Legends of Amacia The Caverias Rebellion

Meanwhile, Nemesis prowled the Black Fortress, carefully staying out of sight of the guards, who had orders to bring him in dead or alive to the Emperor because of his treasonous actions in assisting Hanna to escape the Arena. He searched frantically for Nicodemus, who had been captured by the Dark Riders at Acheron while Hanna was at the Red Tower in Antilla. When Nemesis could not find Nicodemus, he confronted one of the Cadre’s acolytes in the dungeons. He backed the young, inexperienced acolyte into the corner and grabbed him by the throat with his organic hand, lifting him off the ground before he could respond. “Where is the prophet?” he hissed. “Where is he?”

Terror flooded the face of the young man as he cried, “I don’t know. We students were not allowed to know where the Dark Rider took the prophet. Please don’t kill me! I don’t want to die!”

Nemesis pulled him nose to nose, growling, “Then you shouldn’t have become a lying acolyte! I know you’re lying to me! Now where is he?” His organic hand constricted around the youth’s neck as he held him high off the floor. As the youth began to turn red from the constriction of Nemesis’ hand, Nemesis’ machine arm switched into a set of terrible claws that could easily rip the boy to pieces. He drew back with the claw and hissed, “Last chance. Where is he?”

The youth gave up and with a gurgle, replied, “Kartoom. He was taken to Kartoom, but will be brought here in a matter of hours to face the Emperor’s justice.”

Nemesis swore and yanked the youth in close, bringing him nose to nose again, demanding, “When, you little devil?” The youth was turning purple, so Nemesis relaxed his grip just enough to allow the boy to speak. “When?” he demanded of the acolyte.

“We don’t know,” the youth answered, gasping for breath. “The master was ordered not to tell us by the Emperor himself. He told us to be ready. That’s all, I swear!”

Nemesis growled, knowing the lad was telling the truth. The thought had crossed his mind to kill the boy, but he decided on a more effective approach of dealing with the problem. With a rough body slam, he threw the youth to the floor, stunning him. While the boy was stunned and unaware of his surroundings, Nemesis injected a tracking and listening device under the skin of the acolyte’s shoulder with his cybernetic hand. After doing that, he disappeared into the dungeons. When the youth came around, he found himself alone and wondered what possessed the Xenian not to kill him. He instantly went to tell his superiors about the incident