tias bf Archives - Hands Held in the Snow

Chapter 63: Safe House

By the time Beatrice could see again, she realized she was being pulled along by Emi, and they were running still through the streets near Castle Balarand.

Emi looked back at her and shouted, “We escaped!”

“That was you!” Beatrice yelled back. “How did you do that?”

“I have no idea! The magic of love or something!”

Oh, this girl.

Beatrice, Emi, Emi’s Father, and Runa were all safe, far away from the bulk of the fighting. Now that Dannark soldiers from the front lines of the war had arrived in Balarand, the rebels stood little chance–their forces had already begun to flee. The epicenter of the battle was still mostly around the castle, the entire area now surrounded in flames. The trek to the Tia’s safe house should have been a safe one.

It wasn’t.

Rebel soldiers and Dannark soldiers alike broke away from their fights to attack the four of them. Apparently they were just too much of a prime target. It probably had something to do with the giant eight-foot-tall homunculus that ran beside them.

“Runa, can’t you make that thing go away?!” Beatrice yelled.

“Hasha is precious. You cannot make a scientific revolution simply ‘go away.’”

“I mean all these people are attacking us because of it!”

But, fortunately, the homunculus was attacking all of these people in return. It stopped running suddenly and plowed itself into the crowd, making its stand against, essentially, everything around it. There were far too many soldiers to keep it going. Nevertheless, it attacked them, swiping them to the floor and kicking one several feet into the air.

The homunculus was overpowered by the sheer number of attackers. But those attackers were no longer pursuing the four of them, and that would save their lives.

One of the soldiers sliced the beast in the gut. It screamed out and bashed the soldier to the ground. Its large, beady eyes shed tears at alarming volumes, and it wailed out like a child who scraped their knee.

“Hasha! No!” Runa screamed. “My creation!”

Sword still stuck in its stomach, the homunculus shoved away all the soldiers around it and ran off in a random direction.

With both the few remaining rebels and the newly arrived Dannark soldiers attacking it at once, the homunculus could not stand up to the struggle. It was going to go out fighting.

But the group didn’t look back to make sure. Even Runa kept her gaze forward. Beatrice could hear the sounds of wailing and slicing, but they grew fainter every moment.

In the frenzy of a sudden monster attack, the soldiers became too distracted to pursue them, and by now not a single soldier followed. They made their way safely for the rest of their journey.

The safe house was a featureless home in the middle of a residential neighborhood, where the fighting had not spread and the streets were desolate. As hot as the fires had made the city, specks of snow still dotted the roof here.

Inside was a furniture-less room with nothing but dry food, water, and roll-out mats. Underneath one rug, though, was a secret latch that opened up to reveal an underground bunker. They climbed down the ladder and met the others.

Beatrice suddenly wondered if her own parents were okay…They probably were. If the fighting had mostly been contained to the central parts of the city, then her apartment near Knoll Park was surely safe. Dannark soldiers tightly patrolled the riverways, so the rebels would never have attacked there… she hoped. She had enough to worry about today, so that’s what she was going to tell herself.

They reached the others, exchanged hugs and cried together, and finally sat down, laid down, huddled together. It was finally time to relax a little bit.

Runa was devastated, to a point she was holding her head in grief. “My homunculus… My research…”

“It served us very well,” Emi said. “Thank you.” She gave Runa a quick hug, and Runa’s face turned blood-red.

“What is your story, girl?” Tia asked.

Runa shot a sharp glance towards him. “What’s it to you?”

Beatrice realized this was the first time Tia and Runa had ever met. What a strange occurrence this was.

Beatrice sat down and Emi almost immediately collapsed, her head falling directly into her lap.

“Your hair’s getting long again,” Beatrice muttered.

Emi giggled. Then she let out the longest sigh ever recorded. Beatrice followed suit.

“Thank you for saving my family,” Emi said. “Tr–Beatrice…”

“Emi…”

They sat like this in silence for a long time. There were ten people in this bunker: Emi, Beatrice, Emi’s parents, Ms. Khami, Pip, Touma, Runa, Tia, and Tia’s boyfriend whose name Beatrice hadn’t caught. And out of those ten people, not a soul had the energy to speak.

Beatrice ran her fingers through Emi’s hair. For some reason, it felt weird, even a little bit wrong. But it also felt great, so she didn’t stop.

