BETWEEN THREE ROGUES
By Eric 'Erico' Lawson
Thirty-Two: When The Walls Fell
The Shrine of Wave and Wind
Underneath Mount Kazai
Fina had known she was different all her life. The only other child she'd ever had in her life growing up had been Ramirez. The only Silvites besides them were the venerable elders, and Ramirez made for a poor representative sample. When Ramirez left for Arcadia on the mission to retrieve the Moon Crystals, Fina had buried herself in her studies, mastering not only silver magic as the sole standing priestess of the Silver Shrine, but other magics besides. She had inhaled the languages, written and spoken of the Old World, and studied engineering when she could get away with it. At night, when she went to bed, she would read stories by long-dead authors, literature lost to the world save in the databanks of the Silver Shrine. She liked adventure stories, but romance novels and even light erotica...those, she could never get enough of. Fina had known she was different, but she was 14 before she realized that she read as many stories of women falling in love with other women as she did men falling in love with women. It was another piece of the puzzle of her heart she filed away, never to forget.
The only expectation that the elders had ever had for her was for her to master the magics and the rituals that would make her a fully trained priestess. Everything else she did on her own because she was more than they expected her to be. Everything else she did to stave off the loneliness of being the only child, the only non-augmented Silvite still present in her home. All the other Elders were content to maintain the status quo. Fina had always wanted more. But then, she had known she was different. And perhaps the memory of her youth with Ramirez colored her actions as well.
She would have nobody call her useless ever again.
Yet for all of that, when the day came in her 17th year of life that the Elders asked her to journey to Arcadia and carry out the mission that should have been Ramirez's to fulfill, Fina was still woefully unprepared for the role that fell on her. If she hadn't met Vyse and Aika…
No. She could never finish that thought, not now. Fina didn't want to think about what her life would be without her lovers in it, holding her at night and forever by her side in the day. Without knowing who she was and knowing only that it was the right thing to do, they had charged into the heart of the enemy's domain to rescue her and their family and friends. There had been hard days at first until they found their balance, with Fina saving Aika from a gruesome demise.
They had done so much since then, yet with love, the kind of pure accepting love from both of them that she had dreamed of as a girl and never thought she would find, it no longer seemed impossible. There had only been one thing missing. The special handshake, the one she'd seen Vyse and Aika first do in front of her at the Temple of Pyrynn, had been territory she'd not crossed into.
They paused as they walked past the corpse of Kazai's hidden temple's guardian, a turtle whose strength had lay in its defenses, and with Enrique standing back, Vyse and Aika had turned to Fina after they all looked at the beautiful teardrop-shaped Blue Moon Crystal kept beneath Mount Kazai. They had turned to her, grinned, and asked her to join them.
She knew the movements of their handshake. She knew the pattern, a pattern that had only ever been practiced between two people. To have it go three ways, she wondered if it was possible. But their eyes had been so eager and earnest, and she'd wanted to share this triumphal gesture with them for so long that she tried regardless.
Fina shouldn't have worried. It came as easy as their love did, that 'Blue Rogue handshake.' She fit in between them as easy as breathing.
She took the Blue Moon Crystal into her hands and beamed through teary eyes as Aika and Vyse closed around her and the three hugged tightly in victory.
Fina had always known she was different, and she no longer felt like a woman out of place in the world. She was right where she belonged.
She was home.
185 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape
The Royal Palace, Yafutoma City
Yafutoma
They returned in triumph in the late afternoon, and the Emperor was so thrilled at their success that he ordered a feast for that night, and invited the crew of the Delphinus to attend. The expedition team of Vyse, Aika, Enrique and Fina herself had been surprised to find that Moegi had spent the majority of every day of their absence on board their ship, speaking and interacting with their crew. Having been kept on board and sitting idle in the harbor may have given them time to attend to the tasks of routine maintenance that the Delphinus needed after its trek across the Dark Rift, but after nearly a week of seeing an entire civilization dangling just out of reach, Fina could hardly blame them for all going a little stir crazy.
She still laughed as she remembered what Vyse had told them after strutting on board and speaking over the whole of the ship. "Well, it seems we're fast becoming this lot's favorite bunch. After digging up the Moon Crystal, we've been invited to a quality shindig. And I mean all of us. Secure your stations, report to Enrique for a rotating watch assignment so we don't get any curious wanderers sneaking on board. Everybody's going to get to enjoy this feast! You've earned it!"
As always, Vyse seemed to know exactly what to say. He was a leader, through and through.
The dinner itself was lavish, and she and Vyse and Aika and Enrique had seats along the left side of the table, while the Emperor's Chief Advisor and the other members of the nobility faced them along the start of the right. As for the rest of the crew, they were mostly arranged at separate tables, although Vyse had insisted on putting Marco up next to them. Why became apparent when drinks started to circulate through the room and Vyse quickly grabbed the small saucer of rice wine away from Marco before he could get a taste.
"When you're older." Vyse told the boy firmly, and Marco groaned.
"Vyse! Come on, just a sip? We drink smallbeer on the ship all the time!"
"We do, but that doesn't get you drunk, and it keeps you from getting sick." Vyse smirked at him. "You'll have to wait a while before I let you drink anything stronger. Good try, though."
"You're not my dad." Marco muttered mulishly, looking down at the table. Fina straightened out a little at that, wondering if Vyse would take offense to it. It was the kind of thing said to give offense, usually. Vyse just laughed it off and rubbed the top of Marco's head.
"No, but I am your captain, little man. And if that's not good enough, I'm pretty sure I've earned big brother status."
"What?" Marco stammered, blushing. "N - no, you haven't!"
"Oh, so Moegi was lying to us when she said you called Aika your big sister?"
"Y - Well, no, but…"
"What, so you're fine with Aika and Fina being your big sisters but I'm not good enough to be your big brother?" Vyse pouted, and Marco got even more flustered, finally scowling and looking away. Vyse laughed again and took his black captain's hat off, plunking it down on top of Marco's head. "Tell you what. You turn 15, I'll buy you your first drink and we'll sit out under the stars and enjoy it properly."
"Fine." Marco sighed, fidgeting with the hat until he could pull it off. "This doesn't fit me."
"Guess I'll take it back then." He did so amidst Aika's hearty cackle and Fina smiling behind her hand. The Silvite paused when she saw Princess Moegi do the same thing, albeit with a paper fan. It was good to know that she had a sense of humor underneath the formality that was expected from her here. Strangely, she kept eyeing Enrique and Vyse. Or rather, she kept eyeing Enrique, and kept looking at Vyse's hat.
A servant brought Marco some fruit juice in place of the rice wine he'd been given, and soon thereafter, the Emperor made a toast to their honored guests. Moegi prompted them into the ritual that went with it so they wouldn't embarrass themselves or offend their host, and to Fina's relief, the crew all followed Vyse's lead as they dipped their heads in the prescribed manner.
