Memory of AUSOS

S1| Ep13: Day of Renewal

“Demanding an audience with the king, after all they’ve done? How dare they!”

Kikue had been barely even responsive when Intan helped Hadil wake her up before dawn. Even through much of the morning she’d responded to Intan’s pokes and Hadil’s questions with rather unladylike grunts and incoherent mumbles. But now, as Rusli conveyed to them the results of the preliminary interrogations that had been conducted throughout the night, she seemed to have worked herself up instantly to seething indignation.

Rusli offered her a placating smile, but his words betrayed his worry. “They must have their reasons. After all, everyone knows tonight is the night. Although the king will be in seclusion until the ceremonies are over...”

“He’s always in seclusion,” snapped Kikue.

“Exactly,” said Rusli. “Small as it was, they must have believed this to be their only chance.”

“Um,” interrupted Hadil. “This has been kinda on my mind since last night, but doesn’t it seem like this all was some sort of weird suicide mission?”

Kikue looked at her askance. “They wouldn’t have surrendered so easily if they’d been prepared to die.”

Hadil frowned. “Yeah, but... I don’t think they’re that delusional. They must have been prepared for their demands to go unheard. For them to be executed on the spot, or maybe for us to hear them out but then kill them anyway once we found out they didn’t have the information we wanted.”

“What do you think we are, barbarians?”

“Besides, don’t you think those Butterfly Dolls were acting pretty strange?”

“Ugh, not this again!”

Intan ignored them and turned to Rusli instead. “They didn’t say anything about why they wanted to see him?”

“Not a word,” he replied with a sigh. “The stubborn fools.” Then, more quietly, he added, “Fools, perhaps, but brave ones.”

“Are they really going to be executed?”

His brows furrowed. “Of course. They are traitors; they must be punished duly. Not immediately, of course -- that would be most inauspicious...”

“Good,” said Intan, and if Rusli found her response odd, he did not say anything about it.

Instead, he said, “I’m worried about tonight, though. Aragaki and Gushiken still haven’t returned...”

Kikue, who seemed to be listening even though she was still railing at Hadil, rolled her eyes.

“... and Trieu still hasn’t been located.”

At that they all fell silent. Then Hadil said, “You don’t think he...”

For a moment Intan thought Hadil meant the boy had been kidnapped by the rebels. Then she saw the grim looks on the others’ faces and realized what they were actually thinking.

Rusli shook his head. “I can’t say for certain. He’s a quiet one, hard to read. I’ve tried to talk to him a few times, but he always slips away before I can say much.”

A quiet one. Like Eguzki? Intan tried to recall her impression of this Trieu, but came up short. Quiet as Eguzki could be, he blazed with an inner fire so wild and brilliant that Intan was sure she would never fail to pick him out from even the densest crowd.

But as for her fellow first-year Dragon, she couldn’t remember a thing. Other than that he wore glasses, and his hair was as messy as a tree sprite’s, only black.