The sun was almost hiding once more, te afternoon. It was quiet for the moment. All of the excitement stood behind them. A brief reprieve from the chaos. It often seemed as though it would never end. A tinuous struggle forced to repeat i frequenbsp; When the calm came, it could be felt through the entire group.

  Despite their group being ner thahey started their journey into Atntis, it felt bigger. In fact, they were short oo have the inal t. Yet it felt almost unmanageably rge. Te for ao hold together. Everything seemed ready to fly apart. No one knew what held it all together. They just kept going forward.

  It wasn’t even the presence of their friends that kept everyone quiet. It happened naturally. Everyone had their own problems. Somethiheir thoughts elsewhere. Only a few stayed vigint, keeping them ahead of their pursuers. A couple of skirmishes interrupted the pace, quickly handled.

  Appeario Yumi, Chiharu leaned a little towards her. “There’s someone moving ahead. They’re ing in our dire.” Her eyes slid back towards where she sighted the figure.

  Motioning to Neriheir transport slowed down. “ you tell who it is?” She looked head over the front of the truck even though her sight would never find anything, not at such a distance.

  “No, it’s just movement right now. They’re using the forest to avoid being seen.”

  “There’s a lot of these forests,” she ented. They already had to deal with ambushes from anything that obstructed their sight. It made everyone paranoid the moment they saw another if there would be an attabsp; “Alright, Miss Nerine, please avoid the forest ahead.”

  “I uand!” The vehicle respoo her request pulling to the left and increasing speed. They had less of a need for moving straight with the spire in the Capital on the horizon as their signpost. They couldn’t be lost with it in sight.

  Yumi leaned over a little to Chiharu, while watg ahead at the forest moving to their fnk. “What are they doing?”

  “They’re moving to intercept. They spotted us.”

  Her eyes went down briefly. Then she pushed back looking at Saki. “Saki, we’ve been spotted. I need you to ha.”

  She nodded in sileo Yumi. Cheg with Chiharu, she received the location pointed out. Immediately disappearing, her wake made the truck rock a little. Saki seemed like a person driven and hardened. A different look was in her eyes sialking to Yumi. She handled most of the problems before they became ones. Nothing would staween her and what her eyes locked upon.

  Opening the window into the driver’s seat, Yumi poked her head through. “How are you feeling? How much longer you go before you need a rest?”

  “I’m fine,” she insisted. Neriried to motion with her body to dismiss any for her well-being.

  Yumi’s eyes narrowed a bit. “I know you’re trained for this and a soldier, but you’re still human.”

  The way Yumi said it made Neriurn her head babsp; She tried to hide her surprise. “Thank you for your , but I keep going.”

  “You don’t o push yourself to breaking. We still have more than a day’s travel. Yoing to o be able to act when we reach the Capital.”

  Nerine could see the insistence of an immovable wall out of Yumi. She would press the issue until she relented. All she could do was face forward. “A couple of hours.”

  “It’ll be getting dark by then, sounds like a perfect time to rest.” A bit of a smile moved through her lips as she pulled out. Yumi gnced back at Chiharu. “What’s the word?”

  “There was something briefly, likely her attack, but it’s been silent since.”

  Yumi looked over at the forest again. It didn’t make any sense. “If Saki dealt with the problem, she should be back by now.” Thoughts immediately went to the worst cases. It was all just specution, but it ossible to have run across someone Saki could not defeat.

  However, before any pns could be made, Saki appeared to dispel any worry. “Found someone.” She threw back her hand pointing with her thumb. The figure Chiharu tracked surfaced from the shadows of the trees.

  Haruo appeared.

  Chapter 231 – Silent Progress

  Loaded up and moving again, they all surrounded Haruo. Everyo in a circle almost as though he was in for an interrogation.

  “Weren’t you with Yuki and Ayumi?” asked Yumi, needing to firm it.

  He nodded. “Until a couple ho.”

  “Hey man!” shouted Seiji. He patted him on the back genuinely gd to see another friend. Everyone seemed to be returning. “It’s good to see you’re still in one piece!”

  Haruo g Seiji. ‘He’s a lot like Yuki. Overly familiar.’ It was somethiried to get used to dealing with since meeting Yuki. His caution in dealing with others left him with no way to deal with people like Yuki and Seiji.

  “Sain for attag you,” Saki ied, clearly bothered by her mistake.

  “You attacked him?”

  “Yes, Seiji! Shout it louder, why don’t you!” She received a peing look from Seiji. “I didn’t know it was him. Chiharu spotted someone, we assumed it was another of those Omega people.”

  He stared Haruo up and down. “You don’t look harmed. I’m impressed you took her first strike. She’s pretty ruthless.”

  “I was holding babsp; I wasn’t using my full strength! I wouldn’t have hurt him.” Seiji gri her. He teased her. “Give it rest.”

  “Haruo,” opened Yumi, she had the most important question that everyone had on their mind, “Why aren’t you with Yuki? What happened?”

  “We were ambushed.”

  Everyone looked a little bothered by the short answer. A lot could be extrapoted from the answer, but they needed details and real information. Haruo’s brevity couldn’t pass this time.

  “By more from the Omega Division?” He agreed with Yumi. “Are they still out there?”

