Book 3 | Agent 34 and the Storm of Darkness

Chapter 8 | The Next Course of Action

"Goodbye, Lord Thad!" Sercon waved delightedly as the four of them galloped away on their horses. Agent 34 rode his horse, Iciél, Arenia on a horse named Valio, and Sercon on another horse called Quiva. Marque, despite his health, decided he was well enough to come on their expedition by convincing Thad to let him go. Marque's horse, Ralin, had been fully healed up by now, with a large scar on his left side. Ralin occasionally limped slightly, but picked himself up quickly and continued onwards.

Their course of action had changed, and they weren't going to split up. They decided it was too dangerous to do that, and decided to all go to the cities together. It was safer, but it would take longer. They wouldn't risk seperating from each other, especially with the health Marque was in. He was still hurting, but he claimed he was good enough to go with them.

Sercon led the way to the first city, Sehope. The city where everything had all gone wrong, where Agent X revealed itself to Agent 34, and where Vrängr betrayed the Zena. Everything that could've gone wrong went wrong there, and the worst part of all was that Marque was stabbed with Agent X's sword, that was tipped with Sephera's Curse, a disease that slowly eats at your soul and turns you evil in a few days. 

After Sehope, the crew would go to Durmist, a city on the western coast that was roughly as big as Sehope. They would conclude their expedition with Urania itself, telling the horrified citizens every detail of what went on there a month ago.

Sercon was chosen to lead them on the journey instead of Thad himself because he had other important things to do. Thad was gathering a crew for a secret mission he was sending a few unnamed people on for a couple months, and preparing them all for that. He also mentioned something about making the Zena the capital of Renya instead of Urania, but Agent 34 was jn doubt that that would ever happen due to the Zena's secretive location in the mountains.

After around half an hour of riding through the semi-rough ground, the crew reached the mountains separating them from the rest of Renya. Sercon stopped to take a look at the rest of their journey. "This mission will take us roughly three weeks. Are you guys ready?"

All three nodded, and Iciél shook his head slightly as if in approval. Agent 34 smiled at his horse even though he knew Iciél couldn't see his bright grin.

"If there is any objection to this mission, state it now or go onwards." Sercon stated. After no one said anything, the second-in-command headed onwards with no words and the other three followed. 

"Now, while we are on this mission we need to find out a few things," Sercon stated, calmly riding Quiva. "One, whatever happened to the scouts we sent to Urania. We have received no word of them since we sent them two weeks ago. Next, we need to find out if Braunick and his henchmen are alive. We either need to put the rumors to rest at this speech, or say he's out there but we have the upper hand."

"The rat can't be alive," Marque stated. "And neither can Braunick or Agent X. The castle collapsed with them inside it," 

"I'm not gonna be one to argue on this," Sercon said. "I was not there to witness it so I cannot fully say what's true and what's not. Either way, the only person that knows if they are truly dead are themselves. That's why we have to find out if they are or not,"

Agent 34 began to recognize the surrounding mountains. They were in the Janis Mountains, which separated the Zena from the rest of the continent. Around a month and a half ago, he and Marque fled the Zena and went in search of their lost friend, Ismara, on horse. They went through the Janis Mountains, which Vrängr followed and murdered his men in cold blood to frame Marque and Agent 34. The pair never succeeded in finding Ismara, and were instead ambushed by a being known as Agent X and were nearly killed by it at Sehope, their first destination in their series of victory speeches.

"Why can't we just fly with Wímad to the cities again?" Arenia asked.

"We aren't going to use him or Venon to fly us there because we don't want to give the cities a bad first impression. They may be intimidated by the dragons and think we will be just like Braunick was in ruling." Sercon explained.

"You know, you remind me of Thad but younger and human." Agent 34 stated blankly.

Sercon chuckled a little. "You remind me of one of Braunick's old friends that was an elf. She sadly fled Renya due to Braunick's ruling soon after I met her. She was a nice woman. Long white hair, beautiful green eyes. You would've liked her. Only thing that was wrong about her was that her husband was killed due to the first outbreaking of Sephera's Curse,"

Agent 34 wasn't really listening. He stared ahead at the forest in front of the mountains. It wasn't very thick, but it would take an hour at most to pass through it on foot nonstop. He didn't care for the forest, but what was behind it. It was the Desert of Beasts, the desert Agent 34 was forced to cross in only a months worth of time on foot to reach the Zena. With the help of Arenia and a few other fellow friends, he reached his goal right before the Battle of Bones commenced.

He sighed. Battles like those were ones he liked. The battles that were easy to win, like the Battle of Bones. To his dismay, Agent 34 knew his next battle was coming next and it would be harder than any battle he has faced before: Public Speaking.