This post contains two deleted scenes from my current novel, Ascendence, which is now out an available for purchase. There is a slight discrepancy from this post and the actual novel. In the deleted scenes Lauis had free access to roam around Kilrabi Island. In the book it was changed to him and all Bellators who are not part of the inner circle, not having free access to roam around Kilrabi Island. Enjoy!
Lauis
As Lauis sat in the security room with Niko, he silently fumed. He had been with the resistance for a year, working himself up the ladder from just a simple cook to one of the senior members of the security team. He fed Taima a little information at a time. Not enough to blow his cover, but enough to satisfy her that he was still of some use, never telling her where he was, however. First, he wanted to gain more information before she swooped in with her Sicari and destroyed the base. He had worked so hard to gain their trust, Lauis thought it would be a shame to waste the opportunity.
When he started off as a cook, Lauis could find out where other bases were through eavesdropping on people’s conversations. The bases Lauis had sent Taima to, however, were abandoned. He thought someone had set him up, until he learned the Evangeli had their own spy in the Crystal Palace, who alerted them to Taima’s plans to attack.
Taima’s new task for him was to find out who the spy was. Therefore, when a position opened up in security, Lauis asked to be reassigned. Once in security, he found out that finding the Evangeli spy would be impossible for anyone outside the inner circle. Only the top levels knew that information, and they weren’t about to advertise that to anyone. He didn’t have a written record to capture and send via holopic. Taima did not want him to give up. She figured someone will mess up and let something slip.
Taima then wanted him to find out who was financing the Evangeli resistance. That was hard as well. Korena kept the budget on her private computer system in her office. There was no connection to any other computer network. Lauis was not a systems engineer. When Korena needed her computer serviced, he would not be the one called to work on it, Niko would be. For some reason, Niko didn’t like him. Lauis wasn’t sure why, but Lauis doubted Niko would let him tag along to let him see Korena’s computer.
Another thing Taima wanted was a BNE. She wanted her scientists to inspect this new weapon to see if they could replicate it. What Taima didn’t know was that the BNEs were calibrated to specific users and if one lost their BNE, they had to have a good reason because they were supposed to wear it all the time. If Lauis took a BNE, he could never come back to the Evangeli base. Besides that, he loved his BNE. It gave him power beyond his wildest dreams. He went from having a mild talent in the element of spirit, to being able to wield the power of all five elements, albeit individually, but still amazing to him.
As a spy, he was failing miserably. He had not given Taima any useful information, and she had invested so much in helping him sell his cover as being a loyal resistance fighter. What am I going to do? Taima is going to want to know what base I am at, eventually. I can’t keep her in the dark. What will I tell her? Why am I dragging my feet? I want to go home to my family, don’t I?
Lauis had to admit to himself, he liked the freedom of being part of the resistance versus being an indentured servant at the Crystal Palace. He could come and go as he pleased. Everyone almost treated him as an equal–as equal as one could for being a man. The men here had more freedom but still answered to women in the end. He, however, could get used to this. He would want to raise his family here, if Taima would ever free them. These were dangerous thoughts, however. He tried to put them out of his mind. He needed to come up with a strategy to accomplish his mission.
Lauis looked at the time on the computer console. It was time for his weekly report to Taima. He sighed. He did not know what to tell her. The only thing of note was that Regia Adriena of House Volmier was here with her Lupiri lover. Her lover was now a tiga trainer and Adriena was a teacher at the Evangeli primary school. Lauis didn’t think it was a big deal. Adriena’s lover was probably the one that told her to come to Kilrabi Island to hide in her shame. Yet, it was all Lauis had to offer.
Lauis excused himself from the security room once his relief came and went to his quarters to retrieve his halo-cloak and portable holocom. The halo-cloak prevented him from being picked up on the holovids, but people on the ground could see him. He wove his way through the merchants to the trap door underneath the bar that was above ground and stood as the gateway to the underground city. After he exited the trapdoor, he stopped and paid the bartenders their usual bribe to ignore him as he left the grounds to go out past the range of the holovids.
