Outside the city, Morning
Leda had been going over in her head what to say. Almost going far enough to take notes. "I need Corwyn's army to hear me too." Leda told Iranon. "Can you do that?"
"So you want to inspire our side, and demoralize theirs?"
"And maybe foment rebellion, if what I have to say makes sense to them."
Iranon raised a brow. "Yes. We can do that."
Ember changed into her natural form, and raised Leda into the air, perched on her neck, so that the gathered troops could see her. As she spoke, Iranon and his fellow bards began to play an inspirational tune that not only affected her listeners, but Leda herself. It lent conviction to her speech, and confidence to her words. It even managed to reach a climax as she finished.
“Brothers and Sisters!
None of you ever owed anyone fealty, or loyalty or respect! You owe me nothing! I only hope, that I have earned your loyalty and your respect, as you have earned mine! And I beg you in this dark hour to listen to me now!
Corwyn wants your homes, your lands, your lives and your souls! He would tell you that in order to claim any of the freedoms that are rightfully yours, you must give them all up to him!
“And he is not even here to make that demand himself! Like a coward he sits safe in his home while he sends others to do his dying for him! Why should he care how many are killed in his quest for power? He risks nothing, because he cares for nothing! Nothing but himself, and he has kept far away from this fight!
“I am not such a coward! I will not hide while others risk all! I will fight for my home, and my family! Brothers and Sisters, will you fight for yours?!”
Whether it was her words or the Bardic spell cast by Iranon, none could say, and no one cared. A resounding cheer rose up from the army gathered before her, and if some called her name, so be it.
Ember lowered her back down to the ground and shifted back to her humanoid form. She studied the girl critically. "I might make your armor a bit shinier." she said. "And I'm definitely gonna make you taller."
"Oh please make me taller." Leda snickered.
Then Ember embraced her again, fiercely, and kissed her forehead. "Come back alive, you hear me?" She looked at the others who would go with her. "All of you."
Blossom
Blossom wasn't hanging back, but she was trying not to be anywhere near the front as she watched her friend deliver her speech.
She wasn't sure that making it known they knew Corwyn's location was a good idea, and her face probably showed a bit more seriousness that she usually let slip through.
Karla
Karla whistled. "I like the use of the bardic magic," she said, looking at the speech from a much more political--and cynical--standpoint. "I might have to see if I can borrow some when I go up against Hobart. It makes anything you say sound heroic."
Blossom
Blossom nodded. "We use music, but not magical. Drums mostly. It totally makes you think of a heartbeat, like everyone is one giant connected person." She looked over at Karla. "Thank you."
Karla
Karla looked over at Blossom, confused. "For what?"
Blossom
"For not suggesting I leave because I won't kill. I know that I'm the only one here that thinks like that."
Karla
"It worries me." Blossom was her friend and so she was blunt in a way she might not be for someone else. "Anytime you go up against someone with fewer scruples than you is a dangerous proposition. I fear that your refusal to strike a killing blow will put you in more danger than necessary."
She shrugged, looking out at the assembled army. "But I know you're a capable fighter. I don't doubt that you can take care of yourself. And I'm happy that you don't kill. I don't want you to have to. And thank you. For not openly judging me because I do."
Blossom
Blossom totally appreciated blunt. "I don't judge you at all. We're different people, and I know you aren't a killer. I wish you didn't think you had to, but I don't judge you." Blossom grinned softly. "And I'm not like I used to be; I don't assume all my opponents are like they are in my world anymore, so you needn't worry about that."
"Because of the last few years - Fandom, New Gotham, Baltimore, El Paso..." She shrugged as well. "I've learned about other types of evil. That the other person is always more powerful than me, willing to cheat. And they'll hurt people who can't do even as little as I can."
And then a bit more quietly: "I have killed before. I don't like it."
Karla
"Sometimes I wonder if I am, though," Karla said, looking down at her hands. "I'm a Healer. Every one of my castes is meant to Heal. And yet...taking life is so much easier than saving one. Destruction always is."
Her hands didn't look like much. Thin, pale, with bright blue polish that sparkled on her nails. But they had killed and killed and would kill again. They also Healed and snatch people away from death's doorstep, but after four years at Fandom, she had no idea what her respective tallies were. Lives taken versus lives saved. Which of those numbers held a greater claim on her soul?
