The sky is missing another screen today, Mansia noted as she watched the fuzzy sunrise. The air was a little thicker today as well. One of the manufacturing domes must have been working extra hard.
Sighing, she knelt back down and resumed her work, using a broom made of dried grasses to sweep precious dirt off the footpaths and back into the sunken gardens. These gardens had just been harvested and would need to be rested for at least a season before anyone planted anything in them again. As a child, she'd always been puzzled at the idea that dirt needed to rest, but she supposed she had taken things more literally then.
The door behind her opened and two more temple maidens emerged. Taria walked with a clumsy gait caused by her unnaturally broad hips. Meda emerged behind her, using her left arm to hold onto Taria's shoulder. Her right arm split into two at the elbow, creating two distinctive forearms each with its own, fully functioning little hand.
Despite being defectives, Taria regarded her with disdain and turned her head away. Meda avoided all possible eye contact as they headed off in the direction of the temple gate.
Mansia bitterly returned to her sweeping.
Why do they think they can look down on me when I'm genetically perfect and they're defective?
She lightly tugged at one of her tentacles, eying the blue rings on the outer surface which pulsed with her anger. They were not the reason most people treated her so poorly but they were an indicator of it.
Her tongue slid across the back side of her upper beak, feeling the slight bulge in the middle, wondering, not for the first time, why she had hatched this way.
"Mansia?"
She turned abruptly and came face to face with a very old takevir giving her an amused smile.
"I was calling you for a while. Did someone say nasty things to you again?"
"No, Sir," she mumbled. "I was just… thinking."
He chuckled. "We are so far underground yet your head always seems to be in the clouds. Well, maybe that's a good thing."
Mansia stared back at the sky. The sun was now a fuzzy orange disk just above the horizon.
"Have you seen the real sun, Exarch?"
"Of course, but that was quite a long time ago now. I hope I will be able to see and feel the sun again soon but… well, the screens will have to do for the time being. But never mind that, child, you have a special visitor."
Mansia's tentacles flared outwards and her rings lit up. A 'special visitor' could only mean one person.
He chuckled again at her reaction. "Go on to the usual place. Your work will still be here when you're done."
Mansia bowed quickly and hastily leaned the broom against the nearby wall before going into the temple.
Navigating through the complex series of mismatched corridors, she found one of the main hallways at the front of the temple and located a door with a red cloth jammed between the door and the frame.
Grasping the cloth in her hand she knocked on the door and a familiar voice bid her enter.
Mansia looked around for anyone else then slipped quickly inside, replacing the red cloth to ensure nobody disturbed them.
An older takenam sat at the squat table in the middle of the room. She was dressed in the simple, black, two-piece uniform of the Octarian Army. Despite her age and weariness her tentacles were only slightly wrinkled and her green eyes shone brightly.
She opened her arms and Mansia rushed in, hugging her tightly. Those same arms tenderly embraced her while their tentacles curled and coiled around each other lovingly.
"It's been so long, Mother. I was worried someone had got you."
Her mother shook her head. "No, Mansia, nobody has to worry about the war right now. If anything, they want to keep me alive. What about you? Has anything happened here in the last few days?"
Ordinarily, Mansia would have little if anything to say; the routine was always the same for her at the temple, but it was interesting she specifically asked about the last few days.
"A lot of officers came and requested prayer. I know Priestess Ilmi was sent to give an unscheduled sermon to some soldiers too." She frowned. "Is the war over?"
Her mother shrugged her tentacles. "I don't know for sure, but the worst should be over. I know that we can expect some good things to come in the next couple of weeks. I don't know what yet but it will be something big."
She began stroking her tentacles and Mansia leaned her head against her mother's chest, listening to her hearts beat.
She stared at the wall. There were no windows in the sequestered rooms which were meant to guarantee privacy as long as one whispered, but she imagined the screens outside.
"Do you think I'll get to see the real sky, Mother?"
"Of course you will. Maybe we can go see it together some day. The weather is too cold right now but soon it'll be warm again. Maybe by then I'll be able to take you."
Mansia frowned. "But… isn't that too risky? People might guess you're my mother if we do that."
"I think by the time we get to that point I won't really care what people know about you and me. I'm not ashamed you're my daughter, Mansia, you know that. I was well past my prime when I laid your egg, but the gods still blessed me with an exceptionally healthy little girl. I know a lot of other mothers younger than me who were not so fortunate."
Mansia thought about Taria and Meda. Had their mothers been disappointed when they'd hatched? They surely would have still loved them anyway but…
Maybe that's the real reason they don't like me.
