Theo had promised Giorina that their vanguard would be there in case anything went sideways. Word had gotten around town by the time Theo had left the infirmary and the once empty streets began to crowd. Theo and Ava walked to the town square where there were quite a number of people already gathered. Theo didn't spot her vanguard but she saw Xyra on the other end of the square and Xyra gave her a nod. The vanguard was there, they were just hidden. Waiting in case something went south.
The sun was beginning to set and the curfew was set to begin. Some places were lax about it, especially after something like a death had occurred. The memo the soldiers received was to keep the peace. Any little spark in Safiriti could light the whole rebellion back on fire. Killing one person in the name of the law wouldn't spark the revolution but the inability to let the population grieve would. If they dared enforce curfew to cut short the vigil for a man they just killed, the city would revolt.
However, there were no guarantees for how the night would go and the soldiers could decide to provoke the citizens of Alenroux. If the night did go badly, at least the townspeople had aid. Cooker appeared at Theo's side and nodded at the Captain wordlessly.
The procession started as soon as the last bit of sun was over the mountains that were barely visible in the distance. Some people held candles, those that didn't know the man personally. Those that did know him held items that had personal significance to the victim. It was a somber and melancholy mood. There was silence, only interrupted by the shuffle of people moving about the square. There was a box placed at the steps to the town hall and people kept going up to place things inside. Food, jewelry, clothes, notes, letters, art, books all were put inside by different people. Each type of item had a cultural or personal significance and was used by the mourning family for different rituals having to do with the passing of their loved ones.
The first hour passed and there were no guards in sight. The square filled up more and more as more time passed. People began to see that the vigil was allowed to peacefully progress and they came out to show their support. Giorina stood at the front of the crowd, right in front of the box, thanking everyone that approached her. Theo watched as she expertly handled herself through the grief she must have been feeling. Giorina stood alone though, no apparent family around her. It must have been just her and her grandfather.
Many of those with candles were on the second half of their wax by that point in the night. There were enough people around that Theo had to get on her toes in order to see the front. Suddenly, she heard a loud whistle from her right and her head snapped that way. She saw Morgana, silver hair standing out in the moonlight. Theo's stomach dropped and she put her hand on her sword. Shit was about to go down.
"Red, I need you to listen to me," Theo said with urgency, "Go find Xyra on the other side of the courtyard. She's going to need your help."
"Help with-" Ava said but she cut herself off halfway, her eyes going wide. She darted away in Xyra's direction.
Theo followed where Ava's eyeline was and saw the horde of soldiers marching down the path. They were about two minutes away and their marching could be faintly heard. Their front lines carried torches that could be seen from the square. Theo rushed forward, weaving through the crowds to try and get to Giorina. They would target her first, arrest her for instigating a crowd, and encouraging the breaking of curfew.
"You have to get out of here," Theo said once she reached the woman at the top of the stairs, "I can hide you in my ship for the night."
"I'm not going anywhere," Giorina said and she took a seat on the stairs.
Theo put her hand to her forehead and spun around to see what her next move was. She saw Xyra and Ava running out of the square and to the ship. She saw Cooker with her dagger drawn and Morgana a few hundred feet away with a flail behind her back. She scanned the crowd and saw many of her crew members, ready to fight if the time came. Theo knew Giorina was not moving, she was going to prove a point even if the cost was her life. Theo retreated back into the crowd, opting to hide in plain sight in case she was needed.
The marching got louder and louder until the soldiers stopped at the entrance of the square. Three large guards dressed differently than the rest came forward to the stairs, they were wearing robes and not armor.
"Stand up and tell everybody to go home and we will overlook this violation of the rules. You'll only get a slap on the wrist, a night in jail," the man in the middle of the three spoke up.
Giorina looked away from the soldiers, ignoring their request and staying seated. The two soldiers that flanked the man that spoke walked up the stairs and seized Giorina. She was pulled to her feet and the man then turned to the crowd.
"Good evening," the man shouted, "You are all in violation of curfew. Go home or we will be forced to take severe action."
At his request, movement arose from around Theo. But the townspeople were not leaving, they were sitting down. One by one the sea of people shrunk down to the ground. They were not going to move. It was a silent protest and the soldiers all seethed at the sight.
"I said, go home now!" the man bellowed and spun around looking at the crowd.
'Enough of the tyranny!' was shouted from the back and it was met with a round of applause and cheers.
The energy in the square was tense. It was almost as if the building themselves were holding in their breath to see what would happen. At the encouragement from the first heckler, more joined. The people of Alenroux had decided that the poor old man was going to be the last of violence their oppressors would get away with.
