Summary:

The powder keg that is the Zaphias political situation has just exploded. Someone has kidnapped the prince and the fate of the princess is unclear. The Council is blaming the Knights and Commandant Alexei is rallying his backers to seize control of the throne. The Knights themselves find themselves split into three factions: defenders of the council, those rallying to Alexei's cause, and a small band of Imperial loyalist whose quiet, but charismatic, leader was sent out of the city a week earlier.

It's time for Raven to pick a side and he's known for a long time that when push came to shove... he wouldn't be siding with Alexei.

Notes: Part 2 in the Folk Heroes series (Alternate Universe)

The Bird Rebellion

Schwann hated Tuesdays. Nothing good ever happened on a Tuesday.

He'd enlisted in the Knights on a Tuesday, a young idealistic noble who'd still been called Damuran Atomais at the time. Oh he'd thought that enlisting was a great idea for the youngest son of a failing noble family, but it was a terrible plan. Because a few months later the Empire went to war with the Republic. He'd fallen in love on a Tuesday. His commanding officer, Captain Casey, had been the most beautiful and caring woman he'd ever known. She'd died on a Tuesday, in the rain and the mud as Damuran learned the hard way that war should never be romanticized.

It was a Tuesday when he'd learned his older brother was to be executed for treason against the throne, selling secrets to the enemy, and Damuran was arrested on suspicion of collusion. It was Alexei who'd vouched for him and saved Damuran's life. And it was Alexei who'd helped him re-establish himself as Schwann Oltorain when the rest of the Atomais family was stripped of their titles and banished from the Imperial capital.

It was a Tuesday when Alexei became Commandant and, much like enlisting in the Knights, Schwann mistook that for a good thing at the time. But becoming the Commandant soured something in Alexei and the ideals the man had once espoused began to disappear beneath a veneer of political intrigue.

When Schwann realized that Alexei intended to take the Imperial throne for himself upon the Emperor's death? Tuesday. Learned that Alexei was quietly taking loved ones of key political enemies hostage? Tuesday. Realized that when the next war came, Alexei would be spearheading a bloody revolution that would only make things worse for the Empire, not better?

Tuesday.

The day Schwann looked in the mirror with hung over, bloodshot eyes, and recognized that if he wanted to be able to live with himself that he wouldn't be siding with his oldest friend?

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday...

Let's just say it took him a long while to stop drinking.

The Emperor dies on a Tuesday. Prince Ioder left scrambling to solidify a power base that Schwann knew he wouldn't be able to stabilize in time. Too many the young man thought were allies were actually anything but. The Princess looked so lost at the funeral, young Lieutenant Flynn Scifo at her side.

Funny thing was, Lieutenant Scifo was often seen with Prince Ioder as well. In fact, he'd been seen around a number of knights, asking questions about their loyalties to the Empire and the Council and the Commandant. And, unfortunately for the young knight, Schwann wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Scifo couldn't be bribed and couldn't be bought. But he could be made to follow orders. It was a Tuesday when the young man was sent on a pilgrimage that Schwann rather suspected the knight wasn't intended to return from.

A week later, another Tuesday, Schwann is supposed to have the night off. So it's most unfortunate, and not the least bit surprising, when the second in command of Schwann's brigade came barreling into Schwann's quarter's.

"Sir!" Leblanc said, breathing hard and looking a touch wild eyed. Well... said was a mild word. Bellowed was probably closer to the truth. "I'm sorry to interrupt your time off, but we have a situation. The Prince has been kidnapped and no one can locate the Princess."

Tuesdays. They just sucked.

There are knights fighting each other in the palace and the streets of the noble quarter. Cumore's brigade has sided with the Council and they're fighting tooth and nail against Alexei's personal brigade. All other brigades have been posted at the various exits to the city, to prevent anyone from leaving in this time of political turmoil. It's only a matter of time before the Council admits defeat, however. Cumore's brigade is much like their Captain. Younger nobles who believe the accident of their birth to well off families makes them better than the rest of the 'rabble'. Something Schwann's ashamed to admit that he once believed himself.

He knows better now.

With the prince and princess gone, however, there's no third option for the knights to choose from. And no Flynn Scifo to act as a rallying point in their stead. Which means that if someone is going to knock over the dominoes left behind by Ioder, it's going to have to be someone else.

The problem is, of course, that Schwann's friendship with Alexei is too well known. No one is going to trust Captain Schwann to be fighting for the Imperial candidates and not secretly plotting in Alexei's honor. Case in point, Schwann's already been summoned by Alexei and tasked with quietly tracking down the missing princess.

