Our Flag Still Flies – War Of Rebellion Arc –
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Part Sixteen: Blind Relations
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So, on a short wait to get this into a war era epic scene – as in, the real end of the General? Find out!
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Grant was sure that whipping the bird raw was wrong. He didn't much care to sympathize as the hollow-eyed dove walked away in a limp to his quarters around the base. Grant would have that post, his father would not hand it to Tara. She was nothing much but an attention – hoe for the wicked to take advantage. She'd become her worst self; he'd remind her of that.
Now….
To go into the question of telling some good soldiers to listen to him and ruin her, without his father making so much as a peep. Grant wandered off as he strode around the base and saw the men's complacency. This was utterly boring to them. They had a job to do, but then why was it so quiet?
The day hours had not broken as the men were dismissed to sleep and not speak of that time; they'd punished a seventeen-year-old exiled noble son. If there was no god in Bluddbechian lore, so then might they all be smited or spared.
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Tara tip toed to the door of the General's own rooms. He was quiet, not asking for his bird like she had hoped. Pushing back a lock of hair, she knocked only twice to test herself.
The door clicked and she was granted permission to enter. There by his desk, the General looked, human. Tired, over his papers and reports. Disappointments with the Minerva Court. All of it was a weighted boulder she'd gladly remove. For a favor…
"Good evening, General." She stood attention.
"Evening, Lieutenant, sir."
Tara had to feel her heart skip at his title; her title!
"Um, well. This is a bad time but…. have you looked over the candi...oh, would I be able to help out? You look so tense."
The General stiffened at her words. "I'm fine." He gruffly replied, head down with his work far more important. "Are you not ready to retire like my men at the barracks?"
"I'm best at night, sometimes." She moved with less grace, not as much as her mother or even as Rose's confident self. To her, she was a knobby tree. A thing with limbs that had gained the ability to walk on stilts. "I learned massages from, from Robin." She told the General. "He's being punished, isn't he –
"It's not my place to tell." The man flicked a page over and sighed. "If you must, make it practical. Richard has the skill through the family doctor of the Wayne's. What can you do to imitate his dexterity?"
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She did her best, kneading and not complaining as he was built to tower. To impact a nation. She did more than her best, sweat to her brow as her face moved to his nape…
"You're too close."
"Sorry –
"Do it over, or leave."
She bit her lip and tried again, her heart thumping. Heat pooled in her face as his hand landed by her face, his lone eye in the same place it shouldn't have been. "This was all you wanted…"
He smiled at her question. "That all depends. Are you willing to go further for your post, that's why you're here." She stepped back. "I know, I've seen how meek you never were. Just like your mother, all pomp until it was time to want. To gain something no one else could have."
She threw her arm down, growling as her feet moved. "You're her daughter, through and through." He told her, not stopping to rub the wound a bit, her face puckering with heat and near tears. "Mother never loved anyone!!"
She shouted, crouching back as he pulled her close, his lips to hers as he did….no…. he wasn't going to?"
"She never told you, who your father was."
Tara's eyes grew wide as he let her breathe carefully in, then out. The patter in her chest was not ready to fail, she had come to seduce…
"I never wanted you for your body, dear. You're my blood. All of it, down to that tenacity I saw the day you were brought to my hallway."
"Sir…." She gasped and tried to shake her head, moving out of the room as he allowed it. "We have no real secrets between us. I'll keep my promise, as long as you never let your body go so irresponsibly. You are a royal, and I am going to make sure that you realize it, sooner or later."
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Korina sat in the hall of the ensemble that Oliver had brought together; a togetherness that would paint the city red with revolution by what he and his colleagues had discovered. Joe's mind had left a lot to pick up on, including a relationship with the old order and new, the time of the Knights and why it had been forced into hiding for decades long into this war.
She remembered taking to the words of Beatrice and how many soldiers had come to her home to abduct her, to not allow her a sense, but…it was the wrong memory.
"That…. was not how it all had happened to me."
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~ The real words of her struggle were still behind thick walls meant to carry the secrets of Project Starfire. ~
There was no telling what her strange power of a being of some prophetic light could do, and with the power now was Alexi and the General.
~They'd turn the tides; bury the people and any chance they have to be salvaged… ~
She was captured while trying to leave the files behind, the ones stating that a blood relative of a god's son could in fact help the evil men to harness the power of her light. She did not believe this, for it meant killing the god that had been the one to raise their Brutus, their turncoat.
