Aimee Marseille knows something is wrong when she is summoned quickly to return home. Upon her father's death, she finds startling news about the family's secret. Mechanical knights walk the countryside, an odd woman who seems to know more than she...
Aimee knew there would be problems when she first re-introduced Gaspard to her friends, but she hadn't expected things to go this terrible. The small hovel they were holed inside of it seemed to shrink with every passing moment and she wondered how long they would be able to stay in the same area as one another.
"Well why don't we leave you alone and you finish what you wanted to start with her?" Fekrin said angrily as he paced around the room, his feet hitting soundly into the ground as though wanting to break through the rocks below. She was quite certain everyone in the area heard their conversation.
Gaspard rolled his eye and said, "Why would I risk my life to bring her here if all I wanted to do was kill her? I could've done it when she was asleep without anyone being the wiser."
"Oh, so you admit you still plan on killing her."
"Are you insane? Do you hear yourself talking?"
"I don't hear you saying no."
"Please," Aimee said as she interjected herself once more. "That's enough bickering about incidents which have long passed.What we need to focus on now is how we will remove Stanton from her position."
Going around in circles would only play into Stanton's position. She gained power the longer they stayed down here and Aimee wanted to find some way to stop her before more people were harmed. Already she knew there was a steady stream of people being upgraded as they liked to refer to it in an effort to stem the disease from taking over.
A question entered her mind. "Gaspard, how many people do you estimate are being upgraded a day? Should we be concerned about their numbers?" She turned to him and hoped he would say something along the lines of numbers which were manageable. Only a couple dozen she hoped.
He looked at her with a concerned look on his face. "A day? Only about ten. The machinists can't handle more. Compounded over time though, Stanton has a considerable force at her disposal."
Even though his words were only solidifying what she thought earlier, it still brought about an immense feeling of dread to her. "You know their workings better than anyone else. And are there any weaknesses you can think of? Anything we could exploit?"
"We could potentially try to knock out their power from within, but that still requires us hitting them. We'd do better taking control of the kingdom and utilizing everyone's help to accomplish our goal."
Fekrin interrupted, "So there's no fail safe? That doesn't sound right."
Aimee had to agree with Fekrin. It sounded rather careless of the leadership not to have something in place in case the mechanical men would do something unbecoming or attempt to harm Stanton.
"There is one," Gaspard stated in a low voice. His face tensed as he spoke, his body becoming rigid while standing in position.
"Well?" Fekrin questioned.
"I don't believe it's an action we should take."
"Why not? Because they're your friends? Worried you can't make normal living ones?"
Gaspard glared at Fekrin. "These men were once real people living in the kingdom. Some of them were the best people I ever met in my life. They would lay their life on the line to ensure the rest of the people were able to sleep without worrying about any problems. They didn't run away when things went wrong. As part of their reward as Stanton would say, they were transformed. It was keep the disease from harming them. And it wasn't just guards – it was shopkeepers, tailors, women, and children, anyone who wanted to be saved. I don't feel any sense of pride from killing them." He walked through the door angrily and slammed it behind him, nearly knocking it off its hinges.
Aimee hesitated, unsure whether she should try to catch up with him to see if he needed help or to let him get a bit of air before returning. Her eyes remained on the door, going through the words he said and repeating them to herself mentally. If she was in his situation, she would've felt the same. Sometimes she seemed to forget there were people beneath the metallic exteriors. "We can't kill them."
"We have to do something," Fekrin added to the conversation.
Narit spoke up and said, "Why don't you just become Stanton and tell those men to go somewhere else?" She twisted her finger in her hair as she spoke as though this was a rather boring conversation to be having.
Aimee turned to her and felt her mouth drop. "Narit, that's a great idea."
She smiled. "I know. I just thought of it too. Wasn't sure you'd like it because then you'd have to change your name and your hair color. I do like your brown."
"No, not that. I could always change it back, but I could pass as Stanton for a few moments. We could dress me up to look like her and I could make the men leave. It'd save them and help Gaspard work with us." At the mention of his name, she saw Fekrin roll his eyes, but she wasn't going to pay him much mind. This was a plan which may accomplish everything they needed to do. If it worked, she could definitely get close enough to the real Stanton to force the woman into abdicating the throne. Once that happened, then she would set things right.
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Aimee walked out the hovel a few moments after making a rough plan with Fekrin, rather too rough for them to start working on anything of substance. He was intent on them traveling through the sewage systems of the castle, yet she felt as though walking among the commoners gave them the greatest chance of blending in. Especially if they were able to look the right part. She could easily dirty her face a bit.
Now though, she needed to see how Gaspard was feeling. She hadn't known he felt so closely to the people. A part of her felt as though she should be the same way. These were the ones who wanted her to take control of the kingdom. She should at least show them the same level of respect. It was an issue she needed to work out and think about everyone in situations from this way forward.
He was sitting on one of the rocks slightly away from where the center of the camp seemed to be. Where he was, the shadows seemed to keep him away from everything else as though enveloping him into darkness. Aimee felt a shudder through her body as she approached. "Are you okay?"
He continued looking ahead, his eyes not seeming to focus on anything in particular. "There's no way to resolve this situation peacefully. People will be hurt and the only thing we know for certain is Stanton will refuse to go peacefully. She'll try everything she can to keep herself where she is right now."
"We might have something we can try." She sat near him on the rock.
That seemed to bring him out of the abysmal thoughts he was in. "What is it?"
"We're going to move me in closer to Stanton's quarters, impersonating her, and then command her troops to leave. It should cause enough chaos for a moment to get us in place to force her into surrendering." They didn't need the troops to leave for a considerably long time. All she wanted was enough to make Stanton defenseless and force her into abdicating.
He shook his head. "That sounds easier than it'll be. There's a lot of people within her inner circle you'd need to get past."
"And with the help of one of her trusted guards, I'm hoping it should go easier."
The two of them looked at each other, Aimee not certain whether she should've volunteered him for his involvement in their mission. As it stood though, there wasn't much leeway to excuse himself from anything. He already interjected himself as their helper and hopefully hadn't incurred the wrath of Stanton yet.
