Yesterday's Enemy [AoT]

SIXTY-FOUR

'Freedom is not won, but chosen.'

-An unseen extract written by scholar and journalist Aksel Briggs.

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SIXTY-FOUR

Wall Sina, Interior, Mitras, Royal Palace

After interrogating Brodeur to no avail, Lorelai and Levi returned to the palace.

That afternoon, they spent a few hours discussing all that had happened and all there was to come. Their unfortunate conclusion was that there was nothing else they could do. Teams of MPs continued to scour the Walls for Briggs, but beyond that, they were powerless.

It was a sombre realisation— to know that despite all of their best efforts, Briggs would build his army, and in distant months, even a year, the end would come.

Levi had truly considered taking off on his own. To hell with Erwin and the Scouts, perhaps he could put down the threat before it ever materialised. He knew things. He knew people. Back-alley rumours and old debts could take him to Briggs.

Lorelai had shut down that little idea rather quickly.

The danger to him aside, Briggs was no ordinary mob boss or gang leader. He was clever, careful; he knew how to use people to get his way. She was in little doubt that now, mere days after his escape, he'd already weaselled his way back into his old circle. Loyalists. Staunch Briggs supporters. Numbers would come, but until then, the faith of ten could do the job of a hundred.

She couldn't ask that of Levi. Not when she herself was a coward.

No. Lorelai's only hope now was the backup plan— unpleasant though it was. Soon, after their return to Noaks, she would swallow her self-centredness and do what needed to be done. For her people, she would have to.

<>

It was a crisp night in Mitras.

The stars twinkled, peering down on cobbled streets. The city was alive tonight; Levi could feel it in the air. From the distant sounds of ballroom music and the chatter of the people below, the city did not sleep.

He and Lorelai would be returning to Port Noaks tomorrow. Their experience in the capital had been... an adventure, to say the least. They'd attended royal balls, gone spelunking in war tunnels; Lorelai had loved and lost, glimpsed success and failure, and now, after all of it, they were to return unaccomplished.

He expected to find her in low spirits when he knocked on her door. But that was decidedly not the case.

"Come in," she called from inside.

"Evening." Levi closed the door behind him, quickly stopping in his tracks.

Lorelai was leaning towards the mirror, applying a blood-red lipstick daintily. She was swathed in crimson satin that hugged her body. This dress wasn't like the prim and proper ballgowns he'd seen her wear before. No. There was nothing noble about this dress. Levi's cheeks soon matched its shade.

Trying not to let his eyes wander, he suddenly became very interested in the floor. "Going somewhere dressed like that?"

She looked over at him, and he couldn't help meeting her gaze in a rapt stare. "Oh, nowhere special, just a party. It's my last night in the city; I felt I should get out and enjoy the nightlife."