Hanafin
The clock ticks loudly as the hands pass zero, clicking down three minutes away from the meeting start. The hall facilitated a cavernous sound with conversations echoing off the ceiling and walls, creating an atmosphere with a steady buzz of noise.
Eavesdropping would reveal many critical opinions against our case, particularly stinging harder because they were the same qualms that I’d deliberately kept quiet about.
Yesenia was sitting across the hall from me, away from her usual seat. I wanted to sit next to her; however, she argued that everyone clumping together would give us a smaller presence through the room.
I glance at Celestia sitting next to me quietly. “Oh, you’re actually here.”
“Yea, how else would I help?” She looks at me with a puzzled look.
“No, no… You’re alright.” Of all the ways I’d suspect she’d act, I never thought she’d actually show up in-person to the council meeting, like she was actually… reliable. She was even dressed up formally, not wearing a particularly lavish dress, it was actually quite unusual, a light and loose dress with long detached sleeves but a dress nevertheless. Furthermore, she also put on a little powder, lightening her skin and reddening her lips a bit.
“Hey, I know I’m good at reading people, but you’re making your thoughts a little too obvious.” She gives me a stinky eye.
“If you are so good at reading people then there’s no reason to be upset by what I’m thinking.” I quip back.
“My biggest mistake might be letting you get comfortable around me.” She sighs then stares off in the distance, zoning out.
The clock ticks again, two minutes away.
Cain
The hell am I doing here? My position is already precarious, and now I’m supposed to be defending a self-admitted traitor. To make things worse, Stronl is sitting right next to me, her words repeatedly burning itself within my mind.
“What if you and Yesenia want different things?
“Then go with mine.”
But Stronl hasn’t made her position even a little bit clear, in fact I haven’t seen her once through this entire situation save for the last 5 minutes where she walked in this room and deliberately sat right next to me. I stayed silent for a couple minutes because it seemed like she wanted to say something, but she hasn’t said anything! What’s wrong with you?!
“Are you going to say anything or...” I finally break the lengthy silence.
“I’m just here to watch. Do whatever you need to do.” Stronl replies.
You didn’t ‘just watch’ for me. I mouth silently.
“Hmm?” Stronl turns her head.
“What?”
“I heard that.”
“No you didn’t. You saw my mouth move and are pretending to know what I said.”
“Sure, I know you said something though, so tell me what you said.” She raises her eyebrow, feigning offense.
”Uhh…” I drone, taken aback by her directness.
“She knows how to read lips by the way.” Diordie, a tall lanky noble sitting in front of us tells me. From what I remember from the last meeting, he was one of the people okay with letting me stay.
I turn to Stronl, who is staring at me smiling. “Did you see me on your first day here either?” She asks.
“No…” I remember her only appearing when I was waiting for Gleek, after creating a massive spectacle in the city square.
“So what did you think I was doing when you were running around causing havoc?” She asks another question. I was smart enough to understand what conclusion she was trying to lead me towards.
”I mean, I get what you’re trying to say, but you tried to personally kill me twice, with this you’re on the fence.” I say.
“I’m not on the fence, I’m just not confident enough to act or say anything right now. I’ll make sure to be completely clear if I ever come to a conclusion.” She says.
“But—“
Diordie interrupts once again. “Hey, fire guy. Do you understand how you could kill someone, be blatantly hostile, cause hundreds of doons in damage, but then have more than half the council okay with your return?” He points at the woman sitting next to me. “Stronl vouched for you, and when she decides something, she’s often right. She’s often known as the unofficial adjudicator of our council.”
…
“Oh.”
The clock clicks again. One more minute.
Yesenia
I slowly lay a hand on my thigh, trying to relax the tremors traveling down my leg.
Despite being the progenitor of this movement, I was plagued with more self-doubts, than I’ve ever been before.
Masked people, masked people, it all hinges on this ridiculous sounding story. I’m not even okay with Crux saving us over the kingdom, and our relationship feels questionable now. But… I try to calm down. This is ridiculous, you’ve already gone over these thoughts dozens of times over the past day, and you’ve come to the same conclusion every time.
What’s done cannot be undone. I can no longer survive without him. Therefore, I must save him.
I open my eyes, not even sure when I initially closed them. If I closed them any longer. I’m not sure I would be able to open them ever again.
