First Moves

He was running. Again.

His feet are nimble and light, his steps are not even audible even though the cobblestones he is running at are sometimes breaking under his tremendous speed. He feels exhilarated, running at almost empty streets in the middle of the night.

He turned right on the corner without any street lights and slowed down a bit, trying to shove the book he had been gripping for an hour now inside his shirt. His face is a bit red and gleaming with sweat, and pairing that with his notorious good looks and with the late hour seems to create a questionable picture. His clothes as well are disarrayed. Some buttons are left unbuttoned, his pants creased and his vest is wholly undone. The women who might be seeing this scene might be overstimulated.

After a few more minutes, he stopped by a big golden gate that was almost at the outskirts of the town. He nonchalantly greeted the guards, who discreetly opened the smaller side gate and let him in without any sound.

He strode forward, whistling a song he heard from a bar earlier. His heart is still pounding a bit from all the running he did. An old, monocled person who is formally dressed in black pants and a black coat is standing by the big door. As if anticipating his arrival, he bowed and respectfully greeted the man, "Good evening young master. Fortunately, you are successful with your endeavor."

The man stopped on the threshold and laughed heartily, "We are not yet sure if I was successful. Although…"

The man turned and looked upwards at the dark sky, especially at the twin moons, whose existence has yet to be explained by anyone. His smile slowly faded as he stared at the twin source of mystery and chaos of the City of Alexandria.

"We do not know my old friend, if we can solve this mystery in our lifetime. Even with this book… I just hoped the whole world would not hate me for unleashing the truth when the time comes."

A sad smile came to his ruby lips as he kept staring at the sky.

The old man sighed and shook his head. "The truth is the truth. Even if the whole world will burn for it, what else can we lowly creatures do but bow down to the dictates of the heaven?"

The young master looked taken aback but after a few seconds laughed maniacally. "Do you also think we are but lowly creatures Sebastian? What if the truth turns out to be different from what we are taught?"

Sebastian just smiled and mildly replied, "We are given minds and free will to discern reality. It is what it is. If that will be change then so be it."

The young man laughed uproariously with that, finally coming up the steps and slapping Sebastian's back heartily. "As dry a response as ever old man. Well, no need for debates now, you are right. We are given minds and free will, might as well take advantage of that point. You will see, Sebastian, the world might burn after a decade or so. We just need to understand what is happening and adapt to it."

The young man entered through the door and went up the stairs. However, he is once again arrested by the image of the twin moons outside the huge windows near the grand stairs. Each of the moons is giving off different lights. The larger one is shining like a coin, its yellow light gleaming in the dark like a golden coin. The other smaller one gives off a different aura, with its pulsing red light, it's like a beacon for all things dangerous.

Beautiful, haunting, mysterious… dangerous orbs.

His grip tightened on the baluster of the stairs.

"Soon," he whispered, "we will soon know if the Words are real or..", his voice trailed off. Shaking his head he went up to his room on the left wing.

Let the tomorrow version of him think about the mystery. For now, he will be keeping the book in his safe and sleep.

TWO WEEKS AFTER

ON THE TOWN OF CALIPAH

WESTERN TERRITORIES

Chaos on the land

Written by Lucius Star

Word on the street is still, of course, the unexplained mystery of the moon disappearing and appearing as two separate orbs.

The whole world is on edge. The church of Prism is as of now, yet to release a formal statement about the incident which brought the world into chaos.

There were alarmists and new cults sprung up due to this, Faith and the economy were at their lowest since 50 years ago and everyone was expecting a war to happen.

Several of the towns have already closed of their gates, security is on all around high and most of the town hoppers aka grasshoppers, who are working for minimum wages are already creating unions and refusing to work.

The markets are only selling essential food and supplies, which are limited per person which makes the anxiety skyrocket more. Everyone is hoarding now and spending less on entertainment and equipment.

The bottom line is: Can anyone step up and explain what happened? The two moons, appropriately named Enigma and Conundrum, are not even affecting their daily lives directly. Why are the common folks suffering then?

Is there anyone who is profiting from all this?

The young man reading the newspaper is grinning and nodding his head before he folded it nicely and kept it on his worn attaché.

His company, who is a handsome man with short curly blonde hair, green eyes, and cherub lips, sarcastically said, "Are you satisfied with your article then, Lucius?"

Lucius ignored the other's tone and just nodded his head firmly, "Yes, I am."

The other huffed and proceeded to drink his steaming hot tea. It is a luxury for most to dine in the only restaurant in this town, but this man is loaded based on his appearance and manners.

Lucius just steepled his hands and waited for the other to comment. His friend is loaded but he sure is not. He closed his puffy eyes, briefly calculating how much remained in his savings after self-publishing the newspaper, The Quiet Observer.