"With my powers, it's harder to take someone down than it is to take them out completely. I could do it. I could work harder to hurt instead of kill. But in that moment, the moment right when I decide what to do, I don't want to hurt. I want to make sure whatever threat is coming at me can never hurt anyone else again."
Blossom
"The fact that you're thinking about it, that you can think about it, that totally means you're not a killer." Momoko had experience with killing only as survival or play, and she distinctly remembered that she hadn't done any thinking about it. And that was just when she was a monster.
"Fandom was the first time I ever killed; I didn't realize things were different than at home. Drug dealers and burglars don't bounce off buildings as well here as they do back in Tokyo City."
... That was meant to be a sort of a joke. Sort of.
"I... I've had to struggle a lot about that. About accidentally doing things."
Karla
Karla reached over and hugged her, tight. At least choosing to end a life--it was a choice. Accidentally doing so must feel about a hundred times worse. Especially for someone like Momoko who was against killing as a general rule.
"Do you know where Leda stands on this? I know she wants to kill Corwyn, but I'm not sure she'll actually do it. There's a big difference between wanting and doing."
Blossom
Blossom totally took the hug. Eagerly. Who knew they both felt the same way? That they were just standing on opposite sides of the wall?
"I know she's killed at least once. But I don't know if it was in self defense or fear or just because she was... angry."
Karla
"Sometimes it's nice to be able to rescue oneself," Karla said, squeezing tight. "It feels good knowing that you can. Especially after something that makes you feel as helpless and victimized as being kidnapped does."
Karla had enough experience in the 'feeling helpless' angle to know what she was talking about.
Blossom
"I get mad. Lose control sometimes. But I've always stopped." When she was herself. "I just... don't understand. Sorry."
Karla
"I know you don't," Karla said softly. "No reason to apologize. I think it's better that way, honestly. It's not something that you can take back afterwards." She ran fingers through her hair, trying to explain it. "I take the expedient path when I can. That doesn't always make it the best or most moral choice. It's not always the easiest choice, either. But--well, take Corwyn. Having him decisively dead might not be the nicest way to handle it or the most just--but it keeps him from hurting anyone else. Precludes the possibility of his escaping in the future. Dead, he's a lot safer. Alive, he's still a liability. Leda has to weigh that fact when she decides what to do with him."
Blossom
Blossom nodded. "But dead, he's also a martyr. A rallying cry for the next person who wants to rule. As well as a reason to fear crossing Leda, when she wants to encourage her people to stop doing that - living in fear of a ruler."
She sighed. "I won't be trouble, you know. I'm here for Leda and you guys first, the innocent people second. I know it's a fight that means death for a lot of people." And now Karla knew she was capable of it. "I just don't like it."
"What you said, about you taking the expedient path... Why do you?"
Karla
"I know you can," Karla said. "And, like I said, I'm glad you don't. It's good to have someone around to argue for the other side."
She paused for a moment, thinking about Blossom's question. "Part of it is a cultural thing, I think. It's not just that the Blood have no laws against murder, but that...stepping out onto the killing field is something that happens a lot." She sighed, frustrated. "No, that still isn't right, because it makes Kaeleer just sound like we go around murdering people willy-nilly. I guess maybe the expedient path doesn't have the stigma in my world the way it does yours? And while taking that doesn't mean being short-sighted or sacrificing the future for present gain, it just means--sometimes you have to make a faster decision without having the time for moral quandaries."
Blossom
"It's not always morals," Blossom wanted to make sure this was clear. "In my world, we have a long history of honour killing and revenge killing, especially in politics. But killing someone never really ever solved the problem, it just delayed things. Once, a group of soldiers waited a whole year to get revenge for the death of their lord."
"It took a long time for our rulers to figure out that the long-term still matters."
Karla
"There's not much in the way of feuds," Karla said with a shrug. "The Queen's justice for the death of someone else is just that--justice. Besides, no one with an ounce of sense if going to go after a Warlord Prince, especially one acting on orders of the Queen."
Blossom
"Most of them were sudden feuds, appearing to justify revenge." Blossom nodded. "Your world is still strict about things like that." But even so, look at Karla's personal situation? Rebellion and going against a Queen's orders - even killing a Queen - totally existed there too, or Karla could just go home at anytime.