Stop killing our families.
He was just walking home!
Monsters! All of you, monsters!
Baethos must fall.
At that last remark, the soldier in charge motioned for his army to advance. The soldiers moved forward and surrounded the square. Theo watched as they expertly surrounded the area as if they had been expecting this. That is when Theo realized they had been.
They allowed the vigil to go on for so long knowing it would attract more people. They knew the more people were there the more likely it was they would take a stand. They tricked the people into feeling empowered. They pushed them into the perfect corner and when one person threatened Baethos the show was over. They knew someone would utter the words of the revolution. They knew they had the perfect opportunity to watch it all burn. That is why they brought so many torches with them. They fully intended to watch the town go ablaze.
In Safriti, most of the houses being made out of stone made it difficult to burn the town in a traditional sense. However, most Safritian homes were fitted with wooden furniture and embellishments and many of the structures around town were made of wood. Only a basic skeleton of the town would remain once burned. Just because Safritian architecture posed a challenge to the Eloxian razing method didn't mean it would stop them from doing it.
Theo couldn't strike yet. The moment wasn't right. If it was her and her crew against 100 soldiers amongst a sea of sitting people, her crew wouldn't live to see another day. But if they didn't strike, they would also be subject to a fight. They were surrounded and overtaken. They needed commotion, a stir. If that happened, Theo could kill those with torches before they got a chance to reach any structures. These weren't soldiers that were a part of the rebel squashers. These were wannabe war heroes that thought they could be something if they razed a place to the ground.
The leader commanded one of the torch bearers to come closer and snatched the torch out of his hand. He walked over to Giorina and the box of items she had been guarding and tilted the torch down. He held it to the box and watched as it started to catch flame. Soon enough, the entire box was engulfed in red and Giorina screamed out as the contents were destroyed.
She broke free from the two soldiers that had been holding her and rushed towards the leader, pushing him as hard as she could. He barely moved, simply let out a chuckle as the other soldiers restrained her yet again. He handed the torch back to the person he got it from then put his hand on the back of the Giorina's head. He pushed her head forward until it was over the flames, just far enough so she wouldn't get burned. Theo saw Giorina struggle against his hand and pull away from the fire threatening to burn her face.
Theo looked around frantically to figure out a way to stop it and she wasn't alone. Other townspeople were realizing the urgency of the situation. They were realizing what Theo had moments earlier, no matter what they did, they wouldn't have homes in the morning. It was an increasingly popular practice for regiments members to go after the towns they were assigned to protect to bolster their reputation. With reclassification around the corner, Theo wasn't surprised to see this happening. Small towns like these were sacrificed in order to showcase the lack of mercy The Center had for rebellion and the ones carrying it out were praised as heroes. Some stories would be tossed around about how Alenroux was forced to burn after days of violent opposition to the government. It would be untrue.
These townspeople had probably heard stories of this kind of thing but never expected it to happen to them. Or expected it but willed that the day never came. Either way, they knew it was happening to them. Theo could see it in their eyes: the fear, the uncertainty, the will to fight. If Theo made the first move and the townspeople saw the vanguard, they would rise up with the crew and hopefully, Alenroux could be saved. Not for long, The Center would hear of it eventually and another regiment would come to raze it all but at least the town would have time to pack and say goodbye.
The man's hand kept pushing and if it weren't for the pushback from Giorina, her face would have been burned. This was a game to this man if the smirk on his face was any indication. Theo shifted from her spot on the floor onto her knees and she looked back to see if Morgana's eyes were on her. Morgana was looking over and she locked eyes with Theo. Theo gave her a nod and then looked to her left, singling out the soldiers with the torches. She looked back to Morgana and Morgana gave her a tight nod. Theo hoped her message got across, go for the ones with fire first.
Theo broke eye contact with Morgana and readied her hand on her blade. She heard a loud whistle coming from Morgana and she spurred into action. She sprung up and dodged over sitting people as she ran towards the stairs. She reached the burning box and pushed it to the side, knocking its flaming contents at the foot of one of the soldiers. She thrust her sword forward and it sank into the other soldier's stomach, she pulled it out and the man fell to his knees.
She felt her coat collar get tugged and a slight glance up showed it was the leader. She brought her elbow up backward to connect with the man's jaw and a sick crunch was heard. She was let go and she turned around, pushing her leg against the man's chest. He went stumbling backward and tripped, falling over the edge of the stairs and onto his back. In the time Theo was doing that, Giorina had managed to push away the second soldier that was grabbing her. She was facing off with him, shifting from side to side to not get caught. He swiped at her with his sword but missed.
