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Chapter Twenty-Six
Below the towering Citadel, Alex sat on the mattress with his back leaned against the corner post of his tent. In his brief moment alone, Alex had fallen deep into thought. He rubbed his hands along his face. He was not sure what he was doing anymore. This whole place, there was something off about it; something unsettling as if it was in the air around him. He had felt this way ever since he accidentally wandered into this mysterious territory. It was like walking onto an alien planet, as if this place had some sort of invisible dome shielding it from the eyes of the rest of the world.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by someone calling his name. “Alex?” came Rowan’s voice from just outside. She carefully lifted the flap out of the way. “Are you okay?” Alex did not move, but simply nodded his head tiredly. Rowan entered the tent and let the flap fall back into place behind her. “It’s not much, I kn
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As the two of them continued to walk, they found themselves heading away from the plateau’s center and before long they came up to the lake that Alex had seen from the overlook. It was much larger in person. The water was clear and blue and gave off a cool, soothing vibe as its surface rippled in the light, spring breeze. Rowan knelt at the bank and placed a hand in the water. “How old is your sister?” Guessing they would stop here, Alex sat down by the edge of the water. “She’s twelve,” he answered her. “Two years younger than me.” Rowan continued moving her hand around in the water. “I’m sure she’s lovely.” Alex shrugged. That was something he had never really taken the time to think about, especially regarding his sister. However, it still made him recall how many
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Not long after Ranger left his presence, Delmar fell deep into thought. Things were difficult enough already within the walls of the Citadel as he tried to keep the remnants of the Ravennites together in spite of all the fear and doubt that clouded their future. It did not help knowing that many of his people were still in hiding all throughout the Dark Zone, helpless and exposed. Now there was this boy; the Outsider. Ranger’s behavior was changing, too. Delmar had no idea who he actually was nor did he care. He knew Ranger was not the man’s true name, and that was the only clue Delmar needed to know that he was running from someone. Under normal circumstances, Delmar would not have permitted any Outsiders to seek refuge within the borders of the Dark Zone, with or without his knowledge, after the Domineers’ actions against them under the influence of the Morenno brothers. The vast majority of the Ravenni
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“What am I doing?”The day wore on and night came with the warm, soothing breeze of the zephyrs from the west. Alex struggled to drift off to sleep on his ragged, dirty mattress covered by a single thin sheet. The Citadel had gone quiet and all Alex could hear was the soft chirping of crickets in the distance. This was the most peace he had felt in the past thirty hours, yet it seemed like an eternity.He still had no idea what sort of fate lay in store for him here, but bigger questions remained on his mind. Though he couldn’t sleep, Alex closed his eyes and allowed his mind to wander. He did not know what to think of these people. No one had given him an actual explanation of their seemingly dire situation, but Alex could see just from looking around how devastating an effect it was having on them. He remembered his first encounter
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Alex backed up a step and turned around. He let out a loud gasp of panic and he realized now that there was no chance any of their enemies could ever breach the Citadel’s wall here. Just in front of him, the ground suddenly dropped away into a steep cliffside. The cliff dropped so far down that Alex could not see the bottom in the middle of the night. One more step back and he would have fallen right down into the abyss below. The sudden sight scared him so much that could feel his balance faltering.A hand quickly pressed on his chest and pushed him back against the wall. Alex caught his breath and saw Rowan just beside him, holding him back. He looked over at her with wide eyes of shock as he breathed heavily.Rowan stared back at him. “Watch your step,” she said calmly.Alex was baffled by her s
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“Holy God…” he muttered, his mouth hanging open. The sight he saw before him looked like something that could only come from some sort of fictional story. Previously, the two of them had hiked down into a low trough between the mountains. At this point, just past the large cluster of brushes, the trough had suddenly opened up into a natural basin of some sort. Alex had never seen anything like it before. The large opening at the tree canopy level allowed the light of the moon and the stars to pour into the area. The effect this change of light had on Alex's eyes made his surroundings appear much brighter, allowing him to examine this basin with clarity.Two small, river-like tributaries flowed from the walls of the encircling hills like a spring; one poured forth from Alex’s left, the other at the side of the basin opposite from where he stood, and the two of them flowed downward a
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As he entered, the light of the nighttime sky and the unnatural reflections of the Oasis’ environment quickly evaporated from Alex’s peripheral vision. He could barely see his hand in front of his own face. Looking up, the immense clusters of mountain laurel were so cluttered that they formed a natural roof over the small, rocky passageway, completely blocking out the light. Alex was growing uncomfortable as he stared as hard as he could into the darkness, trying to find his guide.He followed the narrow path for over a minute and soon the rock had expanded away from him. He realized that he was now outside of the Oasis, but the trees and plant life around him were so dense that his sight was still reduced to nearly nothing. And worst of all, Rowan was nowhere to be seen.“Rowan?” Alex quietly called out as anxiety began to grip him. The
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When Alex opened his eyes, he realized that he was exactly where he had been that night; lying on his patched mattress in his oversized tent. The events and images of that night were the first things to begin flashing through his waking mind. Though he woke in the same place in which he had fallen asleep just the evening before, it felt like he had been away from here for an eternity.What happened last night, Alex asked himself. He could recall Rowan waking him and sneaking him outside the Citadel walls. As soon as she had taken him off of the high plateau, Alex felt as though he was walking into yet another world, seemingly separate from the real world around him.Right now it all felt like an elaborate dream. Maybe it was a dream, he thought. Alex hazily remembered everything Rowan had led him into last night; from his astonishing close call on the cli
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As they had been walking, he did not realize that Matheus had been leading him down toward the large, corral-like area where he had seen Malachai honing his impressive swordsmanship the day before. At his time of day, there was no one training there, and it was clear that Matheus was interested in observing Alex’s own fighting skills, but Alex knew that he was not a fighter.Matheus led him within the fencing of the training corral. “Matheus,” Alex said. “I’m really not comfortable with this.”“Oh yeah?” Matheus responded casually as he walked over to a small rack against one of the fenced boundaries and picked up a carved, wooden object shaped as a sword. “That’s what I said once.” He threw the training sword over to Alex. He made a quick attempt to catch it but dropped it clumsily. Matheus snic
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