The widower’s attack had been devastating. That was the entire point of the weapon. It was meant to act as an overwhelming show of force, and it had. The problem was that Commander Aggravator, in his anger and fear, had gone overboard. Killing members of the Resistance in public was acceptable. Some Rigans even supported it. However, killing innocent people with no regard for friend or foe does not sit well with most people, regardless of what planet they originally come from. The widower hadn’t just killed members of the Resistance. Many civilians and even members of the Cult of Ios got caught in the machine’s crossfire. This was not the grand display of power in defense of order that Aggravator had promised. This was chaos. Emotionally driven violence that destroyed everything in its path.

News quickly spread across Pylon City about what had happened at the city square. Not only had someone managed to harm Aggravator, but also he had retaliated by ordering the violent death of many of his own supporters. People would not stand for this. Rigans and Cult members alike were furious at the thought of the person who was supposed to be maintaining order on Rig indiscriminately murdering those who had served him faithfully. The fires of revolt had finally been lit. If Mera’s attack during the execution had been the match, Aggravator’s use of the widower was gasoline. Suddenly, the entire city was in an uproar. Rigans started attacking Cult members left and right. Even cultists broke into smaller factions. Some continued to support their commander, as they were loyal to the Cult and the chain of command at all costs. Others remained loyal to Ios, but no longer felt that Aggravator was on the right path. Others wanted out of the Cult altogether, no longer believing that the way of Ios was right; for how could their god lead one of their followers to murder fellow servants of Ios?

Those who remained loyal to the Cult had not been prepared for a full on uprising by the Rigans. It was not just members of the Resistance hidden among Pylon’s citizens that suddenly turned to violence. The Cult most likely could have weathered such an attack. This was just about every able-bodied Rigan in the city. Men, women, young, old; everyone took up arms against the Cult. Most of them did not have proper weapons, as war had never been the way of the people of Rig. So they took up anything they could find that could be used to exact violent retribution. Farming equipment, smithing tools, cooking knives; even scraps of metal and wood from the junkyards were quickly collected and distributed as makeshift weapons. This once peaceful people were out for blood.

All of a sudden, the Cult was thankful that the Verge Network had been destroyed on Rig. If the Rigans had still been able to communicate across the planet in real time, the Cult might have lost control of Rig in a matter of days. The news of revolt spreading to Rig’s other regions would have been potentially devastating for Cult forces stationed in lower security areas. Commander Aggravator was no fool. He quickly realized that he had made a mistake in using the widower so flagrantly; but he had not lost the planet yet. The first order of business was containment. Aggravator was confident that the Cult had enough troops and weapons in the Pylon region to hold the city. But that would only remain true if the Rigans didn’t manage to get reinforcements from other regions. If word of revolution got out to the rest of the planet, the Cult would almost certainly be overtaken. Of course, that’s assuming the Rigans believed such news to be true; but an effective leader always prepares for the worst.

Aggravator locked down the city. He commanded his followers to make sure no one made their way in or out. As long as they could maintain secrecy about the revolt from the rest of the planet, he believed that they could starve out the Rigans in Pylon City, if not defeat them outright. The desert city required resources from other regions. Eventually, the Rigans would have to give up. Whereas the Cult was able to resupply. They still had the ability to communicate across the planet much faster than the Rigans. While Aggravator could have requested additional support and reinforcements from off-world, he’d never willingly do so. Informing the Cult that a full-scale revolt had potentially started under his watch, after having already lost the Verge Network, would be the end of his career. He’d never be offered a seat on the High Council after letting things get that bad so late into a conquest. Especially on a Redanium rich planet. The commander was on his own, if he hoped to ever have a chance at making his dreams come true.

By the grace of Gaia, Mera, Nia, and Orb managed to escape the city square safely. Many other members of the Resistance had not been so lucky. Without the Verge Network, communication was extremely difficult. They didn’t know if Stavros had made it out alive. Nor did they have any idea if Summoner and Mage had managed to get to safety. Mera didn’t know what their next course of action should be. It was hard enough to find someone in Pylon City without Verge on a normal day. With all the chaos currently happening, it was nearly impossible.