Giorina had managed to position herself so the soldier's back was to Theo. Theo took careful steps forward and when she was in range, lunged the sword through his back. She had positioned it so it would pierce his heart and she had succeeded. She pulled the sword, bloodied, from his body and Giorina's eyes went wide. Giorina ran towards Theo who had stretched out her hand and grasped it tightly. Theo turned around and faced the scene in front of her for the first time.
Chaos had broken out. Many people were fleeing the square but many others had their own daggers and swords out and were fighting those that meant to burn their town down. Theo ran down the stairs with Giorina, dodging and weaving the obstacles in their way. Theo made a beeline across the square until they were under the cover of some trees behind a building.
"Run to the ports. You'll see our ship, the big black one. You'll be safe there," Theo said but Giorina stayed put, clutching Theo's hand, "Go! Go and take anyone you see with you! Alenroux is going to burn and you need to save who you can!"
She knew the girl was in shock but there was no time to stall. Theo needed Giorina to run and stay safe. At the insistence in Theo's voice, Giorina slowly let go and then turned and began to run away. Theo booked it back to the square with her sword drawn, looking at the scene in front of her. They had failed at stopping the soldiers from damaging the town. Several buildings around the town square were lit on fire, the blaze slowly consuming them from the ground up. The buildings in Alenroux were spaced out enough that fire was unlikely to catch from one building to the next but there were at least a dozen soldiers with torches fleeing from the square and lighting buildings up on their way out.
Theo ran through the square, striking down anyone in her way. She needed to secure a group of women to go after the fleeing men, the more buildings they could save the easier it would be for the townspeople to recover. There was the clamoring of weapons clanking against each other all around her, townspeople, and crew both fighting the armored soldiers. Surprisingly, there wasn't much left for her to do in the square. There were three Alenroux citizens for every soldier and they were overpowered easily because of their heavy and nondexterous armor. Theo finally spotted Morgana in the scuffle and yelled out.
"Mor! I'm going after the ones that fled!" Theo screamed as she brought her sword up to block an attack from a soldier. A townsperson came up from behind him and stabbed him in the back with a dagger, the soldier fell.
"I'll hold it down here!" Morgana called back and with that Theo ran towards where she knew the stables were, hoping it hadn't been touched by flames.
She sprinted as fast as she could, feeling the strain of the long sun and the few minutes of combat. As she ran out of the town square she encountered many of her crew. Those that were not occupied with fighting off a soldier or helping a citizen was called to follow her. She had amassed seven other girls by the time they had reached the stables. Thankfully, the stables had been untouched. The soldiers had fled north and the stables were south of the town square.
"There are at least ten soldiers that ran north to try and raze this place to the ground," Theo called out to the women, "Everyone, find yourselves a horse and go out to find these men. No one left alive tonight ladies!"
Theo herself made her way in and found a stall with a beautiful stallion. She walked in and gently handled the animal until she was able to lead it out of the stable and she mounted it with a boost from one of her crew. There had been no time to put a saddle on so Theo would just have to ride bare. She kicked the horse into motion and made her way to the farthest source of light she could see. Theo heard the town's alarm sounding, the tolling of their bell reverberated in her ears. As she rode up the path, she saw people begin to flood out of their homes some empty-handed and others grabbing anything they could.
Theo was going fast but she felt it wasn't fast enough. She needed to be able to help. She had felt helpless before when the elderly man had been beaten. His life could have been spared because the outcome would have been the same. She sacrificed his life to keep the town safe but they would end up without a home either way. The least Theo could do was make sure the family had their possessions with them from their intact houses before having to move somewhere new. She pushed the horse to go faster as she found her first target.
The soldier she had spotted had made it about a half-mile up the path before Theo had found him. She tightened one hand on the reins for balance and held her sword over the side. As the galloping echoed off the pavement and the man realized the sound was heading towards him, he turned towards the noise and his expression was one of shock. He dropped his torch onto the stone ground and began to run. Theo easily caught up to him and between the speed of the blow and the strength Theo put behind it, his head came clean off his neck and rolled down the slight incline they were on.
Theo looked back as the stallion continued to ride quickly forward. The torch had fallen in the middle of the ground, away from any wooden surfaces or structures. She could leave it there for now. The fallen torch had less of a chance of setting something on fire than a human wielding one, she needed to continue. She pressed on, chasing the next moving light she spotted. She came across the next one only a few minutes later. This time, the man turned around and was ready for a fight. He held a torch in one hand and a large spear in the other.