Mansia had been brought to the temple because nobody wanted to deal with the potential dangers of a blue ring like her, but defectives like them, should they be fortunate to live long enough, were dumped in the temple because everyone else outright rejected them, and unlike Mansia, would never be allowed to reproduce lest they pollute the gene pool. She, despite what she was, had not been a disappointment at least.
"I probably won't be able to see you for a while again. I'm going to be so busy. That's why I came to see you today, while I still could."
"I understand. I know you have a lot of new duties now."
She had no right to act disappointed, but she still felt her soul ache. It could be months before she saw her again.
Mansia knew how privileged she was just to see her mother, perhaps the only child outside the breeding and nursery domes able to do so. While her meetings with her mother were supposed to be a secret, the other temple maidens probably suspected something.
"Doesn't mean you aren't just as important to me, Mansia, but unlike the ones in the breeding pools I'm not just a mother, I have work and responsibilities too. If I do them right, then maybe by the time it's warm again, everyone will be able to see the sky. We won't have to hide anymore."
Mansia nuzzled against her. "You think someone will give me work and responsibilities too, Mother? Will anyone besides you and the Exarch trust me?"
She sighed. "Trust is earned. It's what you do that determines how people treat you, more than your words, so be sure to take advantage of any opportunities you have to gain that trust. In the last few days I've seen some powerful examples of that, and now there are people even outside the domes I feel I can trust."
Mansia's eyes went wide with excitement and curiosity. "Really? Who?"
Her mother laughed. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you. Long story short, they're the people who will help me bring you the sky."
Chapter 1: The New FrontlineFoame could almost see the bodies, imagining them stacked up in piles or covering the ground like shale. Even a week later, the concrete was still stained blue with the blood of hundreds of crabs, and the smell of it still permeated the chilly air, mixing with the breath fog of the scores of gawking onlookers.
"Can you imagine how huge of a fight this was?"
Ferath stood slightly taller than Foame, letting him more easily see above the heads of the people in front of them. His excited voice was a mix of awe and excitement, no doubt imagining himself in that battle, wreaking his own brand of carnage. She tried to remember what she'd ever seen in him and failed miserably.
"Look!"
He pointed excitedly at a battered building beyond the security tape and its exterior walls stained blue in various places. Plywood that had once covered its windows was splintered and broken and the front door lay flat on the ground, dyed the same blue as the walls and surrounding concrete.
"That's the hardware store we heard about; that's where the siege happened!"
A couple of days after the incident, the press started printing stories and articles outlining notable events during what they had already termed the "Liberation of Xapheerell", and the specific event Ferath was referring to was known as the "Hardware Store Siege''. Not nearly as catchy a title, in Foame's opinion.
"Fanboy," Wren muttered in a sleepy voice. Wren was Foame's best friend, a girl with dark-blue mantle, eyes, long ears, and webbing between her tentacles, products of her flying squid heritage. Foame often thought she would have looked regal were she not perpetually sleepy.
Ferath glared sideways at her. "Who are you calling a fanboy? You know I'm just someone who appreciates skilled fighters. Any pro worth their ink would. Don't act like you don't realise what good fighters they'd have to be to fight off hundreds or even thousands of crabs. You'd have to be bold as the sun to even try."
Wren's turned a plum-purple colour and did not meet Ferath's gaze. "Like always, you don't appreciate the circumstances. They fought out of desperation. Only an idiot would charge headlong into such odds willingly."
Ferath's mantle flared red with anger. Wren's slow, deliberate manner of speech sometimes made her come across as condescending even when she didn't mean to and it always got under Ferath's skin.
"The Wisdoms say 'fortune favours the bold'. Doing the unexpected has won me plenty of matches. If you've got enough guts, you'd be surprised what you can pull off."
The purple flash from Wren's mantle told him he didn't know what he was talking about and Foame decided to interject herself before this turned into a full-on argument.
"So, just so I've got the story right, that hardware store had about forty octolings against a few hundred crabs?"
"They were led by an inkling," Ferath added hastily. "But yeah, something like that. I've heard it was as many as a thousand but…" he pulsed grey. "Who knows how many, really. It was definitely a lot just from how much blood there is and there's more in the store."
"There were three inklings according to the press," Wren clarified. "One of them managed to escape and get help."
Foame arched an eyebrow at her, her seafoam-green mantle turning a questioning yellow. "You've actually looked into this?"
Wren's mantle turned a shade darker. "Nothing like this has happened before. We had a war in our own city, a city where even murder is rare. I wanted to understand. That's why I'm here; I needed to see it for myself."
Foame understood. Beyond Wren being the cynical sort, this was something you had to see to truly believe, to contextualise the scale of the massacre.
The entire lower third of the large roundabout they were in was bloodstained, with the hardware store at the bottom. Of course, the cylindrical low-rise in the centre of the roundabout was also a den of carnage, likewise taped off to the public.