The food came out soon after, smelling wonderfully bright and savory and sweet and spicy. It was only then that Fina realized that they had been given chopsticks, and no other utensils to use. She at least knew of the concept behind them, even if the fare she'd been given in her youth didn't rely on them exclusively. Vyse stared at the sticks placed on the cloth napkin beside his plate for a long while before making an attempt at using them. Marco, the dear lovable child that he was, couldn't even be bothered to do that much. He took one look at the utensils and how the Yafutomans were using them, and then started spearing the items off of his plate, using them like a skewer. Enrique, perhaps because he knew more of the art of diplomacy than the rest due to his royal upbringing, did not act so hastily. He took his time, sipping delicately at his rice wine and his tea as he watched the others implement them, and only picked his up once he seemed able to make a proper go of it. While his technique was rudimentary, he nonetheless didn't make a fool of himself as Marco and many of the crew did; more than one crewmember tried them out and then settled on using their soup spoon for everything.
Among the 'Western' contingent at the table, only Aika used them flawlessly, her thumb and fingers gripping them effortlessly. The redhead dug into the spicy portions of fried and glazed poultry and beef with audible pleasure, using the still steaming bowl of white rice that had been put in front of her between bites to temper the burn. It went on for a good minute before everyone else around her started staring in disbelief, and she paused and looked back at them in confusion, swallowing before speaking. "What? Is something wrong?"
"How are you so good at that?" Vyse uttered. "We've never used anything like these utensil sticks before."
Aika blushed a little, averting her eyes. "I'm an engineer. Figuring out how things work is what I do, and these? Well, they're actually pretty useful. Once you know how to hold them."
"You put my efforts to shame, Lady Aika." Enrique praised her, and Fina couldn't help herself, leaning in and smirking.
"Aika was always good with her hands." Aika turned a shade redder at the praise and the implication behind it, remembering pleasurable evenings and mornings in Fina's company. Vyse coughed a little and then reached for his own cup of green tea to cover his own flushed face.
"So, it seems that our Western guests are not entirely barbaric." Minister Kangan Kurowei said, and Fina could hear the sneer that the man kept hidden underneath the surface. Something about the man who served as the Emperor's closest advisor grated on her nerves. "A few of you aren't quite so brainless in the use of chopsticks."
Fina stared the man down while Enrique, Vyse, and Aika all looked either to her or to Moegi for a translation. Moegi was just starting to provide one when Fina cut her off, speaking in Yafutoman as well in a pleasant tone and with a smile that was out of place. "Nor are we so brainless as thou must be, to insult the Emperor's honored guests at a dinner held to celebrate their triumph."
Moegi choked, staring at Fina incredulously, and the Silvite kept smiling, turning and bowing her head to the Emperor as Kangan fumed and his son looked ready to declare a blood feud. "Your majesty. Thine bountiful repast is truly a marvel to partake in. May the blessings of the Ancients fall on your line for your charity."
The Emperor blinked at the turnaround in her demeanor, and offered a polite smile and a much slighter nod of his own head in her direction. "Your words are ancient, but the mannerisms are intact. You do your party great credit, silver-garbed one."
Fina smiled even wider, then turned to her friends. "Diplomacy." She said simply, and went back to eating. There was a uneasy pause before the conversation got started back up again, and several minutes later as the next course was brought out, Fina caught Princess Moegi Tokugawa staring at Vyse's black tricorn hat yet again. That, she determined, was finally worth a question.
"Princess Moegi." She said, speaking in Mid-Ocean for the benefit of her party. The dark-haired royal of Yafutoma set her chopsticks down across the lip of her rice bowl and looked to Fina, inclining her head to let the Silvite know she could keep speaking. "I've noticed that you seem constantly drawn to Captain Vyse's hat. Is there something of peculiar interest about it?"
"It...is familiar." Moegi said, steadier in her words due to her time aboard the Delphinus while they were delving into the depths of Mount Kazai. "It is like hat from the old stories. Is like Daccat's hat."
Fina nodded, because there had to be a reason for her interest in it. The name Daqat had been bandied about by the Yafutomans in their presence, but never directly, always as an aside between themselves. None of the Yafutomans had spoken to them about that historical figure directly. Until now.
"He's a legend in Mid-Ocean." Vyse said. "The greatest air pirate who ever sailed the skies under all six moons of Arcadia, as the legend went."
Moegi's eyes brightened. "You know him?"
"We know of him." Vyse smiled. "He was admired and he was feared, and we discovered his hidden island." The Blue Rogue gestured between himself and Fina and Aika. "On top of everything else, he was also one hell of a joker. We went looking for his treasure, the riches of every kingdom. You know what we found?"
Fina looked around and noted that the room had fallen silent. Even those of the Yafutomans who didn't speak Mid-Ocean tradespeak fluently were leaning forward slightly, their black and almond eyes watching him sharply. The mention of Daccat's name had been enough to draw them in. Moegi, most of all. If her eyes went any wider, they were liable to pop out of her skull.
Vyse held up a finger. "One. Single. Gold. Coin. Just one coin with his emblem on both sides. An enormous treasure chest with one coin, and a worn letter in his own handwriting. The greatest treasure to Daccat was the open skies, comrades, and open-handed cooperation. Everything else was just details." The Blue Rogue laughed and shook his head, looking down at the table as he smiled in remembrance of it. "Dead for close to two centuries, and that old bastard taught us the most important lesson worth learning."
"More or less." Aika said, propping her elbow on the table and leaning on her hand to grin at him. "We might've added a thing or two since."
We certainly have, Fina thought. "Princess." She chimed in. "What tales of Daccat are spoken here in Yafutoma? In the west, many people do not even believe that he made it here, that his stories of a land under the Blue Moon were just lies he told to bolster his reputation."
Moegi shook her head. "No. He came. In the accounts, he kidnap- um, kidnapped Princess Kikue. He run off with her before her wedding, take feast, take her bride price. Kikue was never seen again. Daccat also, disappeared after." Moegi inclined her head towards Vyse's hat. "And in stories, he wears hat. Just like that one. Black and with three corners." She paused. "But blue or red on the tips."
"Huh." Vyse took it off and examined it. "Well. I'm doubtful that this is Daccat's hat. It was a gift from a boy we helped in Maramba. His family came from a long line of air pirates whose ancestor supposedly served with Daccat, but little Rupee Larso just wanted to make carpets with his mother. He's very good at it, too. There's a blue and silver diamond patterned carpet he made in my cabin that's just lovely. The hat had been in his family for a long time." He looked at it a moment longer, smiled, and plunked it back on his head. He made no mention of its power that Fina had felt when they first got it, of how Vyse felt stronger when he wore it. How Rupee had spoken of the 'power of the ancestors' that ran through it and how Fina suspected it grew in its spiritual potency a little more with every person that owned it going back for two centuries. If the stories of its provenance were true.
Just as well. Fina doubted that the Yafutomans cared much for ghost stories. She was glad that nobody had spoken of Bluheim yet, the ancient blue gigas that they had seen buried, melted and melded with the inner surface of Kazai's crater lake. She was glad that the Emperor had not suggested using the 'Maga Sphere' to reactivate it. The ship merchant had shaken his head and called it a 'monster buried by Kazai', as hopeful a clue that the truth of Bluheim and the Maga Sphere's real purpose had been lost to time. Fina preferred that thought, and didn't dare ask any of the Yafutoman authorities about it. It was better for the Gigas to lie forgotten and buried.
Still...the way that one merchant had spoken of how Yafutoma is protected by the divine winds had made her shiver. It sounded too terribly close to Bluheim's true power. From the perspective of someone who didn't understand that power's true source.
