Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 19.3: Treaty 7745

The muscular man took a swipe above his head instead, cutting him free. Drake fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Ava was cut down in a similarly unceremonious manner. She fell to the floor and began rubbing her wrists.

"I will humor you, young man," said Okira, a strange edge in his voice, "I shall tell you what we know in the hopes you can tell us something we don't." Okira walked over to Straik and motioned in the direction of the giant warrior. "But," Okira raised a finger and wagged it a few times, "make no mistake. If I so much as find a reason to believe you're lying to us, we will not hesitate to dispose of you both."

Drake nodded. He sat cross legged on the floor, hands folded over his chest to make himself more comfortable. Now that his hands weren't bound and circulation was coming back, he found it easier to think as well. There was an opportunity here – maybe he could find out what it was that Fala had been working on.

"We came across Fala entirely by accident," the old man began. His clutched at the edges of his gray robes as he spoke. "We were researching the same thing you see," he smiled, his eyes looking right at Drake. "As we dug deeper... " He paused, unsure of what to say next. "Mind you, the channels we were accessing to get this information were not exactly, how shall I put it, readily available knowledge."

Drake nodded. "The Sun Watchers. That was the group Fala was affiliated with on the Upper Plates. She was a talented hacker and was an intelligence gatherer for them." He took a sideways glance at Ava. He was concerned she was hurt. She was looking right at him. She had removed the gag, keeping silent for the time being, but looked otherwise fine.

Drake knew her all too well to know her silence was a ploy. He could see her eyes moving, carefully assessing the situation, noting features in the room, people, points of access, anything that could be used to their advantage. Drake was thankful. Having one more mind focused on the problem at hand wouldn't hurt at all.

"You've read the news, no doubt," Okira began again. "You have heard the stories of the shortage."

Drake nodded. "Diskarma has been unable to keep up with the dramatic increase in demand brought about by the other nations."

"Then you have also heard stories of a war in the North?"

Drake paused, then nodded his head. "The government calls them mining expeditions."

"Bah!" The old man sneered and spat on the floor, barely missing Drake's foot. Drake was glad that he was actually sitting comfortably on the floor rather than strung up, for that surely would have hit him had he still been hanging in the same place as he had been earlier.

"Yin. The Desert Empire is under attack by a mysterious force, a fact hidden from us all by the government – dark shadows that can only be harmed by the light."

Drake was taken aback at this. "Did you say shadows?"

The old man moved closer to Drake. "There are legends, boy, things that have been around as far back as the days of the Goddess. These shadows, the Yami, their powers have grown with her disappearance. They amass an army, and without the light, we are powerless against it."

"And you are saying this war, these shadows, have something to do with my sister? What exactly was it that Fala stumbled upon?"

The old man put a gnarled hand on Drake's shoulder and gravely looked him in the eye. "Something big."

He rose up and took his communicator. "Everything I have told you up until this point has been information passed on to us by Fala."

"The Sun Watchers and our hacker group were trying to solve the same mystery. The starting point was the shortage, the dwindling Goddess Essence. Something about it didn't add up. We came to the same conclusion, invariably. It doesn't take a genius to take the current mining capacity of the Kurokyuu Orbs and come up with a theoretical output by calculating the production capacity at each Reactor Core."

Okira paced the room again. Drake noticed the hackers, once furiously typing away on their machines were now silent, all attention was focused on them now.

Okira spoke again, "We knew something was up. The numbers weren't adding up. Signs pointed to the fact that the Reactors were at a surplus," the old man stopped, thinking. "It was then that we felt a presence in the Vortex. Okira paused for a moment. "Are you familiar with the underground channels?"

Drake felt insulted. The Upper Platers were being underestimated. The government might have been trying to put a blanket over everyone's eyes, but they were not stupid. Yes, he was aware of the Vortex.

"The unknown disturbance in the Vortex was your sister." A strange gleam now shone in the old man's eyes. "Fala was the most talented hacker any of us have ever come across." The old man was looking downward. "And to think that she amassed this knowledge despite being on the Upper Plates. Are you aware that the information embargo placed on the Utter Darkness has helped us, and harmed you?"

"Yes, old man, and we are not as stupid as we seem," a voice suddenly interjected. Ava was getting impatient.

"Oh, Wilhelmina has a voice!" Okira sneered.

"Save it," Ava said curtly. She sat with her arms folded across her chest, her bottle green eyes staring intensely at the old man. "While it is true things are hidden from us, we Upper Platers are not the blind sheep you make us out to be. After all, wasn't it Fala, an Upper Plater, who had discovered the trend, and found the smoking gun that had led us all to this point?"