“Eleven days?!” Yori excimed, fused with this sudden new piece of information. It had everyone a little off banbsp; Yori saw the pieces lining up from the as that Ayumi took throughout the previous days. “This is the first any of us heard about being on a deadline. You couldn’t have mentiohis to us sooner? It would have saved us a lot of questioning.”

  Yuki raised his hand absentmindedly. “I knew!”

  “Then you’re just as guilty as her.” He focused his efforts on Ayumi. ‘I uand a certain degree of privacy for personal reasons, but this seems like she’s deliberately withholding important information only giving us more when we force her into a er.’ Not many times did Yori feel really angry with anyone, but Ayumi pushed him. “Now I want some actual answers out of you about what’s going on here and what we should be expeg. No more keeping us in the dark for your own venienbsp; That’s how people get hurt.”

  Ayumi lowered her eyes pting her options. She focused her sight ba Yori. Her course left her with no other a. “I’ll give you the information you need when you .”

  “Because you know what’s best for us?”

  “Yes, I do. This is my home and only I uand it. You forced your way to e with us. I didn’t ask you. So I’m not obligated to give you anything!”

  “Still sitting on that high and mighty attitude of yours, I see!”

  His sister came up behind Yori toug his forearm. She khat Yori o say what he did, but the limit came tuing. “Yori…”

  “No, Yumi! This o be dealt with now. I ’t trust someohat thinks of us as baggage.”

  “He’s right!” chimed Seiji. He stood up behind them adding his presence.

  “Tbsp; Until I see a reason to think otherwise you’re just trouble.” Ayumi tried to turn away, but caught a glimpse of Yuki over their shoulders. He gave her a pierg stare log her down. It made her sigh to herself. “You treat this like some school trip. Yet you fail to realize the seriousness of the situation. The moment they know Yuki is here this won’t be about capture and throwing us back out. They’ll kill all of us without a sed thought. I ’t allow them to twist everything my King has worked for and oppress my people! You just don’t uand!”

  Yori’s sister shifted around her brother to get in front to address Ayumi clearly. ‘I sense how passionate she is about this. It’s like a struggle between discipline aions.’ She did not know if she had the right words for the task. Yet to stop before she tried would leave them frozen. “It's a challenge…for you, isn't it?”

  Ayumi staggered back a step, a little fused and shaken by the look that she got from Yumi. It felt pierg. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  She smiled with warmth knowing the correct path had been found. “It’s the endless struggle between your training as a soldier…and what you feel as a human. You’re overpensating…to cover up oh the other. You’re in flict, right?”

  “How dare you speak like you know me!?” Ayumi found her feet stepping back at the girl’s approabsp; It grew further uling for her. She suddenly felt the urge to run away, ered.

  Taking the momentum to add his piece, Yuki came out of the sidelio take a fnking side. “She's right, Ayumi. I’ve seen it as well. You bury your passion.”

  Teamed up against, Yuki dug Ayumi back further. The face that he made at her made it difficult for her to resist. She groueeth frustrated and trapped. “Dammit, you’re so troublesome…”

  Chapter 99 – The Fa?ade

  “Let’s get moving. I’ll talk as we walk.” She looked around at the group knowing that she had to start making good on being more forthing. Her arm stretched out to the horizon ahead of them. “There’s a small border vilge a few hours by foot from here. It’ll be where we rest for the night and resupply since we’re g enough food to make it to the Capital.”

  Seiji and Yori stared at each other a little fused by the whole emotional exge that happened. “What the hell just happened? I thought we were arguing?”

  “I’m not quite sure.”

  Fumiko joihem from behind looking a little amused by them. “Humans are plex creatures.” She looked forward to Ayumi. “Especially ohat are soldiers.” The tall teen stepped on through them to join those that began to move on.

  Both of them still felt lost. Chiharu from behind them with her arms folded up at the back of her head pressed through. “She’s saying you’re idiots.” The ninja casually tinued without missing a beat.

  Haruo had no words for them and passed on, keeping his usual dista the babsp; Yori and Seiji gave up after a few more seds to figure it out. They rushed out to catch up with the party that had already put some distaween them.

  Once Ayumi saw that everyone had caught up to them she began her expnation. “My real name is Eudokia Ismene, as you probably figured out Ayumi Nishimura and everything about her is a false identity.”

  “Eudokia?” Yuki worked the fn hrough his head.

  “My full title is Captain of the Royal Guard. I’m…was…the King’s personal guard and it was my duty to protect his life.”

  “You knew my biological father?”

  “Yes, very well. He was the stro man I’d ever seen and the most gentle as well. He could be strid fair, but then loving and g the moment.” She began to drift ihoughts away from what she pnned. A distant longing appeared on her face as she traveled through her memories. While fond memories came to the surfa aause developed making Eudokia self scious.

  She cleared her throat trying to track back to where she had gone on a ta. “The King holds a very important position for us besides g. The King maintains Atntis and allows for the tinued survival of his people.”

  Yori saw that she finally reached a point that expihe impossible reality that they faced. Atntis defied all logi existing in an almost tropical enviro while being at the South Pole on a frozen ti. He had to know more about Atntis. “What do you mean when you say ‘The King maintains Atntis’?”