Foame put her hands on her hips and forced a bright smile. "Well, I don't know about you guys but I've had enough of looking at crime scenes for one day. Why don't we go to the square and play some video games or something? Anything's gotta' be better than this, right?"
Ferath gave the scene one more wistful look and pulsed blue, then turned green. Wren's response was simply to turn around and start forging a path through the packed crowd of fellow gawkers. When they were out in the open again, Foame decided to skew the topic just a bit.
"So, have either of you heard what happened to Callie and Marie? Were they really as involved as everyone's saying or is the press just sensationalising as usual?"
"I don't believe it," Ferath answered. "There's no way a couple of pop stars could lead an army. They're probably rich enough to hire one though."
"If the Squid Sisters were typical they wouldn't be so popular." Wren countered. "But it does seem a little out there, and I don't swallow what the press wrote about them eating a couple of giant, monster crabs. As far as I know, they've either been in the hospital or in protective custody."
"Because they're the ones who organised the whole thing?"
"Allegedly. I know their bodyguard was definitely involved, and by all accounts, she did a lot of damage."
"She's a cursed hero!" Ferath punctuated his declaration by pumping his fist in the air. "She's gotta' be the toughest inkling in the world! That inkling who led the defence of the hardware store is a hero too!" He glared across at Wren, as if daring her to contradict him.
"Most Squid Sisters fans are going to believe Callie and Marie are in the right," Wren said. "The crabs were going to wipe out the last of the Xapheerell shoal and then, apparently, make a move on Inkopolis Square. That's not the sort of thing that happens in a gang war."
Foame frowned and her mantle turned dark-orange. "Inkopolis Square is a long ways from Xapheerell. Why would they go so far?"
Wren paused, frowning as he organised her thoughts. The ripples in her mantle indicated that whatever she was thinking about unsettled her.
"Inkopolis Security thinks that they may have been targeting younger inklings. Just like they did in that incident in the ward a week or so before the Liberation, the murder of that inkling-octoling couple right after that. Even the people left in the Xapheerell bastion are mostly in their early twenties."
Fearath and Foame's mantles both flared to a bright-orange.
"What? No way, that's insane! The gods would totally destroy them if they did that!"
"Yeah, Wren! That's super freaky! Why would the crabs target kids? Are they sure?"
Wren pulsed grey. "It's a theory that fits the known data. You know how much the government has been pressuring us to all have lots of kids."
Foame flashed green. The inkling population had been in decline since the Great Turf War. Most families had only a single child and all too many inklings hadn't wanted to take on the burden of marriage or raising children, leading to a bad labour shortage and a rapidly ageing population. She had to admit that on a cold, machine-like level, the Crab's strategy (if it really was their strategy) made sense.
"We're in trouble," she realised.
"Can't be in that much trouble," Ferath insisted. "The crab gangs were wiped out, they won't try that again."
"Apparently, there's another large group hiding in the city somewhere. If they are anything like the small soldier crabs that were killed here," Wren thumbed back over her shoulder at the venue of carnage behind them, "then they could hurt a lot of people."
Foame felt an anxious knot tying itself in the bit of her gut but she quickly quashed it and forced a big smile. "I'm sure that Inkopolis Security or the National Security Force will take care of it."
"They can't."
Wren's blunt shutdown of Foame's optimistic outlook stunned even her. The sober look on Wren's face was so intense that it almost hid the sleepy dark circles under her eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"IS is undermanned, so is the NSF, and the NSF has a lot of people in Bellchora trying to protect them from the Consortium. But if the Consortium is the one behind the Crab Gangs in the first place then they'll be trying to take us out first anyway."
Foame felt a chill. The Grand Consortium was a union of Crab Nations on the Continent to the North and North-West of their own country of Calachora. They had, in the last few decades, become one of the most powerful nations in the world and they were currently trying to annex Bellchora, and would have had Calachora not declared that they would defend their long-time ally. Unfortunately, the Xapheerell Liberation had called into question Calachora's actual power to intervene, so the Consortium was probably wondering if Calachora had merely been bluffing.
"So, if the NSF and IS together couldn't stop the crab gangs, what's to stop the actual Consortium Army from coming in here whenever they want?"
Wren flashed grey. "The octolings, I guess. They were the only ones able to take the crabs on and win while IS and the NSF were too scared to even try. But right now, they're all under investigation, which means the government might have just taken away our best defence."
Ferath scoffed. "We don't need a bunch of Octarians protecting us; we can protect ourselves. Heck, we beat them during the Great Turf War. We can just make an army of our own. We've got more than enough turf war players in the city. It's not much different than real war."
