Bastion of the Pages - Short Story

Nikolai and his group were in front of an ostentatious stronghold finished in relief and completely erected in marble. The Bastion of the Pages, one of the repositories of knowledge and also one of the largest libraries full of valuable ancient books (books were the real currency in that world, the richest men were valued according to their accumulated riches in books) in the wolrd after the so-called "Global Blackout".

Sypha and Nikolai always watched how that white colossus stood on a peak, the sunlight seemed to be swallowed by its magnanimous presence, despite its imposing white color, it casted a lugubrious shadow that plunged the city into an even greater penumbra, but at night you could glimpse the light of a flaming blaze at the top of the structure. It was said that the owner of the Bastion, possessed so much wealth in books that he even tended to build the fire of the lighthouse with some of them. Nikolai and Sypha always felt exceedingly exalted by just hearing those hateful rumors, the pariahs rarely owned a book and if any of them could read, it was considered something more than unusual.

That day they were wrapped in the shadows of that temple full of greed and hedonism. Aegon, the oldest and, therefore, the most experienced of the group, had guided them along the darkest route that led to The Bastion of the Pages.

"We’re just a few steps away from reaching the slope, we must prepare for the most risky part of this assault, I think we’re all clear that no human being would survive a fall from this height, but we’re already in this, there’s no going back. So put on your suits and adjust your ropes very well to descend to the aqueduct," Aegon pronounced with a sober tone.

Aegon, Nikolai, Sypha and the other three men who made up the group put on their waterproof suits and hooked the ropes on their harnesses. The first to descend, as expected, was Aegon.

They went down to the level of the aqueduct and entered it. Once inside, the ropes were unhooked and Aegon lit his gas lamp to illuminate the dark corridors. A stream of faeces and urine spread out before them. Nikolai looked at Aegon and he nodded. The group went into the sewers of the bastion, the intense smell of shit certainly didn’t bother them that much because they just had to cope with it, the sewer definitely was the only safe route to enter the castle.

They walked for at least 30 minutes until Sypha noticed a small staircase in the adjacent side to a fence.

Aegon stood at the top of the aqueduct, and then he looked out over the surface. After having checked that there was no one around, he signaled his comrades to go up.

They walked fifteen meters to the right and ran into an iron gate that was closed.

Aegon beckoned to Sypha and she approached the lock holding a picklock in her right hand. After some wrist movements and metallic “click” sounds, the door opened up.

Nikolai pushed the door slowly with his right hand while holding his blade with his left hand.

Inside, there was a group of people with somber faces, hunched over at work tables; writing and binding pages with movements so cold that they seemed mechanized. The workshop was full of people from the neighborhood; there were certainly some familiar faces. Nikolai and Sypha watched with some trepidation at the myriad of people who were probably exploited to death just to produce more money to increase the accumulated fortune of the greedy oligarch who was oppressing their neighborhood.

After observing that disheartening panorama, Aegon led the group towards some somewhat demolished stairs. The stairs seemed to be endless until they found themselves in a sort of hallway. Nikolai noticed five large men, they were dressed in mesh vests and held rifles in their hands, and apparently, their duty was to guard an immense mahogany wood door. For Aegon, it was quite evident that behind that door was probably hiding the much-desired spoil.

Aegon winked at Nikolai and he nodded. Nikolai pulled out his pistol and continued crouching, walking tiptoe in the dark recesses of the lobby to go unnoticed, to get the perfect angle, Nikolai beckoned to Sypha and she answered his call. Sypha followed the same protocol as Nikolai and took out her gun, and placed herself on a side that suited her immediate needs. Nikolai and Sypha put the mufflers on their pistols, after analyzing the situation a little bit, they aimed at two of the guards, and then shot to death without hesitation.

The three remaining men approached and tried to stab Sypha with sharp stealth knives, but Aegon quickly intercepted the attack of one of them and hit him with enough force to knock him out. Then Aegon grabbed another soldier from the waistcoat and threw an accurate hook that knocked him out, but the remaining soldier stabbed him in the rib, causing him to expel spurts of blood.

"A-ee-gooon!" Sypha uttered with such a choked voice.

"Go on without me, I'll catch up with you later," Aegon shouted in an authoritative tone as he scowled.

"I will not leave you here, you will die if we don’t return to the town as soon as possible!"

"We must continue, Sypha. Remember we're here to kill the scum," Nikolai replied with a somber voice as he tried desperately to hold back his tears.

Sypha and Nikolai continued without Aegon, who promised to recover and then reach them. They opened the door of mahogany wood and there they walked into an immense library full of the most varied books. Thousands of copies of books that harbored millenary knowledge were scattered and monopolized in a single site, located in the bowels of The Bastion of the Pages.

