PART TWO - A TALE OF MONSTERS WITHIN

Sasha peaked from behind an alleyway dumpster into the night. Guard patrols led by torchbearers marched by. They swarmed this part of Monestate. After all, the boundary to High Monestate stood only blocks away. How else would the rich keep poor people out of their yards than military might?

Abdul stood close by, leaning against a shadow-casting brick wall with arms crossed. So did Elise. They all waited for Isaac who cleared his throat and called out into the streets with an attempt at a girly voice. “Kyaaaaaah! Please help me! Please~. If I only had a strong, muscular man to save me from these thieves!”

Sasha was taken aback. She harshly whispered at him. “You said you were good at impressions. Who will fall for that?”

Not even ten seconds later, a hulking guard in full plate and a red tabard with the king’s insignia appeared at the alley entrance. He boomed and rushed into the darkness they hid in. “That’s me! I’m a strong, muscular man! I’ll save you!”

Instead of a damsel in distress, he found himself surrounded by the entire team. He nodded. “Wallahi I’m finished.”

They jumped him. Fast forward half a minute, he laid on the ground face first near naked. Abdul dusted off his hands and changed into the guard’s steel plate armor. “A little big. They won’t notice, right?”

Isaac nodded. “As drunk as they get at night, they shouldn’t. Just keep the visor closed. The guard doesn’t hire Zaibans.”

Abdul dropped the visor to obscure his eyes. “I didn’t think about that.” He handed a sizable bag to Sasha. “Could you hold onto this for me till we’re in? This gear isn’t my style.”

“Of course.” She shouldered the weight.

The nigh-naked guard got up to his knees, dazed. “I won’t let you hooligans get away with this. You’ll be in big trouble after I report your shenanigans.”

Elise placed the cestus machina, Ween, on his forehead. A green gecko dangled from her other hand. “Nobody would believe a lizard though, right? Voodoo Lady.”

Abdul cringed. “That’s cruel. Might as well kill him.”

“He’ll technically live. Look at it as a form of kindness.”

The guard’s face blanked out. He flicked his tongue and crawled on hands and feet into the streets. A voice rang out in the direction where he disappeared. “Paul? What the hell are you doing? Paul?!”

The gecko in Elise’s palm stood up on its two little legs and stared at its own reptilian hands. She gently placed it on the ground where it fell onto four paws to scurry away. Isaac shook his head as if trying to dispel his own guilt. Such was war.

They saw off Abdul who assumed a rigid march and commanded Primus hanging from his back. “Right now, you’re a normal sword. Normal swords don’t talk.”

Primus scoffed. “You think you can make the rules?”

“If you get me caught in there, I’ll ditch you on the spot. Then say goodbye to Sasha.”

“You wouldn’t, right? Right?”

Abdul directed his attention to Elise as Isaac vanished into her shadow. “When you see the smoke and commotion, get moving. I’m not sure how long it’ll lower their guard. I’ll try to catch up soon. My enhanced senses should make it easy.”

“Don’t worry about us. Worry about not getting jailed for impersonation and arson.”

“You’ve got a point.” Abdul marched out toward the walls of High Monestate.

Alone now with Elise, Sasha wondered about their plan’s success. “Do you think they’ll really let him walk on through?”

“They won’t. The guards are required to identify themselves too. It'll at least let him get closer than usual though.”

“How do you know that?”

“Would it surprise you to hear that Isaac and I have spent many nights plotting for a day like this?”

Sasha’s face tensed up. “I get it. You two planned to kill the king?”

“Planned to. Nothing beyond. Isaac's hatred for him is strong, but not enough to risk his life in such a risky plot.”

Sasha looked into Elise’s shadow. “Do they have a history?”

“You could say that, but it’s a secret. Isaac would get upset if I told you the truth. I don’t see the point of hiding it myself. He’s still stuck in that past. Wants to move on but can’t. Frustrating to watch, if I'm honest.”

Sasha shied from the topic. “Can he not hear us right now? I don’t like talking about people behind their backs.”

