The Rebellion (Chapter 5)

Sira's Allegiance

1 Month Later

Sira sat on the hard, stone floor with Alita’s head in her lap. The woman had been shot during the invasion and her breathing became shallower and shallower with each passing minute. Alita’s husband Rowel was pacing back and forth like a caged animal he stopped for a moment in front of Sira and spoke in a panicked voice, “How is she?”
Sira placed her hand on Alita’s forehead and checked her pulse, “She’s fading fast. If we don’t get her help soon…she’ll die.”
Rowel crossed over to the wooden door and grabbed hold of the small bars on the window and gave them a shake. “Let us out! You can’t hold us here we work for the Zotac you can’t keep us here. Let us out!”
“Will you just stop it!” Adan snapped. He had been staring silently out the window for the last couple of hours but at the sound of Rowel’s shouting he couldn’t keep quiet anymore. “They’re not going to let us out, Rowel, don’t you understand? The Zotac is dead, Japhin’s running things now.” He stopped to take a deep breath struggling to get a hold of himself. When he spoke again his voice was quiet and shaky. “The only way we’re getting out of here…is through death!”
Sira swallowed and she watched as Rowel loosened his grip on the bars and slumped to the floor. He pulled himself into a fetal position and his shoulders began to shake gently. “There has to be another way.”
“There’s not another way, Sira.” Adan snapped again.
“What about Wilhelm? He’s got to be out there somewhere. He’ll come and…”
“Stop it, Sira, just stop it.” She jumped at the anger in his voice. In all the years they had known each other he had never shown this level of anger toward her. “It’s over, Sira, it’s over” He took another deep breath and dropped down onto the hard cot that was thrust up against the wall.
For the first time Sira noticed the fear in her husband’s face. Rowel had crossed over to his wife’s side and Sira gently pushed Alita into his arms. She crossed over to her husbands side and sat beside him. “Adan please, don’t give up. I couldn’t stand if you gave up. You’ve always been the strongest person I know. If you die…” Her voice broke and she couldn’t finish. Adan wrapped three of his arms around her and pulled her close as she sobbed into his shoulder.
The four sat in silence for a few moments the weight of their future and how little time there was left for them hung in the air. A sound of a door opening down the hall brought them all to attention. They listened as the footsteps came closer to their cell. An Imaginese guard stopped in front of their door and fit a key in the lock.
Two guards came in and pulled Sira away from her husband. Another guard crossed over and pulled Rowel to his feet and a fourth knelt next to Alita. As Sira and Adan were led out of the cell followed close behind by Rowel, they heard the last guard call from where he knelt next to Alita. “Sir, this ones not moving. It looks like she was shot.”
The leader of their squad nodded for the man to leave the cell, “just leave her, she’ll be dead in a couple of hours.”
“No,” Rowel struggled against the guard holding him trying to get back to his wife’s side, “No, she’s alive, you can’t leave her, she’s still alive.” Rowel managed to break away and ran toward his wife, a shot rang out and Sira screamed and ducked to the ground. As the sound of the shot faded she stood up and was relieved to find that it was only a warning shot.
“I’m not leaving,” Rowel shouted at the guards from where he had fallen to the ground next to Alita, “and I’m not going to swear allegiance to your new Zotac so just leave me here, let me die here with my wife.”
The guard grinned at him and raised his gun out again, “As you wish,” He pointed the gun at Alita and pulled the trigger. Rowel’s cry filled her ears as pulled his wife’s still body into his arms. As he cried into her hair, the guard re-aimed his gun in Rowel’s direction and pulled the trigger again. This time it was Sira to cry out and she buried her head in her husbands chest.
The guards pulled them apart again and forced them to leave the dungeon area of the mansion. The were both quiet contemplating the death of their two close friends and their own fate which was just around the corner. They were led to the room where the dinner had been held just a month before.
The room had been completely transformed into a type of throne room where Japhin sat at end on a chair covered in the vegetation that was so rare on Imaginess. There were guards lining each side of his makeshift throne and all the tables and party decorations had been removed and instead replaced with flowers and plants of every kind.
Japhin stood to his feet as Sira and Rowel were led to the base of his throne. “Awe so if it isn’t two of Leena’s most trusted servants.” He turned to the captain of the guard. “Where are the other two?”
“Dead sir, the women had been shot and the man tried to attack.”
Japhin nodded, I suppose its better dead now than rebel later.” He had crossed the space between them and had started circling them. He stopped in front of Adan and looked into his eyes. “So what will it be? Death or allegiance to the new Zotac?”
“I would rather die.” He said spitting on Japhin’s shiny boot. Japhin scowled at him and nodded at the guard behind him. The guard grabbed him roughly by the arm and pulled a syringe out of his pocket and thrust it into Adan’s neck.
Japhin smiled, “you’re going to wish you had put up more of a fight back at the cell. A laser gun wound will seem like relief compared to the excruciating death of my poison.” Just as Japhin finished speaking the poison kicked in and Adan grasped his neck choking and struggling to breath, he fell to the ground and Sira cried out as she watched her husband endure the slow death of Japhin’s poison.
As Adan continued to writhe, Japhin turned to Sira her heart jumped to her throat. “And how bout you my dear? Would you also prefer this painful death rather than swear allegiance to me? Is it really worth it?”
Tears streamed down her face as she looked into her husbands eyes. He was barely breathing now but he was staring at her as if dreading her answer.
She knelt down beside Adan and spoke as if he were the only one in the room. “Adan, do you remember when we were kids, and Leena came. I was so mad at you for betraying her to the Tuli. I thought were such a coward, but more than once you have proven that your far from it. I could only wish I was as brave as you.”
Adan reached up and gently brushed her purple hair out of her face and struggled to speak through his slowly closing throat, “Don’t…die…find…Wilhelm…save us” He let his hand drop and she grabbed it firmly as his breathing became more labored. His breathes became shorter and closer together and finally he pulled in one last short breath passed out.
Tears filled her eyes as the guard pulled her to her feet. Japhin’s patience was growing thin as he eyed her, “What did he say to you?” Sira was confused for a moment before she realized that Adan had spoken to her in English a language that Japhin had refused to learn because of his prejudice against the humans.
She shook her head, “Nothing of importance, he only told me he loved me.”
“Why in English?” He asked skeptically
Sira’s anger was boiling by now and she snapped at him, “Because it was private and he didn’t want the likes of you to hear his dying words.”
Japhin scoffed, “Oh how perfectly romantic and I’m sure you’ll join him now won’t you. The perfect ending to a tragic romance.”
“You’re wrong!” Sira shouted, trying to regain her composure. She took a deep breath and swallowed past her fear. Everything within her demanded that she take the needle just like her husband had but she had to respect his wishes. He wanted her to live, he knew something she didn’t and he wanted her to help with the resistance in the years to come. “I don’t want to die.” She lied, “I want to serve you…the new Zotac of Imaginess.”
Japhin smiled, “Well that’s a pleasant surprise, and I have just the job for you. Wella and I shall be getting married shortly, in days time to be exact. She will be in need of a servant. Someone loyal to me. I think you might be perfect for the job. After all anyone willing to betray her own husband for me is…perfect.”
Sira bowed her head slightly at these new orders, “Yes, my Zotac,” she said and the words tasted like poison on her tongue, “I would be honored to serve as Wella’s maid.

