Sowing dissent

Leah does not allow them to waste any more time after that.

She once more turns into an impatient whirlwind and ushers them towards the front door, pushing and hauling them when they move slower than she would like. The civilians in the room part way for them and there is more than one look of admiration thrown their way. If it is meant for them being brave rebels or for Leah ordering three grown men in full armor around, there is no telling.

It is nice to see something other than fear and surrender on their faces as he walks past. That means there is still hope left in their hearts and a hope for a better future for them all.

Leah peers out between the closed curtains to check for dangers, clutching onto Matthias' tunic as if preventing him from running off at the first chance and when she deems the streets safe enough, she practically shoves them outside with a quick whisper of 'good luck' before she slams the door shut behind them just as quick and they are left on their own.

They don't have the time to stand around or else they will look suspicious and draw attention to themselves and Leah's business, so they pull away quickly from the little shop and move down the streets.

There is no telling who might be watching them from the various windows facing them and there are always the rats to consider. Anybody could be willing to sell them out if that will gain them a favor from the crown, especially now with the situation in the city turning so dire.

The streets appear to be empty, besides the body of the older man lying dead and alone just a few houses down in a grim reminder of transpired events. Somebody has had the decency to cover him up with a sheet at least, to spare everybody the sight and leave him with some dignity and to keep the birds away until some has the time to take him away for a burial.

They can no longer hear the yelling from the soldiers, which is comforting, but it feels almost surreal to move down the streets at this time of day and finding them almost completely empty. There should be a mass of people moving about, to and from the marked and running their errands.

However, it might be fore the best that they stay out of sight for a little while longer, considering that the three of them still lack weapons and look a little rough around the edges after a long night and morning and then hastily putting on their gear.

"We should probably make a swing by the wall before we go anywhere else," Matthias suggests quietly. "We can pick up some spears and maybe it won't look quite so obvious that we're not actually guards, even though we don't have swords."

They turn down the next street leading towards the closest wall, the paths almost beginning to feel familiar.

"This all seemed like a much better idea when we were still back at the shop," Tino whispers back.

"We can't hide forever," Matthias replies, "and we certainly can't expect the people back there to risk their lives for ours if we don't do our part."

Tino sighs. "I know that, it is just terrifying to know that all those people depend so much on us. One tiny mistake and everything will fall apart, and we fail everybody."

A long silence follows his words as none of them can come up with a comforting lie that is good enough to convince them all that everything will be all right.

"Let's just get out of here," Tino snaps eventually. "I'd rather act and not think too much about how stupid this plan truly is."

They quicken up their pace, the walls of the noble district rapidly approaching, and they footsteps echo between the buildings without any people around to absorb the sound. They only meet two people on the way that immediately change direction at the sight of them and their uniforms, disappearing into nearby alleyways, eager to get out of their path.

Matthias understand them all too well, even though it is tragic to see how people run in fear of people that should be there for their safety.

To their horror, they stumble across a few more bloodstains and larger puddles on the road. It would appear that a few more people have attempted to stand up against the soldiers, but Matthias suspects it was without success. At least there are no bodies present. He can only pray that these confrontations were without a deadly outcome and that none of the people involved are too badly injured, or maybe bleeding out in some back alley, alone and terrified and with nobody to help them.

They meet no other trouble on the way, rush through the first wall and through the noble district as fast as they dare.

Opening the door to the guard district wall, they do find a rack of spears waiting on the inside, much like the first time they went this way. The only difference, is that this time the rack is nearly empty of spare weapons, leading them to believe that there are far more guards out on duty than there have been earlier whenever they have been out pretending to be guards.

They each grab a spear in silence and solemnly head back through the noble district and make way towards the main square. "This is such a bad idea," Tino whispers as their target grows closer. "I feel like everybody will know we are fakes just by looking at us. We have no idea how to act like guards."