The clock strikes zero.
Cain, Hanafin, and Yesenia (Third Person)
Crux walks through the door with his arms chained, led by Grandy stiffly walking by his side.
Silence falls over the room.
“Ahem, before things get started. Lord Crux, will you dispute the claims that you sent confidential material to Oliviand.” Tan says. She was the official arbiter of the dispute.
“No.” He says.
Hanafin and Yesenia briefly flick their eyes together.
“Okay! I think we can all agree that this is completely unacceptable, correct? That having this discussion is a complete waste of time? When the southern capital is desperately in need of reinforcements?” Roxan immediately says.
“The forces and supplies are still being organized and will be delivered soon, having this discussion will not impede logistics in a significant way.” Hanafin says.
”It’s a distraction and a farce. We could lose our entire kingdom at any minute and we’re talking about absurdities.”
“It is far from an absurdity.”
“Yea?”
“I agree with Roxan, there’s no need for discussion.” A select minority of the crowd loudly agrees while others mumble.
Stronl speaks. “If we cannot even get to the focus of the discussion without extraneous opposition then there’s no need for any of you to be here.” She glares at the crowd then addresses Tan without giving any of them a chance to speak back. “I would like to ask Crux some questions. I believe the vast majority of us don’t have a clear understanding of what’s going on.” She says.
“Understood. I will let you go first, but anyone who wants to ask questions afterwards please raise your hand.” Tan says.
Stronl nods then turns to Crux. “Describe the person, the circumstances of your meeting, and how you were convinced that they were telling the truth.”
Crux looks up. “Dundee, that’s the name of the person in question. He wore a patterned mask and was capable of many miracles. At first I thought he was a Tetsudo, but it became exceedingly obvious that he was more than that.”
“Miracles like what?”
“Wiping out the Oliviand forces at Burning Hill.” Crux states flatly.
“That was supposedly a potent artificial disease accidentally leaked by themselves. There were trace amounts of foreign Anku present in some of the bodies.” Stronl says.
“Nobody on our side got infected, correct? Even when we found out the entire army got wiped? And were walking through the corpses?”
”That makes sense, the bug was probably designed to lose infectivity as soon as the host dies so there wouldn’t be collateral afterwards.”
“That’s an awfully convenient weapon that’s never been deployed again wouldn’t you say?”
“… Correct.” Stronl nods. “The fact that it was never seen again is strange.”
“Stop, stop, stop. That was a strange occurrence, but how is Crux’s explanation any more plausible?” Someone says.
“Be quiet.” Tan snaps. “Any counter arguments can come after questioning.”
Stronl nods at Tan then gestures towards Crux. “Go on then. Describe when and what you two talked about.”
”During Burning Hill.”
“And…?”
”That’s it. I’ve already said everything I remembered about that conversation. If I didn’t do what I did, then the two heirs would have been killed during the arrival of Tetsudo Cain. I only remembered everything a couple hours ago myself.”
“And in that scenario you chose the safety of the heirs over the kingdom?”
”Yes.”
Stronl then shrugs. “No more questions.”
Yesenia winces. This is the problem, even if we got to the point where people believe that Crux is telling the truth, his actions are still indefensible.
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Roxan's hand darts up as soon as she says this. “May I have my turn?”
“Yes. Go ahead.” Tan says.
“You betrayed us two years ago, Burning Hill was half a decade ago, if you didn’t remember until now, how did you even betray us?”
“I don’t know.”
Roxan scoffs. “Well you’re making this easier than I thought. Go ahead princess.” He points a hand at Yesenia.
“Oh um…” She tried to think but her mind went blank. This was the reason Roxan agreed to this councilroom so easily. There was no easier way to see all his enemies self-destruct at once.
“He could have been influenced without knowing, to leak the documents.” Yesenia eeks out.
”Influenced eh? Isn’t there another word for it… Hmm, my ten year old likes to say this word a lot. Oh yea, it’s mind control. He got mind controlled.” Roxan points and laughs.
“Please. Let’s keep things focused on the questioning.” Hanafin interjects.
“No. That has gone on long enough. The conversation should be centered around you two now for perpetuating this farce.”
“Tan!” Hanafin swings his head around for the arbiter.
”You may continue Roxan.” She completely shuts Hanafin down.
