Silas had been correct when he’d said the pain would return, but after only a day of bed rest it was far less unbearable than it’d initially been. Gideon was up and walking around for short periods after the second day. The realization occurred to him that he should probably just remain in bed to heal faster and be done with it, but lying around doing nothing was unbearably boring, and the room could feel quite claustrophobic after being alone and inactive in it for a few hours.
Surelin came to see him as often as she could, but he soon felt a sense of shame over her frequent visits. She was his only friend among the Forelians, and as such she was the only person beyond Silas who spent time with him. They got along very well, of course—their conversations were always lively—but Gideon felt like he was imposing on her. She took multiple hours out of her day to sit with him even though she was clearly very busy with the resistance effort.
During his walks he spent his time exploring the expansive building they were quartered in. Their new home had been abandoned many years ago—perhaps even for decades. The dyeworks was close to Loso’s southern wall, situated in the seediest part of the city’s poorest sector. The building itself was one long, two story rectangle, with a stairwell on the east end and many small storage rooms branching off from the massive, empty workshop which occupied most of the first floor. Its roof was noticeably sagging in the middle; the result of many years of rain and snow and a total lack of maintenance.
It was the kind of place the city watch was very unlikely to ever visit, but if they did it would only be in force. For their part, the Forelians had been hard at work clearing out the years of debris and detritus that lay throughout the building in order to make it more habitable. It was clearly in an advanced state of decay, however, and cleanup alone could not change the fact that the building was nearing the end of its life.
Many new faces had appeared in Edea’s household—Forelians mostly, but Gideon noticed a few Losoans and Easterners on occasion. The strangers would eye him with wary suspicion as he walked slowly through the building past them, but the members of Edea’s original retinue greeted him normally. His participation in the assault had caused them to hold him in higher regard, it seemed.
“The assault had its intended effect on the resistance,” Surelin had told him once during one of her visits. “Grandmother is working to stitch them all together into something more organized. The dyeworks has already become a central meeting location of sorts.”
“So those strangers I’ve seen about are slaves?” he’d asked.
“Yes, most are.”
“But what if they’re spies? Aren’t you worried that they’ll tell the great houses where we are?”
“Frankly, no. Grandmother is wise enough to know who to trust. Besides, we’ve been taking every precaution to conceal our location. It’s why those of us who participated in the assault didn’t know where this building was beforehand.”
That had reminded him of Vesryn. “Do you know what happened to the people we left behind at the estate?”
“...Vesryn and Cail were the only ones they captured alive. I saw the others.…”
She shook her head slowly. “It’s possible they’re still living, but we haven’t been able to make contact with the remaining slaves on the Capella’s estate to confirm. I feel….”
“Responsible? Don’t. They knew the stakes.”
“But I was leading them. I made the decisions that got them killed. And captured.”
“And many more people are going to go that way before this is over. That’s the burden you took on when you accepted leadership. It’s up to you to make the best possible decisions for them.”
“Oh, what do you know about it, anyway. You’re like…the antithesis of leadership.”
He gave her a grin. “Can’t really deny that, but this stuff is common sense. Sometimes you just need someone else to point it out for you.”
She’d seemed to feel a bit better after that, but a new aura of melancholy had descended around her ever since the assault. Their conversations often turned to her anxiousness over her involvement in the resistance movement.
Gideon woke up on his fourth day of rest finally beginning to feel normal again. He was personally invited to breakfast by Surelin, and she walked with him up the stairs to the second story of the building. They received many looks from the people they passed along the way. Some were angry, but most were simply curious.
Edea and Len were seated at a modest table in a room that might’ve been a foreman’s office once, with faded wallpaper and a window that held a commanding view of the neighboring building tops. Edea’s fine dishes and cutlery seemed utterly out of place resting atop such a plain table.
Surelin greeted them with a fair amount of cheer.
“Good morning, Grandmother, Marshal Len.”
“Good morning, darling,” Edea replied warmly. “Please, sit with us.”
Edea stared at Gideon as they took their seats.
