She carried her thumb drive in her jacket pocket, nervously twirling it between her fingers. The streets were busy, full of residents and visitors alike. She could pick out the normal residents like with superior ease. They were all dressed similar; girls wearing tight leggings or jeans with white or grey jackets that hugged their figures, while the boys wore Henley shirts and harem pants with sandals to match. Visitors wore styles that represented their holds or towns.

  She blended in seamlessly, even with her hood up. She kept her violet eyes from gawking at any one person for too long, and admired the towering buildings that reached for the heavens. All of them were pieces of art, and were either white or silver with golden trimming around their edges. Airships and personal hovercars zoomed through, treating the buildings like a maze where their greatest efforts were spent not crashing into each other.

  The Emperor’s tower was as terrifyingly magnificent as she expected, and as the rumors suggested, a red grammatoginon hovered over top of it in the confusing shape of an upside-down cross. Several enclosed suspension bridges protruded from different points all over the tower and extended to several smaller towers throughout the massive city. Near the tip, there were plenty of airships docked, and others that were leaving. It was a beacon of imperial pride, a symbol of power against all other odds that rose against it. And it once housed noble Emperors of ages long past.

  Emperors that reigned in peace and humility.

  She continued weaving through the crowds, focusing on her objectives despite the noise and overwhelming sensation of people bumping into her and shoving her aside. Everyone was busy, focused, energized. Everyone was so enthralled with their jobs and their agendas that no one could stop and appreciate the beauty of their own city.

  Every so often, she would catch a conversation of someone on the phone, or between a loving couple about how much they enjoyed living in Bavylune and how exciting everything was, but most people were frowning automatons doing their best to make it through the day so they could go home and be tired and complain about being tired.

  Was this truly how life was supposed to be for those who weren’t affected by the Emperor’s oppressive and restrictive laws? Was this the price of wealth and comfort? To be stuck in a time-consuming job that they hated, never growing and never moving, never enjoying the world they were put on? Were they just supposed to spend their youth wasting away at pointless jobs that only accomplish to keep a political and economic machine moving in aimless directions?

  As thrilling as the city was, she hated it. She hated it as much as she hated V?r, the upper city of D’Vnora, the inner city of Ih’Dejj – she hated it all. Wealth and prosperity seemed to demand too much of a person for such a meaningless reward, and yet, there they all were struggling with all their might to acquire it. It was disheartening for Ayela to see.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She looked up, pulling herself from her own thoughts, and saw the massive satellite dish atop the square-shaped building. She arrived at the station in due time, and everything kept going according to plan. It would have to be the same as before; she needed to be invisible to the naked eye and cameras throughout. It would be easier this time now that she wasn’t infiltrating a government facility. There would be more noise, more distraction, more opportunities for her to slip in unnoticed.

  As she approached the entrance, just before she emerged from the crowd that surrounded her, she let her twisting fingers be the motion that kept her power flowing. No one noticed that she suddenly vanished out of thin air, nor did anyone notice that she shoved her way through and onto the streets. She moved quickly, dividing her focus as cars sped towards something they couldn’t see. She dodged each vehicle just in time, careful not to break the motion of her fingers as she fumbled the thumb drive around in her pocket.

  She made it safely across, taking the time to quiet her breathing before wedging through another crowd and onto the wide stairway leading up to the entrance. She waited for someone to open the door and quietly slipped in behind them, then repeated the process for every one she needed to get through. Asher went over the layout of the facility over and over with her before she embarked on this mission, so she was very familiar with its layout and where she needed to go to upload the video they made.

  People were too oblivious to notice the slight gust of wind that hit them as she passed by in the halls, or the slight pat pat of her feet walking on the carpeted floors. She was careful, as careful as she could possibly manage. She let each person open each door and made sure their closure look as natural as possible. It was funny how easily she was able to slip by them.

  Then she came to their newsroom, where the current show was airing. Patiently, she waited outside and watched, maintaining her invisibility as long as she needed. In what felt like hours, someone finally came to open the door during their break. Crews were busy cleaning the set and resetting what needed to be reset, and the media team quickly left for coffee. Some opened the door she waited at, offering her the perfect opportunity.

  She snuck in and moved quickly while no one was around to notice and made her way to the first computer screen displaying the commercials. Everything hinged on that single moment. She inserted the drive and quickly pulled up the video that displayed the data on the imperial invasion.

  Her senses were heightened as she flipped the switch, putting what her screen displayed on air. She let Asher’s augmented voice explain the empire’s hidden plot to control the people, and then pulled the thumbdrive out and walked away from the console. She hadn’t felt as satisfied in her entire life as she did in that moment. Though no one could see it as they scrambled back into the room, she had a cocky half-grin.

  It was too late. The signal couldn’t be stopped in time. Already, too much had leaked, and a bug was programmed into the video that kept it on air and uploaded to the internet. The public knew who was behind the attacks on their own people, and they knew that the war on Durinveii was planned from the beginning. As she made her escape, her mind buzzed with their victory, knowing that she hit the ones who hurt her in such a way that they couldn’t recover from. Not easily, at least.

  Eventually, she made her way out of the station and back into the streets, and as she lost herself in the crowds, she reappeared to everyone’s vision. Thankful that no one noticed, she pulled her hood back and let her hair down. She couldn’t wipe her grin away, nor could she ignore the feeling she had deep in her heart…

  …For once, the empire suffered instead of her.