Everyone contemplated the strong words chosen by Rinas. Strike at her heart you say? I would like nothing more than to be the one to do that.

Kiran was not someone who wanted to kill in almost any circumstance. He actively wanted to avoid it. But given what she had done to him and Della, a big part of himself wanted to carry out that task to enact some sense of justice.

“We are at war,” Rinas chose to say. “It may not look like one from an outsider’s point of view, but for all of us who are living through it, we are in many ways out on the battlefield fighting every day for our survival. But do you know what?” Rinas began to lean towards them. “I believe that her recent actions of transgressions towards us sends a clear message about her state of mind. I believe she fears us. And especially you Kiran.”

Everyone began to look at him in particular.

“What?” Abigail said. “What could she possibly have to fear him for?”

While many in attendance weren’t particularly aware of his strange existence, Rinas was along with Noreko.

Noreko cleared his throat preparing to speak. “Kiran belongs to the old world or, to put it another way, from a time before the fracturing.”

His declaration as to who Kiran was caused several to peer at Kiran with widened eyes. Even Abigail showcased a face of shock and awe.

“Hold on,” Abigail said, “how is such a thing even possible?”

“Neither I nor Kiran know,” Noreko stated, “but it is clear that the queen has had her eyes on him since his relative arrival to Liall. And if I am to be further blunt, having him within our coalition has by my estimation forced her hand to strike at us far more harshly than before.”

“Yes,” Rinas said, “which is why we must begin preparations to resolve this issue more quickly than I think any of us might’ve imagined.”

“That is all well and good,” Zorge said, “but what is to be done? We have tried everything in our power to undermine her and get the people to fight back against her will. The people just don’t seem all that interested in the plight of the familiars. Our cause has yet to gain large favor amongst the populace and without their support, I fear our goals may never manifest.”

“When have majorities ever led great change?” The question Rinas asked lingered within the chamber for everyone to ponder. Everyone sat there allowing the question to settle in their minds, including Kiran’s. “Great change is led by small groups of people. And we can be the ones to usher in that great change. We need merely hold fast to our cause and see it through to the end. The fact remains that her majesty has grown reckless as of late, and I see that as our opportunity to strike hard and fast. As Yorais hinted earlier, she has some information that may elucidate how we may achieve our ends sooner rather than later.”

Yorais took the hint to begin explaining whatever it was that she had uncovered. “When the central pillar was built into this city a century ago, the ones who created it were all killed. As a result, our knowledge and comprehension on how the pillar works and the queen’s connection to it was a mystery. Until now, that is. My people have uncovered information that has revealed a vast network of tunnels that exist right beneath the city all connecting to the central pillar along with information detailing the functionality of the pillar itself. According to Noreko, he can develop a method that will allow him to power the pillar himself. All we need to do is to figure out a way to gain entry into the tunnels beneath the city which will allow us to free ourselves from the queen once and for all.”

Kiran was somewhat taken aback. A lot was going on and wrapping his mind around it all was quite the task. The coalition’s sure been busy since I’ve been recovering. It made him feel like a practical nobody compared to all of them. They were uncovering and doing all kinds of things way beyond his own capabilities. He was somewhat impressed admittedly.

“You make it sound so easy,” Zorge said skeptically.

“None of this was ever going to be easy,” Rinas said. “It is a step towards us being able to confidently remove the queen from power. If we gain control of the central pillar, neither we nor the people of this city will have need of her any longer. We can finally free ourselves of her and not have to worry about her being gone. But in order to remove her, we must be confident in being able to power the pillar ourselves. If we cannot achieve that, killing her is a problematic endeavor.”

Kiran supposed that they could theoretically capture her in some capacity and have her keep powering the pillar in whatever way she conducted such an act, but that didn’t sound at all ideal or practical. Gaining control themselves gave them a bit more options that sounded appealing to him.

“With this new information,” Rinas continued to say, “I want you Frederek to begin focusing with your own people to try to find a way into those tunnels from the depths. Yorais should be able to give you some of the documents as well that detail the layout of them and where we might best uncover them.”

Frederek nodded his head.

“As for you,” he said directly to Kiran. “I wanted to ask you what you think we ought to consider doing. I believe even we have need of an outsider’s perspective from time to time.”

“It sort of sounds like you all have most of figured out,” Kiran said. “Although, if I may make a suggestion.” All eyes came to him wondering what he might say next. “I want to be the one to bring the queen to justice.”

“You,” Abigail said. “What makes you think you’re the one to do such a thing?”

“Given what she’s done to me, I am adamant in taking on that responsibility. I don’t know a thing about powering pillars or anything like that. But fighting, that’s something I can do. And I think I may have an idea on just how to gain access to her majesty.”

Before Abigail could respond with another snippy comment, Rinas lifted his hand to silence her opinion and let Kiran continue.

He breathed in and leaned a bit towards the table. “From everything I know about the queen, she rarely ever leaves her keep making the idea of even reaching her a problem. What is to be done about someone who is in perhaps the safest location in all of Liall? Well, that’s where a special someone I know comes in. If I were to let’s say, convince one of her most devoted knights to turn against her and aid in handing me over to her only to allow me to kill her, then that would solve that problem.”

“You would only be throwing your life away,” Frederek said with his hands clasped together on the table.

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“I may die trying such a ploy,” he said freely admitting to it, “but what other choice do we have? I’ve heard a lot of ideas about how to deal with the problem surrounding the pillar. What I haven’t heard is how exactly any of you plan on removing the queen from power and I believe I have a possible solution.”

“Is this something you would willingly do?” Rinas asked.