“I am pleased to see you are well enough to be up and about,” she told him.
…Huh. Somehow I think she'd like nothing more than for me to stay in the basement.
“Thanks,” he grumbled.
“We have a few important items to go over this morning, ma’am, if you don’t mind doing it over breakfast,” Len told Surelin.
“Of course, Marshal.”
They began to fill their plates with food. Gideon’s eyes briefly searched the room after transferring a few poached eggs to his plate.
Where’s Edwin? Shouldn’t he be here?
“This morning we received the first credible reports that the great houses are preparing a major military operation within the slums," said Len. "To be conducted in the near future."
“As we expected,” Edea added.
“Do we have any inkling as to their specific target? The scale?” Surelin asked.
“Their ultimate targets will be yourselves,” Len replied. “The royal family, with the added goal of murdering anyone associated with our resistance. We can expect a bloodbath to ensue the moment they enter the slums in force. As to the scale, they will assuredly summon a force far greater than anything we can currently match.”
Surelin stared down at her plate, thinking. She hadn’t touched her food yet.
“...I see. What can we do to stop them?”
“Unfortunately, our options are still quite limited. If we—”
Len was interrupted by the sound of someone throwing the door open behind them. Celaena burst into the room, her hand wrapped tightly around the handle of her sheathed sword.
“Your Majesty! There’s something—”
She suddenly blinked hard and broke eye contact with Edea, staring hard out the window. Her gaze was distant and unfocused.
“What is the matter, Celaena?” Edea asked calmly.
Deep sorrow then spread across Celaena’s face, and her eyes met Edea's gaze once again.
“I believe you should see it for yourselves.”
----------------------------------------
A sprinkle of cold rain fell as Celaena and the three remaining soldiers in Edea’s retinue escorted the group through the slum’s narrow, twisting alleyways. The dirt below their feet was gradually turning into mud, and Gideon hoped the temperature would soon drop further and freeze the ground before it became too difficult to traverse.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
They’d all thrown on commoner clothing in order to help conceal their identities while out in the city. But Edea was simply too regal to convincingly pass as a slave or beggar, and Celaena’s lithe movements would instantly identify her as more than a common warrior to any astute observers. Gideon and Surelin had put on their armor and swords as well, though for his part he wasn’t entirely sure if he was ready for a fight just yet.
After some prodding from Gideon, Celaena told them their destination.
“We’re heading for a square just off the low street.”
“...Are you talking about the main square? The one with Kali’s statue?” he asked.
“Correct.”
“Why? Isn’t going there with this group pretty fucking dangerous?”
“There’s a safehouse for us in the area,” she said tersely. “And we won’t be there for long.”
He let the conversation end there, shrugging.
Celaena seems tense. Something must really be wrong.
They made the rest of the trip through the slums in silence. There were few people out and about on the streets and alleyways they marched through, which Gideon found odd. It was normal for the slums to be bustling with hectic activity from the crack of dawn until sundown. A bit of rain or snow rarely, if ever, slowed it down.
Finally they reached the back entrance of an average three story timber-framed building. Celaena entered the building alone, and reappeared outside soon afterwards.
“It’s safe. Come inside, quickly, before we’re spotted. I should warn you that this is a ghastly sight.”
The last part of her statement stayed their feet. Gideon watched as a worried looking Len glanced at Edea, making eye contact with her.
After a few moments of hesitation, Edea was the first to move, and the group followed her into the building. Inside, the walls were completely bare, and no furniture or even carpet was present. The building was wholly empty. A thin layer of dust carpeted the floorboards.
Celaena led them to a stairwell, then up to the third story. The stairwell emptied them into a room which contained a large window looking out onto the square, and through it Gideon immediately saw what had made Celaena upset.
The square itself was not a square at all—it was a large, unpaved circle framed on all sides by multi-story timber-framed buildings. In its center, a large marble statue of Kali stood atop a raised dais, perhaps a third of the size of the massive statue of Kaan at Kenan’s north gate. Her arms were spread out wide, her hands lifted up with the fingers extended as if she was trying to embrace the sky. Her chin was lifted up to the sky as well.
