"You can't? Then how have--"
He interrupted me and continued.
"It's a matter of sheer power at this point. Think of it like this. The Authorities make up the largest portion of the System, yes?"
I nodded. He had described earlier that his mother was killed by the Authorities. They were dangerous, and if you knew something about them, they most likely knew as well. That's what we were told at the Function House anyways.
"Well, even though the Authorities are larger in numbers, the Royals hold about 90% of the power. In terms of numbers however, they lack significantly. If we relied on number alone, the Authorities would be able to overthrow the Royals quite easily-- which is why they already had a few systems in place for what might happen."
I was shocked at hearing the things come out of his mouth. All of my life, I was taught at the Function House that the System was to not be rebelled against, because it was the only way to keep us all in unison with each other. Hearing him talk so freely about the different plans that the Authorities still haven't found out about yet was so surprising, especially knowing that they killed his mother for a mundane reason.
"The current system they have in place is where the Royals have the final say in everything. They also get most of the laws passed directly to them depending on the need for the results. At the moment from our current intel, there are 2,300 Royal members who currently run the System. As for the Authorities, their numbers tend to rise annually. As of last year, they had 478,900 people in their ranks officially. That's not counting the people that work specifically for the Royals, or the Officials."
I frowned. I've never heard the Officials' and the Royals' names mentioned in the same sentence.
"As I can tell by your look, over 20 years ago, an assassin managed to kill over 5,000 Officials. As of today, there only are 32 remaining alive. This triggered an alliance between the Officials and the Royals that have stood up until today, with the Officials keeping a lower number maxed out at 1,000. In other words, if we-- the Rebellion were able to train our forces like the Authorities without them noticing, or in a way-- get them to join our forces without them realizing what they were going to be doing in the end, we could overthrow the Royals with sheer number. We wouldn't need power-- because without their army of Officials and Elite 100, they have nothing."
Him mentioning the Elite 100 made me uncomfortable. Those were a group supreme known to the Country. Just one member from the Elite could take out thousands of Authorities within a day's notice, and even take down a few hundred Officials if they really needed to. The Elites were nothing to mess around with. But join FORCES with them?! How in the world would we manage to do that?! I finally got the nerve to ask.
"Excuse me, Master Erik-- how would we even manage to join forces with them? And even if we can, the Royals still have the Elite 100-- there's still nothing we can do about it."
He smiled at my questioning.
"Why, that truly is a wonderful question. And luckily for you, I have the answer. You know--"
He began to suck air through his teeth.
"The assassin that caused the devastating "Incident" was actually trained in these very premises here."
My eyes widened, and I gasped.
"You mean--?!"
"Yes. As we speak, we have people training. You might've thought that this was just the Head of Domains, but oh are you just kidding yourself. Not only that, we have the ability to blackmail over half of the Elites."
He continued grinning at himself, and then turned away to walk to his desk. Grabbing a folder he came back and handed it to Clark.
"Take Laura to the Planning Room, and show her the corner where we have all of the names and evidence against the Elites."
My mouth was seeming to be plied open as I followed Clark through the hallway. I had so many thoughts rushing through my head-- it was so much to take in, yet so intriguing. He'd pointed to the corner of the room where a dignified stack of yellow folders had been left. I ran over to them, my heart racing in anticipation from what I'd see inside of them. My eyes glistened with delight as I found whole profiled documents of Elite members. All updated to today. I began to read to myself.
"Joshua Norman. Born December 8th. Noted for his intelligence, recruited on his birthday. Promoted to System Elite Commander. Outstanding crimes: Assault to a Royal, Disorderly Misconduct, Sexual Assault to Multiple Objects, More than 10 Mistakes on Exam. Exempted from Crimes, Signed: System Elite Commander."
I began to read more of the cases and then it struck me-- these people were just exempting themselves from their own outstanding crimes! And I mean, some of the crimes listed may have not been illegal per say, but some of them were quite a load! If an Object like myself even attempted to assault someone like a Royal-- hell, even one of the Authorities, I'd be sentenced to death! Turning around I saw that Clark had left me alone, so I decided to leave as well-- when suddenly...
-RUMBLE-
"Oh...!"
I chuckled to myself. I'd been here all day and yet to eat a single bite of food. I looked around for a clock and saw that it was past 8:00. Sighing, I decided to ride that terrifying elevator thing and see what was in the Dinning Hall. As soon as the doors opened, the smell wafted into the elevator shaft. Steak, ribs, pork, sirloin, everything that we'd been taught about in "Delicacy Cuisine Course" was displayed right in front of my eyes. I walked over in a slight daze when I saw a hooded figure pop out of room 234. He kept his head low, so I couldn't see his face clearly, and for a second I thought he was Clark. When I was seated in the Dining Hall, I happened to be seated next to both him and Erik.
"Ah, you may not have met him. This is Lucas. He's in Room 234 and you are as well. You're room mates."
"?!?"
I shocked expression could visibly be seen by Erik, so he decided to explain.
"He's actually one of my better friends. He's, to my knowledge, about 1 year older than you."
Lucas turned to me and took off his hoodie. I was a little bit surprised on how cute he was-- his black hair was covering one of his eyes so I went to move it. He pushed my hand away.
"Sorry, I just--"
He stopped talking and turned away to put back on his hoodie. Not only that surprised me, but he had probably the deepest voices I've heard yet. After the tense atmosphere grew, I decided it was my time to finish eating and hurry to settle in to my room. Or rather-- Lucas' room. After opening the door, I was greeted with a surprising fresh scent-- most boy's rooms smelt ripe, especially Clark's. Seeing the bed with no duvet on it, I grabbed a few blankets and made my bed. Once I was finally finished, I just lay there-- looking up at the ceiling above me. So much had happened in the past 24 hours that it was honestly a little hard to comprehend. First, I had the Bidding in the morning, the meeting with Erik Cowin-- the Head of Domain, Erik telling me the story of how the Head of Domains had been the head of the Rebellion all along, and that there had been a Rebellion in the first place. The origins tracing back to 50 years-- wow. Then the fascinating pieces-- where even though we have been existing, we've been creative with our own ways to get by. Blackmail, sheer power in numbers, and strength from history and intelligence.
"You in there?"
I heard the familiar voice and a knocking on the door.
"Yeah. You can come in if you'd like."
He came in ever so slowly, as if hiding something. And then he rushed into bed. It was awkward, no words exchanged the rest of the night-- until...
"Must've been a hectic 24 hours for you, huh?"
I chuckled, soaking in the warmth of my duvet and loving the feeling of fresh covers surrounding my skin.
"Yeah."
"Wanna talk to me 'bout it?"
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A/N: Want to talk about my novels? Join my discord: https://discord.gg/3ysxrQJEQ4