"The other guards have other things to focus on," Matthias says back, trying to keep his voice calm and reasonable, but his own heart is beating hard in his chest, just as nervous. "I managed to make my way to the castle all alone without an issue, not even a question from anybody. They only see the uniform and assume you're one of them. They have no reason to question us if we look confident enough."

"Berwald is beat to shit," Tino hisses, and his voice is on the verge of cracking. "That looks all kinds of suspicious."

"I had an unfortunate encounter with an unruly citizen," Berwald says evenly and Tino's mouth click shut. "Take a deep breath, it will be fine."

They are still a good distance away from the main square when they catch the first loud yells that interrupt the unnatural silence of the streets. There is a firm commanding tone yelling out simple short instructions and it only gets louder the closer they get.

With the target in sight at last, Matthias stands up straighter, keeps his head and puts a little more weight in his steps to fake the confidence that he is lacking and make the appearance that he knows exactly where he is going with a mission in mind.

The guards posted by the entry to the main square either buys the ruse or do not care enough to look at them proper. They only give the three rebels a bored nod as they walk past, and Matthias greets them with a tilt of his own head rather than talk.

Well in the square, there are lots of people around, soldiers and citizens alike and all of them appear to care less about their presence than the guards on the outside did.

There are several soldiers on the podium at the far end of the square. None of them wearing the armor the three of them have become familiar with, but rather what appears to be training leathers. Torleif wore the same type of clothes in the early days of the rebellion when training them, preferring not to wear full armor while training and instructing. One is standing at the very front, yelling out instructions for a group of civilians on how to behave in an army and what is expected of them in the coming days.

They look terrified and the sight makes Matthias feel sick.

There are a few other groups of civilians spread out in the square.

It appears the soldiers split them based on age and on skills and set them up with different instructors. The youngest are in a group by themselves in one of the corners, a bit more separated from the others. Judging from the yelling of their instructor, they do not appear to be making much progress so far. Several of the children are openly crying and not at all paying attention to what is being said, only infuriating their instructor further.

Another group is practicing with wooden swords already, and that is not going well for them either. Most of the recruits have obviously never held a blade before in their lives before maybe and hour ago and they cannot figure out how to hold the sword proper or where to place their feet. It is much like watching the rebels when they first began learning how to fight in preparation for war, but these teachers are far less patient and forgiving Torleif and even harsher than Brynjar was on his worse days when he was still alive.

It occurs to Matthias that it probably does not matter for the soldiers whether the civilians learn to fight or not and they do not care to put any proper effort in trying to teach them. Everybody expect the recruits to die, slaughtered in battle with the rebels without the ability to put up much resistance and what little they might learn in a few days will not be enough to help them either way. The soldiers in charge laughs cruelly when one of the women stumbles and drops her practice sword to the ground and scratches her hands and knees on the rough stone.

Tino makes a half-choked sound of disgust before he catches himself and tears his gaze away from the particular group.

In one of the groups, a solders appears to be handing out uniforms to his charges, a stack of clothes and a set of armor for each. Curiously enough the coloration does not match the one the soldiers are wearing themselves. It is a dull orange of the forest leaves in the late days of autumn rather than the greens they have become used to seeing. Even the plates on the mail have different designs and placements and the engravings are different.

"Those are old," Berwald comments quietly as he nods towards the uniforms. "That armor design and technique was popular in smithing forty years ago or so, if not more I would guess." Matthias had almost forgotten that Berwald was training to be a smith and sees things that neither he nor Tino would ever take notice of with their untrained eyes. "They are giving the civilians the armor that no soldier in their right mind would want to wear. I doubt they have cared for the old armors properly in the years they have been in disuse either. They must be rusty and brittle by now and there is a reason smiths do not use those designs anymore, they have weaknesses that are too exploitable in combat."

Matthias barely avoids growling himself. "That is one shitty move on their side," he hisses under his breath, "sending them out with bad armor, but that might actually work in our favor. This way we have a visible difference between proper soldiers and civilians forced to fight"

Berwald hums in response.

