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Cinder's POV:

Allies

Stupid, stupid, stupid! I think furiously to myself. Leave it to me to forget that a werewolf would be able to tell Scarlet isn't a real vampire from her smell, and that a vampire would never, ever look anything short of perfect. They certainly wouldn't have dirt on their face. Now, somehow, I have to try and convince this frustratingly shrewd lady that we are, in fact, who we say we are. And hope she doesn't turn us in to the Queen.

"Of course we're ambassadors!" I say with a forced laugh.

"Oh?" the lady says, arching an eyebrow, "Is the Queen sending teenagers to check on political affairs now?"
"It's a glamour." I say quickly, "It's the latest fashion to make yourself look like you're still an adolescent. You know who it is, you hit eighteen and all of a sudden your beauty is slipping through your fingers."
"And I suppose that dirt on your face is supposed to enhance that "beauty"?"

I rub my cheeks self-consciously, my mind racing to come up with a believable lie about that. Fortunately, Iko comes to my rescue.

"It makes your best features look even lovelier!" She says brightly, "Those dirt smears for example, truly draw the casual onlookers' attention to My Lady's lovely skin-tone, don't you think?"

"I think it's very odd for a fairy to be so outgoing." The lady remarks dryly, "Aren't you afraid of a beating for speaking out of turn so much?"
Iko's smile freezes in place and I fight the urge to slap myself on the forehead. Damn it!

The woman smiles and waves a casual hand. "You don't have to worry, I won't give you away. You don't seem like the normal, arrogant vampires we usually get strutting about here like they own the place. It's very refreshing."
She folds her arms and gives us an appraising look. "So. Are you going to tell me why you snuck into the Alpha's home pretending to be ambassadors?"
I exchange glances with Scarlet and Iko. Both look as unsure as I feel.

The woman gives a frustrated sigh. "Just what do I have to do to get you to trust me? I'm not going to report you. Any reward I could get from that would immediately be taken from me by the Alpha, assuming it's not rewarded to him in the first place despite not doing anything."

"You don't seem to hold a lot of respect for the Alpha." Scarlet remarks.

The woman sighs. "I used to. But I lost it long ago. Anyway, don't change the subject! Why are you here, and pretending to be ambassadors?"
"You probably wouldn't believe us if we told you." I tell her.

"Try me. I've seen plenty of strange things in my lifetime, believe it or not."

Scarlet shrugs at me. "For what it's worth, she seems pretty trustworthy to me. And besides, if she reports us now, we're probably going to get carted off to a dungeon and/or executed, right? It's not like we can dig ourselves in any deeper than we already have."

The woman nods at Scarlet and looks at me expectantly. Inwardly, I groan. Why do I have to be the leader?

"Alright." I sigh, "I hope you're ready for a very, very long story."

I'm surprised by how easily everything comes tumbling out. Maybe it's because I've already let some other people in on the secret, maybe it's because of the fact that I'm talking to a fellow Lunar. But just because I can talk about it easily doesn't mean the woman can understand it easily. By the time I'm done, her eyes are roughly the size of saucers, and her jaw has long since hit the floor.

"A revolution… against the Queen of Luna?" She says incredulously.

I nod.

"The same Queen who is capable of controlling the thoughts and emotions of dozens of people at once without about as much effort as it would take for her to clap her hands?"

I nod again.

"The same Queen who has the support of the most powerful vampires on Luna, as well as all of our strongest werewolves and our Alpha?"

I nod again.

The woman shakes her head with amazement. "Just how, exactly, were you hoping to pull this off?"
I shift my weight awkwardly. "Well, I was hoping to recruit the werewolves. You know, seeing as how your species is the one that suffers the most under Levana's rule. We actually came here to negotiate with your Alpha and try to convince him to join us. But if you're sure he's under the Queen's thumb…"
The woman tilts her head to one side. "It's true that the Alpha is under the Queen's total control. But you might still get the werewolves on your side."

My gaze snaps up to meet hers. Catching my hopeful look, she warns me, "I'm not saying they'll definitely join you. Remember, this revolution you're planning will in all probability get everyone involved killed."
"Don't remind me." I grumble.

"But they do live a pretty terrible life under the vampire rule." The woman continued, "The young ones might join up. I'm not too sure about the older folk, and some of the villages get special treatment by the Queen, but there's a more or less decent chance that a good deal of the werewolves will support your cause."
"That's more than I was hoping for." I assure her, "Do you have any recommendations on where we can start recruiting?"

"Well…" the woman says musingly, "there is a village I stopped by to hand out rations today. It's not the biggest or the most downtrodden, but they certainly aren't living the good life, and I saw a couple of new faces there today." She gestures towards Scarlet. "One of them smelled a bit like her, a young man with black hair."
"You saw him?" I blurt out before I can stop myself. The woman's mouth quirks into a smile. "I take it you know him then?"
I nod, relief blooming inside my chest. She must be talking about Kai. How many other humans with black hair were wandering around Luna? He must have somehow managed to escape from Levana. But…

"If you could smell him, that means other werewolves can too." I say worriedly, "He's probably been caught by now."

The woman waves away my concern. "I wouldn't worry about it. The clothes my people wear have a very strong smell of wolf about them. I only really thought about how his scent was different when I noticed your friend's smell. He should be safe, for a little while. Still, you might want to go and pick him up soon. The Queen's sent out a call for some outlaws, and the descriptions given for one of them was a very close match of your friend."
I nod in understanding. "We'll do that, and thank you, Ma'am. You've been an enormous help."
"Please," the woman says with a smile, "call me Maha."

A/N: Looks like our little revolution is gaining some traction.

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