Trace didn't get any more sleep. His mind spun and plotted, schemed and conceived plans to make a difference. It was time to make a change. He spent the rest of the morning writing letters with the help of Sythe and Lynn. He was going to set things into motion, things that once started could not, would not stop. The time was now. The time for change was now. The time to make a difference was now. The time to make people see reason was now. The time for everything to end was now, and now was the time for something bigger to begin. "Do you really expect this to work?" Sythe asked. He had been voicing his concern for the last few hours, and not without good reason either.
"Like I said already, I don't know. I know the Wolf clans are ready for peace, and we have been on their good side for a while, holding the Templars at bay while they recover. Same thing with the Tiger clans, we haven't been openly hostile, so there's no reason for them not to come. As for the Templars, I have no idea. It all depends on Brahn." Sythe rolled his eyes at the name. "Look, I don't like it either, but he is the only one who can end things right now."
"It's either this, or we let the war go on." Lynn said as he stopped writing. "I am not confident either, but there is a chance he will see reason. Now, where and when will this meeting take place?"
Trace stopped too. He hadn't thought that far ahead. "I'm not sure. I only know that we have to bring them together. This is our only chance, and we can't afford to miss it."
"What's going on?" Keith asked as he walked into the room, stretching his arms out over his head. Richard followed shortly behind him, his normally messy hair somehow even more disheveled than usual.
"We're going to try and arrange a meeting between the major races of the world. There's something more going on here, and we have an opportunity to not only end the war, but unite people against a potential common enemy." Trace explained. "We have the letters mostly ready, but we need to figure out where and when they are going to meet."
"Not here." Keiren said, glancing over to them. He had gone back and laid down for a while as well, but his sense of duty had kept him awake. "Brahn would want to try and take the city from the inside, so I don't want him anywhere near the walls, let alone inside the city."
"He wouldn't dare-"
"He would." Trace cut of Sythe, who looked over dumbfounded. "Oh, he absolutely would. He's a liar and a schemer just as much as I was. He'd do anything, promise anything just to get his spies inside the city. He doesn't even have to keep his promises. Remember when he promised to abolish Feline Keidran slavery? He still hasn't done that. That's now a bargaining chip we can play to convince the Tiger clans and the Lynx clans."
"But that still begs the question of where?" Lynn asked, leaning back in his chair.
"It would have to be somewhere neutral, but not too far out of our reach." Keiren reached for the carafe of coffee that sat on the table, the smell wafting over everyone as he opened it.
"I know!" Richard said with a snap of his fingers and a sudden smile. Heads turned as he walked over to Keiren's desk and pulled out a map. "Remember a few weeks ago when we went to go find a place to build a watchtower? Well, it should be done any day now. If we meet there, it's not too far away for us to reach, still in neutral territory, and was actually large enough for us to host a meeting there. On top of that, the engineer said he would incorporate Ishtaer architecture and designs into the new tower, since that's who built the original one, so it will be made of marble and silver, but with the strength of Basidian engineering! No magic or attacks would be able to get in! We've seen just how strong the towers here are, and those aren't even that special!"
"He has a point." Keith said, reaching for a coffee cup of his own. "I could go out and find out when they will be done, and be back in say, a week?"
"Go. But take someone with you, no one travels alone anymore." Keiren was stern, a mixture of fear and determination in his voice. "Actually," he said as Keith was about to leave the room "tell them that they have to have it ready three weeks from today. The sooner we get these letters out the better. Best to do this while defeat is still fresh on Brahn's mind."
"Good ideas, both of them. I'll go wake up Natani and we'll head out by noon." Keiren turned his eyes back to the table as Keith left, his mind now hard at work.
"I understand that this is your idea," he said to Trace "but of all the people here that should try and talk to everyone, I feel like I'm the one who should do it."
"I was thinking the same thing." Trace slid over a blank piece of paper to him. "I'll go with you, but you should be the one to do the talking. You focus on actually convincing Brahn to stop the war. I… have a different idea. A backup plan, if you will."
"Backup plan? I thought you said this would work?"
"I never said that it would work, I just said that it should work. There's a big difference between the two. You will be the one to try and make sure that it does work, and if it doesn't, I want to be able to gauge Brahn's reactions to unexpected factors." Sythe raised an eyebrow and set his quill down.
