.
.
"You did WHAT?" Howard bellowed.
"I granted them amnesty. A brilliant tactician, this girl. It's almost a shame we're ending the war when we could be absorbing minds like theirs." Rutger quipped, gesturing with the flower in his hand towards the twins.
"Has your brain turned to mush?" Inquired the towering blond man, lacing his fingers back together and regaining control of his composure. "If word spreads that they get amnesty today they'll just come over here and start trouble on purpose so they can have it the day after, and the day after that."
"No they wouldn't." Lillian huffed. "You don't know them, they aren't bad people!"
Howard responded to Rutger as if Lillian hadn't spoken at all. "This will make us weaker, and is a serious insult to everyone of our dead!"
"I consider… every one of my son's deaths to be my own fault." Rutger said quietly. "If I had stopped this war, whatever point I had stopped it at, one more of my son's lives would have been saved. You see, Howard? We've inherited this problem, but we worked hard to make it our own. We don't have to accept the violence of the younger generation at face value."
Howard smiled sarcastically. "Yes, we do. We have to accept that they are going to keep trying to kill us. Peace goes both ways and nobody in that town wants peace, no matter what their age is. Kana's violation of our town's sovereignty proves that. He came here to draw blood. If he doesn't pay for it, they will be able to get away with anything here."
Rutger twirled the bud in his fingers before placing it carefully on the table. "There were people down there clapping just now who I daresay will disagree with you."
"Amnesty is exactly what you need. And what I've been trying to tell you is that Kana is the kind of person you want to have in your debt." Phillip stated calmly. "He's passionate, and won't be able to ignore it if his enemies are kind to him. If he's one of the most influential people they have in this conflict, like you say he is, you have to release him back in Bluebell so that he tells others about how his life was spared. In return for that, keep Lillian here, at my ranch."
Howard scoffed from behind his tightly laced hands that were propped in front of him on the table. The big man dominated the little table and looked around, towering over everyone else even while sitting. But for some odd reason, the white lace on the tablecloth suited him.
Phillip narrowed his eyes, expecting a rebuttal.
When Howard spoke next it wasn't directed at him. "Amnesty, really Rutger? You believe being the first town that plays nicely is going to be first to solve a generations-long feud?"
Rutger cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.
"And why not?" Phillip replied to him. "It's better than having another death- more blood on your hands. It may save your children from having blood on theirs. And in time the towns may even grow together-"
"No." Howard repeated, arms crossed now as if to restrain himself physically. "What we need is their land, not their people. Their people should be eradicated."
Phillip glanced over at his sister and saw the raw shock in it. She looked back and minutely shook her head. She's had it with him, he thought wryly. But that's how he is…
"Howard." Rutger admonished, looking about as menacing as a pork bun under a rounded hat.
Normally one to observe first, Rutger couldn't help remembering his sons in that moment. He had been so quick tempered then, when all he wanted was revenge on Ina and her father for what they'd done. The villagers stolen from their homes at night, the sacrifices, the embargo on the dairy trade, the fires. So much death, to the point that it seemed no one could stop it. Now that there had been years of a stalemate with only a few skirmishes showing the evidence of deeper wounds below, he hadn't been able to keep himself from the truth of what he had been doing for all those years.
Ina and Rutger, though they wanted peace (and he truly believed that even she, shrill and overbearing as she was, did want it) there was too much blood on their hands to ever be washed clean enough. They were born into this mess, all they knew now was how to stay alive despite it, not how to guarantee a safe life for anyone in the future.
But if in righteous anger they had made the grave mistake of teaching young innocents how to spill blood simply because they knew no other way…
He cleared his throat in slight embarrassment at the realization, interrupting Phillip and Howard from their back and forth bickering.
"You do not need to understand us- just obey!" Howard was bellowing. "We've been doing fine without your horrible ideas. My daughter is in no danger from the likes of Konohana!"
"Enough." Rutger said, his hand flat on the table in front of him. "That's quite far enough I believe."
Phillip leveled his gaze at the man who was easily three times his size. "And Cam? Is he safe from them? He may be a good person to his own, but he's not innocent. Even I can tell that he already carries a heavy conscience."
Howard looked away first, from embarrassment or disregard the young man couldn't tell.. "He's not my real child."
"What, so you don't need to protect him just the same?"
"Of course I do, that boy means the world to me!"
Rutger cleared his throat so loudly he started coughing, and the two stopped to look over. "Howard. I'd like some time with the twins now. Can you see yourself out?"
Howard's beady, mascara-bound eyes stared down with violence at the Mayor, looking mutinous. He rose, visibly shaking, and marched resolutely out the door without saying anything else.
Lillian let out a breath she had been holding for a very long time, but when Howard left a feeling of dread filled her. Her eyes hovered over the door that he slammed on the way out as if any moment it would melt with the heat of that man's fury. She shivered despite herself.
Rutger must have been used to the man, because he was casually continuing to speak.
"I think that, no I believe it. This is providence. Phillip, you and your sister may well have been sent to us for this reason."
The boy stood up stiffly, eyebrows raised as the immediate thought flew past him- there is no such thing. If providence existed then Mom and Dad would still be alive.
"Go with Kana, back to Konohana. And we will keep your sister here, and safe, as you request. You will be our ambassador, and she will be our spy."
Lillian blinked, just now zeroing in on the conversation. "What did you say?" She asked again.
The old man just winked at her. "At least for a little why, humor me." He said.
…
The door slammed open and Laney jumped a foot off the ground, the empty teacup and saucer in her hand clattering together.
Her father stomped in, looking eerily calm and she stood silent, watching him. The entire building rattled when his feet met the floorboards.
He was in a very bad mood.
She clutched the dishes to her chest as he passed by her without even a sidelong glance and marched with purpose towards the cellar door.
She felt the familiar flutter of panic and had an ominously solid idea of what was going to happen next. But not to her for once.
Should I follow him?
…
...
Author's Note- Good to see you all again! It seems that spring is the best season for me to pick up writing again, and I hope I can jump back in more regularly. Thank you so much for the reviews and answers to the question of the story's direction, it was great to get the feedback.
Originally I had planned to tell the whole story in one go, but as I grew more excited about the separated twins aspect of the early story, that started to BECOME this story. Once they were together again the entire plot direction had to change, and that has definitely held back a few updates, and I had to layout the conflict between towns anew, so that Phillip and Lillian could truly participate (as it is their tentative agreements with their towns to do so afterall). I almost feel as if I should have ended the story once Phillip and Lillian were reunited, then started the conflict as a new story to give it a clearer separation- but I guess we'll just have to call this part of it, 'chapter 2'.
I don't know how long the conflict will take or know how far this will go, only that it's likely to be as long as the original 30-some chapter were generally. I'm writing to satisfy my own curiosity and I don't think I can stop until I've figured out the major players in each town and shown you their side of it. Even if I scratch the surface for each one, there are a lot of players here!
So thanks to everyone who is still looking forward to this ride with me!
-The Frog