Ollys nearly laughed, though her gaze stopped him. "An insurgence? Like a rebellion." Laughable, almost.
"Yes ma'am," the girl said, walking smoothly down the rocky tunnel ahead, leaving the three to struggle to keep up. Ollys grunted and continued supporting Liric, though his muscles aches and his legs wobbled. It would be a miracle if they made it through alive.
"Who would rebel against an academy?" Ollys nearly slipped on a rock, but Opal caught his arm, righting him. "They against education or something?"
The girl laughed, her cute voice chiming through the air. "Not the academy. Avandria."
Ollys nearly tripped again, though for a different reason. "What? All of Avandria?" He didn't know what he looked like - he could hardly feel his face - but he imagined he was leering in disbelief. Who could succeed in throwing out all of civilization? Besides, there was nobody outside of Avandria. Is this lady a creature... the though dawned on him. The first thing that popped into mind was what she might look like under her clothes as a non-human, though he quickly forced that thought from his head.
She turned to face him this time, causing him to flinch. She raised one lithe eyebrow. "There is so much more to this world than you could possibly know, child. And we do not have the time to discuss it." She turned around and continued striding down the craggy tunnel.
Ollys squinted. "What..." He looked over at Opal, but she just shrugged.
The next few minutes were ones of silence, as Ollys and Opal stumbled after the faster woman. Ollys kept coming up with questions - who was this girl? What did she mean? Who would rebel against Avandria? - but he had no answers for himself. He began to feel frustrated at this woman. Maybe it would have been better to return to the surface.
He saw images of valleys filled with corpses of students, professors and insurgents alike, and he quickly came to the conclusion that following the crazy woman was probably smart.
"Dor!" The woman ahead called after a dozen or so minutes. "Dor! You made it."
Ollys looked down the tunnel but couldn't see far. He began to hear voices as the walked deeper though, a few faint voices which grew to collections of curses and complaints.
"Luce!" A gruff but thin voice responded. "You're alive." A man came into sight. He had long light brown hair woven in a braid, with a mustache to match. He wore a dark grey tunic of similar color to the woman, but also wore a long sleeve silver-and-maroon jacket on top with only one sleeve - the other presumably blown off in the fight above, as well as a silver cloak hanging off his shoulder. "Thought you'd died. Risky stunt, you pulled."
The girl - Luce, Ollys supposed, though it was an odd name - grinned, punching the man. "You doubt. I had it in my hands. None of the sunditzs noticed a thing."
The man laughed, his voice raspy. "Good, good. And these are the captives, I presume?"
Ollys slipped his arm from around Liric and pulled his glove tight. "W-what do you want with us?" His voice once again failed him. He doubted he could do much against full-fledged warriors after all, especially if they were successfully fighting all of Avandria.
The man Dor grinned at Ollys, raising slender arms. "Don't worry brother. Ain't here to rape ya." He didn't bother explaining though, walking towards the clamor with the girl. Ollys refused to think about what their relationship might be, forcing himself to focus on the situation.
"An insurgence," Liric muttered weakly. "The hell is going on?"
"Unlikely," Opal said. "Probably a gang or something." Even that thought was troubling though. Ollys had never heard of any gang or any form of organized crime at all in Avandria.
But they followed further down the tunnel. What else could they do?
Within a few moments, the tunnel they were passing through spilled out into a much larger cavern, the source of the noise. The huge cave, probably 40 feet tall and several times longer, was packed with dozens, probably more than a hundred, of the insurgents. They all seemed to be talking at once, causing the massive amount of noise echoing everywhere. The echo caused people to talk louder, which created more echo. Ollys restrained the instinct to cover his ears, though he doubted it would do much. Most of the insurgents wore cloaks and tunics that were worn above, probably the offensive force, but there were others who didn't, those tending to wounds, cooking and serving food, or cleaning the caverns - as ironic as it sounded. A half dozen or so stood at a table in a corner, which was raised up a few feet above the rest of the mass by flattened rock. Probably their leaders, Ollys noted. He wondered if he could take them out himself, but quickly discarded the idea, as images of the massacre above committed by the insurgents and the academy flashed through his mind. Wouldn't stand a chance.
"This one's injured," Luce said to the mustached man, jabbing her thumb towards Liric. "Get him to a physician."
"Of course, Your Excellency," Dor said, bowing so deep, Ollys couldn't believe it was anything but a tease.
As if on cue, the girl kneed him in the thigh, causing the man to curse. "Learn how to take a joke," he muttered, though he grinned at her. He straightened himself before walking towards Ollys. "Let me take him," he said, nodding to Liric.
Ollys didn't move or let go of Liric, looking warily at the larger man.
The man sighed, and gave Ollys a knowing look. "Hey, I get it, brother. Bunch of insane criminals kidnap you, then try to separate you. But..." he clicked his tongue. "Just trust me. Gonna take good care of the boy. He needs medical attention."
There was something in the man's eye, a sort of earnestness, that pushed Ollys. He hesitantly moved, letting the man support Liric in his stead. Opal let go too, giving Ollys a tired look. "You do anything to him, and I'll..." He couldn't even think of a threat.
Dor grinned. "Don't worry. Anything happens to him, I'll give you my left ball." Not giving him time to think about the promise, he walked away, briskly bringing Liric across the room. The boy's face was plastered with complete exhaustion, and Ollys wasn't even sure if he was conscious at all.