“Yes.” To avenge the person taken from me, I would do practically anything. She was not alive to tell him otherwise or ask him to move on. All he could do was what felt right to him and him alone. And this queen at least in his mind, did not deserve to keep ruling. She had to be dealt with so that justice may rule. “Her Majesty wants me dead. Why then, don’t we arrange for me to be given to her, only to strike her when she least expects it? The knight that you’re holding in captivity can be the key to arranging this.”

“Don’t make me laugh,” Abigail said. “You’d have us put our trust in one of the queen’s most devoted knights. I can’t think of a more foolish idea than what you’re proposing.”

Rinas eyed him. “Do you believe this knight would willingly forsake her oath and betray the queen to carry out such a task?”

“I won’t say that it’s guaranteed, but I’ve spoken to her and she doesn’t seem to view her majesty so favorably anymore. If I were to convince her, then this plan of mine can quite possibly work.”

“And if you get caught,” Zorge said interjecting, “then she’ll have a valuable asset to torture and extract information from. We cannot under good conscious allow for this to occur.”

“Such is life,” Kiran said. “There are no perfect plans. There are risks in all of the routes we choose to walk. Were I truly captured and failed to kill her, that would pose a problem for the coalition, but if I succeed, your plans to free this city and its people from her grasp will come to fruition.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this.” Abigail began to cross her arms. “I’m actually in agreement with Zorge. This is a foolish idea and I’m not interested in hearing another word from someone who shouldn’t even be here in attendance at this meeting.”

“You may leave Abigail,” Rinas said.

“What?”

“You may go for now,” he said gesturing towards the door.

Noreko lifted the barrier from the door allowing her to go. She stood up appearing somewhat surprised to be requested to leave. She left the room leaving the rest of them to continue this ongoing meeting.

Rinas appeared quite conflicted about things. The lines on his face burrowed deep on his more mature face and he had a lot of responsibility to lead this coalition in the right direction making things incredibly difficult for him. “I have great fears for where we might all be in the coming months. I see little other option than for us to be bold for now on. We’ve been fighting amongst the shadows for far too long and playing things safe to the point of not getting far in any of our endeavors. But now I see a path forward. It will require us all to take on immense risk and embrace the fact that we may fail, but we are sure to fail by not taking any action that might lead us to freedom. In the next few weeks and possibly months, I want us to begin preparations for seizing the central pillar. And as for you Kiran, I want you to work on this plan of yours to see whether it will work. If you can convince this knight and be completely confident that she will be willing to aid us in this, then I will allow you to take this action on our behalf.”

“Thank you,” Kiran said gladly taking on this responsibility.

The meeting concluded. The direction of the coalition became clear. Desperate times required desperate actions and the coalition was going to work towards a bold strategy to usher in a new era for Liall.

As for Kiran, he found himself stopped in the darkened hall of Yorais’s mansion. Night had settled outdoors leaving only the interior candlelight to keep her mansion from being entirely pitch black inside.

“May we share a word before you are to entirely leave?”

“Sure,” he said, “I forgot you wanted to speak to me personally after the meeting.”

He eyed Lar and gestured with his head to have her meet him at the entrance so he could speak with Yorais alone. After a few seconds, it was just him and the woman whose yellow eyes almost gave off the impression that they glowed.

“I must admit, I did not fully expect to learn that you originate from a time before the world itself became fractured. If I may ask, how exactly is it that you’re here?”

“You’re not the first to ask that question. I don’t know. I just know that I died, and woke up one day in a new body.”

“I had heard that you journeyed through the lands covered in the toxic fog finding that strange and amusing, but now to hear that you have died, and been presumably resurrected is admittedly quite the tale.”

As fascinated by it that she was, he was much more interested in his existence than anybody else. There were still so many questions he had to have answered that just were a big question mark for the time being.

“May I ask you a question?”

“Of course,” she said.

“You and Lar seemed to have been acting strangely towards one another earlier today.”

“Strangely in what way?”

He slightly shrugged his shoulders. “The body language you both had towards one another suggested as much. I figured you two might know each other from a previous time.”

Her calm expression wavered slightly before reforming itself. She let out a sigh and tapped her finger against her side. “You’re very perceptive Kiran. Truthfully speaking, yes, we do know each other prior to today.”

“So my suspicion was correct after all. Why the secrecy? I can only assume that neither of you are on good terms for whatever reason.”

“Well,” she said hesitating to speak further, “there’s admittedly a rather precarious history between us.”

“I see,” he said. He could get her to explain more of this previous relationship of theirs but he got the impression she didn’t want to expound on it.

Yorais began to pull some of her long white hair behind her ear. “Well Kiran, I believe I will leave you to it. You’ve had a long day I imagine. I do hope that this plan of yours will work as you suggest. It is a most risky maneuver but if it works, it may just finally end this turmoil for us once and for all.”

“Here’s to hoping for it,” he said preparing to leave.

“Oh and Kiran.”

He quickly turned around a few steps away. “Be safe out there along with that companion of yours.”

Lar spotted him as he neared the entrance. She sighed and gave him a slight punch on the shoulder. “What was that for?”

“I’m ready to get the heck out of here. Did you forget about my state of being?”

“No,” he said noticing the bags beneath her eyes. “I didn’t think this whole thing would take so long.”

“Yeah, well, let’s go so I can get my butt into bed and continue my recovery.”

A bed sure sounded nice. He had been laying in a bed for so long however, that he liked that he was able to spend the majority of the day out of one.

Before they made it out of the entrance, a special person came up from behind patting them both on the back at the same time. “Well, well, well,” Juna said. “Thought you’d leave without me, did ya?”

“Never would I think to do such a thing to you of all people in a million years,” he said with a smile.

The three of them promptly left Yorais’s mansion knowing that from here on out, things were going to progress towards great change within the city by the actions they were all to carry out within the coming days.