What then was the reason for this sneaky attack dripping in occultic lore? She kept recalling the origins, and bac them…. was a demon that granted, immortality and the chance to leave the world in ruin for a lifetime. (VERY IMPORTANT! DON'T FORGET THAT RA'S DEMONS ARE SORT OF CONNECTED BY HIS INTENT TO RULE – BUT WHO IS THE GOD'S SON?)
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"Lady Korina?"
Royland was there and his smile was naught; she looked to him now, hoping to see her Richard when this war had ended. If ever he remembered her, body and all…
"Oliver made his plea, you're now under their protection and the next step is to find out more about the project."
"You, may not find why these men are so evil to us…" She shook her head and sought out the floor as her green eyes began to waiver. "Richard gave himself up, yet were the Knights not thought of as God – figures to the stories we told? I deeply fear that the General does not know what he is truly doing."
"He can't." Roy agreed. "He's stripped of that power if the Minervan order implements a change. It is no wonder that Oliver went into hiding to seek his position and prevent his name from being scorned by those that would be so crooked to smash it into the dirt." Fists to his sides, Oliver had raised the boy as his own for years since the child was then left to the orphanage in Styr. He did not know what good was until Oliver promised a change. That, was why Roy had asked himself here, was Richard even going to know his promises once he was freed? Would he be mature enough to aid Korina as her betrothed? As if Jade would ever share these views. He didn't think it right, but if Richard didn't come home…he'd care for her. As a promise. He was sure it would happen. She raised her eyes.
Fear in them, they looked up to him.
He was sure, that he stilled cared for his best friend's fiancé.
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Rachelle listened and heard only the wind from her spot overlooking the city by day's break. Garrison moved along and used his power of man and beast to seek her out as a cat, a tawny thing as she did nothing to respond. "My status is as a seer, to my rites, I have this gift to allow me to see into those walls. To see if they are safe."
"The one you care for is also, he must be as worried. You, see?" Garrison reverted and sat with his legs dangling, boots bumping the side of the rooftop. "I see a plan to rebuild. Gotemiln was only the start. Here in Styr, I…." He scratched his cheek nervously and eyed the most beautiful soul he could seek to know. Her cloak covered her, yet her pose to meditate and give thanks was vivid in his mind's eye. However, she was an empath of great power. A power he could never understand well enough in their time as allies.
"Your father and mother worked to better the medicine used to help the people who had access. How could you know the pain of those who could not afford what was to be the cost." She sat, her eyes opening as her hands fell to her sides. "My brother was ill with a violet (scarlett) fever inside of our caravan. In the time of improved works, they called us a many things. Evil, bad luck. Even, cursed." Her shuddering shoulders spoke of the past, of her past wih so much to learn. "My father was never known, and mother vanished. I believe she was killed with my people in the "Cleansing." She recalled. "Right as the Knights fell, as hope was nothing to those with so much to afford to lose…how can any of you know that pain? You had servants, and family." She huffed, her position returning as the aura she kept was less at a calm than before.
"My past, was not as a noble." Garrison did know, he'd have no choice but to open up his heart. "I was orphaned and swept from sea to sea in a boat not big enough to support what my ability could do. They say I was cursed by a totemic evil, that my power of the animals was…. strange. I was auctioned to by a team of scientific minds. Stephan and Catrina. (Rita.) They saw a boy, not a monster while together, we helped! We did our best to be sure that medicine was for the common man, not for…those with more power. It was, after your brother. I am sorry…" He hung his head. "Had we met one time in time, I might have cared to do my best –
"Stop." She put up a hand. "A voice…I hear it!"
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Damian was perturbed by his family. One of loyalties to a demon, he'd found. And not just any. A demon with the brand of the Astari (Azar) The oldest sect of worshipping fools who had never died. Why would his grandfather prostate himself to a folkloric being??
~ Wise man, indeed…. I will show him. ~
Damian waited until his mother had left to retire. She'd this night been too "full" To stick to the servant male she'd coddled. He went to pen of the man to see him resting against the wall of stone separating their quarters.
"You must tell me," Damian hissed out, demandingly, "What is your true reason for being here and….and is my grandfather no longer fit to rule?"
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Wayne's sigh was ragged, butchered by the woman's snaking tendrils. "She is cursed by his desire to rule, as is your grandfather. I was sold to the family of Al – Ghul by the ones responsible for this war. The Order of Minerva. They control your grandfather, even if he is not even aware of their plan to summon a demon by his pool of souls."