”I understand.” Roxan’s tone softens. “Princess, you and Crux are close. From a glance everyone can tell he’s been like a second father to you. I even remembered when you were running around the castle collecting signatures when Crux was in jail. That was adorable. His betrayal must still not feel real to you, so that’s why you’ve been doing this.” He smiles at her before turning to Hanafin. “And prince. I know how close the two of you are. I understand why you would put your support behind her, even if you don’t want to, just because she carries so much that you’re worried that she’ll fall. But both of you, think about this rationally for a bit. Do you really want to die on this hill?”
A silence falls over the room. He’d hit their insecurities to the exact T.
“So one more chance. How about it? I’ll extend a hand. We can forget about this and move on.”
Yesenia’s lips tremble. “I… I…” She clutches her arms then shutters. Either way I’ll never be able to recover. She thinks to herself.
“I think Crux is too important to sentence just yet.” Cain says.
The whole attention of the room turns to him at once. “Ah, a traitor turned lackey supporting another traitor, how surprising.” Roxan sneers.
“I think you’re intentionally obfuscating the actual positions here.” Cain ignores Roxan’s comment. “If the existence of the masked person is proven, then killing Crux is an awful idea, because we don’t know what other deals he might have made with them, not to mention he still doesn’t fully remember everything that they said, so there still may be details to the situation that can absolve him.”
Yesenia sighs internally, if Cain hadn’t said anything she probably would have spilled everything right then and there.
”You mean that there still might be details he could make up to absolve him?” Roxan says.
”That’s why I called you out for obfuscating things. We need to prove that the masked person doesn’t or does exist before doing anything. Crux’s actions are, at the current moment, irrelevant.” Cain was very much used to debating and rhetorical strategies, being a prince, half his job was listening to people prattle about a variety of topics.
“What? That’s a ridiculous burden of proof. It’s your job to prove that they exist, it’s not our job to prove that they don’t exist.” Roxan says.
“I can prove that. After all, I saw him back when I was at The Eye. Even fought against him a couple times.” Celestia smiles. Finally, someone steered the conversation in the correct direction.
“You–”
“Well, he wasn’t the only one I saw during my stay. There was someone else… You might know him by the name of Rudeus.”
Commotion immediately takes the room as soon as she says this. It was a piece of information Grandy said he’d deliberately withheld when he told the council about Crux. Allowing them to reveal it at the opportune moment.
Roxan stays stunned for a couple seconds before angrily retorting back. “This is all just talk right now. You can’t expect us to just take your word for it.”
“I’m not.” Celestia stands up, her loose sleeves hanging off her arms as she draws a hidden sword with a large wood scabbard from underneath her dress, or more accurately defined as a robe. She exits her seat and walks down to the center of the room where Grandy and Crux were situated.
“Rainel.” She turns to the man quietly sitting in the corner, not having made a single peep since the meeting had started. “I believe you’re familiar with how Rudeus fights. Would you be able to tell if I’d truly seen him or not?” She raises her sword invitingly.
“Yes. You best be prepared to recall more than just his weapon and clothes however.” Rainel leaves his chair as well.
“Wait what the hell are you doing? This isn’t an arena!” Roxan yells, although multiple other people echo the same sentiment at the same time.
“Hey, hey, we’re experts alright? No need to get your panties in a twist.” Celestia shrugs as her words don’t help all too much to calm down the outrage.
She unsheathes the sword, letting her finger run along the edge as it opens up, driblets of blood running down the cool reflective metal. She holds the wood scabbard off to the side, in an off center unassuming position.
Her fingers were relaxed, her thumb lightly thrumming along the silver engraved handle of the blade, loose but also disciplined.
“Sorry if my posture isn’t exactly identical. The way men and women distribute their body mass is a bit different, you see.” She says cheekily.
Rainel doesn’t comment but stares her down hard. He quickly unsheathes his sword and lunges forward with the precision of a needle, like a snake snapping forward.
Celestia throws up her sleeve, the delicate and expensive fabric being sliced through like butter as Rainel’s blade reaches her scabbard, but hidden underneath the sleeve was her… Sword? What? When did she switch grips? She was holding her scabbard with that arm just a moment ago. Cain watches intently. I see, the sleeve is meant to slightly throw off the attacker’s timing by tiny fractions, because they can’t visually confirm where the blades will meet, there’s some guesswork involved. And parry itself… Rainel’s knees crumbled a tiny bit which means he couldn’t tell which direction Celestia sliced.
