the stone tower jutting out of the ground, covered by the vine-trees.

Darkness greeted her once again as they passed the Alvan guards and stepped deeper into the tower.

They got to an empty floor, a stone table remained here as Edmond sat on it and studied his map.

“So, where are we?” Roska asked, pulling off her helmet and walking over to me.

Edmond coughed and put his map away, frowning at her. What is he doing? Kameela frowned.

Roska whistled the Alvans coming to the ready as she rested her hand on her weapon grip.

“You got something you need to say?”

“Why are you the one talking for your leaders? Why are you so interested in my maps?”

Roska laughed, it grew as she shook her head, moving her forearm to rest ontop of her buttstock, she could flick up her rifle in a second. Kameela felt the adrenaline surging through her veins. What are you doing you idiot? Edmond smiled, his eyes dead as his hands rested on a matchlock.

“Lets get something clear here Dujardin.”

Edmond dropped the smile.

“I have one mission here, get Erik and Rugrat back home, safe and sound. Anything that stops me in that mission will find itself face down in a shallow grave. Play your games with your sects and clans, you’re not part of the Empire, I don’t know you, don’t care for you much. Says something when all of the captains of your elite fleet turn on you doesn’t it? Honestly, that’s your problem, mine is I’m stuck in this shithole with you. So, I don’t care if you keep your map, don’t care if you fucking jerk off while balancing on your head. You get us to that Transition point we’re good. I’ll do a contract right here and now.”

“Contracts won’t work here, we’re not in the ten realms.” The skeleton-Egbert said as he walked into the room. “Also probably why we don’t see tombstones on dead creatures, and we’re not getting experience from killing them. Harrod?”

“That’s correct,” The big man nodded.

“In the ten realms contracts bind us, out here they don’t which means as long as they install a new Marshal of the Sha before you return then they are just fine and they can do as they want. Also why they can all turn on you without a contract,” Egbert said.

Edmond’s hand tightened on his pistol.

Egbert laughed lightly and opened his hands “Children these days Roska, ease up. Don’t worry I could kill them in a second anyway.”

Roska relaxed as Egbert walked into the room.

“Here is the agreement, and since we’re not in the ten realms we’ll have to do something strange, we’ll have to trust one another. Novel concept isn’t it? You can keep ahold of your map, if you can guide us to a transition point that will get us out of here, the one you were talking about that shouldn’t be guarded as much because it is in the undercity. We will work together to keep each other safe in our travels. Once we are back in the seventh realm then we can each go our separate ways, or even together.” Egbert’s jovial tone turned serious.

“Either we stick together and get the hell out of this place or we can just save the sub-realm having to kill us themselves.”

He looked at the Sha members as Kameela wanted nothing more than to smack that thoughtful expression off of Edmond’s face with her buttstock.

“Very well, in here compasses won’t work so we have to work off of the maps. We can rest up and head out when we are ready, the transition point is a week’s travel in that direction,” He pointed off in the distance.

“This is the Violet Sky Realm so any travel is bound to take two or three times that amount of time. Tell your lords that I do not appreciate being looked down upon and being forced to talk to their guard captain and familiar.”

Roska clenched her jaw and Egbert bowed.

“I will convey your words.”

Egbert turned and indicated to the special team members, they left the room, leaving Harrod, Kameela and Edmond.

Kameela indicated Harrod to the doorway, he stood there acting as guard.

Edmond studied his map.

“We’re going to have to watch them closely, as he said there are no contract-“ Her slap cocked his head right around to the other side.

The sound didn’t carry in her sound cancelling formation as he jumped up to punch her, but held his fist.

“Edmond Dujardin, what a petty little man you have become.” She spat, her finger and the fire in her eyes a stronger weapon than any rifle on him.

“They have put their lives on the line for us and now you are playing power games?” She snatched the map from his hands, zooming it out.

“Kameela.”

“Just what I thought, what happened to you?” She snorted and threw the map back at him, feeling a burning heat behind her eyes.

It was like she was seeing him for the first time. Who are you, where’s my Eddie? It hurt so.

“I became the Marshal, someone had to,” He gritted his teeth.

“Had to? There were dozens of others that could have done it, you said you would turn control to a mixed council to blend the clans together!”

“That was before.”

“Before Bartan was killed? That was twenty years ago Edmond! You never wanted to be the Marshal, you never wanted any of this, you hated the petty power games, but here we are and you’re playing them yet again.”

“I’m trying to protect us! Can’t you see that!” Edmond yelled

“Can’t you see you’re isolating the only people we can rely on?” Kameela yelled back.

“In this building, we are all that you have right now. They were right about one thing, you are not the Marshal of the Sha anymore. You’re just a man, a gunhand.”

She saw him gritting his teeth, the seething rage under his skin.

“Why do you care so much about a position you didn’t care about?” She shook her head. “I thought that you were the same person as you were when we were just a party in the third realm. But, maybe it was just me that remained the same.”

“Kameela,” Edmond said, his face sinking.

A sad smile rose on her face as she looked away. “It was foolish of me, when we were trapped down here, hiding in the ruins, I was scared, but excited, the weight of the Sha was gone, we could be a party again. I guess that we know why you couldn’t pass the eighth realm trial. How focused have you been on doing tasks for others, for running their external wheels instead of taking your path and pushing that instead?”

She turned and walked away.

“I didn’t lie Kameela,” Edmond said.

She turned back to him.

“There is a transition point under the Treasure Hall, the beasts focus on the Hall instead of the transition point so when we get there we can split away from the Alvans. It is risky, but we’ll need whatever we find in the treasure hall to protect ourselves when the Sha come after us.”

Kameela’s heart twisted with his words.

He shifted his feet and cocked his head to the side, his finery in shambles.

“When Bartan died, I couldn’t just turn over my position to someone else. He was killed taking an attack meant for me, that much is true. What I never told anyone else was that the wound was inflicted by a Sha weapon that used gunpowder. The attack came from behind instead of from where the assassins were attacking us from.”

“The assassins?”

Edmond shook his head. “They didn’t even know they were attacking a Sha convoy, they thought we were just some rich merchants.”

“Then you mean.”

“A Sha killed Bartan. How could I turn power over to someone else when I didn’t know if it was the person that had him killed. I could only trust the people that didn’t want power, I had to try and weaken them and figure out who it was. I could only trust you, my teammates,” He waved to Harrod who continued to watch the door. “You didn’t want power, you wanted adventure. I was the war leader of the Sha, Bartan was supposed to rule in peace. How much peace have we found since founding the Sha? And now, well, now it will crumble and collapse. Now I am a man with the secrets of the Sha and you are all my closest allies. Even if we make it out of here, our lives are in danger.”

“That means you should leave the power games behind.”

“The world is not that black and white Kameela.