The one thing that struck her most about this moment was the smell. That lingering scent of smoke and ash that clung to their clothes and hairs with a tight grip. Pungent like burnt cheese. She hated it. But, knowing that she smelled exactly the same way, she let it pass with only a crinkle of her nose.

The silence in the room was broken by, naturally, Pip, who squatted on the floor next to the girls. “You did good, you two,” she said. “I coulda taken them, but…”

“Everything’s going to change, isn’t it?” Beatrice wondered aloud.

“It was always going to,” said Emi, her head still in Beatrice’s lap. “That’s how it works with the… Will of the Gods and… harmony… and…”

She had drifted off to sleep. Poor thing really tired herself out with all of that… whatever it was she did. Magic? If it was magic, it was a level far beyond anything Beatrice had ever seen or read about, but she had no other word to describe it.

After everything they had gone through… They had saved the prisoners in the castle. They had fended off Ulric Statusian. They survived to see tomorrow.

What was going to happen? Neither of them really knew, but at this exact moment, they were safe. That was all that mattered.

<== Previous ♡ Next ==>

Chapter 61: Escape the Castle

“How are we going to get out of here?” Emi’s Father asked. He looked at Beatrice like she was a leader, like she was anything but a scared girl who rode in on a giant magical monster and closed her eyes so she wouldn’t see people being killed.

Beatrice, for what it was worth, kept her emotions under check. She was meeting Emi’s parents here, after all. It was the first time she had ever seen them outside of the portrait paintings that hung on the walls of their home. Both were skinny and static, the only two of the dozens who didn’t seem completely overwhelmed by the situation. They didn’t see Beatrice as anyone but a hero they could rely on.

Way, way too much pressure. So all Beatrice said was, “Just follow close behind. We’ll find a way out.”

It was a bit of a motley crew, a kind of pseudo-army that only emerged in the most extraordinary of circumstances. In the front of the group were Beatrice, and an Emi who refused to tread more than a couple feet away from her. There was Runa and her monstrous homunculus, as well as Tia and another tall, muscular young man who looked to be his boyfriend. There were Emi’s parents, as well as her older brother (but not the famous one), and a couple of her housekeepers.

There was also a growing crowd of defenseless civilians following them like greyback bear cubs without their mothers. Practically every door they passed had more prisoners, and more people to free.

In front of one heavily locked door, two Dannark guards laid on the ground, either knocked out or deceased–Beatrice was too terrified to inspect closely–and one bloodied, bruised rebel stood, propped on her lance and barely conscious even as she watched the group approach. She was younger, unlike most of the soldiers, but it was clear she had no fighting spirit left inside her.

She didn’t make an effort to stop them. She only said, “You won’t… get away with this. Dannark will never win.”

Beatrice reached in her pocket and handed her a handkerchief. “Go home before something bad happens to you,” she told her. The woman accepted the handkerchief, but she didn’t move, and she didn’t reply.

Emi’s Mother, now armed with a pike herself, examined the door and shook her head. “It will take far too much time to break down these barriers. We must move on.”

“We have to get in somehow,” Beatirce said. “If the fighting in the castle spreads, the people in there could be in serious trouble.”

As they spoke, Emi stood in front of the door and raised her arm into the air.

Suddenly–

The door barricades ripped apart, and the entire door ripped off the frame and collapsed on the ground to reveal a large conference room filled with a great many prisoners.

The homunculus made a confused groan. Emi’s Mother and Father exchanged glances.

And Beatrice stared at her…

Unable to…

…What? “What?” Beatrice blinked a few times to try and process what just happened. “Emi… Huh?”

“Um, I don’t know, but I don’t really care,” she replied. “Whatever it is, it matters a lot less than us saving all these people who are following us now.

Emi seemed extremely unconcerned with the fact she just used magic to rip a door off its hinges. And now Beatrice was more confused than she had ever been in her life to this point.

Ms. Khami laid a hand on Beatrice’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about Emi,” she told her.

She was extremely worried, but she decided to hold that in for the time being.

“So, yeah, we got way too many people with us,” Pip said. “The moment we leave the castle, a bunch soldiers are gonna attack us, right?”

“Precisely correct,” said Tia.

“Then, uh, what are we doing? Do we got a plan?”

“We have a plan,” Beatrice lied.

