The Eragotten Legacy: Part Three

      Jag crawled through, with the disk from his previous encounter held tightly within his sweaty palms, and exited onto some sort of mountain within Meridell, only about a mile from Brightvale Kingdom.

      Just incase there was something important within the internal memory as well as the disk; Jag had brought the broken, burnt laptop with him.

      As Jag entered onto the surface of the mountain, the sun glazed down upon him, a feeling in which he had so eagerly been looking forward to on his journey through the treacherous and dark cave.

      The golden brown mountain let off a crispy warm feeling onto the blue Techo's feet as he walked towards the edge of the cliff, looking over the luscious green grass covering the rolling his towards Brightvale Kingdom, whose castle stood proudly into the sky.

      Jag stopped from a rest and sat down, leaning against a boulder behind him.

      He lifted the monitor screen on the laptop and noted a piece of marked parchment lying undamaged around the rest of the laptop, which was practically falling apart.

      Jag held the parchment to his face and read aloud, "Though nobody knows except Darigan, I've been working against the Eragotten Emissaries of Meridell and assisting Darigan and his army to gain knowledge and access to the nation of Meridell. Soon when Meridell and Brightvale are infiltrated by Darigan, I'll expose the EEM to all else of Neopia and take my rightful side at Darigan Citadel."

      At the bottom of the note was Joseph Blanchette's signature. Jag put the parchment in his hand with the compact disk and pulled the laptop back under his arm as he started down the mountain towards Brightvale Kingdom…

      "… Soon when Meridell and Brightvale are infiltrated by Darigan, I'll expose the EEM to all else of Neopia and take my rightful side at Darigan Citadel."

      Jury and Anna Sumuilevelt were in shock as they listened to Jag's voice speak these words.

      "I can't believe it… This whole time, Jag was working alongside Blanchette with Darigan…" Jury finally spoke.

      "Jag, what's the point of this betrayal?!" Sum shouted urgently into her microphone.

      "He can't hear you, Anna. Our Equipment Tracer shows that he discarded the earpiece back at the broken bridge…" Jury replied.

      "But he didn't remove the microphone? What a big mistake, he's just blown his cover as an EEM agent," Sum replied as she walked around the metal briefing room.

      "Unless, of course, he wanted us to know that, so maybe we'd send some of our guys out to get him, and in this time of slight revelation Darigan would strike, but with a small advantage from our missing agents, and… Whoa, it would be horrible!" Jury looked worried as he wondered what to do.

      "Sequen doesn't know that we know he's working with Darigan, so we'll let him come to us and get him from there, alright?" Sum suggested calmly, typing a few things on the keyboard.

      Jury took a deep breath and said, "You're right, it's nothing too big of a problem. But if two of our agents, we know, have already been working double, who knows how many others are with Darigan, Blanchette and Sequen?"

      "Relax, Jury, I'm sure the others are with us. We just have to concentrate on Blanchette and Sequen at the time…"

      Jag continued down the hills until, finally, he reached the gates of Brightvale.

      He walked eagerly into the gates and into Brightvale Castle, and all the way back up to the briefing room.

      Right when he walked in, smiling, and holding the laptop, the door was slammed behind him and he was surrounded by other EEM agents, many of which were much more experienced then he.

      Jury frowned at Jag from where he was sitting.

      "I cannot believe you did that, Sequen! Not only did you betray us; you betrayed all of Meridell!" he shouted, anger rising in his voice.

      Jury must be talking about me jumping off the bridge to get the laptop, Jag thought, his mind racing as he kept a firm hold on the laptop, it's not this big of a deal, though. He didn't have to get Eras to take me in…

      "What are you complaining about, Jury?! I got the laptop, and I certainly didn't betray you!" Jag shouted, his fist forming. He heard his voice seem to be amplified throughout the room. He hesitated in thought for a second, and then a shocked look came across his face as he removed the microphone from his face.

      "So you've at last spotted your mistake, Sequen…" Sum muttered, gently chewing on her pencil.

      "Oh, you're talking about the letter! I didn't say that! I mean - I did, but it wasn't me saying it! I only read that from -"

      "Enough with the excuses, Sequen! Eras, take him in!" Jury demanded, pointing at Jag who pounced out of the room and into the hallway as many crossbow bolts flew right past him.

      Jag raced quickly down the hallway away from the group of Eras in pursuit and rounded a corner into a well-lit library, filled with countless shelves towering over the ground, stuffed with thick novels.

      The thick, red cotton carpet lay in rest beneath the many desks and books, as well as a second floor connected with a tall staircase wait above, and wide stained glass windows brightly lit up the area.

      Jag hurried into the room and made his way to another tall bookshelf. He was about to climb up when he heard the trampling of feet entering the library.

      Jag immediately grasped a book from the shelf and tugged to pull it out, and right when he got it out and turned around, a crossbow bolt cut right into the bolt, almost breaking through the thick pages, and the point was only about half a centimetre from his chest.

      "No, listen to me!" Jag shouted as he rounded around the bookshelf as another three bolts shot at him. "This is all a misunderstanding!"

      The Eras ignored his call and ran towards the bookshelf after him.

      Jag grabbed a book that was wedged very tightly into the shelf and tugged on it, straining tightly to pull it out and use as a shield from the crossbows. However, the entire shelf fell back towards Sequen who managed just to dive out of the way as the shelf collapsed, spilling all of its books, behind him. The books either buried or stopped the Eras chasing him, and the shelf that had fallen over created a Domino effect that caused all the gigantic book shelves near it to collapse as it struck them.

