Sol Boxset

by Samuel Small

  “Forget what he just said, it’s not important,” the man warned before turning away and walking down the street.

  “Wait a minute!” Jake shouted and ran after him, pulling his sword back for an attack. “What the hell are you bastards planning!?” The cloaked man turned around quickly. It was enough to make him believe that guy was going to make good on his promise to kill him, so Jake let his sword free, and the guy extended his free hand out and caught the blade. There was a screech, like Jake had hit something metal underneath the glove, but that didn’t explain how the guy’s body hadn’t moved at all. He was frail, smaller than Jake, so if he got hit with a full-force swing of a sword he’d at least have been pushed back. But he stood in the same spot, gripping the sword. What the hell was this—

  The man tossed Jake’s sword to one side with incredible force, leading the boy to take several fumbling steps backward. When he regained his balance, the man had his knees bent as if ready to attack, his comrade still slung over his shoulder. After a few seconds he stood up and turned around.

  “I’m going to respect this man’s wishes and leave you alive for now: try to follow me and I will kill you.”

  Without waiting for a response from Jake the man walked off down the street. Jake was confident that if he did attack again, or even asked a single question, that man would kill him on the spot for sure. He sheathed his sword and watched as the black figures fused with the darkness of the night.

  The walk Jake had taken to clear his mind was eclipsed by this turn of events and he found himself in an even bigger tailspin than before. Now those cloaked guys were here, the ones that helped him kill the Voids at the tower but for some reason wouldn’t allow them entry into that same structure. And what was that warning? Jake had only managed to grab bits and pieces. Something about Niflheim and Magnum Undo, but that was just their location. He also thought he recalled the word ‘war’.

  That’s it – Magnum Undo is going to invade Niflheim! If Jake remembered correctly fights between the two major powers, which were situated right next to each other, were common. If that was the case he had to get in contact with Sara to warn her. Jake pulled out his comp and tried to find her avatar, only it wasn’t there. He scrolled through a second time, but still nothing. Dammit, he thought. She must have formally resigned from the guards to lead her country. He was happy for her, of course, but that made contacting her way more difficult.

  Although they may have been comrades before, the current circumstances had Jake as an ordinary trainee and Sara the leader of an entire country. He couldn’t get in contact with her so easily any more. Hell, even Major Miles couldn’t do it, and getting a conversation with the Führer would be equally difficult. Time was of the essence so—

  Jake’s mind flashed to the boy with the bad haircut and strange outfit. He was the leader of another country and Jake had no problem getting in contact with him. After all, their rooms were along the same hallway. It looked like Dante was his best shot, as horrifying as that may be. With that in mind Jake ran down the street on a direct path for the hotel he’d left just a few minutes earlier.

  It wasn’t long before Jake was in front of Dante’s door and knocking frantically. There was a loud crash from within the room, followed by someone yelling, “Fuck!” The door opened, revealing Dante’s annoyed face.

  “The fuck do you want?”

  When Jake opened his mouth to tell Dante he came to a sudden realization. Dante wasn’t up to speed with everything that went on after he entered the tower. He might not even know about the cloaked group’s existence at all. He began to explain but Dante cut him off.

  “Yeah, yeah, the guys in black coats. What about ’em?”

  That was odd, but a few of them did seem interested in Dante. Maybe he knew them like he knew Montasir. Jake asked if that was the case but Dante shook his head.

  “Nah, I’ve never heard of ’em before, and I only know now cos Sara told me.”

  “Yeah, well one of them just told me Niflheim is going to be invaded.”

  “The fuck’s a Niflheim?”

  “The country you’re in.”

  Dante, still in the doorway, stared ahead blankly as if in some kind of trance. Jake thought he could physically hear the gears turning in the boy’s head before he jerked it up, his eyes panicked. “Oh shit! We gotta tell Sara!”

  He shoved Jake out of his way as he barreled down the hallway, not even waiting for the trainee to catch up. But Jake didn’t mind, that meant they wouldn’t waste any time on their way to Sara, and time was very much of the essence. Jake smirked and followed in Dante’s wake.