“I have a plan,” Emi said. “First, tell me, Tris and Runa, how is the situation outside? Is the fighting contained to central Balarand?”

“Um, I think so,” Beatrice said. “There was nothing going on near the port when we were there. No fires or anything.”

“I know a safe house we can take refuge in around there,” Tia said. “But it is somewhat far away. Depending on the circumstances outside…”

“We can’t fit this many people in a safe house,” Beatrice said.

“We’ll have to help them a different way,” Emi said. “Back during the Gang of Eight Campaigns, Ulric Fathie and the Teal One were involved in many skirmishes where the Teal One would capture a fort, lead enemy troops in, and then abandon the whole thing once they picked off enough soldiers in the siege. They evacuated most of the troops by faking a frontal assault with only a very minor force that bided time for everyone else.”

“And we’ll… do that here?”

Emi nodded. “That’s our only chance to make sure all these people can escape. If we’re lucky, we can too.”

“Wait, WE’RE going to be the ‘very minor force?!’” Touma shouted.

“Keep it down,” Emi said. “And yes, we are. You included. You’re a young man who studied and trained at Yates. Most of these people are middle aged bureaucrats who haven’t run a day in their lives. You’ve got to buck up and help us save these people’s lives.”

Touma rubbed the back of his neck. “When’d my sister get so cool all of a sudden?”

“Shut up and let’s plan this thing.”

Beatrice absolutely adored this woman.

In the next few minutes, they forged their plot. They split these helpless civilians into four groups who would flee the castle in four different directions. One tiny advance force, consisting of Emi’s family and friends, along with Runa and the homunculus beast, would crash through the front gates and attract as much attention as they could on their way to Tia’s safe house. Everyone had weapons they took from defeated soldiers they came across in the castle, though nobody but Tia and Emi’s Father actually knew how to wield any of them.

Hopefully nobody would die. And, in a major plus, Runa’s homunculus would definitely be the biggest distraction this side of an avalanche.

“And that’s the plan,” Emi said. “If you can’t fight, you should join one of the other groups and meet up with us later.”

Beatrice glance to Ms. Khami, who seemed to be nursing her arm and had no business on a potential battlefield. But she shook her head to dismiss such a glance. “I must say, Ms. Ragnell, you seem to think I can’t take care of a bunch of hooligans with farm tools.”

Emi’s Mother patted her on the shoulder and smiled. “We’ll be perfectly safe, um–”

“Beatrice.”

“Yes, Beatrice. We are the L’Hime Family. Sis and I were schooled by Freda Hollow herself, the captain of the Elincian Royal Guard for thirty-eight years. Don’t underestimate experience.” Beatrice had no idea who that was, so her gloating went over her head.

Emi’s Father nodded. “We’re all ready.”

There was so much Beatrice didn’t know about Emi’s family, and this certainly wasn’t the time to be inquiring deeply about any of it. So she decided to trust them fully. No reservations now.

“Then let us enact our great plan,” said Tia. He held up his sharpened stick and charged without another second’s hesitation.

The rest followed. The entire group, all eleven of them, ran through the hallways and into the grand entrance, where most of the fighting had stopped. Judging by the bodies on the floor, which Beatrice tried hard not to look too much at, the rebels were not fighting a winning battle, because their bodies outnumbered Dannark’s five to one.

The homunculus roared and smacked a Dannark soldier who charged at them, ending the only serious threat they faced in the entire castle. So far, it had gone smoothly.

Then, the group exited the front door and emerged out from Castle Balarand. Immediately, they were greeted with the sight of bright red flames smoldering all over the city. At this point, there was no snow in sight; the heat of the fires, the dark ash in the sky had melted every last bit. Winter had come to a sudden and very violent end.

Right at the city center, there was a great battle ongoing, with soldiers from Dannark fighting with the rebels in a disorganized chaos. Arrows flew through the skies with every passing moment.

Dead men and women lined the streets, the vast majority of them wearing rags and simple clothing. Here, too, the Dannark soldiers that had fallen were very few compared to the untrained rebels. And, as the fighting continued, that difference would grow even more stark.

The screaming from afar wouldn’t leave Beatrice’s ears. She couldn’t tune it out.

Balarand had been reduced to a warzone. Destruction on a level that brought most of the group to tears. This was exactly what Elince tried to protect when it peacefully surrendered to Dannark. The entire reason for the occupation was to help prevent Dannark from invading and destroying the great city of Balarand.

