Akari was about to try to pull Sita aside for a long,
long overdue conversation, when she withdrew upon Alice's arrival and noticed that Sajida was still remaining on the sidelines as well. She then looked at the fisherwoman for a moment, seeing the anxiety written on her face at Sita so tenderly hugging Alice, which was surely bringing up painful memories.
"Shh, shhh...I know, I know," Alice said as she rubbed her former mistress's broad shoulders. "Chloe filled me in on everything on the way over," she added, neglecting to mention the siblings' own tearful reunion; the devastating news Alice had had to share with her older sister about their father and brother; or the fact Rathum, the dragon who had so long ago saved her life, had been killed by his own guards giving Alice the information she needed to find Chloe, while in the midst of bloodlessly surrendering
another city, called Wilfarne a few days prior. In due time, they'd grieve and properly bury their family members at the family plot and attend their friends' funerals, but for now she figured that Chloe would lean on Sita to help her process their deaths more than she had been able to do with Alice in the short time they'd reconnected.
She was also mixed about going back to Surabamba after everything she'd been made to do, which had been unavoidably raised back into the public consciousness during the
sham murder trial in Olseka that helped boil tensions between merfolk and the surface into war. But, the Confederacy had invaded it, one of its most capable generals was spearheading the rapid offensive, and the Emperor agreed with her that if they didn't rout Lord Tyvanwek here, then it would close any opportunity to keep a front open to pressure the southern Ananki border. It would also be an avenue for the
annihilated Confederate Navy to reemerge and not only open a two front war on the open sea while the Imperial Navy desperately fended off sea monsters from the depths, but also spread the philtervirus to more ports around the world, bringing thousands more people under the dark mind control of the serial killer Elizabeth Jersey and her depraved Family. So it would be up to her, the Empire's most brilliant strategist, to take him on alone in a brutal game of chess for the fate of the world.
And her alone.
Alone...oh gods,
Jareth.
She couldn't think about him right now, as much as she wanted to. He was being treated for the philtervirus by the best doctors in the world after he'd bravely or foolishly swallowed as much philter fluid as he could to protect her, so she just had to hope that the father of her children would pull through his medically-induced coma. And, she realized, she would not fight the battle alone, even if only she could see the bigger picture. This inspired her, and soon she tenderly kissed SIta's cold cheek, climbed up onto the roof of the hut, and pushed a button on her back to unfurl her
new Golem armor, while Akari helped pull Sajida out of the Void to listen to her sister in Darkness.
"People of Chenkarat, listen to me and take heed," she boomed with the aid of a sonic reprojector in her armor. "The Emperor has indeed personally brought the
Great Steam Fleet to your aid, and I, Alice Guthrie, am his sword, bringing his wrath upon those who would do you harm tonight. This does not just mean defeating the monsters charging at our doorstep, but wielding my power to clear out all the rats within." These bold, thinly veiled words, a barb in the eyes of the greedy provincial government and business leaders that had oppressed and stolen the wealth of both Sura and Bamba since the Imperial invasion of 1865, were written down by hidden agents of the infamous Imperial Eye secret police with glares in their eyes as a crowd of people quickly gathered.
"The Confederacy would have you believe that humans are the enemy, and that we are destined to destroy this planet like roaches if they do not exterminate us all, when in fact the Elder Dragons that once protected this world are using the
poor victims of this
insidious virus, the villainous, rapacious Lord Tyvanwek"- that made Akari fume as she remembered why she was fighting- "and his equally brainwashed
army of elves, merfolk, and other nonhumans as a wedge to divide and enslave
all peoples forever, whether goblin or human, elf or dragonling. They did this once, many millennia ago, before the
Last Devara rose from this very soil to say
enough, fought to her dying breath to protect all our ancestors, and sparked a yearning for liberty that continues to this day." That left Sajida to ponder her place in history. "There may come a day when we abandon all sentience and decency and revert solely to our baser instincts, but I am proud to say that
today is not that day; for brave volunteers from all nations, who have confronted evil with honor wherever it may appear, have taken arms not for conquest, not for riches, but for all of you, and are among you today.
"On my right, this
Goliath"- and as if on cue, the feared symbol of Imperial might carefully trudged through the narrow streets- "may seem like a faceless war machine, but is piloted by
an orphan who rose to become a true Knight of Elthurscaldy. I'm proud to call her the Commander of Meteor Squadron, for she has been a proven leader of battle-tested yet utterly moral engineers and soldiers. And in the skies above me as I speak is the
famed Javelin Squadron, consisting of
our first goblin ace pilot; a
native son of this land who has shown nothing but compassion towards
the faerie he loves and
their unborn child in the newly liberated
Free City of Wilfarne;"- that got the biggest cheers from humans and nonhumans who lived in Chenkarat alike, though throughout, there was not a dry eye in the audience- "
the brilliant inventor of the aeroplane; and the
first human to
truly learn magic in a century. I call them the
Emperor's Spear for a reason, and their tenacity and selflessness in the face of impossible odds makes me proud to fly into each and every battle with them. I also count as heroes those who are not part of the Imperial Army, but have fought with all their might nonetheless: my dear sister, her beloved vampire, once queen of Klandethan, a Gudarian thief turned leader of fierce resistance for her people, a compassionate and brilliant Jogai and Sudaish waterfoot herder, and the most fearless fisherwoman from the land of the Twin Kings"- a common nomenclature for Surabamba, since they were once two kingdoms who united- "or any other that I have ever known.
"As for me, I also bring to bear not just my armor and weapons, or my years of fighting crime"- this felt like a coming out all over again to her, she felt as she added this next part in her
enhanced voice- "but the awesome power of the Darkness itself, which is not to be feared when used for true and noble purposes, and consists solely of the echoes of all those wrongly murdered throughout history who now cry out for justice, made manifest to right all wrongs." Then she returned to her natural voice to continue, not wanting to frighten anyone overmuch, and also not wanting to be burned by the light if it leaked in through her armor.
"And so we
ALL, we who have loved, we who have strived, we who have suffered and lost, can and must come together like all these people I described have, in a last stand for the independence of all and sundry. For I tell you that we shall live up to Caledoria's credo of becoming the monsters to eat monsters! We shall fight in these harbors! We shall fight in the forests! We shall fight on the streets! We shall fight in the pages of history to stand and be counted among the Last Devara, or the first Twin Kings, or Henry and Elizabeth the Liberators"- the first Caledorian rulers, who were the first in history to kill an Elder Dragon at the Battle of Radiant 1,893 years ago- "or Adamaris." Most people (other than Sita) knew now, if they hadn't already, of his relationship to Alice and his role in protecting civilians at the Battle of Sanctuary Trench all those years ago. "But we shall not go quietly into the Void! We will NEVER bend our knees to any monsters of whatever appearance who seek only to devour us. And I will die if I have to to make sure that
this. Apocalypse. ENDS HERE! Who's with me?!"
With that,
cheers erupted from all of the 10,000 souls assembled, as did the
whistles and
horns of Paige's Goliath. All were resolved anew to meet the enemy and
give them a war.
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