"I wonder where they are all going to be sleeping from now on," Tino says thoughtfully. "I doubt they will be given keys to move freely through the city like the other guards. They will definitely flee if they get the change, it is not like they have anything to lose anymore." His gaze wanders across the square as if he is trying to figure out where the soldiers might keep the recruits for the night, takes a breath to keep talking, but the only thing to leave him is a string of quiet curses and he grits his teeth angrily.

When Matthias attempt to look at whatever it is the cause behind his reaction, Tino makes a sharp sound to stop him. "Don't look," he says. "If you do, you have to try to be casual about it. We are being watched."

Matthias forces himself to keep his gaze where it was before Tino began cursing, even though his skin prickles at the knowledge that they are under watch, and he itches to look so he can be aware of the threat for himself. "Who and where?" he asks.

"On the roof of one of the smaller buildings behind you," Tino whispers back through clenched teeth. "Look for the shadow by the chimney, you'll notice."

"Is it a rat?" Berwald asks.

"Yes," Tino replies. "I think he might have followed us from the apothecary."

Matthias curses quietly as well. He slowly turns to face Tino so he can look over his friends shoulder and see the roof he was talking about. There is indeed a dark figure in the shadow of the chimney, huddled down and barely visible with his grey rags, Matthias can only see him because he knows he is there and is growing increasingly familiar with the rats' way of hiding.

"How much time do you guys think we have before the Rat King comes to pay us another visit?" Tino asks.

"I'd rather not think about that right now," Matthias says. "We can't be distracted by him right now, but I know he is not going to wait for long. He knows that this war is drawing to an end one way or another and he is going to want his favor repaid before the rebels attack the city and he is likely to lose his chance at getting anything from us." He does not say it's because favors are hard to collect from corpses and they are likely to end up dead within the next few days.

"We should not leave the city with a rampant rat infestation so to speak," Tino mutters. "No matter which side wins, they will keep causing chaos for whoever is left."

Berwald puts a hand on his shoulder, a small gesture of comfort that only lasts for a few seconds as they are still very much visible in the middle of the square, wandering slowly between the different groups of soldiers and civilians, pretending to inspect the progress, giving an occasional nod to the other soldiers they pass.

"I think we all agree that everything would be better without their presence," Matthias says once they are mostly out of earshot again, "but we can only focus on one thing at the time. Right now, we gather information we can send to the outside. The rats can wait for another day."

At the corner of his eye, Matthias notices how Berwald releases a long breath of air and his shoulder lower at his words and he just knows exactly what is going through his friend's mind.

Their plan is to send one of them out come morning and that person will likely not have to deal with the rats when that problem arises and Berwald just know that person is going to be Tino. That means it will be Matthias and Berwald on their left to deal with the Rat King and his lackeys in the city and Matthias can not imagine any way their next meeting will pass without bloodshed. With Tino out of harms way, there will be nothing to hold Berwald back this time.

Tino is the one with the least recognizable face and the one with most experience in tracking and scouting, making him the most likely to track down Trym and Gorm on the outside and from there find the scouts the rebel army should have sent ahead to the city so they can bring the information back to Torleif.

It is the only logical choice, filled with it's own kind of dangers, but, but Matthias can see how Berwald would feel better with Tino outside the city walls.

"Why don't we head up on the wall?" Tino says, drawing Matthias out of his thoughts. "I feel a little exposed and out of place just wandering around like this, we are bound to draw attention soon if we continue. We might get a better view up there and if we are lucky, even lose our tail for a few hours at the very least."

They are about to head out of the square when a new group of make their way through the main gate to the square blocking their way and they are forced to watch as several guards lead even more reluctant recruits in for training. They herd the newcomers to their own little section before the stage where the man in charge begin his speech once more, but even more dispassionate than his first repetition and the soldiers only stand around long enough for more of the supposed instructors to arrive before they turn back and head towards the district entry once more, ready to collect more people for service.

