The Cast Die

Vac woke up to a sight he thought he'd never see: Nero tending to him. He felt groggy as he woke up, but forced himself up and asked, “Where are we?”

Nero answered, “We're in one of our hideouts. The maledicti fures haven't just attacked us. They've been striking all over the island. It seems like some new leadership arrived recently. I'm not sure how much longer we'll last.”

Hide? No, that wasn't the best choice here. He had something else in mind, but first… He needed to know what was available to him right now. So he turned to Nero and asked, “How many of us are left?”

Nero sighed and answered, “Only four besides the two of us. The rest were all arrested and are probably being interrogated right now. I'll bring the others in.”

The four kids he vaguely remembered seeing before came in. There was a short brat with messy hair like him, a punkish girl with shoulder length hair who was currently yelling at the short brat in an indecipherable voice, and then there were the twins. He'd never met twins before, and the ones before him were eerily similar and in sync with each other.

The punkish girl jumped onto the bed and yelled, “Heya Vacuus, I'm Astrid. Or was it Vac?” Astrid paused for a second before deciding,“Well, whatever! Thanks for the help back there! But how’d ya do all that? I've never seen anyone use more than one type of magic before.”

He sat in stunned silence as he processed the stream of words. He mumbled, “It's Vac. And I'll tell you more when I feel like it.”

The girl went into a bit of a rage, but Vac ignored it as the short brat walked up to his bedside and gently guided Astrid off the bed. In an equally gentle voice he said, “I'm sorry about Astrid. I'm Atticus, it's nice to meet you Vac. How're you feeling now?”

Vac found his favorite. He mentally upgraded Atticus from brat to kid. He tried for a smile as he replied, “Nice to meet you, Atticus.”

As Nero dealt with Astrid, the twins stiffly moved in front of him, and spoke in an eerie voice. The one on the left spoke first, “I am Zethes.” The other one then said, “I am Calais.” And, then they spoke perfectly in sync in the same spooky tone, “And we are the Boreads.”

Vac was creeped out for a moment, but then he saw the faintest hint of a smirk on both their faces. He chuckled as he said, “That's pretty good.”

Hey, he may not be the funniest guy, but he could appreciate a good joke. Zethes replied, “Nice, I think we'll like you.”

Calais nodded in agreement and said, “Yeah, you're better than Nero. That guy is serious all the time, and we don't really have anything to make fun of him with.”

As Nero glared at the twins, Vac smirked and said, “Oh, I wouldn't say that. What about the noodle incident?”

The twins attempted to ask him about it, but before they could Nero yelled, “Oh shut up about it! You guys don't need to know about that, and we have more important matters to discuss.”

He observed the reddening of Nero's ears with a concealed smile as he nodded along. It'd been a while since he'd successfully messed with Nero like that. Of course he wasn't going to share the noodle incident, it'd happened a long time ago and he and Nero were much closer back then. As his smile faded, he said, “You're right. We need to make a decision. I think we should free the arrested members of the gang by sneaking into the black towers.”

Nero nearly choked on his own spit as he turned and in an angry tone asked, “What in the name of Jupiter are you talking about?”

He sighed and replied, “Exactly what I said. We sneak in and free them. I'm the best thief on this island, and with some proper support and planning, we can probably pull it off.”

Nero slammed Vac against the wall behind the bed he was leaning his back against, and yelled, “Don't be stupid. Just because you lucked into that artifact of yours doesn't mean that you can get us into any of the towers. For that matter, we don't even know where they're being kept. And where would we even get more support? You can engage in your recklessness, but don't drag others in!”

Those were good points, but it didn't change the facts. He retorted, “Have you forgotten that we're the ones being pursued? It's not a matter of choice. It's best to make the first move while we still have the freedom to. Besides, you know as well as I do how they treat their prisoners. Milo and the others will be publicly killed and displayed.”

Nero hissed at him when he finished the last line. It was only then he realized that the kids were still there, and were clearly depressed by the statement. Astrid in particular was already in tears. ‘Oops.’ But it didn't change the facts. He apologized to the kids and said that it would all be alright. He would make sure of that, even if he had to do it himself.

As Nero moved to console the kids, Astrid suddenly perked up and said, “Hey, Nero. Why don't you call those rebel guys? Aren't you a ‘lason’ or something?”

Atticus murmured with a sniff, “It's ‘liaison’,” but immediately realized the value of the statement and in a louder voice said, “Yeah Nero, you could call those guys. With their help, we could do it!”

The twins nodded in agreement, but Nero for his part just looked unsure. Nero answered in a shaky voice, “Look, I'm not sure if they'd even help us. They prefer to stay low-key. And we don't really get along with them in the first place.”

‘Who are they talking about?’ But that didn't matter. They had to take what they had. So he looked at Nero and said, “Why don't you check? You do have some form of communication with them, don't you?”

Nero nodded, and seeing that he was clearly outnumbered here, sighed and said, “Alright, I'll send out a message, but there are no guarantees.”

He made small talk with the kids as Nero went out, but Nero wasn't gone long before he returned with a message. Nero then said, “They've agreed to help us out. We'll be meeting at the border past the clocktower.”

Nero then looked at the kids and said, “Ok guys, go out and get ready. I need to talk to Vac for a bit.”