“He can’t, and don’t worry. This is just gossip between girls. Nothing more.”

Elise took off into the interweaving alleys. She motioned for Sasha to follow. After some turns and weaving around dumpsters, they emerged on the other side. The walls leading to High Monestate towered in the distance. She pointed at a vague figure difficult to see. Sasha focused in. Abdul scaled them. What did he use to grip such a smooth surface? Claws?

Elise nodded. “He’s about in. Looks like his plans may’ve changed.”

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“He’s making a run for it.”

That’s right. Abdul reached the top and rolled over. He looked both directions only to see a guard aiming a crossbow at him. Undaunted, he sprinted to silence the nuisance. Before front kicking the crossbowman from the wall, the bolt struck him in the bicep. It splintered and bounced off. The guard yelled out while falling thirty feet. Abdul ran along the top of the walls, flames primed and sputtering from mouth.

Sasha motioned to Elise. “The show’s about to begin. Let’s get ready.”

They entered the streets to hide behind an empty carriage. Elise remembered something. “Abdul has a ton of experience with sieges. We couldn’t have a better guy for the job. If that means what I think it means, then—” An ear-ringing explosion rang out from High Monestate.

Fire, wooden chunks, and stone rained from the sky. Sasha’s mouth dropped as Elise explained with a mischievous smile. “He’d know where they stockpiled things you never want fire touching.”

“I hope he didn’t blow himself up.”

The guards patrolling the boundary of High Monestate were understandably surprised. The closest voice echoed "Bruh." into the night.

As an intense force of soldiers swarmed into the checkpoint to investigate the chaos, Elise poked Sasha’s cheek. “Now’s our chance. I doubt anybody will be stopping girls for their papers with hell raining.”

They sprinted for the nearest gate entrance left opened by the watchmen that ditched it. Well…, all for one. He stood firm in front of them while two barracks and three watchtowers behind burnt to rubble. Didn't care about his nearby shift partner burning alive, rolling around on the floor, either.

The guard shouted at them. “Halt! No peasants may dirty the pleasantry of High Monestate!”

Sasha recoiled at his diligence. “You’ve got to be kidding me. We need to check on our families. How can you stand here with the walls coming down?”

“I cannot abandon my position! Identify yourself! Everyone is a peasant until proven human.”

Elise lost patience. She pulled some sort of bronze beetle from her pocket. It produced little brass notes by blowing through its bell-shaped mouth. “Trombeetles live only for music though. Not some king.”

She placed Ween on the guard’s chest. His face blanked out, longsword dropping onto the ground, as the trombeetle stood on its hind legs in confusion. The guard-now-beetle made strange raspberry sounds with its mouth as the beetle-now-guard went through an existential crisis. Sasha looked back and forth between the two, equally fascinated and horrified.

She’d have to accept Voodoo Lady for its weirdness. Could it really switch anything? Even souls?

They ran past, avoiding more raining fire which landed near their feet. Only a few more gates separated them from making it into High Monesate. After entering, they could lay low until the guard settled. Then infiltrating Castle Hemmer would be on the plate. The task seemed monumental to Sasha. The closer it neared though, the less it felt like fantasy. Smoke and flame rose into the sky. In daylight, you could see that king’s castle looking down over everything.

They went through a clearing centered by a bale of hay erupted in flames. Marching neared, alerting them to split to hide. Sasha peeked at a patrol of twenty soldiers armed to the teeth from behind a wall. She watched Elise whose hiding spot on the other side of the clearing was unfortunate; a thin, conspicuous bush that barely concealed.

Before the patrol faded from sight, the last in line halted. “Aye, Commander. I’ve got to piss. I’ll be right back.”

Their leader in golden ornate armor shook his head. Without a helmet, he was a hulking man far bulkier than Isaac or Abdul. Cleanly shaven with a military crew cut too. “What’s this I just heard from you?”

“I’ve got to piss. I’ll be right back.”

“I don’t care if you have to piss, but you’re breaking our number one rule!”