The Wedding was held two days later. Wella had spent most of the week locked away in her room drowning in her steady stream of tears. In her darkest moments of despair she had almost taken her own life but then there would be that small flutter in her stomach and she knew that she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t take the life of her unborn child because of her own selfish desire to die.
On the day of her wedding she thought her heart would break. A sweet older woman who Wella was sure she had seen a few times with Leena came in to help her dress. This women had come in a few times in the last few days but always Wella had been too lost in her depression to notice.
As the servant, Sira, prodded her out of bed and tried to encourage her to take a bath, Wella did her best to block out thoughts of her future. In just a few hours she would be having the wedding she had always dreamed of but with only one thing missing: she would be marrying the man she hated, while the man she loved lie somewhere dead. She didn’t want to think about Japhin or consider what her life would be like once she was officially his wife.
“You’re going to make such a beautiful bride.” Sira said as she pinned up Wella’s thin pink hair.
Wella sighed and pulled away from Sira’s skilled hands. She stood and crossed over to a full length mirror and examined her reflection. “No, I’m not a beautiful bride. A beautiful bride should glow with the love she has for her groom. There is no glow in my eyes, nothing but death shows there. I’m nothing but a beautiful corpse ready to march to my death sentence. It shall indeed be the longest death in the history of deaths.”
Sira crossed to stand beside Wella staring into the mirror at her reflection as if trying to see what Wella saw. “I don’t understand. If this is how you feel why did you agree to this arraignment? Why didn’t you refuse to marry him? It would have been a far quicker death.”
Her nostrils flared and stared at her through the mirror, “I have my reasons for going through with this.” She turned away from the mirror and faced Sira, “And what about you? Weren’t you one of Leena’s closest friends? Yet here you are serving under Japhin in order to save your own skin. The way I see it, I am no worse than you.”
Sira was silent and Wella knew her words had hit their mark. When Sira spoke her voice was shaking. “It’s been two days since my husband and brother were brutally murdered by Japhin’s soldiers before my eyes. Each day that I continue to live without them, I die a little. But I live so that their deaths will not be in vain. If I can find some way to overthrow Japhin from the inside than I will do it without hesitation or worry for my life.
Wella nodded and a slight smile played at her lips, the first that had crossed her features in days. “Maybe together we will be able to save this kingdom yet. Though Wilhelm is surely dead his offspring will surely live. Japhin will not win this battle if his successor is Wilhelm’s own son.”
Sira stared at Wella for a moment in shock, “What do you mean Wilhelm’s offspring, Wilhelm never married, let alone have a child.”
Wella’s smile grew and she pulled two of her arms into their stomach pouches in order to cradle her small child in her womb. She could feel the gentle flutter of the month old fetuses beating heart. It would be imperceptible to anyone but herself, something only her own hand could feel when it pressed against the lining of her stomach pouch.
Sira stared at Wella curiously and Wella snapped out of her thoughts, “You’re right, Wilhelm doesn’t have a child, at least not yet. And if I do this right Japhin will never know that his enemy’s child is being raised in his own house as his own son.”
“Do you mean? You?”
Wella nodded again, “Me and Wilhelm eloped three months ago, I’m about a month along in a week I can tell Japhin that we’re having a baby he’ll be so pleased that he won’t think twice. The baby will only come a little early and he’ll raise it as his own.”
Sira gave a little jump of pleasure than her eyes widened and she pulled a small watch out of one of her arm pouches, “Oh dear, we’ve wasted precious time, we need to get you ready for your wedding or all our planning will be for naught.”
Wella agreed and the two women hurried to finish the preparations