"You two," the girl said suddenly, walking up to them, a hand on her hip. She had a glint in her eye, as if amused. "With me. Ups want to see you."
"Ups?" Ollys asked, trying to keep up as the girl walked briskly through the masses. "Like higher ups or something?"
"More or less. They run the place, give order to this mess of hormone and anger," she said, gesturing to the motley of different peoples around them. "They'll explain things, probably. Better than I could, anyway." She ducked past a couple of beefier men, who were arguing about some sort of shellfish platter they had between them.
Ollys looked at Opal, who shrugged. The girl looked exhausted. Ollys imagined he looked the same. Probably just wasn't sane enough to feel it yet.
He and Opal continued to pursue the girl Luce, trying to keep up with her as she lithely skated through the crowds. Eventually, she led them to the corner table, stepping up on the elevated shelf. Ollys forced his eyes away from her ass as she did.
Ollys stepped up on the ledge, noting the council before him. There were seven individuals on the chairs, including Luce, and one empty chair, possibly for Dor. They were pretty split down the middle in gender, and they all had varying features and complexions, except for one man and women who looked quite similar - family, maybe.
One woman smiled formally at Ollys and Opal as they cautiously walked towards the table. She had dusty blonde hair, like Liric, and was one of the younger in the group, maybe just a couple years older than Ollys. "Hello," she greeted, her voice a mellow alto. "Sorry for the... abruptness of this morning. Can't imagine it's been what you expected when you woke up."
"Was expecting my beef wrap about this time today," Opal said sarcastically. "Didn't expect to get kidnapped into a cult."
Despite her witty bitterness, most of the group laughed amusedly. "If it's the food you're worried about, then trust me, we have much better than beef wraps for food here. And apologies about the, ah, bluntness of the welcome. Lucy isn't the best at being polite." Luce just looked at her fingernails and clicked her tongue. Or, Lucy.
"But first, I am Sori, temporary head of this operation. This is Pol," she said waving to her right, where a slim, swarthy woman stood, looking exhausted as Ollys, "financial advisor. We have Lucy, Dor, who I assume you've met, then Orem, Maeo..." she went across the table, giving off names Ollys immediately forgot. "And myself. We lead this hasty group," she said, waving her hand off to the room haphazardly. "A rebellion of sorts."
Ollys sighed. Rebellion. "Against what?" he asked.
As if the universe wished to prove his arrogance wrong, a huge blast shook the ground as one of the cavern walls to the left broke inward, chunks of boulder crashing across the room, causing yells of alarm to pierce the room. Ollys instinctively pulled his hands over his ears this time, looking at the cause of the explosion. Individuals equipped with Avandria milita cloaks, as well as swords and spears, spilled into the room, swiftly attacking anyone near them. A handful turned into dozens as the well-trained army poured into the room. The messy insurgence quickly lost dozens of members as the troops slew mercilessly, not giving the rebels time to ready themselves.
And yet, within seconds, the insurgence was fighting back, having formed an organized line of resistance against the Avandrian guards.
"Dammit!" The woman Sori yelled. "They followed us. Maeo, organize the legion. Lisl, evacuate the medical wing. Rest of you, get out."
A moment later, Ollys was being dragged down yet another tunnel by Lucy, followed by Opal and another person - Orem, was it? - sprinting hastily down the rocky crevase in the cavern wall. Ollys nearly fell a dozen times as Lucy yanked him down turn after turn, only keeping his balance out of sheer instinct. He managed to wrench himself from her grip, causing her to turn around in alarm, but he kept following her. She looked forward again and ducked around another corner.
Ollys nearly crashed into the woman as he rounded the corner. Lucy was crouched behind the corner, a short sword in her left hand. Left-handed, some carnal, excited part of him muttered, but he shoved that aside hastily. He crouched by her in the small nook in the wall. Opal squeezed next to him, and the tan hulk of a man Olem sat across from them.
Ollys opened his mouth to ask what was going on, though he could already guess the answer. Olem put a finger to his mouth before he could ask, shutting him up. The man scared him.
They sat tensely for multipled minutes without moving at all except for the man Olem to pull out a pair of thick daggers. There was still shouts, magic effects, and the clang of metal-on-metal from down the tunnels, and yet Ollys barely dared to breath. After probably half a dozen minutes, the clamor died down to almost nothing except for a few distant clashes and a few orders yelled, though he couldn't make out what was being said. Had the insurgents lost? Had the Avandrians been driven back?
He didn't dare ask though. He started to gain night vision, but the few lights there had been earlier were now taken or put out, blocking out all vision. He thought he could hear his own heartbeat thrumming, and wondered if the others could hear. It was louder than a war gong. Not sure if I know what a war gong sounds like, he noted, considering this is the first time I've even heard of conflict happening in my life time.
The sound of soft footsteps nearly made Ollys jump from his daydreaming. The soft scraping of hard leather on the rocky cavern floors made his heart race and his hair stand up. The footsteps seemed to come and go, as if the ebb and flow of the blood of some ancient beast from fairytale. Ollys had never been a particularly weak fellow, he had always thought. But in that instant, he felt no older than a four year old, looking outside and noticing for the first time that the scarecrow looked an awful lot like the devil himself.