All Nia wanted to do was keep fighting. The Rigans had finally taken up arms against the Cult. Now was the time to take back the planet once and for all. Mera respected Nia’s continued desire to stand by the Rigans in battle. They weren’t even sure if she was actually a native of Rig herself, but she had no hesitation about taking part in this fight. However, Mera knew that fighting blindly with no established plan would ultimately end in failure. While she was ecstatic to see her fellow Rigans finally standup and fight for their own freedom, she was confident that the Cult would ultimately quell this rebellion if things didn’t quickly get organized.

“We have to find Stavros,” Mera said. “He’s the leader of the Resistance.”

“He doesn’t have to be,” Nia replied.

This statement surprised Mera. Just what was Nia implying? Stavros was the last living member of Rig’s royal family. He had built the Resistance from the ground up. Did Nia mean to supplant his authority? “What would be the value in that?” Mera pondered. While she didn’t agree with all his decisions, Mera respected him. She had seen firsthand all Stavros had managed to accomplish. She had tried to build a following to help fight the Cult of Ios on her own, with little success. Meanwhile, he had actually done it. It would be impossible to fight the Cult without the Resistance. Moreover, trying to rebuild it from the ground up with new leadership would be a wasted endeavor that could take years. Time they didn’t have to waste.

“You want to lead the Resistance?” Mera asked.

“I was talking about you, Mera,” Nia replied. “You could be the one to lead us to victory. In fact, you should. The gods have tasked you with defeating the Cult of Ios. Why shouldn’t Gaia’s champion be the one to lead Rig’s people to freedom?”

Mera was even more taken aback by Nia’s follow-up statement. The idea of trying to usurp Stavros was crazy enough. The idea of Mera being the one to do so was borderline insane. While she was very flattered that Nia was so confident in her abilities that she believed she had what it takes to lead an entire army, Mera did not share her friend’s confidence in herself. She remembered her first meeting with Gaia, Goddess of Life. How the goddess told her that she was destined to be a leader one day. Back then, Mera had said that she didn’t know how to lead. Gaia responded by telling Mera that she needed to get stronger.

She had done what the goddess commanded. There could be no question that Mera had gotten stronger since that fateful meeting. Her capabilities had increased by no less than tenfold. Mera had asked for the strength to defeat her enemies. She wasn’t sure if she had achieved that level of power yet, but she knew that she had achieved a lot. However, she still didn’t understand what power had to do with being a good leader. The fact that she had become a better fighter did not give her the skills or the right to lead others into battle, at least in her own mind.

“Because she’s not ready?” Stavros’ interrupted.

The old man seemed to have appeared out of thin air. Neither Mera nor Nia knew where he had come from. But he had certainly heard Nia’s suggestion that Mera should steal his position of authority.

“Stavros! I . . .” Nia began to say.

“Save it, Nia. I know exactly what you were implying,” Stavros said. “You think me a weak leader. You always have.”

Nia tried to defend herself, but Stavros wouldn’t hear it. What struck Mera the most about Stavros in this moment was that he was not angry with Nia. Instead, he was disappointed. However, it was not for the reason that one might think. Stavros proceeded to lecture Nia. Based on her demeanor, it was clear to Mera that this was not the first time they’d had this conversation. The leader of the Resistance knew that Nia was headstrong and impatient, and he said as much. He explained that he understood Nia’s position that things were moving too slowly. That she believed Stavros was a coward, unwilling to make the decisive choices needed to defeat the Cult of Ios. What she failed to grasp, so he said, was that rash decisions aren’t heroic. They’re risky and have just as much of a chance as ending in failure as they do victory. Stavros was not afraid. He wanted to march the entire Resistance up to Aggravator’s fortress and storm the gates that very day. Nevertheless, he knew that such an attack would end in failure, if they weren’t ready to execute such a maneuver properly. It was the same lesson that Gaia tried to impart to Mera at their last meeting, just a few days earlier.