When the soldiers walk past, Matthias looks at the other two, each give him a small nod and the three of them swiftly walk to the back of the group and follow them past the guards at the gate where nobody even glances at them. The soldiers appear to bee confident that they have the city under tight control making them lazy and careless, something the three rebels are only happy to take advantage of.

They only follow the soldiers long enough to get out of sight from the gate and the three of them slip away down a narrow alley and head for the closest wall. It does not take them long to find a guard door to enter or a stair leading up, and before they know it, they stare out over the entire square from above.

They lean against the railing, looking over and down at the chaos below them.

There are so many people, so many that should not be there.

"How many people is going to be in this army?" Tino snaps angrily, forgetting to check if they are alone and they all startle when a voice they do not recognize responds just from behind them.

"However many we can find"

The voice is deep and smug, and thankfully not threatening but rather amused.

They turn around to find that two guards have somehow made the way over without any of them noticing. One man and one woman.

The one who spoke is just a little shorter than Matthias, but far stockier, his arms are thick, and the plate mail looks tight across his chest and also hos stomach, with the straps straining to hold the armor in place without snapping. He has dark stubble on a square jaw, a crooked nose that speaks of several breaks over his lifetime and dark, glinting eyes that are full of cruelty as he smirks at them. The woman is almost as tall as her companion and broader than most men Matthias has met. Her face is stern and focused, and she glances at the other guard in disapproval as he leans lazily against the wall with the three rebels, sighing contently.

She leans against her spear as looks them up and down, assessing them. "Knut here would just love to have somebody else fight his battles for him," she says dryly, but her eyes are sharp as she speaks, trying to gauge their reaction to her words and figure out where they stand on the subject.

It is clear she does not trust them, and Matthias guesses that if anybody is going to see through their disguise, it is likely to be her.

The other guard, Knut does not look bothered in the slightest by her tone or glare, he just grins wider, oblivious to the fact that his fellow guard is testing whether or not the newcomers are trustworthy.

"Hey, the more citizens we can send out there, the more likely the rest of us are to survive." He says it loudly and unashamed, proving beyond belief that he is a man that believes completely in the king's agenda. That, or he is just happy with the current strategy that will keep him safe within the city walls as others die in his place. "The rebels will never get through the walls and with less mouths to feed here on the inside after weeding out the ones we do not need, we will certainly outlast them," he says.

Matthias glances at the woman. She does not look impressed with her colleague but is not about to argue back and openly display her difference of opinion to a group of strangers.

It will look suspicious if the three of them do not contribute to the conversation, so Matthias takes a breath and remembers at the last second to keep his accent in check before he speaks. "You are not worried that the rest of us will be sent out next?" he says casually to the man, Knut, keeping a careful eye on the woman as well. "As you said, those rookies down there will not get rid of a lot of rebels after all. Might be we have to go out there and do it ourselves."

Knut snorts out an unattractive laugh and at the corner of his eye Matthias notices the woman grind her teeth together in anger. "As if that will ever happen," he says. "Right now, I doubt his Grace will sacrifice more soldiers for this foolish war. The rebels and useless civilians will take care of themselves and then we just need to get the remaining inhabitants under control, and all will be well. We can rebuild, stronger, better and with more control this time, create a proper productive Kingdom from the ground up."

"That will certainly make our job a lot easier," Matthias replies lightly but hating each word as it leaves his lips. He would rather agree with the woman, but he suspects she is among the minority of guards that does not believe in the King's methods and with a true believer like Knut present, it is a dangerous opinion to express.

"True," Knut agrees easily. "Well, we should move on before Hilda get too impatient." He gestures at the woman and kicks off from the wall, giving them a wink as he begins walking once more.

Hilda snarls at him as she turns to follow. "Somebody needs to do the job properly around here."

