Still hyped from Viviana's fiery speech, it took me several hours of staring at the plain ceiling of my small room to finally fall asleep. But, to my dismay, even this belated slumber didn't last long. 

I woke with a start, instantly jumping out from underneath my blanket and accompanied only by the sound of my own heavy breathing. Glancing at my Aurawatch, I saw that it was only 2:00. 

Strange...I wasn't in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night. 

That's when I realized what had roused me: the steady beeping noise that ensued from my Aurascreen. Groggily patting my nightstand until my hand closed around the device, I brought it in front of me. 

After I keyed in the password, I noticed that the Iceheart tracking system I had hacked into a few days ago was still up. The beeping was a signal that was meant to tell the Icehearts that the Glitches had changed locations. 

Wait, if the system was getting signals, then... 

My eyes widened with understanding and I sprung out of bed like a rabbit, slipping on a pair of sandals and bolting out the door.

I had made a mistake. I had made a terrible, terrible mistake. 

"Aunt Eleanna!" I yelled, sprinting up several flights of stairs in under a minute, fueled by my mad despair. Finally reaching the third level of the base- the residence of the rebellion's highest officials- I stumbled around the unfamiliar bends and curves of the hallways.

However, it didn't take long for me to realize that my aunt's quarters were nowhere in the vicinity. That was when I realized that they were located in between floors and could only be accessed by Aurapod. And I didn't exactly have the code to her Aurapod chute. 

Standing in front of the chute, I looked up into it, locating a tiny handhold about nine feet above my head. Taking in a deep breath, I climbed into the chute, my biceps straining as I pressed my palms into the glass walls of the tubular transporter, determined not to fall. 

Although my shoes weren't equipped with the best grips, I managed to grab the small protrusion, hoisting myself into the little hole above it. The crevice was barely large enough for me to stand up in, but much to my excitement, it contained a window that led straight into Eleanna Myers' bedroom!

Although the glass was bulletproof, nothing was Iceheart-proof. Summoning my Aura, I carved a circle in the window that was just large enough to slide through. 

I wondered if my aunt would get onto me for ruining her window, but I quickly dismissed the thought. That would be the last of her worries when I told her what I had to say. 

Entering the room headfirst and dropping noiselessly onto all fours, I approached her bed to find her sleeping on her back in full battle gear, complete with microplate armor and weapons strapped to every limb. 

Talk about being prepared for anything. 

"Uh...Aunt Eleanna?" I said sheepishly. 

"What?" She instantly shot up, wide awake. Her red, frizzy hair bounced about her shoulders as she stared me down. 

"Um...I might've just screwed you and your entire rebellion over."

"Why am I not surprised?" She crossed her arms over her chest, scowling. "What'd you do?" 

"I thought I disabled the Icehearts' trackers on the Glitches before we entered Rhena's atmosphere," I sighed, wringing my hands nervously in front of me. "But it seems that someone reinstated them. The Icehearts have had access to our location for at least a couple of hours." 

"You mean...they've found our base?" Eleanna gritted her teeth, her eyes nearly popping out of her skull. 

"...Yes." 

"For over four hundred years, this has been a sacred sanctuary," the rebel leader shook her head. "No tyrant has ever been able to lay a finger on it. And now, that's ruined...because of you!" 

"I know," I hung my head. "I may have brought the lost princess here, but I've failed you all. I've failed Tara." 

"You imbecile!" Eleanna stomped over to me, shoving me against the wall as she dug her pointed fingernails into my shoulder. "Can't you shut up about Princess Tara for a second!? Thousands of lives are at stake and you're talking about your stupid girlfriend!" 

"She's not stupid!" 

"Just shut up! Let me think!" My aunt gave me a vicious glare, clamping her hands over her ears. "Okay, even though she has the information, it should take Saralee a little under a month to make the announcement, gather a force of Ice Guards, and send them over here. So, we have that much time to completely liquidate the base- but that's not nearly enough. There are three thousand rebels here, most of whom were born at the base. They have no other place to go, and they can't just all march into the nearest village or they'll draw suspicion. Our only chance is to distract the Queen long enough to get everyone out of here..." 

"But this is, like, the discovery of a lifetime to her. How are we supposed to distract her from that?" 

"Actually, you gave me an idea!" Eleanna gasped. "How do you distract someone from something big? With something bigger. In three weeks, Queen Saralee is going to find her missing Gifted daughter."

"That's...that's cruel!" I protested. "You can't use Viviana as bait! That sounds like something the Icehearts would do!?" 

"Have you forgotten that we're both Icehearts?" She smirked. "You can't always stop to consider the moral implications of your choices, especially when it's a life or death situation. When the game's dirty, you gotta play dirty."

....................................

New cast member!

tarawkward as Princess Tara of Lessaenes!