The General continued to look at the ground of the carriage rather than meeting her eye. “I don't think I'm wrong. The humans are going to sack the Upper City. That's what they do. That's what makes sense.”
Luna took a deep breath and sighed, she was grateful for the alcohol it did make it, easier. But this was still a very hard decision for her. Her general is almost never wrong, and even if he was. It wasn't by much. But they specifically went to Neal for a reason. The human understood humans better than they did. After all, he was one. But he also wasn't one of these humans.
What was she supposed to do?
If the humans were going to attack the Upper City, and they were going to do so through the sewers, the High Guard was already aware they were already set to attack them. There wasn't much they could do besides warning them what was coming and get them to call off the attack. Given the fires in the distance, it was probably too late for that assuming they’d even listen. On the other hand if they were going to attack the command center, they probably still had time. They’d want to wait till most of the High Guard were in the sewers.
She hit the empty seat next to the loud ‘poof’. Glowing tendrils came from her back as her mana threatened to overtake her. She was deeply stressed and didn't know how to handle it. A look of concern and fear in her assistant's eyes caused Luna to take another breath and pull her magic back. “I’m sorry Coruscis.”
The rabbit smiled, “It's OK, Princess. Well. What are we doing?” She laughed a bit, “You know, maybe it's not to late. Let's go back and get some more drinks. I think he was finally warming up to me!” It was an odd joke from the normally quiet rabbit. It showed just how stressed she also was.
The sorrowful eyes she looked at General Torrent. “I'm sorry, General. I think Neil was more right than he's wrong. We're going back to the enclave. We're going to talk to them, to Aaron, and get them to call off the attack.”
The General bowed, “I am your servant Princess. I just hope you’re right.”
The horseless carriage moved with speed outside. The 2 Lunar Guard grabbed onto the side handholds and rode with it. It was hard to explain, but Luna almost felt invigorated. Amidst her otherwise dull existence tonight was proven to be one hell of an adventure.
“Princess, you're smiling again. I suggest you refrain.” Once more, General Torrent lightly admonished her.
The West gates were all on high alert. Common guard were Everywhere, standing ready with their weapons out, but the fires weren't here. They were more towards the north. The more she saw it and thought about it, the more it made sense. It was all a show. Make them think they're coming from the south to the north. A direct Line to the Upper City.
Even, no especially, General Torrent now saw it. With a defeated and somber nod, he shook his head ‘Yes’. He too now believed Neal was right.
Again, the gate was shut. And again, the same raggedy lion stood in front of it. Bastante looked exhausted and tired. Unlike the Lunar and Solar guards, the Common Guard didn't just work either morning or evening shifts. There was always some on duty, and there would be 2-3, possibly even 4 depending upon how the regiment was set up. Regardless, Bastante Must have worked long past his end, as had the rest of his guard.
The sword he was holding nearly fell out of his hands as he looked onto the carriage. “Princess, you have got to be kidding me.”
Luna stuck her head out the window. She didn't have time to get out and talk to him. “Bastante, I know what you're going to say, but we have to come in. We can stop this.”
“No, no way. Not this time. It is not safe. I don't care if you're royalty or not. It is not safe beyond these gates.” Bastante shook his head and walked up to the window.
He continued from next to her window, “Look, the humans aren't going to come this way. They're going to the North, but it's still not-“
With that she stopped him with a hand held up and quickly over spoke him, “You're wrong. You're all wrong. They're going to come through this way, and they’re going to come hard. Their targets is not the Upper City. It’s the High Guard command center.”
Bastante looked absolutely and utterly confused. For a captain who'd rather spend the day sitting inside reading or drinking or doing anything else. This is not how we want to spend this evening. He could feel himself shutting down. With a deep breath, he grabbed onto his sword and held it hard. Centering his mind. “Princess, why do you think-“
This time he was interrupted by General Torrent, who proceeded to leave the carriage. “Princess, I will stay here and deal with this. We're going to need guards at the High Guard Command center, just in case. I will see that it's done. For now, Captain Bastante will open the gate.” The old bats glare was enough to turn the lion’s soul to ice.
“Damn you, you’re not even my General. If anything happens to the Princess, this is on your head, General.” Bastante made a wave for the gate to open, along with a short argument with the gate operator. Once more the gate opened and the Princess read through. Quickly behind them, it also shut. General Torrent had already started preparations to fortify this part of the city. He was quick, he had to be.