From both of her arms, and dangling from her neck, hung five skinless human corpses, their hands and feet missing. They hung from the statue via nooses wrapped around their necks. Three of the corpses were women, two were men.
A quiet gasp left Surelin as everyone stopped in place to stare. Gideon soon approached the window to get a closer look, and saw that the square around the statue was completely empty. It was usually one of the focal points of activity in the slums, and the total absence of people was nearly as surprising as the sight of the bodies hanging from the statue.
Human corpses had become a familiar sight for Gideon long ago. He felt about the same to seeing them as he would to seeing the corpse of a dog. But he’d never before seen one with its skin completely flayed off. Strangely, they reminded him of skinned deer strung up for butchering, a thought which caused his stomach to turn.
He turned back to face the group and found them all still staring at the statue behind him. Surelin’s hand covered her mouth, her eyes glistening with tears. Len had roughly the same saddened look as Celaena. Caeda and the other soldiers in the retinue were simply in shock. Only Edea seemed unmoved, though she was staring just as hard as everyone else.
“Alright,” Gideon said slowly. “Who were they? Who did this?”
Caeda passed through the group towards the window, coming to a stop beside Gideon.
“I recognize that one,” she said quietly. “The one hanging from her neck. It’s Vesryn.”
Gideon turned to stare at the corpse she indicated, and quickly realized she was right.
“They are our casualties from the assault?” Len asked, stunned.
“He said it,” Surelin murmured. “Ennio Capella. He said he would cut off Edwin’s hands and feet. And skin us alive.”
A loaded silence descended over the group, broken moments later by Len.
“We must retrieve them. Celaena—”
“No,” Edea said sharply. “That is absolutely not happening.”
“We owe them a proper burial!” Len replied, raising his voice.
Emotion finally appeared on Edea’s face. “Come to your senses! You cannot possibly believe the enemy does not have agents monitoring the square at this very moment. Anyone sent out to retrieve them will be followed, and then we will have more corpses on our hands. We must leave. At once. We have lingered here too long as is.”
“Edwin must also be made secure immediately,” Celaena added.
Len bowed his head, frowning deeply, and squeezed his hands into tight fists.
“Lead us home, Celaena,” he said, giving in.
The group turned to leave, but Surelin stood in place, still staring at the corpses. Gideon approached her, resting his hand on her shoulder.
“It’s not safe here. Come on.”
She looked at him, and he saw a mixture of exhaustion and despair in her eyes that alarmed him.
“Come on,” he urged.
A long, shaky sigh left her before she finally turned to leave.
----------------------------------------
News spread throughout the slums quickly, and the group returned to the dyeworks to find its main workshop area already filled with people, talking with one another and milling about. Surelin quickly explained to Gideon that they were members of the various resistance cells throughout the city. He felt that having so many people gathered at their hideout was a foolish risk, but there was simply nothing they could do. They’d all come unbidden to meet and discuss their response, and trying to send them away would risk damaging the unity of the movement.
After a brief consultation upstairs, Edea, Len, and Surelin decided to address the crowd. They descended the stairs to the workshop, followed by a few members of the retinue carrying an armchair for Edea to sit in. They sent Celaena to retrieve Edwin from the nearby safehouse he was staying in. For his part, Gideon chose to attend the meeting at the back of the room where there were less people, leaning back against the wall near the rear entrance, his arms crossed.
The crowd’s murmuring came to a slow halt when they saw Edea and Surelin approaching. There was a small raised platform in the center of the room—Gideon guessed it had once served some function in the dying process—and the retinue assisted Edea as she mounted it. They worked together to haul her armchair up, then hopped off the platform. She sat down with all the controlled grace of a reigning monarch.
`“My friends, thank you for coming,” Len said, raising his voice to be heard. “The gravity of the current situation demands our immediate attention. Daily, the enemy commits unspeakable crimes against our people, but on this day they have escalated their malfeasance to a new level of depravity.”
