An Empire of Betrayal & Order 2

Back in Heilig’s capital, Dozil, Walter was in his large office getting his paperwork out of the way for the day. Most of this kind of work was about legal procedures that Heilig went through regarding military operations, Arc transfer from one outpost to another, completion of various transactions, and even approval and budgeting for restructuring the cities.

Plenty of this stuff could be signed off by Walter’s right hand, Willhelm Wolf, but the most important cases had to possess the seal of approval of Walter himself. However, especially for the military operations of Edelstein, nothing could get through without Walter’s endorsement.

He may have Wolf coming up with strategies and the training of the most competent units, but still, Wolf wouldn’t start any operations without talking through with Walter first.

Walter was now really close to finishing his work for the day and the sun was ready to set its bright colors and give space for the luminescent stars and pale moon to show their own light.

Suddenly, Walter heard a loud slam on his office door which interrupted his peaceful silence.

“Walter! You are here, aren’t you? I need to report something to you immediately!”, a loud and rash voice could be heard from behind the wooden door.

“Is that you Dastan?”, Walter voiced out calmly, “What is the matter, you sound extremely agitated. Come in.”

The sound of the doorknob twisting echoed in the office’s interior as Dastan entered inside.

“We have a problem that needs our attention as soon as possible. Remember we were in Phlox for a mission to take out the Dwellers there? Well, the report said that their numbers should be around 10–20, but we have found at another spot nearly 100 of them…We have to send a large unit there immediately!”, Dastan explained hastily the situation at hand.

Walter turned his chair around to face the window behind him and put his two hands together as if trying to think through what he heard.

“I see…”, he finally called out after some seconds, “In that case, let me call Wolf to help us create a capable unit to dispatch it pronto.”

He then inserted Chalmer’s Topaz into a necklace on the back of his neck and called out Willhelm Wolf’s name.

At that moment, Wolf’s voice reached Walter’s mind.

“What is the matter, Walter? Did anything happen there that requires my assistance?”

Wolf’s voice could only be heard by Walter because of the rune inscription in the supporting gear that allowed two souls to communicate with each other. So, Dastan could only lie there and see Walter speak out loud like talking to a ghost.

“Wolf, it’s good that you answered fast because time is of the essence.”, Walter spoke out to him as Dastan made several movements with his hands trying to supposedly tell Walter to tell him about the matter fast and include him in the mission. He thought he shouldn’t speak so as to not interrupt him.

“You see, Wolf, Dastan is here telling me that he noticed in Phlox a large swarm of Dwellers there, which wasn’t something that anybody reported either to him and in that regard, to us. So we are thinking that these levels are dangerous and we need to dispatch a strong unit fast to eliminate them.”

Wolf stayed silent as he heard Walter’s orders, and after a minute passed, he mustered the power to speak.

“I understand. I will try to prepare a special unit for that task as soon as I can. However, it won’t be able to be fully prepared and reach Phlox until early in the morning. Is that ok with us?”, he said in a tone trying to indicate something behind his lines.

“I believe and hope that we will all be fine. Thank you for the assistance and if you need anything don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Try to complete this as fast as you can.”

“Roger.”

Dastan was standing in front of Walter’s desk impatiently moving his right foot up and down while having his arms crossed with each other.

“Well? What did he say? Should we leave now?”

“Wolf is going to form a special unit immediately for that task, but he says it will take a little longer for them to be ready and they will also reach Phlox in the morning given the distance as well — “

“What?!”, Dastan complained in a loud voice.

“Dastan, think this through for a moment before you jump into any rush conclusion.”, Walter stated like he was trying to calm him down, “You just noticed the Dwellers so it shouldn’t be a long while since they’ve been there. Moreover, we can’t just blindly send a random unit without knowing the exact numbers or abilities of the Dwellers. Do you know if they are Revengers, Despairers, or Regretters?”

“That’s — ”, Dastan tried to speak out but no argument could come out before he was interrupted by Walter.

“Without this information, we can’t send a specific force that specializes in a specific type of Dweller depending on their abilities. Furthermore, think about our position. How would you like it if you were suddenly called out on a dangerous mission in the middle of the night, without having any useful information or time to prepare for it psychologically and physically?”

Dastan dropped his face in disappointment while Walter said his final piece to him.

“I believe you get where I am coming from. We can’t send a unit that is terrified and anxious. Any misstep might turn this battle into a bloodbath for both us and Phlox.”

Then as Walter finished his long verdict, Dastan sighed and Walter, understanding his tension, went near him and put his hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry though, Wolf is good at prepping our men and women so he should be able to do the job fast and satisfactorily. Go take a rest from today’s fight and overall stress. We will talk in the morning again.”

“Alright, I get it.”, Dastan nodded in agreement, “But, I will be here first thing in the morning to be dispatched along with the special unit Wolf makes.”

As he said that he vanished from Walter’s sight, leaving him standing in a dark room by himself.

Wolf was wandering in the nearly empty streets of Dozil in the night, as he knocked on specific doors to contact the people inside the corresponding buildings.

After he managed to group three other individuals beside him, he gathered them in the building next to the Edelstein HQ, where Walter’s office is built there, to inform them about the latest information.

“There’s a change in our plans due to urgent matters. We need to go start the mission in Phlox now. Someone saw the Dwellers that were amassed there and reported it to Walter.”

The three men made a surprised look on their faces but immediately changed that to a serious one.

“Isn’t that disrupting our plans?”, a man spoke out trying to cover his stress after hearing Wolf’s speech.

“No, since we will begin the mission earlier than Walter reported to him we would. Plus, nobody else other than that man knows about the Dwellers and he won’t tell. That’s because he is supposed to be coming with a “special” unit tomorrow, something that also gives us plenty of time to finalize our mission.”

The men stood there in silence trying to process what Wolf was telling them when a short man with a hoody and a necklace covering his neck took some steps in front of them and spoke in a reassuring manner.

“This isn’t the time to dilly-dally nor the time to be having second thoughts! This is for the best interests of Heilig, and I am sure my brother has prepared everything so that we will succeed with ease without us getting caught.”

The two men man looked at each other and then back at the hooded man and nodded positively. Then, the hooded man turned his attention to Wolf.

“We are ready to go, Wolf! Let’s do this for our glorious empire!”

“Hm. Let us begin then.”, Wolf scoffed as he turned his back to everyone while signaling them to follow him.

This is a side story featuring characters Vierizen Kingdom from my work-in-progress novel, "In The Ashes of Forgiveness", originally published on Medium.

You can further support my work and even gain access to exclusive stories from the novel through Ko-fi!

© All rights reserved to Harrys Stratigakis