Not that Blossom was going to bring that up.
"My people were separated by skill, not by inherent abilities. And anyone can gain skill and change their fate. Some even worked their way into power, despite being of the wrong families."
Karla
"Not everyone," Karla pointed out. "The naturally intelligent and gifted, sure, but the main benefits will go to people of wealth and influence and temporal power. Dark-Jeweled and high-casted children are born to poor families as well, and can rise to power just as a hard-working and inquisitive child can rise to power in Japan. Sure, things like that tend to follow lineages, but Queens can be born on farms or in slums, too. Hell's fire, Uncle Saetan was the bastard son of a whore. He gave himself the SaDiablo name because he didn't have a father's name to take. And now he's the strongest male in Blood history, the Consort to the last Witch and adopted father of the new."
Really. Saetan was kind of the poster child of the self-made male.
"You say yours is the fairer system, but is it really? A society based on skill is only just if everyone has equal access to those skills. Can you say with complete honesty that everyone in Japan, no matter their family or background, has the same chances to succeed? The same possibilities to advance?"
Blossom
Blossom liked hearing about the way Karla's world worked. It was familiar and yet totally different at the same time! Like listening to stories based on her own world.
"I don't say it's a fairer system. Just that it allows for consequences and works better to prevent things like this." Ah! "Better than it used to, not better than your world. And at the least, the way my government went would be a good middle step for Leda to try to get to, instead of her simply abandoning everything like she talks about. We still have an emperor, loved and totally respected, but the people make most of the decisions."
She tilted her head and grinned warmly at Karla. "We've never really talked about the differences in our worlds, you know? Not in any detail. We only talk about it when Dinah gets mad about something."
Karla
"Better still, I should bring you to Kaeleer to visit," Karla said, giving Momoko a fond smile in return. "Uncle Saetan could tell you all about the way the system works and in much more detail than I can. He's got fifty thousand years of experience with it, after all."
He hadn't been the Consort to the last Queen of Ebon-Askavi because of his pretty face, after all. Or, at least, not just because of it.
And as for Leda...Karla glanced over to their friend, who was finishing up her speech. "She has to understand that just...abdicating...is only going to open up the field for petty tyrants, right? Other lords like Corwyn? It doesn't matter what she, personally, thinks is best. She has to do what's right for her people."
Blossom
"I'd love to come visit! But not just to listen to your uncle, okay? I totally get bored easily." Karla, meet understatement.
She looked back to Leda as well. "I don't think she understands, no. She enjoys being Queen, taking care of people; she really does love them. But I don't think she understands how it all really works. I think she really believes that just telling them they don't have to listen to a ruler anymore will work."
Karla
"Psssht." Karla waved her hand at that ridiculous idea. "No way! You'll have the unicorns to meet and the dragons to fly with and honey-pears to eat and the boyos to harass and Lucivar to spar with and...and...and everything! I wouldn't make you just listen to Uncle Saetan the whole time you were there!"
That was Warren's job. Heh.
"It's tough, being a Queen with no one to show you the ropes. Tougher still when you don't even believe in the position in the first place. I think--" She paused to listen to the closing words. "Oooh, clever." She grinned. "That's not technically lying!"
Blossom
Blossom beamed, utterly proud of Leda for that. "See? She can totally do it. And if she makes little changes as she reigns, the people will accept them better."
Karla
"I know that and you know that," Karla said, nodding towards where Leda was now chatting with Ember. "Let's see if we can't convince her of that, hmm?"
Leda
That was, actually what Leda had been doing since taking the throne. And if Karla and Momoko were worried now, they should have heard Leda's speech as she'd originally composed it. It had been full of anti-monarchy/nobility rhetoric.
When Leda finished her speech, and consulted with Ember, she made her way towards her friends. But she was interrupted on the way.
A dark haired woman, that Blossom may recognize as Polaris, the mother of Silar emerged from Iranon's camp.
"Polaris, what-" Leda hadn't known that Polaris was anywhere near the city. But before she could finish asking her what she was doing there, Polaris kissed her.
When the kiss ended, Polaris whispered; "Don't you dare die."
