Honey : The Empire's Treasure 353 Tremors

In a lake fifty miles from the city, a women was was.h.i.+ng her hair as a group of soldiers stood by keeping an eye on the surrounding woods.

When a small bird landed on a boulder at the edge of the sh.o.r.e, the women stop what she was doing and called out.

"Fir!" Hearing his name being called, a man of bulky stature with long dreadlocks down his back, mocha skin and indentical tattoos on both of his arms walked out of a large air carrier.

"Gwen....sigh."

"The bird came back." She pointing the small creature grooming itself on the rock.

"You couldn't stop what you were doing to check…?" 

"I've been sleeping outdoors for the pa.s.sed month, I should at least be able to enjoy a relaxing bathe….well unless you would like to join me in here." 

The surrounding guards turned their heads further away from the pair.

It isn't the first time their leaders have occupied themselves with each others or with one of the guards.

"Gwen, we have work to do." Fir was in no mood for Gwen antics at this moment.

"Oh, come on. It's not like we can't handle doing both…"

"Gwen! Leave my man alone!" A red haired, green eyes women came charging down the carrier ramp.

"Ugh, Aria...you been acting like such a prune lately. You both need to relax and unwind, enjoy the scenery…" Gwen float in the lake giving everyone around her a view of her naked tan body.

Both Fir and Aria looked at each other and shook their heads.

All three of them have been together for a long time now, and only Gwen has yet to change. It made Fir and Aria happy but also frustrated.

Ignoring their friend, Fir called the bird to him. Pulling out the note inside he noticing that it was the same message he originally sent to Ruven. 

This could only mean one thing.

Aria and Gwen felt the air change around Fir and knew that something was wrong.

"What is it? Did he kill him yet?" Gwen asked, swimming towards the sh.o.r.e.

"He's dead." Was Fir only response.

"That's good isn't it….?" Gwen looked at Aria, who thought the same thing.

Isn't it good that Prince Ailwin is dead? That's what we wanted.

"Ruven is dead."

Gwen's tan skin lost all color and her body began to s.h.i.+ver.

My disciple is dead!?

Running to Fir's side, she ripped the message from his hand. Recognizing Fir's handwriting, Gwen knew what he said was true. His bird  is train to wait for Ruven's replied before leaving. If the bird comes back without it, then that mean Ruven is in danger or already dead.

Seeing her strong reaction, Fir thought it best to leave her to Aria. 

Sharing a look between one another, Aria walked the rest of the way down the ramp to comfort her long time friend.

Leaving those two alone, Fir walked back into the air carrier.

We need to start plan B immediately.

As one of the big bosses and captain of this vessel, Fir had the biggest room to match his size. Inside, he locked the door behind him before walking to his console to instantly sent off a message to his peers.

In the middle of the night, sitting at his desk, King Rych.e.l.l saw the incoming message he'd been waiting for.

The glow from the screen in the dark room, did nothing the hide the coldness in his eyes. 

Reading over the comm, he tented his fingers together as thought for a minute before typing out his replied. Hitting send, he leaned back in his chair and swerved it around to look out of the windows behind him. 

You shouldn't blame me for this...blame yourself for being born…

It wasn't long before Fir received a response back. When he read the message, he stared at the screen for several minutes before gathering himself to report to Aria and Gwen of their new a.s.signment.

Back at the city, Mika could not fall asleep. She felt this jittery feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Unable to explain it away, she believes it must be her senses telling her she missed something very important, but what?

Unheeding she strolled through the building, looking for nothing in particular, but she somehow found her way to the control room.

 With no one guarding the entrance and left with her own devices out of boredom, Mika cracked her knuckles and entered the room.

She didn't expect much from a government building control room, especially one way out in the boondocks. However, she ended up being pleasantly surprised.

Standing at the main panel, she smiled.

*Whistle* Mika...never underestimate the power of corruption…

It was obvious to her that someone took great care to install up to date mainframes in the room along with brand new control panels to match.

She was sure even her Amara clan household doesn't even have this new model stored in the residence.

"Let's open you up and see what is inside, shall we my dear?" 

Jumping into an empty chair, Mika tried to turn on the mainframes by pus.h.i.+ng the apparent big green b.u.t.ton.

However, to no prevail would they turn on. 

Thinking about it again, she thought maybe the circuit boards were fried.

Moving around to the back of the towering machines, she took off the backs of the models and let some of her nanos inside.

Sending her orders to check the circuit boards, she walked back to the control panel and wait for it to come on.

When it did, the screen in front of her ran down a series of numbers before asking for a pa.s.scode.

Feeling her past talent coming back to her, Mika stretched out her back and cracking her knuckles before letting her fingers fly across the keyboards.

It took a while but eventually she was able to crack the code and gain access to the mainframes.