Chapter 75

Sanctuary

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Sage easily escaped from the Imperial Palace, not even needing to slip on her disguise to do so. There were so many nooks and shadowed areas scattered through the palace that she took it as a challenge to her skills, one that she passed with flying colours.

The Hot Summer had officially started, rumours of tsunamis out by the Molten Sea, behemoth tornadoes ripping across the plains, and boiling rains falling during the daytime. It would be suicide to attempt to leave the planet now, and her latest targets would know this to. This gave her time. Time to plan, time to wait. Time to think.

And she had the perfect place to do just that. Not far from the Imperial Palace, her hideout awaited.

She climbed into the mountains surrounding the palace, and worked her way through what looked from the base of the mountain to be impassible terrain, but was in fact a narrow series of switchbacks hidden from sight.

She finally made it to the entrance of her hideout, boarded up for safekeeping.

Sage went to work on the boards, breaking them open one plank at a time, the sensation as each plank of wood split and then shattered was satisfying to her. She envisioned them to be her victims bones, breaking one by one.

She was in a foul mood now. She remembered her fight with the Helsian girl, and how she had turned to dust and materialized in front of her, striking her a fatal blow that was impossible to block. How did she do it? Was it something that could be replicated? It was a powerful tool, one that Sage wanted.

Before long, the last board lay broken on the ground, and Sage peered inside the mine shaft. A short walk through, following the right forks and avoiding the traps she had laid and she would be safe.

In we go. She said to herself as she recalled the information of the correct path through her cybernetic eye.

She recalled the first time she had used it after it had been installed. The rush of information assaulting her brain was painful at first, a feeling of nausea followed next before she finally passed out. Now when that information streamed through her mind and projected itself through her eye, she didn’t even blink.

She had used it millions of times since then, it had become second nature to her. As much a part of her as her organic heart, perhaps the only thing inside her body that wasn’t altered in any way.

An hour later, and Sage found herself in an underground cavern. The ruins of a city visible up ahead. She was home.

This place was a relic from a past time. An ancient civilization that had wasted their chance, and faded into obscurity. Their bones were now the dusty surface that she now trod on.

Sage took to the X.I.N. Database, to look for pieces of information that could help in her current mission. She saw that in a few weeks there would be a ‘Calm’, it was a pre-cursor to an incredibly violent storm, but it was so calm that space travel during this narrow window was possible.

She sat down next, and listened to the radio. Advanced communications were useless during the Hot Summer, but transistor radios were still viable and often a valuable source of information too.

There was nothing of value on the radio this time. Sage yawned and looked at her wrist, it was much later than she had anticipated. It was time for her to turn in for the night.

She set the alarms, made sure that the traps were still functional and turned off her computer before heading upstairs into the skeleton frame of this ancient city.

Sleep came easily to her, it always did. But as she closed her eyes she saw a vision of a grey woman with fiery red eyes. The woman smiled at her, taunting her, and then she disappeared into dust.