  ***

  Sara let out a long sigh as she removed her dress and slipped into her nightgown. A combative meeting, Dante’s apparent survival and the apathetic diplomats filled her mind. Most of them didn’t even care about the explanation, so she didn’t understand why they even bothered to come, until she started working out the individual attendees. Aquinas hadn’t shown up, he’d just sent one of his personnel. The Führer did attend but that was because they were allies. And that fire user Kai, well, he just wanted to know if there were demons he could fight.

  She made her way to the mirror, distraught that only those people had actually bothered to attend the meeting and were therefore the best the world had to offer. Her exhausted reflection stared back at her, hair fixed up. She’d taken nearly all morning to get it just right for the meeting but Dante had to pick a fight with the guy who created fiery explosions. She managed to tidy it up before she met with him, and although it wasn’t All World Meeting standard it was a hell of a lot better than that oaf Dante deserved. Only her day was now at an end and her need to keep up appearances over, so Sara ran a hand through her hair and roughed it up. It lay in unkempt strands, which was much better.

  The bed was on the far side of her chambers. Sara crossed the room toward it, grasped her blankets, and laid her head down. Today’s events had exhausted her and she could feel herself drift off to sleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

  But then something made its way to her ears. It wasn’t exactly a sound, it was more like the vibration of movement coming across the castle. Somebody must have just dropped something, no big deal. Only it kept coming, a steady, pulsing vibration that only seemed to get more intense the longer time went on. The idea that this was just someone being inconsiderate crossed Sara’s mind and her brow furrowed, despite her shutting her eyes as tightly as she could in the vain hope of falling back to sleep. But now a sound accompanied the movement, a distant clanging. Then shouts, calls to cease. The word ‘fuckheads’ repeated over and over. He wouldn’t dare, Sara thought.

  But apparently he would, as Dante’s distinct voice bellowed from the hallway her room was situated on, along with a handful of guards shouting for him to stop, and even Jake’s voice pleading that he calm down. But the crashes continued and steadily made their way to her door. Sara sat up in bed, annoyed but also well aware that Dante loved his grand entrances. Any second now that door would—

  It burst open, Dante on the other side, a guard latched onto his back and attempting to put him in a headlock. Dante quickly tossed the guy over his shoulder then shouted Sara’s name as he stepped further into her room. Jake followed behind, stepping over the prone guard Dante had just flipped, looking around for any attacker that might be lurking in the shadows. However, that wasn’t what Jake should be worried about. What he should be concerned about was the person right in front of him in a terrible temper.

  “What the hell are you two doing!?” Sara shouted then thrust her hand forward. Her anger seemed to make her Sol even more powerful and a blizzard raged in the room, leading Jake and Dante to cover their eyes with their forearms as they slowly crept to her bed. But she couldn’t allow that and put even more power into her output. The guard whom Dante had left on the ground tumbled out of her door, he and Jake almost along with him, but both grasped her doorframe and clawed their way up it. They worked together to slam it
shut. Their backs pressed against it, Dante and Jake let out an exhausted sigh and exchanged a look. They seemed to realize who they had trapped themselves in the room with and returned their fearful gazes to Sara, who stood on her bed with her arms crossed. It kept her well above the two, as she should be, and allowed her to stare down at them like the esteemed ruler they better believe she was.

  “What the hell is so important that you need to charge in here in the middle of the night and wake me up?”

  The two tried to explain, but they both talked over each other so Sara had trouble making out what they were saying. She knew Jake was making sense but she couldn’t hear him over Dante yelling weird things. Jake’s explanation fell by the wayside, eclipsed by such phrases as “Black guys!”, “Water assholes!”, and “Gonna fuck everything up!”

  Black guys? What the hell does he mean? Sara thought, then remembered their conversation earlier that day. She had told him about the cloaked group and ‘black guys’ was definitely how Dante would classify them in his head. ‘Water guys’ was obvious, those were the citizens of Magnum Undo, but ‘fuck everything up’ could mean anything in Dante’s parlance. She raised a hand to silence them, the other grasping her forehead in a desperate attempt to get her mind around all of this.

