Maiors

Olin XLIII

"Come on!" I yelled, "We've gotta get out of here!"

"I'm running as fast as I can!" Jackie called up to me.

I couldn't believe how far south this whole mission went. This wasn't supposed to be too bad. We go in, cause a little ruckus, steal some info, then get out. Hollice believed in us. The Isi we're guiding us. There was no way we could fail.

But we did

Leo was captured. Muu knows what they were doing to them. Claire thinks they may be trying to indoctrinate them. To turn them against us. I prayed that wasn't the case.We needed to get back to Colrad as soon as possible and come back to save them.

And Pierre

Oh Pierre. I couldn't believe he was gone. I may have only known him for a short while, but his death hit me hard, all of us really. He was our mentor through this Maior business. Through our training, I could see how incredibly strong he was. But we grossly underestimated the Zhanshi. Those monsters must have made a pact with Menthu. They couldn't get away with this. I'll take them all out myself.

But fighting them comes later. For now, we had to escape. I tried peaking at the intel, to see if this was even worth it, but those fucking Zhanshi didn't write their information in Ede. None of us could read Deupointese, so we needed to get it translated once we got back home. But even that was only in the back of my mind.

This mission of ours was made public. Deupoint had all but declared war on Colrad. I know Hollice told us to make sure they couldn't trace us back to our country, but I'm not sure that would have been possible. Maybe he just wanted to see if we could do it.

This whole mission was about making a statement to the other Patrons. If we could successfully attack an enemy stronghold in another country and make it back alive, it would prove to them that Holice had the best Maiors. No one would challenge his ascension to Roi. I needed to get this intel to him.

"Olin, wait up." Jackie called to me.

"What?" I yelled.

"This isn't gonna work." she said, "We'll lead them to the rendezvous point."

"So we stay here and fight."

"No." she said, "We can't risk those papers getting damaged. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of them. Nor is there a Maior with them. I can take them. You go on ahead with the intel."

"Jackie no."

"Don't worry." she said, "I can take care of myself. Now go!" She turned back and headed straight for the soldiers following us. Jackie was the best fighter out of all of us. I had to trust her. I kept moving forward.

Eventually I came across a large sequoia tree, our rendezvous point. I closed my eyes and tried to see if I could sense anyone nearby, but I was all alone. I sat down at the base of the tree and took a deep breath. I could still see the glow of Claire's fires kilometers away. She was still fighting. At least I knew she was alive.

After a while, I caught myself dozing off a bit. But I had to fight to keep myself awake. Anyone could show up. I couldn't let the enemy get the drop on me. I decided to stand up and walk around a bit. A moment passed and I heard some rustling coming from the brush. I drew my sword.

"Who's there?" I shouted. A figure stepped out.

"Olin?"

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I couldn't believe my eyes. I ran over to embrace my sibling. I teared up as I felt them in my arms.

"Leo!" I yelled, "Wha- How?"