The last two soldiers looked at each other awkwardly. The Commander beckoned them. “Go on. Recite it. You know better.”

They spoke back in sync. “Never leave your battle buddy.”

The second soldier shrugged. “I had to go too anyway.”

They hurried back into the clearing and then to the bush Elise hid in. Sasha’s face twisted in disgust. Sick to her stomach, she gawked at them standing hip to hip at those bushes to unzip their pants. They bantered with one another. “Don’t stand so close to me. The Commander can’t even see us right now.”

The second one bumped into him. “You fool, The Commander is always watching. You want to lose your job and be thrown into the streets? To become a peasant or owl? Not me.”

The first awkwardly stared at the bush, reluctant to go about his business. “Pissing in this bush doesn’t feel right. Don’t you think it’s oddly shaped like a woman? I feel like it’s judging me.”

“You’re right. What a strange shape. Wouldn’t want to sully mother nature. Any common idiot would mistake it for an intruder. I’ll piss in the flames then.”

“How else would The Commander expect us to put the fires out?”

They shifted their target from the bush to the hay bale ablaze. One of the guards snapped to attention, drawing his sword without even zipping his pants back up, shlong to the wind. He pointed to an empty void in the clearing far from both Sasha and Elise. “You there, invisible trespasser! Uncloak yourself. Did you think I’d be so dull to not notice how you disturb the dust?”

Simon appeared there from thin air, masked as usual. “They’re perceptive. It seems I do leave a light impression on the ground.” He noted.

“An owl? Here? You must not know your place.”

“You’re right. I don’t. Why don’t you show me?”

Of course they would. They’d show him. The soldiers exchanged confident nods before crying out toward their patrol. “Commander, help! Help us! Help~! We don’t want to die!”

“Cowards. Calling your dad?”

They pointed back at him. “Damn right we are!”

Their noise drew unwanted attention. Several pairs of heavy boots stomped toward them. Simon bowed to Sasha as she panicked. “I apologize for blowing your cover. Shame that I’m not much of a fighter. I’ll make it up to you later. I promise.”

Sasha stared at Elise who still sat stoneface in the bush. The spot triumphed over invisibility. It didn’t make sense. “I don’t even know what to say, Simon. Thanks for nothing.”

That owl wrapped himself in his cloak, vanishing from sight. He left the scene just as fast as he entered. The Commander arrived backed by a crowd. He spotted Sasha and Elise instantly, glaring back and forth between both. They rushed from their hiding spots to make a break for the exit only for it to be blocked by five more emerging guards in chainmail.

Sasha observed the area for an escape route but found no answer. The Commander wielded a flail. Its metal ball chained to the handle had a machina’s eye. Major glared, apprehensive. It warned her. “That machina of his is powerful. I can sense it. Don’t get struck.”

As if cued to show off, The Commander swung his flail in circular motions above his head. It accelerated to speeds beyond comprehension. All Sasha saw was a reflective circle of blur. The boss called out to her. “It looks like you’re outnumbered with nowhere to go. No fighting chance at all. You could even say it’s unfair.”

Elise rolled her eyes. “Thanks for telling us. We couldn’t get that ourselves.”

A hand reached out from underneath Elise. Isaac’s head poked out from her shadow as if breaking the surface of water. “Are we there yet?” He looked around, grasping the situation. “Oh...”

The Commander chuckled. “I stand for justice. Don’t care for things that’re unfair. I’ll give you trespassers three choices.” He put up one finger. “Surrender all your machina, be interrogated, and given due process by our judicial system.”

When given the coldest of glares in response, he put up the second one. “Resist and fight disadvantaged ten to one.”

Isaac pulled himself up from the shadows to join them. “Both of those aren’t options for us. What’s the third?” He asked.

The Commander put up his third finger. “Your strongest will duel me. If you defeat me, you may pass these gates. If I’m the victor and your combatant isn’t dead, then you’ll all be subjected to fair, unbiased justice.”

Elise put her hands on her hips. “Well, we’re fucked, aren’t we?”

Sasha shook her head. “Not yet, we aren’t!”