And now…

Beatrice looked back to the castle behind them. Smoke rose out of the windows on an upper floor. Even this place was too dangerous to stay in, and it was supposed to be the safest fortress in the kingdom.

“I hate this,” Beatrice muttered. She didn’t want to look at any of this. But she couldn’t stop staring. “This is all so horrible…”

Emi shook her head. “We’ll make it through this. We have to keep going.” She looked around at the ground and saw a fallen rebel soldier with a lance near his side. So she held out her hand, and like a stick on a rope the lance flew into her hand. Beatrice did a double take. Emi gripped the lance with both hands and rest its sharp end on the ground.

Tia kept his eyes fixed forward. “Our distraction may not be necessary. The rebels are already breaking apart. We have an opportunity escape before the real battle begins.”

“The… real battle?” Beatrice asked.

“Dannark’s frontline soldiers must be almost here already,” Emi said with a gasp. “They sent word that quickly…”

“Indeed,” Tia said. “Nevertheless, we must charge forward if we are to reach the safe house without injury.”

“Let’s go!” Pip shouted.

A number of Dannark soldiers approached the group, weapons drawn and drawing closer. They separated into multiple flanks in an attempt to encircle the group.

Emi’s Father, sword in hand, rushed in front of the group, holding his hands up. “Stop! We are not rebels. We are civilians and part of the occupation government. Please… stop.”

The soldiers continued to advance, saying nothing. It seemed they were no longer accepting surrender as an option. And unlike the rebel soldiers they faced in the castle, these were professional fighters who wouldn’t fall to simple maneuvers.

“What do we do? Father, what do we do?” Touma asked. He held a sword in his hands, but he shook so much that he rendered himself effectively useless.

“We will defend ourselves. Stand back and protect Ms. Khami and your sister.” Her Father spread his legs out into a fencing stance.

“Don’t worry about me,” Emi said.

Beatrice looked at Runa, waiting for her to react. She had been oddly calm, oddly quiet ever since she retrieved her precious plans from the castle evidence room. Runa noticed her gaze, then looked back at Hasha and asked, “Honey, are you willing to fix this for us?”

The beast grunted.

“Then charge ahead and break their formation!”

The beast grunted again, but did not move.

“Is it going to hurry?” Beatrice asked.

“Hasha does what Hasha wants,” she said. “We must hope my baby does what is in our best interest. Hasha, move!”

Hasha, it seemed, misunderstood the directions and ran off towards some other part of the skirmish, attacking other soldiers and knocking them down.

Beatrice sighed, then wondered if this would be the last time she ever sighed.

There was no need for its help, though. A dozen rebel soldiers stormed the area and caught the Dannark soldiers by surprise, knocking them over and driving their weapons into them. It was a quick rout and the scene was clear in two minutes or less.

“You must come with us,” one of the rebels said. “We’re regrouping back at the castle for a final–”

“Wait,” another said. It was– Ulric Statusian, a gash across his left cheek and spatters of blood dotted across his armor. “These aren’t allies. These are escaped prisoners.”

<== Previous ♡ Next ==>

Chapter 60: Come On, Plan, Work…

Tia finished rubbing the long broom handle and whittling it down, until it was nearly sharp enough to qualify as a weapon. He had, without a knife, exhaustingly smashed the broomstick against the stone ground and then sharpened it until it became usable. It was the third try before it produced anything worthwhile, as the other two broomsticks ended up as splintered shards of wood on the floor.

How he accomplished this, Emi had no idea. She guessed it was his years with private instructors who taught him every skill that might be necessary to run his family’s textile business one day. If survival skills were a a part of it, then his teachings were surely as strict Ms. Khami’s, but multiplied by ten times. And he was doing this all while dressed in a woman’s skirt, to top it off. There were reasons why Tia and Emi were friends.

“Are we ready?” Tia asked. He held out the stick towards the door, and Emi approached the door with a bucket full of powerful cleaning liquids in her hands. The rest of the group stayed in the back, protected by Tia’s boyfriend in case of trouble.

“Mhm.”

“Let’s kick these guys to the ground,” Pip said.

Tia screamed out, “Help! Help! Fire!” and the others followed suit, making feigned cries of agony. Emi kicked at the door a few times for good measure.

