'Ring, ring, ring.' Ugh, who the hell calls at such an ungodly hour? With great effort, I got up from bed and answered the phone. The morning light blinded me for a second as my eyes adjusted to the light. "Hello?" I answered as I wiped the sleep from my eyes.
"Good morning, mr Simon, it's Xander." The excitement in his voice surprised me a bit as he was usually very reserved.
"Morning, Xander. Is there a reason you woke me up from my much-needed sleep?" I admonished him slightly out of annoyance.
"Yes, yes, my apologies, but this was the only time when there was no one around me. I think I have an idea of how we can catch the mole." It took a while for my sleep-addled mind to register his words.
"Well then, out with it?" I was still very annoyed at being woken up, but I understood its necessity.
"We pretend that you are going into another rift." I could hear that he was proud of his plan.
"And how is that supposed to help?" That is one thing I did not like about Xander: he always spoke in circles.
"We use the drones. Let me explain. We mention it infront of our inner circle, and have the i74 drones to follow them. We can catch the bastard with his pants down." I had to manually go through my memory to remember what model the i74 was. If memory served, they were only about the size of a coin and completely silent.
"If my memory has not failed me, aren't those highly illegal? I don't know, this seems risky." I was sceptical, but hope nonetheless found a way to worm its way into my heart. I really wanted the plan to work.
"They are only illegal for personal use, but for business use, it is perfectly fine. They are illegal due to privacy concerns, but they are perfect for what needs to be done. There are too many blind spots within the company, so the security cameras are useless. Look, I know you have your reservations, but this is the best chance we are going to have to out whoever it is."
His explanation was solid, and I could find no fault in what he said.
"Fine, but this is on you if it all goes to shit," I reluctantly agreed. "I will be there within an hour, so do all the necessary setup before I get there." With that, I hung up the phone and began massaging the bridge of my nose. A habit I picked up fairly recently, which helped me clear my thoughts.
—-
I have no idea how long I have been walking. It was strange, I knew I should have tired long ago, but how I knew this was a mystery. It has become a common occurrence where I just know certain things as if fact, but when I try to remember how I knew it, it always comes out blank. The only certainty in this strange place was that you could only go forward. Every time I looked back, the path I had walked would be consumed by the mist, and my instincts told me to avoid the mist by any means necessary. I saw movement in my peripheral vision, and I froze on the spot. This was the first change in the monotony of the great trek that I had come across.
I was just about to turn towards where I saw the movement when an eldritch horror exited the mist. At first, it was only a single eyeless face that appeared out of the mist. The creature had a vaguely human face, with pale skin. But then two more faces appeared from the mist, each a mirror of the other; the only difference was their facial expressions. When it's fully stepped out of the mist, I was capable of witnessing it in all its haunting glory. Nine heads born from a twisted man's worst nightmare stood in front of me. It looked like a malformed hydra; it radiated the feeling of rot and decay. My breath caught in my throat as I stood paralyzed. I did not make a single sound as it walked across the path to the other side of the mist. Before it fully crossed, it began to sing a twisted song. As it sang, I felt something slip from my mind, like a word I had never known but couldn't live without. My eyes glazed over as all memories of the creature were wiped from existence.
—-
"The next rift I will be facing is the E-rank rift, Stone Plateau. The minerals found there will benefit the company greatly. I have already booked it for tomorrow. I need the extraction team ready and on standby for then. And that concludes the meeting. You are dismissed." Although my words were confident, there was a nervousness buried underneath, contained only by practiced restraint.
The words of my father crossed through my mind 'Strength without restraint is the same as fear without action, weakness.' And I was anything but weak, or at least that was what I kept telling myself in these last two weeks. After the conclusion of the meeting, I watched as the members of the board of directors left to begin their daily tasks. My nerves were tense as we entered the next phase of our plan. I shot a look towards Xander, and he only nodded in response and motioned for me to come closer.
"The drones are already following them. As of now, everything seems normal." Xander usually spoke with a completely professional tone, but today it took a backseat. He was greatly worried about the company, as the corporate sabotage had affected him the most, next to my own struggles. He may not have faced assassins, but they have tried to ruin his reputation.
Just as I was about to respond, Xander spoke again. "Wait! The drones have picked up a deviation…" He grew uncharacteristically silent as he watched the drones feed. My heart started thumping in my chest at his words; his entire body language spoke of sympathy, but why would he be sympathetic? The more I thought of his reaction, the more concerned I grew.
