Mirror Sky. Part 1 - Blissful Nemesis

06 - All In

Many nasty things were lurking in the Twilight. Most of those things had acute hearing. Thus, the key to survival was silence. The longer you could keep your mouth shut, the longer you lived.

At the moment, Quin was grateful for those harsh laws. His two friends, Taci and Kip, were mad at him. In Skydream, he would endure a yelling spree or a couple of not-so-friendly punches. Now, in the endless Twilight, his friends had to keep their mouths and fists in check. However, their faces expressed it all. The dark rocks surrounding them were more welcoming compared to their twisted features.

"How could the envoys vanish?" Kip produced a livid whisper.

Excellent question. Quin had no answer.

"One moment, they were there," he responded. "And the next moment, they weren't."

"You had one job!" Taci poked him in the chest. "You had to keep an eye on them while we kept you safe! And you fucked it up!"

Her voice peaked. All three looked around nervously.

"Look, I don't know what to tell you!" said Quin. "The envoys went behind this boulder, and now they're gone! You all saw it happen!"

Taci kicked a pebble to the side.

"It takes a special grade of morons!" she said. "We only had to sneak behind the guests into a party! Since when we can't do a trivial wedding crash scam?!"

"Maybe that was the problem," said Quin. "It sounded too simple to be true. Libra's backdoor was bound to have tricks. How else would it stay hidden so long?"

They stared at each other in silence. Taci looked like she was still contemplating a punch. Kip chose not to look at Quin, clenching his fists in frustration. Or was he dealing with the voices? Nought always pounced on you harder when you were going through emotional turmoil.

Nevertheless, second by second, both of Quin's friends calmed down. They no longer looked angry. Instead, they looked defeated.

"Where does it leave us?" asked Taci. "A longshot."

"We managed to beat tall odds before," Quin tried to encourage them. "Remember how we snuck into Skydream?"

"Hard to forget this mess," said Kip.

"We had a lot more intel back then," said Taci. "Now, all we have to go off are legends with grim endings."

"Well, let's write a legend with a happy ending!" said Quin. "We went three thousand miles from Skydream. We're only a few miles away from Libra. It's criminal to turn back now."

Kip and Taci scoffed. The irony was not lost on them. All three were career con artists, and now they would not do something criminal? Satisfied with the produced effect, Quin pressed on:

"We have a map to go past Pax Turrets," he said. "We have Geckors to climb Vida Wall. We have the guns if things get dicey. Sure, there are lots of unknowns, but we'll improvise! Our wits haven't failed us so far!"

***

Quin's pep talk did not have a lasting effect on his friends. He was not excited either. Even though they were well prepared for the longshot plan, they hoped it would not come to it. There was something beautiful and poetic about sneaking into the impregnable city behind Skydream's envoys.

Meanwhile, trying to overcome Libra's defenses, like thousands of people before them, was a disheartening and unlikely endeavor.

The third option - storming Libra head-on with Skydream's army - was also out of the question. Soldiers in the camp did not believe that the assault would happen. Neither did anyone believe in the success of the negotiations. Only one scenario seemed likely: The Patriarch of Libra would tell them to bugger off, and they would. The army would turn on its heels and return to Skydream to collect their rewards – the right to live in the lower Slums for soldiers and the ticket to the Gardens for the officers.