There was a voice from the other side of the door. “What, a fire? Oh no, some traitors are going to perish in flames. That’s so tragic.”

He didn’t open the door.

“That plan didn’t seem to work,” said Touma.

“No, no it did not,” said Tia. “Is there anyone who could perhaps… break the door down themselves? Maybe with a group effort?”

“I saw Ms. Khami bust down Emi’s door once before,” Pip said. “Make her do it.”

“Please, I hardly budged and that thing opened,” Ms. Khami replied. “I have never used brute force for–”

“I distinctly remember some brute force used on that stray cat that snuck in when I was four or five,” Touma said. “It traumatized me for life.”

“That’s beside the point,” she said.

“As tough as Sis is,” said Mother, “She can’t break that door herself.”

“And why not?” asked Touma. “Maybe if we all help her, we–”

“We really must be sensible,” said Tia. “This is not a time for joking around.”

The group argued amongst themselves about how to escape, but Emi stared at the door, locked and barred from the outside with at least one guard standing in front of it. She felt… something calling her to the door.

It was something in her head she couldn’t begin to describe. Not a voice, not an image. Just a feeling, an emotion she couldn’t quite pinpoint, that directed the door to the forefront of her mind.

Maybe it was the fumes from all the cleaning chemicals, or maybe it was just hallucinations from being so utterly exhausted both emotionally and physically, but for some reason she held out her hand and began to move it around in a circle in the air.

What was she… doing…?

All of a sudden–

–the door flung off its hinges and flew twenty feet in another direction. The pathway was clear.

It took a moment for anyone to realize what had just happened, but as soon as they saw the guard in front of them, they charged and attacked him, knocking him out in just seconds.

Emi stood in place, dazed and confused.

“Is anything wrong?” Tia asked.

“Uh, no?” she answered. “Let’s go.”

Tia took a few steps, looked side-to-side, and motioned. “It is clear. But I hear some yelling on the other end of the hallway, so be careful.”

The eight of them stepped outside the closet. Tia’s boyfriend and Pip took the front of the group, while the others stayed behind for safety. Even in the back, though, Ms. Khami held one of the broken, nearly useless broom handle shards as if she was about to be in the fight of her life. “I don’t like this one bit,” she said.

“It’s a lot better than being executed,” Emi said. She bent down and picked up the rebel soldier’s sword, which was surprisingly light. It was also unlikely to be a useful weapon in a fight for someone completely untrained like herself.

“Give it to me,” said Father. “I practiced fencing for eight years. Let’s see if I can jog the old muscle memory.” He twirled it around, trying to get a feel for its weight and shape. Emi couldn’t tell if he liked it or not.

“Just stay behind me and we will be okay,” Tia said. He had only a sharpened stick, but he held it with tight confidence.

“And me,” Pip said. She held only her own fists. Wait, didn’t she say she lost a fight earlier today…?

The group advanced down the hallway. They heard some banging on another door a little ways in.

“Wait a minute,” Emi said. “I didn’t even think about that. We aren’t alone, are we?”

They opened ithe door to reveal another group of ten or twelve captive prisoners, some of them gagged with fabric in their mouths to keep from screaming. They freed those prisoners and added even more to their group.

“Thank you so much,” a skinny woman in a fur coat said. “What in the name of Nexurk is happening today? Why are the peasants revolting so… callously?”

Emi decided not to respond except by rolling her eyes.

“Well, that’s a bunch more people we have to protect,” Tia said to Emi, as if she were the leader of the group.

“Well, the more people, the more help we have, right?” She shrugged, unconvinced at her own statement.

“I know we have a couple weapons, but that doesn’t mean we can form our own army,” Touma said.

Father agreed. “If Tia and I are the only ones who can defend ourselves, we won’t stand a chance.”

“Hey!” Pip shouted. “You got weapons, but I got these babies. Nobody’s getting past–”

“HALT RIGHT THERE.”

Pip froze and lost all composure.

The group turned around to find two older men holding gardening hoes like weapons, advancing towards them.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Tia said. “Just go home and nobody will remember any of this.”

“You’re all traitors,” one of the men said. “You have already hurt us beyond repair by giving our country to a bunch of tyrants.”

“You might be right,” Tia said. “I cannot speak for the actions of my family and peers. But right at this very moment, I am just trying to protect the people I care about. Is that okay?”

The men charged at them, so their answer was clearly given.

