“I don’t know,” said Stan. “Her voice was cut off by static half the time.”
“Stan, it’d be nice if your dead girlfriend could be a little less vague,” said DZ with an exasperated chuckle.
“Well, seeing as we don’t have any real idea what the upcoming attack is, or when it’s coming, I say the only thing we can really do is prepare our military,” said Charlie. “I’ll alert the soldiers to do double duty in patrolling our walls, and I’ll send messengers out to tell all our outposts to do the same. DZ, can you go and tell Ben to get the police to step it up, too?”
“Aye aye, Captain,” replied DZ, and he stood up and crossed the room to the door that led to the stairwell with the courtyard at the bottom.
“What do you want me to do, Charlie?” asked Archie. Stan’s eyebrow twitched. He almost resented that Archie asked for a command from Charlie rather than him. On the other hand, he did feel rather disgruntled at the moment, and it probably showed.
“I want you to go out and finish the preparations,” said Charlie with a grin. “We’ve still got to have Elementia Day, don’t we?”
“That we do,” boomed Archie, and he swept out of the room after DZ.
“I’m gonna see what I can do to reconnect with Sally,” said Stan. “Maybe she can tell us more about this attack.”
“Good thinking, Stan,” said Charlie as he stood up and went the way of Archie and DZ.
Stan walked out of the common room back to his quarters, and he lay down on the bed. Stan focused all his being on Sally, hoping there was some iota of chance that she could reconnect with him.
But Sally didn’t reconnect with him. Not in his bedroom, not when Archie told him it was time for the celebrations to begin, not during the pig race when Charlie won his bet against Kat that Bob would win, and not during the sparring tournament. Stan found it difficult to think of anything else. It was as if the players in the crowd were on a TV that Stan wasn’t really watching.
Stan kept telling himself he wanted to contact Sally for the sake of intelligence on the impending attack. Really, though, the reason was that he wanted nothing more in the world than to hear her voice again. Perhaps, although it seemed impossible, they could discover some way that Sally might rejoin Elementia.
“And now, ladies and gentlemen,” boomed Archie’s deep voice, cutting through Stan’s thoughts like a knife, “President Stan2012 will take the stage for the re-enactment of the great battle between himself and the tyrannical King Kev.”
Stan sighed. This was perhaps his least favourite part of the ceremonies, yet, for some reason, it tended to be one of the most popular. Although the people of the republic had been loud and rambunctious in the ceremonies all day, the loudest cacophony of cheers and praises rang out now, as Stan climbed the stairs up to the imitation bridge that had been constructed at the centre of the park.
The re-enactment had only been added last Elementia Day. Blackraven had suggested that it was fitting that the people of Elementia celebrate how their beloved republic came to be, and that Stan himself should play his own part in the play. Stan was still determined to give his people the show they loved, despite how uncomfortable it made him to relive the deaths of his friends.
He looked down the bridge at the actor dressed now as King Kev. It was a different actor this month, Stan noted. Although it was impossible to tell two players with the same skin apart at a glance, it was possible to tell by truly examining their eyes. Every player’s eyes had a unique gleam to them.
Stan, who had earlier been adorned in diamond armour with two iron axes strapped to his back just as they had been the day he had challenged King Kev, drew one of these axes now. The King’s eyebrow twitched, as scripted, and Stan charged down the stone bridge towards the King Kev doppelgänger. The King’s sword was drawn, as was necessary, and, at the right point, Stan threw the axe at the actor’s head. The actor dive-rolled to the side and was then supposed to raise his diamond sword to counter the downward blow from Stan’s axe.
Instead, the actor thrust the sword upwards into the handle of Stan’s axe and gave it a sharp twist, sending Stan’s weapon spiralling to the side, just as the Avery actor grabbed Stan from behind in a full nelson and raised his own diamond sword to Stan’s throat.
There was a horrified silence in the crowd for a moment, before screams began to erupt. All throughout the crowd, figures were buttoning on black tunics and pulling on black caps. They held blue-grey Potions of Slowness in their hands. Stan, even with his limited movement, could see that the black figures had enough radius to neutralize the entire crowd of thousands if need be.
The King Kev actor picked up Stan’s axe, attached it to his belt, and then picked up his own sword. The instant it touched his hand, the sword darkened to black to match the tunic and cap the actor had pulled on. The King Kev actor cleared his throat, and spoke. “My name is Emerick, corporal of the Noctem Alliance. My agents and I have captured and taken your president hostage. As such, I now claim this city in the name of the Noctem Alliance and its leader, Lord Tenebris.”
And through the stunned silence of the crowd around the imitation bridge, all the black figures gave the same unanimous cry that had haunted Stan’s nightmares.
“VIVA LA NOCTEM!”
With the sword held against his neck, Stan could barely breathe, let alone turn his head to see the looks of terror on his citizens’ faces. Stan willed himself not to panic. He knew this bold attack by the Noctem Alliance would ultimately be useless.
Even as Stan thought this, arrows flew from the plain-dressed guards Stan had positioned throughout the crowd, an added security measure suggested by Gobbleguy. Stan saw with a painful glance that several of the Noctem troopers who had been holding the crowd at bay with potions had already been felled by arrows, and the rest had disappeared in bursts of fire.
Stan felt the grip around his neck loosen, and he broke out of the Avery actor’s chokehold. Spinning around, Stan found him dead on the ground, an arrow protruding from his forehead. Stan lunged sideways and scooped up the dead actor’s sword.
“Pursue the attackers!” Stan bellowed at the guards in the crowd, who pocketed their bows and began chasing the remaining attackers, who were fleeing the scene. A small smile crossed Stan’s face as he turned his attention to the Noctem corporal named Emerick who, inexplicably, was returning the expression.
This didn’t sit well with Stan, and his own smile vanished. “Why are you smiling?” Stan demanded. “Your troops are dead and your little hostile takeover lasted less than ten seconds. What part of this do you find amusing, exactly?”
Emerick’s smile just grew, and in a matter of seconds a low, evil chuckle sounded from the Noctem corporal. Stan suddenly felt a surge of rage towards Emerick and the Noctem Alliance that he served. His attempt to seize power had failed, yet he still found something to be happy about? Was this some sort of trick?
Stan lunged forwards, sword in hand, ready to sink it deep into Corporal Emerick, but the corporal feinted backwards faster than Stan had ever seen a player move before, and with one jump, he launched himself high over the crowd. A series of black orbs, barely visible against the black sky, flew from Corporal Emerick’s hand and hit the ground in a burst of fire. As he disappeared into the smoke from the fire charges, Stan barely made out the faint