[The Obligatory speech. Once again thanks to Karla for the coding, preplayed with the absolutely fabulous Karla and Blossom.]
"So you want to inspire our side, and demoralize theirs?"
"And maybe foment rebellion, if what I have to say makes sense to them."
Iranon raised a brow. "Yes. We can do that."
Ember changed into her natural form, and raised Leda into the air, perched on her neck, so that the gathered troops could see her. As she spoke, Iranon and his fellow bards began to play an inspirational tune that not only affected her listeners, but Leda herself. It lent conviction to her speech, and confidence to her words. It even managed to reach a climax as she finished.
“Brothers and Sisters!
None of you ever owed anyone fealty, or loyalty or respect! You owe me nothing! I only hope, that I have earned your loyalty and your respect, as you have earned mine! And I beg you in this dark hour to listen to me now!
Corwyn wants your homes, your lands, your lives and your souls! He would tell you that in order to claim any of the freedoms that are rightfully yours, you must give them all up to him!
“And he is not even here to make that demand himself! Like a coward he sits safe in his home while he sends others to do his dying for him! Why should he care how many are killed in his quest for power? He risks nothing, because he cares for nothing! Nothing but himself, and he has kept far away from this fight!
“I am not such a coward! I will not hide while others risk all! I will fight for my home, and my family! Brothers and Sisters, will you fight for yours?!”
Whether it was her words or the Bardic spell cast by Iranon, none could say, and no one cared. A resounding cheer rose up from the army gathered before her, and if some called her name, so be it.
Ember lowered her back down to the ground and shifted back to her humanoid form. She studied the girl critically. "I might make your armor a bit shinier." she said. "And I'm definitely gonna make you taller."
"Oh please make me taller." Leda snickered.
Then Ember embraced her again, fiercely, and kissed her forehead. "Come back alive, you hear me?" She looked at the others who would go with her. "All of you."
Blossom
Blossom wasn't hanging back, but she was trying not to be anywhere near the front as she watched her friend deliver her speech.
She wasn't sure that making it known they knew Corwyn's location was a good idea, and her face probably showed a bit more seriousness that she usually let slip through.
Karla
Karla whistled. "I like the use of the bardic magic," she said, looking at the speech from a much more political--and cynical--standpoint. "I might have to see if I can borrow some when I go up against Hobart. It makes anything you say sound heroic."
Blossom
Blossom nodded. "We use music, but not magical. Drums mostly. It totally makes you think of a heartbeat, like everyone is one giant connected person." She looked over at Karla. "Thank you."
Karla
Karla looked over at Blossom, confused. "For what?"
Blossom
"For not suggesting I leave because I won't kill. I know that I'm the only one here that thinks like that."
Karla
"It worries me." Blossom was her friend and so she was blunt in a way she might not be for someone else. "Anytime you go up against someone with fewer scruples than you is a dangerous proposition. I fear that your refusal to strike a killing blow will put you in more danger than necessary."
She shrugged, looking out at the assembled army. "But I know you're a capable fighter. I don't doubt that you can take care of yourself. And I'm happy that you don't kill. I don't want you to have to. And thank you. For not openly judging me because I do."
Blossom
Blossom totally appreciated blunt. "I don't judge you at all. We're different people, and I know you aren't a killer. I wish you didn't think you had to, but I don't judge you." Blossom grinned softly. "And I'm not like I used to be; I don't assume all my opponents are like they are in my world anymore, so you needn't worry about that."
"Because of the last few years - Fandom, New Gotham, Baltimore, El Paso..." She shrugged as well. "I've learned about other types of evil. That the other person is always more powerful than me, willing to cheat. And they'll hurt people who can't do even as little as I can."
And then a bit more quietly: "I have killed before. I don't like it."
Karla
"Sometimes I wonder if I am, though," Karla said, looking down at her hands. "I'm a Healer. Every one of my castes is meant to Heal. And yet...taking life is so much easier than saving one. Destruction always is."
Her hands didn't look like much. Thin, pale, with bright blue polish that sparkled on her nails. But they had killed and killed and would kill again. They also Healed and snatch people away from death's doorstep, but after four years at Fandom, she had no idea what her respective tallies were. Lives taken versus lives saved. Which of those numbers held a greater claim on her soul?