She kept her peace as Moegi translated their conversation to her father and thus, to everyone else at the table. The Emperor nodded solemnly, speaking back, and Moegi translated for the others while Fina managed it in her head.
"So, Daccat was a thief all over the world, not just here in Yafutoma. Was he ever brought to justice?"
Vyse listened to Moegi's translation and shook his head. "No. As the stories go, after he'd had his fill of adventure, his crew scattered to the winds with their shares of his plunder, starting enterprises of their own. Daccat took his two ships, the Salamander and the Scorpion and disappeared into the Frontier Lands north of Nasrad, at the northern edge of the world. People talked about him afterwards, but there was never anything definite. It's all just gossip and hearsay these days now, 'my great-great-great grandfather saw Daccat going through the Nasultan's Great Market when he was a boy' and other stories like it. He just disappeared. But now we know where; he must have spent his last years and all the rest of his treasure making that false tomb of his, all to set up that last joke and bit of wisdom from the grave." Vyse shrugged. "We must seem an odd people to you, Emperor Tokugawa. Daccat was feared in his time, but he is revered by many these days, especially in the face of Valua's unfeeling aggression. He was a pirate and a thief, and according to the stories, he was ruthless to his enemies. But he also never put a town to the torch, or killed an innocent soul. He would steal from merchants but always make sure they made it back safely to harbor, if only to spread the stories of his successes."
Moegi started to translate it back, but somewhere in the middle of it, her voice got thick and she swallowed, unable to go on. Fina finished the rest, trying not to make it sound too terribly arcane to their ears.
The Emperor listened patiently, but Minister Kangan's scowl became even more legendary as the Western opinion of the hated thief Daccat was laid bare.
"You dare revere such an honorless thief?" He snapped back, and Fina narrowed her eyes. She wanted to snap back at him, but instead translated it for the others. As she expected, Vyse's eyes burned at the jibe.
"Thieves can have honor. Air pirates can have more honor than an empire." He said, each word carefully chosen.
"More honor than Valua has under my mother and the Admiralty." Enrique added darkly.
"We are Blue Rogues." Vyse explained, squeezing his hands into fists. "We live by a Code. We are not Black Pirates who attack indiscriminately and go after the weak and the helpless. We're Blue Rogues because 20 years ago, my father was told to burn a village to the ground in cannonfire and he said no." He stared across the table at Kangan, his brown eyes gone flinty and full of thunder. "He, and the others who joined under his banner had two choices; capitulate to tyranny and live a worthless life spent in fear, cowering in chains of the mind and of steel, or risk everything to stand against it and say NO. We are Blue Rogues, Minister Kurowei, and we revere Daccat for his bravery, not his plunder. We are Blue Rogues, and we Fly Free."
There was silence for exactly half a second after Moegi translated Vyse's message back to Kangan and everyone else in the room, and then Fina let out a yelp as a powerful roar shattered the calm of their meal. It began with Marco jerking up to his feet, his freckled face red with anger and his green scarf undone around his neck. It didn't end there. Each and every member of the crew aside from Enrique, herself, Aika and Vyse took their cue from that boy and bellowed in perfect cadence. "Blue Rogues Fly Free!"
Everyone in the room that hadn't spoken, Vyse included, was startled at that announcement. Kangan was stunned. Muraji looked terrified, and even flinched away. The Emperor was still as a statue, but his old eyes were wide and glinting as he re-evaluated Vyse and his other honored guests.
Vyse was the first to snap out of it, and he did so with a wide grin full of pride and admiration. "Well said." He congratulated them all, ruffling the top of Marco's head a second time, and for once, Marco didn't shy away from the tender gesture. "Well said."
Fina smiled as Vyse congratulated the youngest of the crew, pausing only when she noticed how Moegi's ordinarily calm face had turned sorrowful...And saw that Enrique had seen the same thing.
Later that Evening
"So, Enrique." Aika began conversationally, a smile in her voice. Fina sighed inwardly and watched Vyse straighten up and immediately become suspicious. They were walking around the outer gardens within the walls that surrounded the Royal Palace and its adjacent buildings, engaging in some light exercise after their dinner. Perhaps trying to sober up a little as well. Fina definitely felt floaty after all the saucers of rice wine she'd had before Vyse had swiped it away and remarking that he was 'cutting her off.' The rest of the crew would be returning to the ship, but the Emperor had been kind enough to put the four of them up in a small cottage for visiting dignitaries by the northern side of the interior wall. "How do you think dinner went? Are we still their favorite Westerners or did we end up wrecking everything?"
Enrique chuffed and stopped by the edge of the water, staring at the swans idling out on the surface of the pond. "Considering their obvious dislike of Daccat, I imagine that we were going to suffer some hurt feelings regardless. Still, it could have gone worse." The blonde-haired prince in exile looked over to Fina and smiled. "You seem to have a gift for smoothing ruffled feathers, Lady Fina."
"When it is called for. And other times, the feathers just need ruffling." Fina replied, winking at him. She frowned after, unable to keep her mind off of what worried her the most. "But I wish that the Emperor had let us keep the Blue Moon Crystal. It's why we came here."
"It is a national treasure to them." Enrique pointed out. "It is understandable that the Emperor would be loathe to part with it. Though, I know that answer does not satisfy."
"It doesn't." Fina said. "Enrique, we've told you of what we've been through, but you weren't there. Two times now, two times out of two, someone else has taken the Moon Crystals and then betrayed us and themselves. The first was Belleza in disguise, who wanted to 'hold it' right before her troopers ambushed us. The second time, the High Priest Isapa knew where it was all along, sent us on a meaningless scavenger hunt, and took it himself so the king could summon Grendel. Both times, we barely survived. The second time, other people got hurt in the process, and the jungle was torn up from the fighting."
"Fina." Aika uttered, worry in her eyes as she stepped over and took the Silvite's hand. "It's all right. It'll be all right."
"No, it won't be!" Fina insisted, the worry she'd been holding onto all day finally bubbling out of her. The self-control ruined by all the rice wine they'd been given at dinner finally broke, and Aika pulled her in, wrapping her in a tight hug that pressed their bosoms together and made her ribs creak. Fina struggled for all of two seconds before she gave in and just let Aika hold her. "Every time. Every time." She repeated numbly.
Aika sighed and loosened her arms, pulling back far enough that she could kiss her nose and then her lips with delicate pecks. "Do you really think that the Emperor is going to fly up to Mount Kazai and wake that thing up? Isapa and King Ixa'taka did it out of desperation. Belleza was just a bitch who didn't want to kill us herself and felt like making a statement. Who does the Emperor have to fear?"
"I know. I know, Aika, but I'm still worried." Fina confessed to her lover. She searched the other woman's soft brown eyes, the fire in them banked to low and comforting embers. "Maybe nothing will happen and we'll get lucky for once. But something could happen. And Bluheim wasn't like Recumen or Grendel. Bluheim could fly."
Vyse was behind her, embracing her the moment after she uttered that horrible thought. "It's not going to happen." He said steadily, kissing the side of her cheek and setting his chin on her shoulder. Fina's eyes fluttered shut. She was being held by Vyse and Aika. She was safe here. She was home here. "And even if it did, you and Aika have been working on the Moonstone Cannon. It's more powerful, more focused than it was when we blew a hole in the Grand Fortress. Push comes to shove, we'll fight it. We've fought Gigas before."
