Hiiragi and Takauka hurried to out into the palace gardens, eager to hear the sounds of battle that would announce the rebels' arrival. "It will be soon," Takauka remarked, trying to assure himself that the myriad of signs they had been given have meaning.
"Certainly," Hiiragi responded, "We have seen so much so far that it would not be probable for such a severe failure to be possible."
From his window in the North Tower, Leo Maximillian could see the two ascetics pacing about the garden among the still green poinsettias. They rarely left their lair for any purpose, which made him curious about their reasons for entering the garden.
There was the possibly that this was a sign of sorts, that something was going to happen soon, but beyond the report that the rebels had left an insulting message for Kiyon, little appeared to be stirring.
He had read that gray morning wrong.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!" a scrawny youth shouted, dashing up the spiral steps to the top of the tower, "The rebels are attacking the main gate!"
Emperor Leo Maximillian tore himself away from the window to face the young messenger, "What? Already!"
The boy adjusted his helmet and saluted, "Yes, Your Highness! The rebel force, with Father Kiisan at the head of the column advanced under cover of the smoke from that wooden contraption and are now exchanging some light fire with General Ando's archery division. Another force appears to be headed towards the city from the east!"
A second messenger ran up and pushed past the first, saluting before he began to deliver his report, "A force led by Turan Magno is attempting to ram the north gate with a battering ram! We tried to deter them by firing upon them, but they've got longbows with some superb range! Their sharp-shooter picked off the captain and our three best men!"
"Father!" shouted Imperial Princess Susan, hurrying up the steps, pulling her younger brother after her, "Father, Xaro went out to inspect the situation and he saw Jonathon holding the bridle of that rebel leader's horse! They didn't kill him! He was laughing!"
"Turncoat," the bearded man spat, knowing that his own reluctance to save his son had likely predestined this change of heart.
"Xaro's going to enter the battle as soon as they're fighting on the ground," Pietro commented softly, clinging to his older sister's arm.
"I know," Leo Maximillian replied as calmly as he could, "But don't worry about Xaro Mikkel. He's a juggernaut in battle."
A third messenger sprinted up the steps, her chain main clinking noisily, "Your Highness! It's urgent! General Ando just gave the word that we would settle in and pick off the rebels from the walls---and then Starlet opened the main gates!"
"She did what!" the emperor roared.
Murasaki Fuji no Shita ni Kuni
"The Country Under the Purple Wisteria"
Chapter 80- Sincerity
"What's taking them so long!" General Ando shouted at Candal, who cringed at the sound of the general's angry voice.
"I don't know, Sir! I passed the command along to get those gates closed again as quickly as possible, but..."
The large man grabbed the assistant strategist by the front of his neatly ironed vest, "You passed the command along! That's not what I asked you to do! I told you to take the message to the gates yourself! When you want something done right you always do it yourself, Sir Strategist! I shouldn't have even bothered with you!" He dropped the smaller man neatly on his feet and hurried down the stairs as fast as his heavy armor would allow, to try and get the gates shut before the rebels could gain a foothold inside the walls.
Meanwhile, Starlet was anxiously urging General Gonzales to use this opportunity to free his son. She pulled on his cape, emphasizing her words as she spoke, "I heard they want to have him executed as a spy! If the rebels get inside the city, they'll certainly do it fast to make sure they can't come and rescue him!"
"Why are you doing this, Starlet?" he wondered aloud, glancing first towards the approaching rebels, locked in battle with General Ando's pike division, and then back into the city, towards the Imperial Palace, in whose lower dungeons his son patiently awaited his fate.
"I like you and Aciano, all right!" Starlet shouted over the growing noise of the battlefield, "So don't be stupid! Take this chance! Get him out and escape this mess! The rebels know him, they'll accept you!"
"I- I don't know about that..." he worried, as he began to step in the direction of the Imperial Palace.
"Be brave! Don't let your courage fail you at a moment like this!" Starlet encouraged the general, "Here!" she tossed him a ring of keys, "I took this off a jailer! Now get out of here! How long I can hold this gate open depends entirely on the strength of the enemy!"