"With my powers, it's harder to take someone down than it is to take them out completely. I could do it. I could work harder to hurt instead of kill. But in that moment, the moment right when I decide what to do, I don't want to hurt. I want to make sure whatever threat is coming at me can never hurt anyone else again."
Blossom
"The fact that you're thinking about it, that you can think about it, that totally means you're not a killer." Momoko had experience with killing only as survival or play, and she distinctly remembered that she hadn't done any thinking about it. And that was just when she was a monster.
"Fandom was the first time I ever killed; I didn't realize things were different than at home. Drug dealers and burglars don't bounce off buildings as well here as they do back in Tokyo City."
... That was meant to be a sort of a joke. Sort of.
"I... I've had to struggle a lot about that. About accidentally doing things."
Karla
Karla reached over and hugged her, tight. At least choosing to end a life--it was a choice. Accidentally doing so must feel about a hundred times worse. Especially for someone like Momoko who was against killing as a general rule.
"Do you know where Leda stands on this? I know she wants to kill Corwyn, but I'm not sure she'll actually do it. There's a big difference between wanting and doing."
Blossom
Blossom totally took the hug. Eagerly. Who knew they both felt the same way? That they were just standing on opposite sides of the wall?
"I know she's killed at least once. But I don't know if it was in self defense or fear or just because she was... angry."
Karla
"Sometimes it's nice to be able to rescue oneself," Karla said, squeezing tight. "It feels good knowing that you can. Especially after something that makes you feel as helpless and victimized as being kidnapped does."
Karla had enough experience in the 'feeling helpless' angle to know what she was talking about.
Blossom
"I get mad. Lose control sometimes. But I've always stopped." When she was herself. "I just... don't understand. Sorry."
Karla
"I know you don't," Karla said softly. "No reason to apologize. I think it's better that way, honestly. It's not something that you can take back afterwards." She ran fingers through her hair, trying to explain it. "I take the expedient path when I can. That doesn't always make it the best or most moral choice. It's not always the easiest choice, either. But--well, take Corwyn. Having him decisively dead might not be the nicest way to handle it or the most just--but it keeps him from hurting anyone else. Precludes the possibility of his escaping in the future. Dead, he's a lot safer. Alive, he's still a liability. Leda has to weigh that fact when she decides what to do with him."
Blossom
Blossom nodded. "But dead, he's also a martyr. A rallying cry for the next person who wants to rule. As well as a reason to fear crossing Leda, when she wants to encourage her people to stop doing that - living in fear of a ruler."
She sighed. "I won't be trouble, you know. I'm here for Leda and you guys first, the innocent people second. I know it's a fight that means death for a lot of people." And now Karla knew she was capable of it. "I just don't like it."
"What you said, about you taking the expedient path... Why do you?"
Karla
"I know you can," Karla said. "And, like I said, I'm glad you don't. It's good to have someone around to argue for the other side."
She paused for a moment, thinking about Blossom's question. "Part of it is a cultural thing, I think. It's not just that the Blood have no laws against murder, but that...stepping out onto the killing field is something that happens a lot." She sighed, frustrated. "No, that still isn't right, because it makes Kaeleer just sound like we go around murdering people willy-nilly. I guess maybe the expedient path doesn't have the stigma in my world the way it does yours? And while taking that doesn't mean being short-sighted or sacrificing the future for present gain, it just means--sometimes you have to make a faster decision without having the time for moral quandaries."
Blossom
"It's not always morals," Blossom wanted to make sure this was clear. "In my world, we have a long history of honour killing and revenge killing, especially in politics. But killing someone never really ever solved the problem, it just delayed things. Once, a group of soldiers waited a whole year to get revenge for the death of their lord."
"It took a long time for our rulers to figure out that the long-term still matters."
Karla
"There's not much in the way of feuds," Karla said with a shrug. "The Queen's justice for the death of someone else is just that--justice. Besides, no one with an ounce of sense if going to go after a Warlord Prince, especially one acting on orders of the Queen."
Blossom
"Most of them were sudden feuds, appearing to justify revenge." Blossom nodded. "Your world is still strict about things like that." But even so, look at Karla's personal situation? Rebellion and going against a Queen's orders - even killing a Queen - totally existed there too, or Karla could just go home at anytime.