There are a few options, but if Estellise has truly escaped then it's in her best interest that Schwann doesn't find her right now. So Schwann gathers up three members of his brigade - Leblanc, of course, along with his aides Adecor and Boccos - and makes a show of searching the palace while the rest of his brigade searches the palace grounds and the noble quarter. Well, ostensibly his brigade is searching the grounds, but in reality they're getting all civilians to safety and ensuring, as best they can, that the fighting doesn't spill over into the citizen's quarter. The quieter and better contained the uprising is, the safer for the citizenry it'd be.

Similarly, Schwann and his three remaining knights in the palace use their search to get the various servants out of the way of the fighting. And in the early morning hours as light begins to peer over the horizon... the fighting finally ends. The remaining Council surrenders, though a significant portion escaped during the fighting. No doubt planning to set themselves up as a provisional government in hiding, fighting against the usurper Alexei.

That's when Schwann declares that the princess is definitely not in the palace and returns to the room where the princess had last been seen. Her private dining hall, not far from her personal chambers. He's already searched her chambers twice and he's posted a guard there just in case she comes back.

Schwann hopes, for her sake, that Estellise is savvy enough not to come back.

Now, Schwann knows the layout of the castle quite well. And a short distance from the dining hall, in the opposite direction of Lady Estellise's chambers, is a little known secret passage. One of several, leftover from times when political intrigues like they were currently facing were far more common place. Hoping that the girl hadn't lingered in the sewers below, Schwann opened up the secret passage and led the way below.

When Adecor finds Estellise's blue gown and petticoats stuffed behind some loose bricks, Schwann smiles in relief, grateful for the darkness covering his reaction.

There must've been provisions awaiting the princess down here. Her hair is still to distinctive, but with the right disguise Estellise would still have a fighting chance of disappearing into the night.

Though Schwann is able to follow the girl's footsteps through the dirt and slime of the sewers to an exit leading up into the citizen's quarters, the trail ends there. The tracks from her shoes fades quickly, likely cleaned with water from a nearby fountain. He'd have to order his brigade to knock on doors in the citizen's quarters next, looking for the missing princess. Promising a reward for whoever sheltered her during the Council's unlawful attack, of course.

Hopefully the girl had gone to the lower quarter instead. If Alexei found her, he could use her to legitimize his coup.

"How goes the search for the Princess?"

Schwann shook his head. "Still searching the citizen's quarter and we've expanded to parts of the lower quarter as well. Still no sign of her. What about his highness, Ioder?"

"I believe we were wrong about the number of adversaries we were facing to placing me on the throne of the Empire," Alexei replied ruefully. "I believe someone on the Council, or close to them, is colluding with the Republic."

Four factions, then. One more than Schwann had been aware of. Though they'd be back to three if no one took charge of the loyalists soon. They were already splintering into Alexei's faction.

What could he do, though?

"Something is distracting you," Alexei observed. "What is it?"

"Just... thinking about how far we've both come from that day we first met." Schwann smiled at the memory, even now. "What made you believe I wasn't a traitor like my brother? You didn't even know me."

"I didn't need to," Alexei said, his own smile fond. "You were grieving and angry and lost, but I could see the dedication in your eyes. I see that same dedication now. Even if you are tired and jaded. We're so close, Schwann. To finally being able to enact real change. Take the power back from the nobility..."

All goals that Schwann still believed in. The Empire needed to be remade or the people would revolt. On surface, what Alexei promised was exactly what the people wanted. A government that would listen to their grievances and treat them all as equals. But Alexei had stopped caring about the plights of the downtrodden long ago. His experiments had already caused the destruction of a useful barrier blastia and left the city of Shizontania unprotected. Schwann had investigated clandestinely, disguised as a mercenary by the name of Raven. It was the most fun he had in long time... until the experiments at the ruined fort outside of town were revealed to have been the breeding monsters unlike anything Schwann had ever seen before. He'd contacted one of the brigades doing rotation at the city when the monsters overpowered their creators and those things were put down. But at too high a price. Captain Niren was a friend of Schwann's.

Dead now and there was no explanation why. Unless Alexei intended to conquer more than just the Empire. The Republic... maybe even the independent nations of Desier and Hypionia.

There were rumors of missing Republic ships in Imperial waters and Alexei had been ramping up recruitment for the Knights. Sending requests to the city of researchers for increased production of weapons based blastia. The kind that could take out enemies from a great distance.