Emi took a step backwards, but Tia took one forwards. He jabbed his sharpened stick ahead and knocked the men off-balance. One of them swung his hoe, but Tia tripped him and he crashed on the ground. The other tossed his hoe aside and instead threw a punch. Tia swerved and dodged and shoved the man. He hit the ground the same time as the hoe he dropped.

These men weren’t soldiers. Not even close. They were just old men who wanted their home back. If only she could be sure her family would be safe, Emi might just have failed here on purpose for the sake of these desperate people.

Intentional or not, that chance to fail was growing greater by the moment. More soldiers ran down the hallway towards them… but they were not brandishing weapons, and they ran past the freed prisoners without a second glance.

There were thuds of heavy footsteps, and then a gigantic monstrous being appeared before them. It was eight feet tall, with lanky arms and legs and an astonishingly ravenous glare. It groaned and balled its massive hands into fists.

The woman in the fur coat shrieked.

Pip, Tia, and Emi’s Father readied themselves for a fight. Even Emi’s Mother tried to keep herself composed. But this… this was a monster! What in the Gods’ names was such a beast doing here?

It looked at the group… but it didn’t attack.

It seemed perfectly docile now, despite its horrifying appearance.

Something about its face struck Emi as familiar, though…

Soon, two more figures ran up behind the monster–

Beatrice Ragnell and Runa Arakawa.

“Don’t hurt them,” Runa said. “They will be loyal subjects just like you, my lovely Hasha.”

Emi threw down her sword and ran over to Beatrice. And those pairs of eyes, glimmering brown and shimmering blue, met once again.

“You’re safe,” they said in unison.

Beatrice giggled. “We were coming here to rescue you, you know.”

“I… I worried so much about you,” Emi said. “With everything happening out there, I just…. I–”

Beatrice shut Emi up with a kiss on the lips. She felt that same spark of electricity she always did and hugged Beatrice as tight as she could.

She felt so safe in this moment, like everything had suddenly become completely okay. Of course, they were still in the middle of a rebel uprising in Castle Balarand. They were still in the depths of danger. But knowing Beatrice was okay at this moment still filled Emi’s heart with glee.

“I love you,” Emi said.

“I love you too,” Beatrice said. “But we need to get out of here. The city’s on fire, and soon the castle will be too.”

<== Previous ♡ Next ==>

Chapter 58: Capture

It was ironic.

Emi actually supported the rebels.

She felt furious after King Kline and the Royal Family were deposed, after the powerful families of Balarand refused to lead the battle against Dannark and simply laid down their arms to protect the peace. Dannark, after a few major military victories on the outskirts of Elince, was able to simply walk into the city. They literally marched in without a single casualty.

Emi had wanted there to be more resistance against the occupation. She hated how quickly everything could change and wanted to see people invested in stopping it. Instead, Balarand continued into peacetime, with Dannark soldiers making increasing but small encroachments into their way of life, all the way up until…

Today. The day that the city fought back. And they fought back against her own family.

Now she was confined in a cramped broom closet, somewhere in the middle of Castle Balarand, together with Tia Knoll and his boyfriend. There were several armed guards standing at the doorway, so they were completely trapped in here.

The door opened, and several figures were pushed in, one landing on their face.

Five of those figures were Emi’s parents and older brother Touma, along with Pip and Ms. Khami, who had been the one knocked down. For the first time she had ever known that woman, she looked old. Aged by fifty years in the single day since she last saw her.

She helped her to her feet and hugged her, then her parents.

“We’ll hold your trial together in a few hours,” the guard said. “You might escape the death penalty since your son is Reo L’Hime, but we’re still weighing our options. Just thought I’d let you know.”

Ugh. Reo. Even in the middle of a rebellion, was so popular for his stupid engineering projects that he was going to keep the L’Hime Family from being executed.

The ground shook. There must have been another explosion.

The rebel soldiers were setting off explosives in certain areas of the city to draw attention and spread out Dannark’s relatively small occupation force. At least that’s what Emi figured from typical insurrection tactics. The Teal One used this same strategy to divide the Fathie Siege Force during the Battle of Balarand and pick off each legion separately, so they would be wise to follow that guideline. She realized her days of homeschool education were finally paying off with that kind of analysis. If only she could actually use that knowledge to get out of here…

Emi’s parents ran up to her and hugged her together. “You’re okay,” Father exclaimed.