"We could never put a dent in them before." Fina reminded him weakly, and felt herself tremble. They might be able to now, she knew that, but she was afraid to put it to the test. The Gigas were the living weapons of the Old World, beasts so terrible that the Rains of Destruction had fallen to punish their makers for their hubris. If the Delphinus was a ship strong enough to kill a Gigas, would that not also be cause for the Moons to exact their dreadful punishment again?
She heard the footsteps of Enrique nearby, hovering close but not willing to draw next to her, to them. "Does the Emperor seem the sort to risk his destruction in such an act of foolishness, Lady Fina?" The exiled prince asked her. Fina mutely shook her head. "Then allay your fears. You are not on this quest alone. You have your - your loves with you. And you have me. Your 'Uncle Ilchymis' and everyone else on board the crew as well."
"We're here, Princess." Aika insisted, kissing her lips again. Harder than before, though still just as brief. "Please. Please, calm down. Open your eyes. Breathe." Fina did so, gasping and feeling her lungs burning as her eyes shot open. She knew this feeling. It was a panic attack, and there were traces of silver light gleaming all around them.
She'd lost control of her magic, and it had blossomed out of her, fluxing wildly against an unseen and unreal threat.
There were tears in Aika's eyes as the redhead looked at her. "It'll be okay." Aika whispered to her, and kissed her again. This time, Fina finally returned it. "It'll be okay."
"Let go, baby." Vyse encouraged her, strong where Fina was shivering and Aika was fearful. Strong because he needed to be, strong where she was weak, where Aika struggled.
There was always one of them able to stand and hold the others up, and Fina sobbed and crumpled her face into Aika's chest. She let go of her magic, let go of her fears, and let them hold her tight.
"My heart." Fina whispered, when she could speak again, drawing in the smell and the feel of Aika and Vyse around her. Aika raised her head up by the chin and kissed the tears away from her face. "My dear heart." The Silvite repeated, a prayer to her fire-haired lover, and reached behind her, holding Vyse's head to her shoulder. "My Pirate."
"Our Princess." Aika got out, smiling through her own tears. "You okay?" Fina nodded her head, and Enrique made a noise that made them all turn to look at the Valuan royal.
He watched from an arm's length away, something soft and understanding and longing in his eyes. "I see it now." He confessed. "I - what you three have, it's…"
"Saucy?" Aika suggested.
"Beautiful?" Fina offered.
Enrique shook his head. "It's perfect." Fina blinked as he shook his head and turned away. She realized what his longing was. It wasn't attraction to any of them, but a softer jealousy for the bond that they had, the trust and the love between them.
Vyse and Aika were silent, and Fina didn't quite know what to say herself, and so said nothing. In the silence that followed, their ears all had them turning in the same direction to a distant disturbance by the entrance to their guest house.
It sounded like an argument.
It was an argument, one that was between the Princess Moegi and Muraji Kurowei, the Chief Advisor's son. The four of them were stealthy enough in their approach that Fina was able to overhear it while everyone else settled for seeing how Moegi flinched and tried to look away while Muraji leered and boasted that she would soon be his wife and that he and his father would rule. Fina overheard the response, when Moegi snapped back at him that he would never rule so long as Daigo was alive.
The Silvite passed that along to the others, or started to, when Muraji's hand snapped out and clamped down around Moegi's wrist, tugging her closer as she yelped in pain. She struggled against him as he leaned in to kiss her possessively, trying to shove him back, and then Muraji slapped her.
They all moved faster at that, but the speed of Fina and Aika and Vyse was nothing compared to how Enrique blazed across the courtyard, rushing in and tearing Muraji's hand off of her arm before he decked the pompous little bastard hard enough to knock him to the ground and send his tall black hat flying a full body length away from him.
Fina and her lovers caught up to them in time to see Enrique stand between the gaping Moegi and the stunned and cowering Muraji. There was rage burning in the prince's eyes, and he had a hand resting on the hilt of his sword
"You know, for as much as your people claim to love honor, you certainly don't show it." Enrique snarled at the man. "Vyse has the Code of the Blue Rogues, but long before I took the Oath, I pledged to live chivalrously. For what you just did, I should strike you down or challenge you to a duel. A real man never strikes a defenseless woman."
Daigo, frantic, yelled back at him even as he scooted away. "She is to be my wife, you Western interloper!" Fina bit her lip and looked to Moegi, whose face was ashen, and translated it.
Aika gasped, Vyse growled a little, and Enrique bared his teeth. "She isn't your wife yet." The prince snapped, and drew two inches of his blade out of its scabbard. "Leave. Now."
Translated or not, the intent of the message was clear enough and Muraji scrambled to run away, grabbing for his hat as he did so. He shouted at them as he did so.
"Your Western friends can't protect you, Moegi! The prince is exiled, you are all alone! I won't forget this insult!"
Fina and Aika were at Moegi's side in an instant, while Vyse and Enrique stood vigil side by side until Muraji had run out of view. Then Enrique exhaled, slammed his rapier back into its scabbard, and turned to Moegi. His blue eyes were full of his concern for her.
"Are you all right, your highness?" Enrique asked her gently. She wasn't, they all knew it, and Fina was relieved when Enrique took the initiative. "Please. Come inside. Aika, Fina, can you…"
"On it." Aika nodded, looking over to the other man in their party. "Vyse? Start some tea."
"Please, you do not have to…" Moegi started, shaking her head delicately back and forth. She stopped and let her eyes go wide when Enrique's fingertips traced the side of her face, the bruise where Muraji had slapped her.
"Please. Let us help you." He begged her. She stared at him, and kept staring until Vyse coughed lightly, then finally came around and allowed Fina and Aika to walk her in.
Five minutes later, the bruise was gone, healed up by a careful application of green healing magic by Aika while Fina had seen to mending her voluminous outer garments. In a luxurious living room with ornate wooden furniture and decorations, Fina sat the still reeling princess between herself and Aika on the largest frameless mattress, while Enrique and Vyse brought a pair of chairs to sit facing them. Mugs of steaming tea were held by everyone, a comfort and a curtain rolled into one. Moegi gripped her tea in both hands and kept her eyes glued to the floor.
"I'm sorry." Moegi apologized to them. "I don't...um. Didn't. Mean to put you in that position."
"I could hardly stand by and let that miserable cur strike you with impunity." Enrique said earnestly. "My own standards of conduct prohibit it." Enrique made a self-effacing smirk and looked down at his mug of green tea. "Not that many people follow the code of chivalry anymore. Not in the Empire." Moegi frowned and made to speak, and he quickly corrected himself. "The Valuan Empire. Not yours, milady."
Moegi blinked a few times, looked away from him. "Not many here, also."
"Does that happen often?" Aika asked the princess bluntly. "That sonofabitch popping you a fresh one?"
Moegi winced. "No. He does not hit before. Did not."
Fina frowned at the precision in those words. "Because he didn't have to. Did he." Moegi's head shot up and she stared at Fina. The Silvite found apology an easy thing to emote. "How long has your marriage to Minister Kurowei's son been arranged?"
