Early the next morning, the group followed Richard through the Kingdom as he led them to the King, who was standing watch over an archery lesson.
"This is life here," Ezekiel started as they gathered behind him. "Every day. But it came at a cost." He turned to them. "I wanted more of this. I wanted to expand. To create more places like this. Men and women lost their limbs. Children lost their parents because I sent them into battle against the wasted when I did not need to."
"This is different," Rick said, stepping forward.
"It isn't," Ezekiel sighed.
"It is," Rick insisted. "The dead don't rule us. The world doesn't look like this outside your walls. People don't have it as good. Some people don't have it good at all."
"I have to worry about my people," Ezekiel said.
"You call yourself a damn king? You sure as hell don't act like one," Daryl snapped.
"All of this came at a cost," Ezekiel repeated, walking to stand in front of Daryl. "It was lives, arms, legs," he said, pointing at the girl balanced on the stool with one leg.
He turned back to Rick.
"The peace we have with the Saviors is uneasy, but it is peace. I have to hold on to it. I have to try."
Anna shifted on her feet, leaning against her stick.
"Although the Kingdom cannot grant you the aid you desire, the King is sympathetic to your plight," Ezekiel said. "I offer our friend Daryl asylum for as long as he requires it. He will be safe here. The Saviors do not set foot inside our walls."
"How long you think that's gonna last?" Daryl grumbled, stalking off.
Anna followed after him, and she could hear the others behind her. She dropped back to walk beside Morgan; Rick and Richard were on his other side.
"You can change his mind, but you won't," Rick said.
"Then you can stay. We can talk," Morgan offered.
"What more can we say, Morgan?" Anna asked.
"How many people do we have?" Richard asked from the other side of Rick. "To fight? I'll go with you."
"We don't even have enough to take on one outpost face-to-face yet," Rick explained.
"So, the Kingdom has to get involved, or the Saviors will always be in charge," Richard deduced. "It isn't about soldiers. We're making them stronger. The more food we give them, the more arms, the more everything, every day any of us give them something, they become harder and harder to beat."
"Alright, open it up," Daryl called as they all stopped at the front gate. "We're gone."
"You're not," Rick said as the gate pulled open.
"I'm not staying here," Daryl sneered.
"You have to. It's the smartest play. You know it is. Try to talk to Ezekiel," Rick sighed.
Daryl glared at him.
"Or stare him into submission—" Rick teased. "Whatever it takes. We'll be back soon."
The group started down the road to head back to the van, but Anna stayed beside Daryl. Jessie paused when he noticed she wasn't following, and he turned back to her.
"Anna?" He called, and the others paused too.
"I'm staying with Daryl," she announced.
"Then I'm staying, too," Jessie said immediately, walking back to her.
"No," Anna said. "No, we can't have too many people from Alexandria staying behind. You need to go back."
She patted him on the shoulder and gently pushed him toward the others. Jessie huffed.
"Stay safe," he instructed, giving her a quick hug before he and the others disappeared down the road.
Daryl grumbled something under his breath and stalked off. Anna sighed, watching him go. Morgan cleared his throat, calling her attention.
"Come on, I'll show you around," he said, gesturing for her to follow him.
Anna nodded and the two began down the path, passing people gardening or tending to other tasks. She saw the young man from the stage practicing with his stick.
"You're training him?" Anna asked.
"Benjamin? Yeah," Morgan said. "He's good."
"Good," Anna echoed.
"You can get some fresh clothes there," Morgan said, pointing to a group of tables piled with clothes. "I'm sure they've got some extra."
They continued through the Kingdom as Morgan pointed out the different things it had to offer until they were strolling along in silence. Not far off, Anna spotted Ezekiel sitting on a bench with a young blond boy. While she was grateful that the King had allowed her and Daryl to stay, she wished the man was on board. She glanced at Morgan. If he had just advocated for them yesterday, maybe it would have changed Ezekiel's mind.
"Why didn't you side with Rick?" She asked. "After what you did for Carol—"
"I didn't have a choice," Morgan said, coming to a halt. "He didn't—he didn't give me a choice."
Anna stopped and turned to face him.
"There's always a choice, Morgan. You taught me that. Someone was going to die—you chose who did."
"I'm beginnin' to realize that. But shouldn't we avoid having to make that choice if we can?" He entreated.
"If we can," Anna agreed. "We tried the peaceful option; maybe we weren't all as subservient as we could've been, but we tried. Blood was still spilled. So, we either go on as we have been and they continue to kill our people just to prove their points, or we fight. There is no middle ground. Either way, it ends in bloodshed."
"I'm sorry," Morgan sighed, wiping his hand down his face. "Maybe you're right, maybe we can't always avoid it, but I can't get behind rallying people for that. I just can't."
"I know," Anna said, shaking her head. "I wasn't trying to change your mind. I just wanted you to understand where we're coming from. We can't let this keep happening."
"I get it. I won't get in the way," Morgan assured. "Ezekiel asked me for my opinion, so I gave it to him. I couldn't lie, not even for Rick."
Anna walked down the hall, looking through the stack of clothes one of the Kingdomers had seen fit to give her as she balanced her stick under her arm. With her hands full, she pushed the door to her and Daryl's room open with her hip and kicked it shut before she made for the dresser.
"What's that?"
Anna whirled around, spotting Daryl lounging on the bed.
"Clothes," she said, holding them up briefly before turning back to the dresser. "Did I wake you? I'm sorry."
"Nah," he assured, and she heard him shifting.
She set her stick against the wall before placing the clothes in the dresser, setting his on the left side of the drawer and hers on the right, pulling a fresh powder-blue, cotton shirt from the stack.
"The people seem nice here," she commented absently as she pulled her T-shirt off.
"I guess," Daryl muttered.