"Look, Simon, I'm sorry…" His head was low as he avoided eye contact.
"Just spit it out, damnit! Who is it?" The frustration of the last two weeks was mounting, and his silence only made it worse.
Xander took a deep breath as he finally met my eyes. "It's Angelica, Simon; she is the mole." In that moment, my world froze. No, no, this can't be. Anyone but her.
My first reaction was that it could not be true; she was the rock that kept me steady since Zeon's coma. "Stop lying and tell me who it is. This is not the time for jokes, Xander." I refused to believe it; it must be a joke, right?
The sadness on Xander's face made me realize that he was being dead serious. "She went into a storage closet without any cameras close by. She took out a burner phone, look, man, I'm sorry." Yet again, Xander could not meet my eyes. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the dull hum of the lights above us. My heart forgot its rhythm.
I felt my knees grow weak as I took a seat on one of the chairs close by. My world was falling apart. Why was it always me? Father once said a leader must not bleed before his people, but I could feel the wound spreading through me all the same.
"If you want, I can handle this one. I know you two were close," Xander tried to console me. My eyes focused again on his words as my eyes met his. Resolve grew within my hazel eyes with an undertone of hurt.
"No, this is my burden to bear," My voice cracked halfway through the statement but I steeled myself for what was to come.
Taking out my phone with shaking hands that smoothed as the seconds passed by, I called Angelica. The silence stretched, heavy with ghosts. I stared at my phone for a long time before finally dialing. "Yeah, it's me. No, I need to speak with you. Yeah, meet me in Xander's office." By some miracle, I managed to remain calm during the call. But that same calm was slowly being replaced with rage at the betrayal. I have never been as good as Zeon when it came to controlling my emotions, and it was beginning to show. 'Remember, my son, trust is a frail thing that comes with a heavy burden. Our ancestors trusted the Chinese when they told us our kingdoms and people would remain untouched. And they felt its cost when our kingdoms were destroyed and our people enslaved. I am not telling you not to trust in people, but trust that a snake will act as a snake. Trust in their nature, not their words.' The memory brought a sour taste to my mouth as I finally understood my father's words.
—
The more I walked on this never-ending path of darkness, the more it felt like pieces of me were slipping away. As if I was trying to hold onto sand as it slipped through my fingers. It was a strange feeling to lose something that you did not even know you had. The entire time I felt the unmistakable feeling of being watched, but every time I tried to find its source, I felt my focus waver and my attention return to the path ahead of me. I walked so long that the hours turned to days, the days turned to months, and the months turned to years. Time had no meaning in this strange realm; the only constants in this place were the path, the mist, and the incessant beeping in the background. I just kept walking, even when it felt like I had lost the entirety of my being; the march continued. Unending, unchanging, and eternal, the monotony remained. But everything changed when I met her… I felt that the fire of my existence was beginning to fade when I finally gave in and walked into the mist. Even when my entire being warned me not to, I needed a change. I don't really understand why I did it; I simply did.
—
Angelica walked into Xander's office with her usual calm. Ever since Zeon left the equation, her life had grown far easier. She had Simon wrapped around her finger, allowing her to complete her mission with relative ease. Her calm was shattered the second she walked in; the room was filled with the presence of a quiet foreboding. Her every instinct warned her that she was walking into a trap, but she could not turn around, lest she jeopardize the mission. She saw Xander first, his face the picture of disappointment. A silent voice in her mind told her that she had been caught, but she so hoped it was not so. Even though she has been feeding information to Liam, she really did feel for Simon, but her fear for Baron Liam trumped even her love for him. She could still remember what happened to the last of her sisters who had failed her mission; she could still hear her screams as the dogs ate her alive. The memory caused a shiver to run down her spine when she finally met Simon's eyes.
—
"Why?" That single word took almost all of my strength to utter, without breaking down. Angelica looked at me with eyes full of guilt, and the last hope that it was untrue bled away. My eyes hardened as I looked towards her. "Tell me why?" My voice was as cold as a winter breeze when I spoke. I watched as her facade began to crumble, tears welling up in her eyes. Even while watching the woman I once loved break down in front of me, I just felt so hollow.
"Do not waste our time with your tears." My voice came out harsher than intended, but at this point, I do not care.
"I… I had no choice…" She said in between sobs, but even that was not enough to get through the stone that has formed around my heart.
"Whether you wanted to or not, you have betrayed us… You have betrayed me…" The last part was barely a whisper, but she heard it nonetheless.