Foame shook her head inwardly, remembering the signs of carnage she had just seen in the roundabout, the images on the news of piles of bloody crab carcasses, lying broken, and reports on the injuries the surviving octolings had sustained. What part of turf war looked like that?
Wren shared a look with Foame that declared she thought Forath to be an idiot but didn't feel like wasting her breath by stating the obvious out loud. Foame managed to smile a little bit at that but she still felt this horrible, uneasy feeling.
Was their country going to be plunged into war, not in far off Bellchora, but right in their own capital city? Would they even see the enemy coming or would they just spring up out of nowhere like they did back at the roundabout? What were they going to do?
—-
Reina Sansea had rarely seen the Assembly in such a fervour. People shouted across the enormous, oblong shape of the Assembly Chamber from their balcony seats until they were blue in the face. People waved arms, shook fists, and the displays on their mantles were more open and less reserved than Reina could ever remember. The noise was utterly deafening and she could only imagine what the scene looked like to anyone watching the live broadcast or listening to it on the radio.
"It's like a daycare on a sugar high," murmured Kalista, one of her matrons.
She and all of the matrons under her sat in their booth. Every member of the Assembly had their own and the issue at hand was so significant that it seemed like every matron in the country had joined the session along with their matriarchs, though most of them respectfully stayed silent while the Assembly members yelled at each other.
A shrill whistling noise suddenly pierced the air, forcing everyone to stop speaking at once and cover their otoliths.
The Moderator General, sitting in his tall chair at the back of the chamber, slowly lifted his finger off the red button on his desk and surveyed everyone with the stern eyes of a schoolmaster, his mantle a royal purple.
"If you are all quite finished wasting your breath, I would like to get back on topic. Patriarch Keeper, I believe you were the one speaking before you were so rudely interrupted." His emphasis on the word 'rudely' cowed further dissenters and would discourage further discord.
Patriarch Keeper was an inkyar twenty years into his second century. He was a veteran of the Great Turf War and it was his backing that had helped form the Enforcer Corps, Calachora's elite organisation of peacekeepers. His efforts and methods of fighting crime were what enabled him to become a patron and then a patriarch of the Assembly.
Patriarchs in a society as matriarchal as theirs were a rarity, which meant he had to be a male of extraordinary ability and character to rise to such a position, which only added to his notoriety, status, and influence, though in Reina's opinion, he had gotten a bit hard-headed in his old age.
"Thank you, Moderator General." His voice was raspy with age but he had been a powerful orator in his prime and he still had the strong posture of one. "As I was saying, the idea of an organised group of any people running around our capital, distributing their own brand of justice is dangerous. The fact that it was a bunch of Octarians makes it only worse. As far as we know, they are still a people hostile to us and I refuse to believe any notion of them acting purely for the benefit of Inkopolis can be taken seriously. I see no reason that they would benefit from helping us except to undermine us in some way, which we can see happening already."
He opened his arms, gesturing broadly to everyone in the room. "We have all spoken to our shoals, heard their concerns, their worries. Everyone's quiet confidence in the leadership of our nation and their own safety and security, has been shaken–if not shattered. Public morale is at an all time low and I'm not the only veteran of the Great Turf War having reminiscences about the dark days of that time.
"What will it say about us to everyone in the international community if our own people have more faith in our enemies to protect them than our own hard-working, passionate peacekeepers? This doesn't merely affect us but also our Bellchoran allies, who have been counting on us to help defend them from the Grand Consortium. Have we not been made to look impotent to everyone? If our own people have lost faith in our ability to protect ourselves then why should anyone expect us to be able to defend Bellchora?"
He looked around, almost accusingly, daring anyone to contradict him. No one did.
"Regardless of any of the whys and hows, clearly the National Security Force and local security are not enough for these dangerous times. I therefore wish to submit an official proposal for the creation of a citizen militia, to be used in an emergency situation such as this. While I doubt such a measure could help us much overseas it will at least grant us security at home and it is ourselves we must look after first. How could our allies trust us otherwise?"
Bowing his head, he sat down. The displays and expressions of everyone else in the room showed neither scorn nor approval, but there was serious consideration going on there. Even Reina had to admit that the idea had merit. Given the personnel shortages both Inkopolis Security and the NSF were experiencing, creating a force of unprofessionals was the only viable option to bolster the nation's defence, supposedly. But Reina had other issues with what Keeper said.
"Patriarch Keeper has openly declared his intention to present a formal proposal to the government and the assembly," the moderator general declared. "Does anyone oppose this motion?"
Reina deliberately avoided looking at the matron seated on her left before she rose to her feet and walked up to the balcony railing. The tension in the room assembly chamber immediately spiked.
"Matriarch Sansea," the moderator general acknowledged slowly. "You oppose the motion?"
"Not strictly oppose, Your Honour, I merely want clarification on a few things."