Anna went to the water basin in the corner and wiped the sweat from her skin.
"We don't know how long we're going to be here; we might as well get along with them," Anna reasoned, dabbing at her skin with the hand towel.
"It ain't gonna be for long," Daryl grumbled.
She pulled the fresh shirt on and turned to him, seeing that he'd moved to sit on the edge of the bed, resting his elbows against his knees.
"However long it takes," Anna corrected. "I don't want to call this fairyland of a place home either. But I want you to be safe."
"You didn't have to stay," Daryl said.
"I know I didn't," Anna shrugged.
Daryl shook his head, his hair falling in his face. Anna pursed her lips as a curiosity tugged at her.
"When this is all over…, what then?" She asked, returning to the dresser so that she didn't have to look at him when he answered.
"What d'ya mean?"
"After we win, after we beat Negan, what do we do then?" She asked. "What happens after?"
"What do you want to happen after?" He asked carefully.
"I don't know. I—" Anna huffed, bracing herself against the dresser.
What did she want? She wasn't sure why she was so nervous.
"I want it to be you and me," she said softly. "Just you and me in a little house in the woods where we can hunt and live and just be."
She turned around, still leaning against the dresser, taking a breath before she finally looked at him.
"Do you think that's something you might want too?" She asked.
Daryl was quiet for a long time, and she could feel the anxiety building up in her chest.
"Let's get through this first," he finally said.
"Okay," she said weakly.
It wasn't the answer she had wanted—it wasn't really an answer at all—but as she picked up her stick, she told herself that he was right; the Saviors came first, and everything else would come after.
Anna and Daryl walked down the porch, headed for the training yard when they heard the sound of engines pulling up. As they neared the end of the porch, they saw Ezekiel, Morgan, and a few others climbing out of trucks. Ezekiel exchanged some words with Benjamin before walking away with Jerry and Diane. Richard headed off alone.
"Hey," Daryl called. "Where'd you go in them trucks?" He asked when Morgan and Benjamin looked to them still standing on the porch.
"I need to speak with Daryl alone," Morgan said, walking toward them. "That okay?" He asked Benjamin.
"Yeah, sure," Benjamin said.
"Benjamin," Anna called before he could walk away.
She and Daryl started down the steps.
"Do you want to train with me?" She asked. "I haven't had anyone to spar with in a long time."
"Yeah," Benjamin said, gesturing for her to follow him.
He led them to the gazebo where she'd seen Morgan training earlier in the morning. They stood across from each other and bowed before getting into first position.
"Did Morgan teach you too?" He asked as he swung his stick horizontally.
She knocked his stick off its course easily enough and gently bumped him in the side with hers.
"Yeah," she replied as she side-stepped another swing of his stick. "For a little while."
She didn't think he needed to know that Morgan had decided to discontinue her training and she'd been on her own since.
"Well, don't go easy on me," Benjamin chastised.
Anna raised a brow at him but she adjusted her stance as he brought his stick over his head and back toward her. She ducked, her eyes spotting an opening. Without warning, Anna kicked out her foot, hooking it around Benjamin's ankle and pulling his foot out from under him. He shouted in surprise as he toppled onto his back, losing his hold on his stick. It clattered to the ground beside him.
"Hey!"
She straightened and pressed her lips together to keep from smirking.
"I thought we were sparring with the stick," he griped, his cheeks taking on a slight shade of pink.
"We were. I'm sorry—that wasn't fair," she conceded, offering her hand to help him up.
He reluctantly took her hand, and she hauled him to his feet before he scooped up his stick.
"Teachable moment, though. You're focusing so much on what's happening up here," she explained, gesturing with her hand to indicate the top half of his body, "that you left your feet open. You've got to teach yourself to be aware of the whole picture."
"Did Morgan teach you that?" He asked.
"No. I learned that in the army."
"You were in the army?"
"Some time after the turn. For seven months," she clarified.
"Thanks for the tip," Benjamin said, nodding thoughtfully.
"Do you want to keep going?" She asked.
"Yeah," he said firmly, getting into his stance.
They continued to spar for an hour before they decided to take a break, sitting on the steps of the gazebo to rest, each nursing a bottle of water. Ezekiel walked up then, Jerry following close behind him.
"So, you are also trained in the stick?" Ezekiel asked as he stopped in front of them.
"Yup," Anna said, setting her water bottle down between her legs.
"Dope," Jerry grinned, and Anna gave him a thumbs up with a small smile.
"Was it Morgan who trained you?" Ezekiel pushed.
"It was," Anna nodded, propping her elbows up against her knees and leaning forward.
"And yet you advocate for violence," he observed.
"I advocate for peace—true peace," she corrected. "Not a false sense of security."
"You speak plainly."
"Force of habit, your Majesty."
"As I have said, the peace between the Kingdom and the Saviors is fragile, but we must hold on to what we have managed to create for as long as we can," Ezekiel said.
"False peace is not worth holding on to," she said, picking up her water and standing.
"Are you certain it is not your grief that drives you?" He asked. "The Saviors have taken much from you, as they have done us, but we cannot let our grief turn to hatred and blind us."
"'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him,'" Anna recited.
"Wise words," Ezekiel nodded.
"G.K. Chesterton," Anna said.
"I thank you for your candor, Anna of Alexandria. But my decision stands," Ezekiel said firmly. "I bid you a good evening. Come, Jerry."
Anna watched as the two carried off, and Benjamin got to his feet beside her.
"Look, I think you're right, but Ezekiel's not going to change his mind," Benjamin sighed.
"I know," Anna admitted as she picked up her stick. "But it was worth a shot. Thanks for sparring with me."
"Yeah, no problem," Benjamin said as Anna stepped away from him.
"See you around—and keep practicing, you're good," Anna called over her shoulder as she headed for the living quarters.