“No, ma’am,” G replied quickly, the gears in his mind spinning as he tried to work out how he could possibly save these prisoners without arousing Tess’s suspicion.
“Well then, get to it,” Tess ordered, taking another sip of potion as she reached into her desk a second time. G was about to go down the stairs when he paused for a moment.
All throughout his stay in Nocturia, G had spent hours upon hours with Tess. Because of her constant presence, incredibly high expectations of him and casual talk as if they were the best of friends, G had felt incredibly awkward and hated every minute of it, but he had forced himself to do it for the sake of Element City. And he had done his job quite well, never letting on to his aversion to Tess, and always letting her feel like they were becoming close friends. And perhaps now would be the perfect time to try to get some payoff for all his hard work for the sake of rescuing those trapped players from Element City.
“Um … excuse me, ma’am?”
“Why are you still here, Corporal?” Tess asked in irritation as she glanced up. She had been searching for food in the chest, and hadn’t realized that G hadn’t left yet.
“Well, because I have a suggestion for you.”
“I don’t want to hear it, Corporal. You have duties to attend to.”
“Please, ma’am, I think that it may be important.”
“Fine!” Tess shouted in frustration. “What do you want, Corporal? And make it fast. I have a lot of work to do, and so do you!”
G took a deep breath, and let it out before continuing. “Well, it occurred to me that the war in Elementia is going to be over soon and it seems like we’re on the verge of winning. I think that, if we’re going to rule over the citizens in Element City again, perhaps we might be able to get more support from them if we were to be a bit lenient.”
“Oh?” Tess asked, her eyebrow raised suspiciously as she eyed G. “And how do you propose we do that, exactly?”
“My suggestion,” G replied tentatively, aware of how Tess was probably going to react to his proposal, “is that we don’t execute the soldiers just yet. We hold them captive here until—”
“That is a preposterous idea.”
There was a moment of silence as Tess glared at G, and G struggled to hold his feelings in. He knew what he had to do, and even though he was aware that he was pushing his luck, he tried to press on.
“Well, the reason I think that is—”
“What are you trying to say, Corporal? That the atrocities that the soldiers of Elementia have committed during the war deserve to go unpunished?”
“No, of course not, but—”
“Then I see no reason why this conversation should continue.”
“Please, listen to me!” G exclaimed, something snapping in his head as he felt a surge of anger toward Tess for all the wrong reasons. “I’ve been following you faithfully since the day I arrived here, and I’ve devoted my life to you. The least you could do is hear me out!”
Tess’s face took on a dangerous look. “You’re treading on thin ice, Corporal.”
“Please, General,” G said again, trying to curb the acid boiling in his stomach. “It would mean a lot to me if you would just allow me to—”
“I am your commanding officer, Corporal MasterBronze,” Tess shot back, standing up at her desk and giving him the evil eye, “and I am this close to having you executed for insubordination! Stand down right now!”
G stood still, his mouth still slightly open, and found himself unable to speak. As Tess had yelled at him, a startling realization had hit G like a train. He merely stood still for a moment as he flashed back to over a month ago, when he was standing in the hallway of Element Castle, enraged and hurt, and he had yelled …
“Get a move on!” Tess barked at him. “Are you just going to stand there all day? You have no idea how lucky you are that I haven’t already ordered you out in front of the firing squad!”
G barely heard her. He was making his way down the quartz block stairs, back towards the group of recruits, his mind swimming in a vortex of realizations and guilt.
Since G had entered Nocturia, he had given barely any thought at all to Kat. The two of them were clearly done and over with, and with far more important things going on, the issue had been dormant in G’s mind for quite some time. However, the last time he had thought about her, he was still under the impression that she was being unreasonable in not getting over their fight, and that she had been stupid to want to break it off in the first place, given how much attention he was lavishing on her.
Now, though, G found it amazing that, given everything General Tess had put him through since he had joined Nocturia, Kat hadn’t come to his mind sooner. It hadn’t occurred to him for a second, all this time, that the way that he had treated Kat, his former girlfriend and fellow council member, was disturbingly similar to the way that General Tess, the commanding officer of the organization that he had sworn to destroy, had treated him as an underling.
It felt like a void had opened in G’s chest as memories came flooding back to him. All that time, he had thought that he had been an amazing boyfriend to Kat, and he was frustrated because he didn’t feel like she was putting in as much effort as he was. But now, G could see quite clearly that he had been far too demanding of her, and incredibly disrespectful. She had agreed to go out with him, and continued to make an effort even when things got difficult while still keeping sight of her responsibilities. But he had neglected his duties to the council, only wanting to spend time with her, and was infuriated when she hadn’t done the same.
And to top it all off, he had only put up with Tess because he had to. Why Kat had put up with him at all, G could only guess …
G sat down on the stairs for a moment, overwhelmed. He had just snapped at Tess for something that he himself had done before. Because he had done that, Tess was now suspicious of him, and his cover would surely be blown soon. And if he was executed as a spy, not only would Mella and Stull never be saved, but G would never get a chance to return to Element City and let Kat know how sorry he was for what he had done to her.
G stood up, his stomach blazing with resolve. He knew what he had to do. It was do-or-die time now, and drastic actions were called for. All at once, an insane plan formulated in G’s head, and he knew that he’d have to go through with it. If it worked, then not only would he spare the hostages’ lives but free them as well, along with curing the NPC villagers and escaping the nightmarish Noctem Capitol. If the plan failed, then they would all die.
G took a deep breath, let it out, and set off down the stairs to put his plan into motion.
A roar of furious shouting erupted from the base of the cave as Ben walked off the stone brick–block balcony. Even as he walked back inside the command post that had been carved into the cave wall, he could still hear the threats and boos that followed his most recent announcement. He gritted his teeth in frustration. He still couldn’t stand the fact that he’d had to cut the food rations again, but unfortunately there was nothing else that could be done.
Ben shut the wooden door behind him, yet he could still hear the jeers. Sighing, he walked into the room, which was nothing more than a small cave that had been cleaned up and turned into the head office of the military as long as they were stuck down in the bunker. A few chests sat pressed up against the stone-block wall, and some maps and papers sat on a wood plank–block table, but other than that, the room was barren. Bob was sitting on Ivanhoe, and upon his entry, they both looked up.
“Sounds like it went well,” Bob muttered bitterly, glancing at the door, which was doing nothing to block out the noise.
“Well, how did you expect them to react?” asked Ben, a resigned