SWNOVELS Chapter Plan of Action
The week went by slowly without Kyrie. The only upside was that in light or her absence, the teachers let me bring Belladonna to classes instead. It cheered me seeing her stumble about the classroom as the teachers gave their lectures. Some even fed her treats and pet her when she came up to them. Ever since Snapdragon found out about my talent for weapons creation, she had me work on it every day for Armed Combat. When I couldn’t form a sword she would make me practice with the dagger I could create. This meant she had me working on my technique until my arms ached.
By lunch period on Thursday I could adequately perform basic defense maneuvers for both the dagger and sword. Snapdragon had me lay off the halberd until I could create it, and Wren had me practice creating any weapons during his class.
“Why clean something when you can just send it away as soon as you’re done with it?” he had said with a little bit of a huff.
I sat down at our usual table in between Atalanta and Daedalus. I was halfway through lunch when Kennedia sat down across from me, her face pale.
“What’s up, did you finish deciphering the note?” I asked, she nodded and handed it to me. My friends leaned in and read over my shoulder.
Dear Ouroboros,
As requested, myself and the rest of the Vipers are gathering uniforms for the Diamond military. The process is predicted to take at least a month. Once sufficient supplies are acquired, we will begin to infiltrate Spade territory, where we will make camp just outside the capital. We will wait on the east mountain for the weapons. When the first day of the Festival of Colors reaches its zenith, we will make our move. We will begin by the dawn dancers, by your command.
Your loyal servant,
Constrictor
I set the page down.
“It was encrypted as well as ciphered, so it took me a few days to figure it out. But by the looks of things they are thinking of launching an attack during the Festival” She said, and looked to me.
“What should we do? I went to Blackthorn but he said there wasn’t enough proof to take action.” I felt everyone’s eyes on me. Nervous, I looked up at everyone.
“I don’t think we should discuss this here. Is there a place out of the way where we can meet tonight?” I wondered, and once again it was Kennedia that had an answer.
“I know! The castle is riddled with secret chambers and passages that cut into the mountain. They were built as a defense mechanism against invaders. Soldiers would fill some passages with traps while using others to intercept hostiles. There are so many that some have been forgotten and are rarely used, but Robin found a map in the library that has them all charted.”
“Who’s Robin?” Atalanta interrupted, slightly suspicious.
“Oh! He’s my boyfriend,” Kennedia explained shyly, “He’s a Fledgling, but I knew him before his Trial, we’re both from Heart. He helped me figure out that the note used a CaesAllien cipher when I had trouble translating. Here he comes now.” She waved him over, and he sat down next to her with a smile.
“Hello Honeysuckle, is this the girl you told me about?” He greeted, looking to Atalanta, who shook her head and nodded at me.
“I’m Allie,” I introduced, “Kennedia here says that you may have a place for us to meet discreetly.” His expression lit up just like it did when I told Kennedia about the amulet.
“Oh yeah! I was reading about how the castle was built when I came across a map of the underground, and it turns out, each of the common rooms are set above a certain facility, the West Wing is right above an emergency pantry loaded to the brim with sweets. The East wing has an extra armory, and the South’s got a bunk room that would be perfect for sleepovers.” As he went on I took note of what was in what room. Because one never knows when they might need a surplus of sweets.
“What’s under the North Wing?” I asked, enthralled.
“An enchanted map room. I read that the the maps update themselves and can even draw up charts of other worlds!” He responded, and we arranged for all of us to meet there an hour after curfew.
“Wait,” Atalanta interjected, “This is all well and good, but what if we get caught? It won’t do any good if we get busted by a patrolling guard before we even have a chance to decide anything.” She made a good point, so I spoke up.
“I can escort the girls, my amulet lets me see the guards before actually running into them, so we should be able to avoid them easily, but I’m not sure about you guys.” But both Daedalus and Robin looked unconcerned.
“Don’t sweat it Allie, I created a radar that tracks incoming organisms, so I know their routes.” Reassured Daedalus.
“Yeah and I know how to use the underground passages, they haven’t patrolled the inner tunnels for years now, so I’m good.” Robin said, leaning back, satisfied with his solution. I couldn’t help but grin.
“Well then friends, I’ll see you tonight.”
An hour before curfew I walked down to the infirmary with Hawthorne on my shoulder. After we checked in with Kyrie we went to the other side of the room where the hawk was being held in a cage. I pulled back the curtains to see her cowering at the back of her prison.
“Not so quick to injure now, are we?” I sneered, still angry about what happened to Kyrie. Hawthorne touched a calming wing to my cheek before he spoke.
“Now young lady, we want you to answer a few questions, and you would do well to answer them honestly. There are smaller cages available.” When he finished I began my interrogation.
“What’s your name?”
“Briar.” She answered, eyeing Hawthorne warily
“What were your instructions regarding the note?”
“I wasn’t given specific instructions, I was trained as a messenger hawk, I was taught to ferry correspondence to and from two locations. I was taught to make sure no one knew about my messages so when I saw your raven I thought I had been found out.” I listened intently.
“Am I to assume that your employer can’t talk to you directly?” Hawthorne inquired coldly.
“None of them can speak to hawks. I only meant to ground her for a while, honest. I’m sorry.” She pleaded, and I stared at her coldly.
“I’m not sure just an apology will be enough. Fortunately for you, there may be something you can do for me to make it up to Kyrie.”
That night, I picked up the girls and together we made our way to the common room. We had to stop for a guard to pass before making our way up the stairs, but other than that the trip was uneventful, if a bit nerve wracking. Following Robin’s instructions, we went to the northmost fireplace. The mantle was decorated by a pantheon of predators. I pressed down on the serpent, and heard a click sound. The fire burning in the grate went out, and the bottom and back fell away to reveal a small hole leading to a staircase. I stepped through, followed by Kennedia and Atalanta, who each brought out a small orange glass globes of sand to light the way as soon a the opening closed.