“We were so worried,” Mother said. “Where were you?”

“I was with Tia,” Emi said, gesturing back to the two young men in the back of the closet. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry I never tell you anything…”

“It’s completely fine,” Father said. “We just worry about you…”

“I know you do.”

“If something had happened to you,” said Touma, “I don’t think I could have handled myself, my dear baby sister.”

“…Really?” Emi struggled to keep from rolling her eyes.

“How did it get like this?” Ms. Khami wondered aloud as Pip helped her to her feet. “Those cretins could have rebelled any time they wanted, but they waited until right as we finished remodelling the third floor balcony. If they destroy the house… I will personally kill every last one of them.” Emi knew she wasn’t joking. But she was in far too poor of shape to make good on her threat.

“Pip, why are you and Ms. Khami here?” Emi asked. “You aren’t rich or powerful. You’re just our housekeepers.”

“Well, I kind of…” Pip put her finger to her lips. “Well, today I learned I’m not good in a fistfight, let’s just say that.”

Emi didn’t know how to respond to that, so she said nothing.

Instead, she asked, “How are we going to get out of this? Do any of you know what’s going on out there right now?”

“No, we were rounded up a few hours ago,” Mother said. “They didn’t tell us anything.”

“And we were captured even earlier than that,” Tia said. Emi realized They must have struck at the Lake Geoffrey area first since the homes there were more isolated. This whole rebellion must have been lead by former Elincian soldiers, because these tactics were far too well-planned for a peasant uprising. That was sure to mean a whole lot of violence if anything went wrong.

Oh, Beatrice…

She had no idea where she was right now, but she hoped she was safe. Hiding at home, or fleeing the city if she could. She had no way of knowing where she was, but she had to hope she was safe, because that was all she could do.

Beatrice wouldn’t worry about things she couldn’t control. Beatrice was strong and dedicated and brave. Beatrice would keep her mine on the task at hand and accomplish it before anything else. So… that’s what Emi needed to do.

Her heart poured out of herself. Completely exited her being. She stomped on her emotions and took a crystal focus on the situation, just like Beatrice would have. Emi needed to escape, and make sure her family was safe at the same time. “There has to be a way for us to get out of here,” Emi said. “Does anyone have any ideas?”

“Absolutely not,” Ms. Khami said. “You are not going to do something foolish and stupid that will get you killed. I will not allow it.”

“You don’t have to,” Emi said. “I am my own person and I am going to decide my own fate. I won’t let any of you get hurt, even if it means I do.”

Tia said, “I think I may know what we can do. We are in a broom closet, correct?”

“Yeah?”

“Well then, we have all the supplies we need.”

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Chapter 56: Hanging with the Boys

“…And that’s how it went,” Emi said. “I’ve failed at everything I’ve ever tried for.”

She finished the story of her despair as she sat on the floor, hugging a pillow and burying her head in it. This was the third time she told this tale in the past week, each time to the same audience. Said audience, Tia, rolled his eyes and confirmed to Emi that her story had not been as moving as she hoped.

“You see, the last time you told me this story, you put a lot more blame on Beatrice,” said Tia, who was wearing a short skirt and dress shirt, a summer outfit, even though they were sitting in his bedroom in the middle of the day, and it was still quite cold outside. His boyfriend was also there, his arm over Tia’s shoulder. “It seems to me like you are still not seeing the real situation because you have simply shifted the blame from her to yourself. Perhaps blaming people for what happened isn’t exactly going to work.”

“I… I just don’t know,” she said. Emi’s eyes were essentially dried-out at this point. Ever since she returned from Mammoth Pass, she had tried everything she could to forget about Beatrice, but that very quickly failed, so she tried thinking it out. That failed, too. It had been months, but she was still wracked by it. “But… Tia… I’m glad you’ve been here to listen to me. I went so long without talking to anyone that I was probably… driving myself insane.” She laughed a little bit, but it still sounded fake to her own ears.

Tia and his boyfriend had been trying to cheer Emi up and invited Emi over to the Knoll residence the other day for no other reason than to hang out. Well, that and the fact that Balarand was getting a little bit tense lately. By tense, she meant full-scale rioting, so heavy that Dannark soldiers were making arrests by the hour. Emi wanted to be out there helping those people rage against their oppressors. And yet for some reason she was out here, far away from it all, doing nothing more productive than hanging out with these two men. It was shameful, but she didn’t even think she had the mental capacity to help these days.

