A Rational Magic || ONC2022

Sixteen || Counter-Project: Lantana Aletris

"Malis?" Cira repeats as I finish my explanation, and the honest-to-God business card that one of the conspirators dropped is returned to Anya. "Such a stupid name."

"I cannot believe you two decided to sneak out," Vaeri adds. "When you couldn't see, too!"

"I could," I remind them all. "Er, so... what do you think we should do?"

"What do you mean, what do we think we should do?" Holly gaped at us both, which I thought was kinda unfair on Anya. "Save Azaevelum, what else?"

"Yeah, but how are we meant to go about saving Azaevelum?" Anya shook her head. "We are two humans, two elves, and two fairies. We are not miracle workers. We are children."

"It should be three elves," Kat said quietly. "Where's Maiele?"

"Who knows?"

"And we might have to save a kidnapped elf along the way," Holly sighed. "Okay, you've got a point. We're gonna have to work out a plan."

"Do we have time for this?" Cira snapped. "In case you haven't noticed, people are already starting to riot."

He waved his hand at the window, sparking a flame at his fingertips, and I glanced out in time to see something that looked like a rock crashing through someone's window.

Yeah, people weren't happy.

"How d'you think the western districts are?"

"Why would we need to worry about that right now?" Anya frowned.

"Oh! Right, yeah. I don't live round here," Kat explained. "I'm kinda worried about the fact that Adalia hasn't shown up yet. Surely she'd assume I was round here if I didn't turn up after a week?"

"I guess...?"

"So we're going for a sort of counter-project," Anya nodded to herself. "Maybe we should come up with our own name? Just. You know."

"You have to be joking."

"People might take us more seriously if we don't seem like a group of teens and pre-teens." She shrugged. "Is anyone here actually thirteen?"

Cira and Vaeri both nodded.

"Okay, yeah. Six teens and pre-teens. We need a name that, I don't know, sounds like it means... something."

"Like it means business?" Kat suggested.

"Yeah, that."

"So... like the Edelweiss Pirates?"

"Lani."

"That's a very specific example," Cira muttered.

"It is. Don't know how much you know about Earth's history, but they were a sort of group in Germany in the thirties and forties... yeah. We don't learn about the Nazis in Year Seven, but we will be doing if we take GCSE History." Anya paused, giving me an odd look. "We only know that name because of our older cousin."

"Edelweiss..." Kat's tone was much more thoughtful than I was expecting. "Doesn't sound particularly threatening, really."

"From what Ivy told us, they didn't really start off trying to be. Just... petty teenager stuff. I imagine it got more violent when the actual war started and such, or at least as time went on... I mean, we weren't there, were we?"

"Maybe something to do with light? Like, that would make sense." Holly didn't seem particularly interested in Anya's ramblings, and honestly... neither was I. I don't like real-world history all that much.

I dimly remember the time when Anya told me about Bridget Cleary, a woman who was murdered because her husband thought she'd been kidnapped by fairies. That just sums up why history isn't among my favourite subjects — when something that interests me happened, it didn't usually end well for those involved.

Witch trials, anyone?

"Perhaps..." Vaeri mused, dragging a hand through her hair. "Uh, Lantana?"

"Counter-Project Lantana," Holly repeats, then shakes her head. "I don't know. It seems like there's too little to it, y'know?"

"Lantana Aletris."

"Why Aletris?"

"Because?" Kat shrugged. "I don't know."

"Useful as ever, I see," Holly laughed, taking a good look at the rest of us. "We'll need to split up, I should think."

"And how do you think we should do that?" Vaeri asked. "If Adalia's little theory about the twins is right, you can't split them, but we definitely can't have a group of people who can't use magic, and there's also no point having only one person capable of flight in this whole thing because that wouldn't work—!"

"Vaeri, breathe."

The water elf laughed weakly, flicking a few drops at Cira before speaking again. "You get my point, though."

"I feel like putting the two people our main enemy is likely targeting in one group of three is the stupidest idea in the history of stupid ideas."

Did they forget that bit? I definitely mentioned that part, right?

"But, like, horror movies, Lani," Anya points out. "Isn't the stereotype in those things that splitting up is a horrific idea?"

"I think Lani's right," Kat said before anyone else could. "But I do agree with Vaeri. One fairy who can fly is kinda difficult when we want to split into two groups. And anyway, we need each group to be able to defend themselves effectively against humans, which means we need the twins to be separate, right? Who knows more about humans than those two, out of the people in this room?"

"So," Holly muttered, gaze flicking from one person to the next. "Let's say... uh, Cira and Vaeri with Lani and Kat and Anya with me?"

"You're assuming Anya knows what she's doing in a fight there," I point out, as if I know any better, but she's actually smirking.

"Please, they're all men. Push comes to shove, you kick them where you know it's gonna hurt. Or, you know, poke them in the eyes if you get a chance."

"Sounds like a plan, I guess..." Vaeri frowns, giving me and Cira both vaguely appraising looks. "But why are we splitting this between elves and fairies?"

"Because," Kat says, a grin starting to spread across his face, "we're not just going to be above ground for this. There's no way Malis isn't attacking Lios' inner workings to get their wishes."

"The inner workings?" Anya asks before I can, and both fairies share a look.

"You don't want to start mixing elemental magic and clockwork," Holly shrugs. "Never ends well. Lios is Azaevelum's second by-proxy capital for a reason."

"How is a capital city by-proxy?"

"Uh. Let's just say Faerie isn't as simple as 'Azaevelum'..." Kat mumbles, and I swear I feel my heart sink.

"Well, that's settled," Cira says before Anya can ask any more questions I don't want to hear an answer to. "Let's work out what we're actually doing, shall we?"