Once we made our way to the bottom we found ourselves in a magnificent room lit by four differently colored sand filled panels mounted on the wall. In the center there was a massive round table with a glass tabletop. Under the glass was a live map of Ivaline. The table even showed the cold fronts coming towards the castle. We spent the next few minutes playing with it. Robin came into the room with a sizable sack on his back right when Kennedia was zooming in on her house in Heart. He came in shouting.
“Hello comrades! I have raided the West so that we may ponder on full stomachs! Kennedia I trust you brought the hot chocolate?” He proclaimed, brandishing the sweet filled sack like a spoil of war. He was still waving it around when Daedalus stepped into the room.
“What’d I miss?” He asked, eyeing Robin as he lowered his bag. I cleared my throat.
“Alright everyone, to business.” A few moments later, we were all seated and munching on pastries as I called the meeting to order and Kennedia poured chocolate from thermoses.
“Right,” I began from my seat on the north of the table. “Earlier this week Kyrie was attacked by a messenger hawk. We were able to intercept the hawk and the note that she carried. Now, what do we all make of the note?” I asked, and everyone spoke their own interpretation.
“Someone is planning an attack on the Festival of Colors.” Said Atalanta.
“And they plan to do this while impersonating Diamond soldiers.” Continued Daedalus.
“But why would they dress up as Diamonds?” I asked perplexed. It was Robin who answered me.
“They are trying to start a war.” He said quietly, and I gestured for him to elaborate, and he obliged.
“During the War for Ivaline, there were four factions battling each other, but as the war dragged on, they started to ally with each other. Clover Allied with Diamond and Heart with Spade. It ended up that most of the battles were between Diamond and Spade, because they were the largest factions at the time, and Heart and Clover were more reluctant to fight. The war ended, but the animosity between Spade and Diamond remained.
If I wanted to start a war, I would try to provoke either Spade or Diamond. All of the Nations are powerful in their own right, but Diamond and Spade are the only two with a formidable military. If it looks like the Diamonds attacked Spade during the Festival of Colors, Spade would immediately accuse Diamond of violating the treaty and Diamond would be outraged by the accusation. After that, it wouldn’t take much to get them both up in arms.” He finished.
“Spade doesn’t post many guards at the festival because it makes people from the other nations nervous, and native Spades are asked to leave their weapons at home for the same reason. It’s supposed to be viewed as a gesture of goodwill. The Festival of Colors is supposed to symbolize cooperation and peace between nations after the war. By having the attack ensue during the festival, where people of all nations come to visit, it would become an international incident.” Kennedia chimed in, and then we fell into a solemn silence.
“So what are we going to do about it, even if the letter is false we can’t just lay back and watch it happen” Daedalus exclaimed, and the others nodded in agreement.
“For starters, I think we should have the hawk carry out her mission.” I said, and they looked at me questioningly.
“If whoever sent the note caught wind that their message had been intercepted, they might be suspicious and change their plans. If we send Briar out to continue her mission as if nothing were wrong, they may not suspect anything and continue with their current course of action. That way, we still know what they are going to do.” I said, and we agreed to do so.
“That still doesn’t solve our problem, though.” Atalanta pointed out, taking a bite out of a chocolate muffin. “Sending the note back out leaves us open to take action, but we still don’t know what action to take.” This time, it was Daedalus who spoke up.
“She’s right, going by the letter, they’re going to make camp in the eastern mountains waiting for a shipment of weapons.” He pulled up the mountains on the table. “There are countless training expeditions there, which means that it would be easy to sneak those weapons out under the guise of training equipment.”
“However,” Kennedia added, “That also means there is a limit to how many people they can send. There are very few places in the mountains that aren’t covered by those expeditions. If they wanted to remain hidden for an extended period, they would have to take two groups of ten to fifteen people.” We spent the next half hour trying to come up with a plan. I was on my third cupcake when I had it.
“Why don’t we, the students, take care of it?” I thought out loud. “We can’t go to the teachers without proof, but maybe we can convince the students to be ready come springtime.”
Robin was the first to warm up to the idea.
“That could work. There are about two hundred students in the castle. If we all were prepared for an attack, we could easily take on thirty hostiles, even if we are a bit inexperienced. Especially if they are marked as Diamonds and surrounded by Spades.” Hearing Robin’s reasoning I spoke up.
“But even if we do subdue them and no one is hurt, won’t that still cause people to panic?”
“I think we can keep it from getting out of hand,” countered Kennedia, “As long as we prevent casualties, people won’t be as quick to blame anyone, and even if they do, they will be more likely to listen to us. Especially if we can successfully contain the threat.”
“We could find a way to gather all the years together somehow so that the more senior years can give us younger students pointers,” Atalanta joined in. “It could also serve as a time to get the Hatchlings sparring, we’re not supposed to start until next year, but I think we can all agree that the situation calls for it.”
“Why don’t we organize a student wide sleepover?” Daedalus suggested, causing Atalanta to shoot him a look. “I’m being serious, we can use the bunk room in the South Wing as a place to sleep and practice, and we can get the training weapons from the East.” He finished, and I nodded.
“The idea does have merit, but we still need to find a way to convince them to do all this.” I concluded, and Kennedia spoke up.
“Do we need to start training right away? We could just advertise it as a big sleepover being held on a weekly basis, and then after a few weeks reveal the purpose of it?”
In the end, we decided that we would organize the sleepover training sessions on Friday evenings while us five would have progress meetings to adjust things as they went on.
“Okay, let’s meet back here on Monday so we can survey the rooms and resources we have available. Before then, everyone spread the word with your classmates.” I said, and we dispersed for the night.