Lauis sat down, hiding in the tropical foliage. Once he was sure he was not followed, he contacted Taima.
Taima’s image flicked before him. She was standing with a computer pad in her hand. Lauis wondered what she was reading, but he respected his position. He didn’t dare ask.
“Lauis, good, you’re on time. Report,” Taima said, glancing at her computer pad.
“I still have not found who the spy is, and I haven’t been able to find out who’s financing the Evangeli resistance,” Lauis said, nervously. “I can tell you that Regia Adriena of House Volmier has arrived with her lover.”
Taima looked up from her computer pad and arched her eyebrow. “Oh really? Now that is interesting. Did she say how the found out about the Evangeli?”
“No, I just assumed it was from her lover,” Lauis said.
“Her lover is like you, an indentured servant.,” Taima said, as she lowered her computer pad and rubbed her chin. “He could be the spy we have been looking for. He had access to the Crystal Palace every time Niveh came here for meetings. I want you to befriend this man. He may lead you to our mole.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” Lauis said. I can’t believe the information I gave her was useful! I may get through this conversation without having to reveal my location. She can’t possibly want to attack this base while I’m still gathering intel!
“Where is this base you are at Lauis?” Taima said, narrowing her eyes.
Lauis swallowed hard. So, I was wrong. “Your Grace, if you want me to gain information from Adriena’s lover, you can’t attack this base. Give me more time.”
Taima paused for a long time. Lauis’ heart was beating so hard, he swore Taima could hear it through the holocom. His breathing quickened.
When Taima did talk, it was in a calm, soft voice that chilled Lauis to the bone. “Lauis, I will give you more time to glean more information from your position as a security officer. However, the next time I ask you where the Evangeli base is, I will not be so charitable.”
Taima’s image blinked out. Lauis closed his eyes and tried to slow his breathing. What did Taima mean that she would not be so charitable? What will she do? He did not know, but he had no intention of finding out. He might like his freedom as a member of the resistance, but his fear of Taima was real. Failure is not an option. The kindness of the Evangeli cannot blind me. They are the enemy. I must remember that.
Lauis put away his holocom in his messenger bag and headed back to the bar. Although he didn’t believe in the True Goddess, he felt tempted to ask Delie to pray for him during their next Sacrae Horis ritual.
#
Before Installation
Lauis sat in Greysen’s quarters drinking with a group of Lupiri. Greysen’s quarters with his lover, Adriena, and daughter Nea. Their quarters were bigger than his own, but still small for three people. Like all the rooms on the base in Kilrabi Island, the entire apartment consisted of one room, sectioned off by the strategic placement of furniture. They were all sitting in what Lauis would call the living room portion of the apartment. A sofa and a couple of lounge chairs in a semi-circle. Adriena and Nea were nowhere to be found.
Lauis was sensing Greysen and his friends were celebrating something that he was not privy to and Greysen wasn’t forthcoming with the reason. Greysen and his friends were drinking freely and were drunkenly singing war songs. Lauis drank with them. He, however, was drinking for other reasons.
He had befriended Greysen, as Taima wanted him to. Luckily, Greysen and Adriena were unaware that he was one of Taima’s servants from the Crystal Palace, so his cover remained intact.
Greysen was a good man, yet he wasn’t the Evangeli spy at the Crystal Palace. He figured that out after the first few months of their friendship. He knew; however, Greysen knew who the spy was. Lauis didn’t ask him outright, but he had said to Greysen that it was amazing how the Resistance could stay one step ahead of Taima’s forces.
Greysen said, “It wasn’t all that amazing, all things considered.”
When Lauis asked, “What do you mean by that?”
“The Resistance has its ways,” was all Greysen would say.
