Yesterday's Enemy [AoT]

SEVENTEEN

'They revel in palaces of gold, lakes of silver, and skies of jewels, and where are we? We scrounge in the putrid garbage— no sky above our heads, no wealth to our names.

And the Order has the gall to call them God?

Havas hides their greed behind false tales of Godhood while sitting, fat and triumphant upon enough wealth to end our hunger a thousand times over. Instead, they have beaten us. They have bombed us. They have rained destruction from the skies.

And we have the gall to call them God?

I cannot deny that it is a divine power that Havas possesses. But it is not heaven borne. They arose from the ground, way down deep where the soil steams.

And I can only wish that Havas may burn in the fires of hell from whence they came.'

-An extract from scholar and journalist Aksel Briggs' first work, now widely banned across the Walls for inspiring a violent vigilante movement.

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SEVENTEEN

Wall Maria, South Region, Belmont Village

WHOOSH

Pain seared across Levi's cheek. His quick instincts had saved him from meeting his end with a dagger bursting blood from his jugular, but he hadn't gotten out of the way quite quick enough to be unharmed.

The dagger clattered to the ground. Blood dripped from Levi's cheek. Shallow. But, between the sting of pain and the smoke fogging his senses, it was enough to daze him.

Lorelai whirled around the catch the thrower, but all she saw was wide, green eyes peering at them from a hill beyond the blaze. They lingered only a moment, and then they were gone.

Levi reached up to his cheek, and his fingers came away bloody.

"By Larken," Lorelai cursed, breathless. "We're getting out of here— now."

That was the best idea she'd had all night.

Lorelai stole a final glance backwards at the corpse of that man and led him out of the inferno into the surrounding woodland.

Levi's mind was hazy from the smoke; all he could focus on was Lorelai ahead as she weaved in and out of trees. He didn't know how long he followed her. At least they were away from the fire.

Eventually, she stopped, coughing fiercely, and checked their surroundings. Here, away from the blaze, there was little light. Not even the moon served as their guide.

"Shit," Lorelai hissed. Their attacker could be anywhere, and she wouldn't see them coming. They needed to find their way back to the carriage, and quick.

"Lorelai-" he tried, his voice hoarse.

"Stay close." Gathering her bearings, Lorelai seized his hand and set off in what Levi hoped was the direction of the carriage.

What a night this was. Burning, bleeding, damn near running headfirst into a strangled corpse. Levi would have thought to remind himself never to trust Lorelai ever again— but... there was something oddly reassuring about her bossy, near-dictatorial manner.

Her grip on his hand was not soft or sympathetic, but it was steady as she basically dragged Levi through the woods.

All around them, frightened owls hooted ominously into the gloom, and night-time beasts rustled the bushes as they fled the fire. Lorelai just hoped they were, in fact, beasts rather than bandits.