"Consider me intrigued. What sort of unexpected should we expect?"
A smile touched Trace's lips as he wrote with a fervor. "I'm not sure yet. I'm certain I'll think of something by then. And if not, then I'll just roll with it. Can't know what's unexpected when even I don't know what to expect."
…
Her face was pale, her fur was matted, and her eyes were red, clearly not having gotten enough sleep. He had spent the past hour pacing back and forth while he listened, his hand drawn to the old wound. "That can't be. That can't be." he repeated. After hearing about the Sentinels, Flora and Zen were rattled, putting it lightly. Raine had tried her best to break it to them gently, knowing what they had gone through, but their fear was so great, it seeped into her own heart.
"I know. It's…" Raine tried to say something, but words failed her. "We'll manage. We've survived before. We'll survive again."
"How can you be so calm?" Flora asked, her body shaking with fear.
"Last time they showed up, you weren't ready,were you?" Flora shook her head, frowning. "Well, the next time we see them, we'll be ready. We know they're out there, we know they're active, and we know they're coming. And just like with the Templars, we will be ready for when they come. They will find us unbreakable."
"I wish I shared your confidence." Zen said as he sat down at the dining room table. No one else was up yet except Kathrin, who clearly shared their apprehension, though remained silent. "I just don't see how we can hold them back. We outnumbered them last time. There were forty of us against fifteen of them, and we barely made it out alive. I barely made it out alive. I'm supposed to know how to defend myself, how to defend others! I was totally overwhelmed, and now I can't protect anyone. I can't even protect myself anymore." He put his head down, covering it with his hands on the verge of tears.
"Then I suppose it's a good thing I'm here to protect you." Flora and Zen's faces lit up as they whirled around.
"Barret!" Flora threw herself on him, which had practically become her normal greeting for him. He grunted as she collided with his chest, a groan of pain escaping his maw.
"Easy! I'm still recovering." She loosened her grip, a wide smile on her face still. "I see Raine has filled you both in already."
"I'm so glad you're okay!"
"I'm glad too, but it very nearly wasn't the case." He looked down at his scales, and Flora followed his gaze. She gasped as she beheld the hole in his bloodstained shirt and the accompanying scar beneath his scales. "If it wasn't for Trace, Natani and Keith, I wouldn't be alive."
"You would have lived." Raine smirked. "You wouldn't let a little thing like death come between you and Haelith."
Zen grinned, but the smile faded quickly. "Is it true? There's Sentinels out there now?"
"I'm afraid so. But I actually have some more news. I was out cold, but Trace managed to rescue a soldier from the wreckage. He woke up partway through the night."
Raine let out a sigh of relief. "Oh. I didn't know that he woke up. I was told he would most likely not make it."
"He almost didn't. I hear it was rough trying to keep him alive. Between the cuts and infection, it must have been bad. He woke up in the early hours of the morning, and Keiren talked with him. Turns out he's actually from Uian, and knew all about the Sentinels. I didn't catch all the details, but from how it sounded, it was bad. Very bad. Like, I actually feel bad for the Templars kind of bad." Everyone grimaced in shock and horror. "I know, bad. There weren't just a lot. Turns out there were over a thousand Sentinels that ambushed the back lines of the Templar army, and began to relentlessly slaughter every one of them. Fennel told us everything."
"Fennel?" Raine snickered. "His name is Fennel?"
Rolling his eyes, Barret leaned against the back of a chair. "Anyways, Trace has been awake for hours trying to put things into motion. Just before I left, I heard him talking about trying to end the war. Feels like he's biting off more than he can chew if you ask me."
"He promised me he wouldn't take unnecessary risks. If he thinks that this will work, I trust him to see it through." Flora sat down with a heavy thunk. "I hope that he isn't making a mistake."
"Same, but what if he's right? What if there's a chance for this to end? If the war ends, then everyone will be safer."
Zen scowled, glancing out the window. "It would be stupid for anyone to want to keep fighting. You said there were a thousand of them?"
Slowly nodding, Barret sighed. "That's what he said. There's no way we can handle that many. I was overpowered by just one of them. You nearly died. We can't fight them alone."
"Then let's hope that Trace's plan works. Let's hope that the Templars see reason." Raine pounded her fist on the table, her voice carrying conviction. "We'll make them see reason. One way or another, we will end this war."