Restart Again: Volume 2 by Adam Scott (best adventure books to read .TXT) 📗

It hadn’t even been a week since her first military mission started, yet she carried herself with the strength and ease of a seasoned veteran; it was nearly impossible to picture her as the same frightened girl I had first met in the dungeons below Yoria.

I realized I had stared far too long when she turned and raised an eyebrow at me. “Do you...need something, Lux?”

“No, no,” I said, looking away embarrassed. “I was just...thinking, is all. You’ve gone through a bit of an unfair crash course for this lifestyle of fighting and danger, all because of me. I feel bad about it, but at the same time...there’s nobody I’d rather have with me. There’s no way I would have made it this far without you.”

“I’m here because I want to be, not because you forced me into it,” she replied as she always did. “Plus, things are different now. At first I wanted to follow you, no matter where you were going, because you…well, because you changed my life. I wouldn’t have been able to go back to the way things had always been once you showed me how things could be.”

She looked away as she continued in a softer tone. “I’m not that little girl anymore. I have the power to help the people I care about, and I can’t waste that power. If we hadn’t come here, the Company would have marched straight to Yoria’s gates, and that would have taken them straight through Tolamar. What would have happened to my parents if we hadn’t stopped the Strategist?” Her hands gripped tighter around the handles of the Warp lockbox as she shuddered. “I’m here because it’s the right thing to do.”

“If you keep talking like that, some people might start calling you a hero,” I teased.

She scrunched up her face at me and let out a flustered huff. “Well, what’s wrong with that? Not that I’m saying I think I’m a hero or anything!” She sputtered as she struggled to put together her next thought. “You’re the one who trained me! And you’re always talking about how you want to help the people who can’t help themselves! I just got it from you, that’s all.”

A laugh caught me off guard, and I took a moment to compose myself enough to respond. “That’s true, that’s true. It’s my best quality, really. And, coincidentally, my worst.” I leaned over and planted a quick kiss on the top of her head. “You just keep being you. That’s all that matters.” Lia smiled up at me for a long moment, then quietly shifted closer to my side until I rested my free arm around her shoulders.

We met up with Val and the Strategist as the lobby came into sight around the final corner, and the four of us walked together in tense silence to our final stop. I moved to the tall windows at the front of the lobby and snuck a careful glance through a crack in the heavy curtains; as expected, the plaza outside was packed with soldiers, all centered around the small wooden stage erected at the base of the stairs. I turned and nodded to the others. “They’re here.”

“Best not to keep the men waiting,” the Strategist remarked casually, shuffling towards the door with a rhythmic clinking from his manacled feet.

Val stopped him roughly by the shoulder and spun him to face her. “This is no time for schemes. Your fate, and the fate of your Company, rests on what you say next.”

He rolled his eyes. “As I’ve told you repeatedly, I understand what is at stake. Do not think me so vain that I would put the future of the Elta’sahn Company at stake for some matter of personal pride.” His voice snapped harshly as he finished, betraying his clear aggravation. A pleasant smile spread across his face a moment later, and the anger evaporated. “My men will listen to me without question. You have nothing to fear.”

Val looked to Lia and me for a final time, then led the Strategist to the exit. I locked eyes with him as the doors opened and tapped my finger knowingly on the pommel of my sword; he disappeared out the door behind Valandra a moment later, seemingly unphased by the gesture. I gave Lia a gentle pat on the shoulder, and we walked out into the early morning light.

The smell of the ocean below us was strong on the cold morning breeze, nearly masking the scent of the blood and ash that covered much of the plaza after my rampage. At Val’s appearance on the steps of the statehouse, the noise of the crowd faded from hundreds of overlapping conversations to hushed whispers. Despite their fearless leader approaching them in chains, all eyes were on Val; her shield and armor flashing radiantly in the sunrise left no question as to who stood before them.

As opposed to the night before, there was no raucous cheering as the Strategist moved to the podium: it was impressively silent as he began to speak. “Good people of Attetsia, I come before you a repentant man. In your hour of need I offered you salvation, but it’s time now that I reveal the truth. You deserve that much.” I noticed a clear distinction in the reaction to his speech: members of the Unbound exchanged uncertain glances and low whispers of confusion, while the Company men all watched the Strategist with unwavering eyes, many with their hands on their weapons.

“Our march today was not to be for the greater good of the world; it was for the greater good of the Elta’sahn Company. Under the guise of a revolutionary force, I planned to use your lives, and the lives of those who would have died in the ensuing battle, as bartering chips in exchange for control of Attetsia.” The sincere regret with which he spoke surprised me, though his specific exclusions of the shadowed dealings with King Virram told me that, as always, every