"I see. Very well."
Reina looked directly across the gap to Keeper who met her eyes unwaveringly. His firm gaze had probably wilted resistance or defiance from lesser people, but Reina had more pen than that.
"Regarding the notion that the Octarians in Inkopolis are hostile, as far as I know, that has not actually been proven one way or the other. In fact, on the face of it, they've actually been helpful and plenty of them died for the sake of our city."
"That's war, Matriarch," Keeper replied. His tone was just a tad patronising. "In my day, I saw plenty of Octarians die just to take a few metres of ground. This is no different from that. I don't think anyone would fail to call what happened in Xapheerell Ward anything less than a war."
Reina remained calm. "That was more than a century ago, Patriarch. I'm not talking about your day; I'm talking about now. In your day the issue with the crabs effectively taking over an entire ward of our capital would not have happened, in your day the Xapheerell Shoals would have not have allowed it, in your day we didn't have the shortages of labour and manpower that we have now. It is, therefore, equally conceivable that things will have changed with the Octarians. Come to think of it, I don't think we've been informed of where these Octarians came from in the first place or what reason they have for why they're here."
"It doesn't matter. We can't trust them. They're just waiting for us to give them a chance. They know how vulnerable we are now and they've got a disturbingly large portion of our younger population on their side. If we lower our guard, even for just a little bit, they'll strike. Or maybe they're a vanguard and the real threat is still lurking somewhere else. The Octarians were always fond of deception tactics."
"Allow me to get to the point, if you don't mind." Reina drew herself up straighter and kept her gaze level with Keeper's. "You believe the Octarians are acting against us, to undermine the government and take over, conquer us from the inside; therefore, what you are doing, by that statement, is accusing any inkling associated with Octarians as being traitors. That means three members of my own shoal, including my own granddaughter! As a matriarch and as a grandmother, I cannot let that accusation stand unchallenged."
Murmuring cut through the tension in the room, but neither she nor Keeper averted their gazes from each other. They didn't glare, exactly, but strong feelings were held on both sides.
The Moderator General lightly banged his gavel to restore quiet. "Order, Assembly, please. Patriarch Keeper I must acknowledge Matriarch Sansea's challenge. You will clarify, for the record, your official position on the matter."
Keeper stood, and though he spoke to the moderator general, he never removed his gaze from Reina. "I cannot give an answer, your honour, because the nature of the relationship that certain inklings have with the Octarians hasn't been made clear. We've heard only rumours and speculation. As far as we know, Security has yet to release an official statement on the matter. Unless, of course, Matriarch Sansea has inside information she wishes to share with the Assembly."
Reina focused on keeping her mantle carefully neutral and not showing any change of facial expression, a skill that had been difficult for her to learn. "I have not even been allowed to visit my granddaughter because of her being under protective custody. I assure you, Patriarch, Moderator General, and Assembly, that nobody wants to know exactly what happened more than I do. That said, I do know my own granddaughter and she would never knowingly act against the best interests of the nation. What happened was most likely an act of desperation, and I doubt most people in the Assembly would believe that a few Octarians are a bigger threat than the Consortium."
There was more murmuring in the room before Keeper replied. "'The best interests of the nation' can be a matter of perspective, Matriarch, and young people often have their own ill informed ideas of what that is. They are also more easily deceived by grand promises and lofty notions, either their own or those of others. Dare I say, it may be that your granddaughter has become inebriated with the fame and influence she's obtained. Maybe it's finally gone to her head. Of course, that's just speculation."
Calmly, he sat down, leaving Reina seething. What was said could not be unsaid. He had just planted a seed of doubt in everyone in the room and anyone observing the public broadcasts. His word held more sway than hers and he knew it, damn him.
"Matriarch Sansea," the moderator general said, "getting back to the original topic, do you oppose the official submission of Patriarch Keeper's proposal?"
Reina took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm. "I do not, Your Honor. He's right that we need to do something and regardless of how anyone feels about the Octarians, the Consortium is still very much a threat and we'd be foolish to do nothing about it."
She sat down, ignoring the subtle look of triumph on Keeper's features. He won this round, he believed, but Reina was looking forward to finding some way of wiping that smug look off his face.
When no one else opposed, the moderator general carried the motion and now the proposal would have to be considered for review by both the assembly and the currently ruling government. Monarch Luna Orvenii stood from her seat above the moderator general and declared an end to the current session, much to Reina's relief.
Reina remained seated while the assembly hall gradually emptied, mulling over that last conversation in her head. Keeper's true intentions were buried in there somewhere, she was sure of it. He probably didn't hate Marie and Callie in particular, but only saw them as enemies because of their association with the Octarians, but she didn't know for sure.