"After…" Moegi started, then bit her lip and raised her cup of tea, taking a suspiciously long drink. Fina glanced to Enrique and to Vyse and Aika with quick turns of her eyes, never moving her neck, and she saw that they all had the same look of gentle understanding. Vyse nodded at her.
So. They were leaving it to her then. Fina found she was okay with it. She took strength in that Vyse and Aika both felt her capable of handling the talk with the right amount of delicacy, that they, and to some degree Enrique, trusted her with it.
She was not useless, but when she looked at Moegi, there were so many cues in how the slightly older girl sat and held her teamug and smiled a too distant smile that reminded Fina of how she had once been.
"You are not useless." Fina started out, earning another confused and startled gaze from the Yafutoman royal. Fina kept her eyes locked on Moegi's, not blinking, denying the other girl the chance to look away. She kept her pinned in place with her stare. "I know what it looks like and how it feels to be beaten down by circumstances. I was there myself once. Yafutoma is a patriarchal society, isn't it? You don't have much in the way of responsibilities. Being our official translator was just fortunate circumstance, wasn't it?"
Moegi nibbled at her lip. "Why study Western ways?" She countered. "All said, pointless. Useless. But I studied. Was different. Was something that was mine. Mine and…" The small spark of light in her eyes dimmed, and she finally closed her eyes. Not in shame.
Because whatever was there was too painful. Yet Fina knew she had to force it.
"Who is the prince Muraji yelled about?" Fina asked her gently. "And why is he exiled?"
"I cannot." Moegi choked out. "We cannot talk of him. It is forbidden."
"Forbidden by who?" Fina pressed. Moegi's hands gripped her teamug so tightly that it almost masked how they were shaking. Almost. It was enough of a giveaway for Fina to connect the missing dots. "Your father forbade it."
The sick and cracked little laugh Moegi let out afterwards was a dead giveaway. She set her mug of tea down and shook her head again.
"You don't have to say anything." Fina told her gently. "You don't have to do anything."
"Muraji will be my husband." Moegi got out thickly. "I will not rule. My son must."
"What if you don't have a son, though?" Aika questioned her. "Why do you have to marry that rotten bastard who hits you when you seem perfectly capable of ruling yourself?!"
Enrique came up to his feet suddenly, stiff as a rail. "Because you have no choice. Or rather, your father doesn't." The exiled prince said, the color draining out of him. "How much power does Minister Kurowei have over him?"
Moegi stared at Enrique, her breathing becoming labored. It was another reaction that Fina knew all too well, a panic attack brought on when somebody had driven too close to the truth. She jerked up to her feet, and Enrique quickly held out a hand to stabilize her when she stumbled. "No, you don't - you don't have to answer that. I'm sorry." He quickly apologized.
Fina felt the moment that Moegi broke, because she crumbled into Enrique's arms and sobbed once. Just once, a slight little hiccup filled with every broken shard of glass inside of her before she swallowed it back, went still, and rose back up to her feet.
"You left." Moegi said to Enrique through dull words and duller eyes. "I cannot. There is no one else left." She gave him another sad and broken smile. "Kikue had brothers. Sisters. I am only me."
She stepped back and offered a gentle bow, then turned for the door. Enrique's hand fell on her elbow, and she stilled.
"Let me escort you back. Please, your highness."
Fina rose as well, the grim conversation having restored her sobriety. "We both will, Princess Moegi." Enrique side-eyed her and Fina shrugged. "Courtly rules, correct? Don't you require an escort?"
"A chaperone." The corner of Enrique's mouth quirked up. "Close. But yes. It would be more proper if she was not alone with a man that she isn't…"
That she isn't promised to, Fina finished the sentence in her mind. Moegi seemed like she would protest it further, but the girl had run out of steam and any fight she had in her was gone. She nodded her head once in response. So while Vyse and Aika cleaned up and got things ready for bed, Fina and Enrique took Princess Moegi back to the royal palace, escorting her to the door of her private chambers. Of Muraji, whom Enrique had been so worried about running into a second time, there was no sign. Moegi turned, her face back to its mask of a placid smile, and bowed to them both for their time before disappearing inside. Their walk back to the cottage at the northern edge of the compound was quiet until they were clear of the royal palace. Only then did Enrique broach the companionable silence between them.
"How can she stand it?" He asked, miserable and bitter. "We could help her!"
"And what would that prove?" Fina asked him. "She was warning us not to interfere."
Enrique thought about it. "Because they have the Blue Moon Crystal still. And if we did something rash, we...We'd never get it from them." He sighed. "Damnit."
An inkling of an idea, something that Fina had been idling away with all through the banquet clicked into place at how frustrated he seemed.
"You like her, don't you?"
"Does it matter?" Enrique countered. "She's engaged. She's engaged and there's no way out of it for her. That Advisor must have more power than it seemed at first glance, if she isn't arguing against the arrangement." Fina kept walking and kept looking at him, patient as she could be when it was for something important. Enrique struggled and finally broke. "Fine. Yes, Fina. I admire her." He took off his beret and ran a hand through his short mop of blond hair with another ragged sigh. "I want to take her away from this. I don't know how she can stand it. I don't know how she hasn't broken under the weight of it. Why hasn't she left? Why does she stay?"
"Because there is no alternative for her." Fina told him. "You had one. She didn't."
"I had an al…" Enrique started, then snapped his jaw shut. "I had you." Fina nodded. "And she doesn't have us?"
"If she wanted to burn every bridge? Yes." Fina agreed. "But she was telling you something else. If you were listening."
"I was listening!" Enrique sputtered. "She didn't want us risking our status over her! But I don't understand why she puts up with all of this! Even if she doesn't have us, what is keeping her here?"
Fina wondered how Enrique could be so skilled of a fighter, a growing presence in statecraft in his own right, and not see the subtext in Moegi's body language and words. Perhaps it was because he was a man and didn't know how to read women. No. No, that wasn't it.
"She's not like you." Fina explained. "You look at her and you think her circumstances and yours are the same. They aren't." Fina could see it so clearly, because for all that Moegi was a princess and Vyse and Aika called Fina their Princess, it wasn't titles that defined them. It was their role.
They walked on the bridge that crossed over the pond which led to the patch of land that their cottage was on. Enrique caught Fina's hand and stopped her at the midway point, and the Silvite turned and looked up at him. He was waiting for the rest of the explanation.
"You saw nothing in Valua worth preserving or saving from the inside. You came with us because the only way to restore your homeland is through stopping the Admiralty and destroying the Armada, and we were the only viable solution. But to Moegi, who is the sole descendant of the royal line because of an exiled prince whom I suspect is this Daigo she doesn't speak of, Yafutoma isn't broken. To their culture, to their experience, all is exactly as it should be. A role that wasn't meant to be hers has been placed on her shoulders. She is suffering through it as well as she can, for the love of her homeland and her people. She is almost breaking under that burden, but for her people, she endures. As much as she wants to run away from her responsibilities, she stays and she endures. It took strength for you to walk away, Enrique. It's taking so much more strength for her to stay."
Enrique absorbed that information with the growing realization and awe of someone who was seeing something so far out of their experience that they'd never considered it before.
"I didn't know." He confessed. "I'm sorry, Fina."
