Ch 1.59: Rally

Elaina didn’t eat much at breakfast. Tira was the only one in her group who really did, having skipped dinner the night prior. The general atmosphere of the room was one of joy and resolve, all from people who didn’t know what they were really up against. It was easy to see why they thought that way, really. Most who had fought had done so against lesser members of the Red Order, ones who hadn’t “earned their crystals” as the one man had put it. Elaina had helped take down both of the starhounds that showed up, and only Waine and Prisma had really seen anything close to what the actual nature of the threat was.

“Come with me,” Tira said as she finished eating, standing up in a hurry. “Back to my office.”

The shuffled through the dining hall as other students continued on eating, laughing and shouting as they did. It was somehow more boisterous than normal, an unsophistication to the whole affair that didn’t seem to fit the prestigious Endrin Academy. Elaina glanced up at the faculty table as they walked out, seeing the calm smile on the headmaster’s face that he’d been wearing ever since finishing his speech. Is he doing this on purpose, or does he just not know?

Tira led them through mostly empty hallways, quiet until she through open the door of her office. A young man was sitting at one of the desks, startled by the sudden appearance. “Captain! I was just finishing up my report of my rounds this morning—”

“Go eat, then finish them and take them directly to Calivahn.”

“Yes ma’am!” He scrambled together some paper and writing supplies as Tira swung around to her head desk, rubbing her temples as Elaina and Carline pulled up chairs. The watch member was out of the room in only seconds, and Tira touched the crystal tablet on her desk, locking the large monitor behind her to the dining hall.

“This is bad,” Carline said, the first time she’d spoken since Alonse had spoken. “They don’t realize how strong the Order really is.”

“Alonse has to,” Tira said, turning to watch the monitor. “He’s not an idiot, despite what people say about him.” What people say about him?

“Wait,” Elaina said, “shouldn’t I go grab the System?”

“No.” Tira’s reply was direct, firm. “We need to talk about that too.”

“What do you mean?” Elaina turned to Carline, looking for backup, but only found the girl looking down. “Carline, she’s new to this, but we both know the System, right?”

The girl continued looking at the floor. “Elaina… if the System wasn’t here, then none of this would have happened.”

“What? Carline, the System is the only reason we won at all, its—” she cut herself off as she realized what Carline was saying. It wasn’t an argument, just a truth.

“That person, Myriala,” Tira said, “was a scout. Whatever way they have of tracking the System, they didn’t find us for nine centuries.”

“Until I activated the System… Gods, this is my fault.”

“No!” Carline said, leaning over to Elaina. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You just— you were in the wrong place, at the wrong time.”

“Yeah,” Tira added. “It’s not like you went looking for it. It’s those other little shits’ fault if anything for taking you out there that night. But the fact remains, it was only a couple of days after that that the Red Order first showed up. She said there’d be more looking for her once they realize she went missing, and there’s no reason to not believe that. The only questions are how much time we have, and what we do with the information we have.” Elaina was the one who looked down now. They weren’t implying the System was nefarious, of course. That just wasn’t true, she knew that, but good intentions or not…

“What do you think we should do?”

“We go to Alonse,” Tira said. “With everything. Classes, System, Myriala, Red Order. He’s not an idiot like I said, but he doesn’t have the information her needs to make good decisions right now. Once he knows how dangerous this is, we might be able to get him to go the curfew route, but even if it means shutting down the school for now he needs to know what we’re up against.”

Elaina turned to the wall, the one separating the watch office from Tira’s room. She’s just on the other side, not even knowing we’re talking about her. “I don’t want to do that…”

“Elaina, people died. I—” Carline choked off her sentence, shaking her head. “I felt them die, Elaina.”

“Thirty two,” Tira said. “About half of them first years who had no clue how to fight, three of them teachers who definitely knew how to fight, and who died anyways. We need to take this seriously.”

Elaina balled up her fist. I know that. She hadn’t known the exact count until now, but she knew it was serious. “Tira, you heard what Myriala said at the end. The Stormshines, Alonse’s family, have some deal with the Red Order.”

“I really think that was a lie,” Carline said. “They— the kingdom wouldn’t do that. King Endrin it would have been, right? There’s just no way.”

“She’s right, Elaina. Everything out of that bitch’s mouth was a taunt, just meant to fuck with us.”

Elaina shook her head. “No, not that. I mean, it was a taunt, but she didn’t say it like she was telling me something new. She acted like it should have been common knowledge, something everyone should know.” She stood up, pushing her chair back and throwing her hands on the table. “But we don’t know that. There’s so much we don’t know, that we should. We don’t know what the deal was, what actually happened during the Night Wars.”

Carline visibly recoiled at that suggestion, Tira merely looking askance. “Listen, I know that… I know you both have a lot of faith in the kingdom. I don’t. If you grew up the way I did, then maybe you’d understand… I thought I could trust Alonse after I first met him, but I knew something seemed off. I still want to think I can trust him, but I can’t be sure.

“I get that this probably all started because I found the System, but I can’t undo that now. Listen, if I could just take it and leave I would, but I can’t. The main core is still locked on school grounds, so we’re stuck here…”

Elaina lifter her hands from the desk, beginning to pace. She had planned to go on talking, but her mind was racing, not settling on any one thing to say, so she ended up just walking in circle.

Tira eventually sighed. “Carline, she might be right.”

Carline pursed her lips, still looking down. “I don’t… I don’t like talking about hiding things from the Kingdom. It’s just, like— I don’t really know what it is.”

“Treason?” Tira said, cracking a grin. “I’m a woman of the law, but I do have a bit of a rebellious streak in me, you know.”

“Not the time for jokes,” Elaina said, looking at the turmoiled Carline. She walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Listen, I know this is kind of hard to talk about. I don’t really like the idea of continuing to hide stuff either, but once we tell Alonse about the System we can’t go back, ever. We shouldn’t make snap decisions.”

Carline nodded softly, eyes deep in thought. “I guess that’s true.” She looked back up at Elaina, face still filled with concern. “You think this is for the best?”

Elaina nodded back, firmly. “I do.” She let go of Carline and walked back over to her chair, collapsing into it. For some reason she had as much adrenaline coursing through her as if she’d just been fighting again. “We do need to be careful though. Maybe there’s some way to indicate that Alonse might not understand what we’re up against?”

“I can try and help with that in my report,” Tira said. “I have a meeting with Alonse in about an hour. And don’t worry, I won’t mention the System, but he needs to know there’s stronger enemies than what most people faced.”

Elaina sighed in relief. She couldn’t quite place the feeling, but she knew deep inside of her that telling Alonse about the System was a bad idea. She’d been all for it only the day prior, but the at least had to wait, for now.

“We also need to get stronger ourselves,” Tira said. “If we’re the only ones who know the whole truth, that’s a burden we’re going to have to bear, and it won’t be easy.”

“Right,” Elaina said, nodding. “We can try and get the Training subsystem activated with that other core the System was talking about.” That wouldn’t be enough though, she was pretty sure. “We should probably try and get more party members. I still don’t know how to get new Users added outside of our party, but we need more numbers regardless.”

“Yeah,” Tira said, leaning back and crossing her arms. “That will be tough though; not many confessed perverts running around.”

“Uhm,” Carline said, blushing brighter than Elaina had ever seen her, “about that… I might know someone who could join up, who would fit in, I think.”

Book 1: End