Vagabond Plot 501: Under Fire

As Baram had walked the corridors, they’d been mulling over strategies in their mind. Had they been back, safe in Cardinal’s library where their pronouncements didn’t mean anything more than perhaps a call for more wine, they knew implicitly which they would choose. In a world without real consequence, where quick morality, easy morality, was all that mattered, they’d storm out of here at Perseus’s side and call to the furies to rain furor on the city.

It was a childish dream.

It was the wrong choice.

The Flight’s situation was untenable, useful only as a negotiating chip, however much Baram admired their impulse, their methods were far, too far, from blameless. Slaughter instead of murder just meant more bodies. Baram had a chance to make the Talorians change. They had a chance to make sure the change was permanent. They couldn’t let their anger steal that chance from them.

“I will make sure your people are safe,” they promised, already adding it to the list of demands to exact from the Talorian government. They looked sadly at the rest of the Flock members in the room as they murmured wonder as to the Serorans’ next move.

“We’ll make them stop,” they said, letting the pronouncement fall. Baram imagined, horribly, that they saw hope in their eyes that the desert dwellers may side with them, that they might win. “But this isn’t the way. This only lasts until they fight back, and there are others they can turn to that will not care for your cause. Others that will see this horror and barely shrug.” They thought of Aodh and their vicious fighting pits.

“We can get measures in place to make sure this never happens again and we will,” they said, their voice growing as the wind began to rise. A gust swept in through a window and rushed around them. It ruffled their feathers and brushed at their hair before slamming into and through their chest. It was within them.


The voice was quiet, though audible to others, and they recognized the voice of their Wind Mother. “Alya…” they whispered, softly and lovingly, suddenly trying to keep tears from welling in their eyes. They had missed her so.

She was back.

“For now, we need to get you out of here and away,” they said, dragging themself back to the present. “We’ll escort you out of the city.”