She does not offer the rest of them a word of farewell, she merely stomps after Knut, practically fuming.

Matthias shudders as they leave, glad to see them gone, especially Knut.

Tino makes a grimace of disgust to replace his fake smile. "That was awful," he groans. "That man was truly vile. If all the soldiers are like him, then I would be glad to see them all gone. They just don't care for human lives."

Matthias makes a grim face of his own, wishing it was that easy. "They are not all like that though," he says weakly. "Did you not see how much the woman hated her own colleague? She looked like she wanted to toss him over the wall rather than listen to him speak of how little value he thinks the new recruits have." He sighs. "I think she actually cares about protecting people, but can you imagine what would happen to her or her family if she spoke up? I think she might be just as trapped as the rest of us."

Tino looks away, avoiding Matthias' gaze. "I feel sorry for the guards that feel like that, but they are certainly a minority," he says bitterly. "From what I have seen most guards seem to be like that guy, Knut. He enjoys the power and watching other people suffer. He looks forward to sending people outside so they can die while he hides in safety behind the walls."

'Safe behind the walls'

Matthias mind begins churning then.

He looks towards the highest wall that is protecting the guard district and castle. There is no more smoke something easily forgotten. The guards thought they were safe before that happened as well and let three rebels blow up an entire building right underneath their noses. rising towards the sky after the explosion, but Matthias saw the destruction with his own eyes, and it is not

"They think they are safe behind their walls," Matthias repeats to draw the attention of the other two. "But that is not true and how safe will they be if we remove one of the walls?"

"Are you thinking of using black powder." Tino gives him a hesitant look. "Sure, we can get our people into the city that way, but there are four walls between the outside and the guard district. We are going to need a lot of powder and even more luck to pull that off."

They have reached the outer wall and can for the first time in days see the outside of the capitol with the fields and the forest stretching out before them. "Are there really four walls though," Matthias replies with a smirk as he gestures towards the main square behind them and the castle on its hill behind that again. "If you break through the outer wall right here, you have an open square instead of the commoner and merchant districts, leading directly to the tunnel going to the guard district."

He pauses and watches how his friends make the same calculation as he just did on their own.

"That way, the rebels won't have to move through inhabited districts and narrows streets," he continues. They can go directly for the actual target, and if we blow it up right when the two armies are supposed to fight on the outside, the guards will certainly be distracted. They will be too busy waiting for the bloodbath outside rather than look for people lighting a few barrels of black powder on fire."

"It will be chaos," Tino whispers in awe.

Matthias cannot help a smile from creeping on his face as he finally sees opportunities rather than only opposition. "If we can work out an agreement between our people and the commoners, they just have to play opposing forces out on the field long enough to distract the guards, then we can blow the wall and they can join forces and turn on the soldiers together."

"That is just brilliant," Tino says. "They will never see that coming."

"We still have to spread word to the rebels and the people training down there," Matthias says soberly before they can get ahead of themselves. "Somehow get everybody on the same side, make sure they trust each other. Then we need to get our hands on black powder, and we need to find a way to smuggle it to the wall and set it off at the right time."

"Maybe we should focus on one problem at the time?" Berwald suggests, ever the voice of reason. "We'll talk with the civilians again tonight, they might have a few ideas that can contribute to this plan. They know the city better than any of us and they know the people forced to fight, know who will be a voice of reason. For now, we should make another loop around the square. I want a closer look at those gates between here and the guard district, I think we should try and walk through it at one point if we can, make sure there are no hinders we can't see from the outside. I doubt they trust two wooden doors to keep the common rabble away from the city center when they have four walls everywhere else."

The other two turn silent after that, knowing that Berwald is right.

A new group of guards walk past them, and they each give a respectful nod as they pass, and the three rebels continues their walk.

It is truly awful walking atop the wall and around the square, pretending to be guards with the supposed training going on below them.