She looked to her left, finally daring to look at her youngest and newest matron. Mora Cuttlefish sat, taking slow, deep breaths as she stared down at her hands folded in her lap. One of her other matrons stood behind her, rubbing her back with slow, up and down motions.
Reina reached over with one of her tentacles and patted her cheek gently. "You did well, Mora. I know it wasn't easy for you to remain quiet."
Mora's black and magenta tentacles rippled violently before they settled down again. Considering what had been said regarding her own daughter, nobody would have blamed her for speaking out, regardless of whether it would have been proper or not.
"I've dealt with difficult old men before. I have one for a father-in-law."
Reina didn't smile. Craig Cuttlefish wasn't high on her list of people she liked either. Some of the things he'd put in Marie and Callie's head over the years had doubtlessly played a part in the current situation. Once she actually had a chance to talk to Marie, she planned on giving the old squid a piece of her mind.
Reina and her matrons left their balcony and entered the broad corridor beyond. Someone was waiting there for them, wearing a golden ascot tied with the monarch's seal.
"Matriarch Sansea," he said, "The monarch wishes to see you privately in her reception room. Right away, please."
Reina frowned but this was not unexpected, given what happened.
"Don't wait up for me," she told her matrons. She didn't know how long she'd be and it had been a long day already. So she left them and followed the attendant to the Monarch's reception room.
The Assembly building had many reception and meeting rooms that could be used for private meetings immediately prior to and following an Assembly session. The monarch and moderator general were the only ones who had their own such rooms.
The Monarch's was reasonably large, with four large couches arranged in a square around a coffee table in the centre of the room, with lush chairs in the corners of the square. On the far wall was a projector screen and a small snack and drinks cabinet was tucked into the near corner of the room.
The monarch, despite being just as old as Keeper, retained a surprising amount of her youthful beauty. Her skin was only slightly weathered and dulled with her age, but her mantle retained its shimmering gold lustre, and her matching eyes, though more sagely, held as much vitality as they had forty years ago. The gold robes she wore were of the same traditional style as Reina's own purple matriarch robes, but even they failed to outshine the tremendous presence she had. That same presence briefly distracted Reina from seeing the other person in the room.
"Chief," she said, surprised to see the Chief of National Security in the room. Clearly he had something to do with the reason she had been summoned, and that made her raise her guard even further.
Sebbain Pein flashed green in greeting, but there was no joy in him. His expression was a very serious one, sapping any mirth the room might have had. He looked every one of his ninety-two years and his dark-brown mantle roiled gently under the surface. He was not trying to hide just how conflicted and upset he was.
The door shut behind her and Reina sat on the couch across from the monarch, at her behest. Pein sat on the couch to the right of her.
"What's this about?" Reina kept careful control of her tone. She didn't want any of the agitation she felt from today's session to leak out.
"Something we need you to do, Reina. She gestured to Pein, who looked like he needed to wind himself up before speaking.
"As you know, we've been interrogating Callie, and Marie, and basically everyone associated with them, especially on that night. Unfortunately, given our lack of resources, we haven't been as thorough as we would like. With the constant pressure for answers, our investigators have had to skim the top of the whole issue and leave some of the nitty gritty details for later. To be more specific, we've been focused primarily on the events during and immediately after the incident in Xapheerell."
Because the Grand Consortium had declared what happened in Xapheerell as a "slaughter" and a "massacre", political etiquette prevented the government from referring to the Xapheerell Incident as the "Xapheerell Liberation" as the public generally was. For the same reasons, the government couldn't publicly support Callie and Marie's actions either and they'd had to incarcerate them somehow to placate the Consortium, at least for the time being.
"What we haven't been able to investigate," Pein continued, "is what happened before the incident. How did Callie and Marie manage to organise an effective fighting force of so many Octarians and why did they listen to their orders? We've discovered that there's an almost zealous dedication to them among the Octarians here in Inkopolis, more so than one would see in mere fans. They're devoted to them for other reasons."
Reina frowned. "So did you ask them about it? If not them, what about Callie and Marie?"
"The topic was brought up a few times by our investigators but they tended to dance around the subject a little by talking about how wonderful Callie and Marie were, and how they saved them from the imprisonment of their own minds or some other such things. They're hiding something. As for Callie and Marie themselves, well, any interview with them has to be brief. They've been pretty cooperative overall, but their… condition prevents them from enduring proper interrogations – I mean, interviews. Doctors also advised us that it would be bad for our health if we tried pushing them. They said we should wait until their yun'brennen has abated, but nobody knows when that will be and we don't know if we have that much time."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that there's more going on than meets the eye. There are a lot of Octarians in Inkopolis but not quite enough to support the numbers we reported to have participated in their attack on the crabs. So where did they come from and where did they go? How did Callie and Marie call them in the first place? Why do they have such authority and power over them? How is it that, after more than a century of isolation, and never being seen, a force of Octarian soldiers suddenly appears in Inkopolis and under the command of a pair of mere pop stars? Doesn't all that seem a bit suspect to you?"