He heard his friend harrumphed. He immediately opened his eyes to the view of a servant going out of the room and a cup of steaming coffee on his front.

He was going to protest but it died on his lips as he saw his friend pouting. 'Pfft. Cute bastard.'

He proceeded to take a sip and also took a bite of the chocolate éclair that found itself on his side of the table.

His friend's tensed face softened a bit and he took advantage to speak now while the other was busy partaking the meal, "I know you Lucius, after this article has been released, are there any coins left at all on your inventory? You are at the marriageable age already, you can't waste your life money, and time pursuing writing and accumulating enemies at the same time. What point is there to write this kind of provoking article if the people are too afraid to take action?"

Lucius paused midway on gobbling the chocolate cake dripping with chocolate sauce. He wiped his lips roughly, swallowed, and replied, "What of the coin? I know there are a lot of disgruntled people who agree with me that the situation right now is ridiculous. This is why I wanted to build my newspaper you know, the one I was employed on before has no backbone at all!"

Lucius pounded once on the table with much-controlled anger. "It doesn't make sense for the Inner Circle to not issue any statement right now. The world is panicking. Why is no one standing up?"

His friend solemnly listened to his tirade and simply replied, "Do you even know why I invited you here?"

Lucius raised his cup of coffee, "I'm sure it's because you are my dear friend and want to support me on my first business endeavor?"

The dear friend scoffed again, reaching for the eclairs. "What supporting? Maybe I will, knowing you don't have money left. No, I am here in my official capacity as the son of the Mayor of this town."

Hearing that, Lucius' smile disappeared and his forehead creased with worry. "Are you here to stop me, Damien? I would not, even with our two decades of friendship, stop what I am doing for you. I am gambling my reputation here to help humanity!"

"Bollocks!," Damien shouted, "Stop with the self-righteous pleas, even without the others, you are only trying to quench your curiosity. Honestly, this is a bad habit that always gets you into trouble. When will you learn?"

"You know what they say, curiosity killed the kitten, but the mother will bring it back to life."

They stared at one another for a moment and laughed, butchering quotes is another nasty habit of their other friend, but that is a conversation for another time. Right now, that at least eases up the tension forming in the room.

Lucius once again resumed decimating the large platter of cookies presented to him. Hmm. When was the last time he had a newly baked good in his mouth?

Damien on the other hand seems to be surrendering to his strong-willed friend. He just shook his head and also reached out for the éclair which Lucius tried to take off his hand. Slapping the grabbing hand, he continued, "I am not even going to stop you. I am just supposed to be here to guide you on what to write, quote-unquote, to avoid displeasing the higher-ups and creating more chaos in the face of these challenging times."

Lucius laughed at that, "Challenging times huh? It could be the dreaded Armageddon of the book and no one will know because these old codgers are afraid to even address the situation. It's absurd, all of it. And they expect people to continue defending the cities from the dungeon monsters when they could barely sleep due to what is happening right now."

"Tsk. There you go again, exaggerating everything. "

He tried to deny it, however, "Remember when they found a large raven on the central plaza of the capital and you reported it as an angel? And how about the boy who got lost for a few hours, which you reported as a string of kidnappings by newly formed cults? Or how about…"

"Oh shucks, I'm embarrassed that you can still recall my famous articles from before, you truly are my best friend."

"What famous articles?! Maybe you mean infamous articles. Tell me, how many publications have already fired you since we were 18?"

He could feel his face becoming warm for some reason. Maybe he just had too much of the coffee. Hmm.

Damien just looked at him and reached into his inner pockets revealing a thick envelope. He handed it to Lucius who seemed gob-smacked. "Here, take this."

"I won't if that is what I think it is."

"You just said earlier I'm here to support you. This is how I'm going to support you from now on, just avoid speculative articles for now. You don't have any proof yet right?"

Lucius reached out for the envelope and opened it to see a thick wad of paper proofs of deposits on the lone bank in town, Bank Caprice.

Lucius swallowed his protests and quietly pocketed it and nodded to Damien. He rose to his feet gathered the remaining cookies and wrapped them in his waxed handkerchief. Very handy invention of Leonel, if he says so himself.

His friend just watched him and rose to his seat as well. "Well then, let's just set up another meeting the next day. I need to know you are not doing anything risky."

"You're not my mother Damien."

"I sure hope so, since Aunt Claire has full hands taking care of you and your brother. I am your friend Lucius, don't forget, I am here for you. Leonel, Chris, and Tex as well, if you could find him."

He scratched his nose, raised his hands, and hugged his oldest, dearest friend. "Thanks, Damien. Don't worry, I will take care and will only stick to the truth this time."

His friend hugged him and said, "So now, you admit to exaggerating things."

They laughed, separated, and went to the door. Two friends who amiably parted after settling on an agreement, going on their merry way.

Unknowing a shadow emerged under the table and started following one of them.