"Why are you sorry for me?" She questioned him. "I'm not the one being forced to marry someone I love to keep my homeland from falling apart."
"No. You aren't." Enrique admitted. "But this quest to retrieve the Moon Crystals wasn't your burden to bear either. Was it?" Fina blinked, wondering if she had ever confessed that truth to him. Enrique didn't seem too worked over by it. "No. Your lovers didn't tell me. But it's the only thing that makes sense. He's a Silvite as well, he must be. How else did the Armada know how to find you? How else did they know about these Moon Crystals? Don't carry that burden alone. You have Vyse and Aika helping you. And you have me. You have all of us." He looked suitably chastened, fixing his hat again and looking away in shame. "I wish we could save her, though."
"She told us not to. You can't save everyone, Enrique."
"That doesn't mean we stop trying." Enrique insisted, finding a hint of his old stubbornness again. "We never stop trying. Blue Rogues don't leave anyone behind, isn't that the line?"
Fina slipped her arm around his and pulled him towards the guest house, smiling thinly. "Never change, Enrique. You are a good man, and a better prince than Valua realizes."
He snorted. "I left. I'm no prince, not any longer."
Fina could have argued that point, but she let it lie. She was full, she was sleepy, and she desperately needed her partners holding her close if she was to have a peaceful evening. Something must have shown on her face, because Enrique let out another sigh.
"Please don't partake in any horizontal refreshments while I'm in the same cottage as you three." She hadn't intended to, but thinking about it ended up making Fina blush and giggle anyways. Enrique needn't have worried. When they returned, Fina got changed for bed and easily slipped into the two thin mattresses that Aika and Vyse had shoved together for the three of them, finding a place with Aika resting in the middle. They were drowsy in minutes, and she fell asleep listening to the redhead's heartbeat thrumming against her ear.
186 Days After the (First) Grand Fortress Escape
Morning
Their good night's rest met a quick end early the next morning while they were having breakfast. Moegi came charging into the guest house with terrified eyes and told them that more foreign ships, Western ships had just flown in. A full dozen and a half all said, made of iron. Fina's heart lurched in her chest and she couldn't speak as Vyse and Enrique had looked to one another in some silent message between them and lunged out of their chairs, rice and grilled fish and fruit bowls ignored as they ran for the rest of their gear and their weapons. In a rush that would have made any military instructor proud, armor and outer clothes were thrown on, swords were strapped to their belts, and Aika strapped the satchel containing the two precious Moon Crystals that they had fought so hard for over her shoulder.
As they cleared the inner walls of the royal palace, Fina was screaming in her head that it was all happening again. Even before they cleared the outer walls of Yafutoma City that separated the multi-leveled, many-island settlement from its harbor, she knew who had come. She didn't know how but she knew who.
They passed through the walls and stared into the face of eighteen ships of the Valuan Armada, all surrounding the harbor with their guns pointed at the city, and more pointed at the Delphinus.
"Damn! They've got the whole city surrounded!" Vyse snarled, looking towards their ship with worry clashing against his anger. "The Delphinus! Our crew!" They watched in horror as the guns, none of them pointed in a useful direction with the Armada parked off of the stern, remained silent. They watched as three smaller transport boats from the Valuan frigates and battleships came flying in towards the mighty blue ship.
"They're going to board it." Aika sounded dully.
"Of course we're going to board it. It's our ship." A calm and amused feminine voice called down from the bottom of the steps. The four of them turned to the source and recognized the presence of Admiral Belleza, standing triumphant in her red uniform with one arm folded over the other as she smiled at them. "That it was stolen by a band of rebel air pirates who kidnapped the crown prince as well does not suddenly mean that it is yours." She glanced off to the side. "A new coat of paint or no."
Fina had only half her attention focused on Belleza. The rest of it, after catching sight of the other Valuan admiral who had come ashore with Belleza, had been fixed directly on Aika. He wore a blue vest and kept his brown hair slicked back in an impressive pompadour, and the front of his trousers bore a comically large lock. He'd seemed smug until he saw Aika, and then his face had gone pale. Aika's posture and her face was a rictus of rage. Enrique and Vyse weren't faring much better. Fina didn't understand why until Enrique spoke.
"Admiral Vigoro. You're alive. How unfortunate." Enrique had always been polite or filled with noble vengeance. The seething politeness he used then felt so out of place.
Fina sucked in a breath of air and whirled back around, baring her teeth. Vigoro.
Vigoro. The miserable son of a bitch who had tried to rape Aika. She'd burned him horribly for attempting it after throwing off his mind control.
Aika's aura flared out brightly, terrible flames were summoned up in her hands in an instant. She was more than willing to finish the job, and Fina knew that she would hold him down herself to help Aika do it. Vyse looked like he wanted to do so much worse to the man.
The united front discomfited Belleza and the troopers standing behind the admirals, but the sight of Aika powering up and making the air distort around her from the heat was enough to make Vigoro yelp and flinch away, stepping back behind Belleza.
"So, Vigoro." Vyse drawled, his hands drifting lazily to his swords. "How's your bait and tackle these days?"
Shaking and now embarrassed at his reaction, Vigoro straightened up and scowled back at the Blue Rogue. Belleza interceded, holding an arm out to the side. "Please, there's no need for these posturing displays." She tutted. "Admiral Vigoro was severely injured during your escape, Captain Vyse." The red-haired woman paused. "I believe that, in spite of medical treatment, he was rendered sterile. And impotent."
"Good." Aika hissed, powering down a little, but still keeping the fire in her hands. For a moment, Fina thought she saw a trace of sympathy in the older woman's eyes, but it was quickly washed away for formality when the armor of the troopers behind them clanked while they shifted their weight.
She bowed at them, turning her eyes downward as she did, and rose looking at Enrique. "Prince Enrique du Valua. It is good to see you hale and hearty. Your mother feared that these pirates were abusing you."
Enrique breathed. "I left, Admiral Belleza. Why do you still call me Prince when I am surely labeled a traitor now?"
"Just because you are misguided, my prince, does not diminish your role or the responsibilities you were born to." Belleza told him.
"How did you even get here?" Vyse demanded. "You sure as hell didn't come through the Dark Rift. That was Gregorio's Fleet we tussled with by Esperanza."
Belleza smiled. "Hello again, handsome. You're still easy on the eyes." Fina's eye twitched and she pulled up closer to Vyse, noting that Aika did the same. Their shift didn't go unnoticed by Belleza, who smiled a little wider before she tempered her expression again. "True. Our task force had a different objective in coming here than chasing you down. We got here by blowing a hole through the Great Stone Reef at the edge of Ixa'taka's western airspace. A little tip provided by Lord Galcian's young protege. I'm rather surprised that it panned out."
One hit after another, that was what this was. Endless agony. Ramirez.
Ramirez had told the Valuans how to come here. He'd told them how to reach the lands under the Blue Moon in the most direct and violent way possible.
Aika went to draw her boomerang, but Vyse cut her off. "Aika. Don't." He warned her evenly.
"But Vyse, she…!"
"We're surrounded. The harbor is blockaded and…" Vyse turned to look back at the Delphinus, closing his eyes when he saw Valuan troopers pull the foredeck hatch open and go running inside. "If you hurt my people, Belleza…"
"They will be arrested and processed under the rules of Valuan Maritime Law." Belleza told him. Vyse's jaw ticked, and Enrique hissed at her.