The guards are pushing the recruit to their absolute limit and a few eventually pass out from pure exhaustion. Whenever somebody does collapses, the leader of that particular group will just yell at the others to move the person out of the way and then keep on training, forcing them to ignore the person lying unconscious on the ground like they are waste.

It last until the sun grows orange in the sky, preparing for evening at last.

In the that time, the three rebels manage to work their way around the square, storing away information as they go, quietly discussing strengths and weaknesses in the city defenses.

They take the opportunity to slip away when the training below takes a break as a cart arrives with simple rations for the recruits. The guards are distracted enough that the three of them slip away without being notices and rush back to Leah's shop.

When they return, Matthias and Berwald tuck away into a back alley with view of the shop's door, not wanting to barge into the shop without warning, in case there unknowing customers inside and scare them half to death. Tino takes it upon himself to move around to the back of Leah's house and scale the wall to their window, leaving the other two to wait outside in their heavier armor that makes climbing almost impossible while he get's Leah's attention from inside.

It takes almost fifteen minutes before the last customer leaves the shop and Leah appears in the doorway, looking around until she spots them and makes a quick gesture for them to approach.

The moment they have stepped inside, she flips over the sign in the door and moves from widow to window, shutting the curtains as she goes.

"The workday is almost over so I believe others should begin to arrive within the hour or so," she continues talking as she moves. "That is those who can make it. told them to come only if they were certain they could make it without being followed or draw suspicious, we don't want the guards knowing we have a gathering here after all." She turns around and gives them a tires smile. "You two should go get changed, Tino is upstairs already, I will find you something to eat, I suspect you have had a long day."

They do as she say and come back down to the shop floor a few minutes later, dressed in a mixture of merchant and outskirter clothes that survived their visit from the Rat King.

Leah waits for them with a simple meal of porridge with some dried fruits and three steaming mugs of herbal tea and a soft smile that looks strange on her face after only having seen her angry and annoyed at their entire existence, but it is a nice change. They tear into their meal, scraping the bowls clean of every last trace, not having had a proper meal since the day before.

The civilians trickle in one after the other over the next two hours, much like Leah predicted. There are a few newcomers that were not present earlier in the day and they look hesitant and scared as Leah opens the door to let them in, not trusting that they are in a safe space. There are a few people from morning that are missing and, and one of the women tells them she saw one dragged away for service and another she says did not dare leave his children alone at home anymore, in fear they would be taken away in his absence.

Eventually, the three rebels begin sharing their observations from the day to a captive audience.

Leah takes notes and one of the men bring forth a map over the city and in a surprisingly organized fashion they can draw up their plans, make circles and arrows to mark up possible positions where the black powder can cause the most damage and where they guess the rebel army will show up and will be forced to fight the civilians.

The civilians turn out to be a great help, coming with input and questions that help them sort out their good ideas from the bad ones.

When Matthias, Berwald and Tino are lost in a discussion of how to smuggle a few barrels of black powder into the most guarded section of the city when one of the civilians point out that the particular district is guarded yes, but the outside of it is not. He suggests they place the barrels in the neighboring district, just by the wall to the main square. He further tells them that the guards and citizens alike usually avoid the smaller alleys at the corners of the districts, as they are a common spot for assaults and thefts, and they should have little problem with both smuggling barrels there and hiding people for setting them off at the right time.

Tino begins drawing a simple copy of the map on a smaller piece of pare so he can give it to Torleif and the other rebels on the outside. He marks down the most likely place they will put the black powder so they can approach the city from the most advantageous direction and writes little notes on what obstacles are in their way. He writes a note about the secret entrance through the sewers, but also a large warning about Mudtown in general.

The farmer's father who offered help getting papers, come by much later than most of the others and they almost gave up hope that he would show up at all until he did.

He looks hesitant as he holds up a folded piece of paper on top a stack of clothing after greeting them all.