Now it was just the Princess, Coruscis And the two guards outside. Four, against enclave of thousands, no 10s of thousands. Luna was worried about her two guards. However, Coruscis and her could defend themselves.
The rabbit closed and opened her eyes gently. Her eyes glowed a very deep and powerful blue. In some ways, the rabbit was stronger than she was. It was very, very rare for the rabbit race to have any mana. Coruscis had almost as much as Luna did. But it was far more focused. With a nod, she was ready to. If anything happened, the four of them would make it out fine. Luna gave short, silent prayer to the Goddess of life, praying and hoping that no one would die today.
Once more, the carriage pulled up in front of the tavern. Outside were even more humans, And among them, Aaron.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Aaron spoke out as he approached the carriage. Only to watch Luna walk out.
“Princess, I told you before, this is not safe for you. I will give you one chance. Leave now.” Aaron reached for the Sword at his side. In truth, he knew he had no hope against the Princess. Honestly, he probably didn't have a hope against her guards either. But he would die if needed be, he was ready.
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She stood tall, and hid all of her magic, it would just cloud her words. “30 seconds and I’ll convinced you to drop that sword.”
Aaron almost laughed, “Princess, there is nothing you can say-“
“You're going to attack the High Guard Command Center.”
Aaron looked at the Princess with a look of shock. But only for a second before smiling again. “Princess, we aren't attacking anyone. All we're doing is rioting inside our enclave.”
“No, you're not. The fires to the north are diversion, and you might have a few people running around the sewers, but. Most of them are planning to run over land to the high guard command center.”
Aaron bit at his lip. He didn't know what to do.
“Aaron. As we speak, both Common and Lunar guard are fortifying the high guard command center. I'm sure the high guards aren't going to like it. But they're not going to stop us because, as we both know, no one's there right now. They're all looking for you in the sewers, and set up in the streets to the Upper City.”
For a moment, she let Aaron breathe. Everyone was silent when the crackling of some distant fires could be heard.
“There's only four of you this time.” Aaron observed aloud.
“And do you know how powerful two of us are?” Purple tendrils and wisps expanded from Luna's back. Crackles of mana shook the air. Some of the stonework pavement around cracked. Then, quickly, she pulled it back.
Luna looked the still well dressed Aaron straight in the eye. Even without armor, he was planning to fight. He was brave, she'd give him that. “I don't want to see anyone hurt, including the humans. Let's talk one more time.”
The inside of the Tavern was tense. Aaron sat across from Luna rubbing at his lip, unsure of what to do.
He started, “You understand we can't accept surrender, right?”
Luna nodded, “I’m not asking you to surrender. Like I said, I don't want to see any of the humans hurt any more than anyone else. If you a surrender, you would be arrested. That would hurt your enclave.”
Aaron dropped his hand and set up a little bit more straight. This wasn't the position he wanted to be in, he couldn't see a way out of this.
“You don't have to surrender, just call off the attack on the High Guard command center and pull back your people from the sewers.”
“The sewers are going to be a problem. We have no way to contact those men. There's only a few of them though.” His words were cold, he didn’t care.
Luna was surprised, “You intended to sacrifice them from the start.”
“Well, to be fair, they volunteered. They were looking forward to smashing some heads. I don't think it was a figure of speech for them. We're better off.” Again, Aaron’s voice was just, cold.
“So you send your degenerates down there.”
Aaron didn't answer yes or no, simply spread his hands open. Gesturing, ‘if that’s what you want to believe.’
“You know they will be arrested. They might even be killed.” Luna protested slightly, but it did seem hopeless.
“As I said, they volunteered, and we don't care about them. Now, about the rest of us. Even if we're destined to lose, why shouldn't we try and attack? We might still win.”
“You won’t, and you know that. Not only that, l many of you will be arrested, some of you will even die.”
He laughs. In the face of death Aaron actually laughed, “And just look around. Do you think we care? We live in Squalor. Many of us are starving because we don't have enough food. We're happy to live in peace with the rest of the city. Truly, we are. The city won't live in peace with us. This isn't the first time the high Guard has come in and damaged our food stores. Nor is it the first time they hurt us. It is the first time they've killed though. Perhaps it’s better we at least die fighting.”