“So what are you going to do about it?!” someone shouted at him. A chorus of shouted agreements followed.
“Our response must be measured—” Len said, but he was angrily shouted down by the crowd.
“We have to do it back to them!”
“They’ll slaughter us!”
“Pay them back tenfold!”
“Who will it happen to next?!”
The crowd was clearly not of one mind about what to do. They began to argue heatedly with one another, ignoring Len.
Well this’s fucked. If they overreact it’ll just cause the great houses to respond with an even bigger overreaction. But they can’t really do nothing, either. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Surelin looked around at the arguing crowd, frowning anxiously. Edea was staring at her, and when their eyes met understanding seemed to pass between them.
After thinking for a few moments, Surelin took a few steps forward and raised her hand to the crowd.
“Hear me!” she shouted. Then, “Hear me!!!”
Slowly, the crowd fell silent.
“I understand your anger all too well,” she began, “I knew each one of those men and women personally. All of them were dear to my heart. And I understand your fear, as well. Like you, I know what it is like to feel helpless in the grasp of the masters.”
The crowd’s attention on Surelin was rapt as she continued. “However, we cannot waste our strength on simple acts of revenge. We must strike the masters where they least expect it. Where they can least afford it.”
Her words sank into the crowd, and a few nodded their heads with agreement. Most seemed to accept her reasoning.
She gestured at Len to continue.
“The enemy’s soldiers are loyal to only one thing,” he said. “Denars. Wealth is the greatest strength of the great houses, and their greatest weakness. By striking at their wealth, we will create friction in the relationship between the mercenaries and the great houses—friction we can exploit. And we will use the pilfered wealth to arm ourselves in the process.”
That’s actually not a bad idea, if they can pull it off, Gideon thought. The crowd murmured with agreement.
Suddenly, the door beside Gideon flew open, and Edwin marched inside with Celaena at his side. Three young men—two light skinned Forelian men and a black haired Losoan—followed close behind them. Each appeared to be only a few years older than Edwin.
Edwin looked enraged as he marched towards the platform. The crowd parted for him, whispering to one another.
Surelin and Len watched Edwin with alarm as he came to a stop just before the platform.
“Did I hear you correctly?!” he bellowed. “The enemy has just horrifically brutalized our men and women, and you have chosen not to respond?!”
Surelin shook her head fiercely. “A revenge attack would not accomplish—”
“How much more must we endure before you finally decide to take action?!” he interrupted, screaming. “How many more atrocities will you allow to go unanswered?!”
“We are not going to destroy ourselves simply to satisfy your wounded ego!!!” Surelin screamed back.
They glared at one another in silence. The crowd seemed mostly surprised at having witnessed a spat between the royal siblings, but more than a few were staring at Edwin with anticipation, eager to hear more of what he had to say.
Dunno if he even means to, but that kid is actively fucking this whole thing up for everyone.
Edea slowly rose to her feet, and everyone in the room turned to watch as she walked over to stand beside Surelin. She stared down at Edwin silently for several long moments. He squirmed slightly under the pressure of her gaze.
“Kali has given to us the greatest test our people have faced in many generations,” she said serenely. “To survive this trial, we must clad our hearts with iron, and act with perfect clarity of thought. There can be no space within us for anything but the drive for victory, not when so much is at stake. Those of noble birth must remember that their duty is to guide the people. And not to use them as a vessel to indulge in reckless vanity.”
Edwin stared up at her for a long, quiet moment before he tore his gaze away and stormed off, back in the direction of the entrance. Celaena remained at the platform, looking on with frustration as he left, but Edwin’s three friends followed closely behind him.
His head was bowed, but Gideon still managed to spot tears gleaming in Edwin’s eyes as he threw the door open. His friends slammed the door shut behind them.
When Gideon looked back at the platform, he found Edea staring at him intently. They traded stares for what felt like a long time before he finally understood what she wanted.
He uncrossed his arms and stood up, then opened the door beside him and left the dyeworks, walking quickly in order to catch up to Edwin.