Actually, she had never caught Tia’s current boyfriend’s name. He was a tall, muscular man with broad shoulders and a sharp head of hair, certainly the type of young man that girls and boys would go crazy over, though he very rarely spoke, preferring to let his face communicate his thoughts. And Emi had a feeling it was far too late to ask for his name, since they had spent time together on several occasions now.

He was still nice, she guessed. Even if Emi hadn’t been cheered very much, the young man’s smile was heartening.

Ugh, her stomach gurgled. She had been eating so many salmon binds this month she had probably gained five pounds…

“Thank you guys for helping me out,” Emi said. “I think I’d rather be a slug than a human, though… Slugs don’t have to worry about marriage and relationships and family. They just crawl around and eat.”

“Slugs are sort of gross,” said Tia.

“I used to love finding slugs when I was a child. I ruined so many dresses…” Emi wasn’t sure why she was reminiscing about her childhood all of a sudden, but it was nice to be thinking about something warm.

Beatrice was very warm…

Emi refused to keep crying at this. No, she was going to think about something new and dedicate her life to a new cause. The cause of keeping slug populations fed and healthy so that they could become the dominant species in Tsubasa, because unlike humans, slugs were kind and generous and told their girlfriends about their secrets before it was too late to fix things.

“Emi… here is another handkerchief,” Tia said.

Oh, she was crying after all, despite her dried-out eyes. “Th… thanks.”

She knew she was getting better, slowly, but a normal person wouldn’t have gone into some manic fit of melancholy about something as stupid as heartbreak. Emi just felt like she was some permanently broken human. It was… lame.

“Say, what is that little thing you’re working on?” Tia asked. “You are always tinkering on your little toys, but this one…”

Emi looked down at the object in her hands. She hadn’t even been thinking about it while she was assembling it, since this was the fifth one she had designed. “Sorry. I keep building these stupid things because, uh, it makes me feel better. I think.”

“Oh, dear, do not ever feel bad about your wonderful work,” Tia said. “If anyone had half the talent you did, our world would be filled with these gearbox machines.”

“It’s nothing special, really.”

“Then what is this machine in your hands? Is it simply that unremarkable?”

The device was about done except for the small wheel she needed to attach. She put that on, tightened the screw, and set it on the floor. “It’s like a cart, the kind a seller would carry, but, uh, tiny. I’m trying to figure out the best way to make it so I can build a big one someday.” She fiddled with the control gears and wound them up. “So, what I want to do is program the path, and then let the thing go…” She gave it a push, and the tiny cart began moving forwards all on its own. Self-propelled. “And if it worked in big size, maybe it would be like a food cart that sellers could take around the city and you could get food out by inserting a coin. Or, older folk could take their groceries home without worrying about heavy bags.”

“Holy Bk’Man,” exclaimed Tia. “You are indeed a madwoman.”

“But it’s still broken. See?” The toy cart came to a stop.

“I don’t see.”

“Well, I want to make it turn. But… so far I haven’t figured it out.”

“Who cares? You have invented something that could change the world!”

“I doubt it,” Emi said. “I don’t think anyone would want to build a bigger one.”

Tia pointed at her, his finger so close it was nearly touching her neck. “You are a L’Hime, a member of one of the most influential families in the city, and a genius on a level that is downright magical. It is your imperative to make sure that your creations grace all of Tsubasa.”

Emi giggled. She was just trying to cope with heartbreak by building stupid toys. It wasn’t like she was doing anything special. And yet Tia Knoll here was acting like she was on the verge of inciting a new holy era, a mechanical revolution. She couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. And, in some way, it made her feel a little bit better to do so.

“Maybe I–”

Suddenly, the bedroom door burst open.

Three tall men dressed in ragged uniforms and with swords at their hilts barged into the room. One of them screamed, “On the floor!”

They complied immediately.

Emi’s found herself being thrown on her back and handcuffed, all in one swift motion. She yelped in pain.

What was this? They were soldiers of some sort, but not in any uniform Emi recognized. Why were they here?

She found her answer immediately. “By order of the Elincian Freedom Campaign,” one of the soldiers said, “You three are under arrest as collaborators with the Dannark Empire and traitors. You’re coming with us.”

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