Revenant Slaves Chapter 20: Chapter 19: Zain

Read chapter 20 of Revenant Slaves by Zee on NovelPedia.

Chapter 19: Zain Zain tried hard to hide the grin that threatened to part his face at Ash’s reaction. People ought to start trusting him more; aside from his name, he hadn’t lied once since he had met Ash. Even though he had never directly interacted with Rain before, all the people in the resistance were part of one whole, and thus, he knew about her correspondence with his people. In truth, they had planned to broadcast to their ground agents, like Rain, all over the empire with the footage from the Royal Gathering. They hadn’t been building up the image of The Silver Princess all this time for nothing. They knew from the nature of nobility that someone like her wouldn’t have lasted long in the upper echelons of the Empire; even if the nobles eventually wiped away her existence, the legend would still have taken hold, and at that point, inciting a rebellion would have taken a skilled holo-editor or two. Having her fall from grace in such a brutal and public manner was both a gift and a headache for the resistance; they had mere hours to fast-track years of planning, and the leaders knew they wouldn’t get another opportunity like this. As they had done to their other agents, Rain would have gotten the same message: to gather as many people as she could and show them the footage. Zain observed none of the anger or the indignation he expected to see in a people who had seen their idol, their hope, be crushed. Instead, he had found them panicked, which was tragic, for he knew the state the empire had been in; these people would see the Silver Princess fall and would rise to avenge a noble girl whom they had never met. But when their own children were suspected of having been killed, they instead cowered in fear and panicked. Of course, all this was mere theory; he would see firsthand the effect the broadcast was going to have on them, and if it didn’t have the desired result, he and Maya were here to make sure they came to the right conclusions. The incident with Ash and Miru might be the key to getting these people to fight. He smiled at Rain. It hurt him to see the spirited leader of Mortrum’s slaves in such a decrepit state. She was merely 34, and unbeknownst to her, suffering from a tumor, which was a genetic side effect of her being tank-bred. Why breed slaves that lived to a 100, when you could resell them after 18 years of usefulness? It was a sick system that would be easily remedied. But to these slaves, that was how long they lived, dead at thirty-five. “Gather people from nearby settlements, as many as you can arrange to by sunset today. Please also gather the sovereign’s soldiers' stations in the settlements. Do not worry about your safety; Maya and I will protect you from them, but we need them to be present for this month’s broadcast. It might b…” “My daughter has been hurt, Ash is hurt, and none of us has slept since last night. I do not know who you are, but it seems you bring nothing but trouble to us. Now you order our most respected elder.” Zain turned back to see the source of the voice. It was a man, as scarred and marked by grime as any of the slaves he had seen, except for Ash and the children. “It’s ok, Hardy. These people can be trusted. I give you my word.” Rain interjected before anything more could be said. “Thank you, Rain, as I was saying, this might be the last broadcast we ever get from the Silver Princess.” Zain deliberately paused to let the thought settle in. There was a slight gasp from Miru, and there was alarm on everyone’s faces, even Ash’s. ‘Well, that reaction is promising at least.’ “This broadcast will change everything. Rain, you do understand what this would mean for your people, and why we are here?” Rain’s face was impassive, then with a sigh, she replied, “I do, to be honest, I had hoped the resistance would have made a move when I could still fight. I’m afraid this frail body won’t be of much help to you youngsters.” “You mustn’t sell yourself short; the work you’ve done planet-si