After they left, Vac got up and approached Nero to talk, but Nero sucker punched him in the stomach in an instant. His knees buckled as he clutched his stomach, but Nero didn't stop there and immediately kicked Vac in the ass hard enough to send his face slamming into the ground. He turned around to lay on his back and with a slight raise of his head looked at his assailant. He groaned as he asked, “What was that for?”

Granted, he probably knew what it was for, and Nero confirmed it by saying, “The first was by setting off this whole mess and endangering us all including the kids, and the second was for setting me on fire. Trust me, I'm not done with you yet.”

Frankly he took offense at that. Yes, he'd done some stupid shit, but not everything was on him. As he slowly tried to get up, he said, “First off, I didn't even know you guys had kids in your group. Why do you even have those in a freaking gang? And second, me setting you on fire was a total accident, and you were picking on me first, just like you have for every other day for a long time!”

Astrid was probably only about twelve, and Atticus a little older. The twins were probably about fifteen or so. Regardless, they were way too young to be involved in the gang’s activities.

Nero looked taken back for a moment, but slowly recovered and answered, “Astrid is Milo’s sister, his only family. He'd obviously keep her close. And Atticus’s parents died of emphysema caused by the toxic gas, and we took him in.”

He winced at that. No wonder Astrid had been so upset before. And Atticus… He thought back to his own memories of when his parents died from it.

He was just barely four, the age at which followers of Jupiter traditionally named their kids. He saw his parents fading away before his eyes. His mother was already dead, and his father could only whisper. When his father beckoned him to come closer, and whispered, “Your name is Vacuus.” His father tried to say more, but collapsed from exhaustion, and never woke up again.

Vacuus, as in empty, devoid of anything. And he would have stayed that way if he hadn't been picked up by his granny and given his last name, Venti. But he never really felt like those things were his own, which was part of why he chose to live as a thief, in the hopes that someday he could get something that was truly his.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by Nero, who continued, “As for why I picked on you…”

After a clear pause, Nero said, “I'll tell you later.”

‘What?’ That was a total non-answer, but before he could question Nero more on it, the kids entered. It was time to leave. With a sigh, he picked up his gas mask and his bag, and they headed out.

The meeting point was the border past the clocktower. It was a remote area that was the furthest from the towers, so a good decision. The island was filled with the Vigiles looking for them, but they made it. But as they approached the group waiting for them, his eyes dropped. Was that… He walked towards the familiar figure and asked, “Is that you, Granny?”

As he moved to hug her, she walloped him on the head. ‘Dammit, Granny.’ She glared at him and asked, “What the hell do you think you've been getting up to you brat? And without coming back home for more than a day at that!”

He sighed and said, “C’mon Granny, shit happened. Besides, I've totally grown and realized my mistakes, and I get what you said about responsibility and all that stuff.”

His grandma fixed him with an unimpressed stare, and he randomly tacked on, “And I also learned about the power of friendship?”

He mentally smacked himself on the head for that, but his granny just sighed and said, “Alright kid. Let's just say your punishment is postponed. Wear these boots and come along.”

He studied the boots as he put them on. They looked like the boots the Vigiles had, that allowed them to stick and walk across various surfaces using mana. These seemed less refined than theirs though. After putting them on, he moved to meet the rest of the rebel group. There was a tall black haired man named Marcus, a haughty brunette named Aurea, a stout bald man named Lucius and a lanky bearded man named Gaius.

As they approached the edge, Marcus walked over to him and said, “Aside from Nero, your group isn't familiar with the route, so we'll be taking you there. I'll be carrying you, if you don't mind. Feel free to close your eyes.”

He nodded in agreement, though he kept his eyes open. It couldn't be that scary. Once Vac was secured in Marcus’s arms, Marcus ran right at the boundary, and to Vac’s surprise, they went right through.

As they plummeted through the air downwards, he couldn't help yelling incoherently. ‘Is this really how I'm going to die?’ Marcus tilted their bodies so that they were head first towards the earth. The wind rushed against their faces to the point where he could barely see. Vac could see the land below, but he barely noticed as they hurtled down. But right as they reached near the bottom of the floating island, Marcus waved his hand. A strong yet gentle wind blew them straight sideways, to slightly above the edge of the bottom of the island, and kept them there. Marcus immediately clicked his boots and stepped onto the bottom of the island.

Vac noticed the pause, and with Marcus's careful instructions, clicked his own boots and set himself onto the land under him. As he looked up, or rather down from where he was, upside down at the bottom of the floating island he was born on, he couldn't help gasping. He saw the land below more clearly than ever, yet it was still so distant. He ignored the lightheadedness he now felt and focused his attention on the land he now looked up at.

He saw massive mountains that seemed like small hills. He saw the rivers that ran through the land below, that seemed so narrow and small that it felt as though he could drink it all. The bustling cities, villages, and other communities were barely even evident at this height. With the total lack of toxic gas and a massive view of the land, he saw more than he ever had his whole life, and yet it all seemed so insignificant. The very country he lived in where countless people clashed for superiority now seemed so small, their desire so pathetic.

As he shook himself out of his reverie, Marcus chuckled and said, “Welcome to the Undercity.”