  “Atntis is something that’s impossible. You should have all realized that by now. Even terraf the nd would still leave it a block of ice.” She motioned out to the se around them to make her point. At the end she poio the ground. “We’re walking on a perma Apati Agros, an Illusion Field.”

  The news came as a bit of a surprise to everyone, but more awe. Fumiko admired the rolling green hills in the distanbsp; She looked back over at Eudokia. “You mean to say that this is all an illusion?”

  “It works on the simir principle as our powers, but on a pletely different level from what is possible.”

  “You mean it’s like Japan?” Yori ied.

  “Yes. The creation of Atntis here is nothing more than legend and myth to most of us. Even those that believe someone was able to do all this could not expin how it was achieved. It is holy beyond all of our uanding. I was never quite sure myself about how much of it could be true. I figured that stories embellished the facts to make them seem grahay.”

  She stared over at Yuki for a moment. The moments when Yuki awakened and unknowingly ged the try floated through her mind. Even when she saw it before it still felt impossible. The lohat it tihe more she knew better.

  Eudokia blinked and focused back ahead. “When I realized what Yuki had done I khat everything in our history ossible and real. What Yuki did and what our aor did was vastly different, but the results are the same. Both created perma ge without maintaining a stant Field. However, the range is signifitly different from what Yuki achieved. The aor that must have created it had to be several times more powerful than Yuki. Even more so, it’s said that it was a deliberate and trolled effort. Not an act like with Yuki. Their knowledge of the Meso Prosecho powers far exceeds anything we have in the millennia of evolution.”

  All of the history lessons took a heavy weight on Yuki as he tried to absorb it all. He hadn’t thought that someone else had done what he had and done so iionally. It seemed like something impossible with the little uanding that he had of his powers. The thought that far more mysteries remaio be solved presented him with a long stairwell to climb. ‘To be able to vert aire ti almost with their field… How far above me was my aor? Will there be a day that I reach their level? I undo what I have done once I learn all of the secrets? What more is possible with this power that I haven’t sidered?’

  “Does that mean all of the Atnteans are special as well, like in Japan?” asked Saki, after panning around the group.

  Eudokia shook her head. “No, the majority of the people living here are normal. Only a tenth of the popution is believed to have the MP powers.” A few thoughts ran through her mind about Yuki. She knew his approach differed greatly from what they achieved in Atntis. Before, there had been glimpses of his unventional thinking. She regretted never realizing the foreshadowing until it came too te. “No, as I said before, what Yuki did and our aor here were very different.”

  She focused ba the grass to begin her expnation. “The ground was verted from ice to fertile and rid and that was the only ge made. We were given all of the resources to build a new civilization, but had to do it with our own hands. Proteg our nd is the barrier I spoke of before created at the same time. It also maintains the atmosphere aher. And to protect us, there are the fates, North, East, South a Gates.”

  Ag unusually serious, Seiji lifted his hand up like a part of a . He mao catch her eye long enough to know that she was listening. “I heard you mention it before. That we came through the South Gate, but aren’t we already as hel south as it gets? You ’t really go that much more south you? So shouldn’t it be north?”

  Everyoared back at Seiji stunned by him saying something actually intelligent and purposeful (that aually seemed to uand everything that Eudokia told him). Yori took up the cue to expin. “You’re correct, but I’d imagine having four Nates would be quite fusing. It also probably provides a certain sense of familiarity and fort in a location that only has one dire.”

  “But how the hell do you decide which is north then?”

  The Atntean sighed to herself seeing how it had bee thrown off track again. The details that they debated over meant little in the grand scheme. However, they seemed set on figuring out an answer. “North is the dire that we arrived from when we first settled on this nd.”

  “Oh…that makes sense.”

  She tilted her head away from them. ‘I don’t really kher… I’m just gd that they accepted the answer…’

  Behind them, now an hour past, arrived a new squad of soldiers to the remains of the ruined search party. Most of the soldiers still id unscious from the assault that they took. Those few that mao e around had a fog that settled over them. They seemed fused more than anything and not even the arrival of the Captain of the South Gate improved their attitude.

  The Captain stood tall in a biform with gold embr along the seam to highlight his rank. The uniform covered up much of his muscur figure, but left well built arms and legs exposed. “Report, ander!”

  His sed had led the search party personally. The failure to capture the intruders weighed on his shoulders making it difficult for him to face his superior. “I’m uain of what happened, sir. The best answer I have is that we were ambushed and instantly wiped out.”

  “Any losses?”

  “None, but most of the meill out.”

  The Captain looked over the horizon to where the invaders must have gone. He calcuted tacti his mind quickly to form his strategy. Once he finished he turned back to his ander. “I shall go ahead to tihe searbsp; Form squads out of those able to stand and spread out in fnking positions to my team. Stay behind until all of the men are ba their feet and out. After everyone is awake, resume the search as well.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “The honor of the South Gate Division is at stake. Never in the history of our people have we let intruders past the border vilges and that will not ge today! We’ll capture these fners!”