Mera was quite impressed by Stavros’ speech. He was a true leader. Where she would have been insulted and lashed out, he took the opportunity to teach his subordinates the finer points of strategy and how to obtain a lasting victory. He was right. Mera was not ready to lead the Resistance, or any other great force of warriors. She was strong of body, but not of resolve. She didn’t have the cunning to lead an army effectively. She didn’t have the patience to weather loss after loss in preparation for a true victory. Stavros was a rapier. A strategic weapon built to make the perfect attack at just the right moment for a lasting, decisive victory. Both Nia and Mera were clubs. Blunt instruments that relied on force to get the job done. Usually with no alternative plan. However, Mera was learning. Slowly, she had started to learn how to exercise restraint. At the execution, for instance, she could have rushed in at any time. But she waited for the right moment to achieve her goal of saving Nia. That meant sacrificing two other Resistance members, but that’s what being a leader is. Making the hard choices. Stavros had said that she wasn’t ready to lead yet. She hoped that one day she’d give him a reason to change that opinion.

“Are you two alright?” Stavros asked.

“We’re fine, but we don’t know the current situation in the city,” Nia replied.

“Glad to see the bucket of bolts is OK,” Stavros replied while looking at Orb.

Stavros was good at his job. As the leader of the Resistance, he always had to be aware of the entire situation. Information was a key factor in waging a war effectively. As soon as he escaped the city square, he went right to work on gathering intel. He explained that Aggravator’s use of the widower had worked in their favor. Many Cult members were revolting against the tyrant, causing an internal struggle for power. Some had even sought out members of the Resistance to join the cause. The Rigans native to Pylon City had finally had enough. They were attacking cultists in the streets, no longer fearing punishment. All agents of the Resistance were actively recruiting and organizing as many citizens of Pylon City as they could. This truly was the moment that they had been waiting for.

“Any word on Mage and Summoner?” Mera asked.

“I haven’t been able to locate them yet. But I have put out the word that two young Resistance members from Elurra were last seen escaping from the scene of the execution and should be provided safe haven. The first thing I did after escaping was try to account for every Resistance member that was at the execution,” Stavros replied.

“How many did we lose,” Nia asked.

“More than we had hoped,” Stavros said in a somber tone.

Nia was angered by this news. It was on account of her that her fellow Resistance members had been killed. If she hadn’t been caught, they wouldn’t have been at that execution. While she was certainly not solely responsible, as there had been five other captives scheduled for execution, Nia tried to take all the blame on herself. That was just how she was.

“We’ll get our revenge, Nia,” Stavros said. “I won’t forget the sacrifices we Rigans have made. I know you don’t like waiting, but I promise you that the Cult will pay.”

“In blood,” Nia replied.

Stavros nodded in agreement. Though Nia lacked the old man’s patience, he did not lack her anger and thirst for vengeance. He was just better at managing it. That’s why he was the leader, and she was a soldier under his command.

“So what’s the next step?” Mera asked. “What should we do now?”

Stavros explained that the Pylon City branch of the Resistance had a secret underground bunker in a district on the other side of the city. He believed that the best course of action was to rally as many troops as possible there in order to plan and execute an organized attack on Aggravator’s fortress. He told Mera and Nia that they should make their way there, and how to find it once they were in the correct district.

“Hopefully, Mage and Summoner will learn about the base from someone in the Resistance and make their way there as well,” Stavros said.

“How do we know who we can trust?” Nia asked. “The entire city is in chaos.”

“Right now, just about everyone seems to be on our side. It’s not the safest way to go about things, but with our limited intel, lack of useful communication tools, and the current state of things, the best advice I can give you is to use your best judgement.”

“That’s it?”

“We didn’t have time to set up passwords or anything like that. Without Verge, we don’t have the ability to relay information quickly anymore. We’ll just have to make do. Trust your fellow Rigans. The people are finally ready to fight. We have to believe that they’ll come through.”