Rainel steps back as Celestia flippantly counterattacks with the scabbard in her other hand. Not much force or effort put into it at all.
He unsheathes his sword then turns back to his seat “She met Rudeus, I’m certain.” He sits back down.
“Hold on, hold on, how long were you two together for?” Granger asks Celestia.
“Rudeus? I think I knew him for about 2 months or so?”
“And you were able to perfectly imitate his style in that short amount of time? People have to spend decades to do something like that.”
“You don’t have decades when you’re in battle. What? Do you think I don’t need to pay attention to my opponents or something?”
“Of course you do, everyone knows about your battle prowess, it’s just that it’s quite unbelievable.” Granger grows quiet. He was on the opposition side but he knew that getting into an argument with the most gifted fighter in the world over fighting wasn’t going to end well for him.
”I’ll take that as a compliment then, but I still have a couple more points to make.” Celestia says. “You may find it hard to believe, but Rudeus was explicitly there to recruit the masked man. Or, calling him by his real name, Taiga, and he was less of a man and more so a very young adult. Taiga has a different mask from Dundee and was much weaker, but they undeniably shared the same traits. Which is why Rudeus wanted to get him on your side so badly.”
“But if—“
”Ba, ba ba. I’m not done.” Celestia hushes the interruption. “Let me set the stage for all of you. From what I learned, didn’t Rudeus disappear during Burning Hill as well? The same moment when Crux encountered Dundee, the masked man? Then he shows up a couple years later trying to recruit a different masked person. I wonder what Rudeus and Dundee talked about back there and why he disappeared so suddenly!” Celestia slides her blood laden sword back into her sheath. “Well, it’s not like I can give any hard proof, so how about I do you all a favor. I’ll drag the two of them, Rudeus and the masked kid, back here to explain themselves to you all. How about that? They should be out there somewhere now, shouldn’t take more than a month of searching. Or we can just kill Crux and forget about everything, that’s also an option.” Celestia ends her lengthy speech by sitting down, clearing her throat, and patting down her dress then winking at Cain as a thanks for directing the conversation.
“O-Ok. Crux could be spared temporarily.” Roxan says. “But he’s going to be in the dungeons for a very long time at least until things are figured out.”
A collective sigh of relief could be heard coming from 3 different people from the audience.
Yesenia
I hang my head downwards as my brother takes a seat next to mine.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t contribute anything.” I say.
”Well yea, I didn’t accomplish much either. It seems like we were saved again by those two.” Hanafin says, gesturing to Cain and Celestia.
”Yea…” I say, still downtrodden.
“Hey, you’ve done so much for us already. It’s okay to rely on us from time to time.” Hanafin says as soon as he notices my mood.
”That’s not it. I…” I already rely on you guys so much to keep myself afloat, if I also have to rely on you physically then... I’m nothing more than a mosquito, sucking from your blood. Without any of you, I’d barely even be considered a human.
Hanafin hugs me and leans in close. “You’re fine.” He whispers. “Without you, none of this would have ever happened. You’re the one who brought us all together to do this, so relax.”
My breathing slows down to a lull as he gently twirls my hair around his finger. “Thank you.” I say before standing up and smiling. “Okay, we need to talk to Celestia, we need to know exactly what she’s planning on doing.”
The doors to the councilroom burst open, capturing all of our attentions at once.
“The southern capital siege has begun.” The messenger gasps out.
My skin grows cold and Hanafin’s hands grow tense as a smothering silence strangles the room all at once. They’re already there? Roxan slowly takes out a bottle of whiskey from his jacket and takes a drink. He smacks his lips a couple times before opening his mouth. “Oh, We’ve lost.” He says. “We’re all dead. Cept you two.” He points at us. “You guys might be alright.” He turns to spit on Crux with his alcohol laden saliva. Crux doesn’t bother to dodge, he lets the glob land on his cheek with an unreadable expression on his face. I was too stunned to react.