Well, shit.
Theo had only a few seconds to think of her next move before her horse was stabbed through the chest and she was sent flying. She decided to just double down and hope he lost his nerve to face the force of a horse full on. She was only a few yards away when the man was struck with a spear and he fell flat on his back. Theo glanced back to see Cooker celebrating from her own horse and Theo couldn't help but laugh. The torch that was dropped when the soldier fell began to roll downhill, threatening the wooden structures around the path. Cooker called out behind her to another rider that had caught up with them.
"Djen! Finish the job," Cooker commanded as she kicked her horse forward to be side by side with Theo.
Theo took a second to slow the stallion down just enough to be able to freely turn back around without falling. She was met with a sight she did not want to see. Smoke and fire coming from around the town was a sign that they had failed. Some houses were left untouched but many others suffered a bleaker fate. Theo forced herself to turn back around, they still had work to do and she couldn't dwell.
Ahead she spotted two lights, trucking up the path. She saw a house the soldiers had just left behind begin to shoot flames from out of the windows. She called Cooker's attention and pointed out their next targets. Cooker drew her sword. One of the soldiers disappeared from their eyeline and went into another house and the other waited outside. They were upon the lounging soldier before he even had time to prepare and Cooker leaped off of her horse to attack. With the torch in one hand, he fumbled to pull his weapon out and Cooker drove her sword through his eye. At the commotion, the other soldier came to the doorway to see what was going on.
At the sight of two armed women and horses, he gasped and dropped the torch inside the house. He made a run for it but Cooker grabbed him and threw him against the ground. His head brutally connected with the stone steps leading into the house and he was instantly dead. Cooker tried to go inside and grab the torch but it had already lit up a dining table and a bookcase so she abandoned the cause.
Theo had made her horse turn around and she slowed it down to a trot to make sure Cooker was okay. Seeing the other dead soldier she raised an eyebrow, "I gallop away for a second and you've taken out both of them."
"Sorry for not leaving any fun up to you. I thought I would have more time with this one but his early demise got in the way of that," Cooker said as she kicked the one who had cracked his skull open.
Cooker walked away from the burning building and got back onto the horse. They easily transitioned from a slow pace to racing across the stone in no time and there seemed to be nothing left for them to do. Her girls had taken care of all the loose ends but not before they managed to set fire to over half of the town. Up ahead of them there were houses, farms, and factories on fire. Mammoth structures and endless fields of wheat and grass were lighting up the night sky.
Their work was far from over though. They now needed to help with the rescue effort. All of the women on the vanguard and whoever wasn't tending to the ship knew what to do once the threat was neutralized. Theo didn't need to waste time gathering her crew and explaining the next steps, they had trained for it. Those that had been around for a while had lived it. This wasn't the first razing they had experienced nor would it be their last. Theo and Cooker began to ride towards the farthest boundaries of the town, where she had been just that morning. She was acutely aware that she needed to check on Pika.
The ground turned from stone to dirt and as they got closer they began to see some of the townspeople walking down the road. Theo heard some of them wailing and others quietly walking away from their homes with their children in tow. They slowed their pace and quickly talked to everyone they saw. It was the same standard conversation over and over.
Every person Theo trotted by, she would halt and say, "My name is Captain Theo. I am the Captain of the Scorned Woman. If you have nowhere to go and no shelter we can help you. Go to the ports and look for a large black ship. Where did you live and is there anyone from your family that is missing?"
Cooker did her best to write the names of the factories, homes, or farms these people had come from. It would make it easier and instead of searching house by house and field by field to make sure everyone was safe, they could concentrate on those places they hadn't heard from yet. Out in the fields, the name of the family or the estate was carved a piece of stone at the entrance of their property so Theo would save precious time by not having to go miles into a property to see if it had been abandoned. She was slowing down for quite a large group when Cooker called her attention.
"Theo...look," Cooker pointed up to the tip of a rock, Pika's rock.
Theo's heart dropped when she saw what Cooker had pointed out. In the distance, she could see a flickering light making its way up the steep path carved out of the rock. If she hurried she could make it there before the soldier got to Pika's house and she could kill him. Someone needed to stay on the ground and begin the recovery search and keep an eye out for any stray arsonists. Theo knew Cooker had just as every right to want to go to save Pika as Theo, both of them holding a special place in their hearts for her, but Theo needed to do this. She held the reins and turned to Cooker.
Cooker sensed Theo's intention and nodded, "Go, I'll stay back to finish here."