"How much? How much did they offer you to whore yourself out like this?" My aggression was mounting with every spoken word, but I controlled myself not to snap. Anger would not help in this situation. My words had a visible effect on Angelica; she could no longer meet my eyes as her body shivered. A part of me wanted to stop and hold her close, to comfort her. I mercilessly crushed that urge, as my righteous fury helped me regain my senses.
"It was never about money. What would you have done? when your very life hangs in the balance." She spat with venom; my words had clearly struck a nerve.
"Either way, it does not matter. You do not matter. You only have two options, before you now. Either you tell us everything willingly, or I will get my answers through force." A warrior does not ask nor beg; he tells you what he wants. You can either give it willingly, or he can take it from you. The lessons my father had imparted to me over the years have never meant as much as they did in this moment.
I saw genuine fear cross her face. "You don't understand what will happen to me if I speak. No, no, I can't let that happen." She shook her head vehemently.
"Angelica, stop. Don't make me torture you. If our time together meant anything to you, then please don't resist." My voice was soft but rife with pain and anguish.
She looked at me with a defeated look, like a woman who had accepted her fate. She agreed and began to tell us everything. From the very beginning of her story, how Liam had adopted her from an orphanage. To how he raised her and her sisters, all for the singular purpose of being his tools. She told us of all the missions she had done for the vile man and the consequences of those that failed him. Until she got to the parts concerning us, the more I heard, the more my fury grew. Until it was a smoldering inferno, begging for release.
—
Entering the mist was strangely welcoming; it was a direct contradiction to the instincts that warned me of the dangers within. Even though I could not see five feet in front of me, it was a welcome change to the boredom I had grown accustomed to in the past few years. The deeper I walked, the stranger the mist became. I started noticing movement in my peripheral vision, but even that could not distract me from walking deeper. I yearned for release from this accursed place, and the danger I felt within the mist promised that release.
Further and further I walked, the mist began to grow unbearably cold. But the numbness in my body could not discourage me. That was when I heard it, a melody from the sweetest symphony. Her voice was so beautiful that it drew me in. I needed to know whose voice was so perfect. The closer I came to the voice, the more entranced I became. So much so that when I finally found her, my eyes were glazed over and my mind was already hers. And then the song ended, and so too did the wonderful bliss that came with it. Her hair was snow white, almost blending in with her pale skin. Her blue lips pursed as she turned towards me, and my heart fluttered. She had eyes as blue as the Caribbean ocean, which seemed too large for her face. She wore a dress that looked to be formed from snowflakes, with a tiara of ice adorning her head. She had shackles covering her wrists and ankles.
"How peculiar," She spoke as she regarded me. Her voice was of the sweetest melodies as the words whisked their way into my ears. "This is no place for the living to wander," her words were more akin to thinking out loud than actually speaking to me. "Oh," she gasped, bringing her hand to her perfect mouth. "To meet a contender for the seat here, quite intriguing indeed," her focus left me, leaving me with a yearning for her gaze. But she was looking at something behind me. "You have no authority here." Her eyes somehow grew colder than they already were as she spoke in an authoritative voice.
I heard a hiss from behind me, causing me to turn and look. There stood a twisted creature with nine human faces, sharp dagger-like teeth, with hollow eyes. Its skin was a pasty white, as the eldritch horror hissed at the ethereal woman once again. This creature was vaguely familiar, but I had no recollection of ever seeing it before. "Shoo, return to hunting the souls of the damned. This one has been claimed." She said with a wave of her hand, and the abomination actually listened to her and left. My focus drifted back to the strange woman, but she was no longer sitting down on a boulder. Instead, she was standing directly infront of me, our faces only centimeters apart. I could feel her breath on my throat as she observed me closely. "What is your name?" She asked with curiosity.
"Zeon," I responded without thinking, not realizing that I even remembered my name, which was strange. But the smile that appeared on her face drew the entirety of my attention. "Return to me, Zeon," she whispered in my ear, as the world around me began to crumble. The sound of beeping growing louder and louder. I started to feel the weight and weakness of my body, as long unused muscles began to awaken. My eyes shot open, burning with a blue and black intensity. My hand shot out, grabbing the wrist of a man who held a knife over my formerly unconscious body. The flames of Judgement burned the sinner where he stood. His flesh cracked and withered, and in the reflection of his hollow eyes, I saw the mist once more. His corpse began to mummify as his face was eternally trapped in agony.