"These are my son's papers," he says weakly. "Some of the clothes are his and the rest are donations from his neighbors to help you blend in." Both is hands and voice are shaking horribly. "It should get you back through the gate and we are going to need those papers back. My boy cannot be caught without those, or he might be conscripted, tossed in a jail or sent to Mudtown." He has to stop and breathe for a few seconds to get his voice back under control. "He cannot work without those either, he cannot feed his family long as you have them. I have some coin stored away, but it will not last for long."

The three rebels are at a loss of words, but luckily, Leah comes to the rescue. She takes the bundle and hands it over to Tino who is closest and pulls the man into a firm but gentle hug. "We will make sure your son's family have the food they need, and we will get those papers back to you quick as we can. In a few days this will all be better," she whispers, still not letting go of the man. "We will be free soon and your son will have played a vital part in our success. We are honored that you saw worth in trusting us."

Her voice sounds so sure, Matthias almost forgets his doubts.

The father seems reassured as well and gives Leah a short nod. "They barely let me through the gate on the way back here," he whispers. "Must have read my papers three times just to make sure I was not sneaking my way out of conscription."

A few of the other merchants looks grim at those news.

Tino clears his throat, drawing their attention away from their darkening thoughts, lifting up his bundle of clothes. "I will go try these on, see if I can look the farmer."

Matthias turns back to map, tracing the circles and arrows, going over the plan in his head, when his head explodes with pain.

There is a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings that are not his own and it is a miracle he manages to remain upright with the sudden shock of it all and even more impressive that his meager dinner does not make a reappearance.

There is guilt, horror, fury and even panic. He cannot sort through everything, the guilt is too overwhelming. His vision blurs and he lean heavily against the table, one hand clutching at his scull from the intensity and it takes him a few moments to recognize the thoughts as Lukas'.

His head has been his alone for most of the day and they have remained busy enough that the existence of the bond slipped to the back of his mind, temporarily forgotten.

The spiraling thoughts and the panic reminds him of what it feels like to wake up from a nightmare and one still believes the horrors from the dream are real. If he was to guess, it feels like Lukas is coming aware of himself and realizes he has done something awful.

"Matt?" there is a voice at the edge of his consciousness, and it takes a horrendous amount of effort to tear his attention back to reality.

"Yeah," he says as a response and flinches with how strained it sounds

"Are you alright?" Berwald is right there, looking worried.

Matthias rubs at his temple, as if that will quell the storm in his mind, but it probably just looks pained. "I just got a headache," he says, and it is very much true. The first onslaught emotions are settling down as Lukas seems to gather control over himself on the other side of the bond, but his scull still feels like it is full of needles and there are black spots dancing across his vision from pain.

"Maybe you should get some rest?" Berwald suggest carefully. "We got the situation under control here and there is no way any of us will head out tonight, the city is still on high alert. We can break into the guard district tomorrow and steal that black powder and it will me much better if we should at least have one night of proper sleep before we attempt that."

"I can keep going," Matthias tries to argue, but it sounds far to weak to be believable. "I don't think I can sleep while everybody is working on the plans."

"Sleep is not a waste of time," Berwald says. "We already have a plan ready, we are just settling on the details and the rest of us can handle that."

For once, Matthias knows when he is defeated, and he sighs. Then they both turn around at the sound of steps from the stairs and sees Tino emerging from the curtains keeping the shop separate from the rest of the house.

"How do I look?" he asks and slowly turns around to show off the new disguise.

Berwald turns really quiet then as realization truly sets in.

Tino looks like a common farmer again, barely recognizable in the barrowed clothing and in a few hours, he will head out into danger along and there is nothing the two of them can do to help him after that. They will all have to stay with the plans and do their part not matter how hard it is.

Matthias knows then that he is not the only one that will struggling finding any resemblance of sleep tonight.

Tino will have to leave them behind, Berwald will have to watch Tino go, and Matthias need to ignore the mark on his arm and the storm inside his head.

They have a city to prepare to battle and finally a plan to set in motion.