Nia did not like Stavros’ blindly optimistic suggestion. While it was true that the Rigans seemed ready to join the fight against the Cult of Ios, they were still a powerful force made up of religious zealots, many of which were Rigans. If Cult loyalists caught wind of Stavros’ plan, the whole thing could be sabotaged from the inside. Nia was always happy to make rash decisions, but this seemed way too risky, even for her. Mera had a different opinion. Like Stavros, she still held faith in her fellow Rigans. She truly believed that now was the moment when they would finally stand together and fight the Cult of Ios as a unified force. She did have faith in her fellow Rigans, and she was happy to trust them.

“Mera, you’re originally from here, right?” Stavros asked.

“I am?” Mera replied.

“Do you know any secret routes to get outside of the city?”

Sadly, Mera didn’t have any useful information in response to this question. Though she had been raised in Pylon City, she rarely if ever got to leave it when her parents were still alive. After they died, it was basically a prison with bars made up of poverty and hunger. There were so many times that she had wished she could take Adara away from Pylon, but they had no way to travel. They couldn’t afford passage through the Pylon desert, and they’d almost certainly have died trying to cross it together on foot. The truth was that her first meeting with Gaia in her divine realm was also the first time she could remember leaving Pylon City. Since then, she’d not returned to her home until traveling back with Summoner to rescue Nia and Mage.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Mera replied. “I haven’t been here in several rotations.”

“You’re trying to leave the City?” Nia asked.

It’s not that Stavros wanted to flee Pylon City. He was needed there, now more than ever. However, he needed to get a message to Resistance members in other parts of Rig. This war wouldn’t be won with just citizens of Pylon. They needed to rally as many troops from all over Rig as possible, and quickly, if they wanted to have any hope of actually taking their planet back from the Cult. With the city currently in lockdown, Stavros had to find a way to get a message out.

“What about Orb?” Nia suggested. “He could probably escape the city.”

“Can you do it, robot?” Stavros replied.

“While it is most likely possible for me to escape the limits of Pylon City, I will not leave Mera’s side to make such a journey,” Orb replied. “Also, my designation is Orb.”

Mera appreciated Orb’s dedication to her. The robot had been true to its word since the day they first met. They had helped her get stronger, as promised. Moreover, they never left her side for an extended period of time, without being commanded to do so. Even then, it had always been to complete a specific task as part of a larger mission Mera was taking part in. The idea of Orb flying off to another part of the planet without her made Mera slightly uncomfortable, when thinking about it. However, she knew how important this task was. If Orb leaving on their own could help free Rig, then it was a risk worth taking.

“It’s OK, Orb,” Mera said. “Rig needs you more than I do right now.”

“Negative,” Orb replied. “I will not go without you, Mera.”

“What if I went with Orb to rally reinforcements?” Mera asked.

“We need you here!” Nia chimed in.

“That plan won’t work, regardless of how we feel about it,” Stavros replied.

The old man was correct. Commander Aggravator had all of Pylon City on lockdown from the outside world. Barring the ability to fly, Mera would never make it past the city limits alive. Since she had been the one to successfully land a blow on Aggravator, it was more than likely that the Cult was specifically on the lookout for her. It was way too risky for Mera to attempt to leave Pylon City any time soon.

“Just go without me, Orb,” Mera said.

“Negative,” Orb replied.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to change their mind,” Mera said.

Stavros was disappointed, but mostly unfazed by Orb’s refusal to carry out the mission. Honestly, he didn’t like the idea of relying on an alien robot to deliver such important information. He’d happily choose one of his fellow Rigans for the task. He’d go himself, if he wasn’t needed to organize the Resistance forces in the city.

“We’ll figure something out,” Stavros said. “For now, you two just need to get to the base.”

“You three,” Mera rebutted.

“Yes, you three . . .” Stavros replied. “The base is on the other side of the city. Be careful.”

“You’re not coming with us?” Nia asked.

“I’ll be along as soon as I can,” Stavros said.

With that, Stavros took his leave. Mera, Nia, and Orb started towards Pylon City’s hidden Resistance base. While Mera had not been in Pylon for some time, this was still her home. She knew how to get where they needed to go. She just hoped that Mage and Summoner would be there when they arrived.

“The people of Pylon City have finally had enough.”