Alexei had said something, after the last war ended. "I'll get you your revenge for her loss one day, my friend. You have my word." At the time, Schwann had thought nothing of it. War was war and Carey's loss... was a tragedy. One suffered by many on both sides of the war. There was no revenge to be had.

"Then tell me the truth, Alexei. When you've consolidated your power base here... are we going to war with the Republic again?"

Alexei nodded. "I promised you vengeance. I intend to keep that promise, my friend."

The war never ended for Alexei, had it? And that Schwann hadn't understood that until it was too late. Did that make him an awful friend?

Probably. But the man who'd been his friend was gone. And Schwann could not risk more of those... abominations being released upon the world.

"Yes," Schwann agreed steadily, "you did promise that. I don't think the Princess is in the city anymore. I would like permission to go after her personally. With her at your side, no one can contest your legitimacy as the new Emperor."

"Your certain she's not in the city?"

"No. There's still a large part of the city we haven't searched. It's a gut feeling. There are breaks in the outer wall of around the lower quarter, many undocumented. She could have made it past the guards that way easily. Someone told her about the secret passage she escaped from the palace with, they could have easily told her about an undocumented breach."

Alexei nodded thoughtfully. "Alright then. Bring her home, Schwann."

"I'm going to need you to lead the brigade while I'm away," Schwann told Leblanc.

"How long do you think you'll be gone, sir?"

"I don't know." He glanced nervously at the next room. "Did you gather them?"

"All the ones I know of. There's no guarantee they're actually loyal. If any of them report back to the Commandant..." Leblanc looked nervous himself.

"Then you go to ground and find me when its safe," Schwann told him. "Time to face the music." He opened the door and strode through. Several dozen knights on the other side. "I know you all have questions about what happened last night. You've probably already heard about Prince Ioder's kidnapping and the disappearance of the Princess. But what you also need to know is that the Council attempted to seize power last night and escaped from the city. Commandant Alexei has seized power instead and leading our nation down the path not just to civil war, but a renewed war against the Republic. And he intends to do so utilizing something code named Project Adephagos."

Schwann handed out several photographs to circulate amongst the knights. Even in grainy black and white, the monsters were unmistakably horrifying. "We have a duty to protect and serve the people of the Empire, but Alexei's experiments have already caused harm to our own people. Civilians killed by military experimentation. That cannot stand. The Empire stands upon a precipice and, yes, it does have to change to survive. But the question you need to ask yourself is what kind of empire do you want serve. One that hungers for war and considers the lives of our people expendable or one that holds every life is sacred."

He looked around the room and they all... they were all so young. "I need volunteers to go to Capua Nor to find Lieutenant Flynn Scifo."

Afterwards, Schwann let out a sigh and dropped onto the chair. "I'm too old for this," he muttered.

"Younger than me, sir."

Schwann looked up at Leblanc with an amused chuckle. "How many promotions have you passed up, to stay in my brigade?"

"Ah, well..." Leblanc looked embarrassed now.

"Too many," Schwann told him. "When this is over, you're getting a brigade of your own. I get the feeling we'll be down quite a few Captains."

"There's no other brigade I want to be part of, though," Leblanc blurted out. "And I'd hate to have all that paperwork."

Considering the brigade Schwann wanted Leblanc to take over was Schwann's... well, he knew what Leblanc really meant. But hopefully he wouldn't fuss too much anyway.

Blithely, Schwann joked, "oh you already do practically all my paperwork for me. It won't be that much of change. Anyway, I'm headed out next." Toying with the string in his hands, Schwann reached back to tie up his hair and let the tone and cadence of his voice change. "I think it's time to bring back good ol' Raven, friendly mercenary for hire. He might be a little easier for a Princess on the run to accept help from, don't you think?"

Notes: WIthout the fake heart, I do think Raven wouldn't actively go along with Alexei's plans. Especially since he can't be forced to obey under threat of the blastia heart's deactivation. So here, Alexei cultivated a very different relationship with Schwann, trying to build up a base of loyalty between them that he thinks is solid and he was right... up until Schwann started hearing rumors about the Adephagos project. What happened in Shizontania was the turning point where he had to admit that Alexei wasn't the friend, or leader, Schwann thought he was.

Schwann's not exactly stepping in as the leader of the rebellion here - he wants Flynn and Ioder for that. Which means tracking down Flynn and setting him on finding Ioder. Since he doesn't know that Estelle isn't on her own, she's his priority. Get her safe and far away from Alexei. Meanwhile, Leblanc is meant to be keeping the inhabitants of Zaphias safe and, well... what else Leblanc is up to will come later.