Lauis bided his time and groomed his friendship with Greysen. During that time, Greysen was slowly converting Lauis to the Evangeli philosophy. It didn’t take much convincing. Lauis was already loving the freedom being part of the Resistance. Greysen opened Lauis’ eyes to the plight of the Lupiri under Taima.
Greysen told Lauis about Taima’s murders of the Evangeli and the forced breeding pen at the LaSabre Prison for the Lupiri. Greysen also told him the story of how the Lupiri servants that worked in the Castles used to be free under Oracle Adia, and how once Taima came to power, she made them all indentured servants.
Lauis had not known that. He was too young to remember when the Lupiri servants were free and not indentured servants. For all his life, he was jealous of the Lupiri tradesmen for the wrong reasons. If Taima hadn’t made all Lupiris in service roles – indentured servants and sharecroppers – we all would be free! His master’s cruelty disgusted him. At first, he tried to justify it, but the more he learned about her true nature, the more disillusioned he became.
Lauis soon realized that he couldn’t tell Taima where he was because he had grown to care for the people in his new home. In fact, he viewed it as a home. If he could sneak his family here, he would. The Evangeli belief in a True Goddess is off-putting, but they didn’t reject you if you didn’t believe. He knew that Commander Baraz did not appear to believe in the True Goddess, and he was one of the inner circle.
Lauis had cut back his weekly status reports to Taima to once every six months, which made her highly agitated. He simply had no new information to report. He was still working on Greysen’s trust and trying to gain access to Korena’s computer. Taima, true to her word, had not asked his location. Allowing him time to gain information on the Resistance instead of attacking the base he was at and losing the opportunity to gain valuable information.
Six months ago, Taima had enough. She had revealed to him he had his family under house arrest. Something he wasn’t aware of. No wonder I couldn’t reach them! I thought it was simply bad timing! The price for failing to give up his location was sending his daughter to the Sicari. She’s joking, isn’t she? She wouldn’t torture a five-year-old child!
Suddenly, Greysen made a toast, “To my former master, Prelate Niveh! Her sacrifice will be marked for all time! And if she didn’t ask Rico here to rig Taima’s personal computer system, the Resistance would have ended a long time ago. Let’s toast Rico as well!”
Rico and the others cheered and lifted their glasses. Lauis was so stunned he could not even move his glass to his lips. Greysen and the others were so drunk, they barely noticed. They went back to singing war songs. Shock overwhelmed Lauis. Niveh is a traitor? He had his information about the spy, but he liked Niveh. She and her family had always been kind to Lauis and his family at the Crystal Palace. He did not want to deliver her to the Sicari.
Lauis stopped drinking, but Greysen and the others were too drunk to notice. He excused himself and slipped away. Using his halo-cloak to make his way through the city, he climbed the ladder up the hatch to the bar. He paid off the bartenders, as usual, and went out into the night, with only the light of the moon to guide him. He could not risk using a portable light globe to be caught on the holovids before he was away from the security grid.
Taima had her nightgown on. Her long white-blonde hair fell down around her like a shroud. “Yes Lauis.”
“I’ve found the source of your security breach. The Resistance has a surveillance system on all of your personal computer systems,” Lauis reported.
Lauis could see from Taima’s image that her face had grown crimson with anger. “Who?” she demanded.
“I don’t know. Greysen only revealed the manner in which it was done. Not who set the surveillance up,” Lauis lied, hoping Taima could not sense it.
“I want you to contact me in a week. No excuses. I need time to figure out what I want I want you to do next. Your reprieve may be up Lauis,” Taima said.
“What about my family?” Lauis asked. He wanted a chance to talk to them, to make sure they were okay–if his daughter was okay. But Taima’s image blinked out. She had terminated the connection. Lauis could do nothing else but pray to the True Goddess, a goddess he didn’t believe in. Yet, he had a reason to now. Now, the only problem is, would the True Goddess listen to a sinner like me?
R.R. Peace, Author and Poet 