"You will treat them with respect. Vyse and the crew of the Delphinus are here and are protected by the sovereign rule of the Emperor of this land, who has declared us all honored guests."
Belleza blinked at his assertion, taken aback for a second or two before she recovered and smirked. "I see. Then it is good that we have come as representatives of the Valuan Empire. The same protections apply to us also." She looked over her shoulder briefly before amending, "I will make sure that my fellow admiral here doesn't go wandering off and keeps his hands to himself."
"I spared your life." Vyse spat the words out at her, barely holding himself back. Enrique put a hand to his shoulder, anchoring him from lunging ahead like the strain in his arms and his shoulders said he wanted to.
"Yes. You did." Belleza agreed, blowing Vyse a kiss and then grabbing Vigoro by the front of his uniform, dragging him behind her. "If you'll excuse us, we have an audience with the Emperor to see to."
The four parted as the two admirals walked by, and there was a moment of high tension when Vigoro's eyes slid over to Aika.
The red-haired Chief Engineer of the Delphinus had never looked so cold and emotionless as she did looking back at him, and it made Fina shiver.
"You ever show your face around me again, Admiral, and I'll fucking finish what I started." Aika promised him darkly. Vigoro somehow found a paler shade of white to turn, and he quickly scrambled away. The rest of the Valuan soldiers followed, ignoring the four of them completely.
"What do we do?" Fina whispered, when they stood alone in the harbor. Unable to return to their ship, unable to rescue their friends and comrades. Unable to take the fight to Valua, who had checkmated every avenue of escape and stood with guns pointed at the city.
"Interfering with an official delegation would not go well for us." Enrique cautioned them all bitterly. "There is naught we can do but wait and see how it all shakes out. We should return to - to our guest quarters. They're going to retake the ship, but we could at least beg the aid of the Emperor to have our crew retur…" Enrique broke off, covering his mouth when he found he couldn't finish the sentence. Angry, frustrated tears filled his eyes. As if Valua would allow clemency for declared Blue Rogues.
He couldn't finish the sentence because he knew it was a lie.
They all knew it was.
Royal Guest House
The Royal Palace
The feeling of waiting and being trapped and not knowing how all of their friends and crewmates aboard the Delphinus were being treated only ratcheted up the nausea Fina felt on top of yesterday's disappointments and the morning's horrors. She could feel the jitters brought on by the loss of her usual morning coffee as well, something that the most potent Yafutoman black tea didn't come close to matching for caffeine content. Vyse kept running a small whetstone over his cutlasses and glancing at the door, Aika paced the room like a feral cat, her shoulders bunched up and her twin pigtails jutting out as straight as a tabby's tail would be. Enrique was leaned up against the wall with a clear sight line to the door of their cottage, the calmest of them all on the surface just in how he held himself and how he didn't reach for a weapon.
Fina knew his tells, though. For Enrique, who had grown up in a world where poise and posture were necessary to survive the intrigues of a royal Court, you didn't watch his stance. He had taken his lessons in swordfighting and applied it too well to his daily life. He always looked relaxed on the surface, because he needed to be relaxed to maintain his reaction time and his awareness. For Enrique, the best measure of his true feelings were his eyes. And they were blazing.
"Relax, Aika." Enrique told the still pacing redhead. "It's only been half an hour since they were formally announced to the court."
"Oh, so we have to wait for a couple of hours before Admiral McRapey and that smug bitch get around to reminding the Emperor that they've got an entire flotilla of guns pointed at his home and that they aren't making requests but are issuing demands?!" Aika snapped at him. She had one hand on her satchel, holding it and the two Moon Crystals within protectively close to her waist.
"Aika." Vyse said wearily. He sheathed his off-hand cutlass and stowed the whetstone, then walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. "We couldn't have known. We couldn't have known that they'd be able to even get here."
I should have expected it, Fina told herself bitterly. Because they had Ramirez. Damn him, what was he thinking? Why was he working with the very people that he, and she, had been tasked to stop in their ambitions? They were questions she had no answers for, because Ramirez had never given her one. He didn't smile, or greet her warmly. It had been like he was an entirely different person. Or maybe he'd always been like that. Maybe she had just never seen it, blinded by fond childhood memories of having just one other person even close to her age to play with.
Enrique pushed himself off of the wall, blinking his eyes rapidly. "Something's happening." He said, turning towards the door and setting a hand on his blade. Fina narrowed her eyes and summoned up Cupil, who took the form of a hovering blade close to her hand, and Vyse and Aika readied their weapons as well. Now that she was listening for it, Fina could hear the sound of racing footsteps. The faint rattle of the loose plate armor that the Yafutoman guards wore. The cadence of angry grunts and gasping breathing.
The doors started to slide open, and Moegi dashed inside. Her clothes were rumpled and her face was one of absolute panic.
Not a second later the doors burst inward when a guard with a spear stabbed through his back crashed into the framed paper entryway, destroying it completely while two others came in behind him. The princess turned and cried out as she fell backwards, helpless, with the two men closing in on her, swords held in their off-hand while they both reached.
Vyse and Enrique were on them in seconds, and neither wasted any words. The Blue Rogue decapitated the first, and Enrique's blade avoided the armor plating of the second, stabbing cleanly through the other guard's throat. Fina raced to Moegi's side with Aika, and they helped her stand back up.
Moegi was dazed and terrified and she didn't respond when Fina squeezed her arm. The dying gurgles of the guard who had been speared and thrown through the doors had more of an effect, and the princess tore her arm away from the Silvite, going and kneeling down beside the man.
"Pr...princess. Y - you must...flee." The guard gasped, bright blood on his lips.
Moegi shook her head. "I can't leave you!" She turned to Fina, panicked. "Heal him! Please!"
The guard gurgled again, and looked up to Fina. The Silvite sucked in sharply when she saw his glazed eyes take note of her, and he slowly shook his head.
"Pr - protect the princess. Run. Run." He begged. He begged, exhaled, and slumped dead on the floor. Moegi's lip quivered.
"What in the Moon's name is going on?" Aika demanded. "Why are your guards trying to hurt you?!"
Moegi breathed in and out, staring down at the guard who presumably had died defending her. It took Fina a moment to realize why she wasn't responding.
Moegi had never watched someone die in front of her before.
Fina grabbed at Moegi's arm, spinning her around away from the bodies. "Moegi!" She yelled at the young woman, loud enough to make her recoil and snap her head away. Loud enough that the Yafutoman royal saw her instead of bodies.
Moegi blinked, and tears filled her eyes. "We were betrayed." She choked out, reverting to Yafutoman before she shook her head and remembered her audience. "The - the woman told my father to surrender. To be a vassal state. To Valua."
"Moons damn it." Enrique uttered under his breath.
"He refused. Then K...Kangan."
Fina could see it all in her mind's eye. "Kangan Kurowei betrayed you. He sided with the Valuans."
"So many of the guards." Moegi kept going, forcing herself through it. As if it were impossible to stop. "They turned on us. They killed the guards who didn't. They...they captured my father." She looked over her shoulder to the guard lying dead on the floor. "I ran. He defended me."