      "Oh… Yeah, that works too…" Jag muttered, watching the shelves fall over. Jag started up the stairs and reached the second floor, then peered down to see if any of the Eras were still chasing him. They were all slowly stumbling through the pile of books, or helping other Eras out of the mound of written literature.

      Jag shrugged to himself and turned around and was face to face with Hurric.

      He almost stumbled back off the stairs at the sight of the Techo's face.

      "Jag, you've come a long way since last time I saw you…" Hurric muttered, a crossbow in his hands, aimed at Jag.

      "Well, I'm glad you're better, Hurric… I'd probably be getting along now, so…" Jag turned to look at the giant stained glass windows at the side, and then at the very few shelves that were on the library's second floor.

      "I've heard that you've betrayed the Eragotten Emissaries of Meridell, Sequen. And I've been sent to take you down…" Hurric prodded Jag in the chest with the loaded bolt on his crossbow.

      "Hurric, please hear me out," Jag began hurriedly as to buy time to escape from the Techos back on the first floor, which were now starting up the long stairs. "I was just reading a note written by Blanchette when Jury and -"

      Hurric snickered and his finger moved soundlessly to the trigger of his crossbow.

      Jag quickly grabbed the crossbow and pushed it into Hurric's chest, knocking him bluntly backwards. Hurric shot the crossbow, but Jag had already started towards the window only a few feet away from them.

      Jag Sequen dove through the glass, covering his face with his arms, and burst into the daylight outside of the castle, and he quickly began his descent falling down towards the hard grassy ground below. There was a bright Meridell flag at his side as he fell, and shards of the splintered glass passing him by.

      Hurric had just reached the broken window and shot a bolt at Jag while he was falling.

      Jag saw the crossbow bolt heading towards him. He caught it and dug the bolt into the flag at his side, and his fall sluggishly slowed down until at last Jag had rode the flag all the way to the bottom.

      Jag looked up to make sure there were no more bolts headed his way, but only saw Hurric's sad and dismayed face looking down upon Jag, with the grief that he'd just saved Jag's life by firing the bolt.

      Jag mouthed the words "Thank you" up to Hurric who quickly vanished back into the library, and then Sequen jogged away from Brightvale Castle and started towards Meridell Castle, where he'd go find a computer and hopefully prove his innocence to the King Skarl, seeing as Jury, Sumuilevelt, and all of the other Eras wouldn't be hearing him out anytime soon…

      Jag burst into the kingdom with a grand entrance and immediately approached the door leading into King Skarl's chambers. A few Shoyrus turned to see him enter in a hesitated half-interest, but returned to what they were doing a few seconds afterwards.

      Sequen pushed the door open and entered. King Skarl was sitting lazily on his throne. His crown's front rim was lying messily over his forehead. He looked up at the Techo as he entered and straightened himself up. Before he could even protest about Jag's hasty entrance, Jag began speaking, "I work for the Eragotten Emissaries of Meridell but after recovering an item of evidence, I managed only barely to escape into an underground cave which I followed to Meridell and when I got out I found a note written by a double agent of Darigan so I read it aloud to myself but apparently I forgot to remove my microphone and agents Jury and Sumuilevelt misunderstood it was me talking so now the EEM is out to get me because they think I'm working with Darigan…" Jag took a deep breath and looked convincingly at King Skarl. "Can you help me?"

      There was a long hesitation, until finally the king broke into uncontrollable laughter and collapsed from his throne, laughing.

      "Yeah, good one Techo…" he muttered through his laughter. "Oi, you expect me to believe that, eh?"

      A Draik who'd apparently been standing in the corner the whole time walked up to Sequen.

      "Congratulations, sir, you've made the Grumpy 'Ol King laugh!" he held two bags full of Neopoints towards Jag.

      "Uhh, it's okay, you can keep it…" Jag pushed the two bags down and nodded courteously at the Draik, who frowned and walked back to his corner.

      The king finally stopped laughing and looked up at the Techo, Jag. His nose wrinkled up.

      "Oh, are you serious? What's the Eragotten Emissaries of Meridell, anyway?" he asked, throwing himself back on his throne. Jag sighed.

      "Maybe I should just leave…" he muttered, turning from the door. He handed the laptop as well as the letter from Blanchette to the king. "Do me a favour and give this to any Eras who come looking for me please, your highness…" Jag said and walked away.

      "Hey! I ain't no delivery boy!" King Skarl barked, but Jag had already left…

      "Did you get Sequen?" Jury asked Hurric as he entered into the briefing room.

      "I'm sorry, sir… He escaped…" Hurric mumbled humbly. Jury sighed and looked up at the ceiling. He held down an intercom button and said into a speaker, "Get as many EEM's out there after Jag as we've got. Do not let him pass the border…"

      Jag walked away from the castle and soon was at the Ye Olde Petpets shop. He walked in and looked around at the cute furry little Petpets. He caught eyes with a Turtum. He leaned over to look at it within its cage.

      "Would you like to buy the Turtum, sir?" the Neopet at the front desk asked.

      "No thanks, I'm just browsing…" Jag muttered. He saw a glint reflection in the Turtum's eye.

      He turned around and standing there, wielding a crossbow, was Joseph Blanchette the Scorchio…

To be continued...