  “Okay, so the cloaked men told you something about Magnum Undo, right? Well, what was…” Sara trailed off. All of the muscles in her body gave way at the realization and she fell to her knees atop her bed, bouncing briefly up and down before settling. There was really only one thing they could have been told about Magnum Undo that would prompt them both to come to her in the middle of the night like this.

  “An invasion.” she said, although the voice didn’t appear to be her own.

  The two slowly crossed the room to her and waited at her bedside until the initial shock subsided. After a few minutes she thought she had got her bearings enough to at least listen to how they discovered the news. She lowered herself off of her bed and stood before the boys, who exchange a glance before Jake explained.

  He said that he went for a walk earlier and during it one of the cloaked guys approached him and told him to get Dante and leave. After Jake refused, the man explained that Magnum Undo was going to invade Niflheim.

  “Yeah,” Dante interrupted, “but I don’t find guys wearing black cloaks to be the most trustworthy of folks, you know?”

  “Usually I’d agree,” Jake said, “but the way the guy’s comrade reacted seemed to imply he was telling the truth. After all he told me the other one knocked him out, and I don’t see why he’d do that if it was a lie.”

  “And besides,” Sara mumbled, her eyes focused on the ground. “They’ve helped us before, haven’t they? If they didn’t show up back at that tower we might not even be having this conversation.”

  “So maybe they helped you guys out. Didn’t they attack you right after though?” Dante said.

  “That was only because you were in the tower,” Jake said. Dante looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and Sara understood why. Without context the statement didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

  “He said that we’d only get in the way…”

  Dante quickly looked away. It was clear that he didn’t want to outright call her and Jake weak, but he didn’t disagree with the cloaked man’s assessment either. Feeling even more defeated, Sara sat back on her bed, which prompted Dante to raise his hands while shaking his head.

  “It ain’t like that. It’s just that if I was in the middle of fighting and you guys showed up I’d turn to look at yuh. And then, you know… lights out.” He brought his fist to his chin to emphasize the ‘lights out’ but must have put too much force into it, as he stumbled and almost fell over. Sara exchanged a glance with Jake, then burst into laughter with him.

  “Hey, that ain’t funny!” Dante shouted, which only made them laugh harder. She curled up as it bellowed out of her, but she soon contained it when her mind turned back to the immense weight of the situation she currently found herself in. Jake and Dante stood above her bed and looked on intently.

  “Do you know what you’re going to do?” Jake asked.

  At his words, Sara looked down at her dangling feet. It made her feel like a child, one who should have no part in leading a nation, but her father’s drunken incompetence forced her into this position. After sighing, she looked up at the two boys. “It shouldn’t be a problem. We have an alliance with the Republic and the people of Niflheim are strong, my father included. He may act like a goofball but he could take that Aquinas no problem, and with Niflheim’s military strength coupled with the Republic it shouldn’t be difficult for us to win.”

  “If you want me to stick around while you’re—” Dante began but stopped when Sara shook her head.

  “With the Republic alliance I’m confident we can win if it comes to a fight. And their support’ll give me a little more leeway in terms of peace negotiations. I’ll try tomorrow morning, so don’t you guys worry.”

  “All right,” Dante said, “but just let me know when and where. I’ll be happy to show up and get involved.”

  “Me too. I’m sure I can get Major Miles’ permission to stay if I explain the situation.”

  “Okay,” Sara said with a bright smile. These were dark times, but knowing that she had the support of her friends made it feel a little better. Jake and Dante smiled back then headed for the door, wishing her a good night. Sara got back into bed, staring at the high ceiling, then rolled over and closed her eyes. Come tomorrow, she’d have one hell of a workload on her hands.

