Cipher Code {complete}

Chapter Twenty Nine: A Busy Minister •EDITED•

He still couldn't stop his smile from growing when Edward stiffened and cleared his throat.

"Not much at all," the Prime Lord's voice carried a glacier's worth of chill and dumped it all in front of the minister.

"I bet on you, Corey." Richard blinked innocently and Corey tried not to laugh. "I can give Edward what he lost and I'll still have money left over."

Lord Maudlin, the cool and ever angelic counterpart to his always-in-the-mood-for-war lookalike. He and Edward made a fine pair even though their friendship only came about because of their similar features.

"Well, I'm glad that you had confidence in me," Corey answered. In his opinion, Richard was more dangerous than the Prime Lord. That man could commit murder while wearing that innocent smile of his.

"We didn't come here to discuss your shocking victory over Gideon in that playful match," Edward cut in, "I'm sure that you are quite a busy man."

Busy and play in the same sentence? Are you implying that I am an unfit ruler?

Corey didn't bother to pay any heed to those two conflicting sentences, instead he decided to end the conversation as soon as possible. "What did you want to discuss with me?"

"The Lords under me are rather uneasy; there is talk of civil unrest among the masses. Even though news of the attacks on the border towns are being suppressed, rumors are going around. Townspeople fear for their safety, they are migrating towards cities that have shields," at once Edward became serious, his emotionless eyes remaining fixed on the minister and continued his report. "Towns are being abandoned and our economy is being affected by it. At this rate food in the sectors will become scarce. Our population has decreased since the first series of attacks, and with most of our communication towers down we have no way of confirming which towns are still occupied."

"Nicia, Harman, Sentu, Cusnai, Mastyn, and Listl were the first states to be attacked," Corey replied easily despite the destressing nature of the words he spoke, "search parties have been sent to find survivors. . . there have been none so far."

"By the Code," Richard seemed deeply disturbed by the announcement. "Those are some of our largest and most populated states!"

Corey nodded and clasped his hands on the table. "Our scouts say that they have been completely wiped out."

North was divided into six sectors. The Capital and it's eighteen districts were maintained by the ministers while the other five sectors were controlled by Prime Lords. The five sectors were divided into fifty states and each state was governed by a Lord.

Each Prime Lord oversaw ten Lords and the minister was the head of the Prime Lords. That was how authority was shared.

Noble Lords owned their own plots land and were not under the direct jurisdiction of the minister. They were—as their title implied—noble. In a way they were more powerful than Prime Lords, they were ministers of their own little kingdoms, princes and princesses of age-old bloodlines.

Westley, Tyndale and Maudlin were only some of the noble households.

"Half of the North is gone then. . ." Lord Estell's expression turned ugly and he started pacing, "we can't afford any more loses."

In truth barely a quarter of the population had been lost, but the towns themselves were more important than the people in this case. One example was Nicia. It was North's major research center. Many important people must have died in the attack but it was a fact that their worth was nothing compared to the data that had been lost.

"The capital is also under attack." Corey didn't pull any punches in his attempt to subdue the two Lords. This was not the time for North to be divided, as the minister of this nation he needed to be able to trust his subordinates. And he couldn't do that when they saw him as nothing but a weakling.

The two Lord's turned to each other, their irritation obvious. "Why were we not informed?"

"Why would I inform you?" Corey let out a loud, dissatisfied sigh and got up. "In this past month I have handled the situation and concealed news to the point where no one outside Mount Roya was truly aware of the situation."

He gave a moment for his words to sink in before he continued. "Many lives have been lost and in due time the nation will mourn. But right now the Capital is in peril and it's my job to resolve the matter. You two are powerful, that is true. But I am the minister, don't ever forget that."

After he had finished delivering his impromptu speech, Corey walked past the two Lords and headed to the door. "You can see yourself out."

"Wait—" Richard turned to him, reluctance evident on his features as Corey paused. With a touch of frustration, he turned back to Lord Estell.

"Where are you going?" Edward asked, once again because of Richard's prompting.

"Didn't you hear me?" Corey said and ran a had through his hair. "I have a war to fight."

"You're going to Auro," Lord Estell took a small step forward then brought the foot a step back. He seemed conflicted, unsure of what to do.

"We are coming with you. . ." he said at last.

"Yeah," Richard nodded, a child-like naïveté plastered on his handsome face as he smiled widely and held out his arms. "You may not care about us, but North is our nation too."

Those were the words Corey had been dying to hear.

No more hiding.

†

Chapter 19, about halfway (?) through CC. I can easily say that there will be nothing but action from now on. Also, keep in mind that all characters are liable to die.

Corey, Edward and Richard seem to be having fun!

Greeley, Dawn and Rhea Lee are up to something.

Philip, Issac, Edythe and Esau are being chill.

What do you think of this chapter? What is Corey's power, can you guess?

Why do you think he chose to alter his eye color and not the lightning itself?

We get to know more about the North's structure in this chapter. Issac and Philip are some sort of royalty apparently (but I hinted at that already).

Question of the chapter

Will Corey be able to save the Capital?