"Pool…the place Grandfather goes to reclaim his youth?" The boy gave a face in confusion. "He steals not souls there, yet reclaims life –
"Of those already dying, those absorbed by the power of the Astari's fallen god." Wayne told the boy. "That creature thrives in the pools. Your grandfather was enticed by its call, and so his mind has no unraveled the reasons behind –
"How can you know?"
"He, was once a friend." Wayne said. "He was your grandfather, my greatest ally, yet Damian?" The man stood taller as his eyes changed to catch more light in them. "You are my blood son, and you cannot go along with helping him to destroy this world."
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Cobb was tutted by the great leader; his leaders as he held only the loyalty of the Talon. He could certainly side with the General, have the two as partners in overturning the Al – Ghuls and the Order's least resilient. His wish was to have his great grandson truly freed. Maybe then there could be some peace of mind. Wayne…. he'd allowed those hooded fools to drag the man to the Lord Ra's palace! How foolish! He was no key, he was their destruction. Or, so was the boy. He was the revelation of the Talon. The man to bring an end to the war if so he decided to leave the skin of his former life.
"That child knows not of his birthright." Cobb stroked his chin, looking out the glass of his last hideaway in Styr. "It is time to remind both he and the rebel that there will be no revolt. Not with the owls, watching in the darkest of worlds…."
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Cobb was at his head with talons to kill the General, should he defect. He called to his son, Grant. He left Tara, her post no longer what she wished to reclaim. Had he only known of her escape from the compound.
She was indeed aware of where she was. Passing the wall and posing as someone who did not murder innocents of this city. By the hollow existence of these streets, she remained unseen until she'd come to a church. One that was fallen, thanks to the raids, the tanks and the soldiers the General had sent during the failed revolt of the wall. "You've come." There, Victor, Rachelle, and Garrison all were the ones to hear it. "In days, we saw your mind. You are troubled, and now we know."
"Is Joe –
"What pity should you be granting him, lov?" Garrison sneered. "He's a traitor, just like you. You killed his sister, the Ravager's commanding officer. What in the likes of the gods can you know about our war?"
"I know of war." Tara held to her sides and trembled. "I was a victim, just like you. The famed youngest child of the family, Marvkolia! And I dare to aid the rebels to reclaim the hearts of my own people... if only to wash these hands….to have known my own mother would…." She came to her knees and Rachelle saw what this king among false kings WAS.
"She speaks true." Rachelle gasped. "You were an illegitimate child of the General and the queen…."
"Please, I require cleansing…I will never undo these sins, yet may I not rise above them? May I not give you the words I know. As the General's only youngest, confidant." Her eyes batted up.
He would pay for it, dearly. Taking her crown, taking her rites…
She'd only kill those loyal to that man, if they didn't first objet to becoming soldiers to HER cause. (She's nuts. Run!!)
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So, Tara switches sides after learning who she is to the General, that she will never have the post because it would mean a struggle far greater that she can't handle bearing. Or does she have her own revenge plot and is this a way to get even instead of repent?
Korina remembers how she came to become an experiment in aiding Alexi and the General in securing her energy and power as a physical source. Royland realizes that Korina needs someone to help her, and that Richard isn't right in his mind for the job if he ever does come back. Will he betray their friendship and hurt Jade in the process?
Damian learns that his family has been driven to madness. (Similar to Mystery Incorporated series with the evil entity.) That the Lazarus pool is actually a pool of souls that heals his grandfather, only to drive him into a state of mania that has overtaken his ruling hand, and that Talia who is loyal to her father, was forced to be cursed in order to perform a role that I can tell you….is freaky – and that Bruce may be connected to a cultic ordeal that will determine if the war ends or thrives. Cobb is reluctant to have the Minervan higher ups gain all the credit, and he decides to have the General bend over backwards for him so when he wins, then Richard is made the Gray Son and later leader to the talons and the rise of their vison.
Sigh, it's a lore mixed in. and don't forget the backstory of Rachelle. We are adding a little more demonology to the theme as she doesn't know how she got her powers inherited from him. Well, and not to forget Gar's (Garrison's heart to heart.)
Vic will be a bit more in this later, he was a big player in their weapons and tech, so let's see where this goes. Next is also Jason and his run in with Jay. Don't move and find out soon!
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