”Hold on, what’s wrong? As long as they defend well, we should be able to entrap them from both sides as long as they can last till our reinforcements get there.” Celestia says to complete silence. She crosses her arms agitated for a couple seconds before speaking up further. “Oi, someone, tell me what the issue is. Sieges always take a while to complete.”
“They won’t be able to defend. More than half of the soldiers that were stationed at the southern capital are a part of the current campaign with the wind Tetsudo.” Rainel tells her. “They’d be lucky to last more than three days.”
”And guess how they know that the southern capital is vulnerable right now?” Roxan continues.
“Why… Couldn’t we send reinforcements earlier?” Celestia says, taken aback for the first time.
“Because in any other situation, it’s topographically inaccessible by enemies, so it wasn’t particularly urgent.” Roxan hisses. “The war is over, don’t you get it?”
Celestia stares at the ground like a corpse, finally at a loss of words for the first time I’ve seen her.
Her eyes widen.
She presses her teeth to her tongue as her mouth curves upwards.
She smiles as her breaths grow deeper and unrestrained.
“Haeuhhhh.” She exhales through her mouth over and over in erratic intervals.
I watch her for a couple seconds before realizing what all those expressions represented.
This wasn’t some avant-garde expression of fear. She had been struck with something that could only be described as…
Mania.
“I can win.” She finally says. “I’ll go by myself and kill all of them.” She was still staring at the ground, her eyes wide as a diin. She looks up.
“Trust me. I can destroy a country by myself if I wanted to.”
Grandy opens his mouth to speak but quickly decides against it.
”Really.” Roxan stares at her completely unphased. “Aiming a bit high there don’t you think?”
“Cain. How quickly do you think you can get to the southern capital with your Tetsu?” Celestia ignores Roxan, hellbent on her quest. “Personally, I can run there in 10 hours.”
“Yes, I’ll be able to keep pace. Actually we can make it there in 8 if I make a tailwind for you.” Cain unexpectedly agrees to her ludicrous plan.
“Wait, Cain, don’t tell me you’re actually going to…” I trail off, surprised by my own voice.
“Princess. This may be our only option left.” Grandy says in a low voice. “No one else except these two can make it there in time, and they’re strong enough to possibly create an impact.”
“I can do it too. I’ll keep those two in check.” Rainel speaks. Every head in the room turns to him at once to mixed reactions.
“Rainel… You too…” I whisper, my true thoughts too ugly to share. After all, what I really wanted to say was.
Don’t leave me.
But that would be too pathetic of me. Wouldn’t it?
I smile. “I understand. Do what you need to do.” I turn to Grandy hesitantly. He was also someone who could make it if he wanted so…
“Okay, I’ll come too then.” Grandy says to my dismay.
“No. We can’t spread ourselves too thin again.” Rainel tells Grandy. “Please stay. You may be needed.”
“Mmmmm.” Grandy purses his lips. “Are you confident in winning? Or have you simply resigned yourself?”
Rainel stays silent, a silence that could speak a thousand words. “Winning.” He says.
“Okay, then prepare yourself now. Meet outside the south facing gate as soon as possible. I’ll talk to the guards and make sure you won’t have to waste any time leaving the city.” Grandy says as he turns to the door.
The four immediately run out of the room.
And so I was alone.
Celestia
“Good luck.” The guard lowers his head curtly as Rainel runs through the gate, being the last to arrive as he had the most equipment.
Cain was wearing a black-metal chain mail alongside a cushioning vest that would prevent injury from any sharp or blunt force attack, his hands were completely exposed to allow for full use of his Tetsu.
Rainel was wearing a light suit of black metal; however, what was interesting about him was the multi-scabbard of swords strung behind his back, carrying six of them in total, all the hilts poking out from behind his head.
I was wearing… A simple tunic with long pants. Or that’s what I would have liked to wear, but they insisted I at least have some protection. So I was wearing a slash-proof vest underneath my shirt, similar to Cain, but much more generic to a common soldier.
I look at Rainel, then Cain. “You two ready?” I feel a tailwind on my back as Cain turns his Tetsu to air.
Cain nods simply and doesn’t say anything.
“Let’s get moving.” Rainel says.
The three of us burst forward like horses in a race.
Now… I watch the sky as we tear through the path, leaves and dirt scattering in our wake.
I look down to see Cain glancing at me uncomfortably. He turns away as soon as I meet his gaze however.
"Hmph."