Without a second more of hesitation, Theo spurred forward with the horse and heard the consistent sound of hooves pushing off of rock and dirt. It was a race between her and the person trying to make it to the top. When she reached the base of the rock and leaped off the horse, the soldier had advanced most of the way up the mountain. Theo had a lump in her throat and her hands began to shake. Her window was closing. She walked as fast as she could up the pathway. With no railing and little room for error, Theo had to be careful. But she had climbed this formation many times and she just willed herself to go faster and faster. Why didn't she think of checking on Pika first?
She was almost to the top but she couldn't see anything, her line of vision completely covered by the rock. Her panting was loud and her throat was begging for water, it had been quite a climb to do in a rush but she was almost there. She had one hand on the rock and another hand holding her sword. Just as she was coming around a sharp corner on the rock, she heard footsteps. Theo was elated, she had caught up to him. But when she finally caught a glimpse of the soldier, he was facing the wrong way. He was coming towards her. There was no torch in his hand and he looked shocked to see Theo.
She had failed. Pika would lose her home.
Theo now needed to get to the top as quickly as possible so she had a chance of rescuing Pika and Bari from the fire. They were old and they lived upstairs, it would be hard for them to get down by themselves. She took the man's surprise to her advantage and took three steps forward to be within range and then pressed her sword to his chest. Either he forgot he was at the edge of a stone mountain or he knew, either way, it was his death but he took a step back, slipped, and fell. With a yell that indicated he had simply forgotten he was up there, he went hurtling to his death. She sheathed her sword and went as fast as she could up the path.
What she saw when she got to the top made her legs almost give out from under her. She let out an inhuman sound that was somewhere between a scream and a wail. Theo rushed forward, tears springing in her eyes as she tried to make sense of what to do next. The two-story building where Pika and Bari lived was engulfed in flames, the smaller wooden house next to it was too. The soldier must have been there for a while to make sure the structures would burn. She rushed up to the porch of Pika's house, flames all around her and she frantically looked around for what to do. For any conceivable way to save them.
One of the windows shattered from the heat and she jumped from the noise. The fire was spouting out of the window and she knew the whole first floor was in flames. She tried to open the door anyway but all it did was burn her. She began to cough as she inhaled the dark smoke that was coming from the old dry wood. She stumbled back and looked up to see both of the top windows shattered, with flames burning up the windowsill. Both stories were on fire and there was no way in.
They had to have saved themselves. She would turn around and they would be there and come hug Theo and thank her for coming to their aid. Theo spun around fast, trying to catch a silhouette or two but there was nothing.
"No!" she screamed out, "Riva, please!"
Theo fell to her knees and her fists hit the dirt as she let out a guttural scream. Grief washed over her and she began to sob, her tears splashing against the white dirt under her, turning it grey. She was oblivious to the creaking of the burning wood all around her as her wails drowned out all sound.
"Why, why, why?" Theo screamed pathetically with her eyes shut tightly.
She picked up her head and sat back on her haunches, looking up at the burning building in front of her.
"I'm sorry," Theo whispered as the tears continued to stream down her face, like a dam that had broken. The droplets wetting her shirt.
Pika and Bari had been in Theo's life longer than any other person besides Xyra and Cooker. They had watched her grow. They were the family members she never had. Pika was the grandmother figure she always longed for. She provided a caring home with warm food and a soft bed whenever Theo needed it. She gave sage yet sometimes overreaching advice that Theo needed to hear anyway. Bari was quieter but still loved Theo and the girls as if they were his own daughters. A younger Bari could be seen playing games with them atop these rocks as the sunset.
Theo wanted to stay and grieve them but she knew she couldn't. The rescue mission would go into the morning hours and they had just gotten started. She let the last of the waves of immediate grief go over her. She needed to let herself feel before shutting it down, Pika and Bari deserved at least that. Theo pulled out the necklace that Pika had given her and held it to her lips. She squeezed her eyes shut and felt tears being pushed out once again.
She went to stand up and walk away from the horrific scene in front of her but she couldn't. Her legs wouldn't cooperate and she felt the sobs coming back up. Theo couldn't look away, the red from the fire magnified through the droplets constantly gathering at the rim of her eyes. She let herself remember all of the memories she had on top of that rock and inside their house. Yet another thing that The Center had taken from her. She let herself cry but she held onto the shred of possibility that Pika and Bari had managed to make it down the mountain by themselves. They hadn't done so in several lengths but maybe the alarm bells made them leave and attempt it. It was illogical but Theo held onto that feeling of hope to help her make it through the rest of the night. She eventually managed to find her way back down the rock, heart aching at the fact that she never got a proper goodbye.