Clenching the ring of keys in his gloved hand, Arturo took a few more nervous steps and then began to run.
From her perch atop the roof, Atera clapped politely. Starlet looked up at the small, barefoot girl, "You again? Are you my guardian angel?"
The blond girl put a finger to her lips and winked. Starlet shook her head in puzzlement and when she turned to look again, the little girl was gone.
Imperial arrows arching through the air put Falina somewhat on edge, as they recalled to mind her encounter in the mountains. She was afraid to move from her place to approach the rebels until the gates opened and the focus of the battle changed. The sun broke through the clouds and a weak beam of yellow light fell on Kiisan, jumping down from his horse and waving his wooden staff in the air. The cold wind blew his hair and the scarf that covered his head and rustled his long robes around his boots. For a moment, Falina saw him as the destined hero that others claimed he was, but as the clouds thickened again, he became regular old Kiisan, the peasant boy she had known all her life.
Kiisan did not see Falina at this time, but someone else did. Hai-Yong swung his heavy axe, chopping the tops off three pikes at once. As he spun around to follow up this act, dealing a hard blow to the helmeted head of one Imperial soldier, he caught sight of a colorful figure peering around the corner of the stonewall. With a swift kick to the ankle, he knocked his next attacker to the ground and, shouldering his axe, took off towards the south and west corner of the walls.
"Falina!" he called as he approached. A few of the Imperial archers took advantage of the large target he made to fire some shots at him. The first missed by several yards, the second came closer, a third clanged off his axe blade, and the fourth bit into his lower arm. He flinched and gritted his teeth, stifling a curse at the archer.
At Hai-Yong's call, Falina had grown braver. She darted out from around the corner and ran to the wavy-haired man. They met again at last, tears in their eyes, and threw their arms around each other.
The archers were undeterred and actually encouraged by the hit they had scored on Hai-Yong. The lucky man drew an arrow from his quiver and began to aim again.
Sasshalai had watched Hai-Yong with curiosity as he left the main battlefield to meet Falina and now he saw the archer's motion. He pointed at the wall and shot the shrill thought out, "Someone do something!"
The closest to hear the young voice ringing in their head was Han Li. He did not even need to think. He twirled around, slashing the wrist of his attacker with his dirk as he called the wind to do his bidding. The entire division of archers collapsed across the wall.
"What did you do?" Kurin asked, glancing at the mage cautiously.
"I knocked the wind out of them," Han Li replied succinctly.
Unnerved by the sound of the rushing wind above them, Hai-Yong decided not to stick it out in the open any longer. He pulled Falina over to stand closer to the wall where it would be more difficult to be fired upon, but as Falina observed, "more easy for someone to drop something on us."
"Where did all these summery flowers come from?" Hai-Yong asked, touching an orange poppy woven into Falina's wreath.
"Klikk, Master Matataki's city," Falina explained, "I don't know how they stay so nice and lively, but I'm supposed to keep them on for now."
"Oh, well, they're nice," the wavy-haired man agreed, sitting down and carefully pulling the arrow out of his arm.
"Let me help," the ebony-haired girl insisted, pulling a pink handkerchief from her pocket and knotting it tightly around the wound.
They looked at each silently for several moments, simply taking each other in. Falina broke the silence first, "I'm so glad..." she murmured, "...To see you again, Hai-Yong..."
"So am I!" he laughed, "You wouldn't believe all the crazy things that have happened without you! And I made you something!" He held up his hands and wiggled his bandaged fingers in front of her, "A lot of blood went into it, so I hope that you'll like it!"
"Whatever you made, I'll love it, just because you did it for me," she smiled.
They grew silent again, gazing at each other. Hai-Yong took Falina's hand and grinned, "Tell me that I'm not just dreaming."
"You're not dreaming!" she giggled, "Do you want me to pinch you?"
"Nah," he laughed, "I've had enough pain these past few days to last for a while. I'll just take your word for it."
Suzume's Note: I'm sorry that I forgot to mention it until now, but I want koriandr-star to know, if he's reading this that he can get the beginning of the story in two rather large amounts at once if he'd still like to read it, here: http/ of it will be added later.)