Nikolai contemplated the mastodontic collection of books, at the same time he felt an impotent rage when he realized how the people were deprived of such a sum of knowledge, being oppressed and kept in complete ignorance. Sypha dusted a book with purple edges and strange slits that seemed to evoke the customs and manners of an ancient civilization, more specifically, their beliefs. Sypha clearly knew this from the strange voices that seemed to come to her mind.

While Sypha read the grimoire, in the meantime Nikolai opened the lock of a huge gate that loomed beyond the steps. Having managed to open the bolt, Nikolai made his way through a huge hall swathed in the gloom that led to the throne of the bastion, there he met Stivan, the lord of the bastion.

"Steiner?" Stivan pronounced while licking his lips, seasoned with some consommé.

"..." Nikolai kept silent as he moved towards him with stealthy step.

"No, you're not Steiner. Who dares to break into my abode?"

"..."

"Answer me dirty filth or you will pay with death for your daring!" The plump man replied exalted.

"Tonight only one animal will die... A very putrid pig. Surely, it will be a slow and painful death. Oh seriously, I must make sure of it, otherwise, I'm afraid I would not be doing it right," Nikolai replied with an ironic tone that seemed to grow as he approached the man's back.

"Don’t even think that a little shit like you can even make me a scratch, your head will feed the vultures for weeks!" Stivan bellowed as he wielded a golden dagger with a few bright ornaments and a colorful hippogriff emblem.

"It's such a great pity, but I think those words won’t help you at all... It seems that you will make me very bored, from this angle, it would be easy enough to cut your throat, but as I said, I want this to be slow and very painful. Unfortunately, you cannot see me, but I can. Those who were born behind the misery and the darkness of the town after the Blackout just do not have so much difficulty to move in the shadows. Between your riches and excesses, you never got used to surviving outside of your immediate environment, and at night, you seem to be such an easy prey to hunt," Nikolai said as he held his knife, then pressed the dagger into his hands and threw the first stab in the kidney of the plump man.

Stivan screamed in terror as blood gushed out. Nikolai continued stabbing his less lethal parts to slow his death, he certainly was not lying when he confessed that he wanted it to be a slow and very painful death, Stivan did not stop issuing grunts and frightful screams.

"I will not lie to you, I really enjoy doing this, in fact, I confess that I can even get excited to hear your terrified pig cries, and you can’t even imagine how long I've been dreaming of this moment, since the death of my mother and my father under your tyranny and exploitation. But don’t hold a grudge against me, this is the destiny of those who dedicate all their miserable lives to gather wealth on the backs of the overexploitation of the people. I just pretend to be a faithful materialization of divine justice, if it truly exists…" Nikolai replied as he moaned, licked his lips and rubbed his dick, which certainly was hard.

"But what kind of monster are you?"

"We were molded this way, we are the rotten roots that you have sown during all these damn years of oppression, the monsters created by the misfortune of living under your tyranny. You have deprived us of knowledge, of riches and of all mental stability, and instead, we have chosen violence as the only method to solve our affairs. Now you’re drowning in your own blood and shit while complaining about all the precious things you have decided to build for years, isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? "Nikolai said between moans and quickly ran into his left hand. "I'm sorry, I've satisfied myself enough, now I'll give you the pleasure of dying in my hands. And your death will dictate the birth of a new and better world in which equality will reign, I will make sure of that."

Nikolai cut his head off with the knife and then turned back to the library where Sypha was still reading the strange manuscripts. He watched her nonchalantly as he wiped his bloody hands with a handkerchief. In the process, Sypha kept muttering disturbing murmurs while reading the book in a way that was disconcerting.

"Stop! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Nikolai asked confused.

"The Gods... It's them, it's them, it's them! It was their voices!" Sypha shouted excitedly and with fervent eyes, her gaze seemed to corroborate what her mouth so confidently rehearsed, that she had been enlightened by some higher entity.

"What are you talking about?"

"Through this book, they have revealed to me the reasons why the world was erected in this way. Since the dawn of civilization, inequality, suffering and poverty have always been needed, just a few beings are chosen by the Gods to dominate society for an ephemeral moment, and nothing you do will ever change it."

"What did you read in that damn book?"

"Do not despise a book that only those who were born to reign can read. Filth like you cannot change the world. Your arrogance you will make you die knowing that your beloved woman and your son will maintain the order of things in the way the benevolent gods have conceived their primal agenda."

Sypha wielded her dagger and quickly cut Nikolai's throat. With her hands full of warm blood, she opened the great gate and went to the throne, where she would reign until the child she was carrying inside her womb may come of age, and then the son of his son, and so on and so forth, repeating the cycle of domination and oppression that would keep human societies under the illusion of an order that has actually been pre-established.

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