Rising to Fall

Chapter 4-5

Okay, quick recap of what's happened cause I haven't updated for basically 3 weeks:

The Sky Army is lying undercover in the Squid's territory. Mitch and his Benjas come along, they find each other and make an agreement to bust out. Sky Army goes to Nad'ij, the Benja capital and meets up with the Pack and the Sorcerers. They all invade the Squid's territory and eventually make it to the Capital. The Squids make an agreement and all of the Sky Army is turned over to them in exchange for the citizens. The Squids lock up the Sky Army and want to know where the Amulet is, but Adam refuses to tell them.

Alright, now let's get back to the present.

Mitch stands at the top of the wall surrounding Nad'ij, watching as the last of the Pack armies fade into the horizon. Rob had been the first to take his army home since it would be a good two weeks until they were back at their base while Jerome has only just left, the browns and greens of his army blending in with the grass until they are far enough away to become invisible. But not everyone has left for home.

Seto comes up and joins Mitch on the wall, watching the Baccas disappear. His cloak flaps in the brisk wind which also ruffles Mitch's hair and stirs the flags that fly from various points on the wall.

"You should probably be heading home, you know," Mitch says in a conversational tone to Seto.

Seto shrugs. "My territory is protected on all sides by you guys, I don't need to worry about enemy attacks like you do. Besides, we need to grab some resources that we don't have back at home."

"If you start experimenting and blowing things up in Nad'ij, I will kick you out."

The 'sorcerer' grins. "Don't worry, we won't be working with explosives. Just pulleys and mechanisms to move stuff around. Some of my guys want to install a lift system in your storage rooms so that it's easier to access the higher shelves."

Mitch frowns, a little offended. "What's wrong with our ladders?"

"It's dangerous," Seto says, starting to count the reasons on his fingers, "you can't bring heavy stuff up or down, you can't take bulky stuff up and down, ladders are a pain to store and replacing them is hard."

"True, but how will this pulley system work?"

"Well, pulleys allowed a distribution of weight, which allows heavier objects to be lifted with less effort. You've got a pulley in the roof on rollers..." Seto continues to give Mitch a rundown on the exact physics and mobility of the pulley system that he wanted to install. The Benja General zones out halfway through the speech and is jerked out of his doze when Seto finally says: "And yeah, that's basically it."

He shakes his head a bit. "Okay, whatever works."

Seto grins. "Great! It'll take a few guys and about a week to set up."

Mitch nodded then gives Seto a suspicious look. If it would only take a few guys to set up, then Seto can easily leave whoever was needed here and then take the rest of his guys home. And if he needs to get some resources, that would only take a few more guys.

"Alright," he says slowly. "So why are you still here?"

Seto tries to keep a straight face but he fails, so he looks away in the direction of the now-invisible Baccas. "Do you still have the Amulet Adam gave you?"

"Yeah, of course," Mitch says, a hand going to his upper chest where the Amulet rests next to his ever-present dog tags.

"And he didn't tell you why to keep it from the Squids?"

"Seto, it was a three-second swap, he didn't have time to give me welfare instructions."

Seto snorts a little then becomes serious. "Can I see it?"

"Why?" Mitch asks. It isn't that he doesn't trust Seto, it is only that there has been the occasion when he would give something to Seto and then find that it had been used as a test subject for one of his inventions.

"I want to look at it."

"Why?"

Seto rolls his eyes. "I'm curious. Aren't you a little suspicious about this whole deal with the Amulet?"

"You mean the fact that the Sky Army completely changed when Adam got it back? And how the purple stone in their swords lit up?"

"And the fact that Adam was willing to hand his whole army over to the Squids but not that Amulet."

Mitch thinks about it, his expression blank. "Are you thinking that the reason why Adam didn't want the Squids to get the Amulet is the same reason why the Sky Army was so different when they got it back?"

Seto nods and holds out his hand. "I have a theory, but I'll need a look at the Amulet to see if I'm right."

The Benja General sighs and takes the Amulet off from around his neck, placing it in Seto's hand. "Don't run off with it, okay? I'm supposed to look after that thing."

Seto gives a small sigh and agrees. He turns the Amulet over and over in his hand as if he is looking for something. He runs his finger along a small straight crack that is in the gold surrounding the purple gem, the only visible damage. Mitch crosses his arms as he watches Seto's inspection, more than a little curious at what the General is trying to find. After a few minutes of searching, Seto's fingers press down on a part of the gold.

The front ring of the Amulet pops open a little and Seto carefully opens it fully. Mitch's eyes widen as he sees that the gold is only a case for the purple gem inside. But what surprises him more is that the gem, instead of being smooth, round and polished, has jagged edges almost as it if had been a part of a bigger whole and had been broken off. On one side, at the extreme edges of the gem and so small that Mitch wasn't completely sure that he wasn't just seeing things, the purple became some sort of red gem, faultlessly joined together.

Seto hangs the golden case on his arm and while holding the broken purple gem with one hand, takes out something from an inner pocket of his shirt. It is a keychain with a black string wrapped around a few beads and at the end, a thick silver ring encasing a deep green gem that is about the same size as the gem in the Amulet. With one hand, Seto easily opens the silver ring. The green gem inside also has jagged edges but unlike the purple gem, it doesn't fade slightly into another colour.

While Mitch is frowning at the two broken gems, trying to figure out what Seto is up to, the inventor holds the two pieces close together, turning the green one in a slow circle as if he is attempting to match them together. He stops turning the gem and holds them closer until there's the barest gap between them, but painstakingly not allowing them to touch.

Tilting his head a little, Mitch suspects that the cracks on the two gems match, although it's hard to tell from his angle. Before he can get a closer look, however, Seto separates the two gems and places them back in their respective cases.

"What was that about?" the Benja General asks.

Seto shakes his head a little, handing him back the Amulet. "Nothing. I was wrong."

"What was your theory then?"

"It was kinda stupid," the other mutters. He glances at the main street of Nad'ij, both of his hands in his pants pockets and the keychain back in its place inside his shirt. "I should probably start organising things for that pulley system, otherwise it'll never happen." He swiftly walks away and down the steep steps from the top of the wall to the ground.

Mitch watches him leave with narrowed eyes, slowly slipping the Amulet around his neck and under his shirt, hidden once more.

Wondering what's happening to Adam and the gang? That's next chapter :3