On that Friday, the elections take place, but they have to be without Cal. We can't cancel the elections for that, and it's technically a good idea to have a new leader soon, as the actual leader doesn't even remember he's king. I had to make a small speech to the whole of Norta. It was short and simple, I informed everyone of Cal's state and urged them to come forward if they had any information about Abigail Clencher. No luck yet, but we keep hoping.
On Thursday afternoon, as I'm simply walking swiftly down the corridors, I hear an unusually loud noise coming from Elane's room. I don't think twice, and I immediately dart to the nearest door, sprinting back to Elane's window. She packing. Why? And why is she so hasty? I hide in the shadows as she finishes to pack everything she brought: it all fits in a backpack. When she's done, she climbs out of the window, and I retreat in the shadows of the nearby trees. She starts running, so I follow her silently but quickly. She soon reaches a road, and waits for a car to pass. After a few minutes, one does and she jumps swiftly - more swiftly than I thought she'd be able to do - to its back, grabbing on. I can't believe the driver doesn't notice.
I sprint behind her, because I can't grab on or she'll see me, and after a few kilometers - I'm hardly breathing anymore - she lets go and jumps to the side of the road, rolling over in the grass. I wonder where and when she's learned how to do that, because I don't remember Queenstrial training ever resembling this.
But no matter how she does it, she's back to running now, and she seems to know exactly where she's going through the airy forest. I follow her, trying to silence my breath as much as possible. She turns right, then left, then left again and a straight line for quite some time.
After about half an hour - I can't feel my lungs anymore - I can finally see where we are going : from afar, I see the Samos palace. She's going back to her real employer. My heart tightens in my chest. We trusted her when we shouldn't have.
I keep still more distance between the two of us, because it's becoming more dangerous to be here than to be on the road.
She looks around and I duck behind a bush, then she goes back to running towards the castle before stopping in front of an open window and toppling inside. I could swear I saw a wisp of long silver hair waiting on the other side.
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I camp out. I settle myself just outside Evangeline's window for the night, waiting for them to do something, waiting to overhear what Elane is doing here. For now, it really mostly seems like neither of them really cares about what's going on, they're just happy to be reunited. At least they remember they're in love.
I wake up before either of them does, and I watch all through their morning preparations. Only when they walk out of the room do I carefully climb inside through the window, tiptoe through the room and open the door of Evangeline Samos' bedroom. I see them vanishing at the end of the corridor and it suddenly occurs to me that it would be extremely difficult to conceal myself if I go out there, to a place I've never been and that I don't know. But I really need to know what's going on, so I continue to follow the two girls. Oddly, the castle is empty. Well at least, it seems like it, since I don't see anyone, hear any footsteps or muffled conversations. It worries me more than it reassures me, because it feels like a trap. Could Elane know that I've followed her all the way here? I don't think so, but it's always possible.
I finally reach the room the girls have entered, and finally hear conversations. I delicately push my ear against the metallic door, hoping to hear something more clearly. Then I notice that the door isn't completely closed, there's still a minuscule space between the door and the wall. I press my ear against it, and I can finally hear what's going on. Elane is explaining what has happened in Norta, everything that I already know.
" Abigail shouldn't talk, " she concludes.
Evangeline nods proudly to Elane, then redirects her gaze towards her father. He speaks up.
" Good. Now that they think the only menace we sent them is in prison, they won't think we're coming. "
I gasp but quickly muffle it with my hand. What's coming?
" Evangeline, is everything ready for the soldiers? " he asks her daughter.
" Yes. I went to the basement yesterday to check on them, they're all ready to go. Metal soldiers, ready to answer your command and destroy everything democratic in Norta. "
Volo Samos chuckles at this, sending shivers down my spine. But I don't stay to hear anything else: all that matters to me now is this metal army the Samos have built themselves. I dash to the nearest staircase I see and as fast as I can, I skim downstairs. Down, down, down. I see no door leading to another floor for several minutes so I just continue to go down the stairs, two steps at a time, until I finally see one heavy, greasy metal door with no windows. I delicately push it, so I don't signal my presence, but it's useless. Once I'm inside, I see I'm alone. If you can consider alone with hundreds and hundreds of empty suits of armor bearing weapons as alone.
I hold my breath, not daring to give a reason to these soulless soldiers to attack me. They can't have remorse. They can't have humanity. They just attack.
Then I do something that is either very dumb or very useful. Knowing quite well that I may be electrocuted by the return of my blow to the reflecting metal, I send a big bolt of purple lightning to a soldier.
It doesn't rebound.
The soldier crashes backward, a mangled hole gaping at his front, the rest of the armor seeming to be melting away. I can't believe it.
I send another bolt, bigger, brighter, more destructive. Seven suits of armor 'die'. Suddenly exhilarated by my power over this army and the thought that I have a secret asset by being there without the knowing, I start firing bolt after bolt after bolt of shimmering purple electricity, sometimes sending a spark so big and so hot that it burns up 50 soldiers at once. They don't retaliate, as no magnetron is here to control them.
Hundreds of mangled metal pieces lay at my feet, with only a few dozen left to the far end of the enormous room.
Then the world spins.
Ptolemus Samos is here.
I can't let him win again, not this time. As he starts rounding up the suits of armor, I whip around and send a bolt at him.
But I forgot to tone it down. It's a deadly bolt. He falls back, his eyes suddenly empty, and staggers into a pile of old soldiers.
I don't have time to stop and mourn the man who hates me, especially since more are probably coming. I blast three times a big purple bolt, finishing off all of the remaining suits of armor, then I dash away, climbing up the stairs and jump out the first window I see. So I run towards the forest before stopping. I know I'm doing the right thing. I raise my hands to the sky, taking all the electricity I can from the humid air. Then I form the biggest bolt of lightning I've ever produced. It's at least two times my size. And I throw it at the castle.
The bricks start to crumble, and the gaping hole in the side of the palace gets bigger by the second, until the top floors fall brutally on the first ones, reducing the castle to a pile of bricks and rocks and metal, so destroyed you can't know what stood there before. There are screams, there is blood all over. But there is no more Volo Samos, that much I am sure. There is no more of anyone who was in that meeting room I aimed for.
Nothing moves for several minutes, until I see two silver-haired girls emerge from the ruins, clutching each other and tears steaming down their faces. At first I don't recognize Elane, because of the silver blood streaking her hair and the gash opened at her cheek. Evangeline is crying beside her, half dragging her and half dragging herself, away from the trouble. I take it they know they're the only survivors.
I let them go, disappearing into the forest, because I have the feeling they're never cause us any trouble ever again.
They'll want to live calmly in their love.
Author's Note: Wow, I can't believe I produced a whole chapter (which is also probably the longest chapter of this fanfiction!) in just one day! I don't know if it's really clear, but this is the last action chapter before the epilogue, so I would love if you could comment what you liked the most about this story's plot, to help me for my future fanfictions. The epilogue should be up in a couple of days, maybe even tomorrow, and I'm very excited to finish this one great adventure. Thank you for reading all the way down here and for all the nice comments that have really kept me going through this writing process. Love you guys!