  Chapter 14

  As soon as Jake’s eyes opened the following morning he immediately went to his suitcase and threw on his uniform. Without checking the time he tore out of the room and ran down the hallway. He could tell by the lack of anyone’s presence aside from a few hotel staff, along with the fresh scent in the air, that it was early morning. His boots clacked against the frozen floorboards and the looks the staff gave him said this was inappropriate for the time of day, but he didn’t care. He had to get to Major Miles, and fast.

  The Major’s hotel room was on the same floor as Jake’s, so the trainee reached it in no time. He glanced to either side, where a few hotel workers looked at him like he was crazy. He knocked on the door then folded his arms and waited. A few seconds passed with no noise from inside the room, so Jake tried again – louder this time. After a brief delay he heard the squeak of the bed mattress, followed by a few heavy footsteps. A few seconds later the door opened and Major Miles was on the other side.

  “Trainee? What’s this about?”

  “I want permission to stay in Niflheim for a little longer sir.”

  “Stay in Niflheim? Why do you want to do that?”

  Why would he want to do that? It was a good question. Surely Major Miles must know if Sara had contacted the Führer about it. Unless she immediately went to sleep and put it off until morning. Actually, that would be just like her. That meant Jake had to explain the situation to Major Miles.

  “Magnum Undo is planning on invading this place.” The voice that rang out was not Jake’s own but came from behind him. There, Führer Bellator strode toward them, his feet clacking against the ice floor as his cape whispered along behind. He stopped in the entryway and glanced at Jake, before facing Major Miles. “Apparently there is some kind of meeting being held, but I don’t care to attend. Everyone is to pack up and—”

  “Don’t care to attend?” The voice was Dante’s but it didn’t carry his usual angry tone. This one was calm and deliberate, a simple statement of fact. The boy walked down the hallway, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket, and stopped in front of the Führer.

  “Sara tells me she’s got an alliance with you or somethin’. You going back on your word?”

  Führer Bellator glanced down at Dante for a few seconds, his eyes narrowed but clearly making calculations. “And will you be attending this meeting, Mr. Dante?”

  “Sure as shit.”

&n
bsp; “Then I suppose I will as well,” Führer Bellator said, then turned his back to the group. He glanced over his shoulder at Major Miles. “I’d prefer if as few people as possible attended this meeting, as I get the feeling it might get messy. Although,” he said, glancing at Dante, “you’re free to bring whoever you want. Even this young guard if you like.” Führer Bellator’s footsteps echoed down the hallway as he returned to his chambers. Jake watched him go in awe then spared a glance at Dante. The guy looked like he wanted to fire his energy straight into the Führer’s back but some uncanny fear stopped him. Once Führer Bellator was out of sight the two turned to Major Miles, who looked absolutely flabbergasted.

  “What the hell was that all about?” he asked, looking from Jake to Dante in hope that either of them could provide clarification.

  “It was last night,” Jake said. “The man in the trench coat I told you about warned me there was going to be an invasion.”

  “And that’s the extent of the proof?”

  “Well there are other circumstances that—”

  “Save it, trainee. If Sara believes you then we should support her judgment. She isn’t my subordinate anymore, after all. But I won’t be in attendance,” Major Miles said. “And I’m pretty sure the Führer will want to do this alone. I’m not certain what that was about back there, but I don’t think we can guarantee he has Sara’s best interests in mind. I’m trusting you two to have her back.”

  “Yes sir!”

  “Sure thing big man.”

  The three exchanged a look then headed into their respective rooms to prepare.

  ***

  Aquinas’ castle was enormous. Crafted from huge blocks of pale stone, it stretched up almost as high as the buildings in the Republic, with spires and towers lining its side. Banners hung on the edge of those towers. It looked like Niflheim’s flag but with the colors inverted and a boy swapped for the girl. Jake exchanged a look with Dante and the two crossed the drawbridge and came to the entrance. The guards that stood there immediately parted for the two to cross, which didn’t make sense, it wasn’t as if Dante had made reservations or anything, he just kind of showed up. Which meant Aquinas was somehow expecting the boy, despite not attending the meeting or even knowing him.