While Wella and Sira planned for the one day overthrow of Japhin and the reestablishment of Leena’s grandson, Japhin was making preparations to be sure that his kingdom was never overthrown.
He entered a small room in the underground room that had once housed the late Juptan traitor, Jatar. The room had been set up as a type of lab and was completely overrun by Juptans. They were working on the biggest weapon that had ever been created on Imaginess. “How’s it coming Olangtan?” Japhin asked the big brute that met him at the door.
“It’s coming along well we should have it done in a couple of hours. It would have taken considerably longer, perhaps longer if Jatar hadn’t done most of the work for us.”
Japhin’s eyes narrowed, “What do you mean?”
The Juptan grabbed a notebook off of the research desk, “Jatar had been making notes for a shield that would protect Imaginess from attack after he died. With a few alterations we were able to turn it into a weapon that would erase all memory of us from the people of earth.”
Japhin smiled, “A shield huh. That sounds useful make that as well and be prepared to attack earth by the end of the evening. I would like to be able to show my new bride the extent of my power. What better way to end my day than with a fantastic light show that will wipe earth’s memory of us forever”
The burly Juptan smiled a wicked grin that reached both of his crooked mouths, “An excellent idea sir.”

The wedding would have surely been beautiful if it had been someone else being married. It was a wedding fit for a queen for certain and any woman should have been delighted to be standing next to Japhin, who all things considered was a rather good looking Imaginese, and exchange the embrace of marriage.
It was a rather simple ceremony compared to the stories Wilhelm had told her about the extravagant weddings on earth. Where the wedding took many hours and was preformed before hundreds sometimes ever thousands of people. Here only a few attendants were present as witnesses. She was dressed in simple attire, nothing more than she would probably wear on a regular day.
They all entered together rather than her entering alone as the human brides did and rather than exchanging vows or rings of any kind they simply exchanged a complicated embrace that consisted of them bringing one of their partner’s hands into the arm pouch near their heart as a symbol of their undying love and commitment for and to the other. Once one had touched the heart and felt its beat they were bound forever by a strong bond that could only be broken in death.
As Japhin pulled Sira into the embrace she immediately noticed that there was something wrong. With Wilhelm she had felt the connection immediately but with Japhin she felt nothing. At least not until his hand came to rest on her heart. As he placed her hand on her heart a searing pain rushed through her body and she tried to resist the urge to pull away but thankfully Japhin pulled away himself as if his hand had been burned.
He glared at her evilly. “You’ve already connected yourself to him.” He spat at her. He turned toward the guard nearest him. “I thought you said he had been taken care of.”
“He was sir, we put him in the deepest dungeon in all of Imaginess.”
Japhin grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him so that they were nose to nose, “When I said take care of him I didn’t mean to actually care for him, I meant finish him off. Idiot!” He threw the man on the ground and turned toward Wella, “Don’t worry my dear this little issue will be cleared up momentarily in the meantime, handmaiden, please take my wife to my bedchamber to await my arrival. This ceremony will be finished in an hour’s time.”