Every Step

Chapter 4

"You know, I think that is the best offer I have had all night." They walked out of the ballroom and through the hallway that lead to the gardens. They passed beds of flowers and trees with new leaves budding from the end of winter. After a stroll, they found a fountain with some light and decided to sit there and chat.

"So what brings you out here from Brittany?" Alvia asked.

"Well, I guess I've always had a fascination with the politics and inner workings of Paris. I was hoping I could learn something by coming here tonight, but as I mentioned before, the conversations tonight have been rather..."

"Boring?"

"That is certainly one way to put it."

"Well, being the First General of the national battalion, I know quite a bit about the inner workings of my beloved city. Is there anything you are particularly interested in?"

"Well," It's now or never Rose thought to herself, "I have been hearing rumors of a revolution starting to cause a bit of trouble. Are they true?"

"If the rumors are beginning to reach Brittany, then we here are certainly losing our touch on how to handle things quietly. Yes, there have been little uprisings here and there, but they have been nothing that the military cannot handle."

"What is your opinion on the 'little uprisings' as you called them?"

"Well, personally I believe that the people have a right to be displeased with the government. In our obsession with the ancient French culture, it seems that we have adopted their caste system as well. Although I am relieved that we have given up those antiquated notions about gender and sexuality being controversial topics, that was one part of history that I never understood. I am very proud of my job and the work that I do, but it is very easy to become lost in this world of glamor and aristocracy."

"It really is. But that is the exact reason I came to Paris. I know who the people here tonight are. They are the same type of people I grew up with and went to school with," Gwendolyn and Marc had created a rather flourishing backstory for Voile, and Rose was glad that she was able to use it. "My father loved to help out at the orphanage near our house, and I grew up seeing so many adults come from Paris and drop off small babies, but rarely ever meeting anyone who was there to bring a child back with them. When I was little, I thought that Paris was such a horrible place that no child should ever be taken there."

Unveiling the backstory of the character Marc and Gwendolyn created was always one of Rose's favorite parts about the job. There was no pity because all of her characters were from well to do families who cared and loved for her. There was never that concerning sigh about her mother being killed in a riot by a soldier. There was never that patronizing gaze about how she created her own life at that moment in the revolution. There was no worry over her safety, no pity given out of charity, no nuanced displeasement about her life choices.

"It's a wonder that you are even here tonight then if that was your thought of Paris!" Alvia laughed.

"Well, once I had completed my studies, Paris as a city became less daunting, but still, I could see the problems with more depth. What is your opinion on our capital city?"

"I have a bit of a complicated relationship with Paris. On one hand, it has given me everything. I grew up here and got through school and the military. I was near the top of my class so it wasn't difficult to gain higher level positions within the military. And I believe that Paris had provided those opportunities for me."

"It sounds to me like you had a very easy life. What made the relationship complicated?"

"I think the first time it became complicated was the first interrogation I had to do as a general. I had done standard interrogations before, petty thieves and criminals, but now I was a general and trusted with more... difficult situation."