  “Yes.” The ore details made the situation seem worse than Haruo intended. He could see their eyes shifting around already ed about their attabsp; “They aren’t in the area.”

  “But you won?” Yumi had trouble getting a clear picture of what happened with Haruo in the ambush. He held baany pieces she wasn’t sure what happened. It seemed at the very least he survived, somehow. However, she guessed they might never know what happened. “But why did you remain behind? You didn’t fight together?”

  “No. It was Ayumi’s idea.” Gnces went around the circle. He firmed some of their fears. Things tio look worse for Ayumi. Unfortunately, none of them knew anymore of what she pnned. Haruo could tell they had their suspis about Ayumi, just like him. “There’s something else. Yuki agreed with her without questioning her.”

  Saki nearly jumped up to her feet, but stopped herself. “Yuki wouldn’t do that! He’d want to stay behind and do it together, not wanting you to fight alone!”

  “Yes, I agree. Ayumi is pnning something that she wants us out of the way.”

  The quiet one of the group, Simonides held his words to try to be more of an observer and not press his new retionship with the teenagers. However, he o add his point of view. “We still don’t know if they’re the real Eudokia or not.”

  “Does it really matter?” barked Seiji, having trouble trolling his emotions. His friend was in danger and he couldn’t do anything. The helplessness carved away at him.

  Yori nodded, previously in thought. He lowered his hand from his . “No, he’s right. We don’t know what they’re pnning. It’s going to be difficult to evee on their pn without knowing if it is the real Eudokia.”

  “Correct, it es down to motive. If we uand their motive, we make pns, but we don’t know who they are.”

  “How’s that going to help?”

  “You don’t know the real Eudokia as well as I do, but she is intensely loyal to Atntis, but above all else to the te King.” Simohought back to the times he met her in the Capital after her new posting. “I only saw her a few times, but it was clear to see in her eyes. When she was with the King, he was the only one in her eyes. I’d say in a way, it probably blinded her.”

  Yumi started to follow where they were going. She stepped into the discussion. “And if it is not the real Eudokia, they probably have something different in mind with Yuki than the real Eudokia.”

  Simonides nodded with the clusion. “Because of that, an easier guess is that someone is faking her appearao take advantage of her position and Yuki Hayashi’s important to their pns. He’s extremely powerful, if he truly is the heir of the King. The power he represents in the wrong person’s hand could be devastating for Atntis.”

  “But Yuki’s never met Eudokia before. What would they gain from pretending to her? They could have said anything.”

  “It’s likely Eudokia is important to their pn just like he is.”

  “Seems like a lot of work for something that could easily colpse.”

  “Yes, that's why I said it’s the easy answer. I’d prefer not to believe Eudokia is capable of treason, but it’s more likely giveuation that it is the real one.”

  “But you said she had an iy to her,” reminded Yori. He was sure of the dire Simonides was leading them. “Something that intense make you do things that you normally wouldn’t and justify them very easily out of a sense of loyalty.”

  “That’s what I fear. I only imagine how hard it was on her with the King’s death.”

  Yumi realized it as well. “You think his death sent her over the edge.”

  “It’s a powerful emotion, loss.”

  Seiji scratched his head a little annoyed with all of the talking. Everyone was making leaps he couldn’t follow. The st little bit he uood clearly enough. “I don’t get what most of this has to do with anything. But you’re basically saying she’s angry over this King’s death?”

  “It’s a little more plicated than that, Seiji, but yes.”

  “How does that help us? You’re assuming she’s the real one, not some fake. We still got those Omega guys out there hunting us.”

  “He’s right.”

  Simonides was at the same dead end as the other. He gave the whole thing days of thought with no answer. None of them were any closer to uanding the truth. The only thing they could do was follow her tracks.

  “Besides, I thought she just wanted Yuki to be King and the uys didn’t want that to happen.”

  “It’s not that simple, Seiji,” reminded Yumi, “The way she’s going about her as don’t make sense for that. Removing us from the situation makes it harder for her to achieve that goal, not easier. She must be pnning something else.”

  “How much of that matters?”

  He didn’t seem to get it. Yumi didn’t know how else to expin to him. “If we don’t know what her real objective is we ’t move to ter her.” She thought about what else she could say to him.

  Seiji shrugged. The pns didn’t really matter to him. He had a very clear sight on things from his view. “She’s still going to the Capital with Yuki. Whatever she’s got pnned is in there. So even if we don’t know what she’s doing we know where she is going.”

  Simonides could agree with Seiji on that assessment, but it went deeper. He worried about ohey got to the Capital. “The problem is the Capital is vast with a deep underground. Millions of Atnteans live in the Capital. It’s going to be easy to lose her if her goal is not the King’s Pace.”

  “We have to start somewhere, right?”

  “The wrong pn is worse than no pn?” It wasn’t a sehat Simonides could easily get behind. He looked around at the teenagers. They all seemed to have a simir look as Seiji. It appeared their course was set. He wasn’t going to vihem.

  Yumi shrugged a little with a bit of a grin, seeing how troubled Simonides looked. She was used to dealing with Seiji a little already. “It’s worked out for us so far. Now that we’ve got Haruo back all that is left for us is to rescue Yuki ahis all before it gets any more out of trol.”