The Fyre Chronicles Chapter 25



The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 25

It was the 24th of December and the time had come for the final assault. Sates, Santuric and I would go in first to clear the way for Firr, Shaw, Zentharim and many of the apprentices they had been training. We now stood in front of the tower again, and this time I was much more confident that we were going to succeed, but not without a tough battle supposedly. We approached the main gate and encountered no resistance as I started to burn a hole, even though they had probably discovered out presence with their sensors. We eventually got through and entered the grand hall. Sates let out a “Whoa!” at the magnificent sight this was. Where the tower was mostly crude on the outside, the walls of the completely circular room was made of crystals that let out a strange blue light, lighting the entire hall with an eerie glow. Within these crystals were many strange patterns and pictures, depicting long lost battles and stories. In the very center was a grand staircase leading up through the ceiling to the upper levels. Several statues made out of the same crystals were scattered around the hall, telling stories in somewhat the same way the walls did.

Sates had started to wander as Santuric and I walked towards the staircase. “You think we should just head up?” I asked “It’s probably where our goal is.” I remembered the story Firr had told me about the leader of the Yce, a very old man who had ruled their faction for eons. “It probably is.” Santuric replied “But there is most likely an ambush waiting for us. Sates! What do you think?” Sates were now in the far side of the hall looking at the statues with wonder. “Think what?” he said slowly and began to walk towards us, still looking around. “Should we just head up or find a way to…” Santuric never finished his sentence as Sates stumbled and fell to the ground. Santuric rushed to him to help him up and I went to take a look at what he had tripped on and at first I was confused since the thing was a metal ring that was stuck to the ground. I bend down to take a closer look at it while Santuric helped Sates to his feet. Actually it was not the ring itself that was stuck to the ground, but rather the hinge it was attached to. Not knowing what else to do, I tried to pull it and to my surprise, a square appeared in the ground as the loose frost cracked and fell off. It seemed I had found a trap door to an underground floor. I lifted it all the way over and it fell to the ground with a thump and I now saw a very pale and ill-nourished face look back at me from the darkness below.



We looked at each other for a moment, the man looking at me with a mix of fear and excitement. Santuric came over to see what was going on and the man seemed to get more excited when he saw him, even more so when Sates came to see. “You’re different.” The man said with a rasping voice “Have you come to save us?” “Who are you?” I asked and the man started to grin at us with his black teeth. “You don’t know! That must mean you’re not one of them!” He laughed and looked around at us with now sparkling eyes “We are their slaves, but now we can be free! Come on down.” He turned around and started to walk down a staircase to the dark caves below. We looked at each other for a moment and then followed him down.

What we saw, we couldn’t have been prepared for. We came through a maze of small caves, almost completely dark, only lit by a dim light from the walls, and each one more freezing than the next. And in every chamber were a handful of people, all chained to the walls and with only loose cloth for clothes. Starved eyes looked up at us as we passed but the man kept waving us further in, both those of old and young people alike. At least we seemed to reach where we were going, a slightly larger cave which was probably the center of the maze. “Here, look, look!” The man said and waved us over to a much more well-fed man that was sitting chained to the walls. “We caught him the other day, now they won’t come down here ‘nemore. We can start a rebellion with your help.” The man that was chained firmly to the wall was obviously an Yce soldier and was looking at us with angry, yet tired eyes, the eyes of a man that had been kept with little or no food for days. “Who are all these people?” Santuric asked the man “Mr.?” “37745’s the name” he said excited and showed us a mark on his forearm where his number had been put “I’m just number 37745, and all these people are their slaves, We are kept to breed and when we get too old they take us and make us into those lil’ nasty critters…” he trailed off. In my thought I wondered if those people that were in the same cave might be a kind of family since each one seemed to have two older and a few younger members. “Alright sir, let’s get you out of here!”

We then went around to every single person in the caves, around several hundred and freed everyone from their chains. The soldier still sat at the corner, now looking very angry, but still unable to do anything. 37745 seemed to have taken charge and we, and the rest of the slaves followed him out of the caves to the entrance hall above. To any normal person it would seem like a march of skeletons all pale and skinny but with a certain hopeful determination in every eye. Many gasps of wonder were let out as people spread out into the hall, and as big as it was, it was still filled with people. 37745 took place a few steps up the staircase where the entire hall could see him. “People!” He yelled out “We are no longer slaves, we are free!” A hoarse but loud roar went through the hall “Now, let’s fight those who kept us, fight for our freedom and for the freedom of others! Follow me!” The whole room reverberated with roars and yells as everyone tried to get up the stairs after 37745, and we hurried to follow before we got trampled. The attack had begun and we now had the advantage of several hundred angry slaves.



See also

The Fyre Chronicles

San Ting