Reina had to admit, it did; yet it also seemed a little farfetched.
"Are you sure nobody's exaggerating a bit? Callie and Marie are skilled in turf war and self defence – my daughter-in-law saw to that, but she couldn't have taught them to lead an army, especially not as effectively as you seem to be suggesting."
"I understand that, Ma'am. It certainly took a lot of convincing even for us to believe that they could have done it, but we know from interviewing Scylla Sunreader that the whole plan was theirs. They wanted to use overwhelming force to wipe out the crabs in one night, before the Grand Consortium could interfere, before the fighting could spread to other parts of Inkopolis, and before the fighting could cause disruption to life in Inkopolis. As we were told, they were trying to finish the job without anyone in Inkopolis taking real notice. Obviously, things didn't go quite according to plan."
"Only further proof that the girls were winging it and they weren't entirely sure what they were doing. That might make them seem a bit irresponsible – which is unusual for them, granted, but even if the plan was theirs, that doesn't mean they were the ones in charge or that they were actually commanding that army."
Pein pulsed red. "I'm afraid that everyone we've talked to, from Sunreader, to members of the Xapheerell Shoal who participated in the attack, to the Octarians, to the girls themselves, have all admitted to them being the ones in charge."
"They're probably just covering for the real person in charge, someone who had experience in combat that was able to coordinate things. That's just the kind of thing they would do."
"But again, that points to a conspiracy. If it's true, then who was this expert? Where did they go? Where did they come from? What kind of deal did they work out?"
"Why are you asking me?" Reina demanded, her frustration finally starting to boil over. "I haven't even been able to see Marie since this mess all happened."
"Well now," Orvenii interrupted, "you have a chance to remedy that." She leaned forward, her expression stoney and she held Reina's gaze in her bottomless, golden eyes. "As our Chief of National Security has pointed out, it's been difficult for them to properly interrogate the girls, especially since they haven't been able to do so at their own home. Their mothers have been fiercely opposed to it and their doctors have backed them."
Reina's eyes narrowed and her mantle darkened. "So that's it; you want me to interrogate the girls, since I'm their matriarch and family, I'm a loophole in that issue."
Orvenii flashed green. "Their mothers could overrule even you in that instance, but I doubt that will happen. Besides, you could drag the truth out of those girls much more effectively than any security interrogator. They trust and respect you."
Reina crossed her arms, careful not to let herself scowl, but she affixed the other two with a firm glare. "Fine, I'll interrogate them for you. If something is going on, I'll find it, but if you think I'll uncover some kind of anti-government conspiracy, you're going to be very disappointed."
Orvenii smiled mirthlessly. "Anti-government, almost certainly not, despite the rumours; but there is most definitely a conspiracy. If you need proof –," she nodded again at Pein, who drew a small photograph from his jacket pocket and lightly tossed it on the table.
"I assume you know this girl."
Reina glanced at the picture and frowned. The subject of the photograph was indeed familiar. "Three?"
Pein arched an eyebrow, his mantle rippling with interest. "Curious that you call her by that name."
"Cortina is her real name, but the girls usually call her that so I got into the same habit. She recently became their bodyguard."
Pein stood up and walked to the small computer terminal hooked up to the projector. removing a small thumb drive from his pocket he inserted it into the slot.
"Up until today, she was. The Bodyguard Association officially suspended her contract, saying that Callie and Marie abused the terms of her commission and took advantage of her dutiful nature and young age to make her participate in the Xapheerel Incident in excess of her bodyguard duties."
"Ridiculous! Callie and Marie wouldn't force anyone into that sort of thing. If she was there, it was because she wanted to be."
"I agree. In fact, we believe that her becoming their bodyguard was just a cover for her actual activities."
Reina's eyes narrowed, a lump forming in her throat as icy hands twisted her insides. "What are you talking about?"
"She has a rather interesting collection of aliases. She's officially registered in the Turf War database as 'Maiya', most people she knows call her 'Three', but the Octarians call her a number of different things."
Pein turned on the projector, the screen showing a video on pause, and the cold feeling in Reina's innards intensified.
"They call her 'Three', 'Commander', their 'heroine', but they also call her by other, more interesting names in their own language that we've had translated by, probably the only inkling left alive who can speak and read their language, a retired intelligence officer from the war. I don't know the original words but they translate to, 'Master', 'Green Demon', and 'Green Death'." He looked at Reina soberly. "Not the sort of names you would expect to find attached to a sixteen-year-old bodyguard. Unless you see this."
