Purity of Mind

Chapter 23: The Eclipse

It seemed to me pretty likely that the only person King intended on living like a king was himself. I wondered if he was self-aware enough to realize how his own chosen name undermined his message.

"One hour!" King repeated. "My generals already have their assignments, so this is yours: Go up on the streets and, once you see the eclipse begin, start fucking things up! Some of you might be tasked by my people with doing something else - don't worry about it! You'll definitely still get to shiv someone if that's the case."

I could tell that most of King's rhetoric had been ignored by most of my fellow undergrounders. They were street-savvy people, and they knew bullshit when they heard it otherwise they wouldn't have survived this long. But the parts about revenge and the parts about violence, those they'd paid attention to. King had likely pinned his plan on exactly that.

"Generals, move out!" King said. "The rest of you, come get your knives. If your first instinct is to stab each other with them, that's understandable, but I'll have to ask you to hold off. Today you're settling a much bigger debt!"

Cheers, again mostly from the generals up front. Once it became apparent that the speech was over, each individual general ran off to whatever task King had given them. A few worked through the crowd, picking out undercity residents seemingly at random. One returned from inside the building, wheeling a container no doubt filled with weaponry. The residents that weren't getting drafted quickly gathered around it, claiming their promised knives.

"Bishop." One of the generals - in fact, my ostensible guide for the first few days I'd been down here - was in front of me and talking. "Come with me." He said this in the same tone he'd first used, the one that both asked for and promised violence.

As before, I disappointed him. I had bigger matters at hand. Pawn Seven and I followed him through the rapidly thinning crowd and into King's building.

By the time we arrived on the second floor, King had managed to return to his throne. He was in conversation with a different general, and it rapidly became obvious to me that he was purposely extending the conversation as an excuse to keep us waiting.

"The volunteers are on the first floor, sir. I can have them brought up, along with their donors," the general's voice was unsure, either because he was nervous talking to King or merely uncertain as to what the man wanted.

"What quality of volunteers, hm?" King asked.

"The usual dreck, sir."

"And how many of those volunteers *actually* volunteered?" King asked.

The general looked somewhat abashed. "They all volunteered, sir." This was met with silence. The general coughed, then clarified, "Some may have done so as an alternative to their earned punishments."

King laughed. "That's more what I expected! Give troublemakers an out and they'll take it, especially if it makes them a Gifted and lets them cut loose. I mean, I realize this must sound like a terrible idea, but since I can take their gifts away at any point it's not an issue."

I kept my composure, but I suspected the 'volunteers' had been told as much as I had before I'd been similarly volunteered to hold Pampa's power. I didn't know how many there were, but given how much damage I'd been able to do on my own, the use of the plural form indicated a fair amount of destruction was intended for tonight. King either truly believed in his own rants against the surface or was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to appear that way.

"Yes sir," the general continued. "Our donors are mostly already here. The Stormcaller and the Sandblaster are still unaccounted for, as is the *Ershu-Yitukon*"