Not that Blossom was going to bring that up.
"My people were separated by skill, not by inherent abilities. And anyone can gain skill and change their fate. Some even worked their way into power, despite being of the wrong families."
Karla
"Not everyone," Karla pointed out. "The naturally intelligent and gifted, sure, but the main benefits will go to people of wealth and influence and temporal power. Dark-Jeweled and high-casted children are born to poor families as well, and can rise to power just as a hard-working and inquisitive child can rise to power in Japan. Sure, things like that tend to follow lineages, but Queens can be born on farms or in slums, too. Hell's fire, Uncle Saetan was the bastard son of a whore. He gave himself the SaDiablo name because he didn't have a father's name to take. And now he's the strongest male in Blood history, the Consort to the last Witch and adopted father of the new."
Really. Saetan was kind of the poster child of the self-made male.
"You say yours is the fairer system, but is it really? A society based on skill is only just if everyone has equal access to those skills. Can you say with complete honesty that everyone in Japan, no matter their family or background, has the same chances to succeed? The same possibilities to advance?"
Blossom
Blossom liked hearing about the way Karla's world worked. It was familiar and yet totally different at the same time! Like listening to stories based on her own world.
"I don't say it's a fairer system. Just that it allows for consequences and works better to prevent things like this." Ah! "Better than it used to, not better than your world. And at the least, the way my government went would be a good middle step for Leda to try to get to, instead of her simply abandoning everything like she talks about. We still have an emperor, loved and totally respected, but the people make most of the decisions."
She tilted her head and grinned warmly at Karla. "We've never really talked about the differences in our worlds, you know? Not in any detail. We only talk about it when Dinah gets mad about something."
Karla
"Better still, I should bring you to Kaeleer to visit," Karla said, giving Momoko a fond smile in return. "Uncle Saetan could tell you all about the way the system works and in much more detail than I can. He's got fifty thousand years of experience with it, after all."
He hadn't been the Consort to the last Queen of Ebon-Askavi because of his pretty face, after all. Or, at least, not just because of it.
And as for Leda...Karla glanced over to their friend, who was finishing up her speech. "She has to understand that just...abdicating...is only going to open up the field for petty tyrants, right? Other lords like Corwyn? It doesn't matter what she, personally, thinks is best. She has to do what's right for her people."
Blossom
"I'd love to come visit! But not just to listen to your uncle, okay? I totally get bored easily." Karla, meet understatement.
She looked back to Leda as well. "I don't think she understands, no. She enjoys being Queen, taking care of people; she really does love them. But I don't think she understands how it all really works. I think she really believes that just telling them they don't have to listen to a ruler anymore will work."
Karla
"Psssht." Karla waved her hand at that ridiculous idea. "No way! You'll have the unicorns to meet and the dragons to fly with and honey-pears to eat and the boyos to harass and Lucivar to spar with and...and...and everything! I wouldn't make you just listen to Uncle Saetan the whole time you were there!"
That was Warren's job. Heh.
"It's tough, being a Queen with no one to show you the ropes. Tougher still when you don't even believe in the position in the first place. I think--" She paused to listen to the closing words. "Oooh, clever." She grinned. "That's not technically lying!"
Blossom
Blossom beamed, utterly proud of Leda for that. "See? She can totally do it. And if she makes little changes as she reigns, the people will accept them better."
Karla
"I know that and you know that," Karla said, nodding towards where Leda was now chatting with Ember. "Let's see if we can't convince her of that, hmm?"
Leda
That was, actually what Leda had been doing since taking the throne. And if Karla and Momoko were worried now, they should have heard Leda's speech as she'd originally composed it. It had been full of anti-monarchy/nobility rhetoric.
When Leda finished her speech, and consulted with Ember, she made her way towards her friends. But she was interrupted on the way.
A dark haired woman, that Blossom may recognize as Polaris, the mother of Silar emerged from Iranon's camp.
"Polaris, what-" Leda hadn't known that Polaris was anywhere near the city. But before she could finish asking her what she was doing there, Polaris kissed her.
When the kiss ended, Polaris whispered; "Don't you dare die."
[The Obligatory speech. Once again thanks to Karla for the coding, preplayed with the absolutely fabulous Karla and Blossom.]