He gestured to the screen as he grabbed the nearby remote. Orvenii used a control on her chair to dim the lights.
"This is a recording from a security camera Inkopolis Security had secretly installed to help them keep an eye on movements of the crab gangs. This is footage taken from the night in question, in the area everyone's calling 'The Bloody Ring'. I'll warn you now though, it's going to be unpleasant to watch and only a few people have seen this footage, including the Monarch."
The video was from a perspective several stories high and looking down upon a roundabout, though it was hard to tell because the street and sidewalks were covered in a living carpet of small crabs! They seemed to be in some kind of frenzy as they tried to get into a small building Reina guessed was the hardware store everyone was talking about, walking and climbing over their own dead. The scene was enough to make Reina's skin crawl.
Suddenly, there was a flash that came from off screen on the right side, and a few crab bodies flew into view. The whole horde briefly stopped and turned to face this new threat, only for another group of broken crab forms to sail over their heads. The mass moved as one, and then a small inkling girl leapt into view, clad in black yet with a high-visibility vest, and wielding a large ink roller.
The girl swung her roller like a large club, breaking legs and bodies as she swept a path of carnage and brutality through the horde, flipping and leaping out of the way any time she was in danger of being overwhelmed and then, renewing her rampage. It got to the point that the crab's bodies started to pile up in heaps around her, dying by the score as she tore into them with the same relentlessness they were showing in attacking her.
Reina turned away, unable to look at the scene any longer. She felt sick to her stomach. Mercifully, Pein stopped the recording and Orvenii brought the lights back up.
"That's really her?" Reina asked queasily. "You're sure?"
"We're sure." His voice was hard. "I'd know that brutal fighting style anywhere, but she didn't keep it a secret that Silvie had trained her."
Reina flashed green. "Fine, but I fail to see how this proves anything about a conspiracy. If Silvie trained her then –." She stopped herself mid sentence as Pein gave her a grim look.
"Speaking from personal experience, Matriarch, and the experience of many a veteran of the war I've spoken to over the years, training doesn't prepare you for something like that. No, this girl was already very experienced in life and death combat before this. She's killed before, and she's done it a lot. I spoke to her right after that battle. Despite everything that had happened, despite the fact that this was the biggest battle since the Great Turf War, she acted almost like it was just another Tuesday."
Reina stared at him, unable to believe it. "But what could possibly turn her into such a thing? What could she be doing that she would kill anyone, much less get used to it?"
"That's the sort of thing we need you to find out. Whatever it is, it's related to the Octarians. It has to be."
Reina felt a little heartbroken, perhaps even betrayed. Her Marie was involved in something like this? What could possibly get her to do that? What could have gotten her involved in the Octarians in the first place when they had vanished for the last century? The answer came to her like an old injury flaring up again and her mantle darkened to a molten red and her pupils shrank as she uttered a single word: "Cuttlefish." The name oozed from her mouth like acid and, for the first time, the Monarch's mantle changed tone, darkening as her own expression showed intense dislike.
"The thought had crossed my mind. He is their grandfather and he's never shut up about the Octarians. It is certainly possible he manipulated the girls into something."
"It HAS to be him! That old bastard used their respect and love for him to make them carry on his old obsession!"
"Wait a minute!" Pein's urgent broke in. "Cuttlefish was all about defeating the Octarians before. These Octarians seem to be working for the girls. I don't know how that happened but it doesn't sound like something Captain Cuttlefish would do."
"Be that as it may, he had to have some influence," Orvenii argued. "So, I take it then you have no further qualms about investigating this matter on the government's behalf?"
Reina didn't hide her scowl this time. "I have qualms, but I'll do it. I take it then that I have carte blanche to conduct the investigation as I see fit?"
Orvenii fixed her with a firm, penetrating stare, but only briefly. "Unofficially, yes. Actually, your whole role in this will have to remain unofficial, but your authority as a matriarch should be sufficient to get you through. You have to be fast though. The Assembly keeps demanding answers and action and we can't do any of that without this information, not reliably, anyway. Things are too murky."
"I understand." Reina rose. "Nothing else?"
"No. I imagine you have enough to think about right now."
That was the understatement of the decade.
Reina bowed, flashing white, then left the room, thinking about how she would conduct the investigation in the back of her mind, while in the front of her mind, she wondered how she was going to break this all to poor Mora.
Author's Notes:
At long last, the story is here, the long-awaited sequel to In Shadows Tall. I thank everyone who's been waiting and I hope you all enjoy the story. This will be rated T for the time being but I may upgrade it to an M rating later depending on how things go. I plan to update at least once a week. I hope you all enjoy.
Feedback is welcome.