Luna looked back at Coruscis, for some sign that he was telling the truth or lying. But the rabbits squinted into her eyes and shook her head gently. She didn't know either.
Aaron laughed and looked to the side himself. He shook his head. “You really don't know, do you? It's been a common occurrence for years. The bastards come down, they smashed some heads, they go back up. They claimed their looking for thieves or something, and common do nothing. Sometimes they claimed they're looking for smugglers. Doesn't matter. They’re here to hurt us and do. But this past six months have been particularly bad. For some reason, their attacks have increase dramatically and we don't know why. 100 incidents in the past six months, 100 times our people were hurt, 100 times our houses were sacked. It's not even the first time one was set on fire.”
Luna's shoulders fell a little bit as she sunk into her chair. She thought she had a plan; she thought she had an idea. But now she was just as lost as before. “That's completely unacceptable. I-“
She sat up straight in her chair. “Aaron. I do understand. I believe you. You wouldn't be going this far if it wasn't this bad. No one in my city, no one should suffer like this.”
He scoffed “Nice words Princess. What does that actually mean?”
She tapped her fingers and thought for a second, “For tonight. Let's end this attack. You know as well as I do we won't go anywhere. After that…”
“After that?”
There was no answer, she didn’t know what they needed. Instead she need them to, “You tell me. What do you need to be secure in your enclave?”
There were murmurs and whispers around them as the humans talked amongst themselves. No one had expected this. Did the Princess really have this kind of authority? Could she actually do this and pull this off? Was it possible they would have won without swinging a single sword, without losing a single drop of blood?
Aaron held a hand up to silence the rabble, “Ok, let’s say we agree what. What do we want?” Aaron paused and thought. He was almost as lost as the Princess was.
This was not what he was expecting. “Independence, not from Illiana or the city but the current Guard. The high Guard can never be allowed to step foot in the enclave again. Ever. On the guards, we want more humans in the Guard. You can’t expect us to live under their foot without some say. We want humans in the high guard too.”
Luna nodded. The request was actually quite reasonable, but not completely possible. “I can certainly arrange for more humans in the Lunar Guard, but there’s no chance the High Guard will accept humans. It’s just not going to happen.”
Aaron laughed and pulled away from the table a little bit, shaking his head no.
Coruscis stepped in quickly and whisper and idea to Luna, “Ok, what about this. The High Guard is off limits, there’s nothing I can do about that, but what about the common Guard. If you had a representative in the House of Commons we can push and force the Common Guard generals to accept more Human applicants. If the High Guard aren’t even stepping foot in the enclave it won’t be an issue.”
“Maybe… But we’d need a representative there. And if we’re going that route, only human guards in the enclave.”
“That's reasonable, and I think that can be arranged. For the represntitive, I swear they will be given full protection from Luna Guard. No harm will come to them, regardless of what either the High or Common Guard do.”
Again, Aaron nodded, “Two more things though.”
Aaron held up one finger, “1st. We want justice for those who are killed. Those six guards need to be punished. They don't need to die. But we need to see a trial. We need to see them punished for what they did.”
Taking a moment, perhaps searching for something to fill the second point, “2nd. Obviously the food needs to be replaced. But beyond that, we want food security to go forward. The castle in the city as a whole throughout, a lot of food. We're not picky. Just give us stuff we can eat.”
Once more Luna nodded in agreement. “We can agree to your first point, but please understand it will take some time to set up. Food, I’ll make sure that’s done tomorrow.”
Aaron smirked. “We can be patient. So long as it happens.”
For a few seconds, there was silence. And then the humans started whispering amongst each other again. As whispers turned into words. Turned into cheers. Was this it? Did they win? They won!
Even then, she couldn't help but smile at the cheers. This really was the best outcome possible.
For once. Aaron actually smiled. No sarcasm, no smirk, just a soft, pleasant face. of an otherwise hard human. “Thank you, Princess. We're trusting you. Please don't let us down.”
Word quickly spread, so fast, in fact, that when they left the bar, people are already celebrating the streets.
With a look back at her small band of misfits, she smiled “Well, I guess we win too. Let's go back to the castle and talk to the Queen.”
This was a great day. Luna struggled to remember a time when she felt so alive, so carefree and happy. But happiness is often fleeting.