"We can't stay. We don't have the force or the firepower to stop them here." Vyse said to Moegi, moving to the table with Enrique and picking it up, dragging it to the entrance to serve as a barricade. "Moegi, we need to get you out of here."
"No." Moegi shuddered, looking at Vyse and Enrique. "We must get you out. They take your ship. They come for you next." Moegi looked to Aika, and to the satchel she carried. "They want those." She shook off Fina's hands, and the Silvite could hear the sound of angry shouts and heavy footfalls picking up outside, echoing across the still waters of the pond.
Moegi was hurting, she was betrayed, but just as Fina had known, there was strength in her. Strength enough to hold herself together. The princess walked to the back of the cottage, to where the rear wall lay adjacent to the stone fence that surrounded the compound of the royal palace. With purposeful movements, she accessed a hidden catch, releasing the lock on a concealed doorway as the panel recessed onto a rail.
Her eyes wet and her hands shaking, Moegi turned and gestured to them all. "We must go." And go they went, slipping into the secret escape passage, closing it behind them.
"Is known only to the royal family." Moegi told them as they walked down the hidden corridor within the outer wall, coming closer and closer to falling apart. In the dim light cast out by Cupil, who hovered above them in his normal form like a magical lantern, Moegi led them on, refusing to look back. "Is small ship at end. You must take. You must go."
"Not without you!" Enrique insisted.
"Yes, without me." Moegi forced out, gasping. "They will not stop until I am catched. Caught. FUCK!" She finally screamed out in Yafutoman, shattering and crumbling to her knees right before the stairs.
They stopped, and Enrique knelt down beside her. He took her hand as she trembled and gasped, falling to pieces in front of them. Not that Fina could blame her. After being warned about Valua by Westerners who openly declared themselves only a step above air pirates, after being confronted with the power of another empire who knew nothing but greed and avarice, Moegi had been witness to the treachery of one of their own; her father's most prominent advisor. The Yafutoman guard corrupted and turned against the royal family, her people in peril and now destined to suffer under the boot of an external force with no sense of justice or honor.
Her brother exiled. Her father captured, his life in jeopardy. And Moegi, on the run with the world falling down around her, trying to do one thing right. Trying to deny Valua all of its prizes by getting them and their two Moon Crystals away. By saving them.
Anywhere else, she likely would have protested it when Enrique drew her into his arms and held her tight, helping her to ride out the anguish she was feeling. But she was alone and in the dark, and there was nobody from her own people there to witness it or to judge her.
Just four young Westerners standing against the storm.
Enrique stroked his hand through her long, dark hair. "Blue Rogues leave nobody behind." He said, his voice thick with everything he was feeling as well. "We are not leaving you behind. Okay? You have to come with us. This isn't the end, Moegi. We're not going to let Valua win. I swear it. We are coming back here and we're going to throw them all out and we're going to save your people and ours. But right now, I need you to get up. I need you to keep running. Can you do that?"
She was still shuddering, but she was finally coming back around. Moegi finally nodded.
"Where can we go?" Vyse asked her as Enrique helped her back up to her feet. "We're in your domain, your highness. Tell us where we can go to regroup."
"There is one place." Moegi said, wiping at her eyes. "An island. In the High Sky. Far north. Exile Island." She looked at them all. "My brother there. Daigo. Daigo Tokugawa." She pressed her lips together. "The true heir."
The 'ship' at the end of the secret escape tunnel resembled a bell on a platform, or perhaps a large torch or a small lighthouse. One look at it was enough for Fina to realize that it carried no means of defense or attack to it, and that it was meant purely as a leisure vessel. One not meant to travel fast. Still, a ship was a ship, and soon they were rising up and up and up and away from the besieged palace and the blockaded city. Nobody had been looking for it, or its silver-blue coloration blended in too well with the partly cloudy skies around Yafutoma that morning. There was no sign of pursuit or recognition of their means of escape, no airborne sentries patrolling the north end of the island where the royal palace stood.
While Enrique kept an eye on Moegi, keeping close to her side, Vyse and Aika used his telescopic goggle and a collapsible spyglass from her satchel respectively to size up the damage caused by Valua while Fina guided the ship away from danger.
"There are Valuan troops everywhere." Vyse murmured.
"It's an invasion." Aika added.
"Shock and awe." Enrique explained quietly from his spot on the cushions next to Moegi. "Standard tactic for an armed ground force disembarking from the Armada. Swarm and overwhelm the local populations with a massive contingent, hunt down and neutralize any dissident elements, and steadily withdraw troopers until a smaller patrol force proportional to one-sixth or one-eighth of the population is left to maintain order and suppress future rebellious elements. Belleza would have adapted it if she turned the Emperor's Chief Advisor, which she could have well done several days in advance before this morning." Fina couldn't help but think of their last encounter with Belleza in the desert of Nasr, how easily she'd been able to sneak into Maramba under a false identity to gain their trust. "It's her style to handle these kind of coups in the quickest and most bloodless ways possible. If Minister Kurowei has taken control of the local militia, that may factor into the eventual Valuan deployment numbers."
Moegi choked out another sob, and Enrique pulled her closer, stroking her back. "I'm sorry." He whispered, choking up himself. Even after all the times that Fina and the others had gotten on his case about not taking the responsibility for the things that his country and his people did when they weren't following his orders, Enrique was still all too willing to let the blame for their evils weigh on his spirit. She didn't have the heart to correct him now. She doubted Moegi cared to hear it.
"I want to kill every. Last. One of them." Aika said numbly, walking over to Fina and handing the Silvite her spyglass. There was redness in her eyes, but she was holding herself together. There was still more rage in her red-haired lover than grief. Fina took the spyglass and used it to look down at the soldiers moving throughout the city, through the compound of the royal palace.
Fina watched as banners and flags bearing the Yafutoman heraldry and emblem were torn down, and canvas flags with the Valuan Imperial crest were hoisted in their place. She watched as the Yafutomans who had been so openly curious and cautiously inviting to the Blue Rogues before now ran for their lives as Valuan soldiers marched through the streets. She found herself glad that they were so high up. She didn't have to listen to the screams.
She watched as the bodies of Yafutoman soldiers and guards, the ones who must have remained loyal to the Emperor, were dragged out into the open and thrown into piles for later removal.
Fina could so easily understand why Aika hungered for wholesale slaughter.
"This doesn't end here." Vyse vowed, reaching up and tugging the side of his captain's hat down tighter onto his head. "Blue Rogues never give up."
"No. We don't." Fina agreed, collapsing the spyglass and looking to him. She saw fury in his eyes, the indomitable will of a man who seethed at the injustice of it, raged at his inability to stop it right there.
Stories were written of men with such eyes.
Fina broke her gaze away from him and took one last look down at Yafutoma, a city of striations and level and walls. All of which had fallen far too easily, by betrayal from within.
"I'm sorry." She heard Enrique whisper to Moegi, over and over and over again while the princess wept for all that she had lost in mere hours.
"May you live in interesting times." Fina heard Moegi rasp in the Yafutoman tongue. She'd said it before with an interested little smile on her face, had said that in her culture it was meant to be a curse but that she had thought of it more as a symbol of change.
Moegi spoke it with none of the optimism she had before, Fina realized. It had been a curse after all.