4 Luke

Still laughing, I made my way back to Grain street. Selling, this time around. Hopefully Reek was still around to buy. I bargained this could get me at least 3 copper pieces. If I bargained enough, maybe 5. I would have to really exaggerate the importance of said information. This information is of the upmost importance. It is imperative that it reaches Miro in time. No. That just sounded stupid. Don't play the loyalty card. They know you don't care who wins or loses. That was true. I didn't. Only that it lasted long enough to make me a living.

I got to the Grain street and was relieved to see that not only was Reek still present, but it was only him. This would remove any interference. I closed the distance between us, nodding my head as a greeting. Reek found him approaching and nodded in response.

"Back so soon?" The short, freckled boy asked. "Let me guess. It's of the upmost importance."

To that, I laughed. I had played that routine in the past and had gotten my ass kicked over it by Reek, but I just got back up after it was over, which had apparently won him his respect by the looks of it.

"So." Reek said. "What have you got?"

"Okay. As you know, I was and the hive and-." I was cut off by the gonging of a bell from the city center.

"Recruitment Drive?" Said Reek. "Already?"

Having lived in Citadel for all our lives, we knew what the bells meant. One gong for recruitment, 2 for execution, and 3 for if the city was under attack.

I had heard all but the third, but the gongs of the bell, which left what felt like hours between them, left you wondering.

Reek and I stood still, waiting, listening. Then the second gong came. They waited some more, but the third never came.

"Who do you think it is this time?" I asked.

"No idea. Maybe they caught a spy?"

"Maybe. Wanna go?"

"Sure. Why not. Got nothing better to do today. Tell me your wonderful tales after. I'll get some more of my guys to hear you out."

"Sure thing"

So, we walked to the city center, which wasn't really a center, but on the outskirts of the military district where the Nobility resided. Slum residents where usually restricted aside from special occasions being recruitment or as was the case today, execution.

We walked down the Grain Road to the Inner Grain Gate where we were padded down by two guards and shoved inside. The city center, as it always was on such occasions, was packed and was still filling up. Such clusters of people could incite violence especially among the gangs, bringing the normal residents into the conflicts of the slums. On one such occasion, I remembered, a woman's son had been executed and his mother, stricken by grief, collapsed to the ground. Few noticed her and let her be, but this turned out to be the wrong move. Those who didn't notice her, on their way out, trampled the poor woman. I remembered sticking by the gate where I was to meet Reek and saw, in the now abandoned center, the lone body of a fragile, old, women, crushed and completely dead on the stone floor.

This made me wonder even more who it was today. Who was going to be executed and more importantly, whose lives would his death affect.

Reek and I managed to shove ourselves to the near front of the crowd. The upper class let them pass as they knew of the "savagery" and violence of the ruffians of the slums.

By the time we got to the front, the whole event just started to begin.

A Fire Nation officer, escorted by 2 guards, walked to the front of the stage at the northernmost edge of the city center. The officer was lean and well built, with a cruel face bearing a smirk and obvious delusion of grandeur in his stance.

"People of Citadel!" His booming voice echoed through the center.

"Today, we come with proof of the superiority of our great Fire Nation. To those who support us, we want to say, that what we do today and every day is to protect you. Those who stand by us shall be our equals for all those who stand proudly under the banner of our proud nation are equals in the eyes of our great Fire Lord Azulon! Continue to stand with us! And you will be one of us! To those of us who stand against us, let this example of evil..." he said gesturing to a man I had not noticed standing in the back, surrounded by 4 guards on each corner. I was surprised by the number of guards attending him. The man was quite old, with a longer white beard, shaggy white hair, and obvious wrinkles and age marks on his face. He was dressed in rags, but I could still see how skinny the man was, bones visible.

The officer continued "...Is the very example of what you will become. Stand against us and we will hunt you down to our last breath. Let this traitor be an example of what we do to our enemies and what, in time, will happen to them all."

He nodded at the guards to bring the man forward. The back 2 guards kicked the man's knees in underneath him, bringing him to the ground as the front 2 grasped both of his arms, literally dragging him to the head block at the center of the stage.

"This man" the Officer started "Goes by the name Lee Shuni, but this was one of many lies. This traitor is an assassin sent by a cult of Air Nation extremists who wish to dismantle our nation starting by destroying our great city by allowing the Earth Kingdom to march in and kill each and every one of you! He is really monk Gyani and he wants nothing more than to see you all dead!"

This was followed by a series of booing, curses, threats, and mindless venting.

The Officer placed his left foot on the prisoner's back and stomped him down so his neck landed on the heads block.

"Any last words, treasonous scum?!"

The frail man lifted his head and for a split moment, it seemed he was looking right at me. It was as if I recognized the look, but couldn't place where it was from, but before he could think about it anymore, the man looked down, as if preparing for a speech and raised his head, this time looking at the crowd as a whole.

"Citizens of the Fire Nation, open your eyes, the Fire Nation is lying to you! Everything they say is just another lie and another deceit! Don't let them fool you any longer! Save yoursel— "He was cut off by the officer kicking him in the stomach sending him off the block. 2 guards dragged him right back.

"Headsman!" The Officer yelled and the headsman at the back right of the stage, in what felt just like one motion, donned his hood, grabbed his great axe, walked forward to the heads block, raised his axe slowly, and brought it down in the blink of an eye.