estdeus_innobis | I predict a riot.

“The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.”
- Shakespeare

Monday lunchtime, near the sheriff's office, on Main Street

This has proved almost too easy. The clouds are rolling in, air heavy with the promise of rain, and I stand in my Danika body wearing an old coat with the collar turned up against the cold, jacket short enough to show a few inches of a tidy, worn work dress and a calflength of wool stocking. My shoes wear the signs of good, honest farm labour, and my blonde hair is frizzing round my face in the damp air. I look very distressed.

"Did - was there really a man arrested for... for beating on a girl?" I say to an old woman gossiping with her friend on the street. My fingers flutter together anxiously.

"Oh yes," she says, "it's a horrible thing. They think also he did in a girl as worked at - well, the brothel, my dear," she says, lowering her voice over that salacious detail, eyes gleaming with prurient interest. "They think he chopped her up."

"Oh," I say, and I faint very neatly to the ground. It's not long before I have half a dozen people round me - offering water, saying they will take me to the Dormouse, fussing with my coat collar to let me breathe.

"I should've said something," I say, and I burst into tears. That gets me sat down on a bench, an old woman's arm around my shoulders, and a very handsome young man crouched at my feet. "I should - "

"What is is, dear? Do you know something about what happened to those girls?"

I shake my head tightly.

"I know - I know - him," I say quietly. "He - We went out a couple of times, and he was - he was real nice to me, and -" The old woman gives me a handkerchief. "You know, I ain't really dated much," I say, shamefaced, "cos my momma's sick a bunch and I'm busy out on the farm, and he just - he was real nice, and when he -" I turn my face away, and I can feel the vibrating tension from the boy at my feet, his desire to be a hero. "He - I thought it was my fault," I say, and then there is a furious chatter rising from the little crowd, and the conversation spreads in ripples.

"Some carnie's been carving up our girls," one man says fiercely. And there is discussion of me and of Melania - ah, yes, that explains some of what I saw in her - and how we're hard working girls, salt of the earth girls, and who is this monster and why hasn't he been strung up? What the hell is wrong with this town that a murderer and molester can be caught redhanded and he's cosseted in jail? And did you hear that he attacked that nice Mrs Beddau (I wonder if at any other time Glass has been described as nice) when she went to visit him in prison? He should be put in the old stocks in town. People would show him how they felt, alright. They'd show him very clearly indeed.

I manage a brave, trembling smile for the boy at my feet, and he springs up, ready for something, anything, if it will make me look at him like that again. And I nestle in against the arm of the old woman as the crowd grows larger and voices grow louder, and I wait for the storm to break.

[OPEN]

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Lucien kisses me, he tells me that a woman named Silence can be trusted, he tells me that he loves me, and then he flees back downstairs. Quietly I close the door behind him, and I return to my chair. Lucien is here, Mab is here, Mr. Hollow and Mr. Klavec are here. I know that they will do their best to protect this place and to protect me. Keeping this in mind, I sit down in my chair and close my eyes.

Only to sit bolt-upright at the sound of something banging upon the window glass. For a moment I think that it must be the crowd, perhaps throwing stones, but then I turn my head and see someone hanging by her fingers from the upper sill. Verdandi!

Rushing, I rise to my feet and move as quickly as I can to the window. It takes but a moment to work the latch and swing it open, and I do my best to help Verdandi inside. "Verdandi! What happened? How did you get here?" Oh, but I am glad to see her.

Miao quickly notices me and hurries over to open the window. I slip inside, being careful to not bump her as I reach solid ground. I sheathe Garm in my belt and I hug her tightly, glad to see that she's okay.

"I swung down from the roof after getting a good look outside. Our neighbors have been whipped into mad creatures and it's probably not be safe for you to be here." I peek out the window at the roiling mass and look back to her, "The mob's breached the building but not this floor yet. If this gets worse, how do you feel about hiding on the roof?"

Verdandi swings inside almost the moment the window is opened, landing lightly on the floor. We embrace tightly, and I am so very glad to see her. "I swung down from the roof after getting a good look outside. Our neighbors have been whipped into mad creatures and it's probably not be safe for you to be here." She tells me. I look down out of the window and I shudder. There is an armoured figure on horseback riding through the crowd; he or she appears to be trying to drive them back. But most of the mob is still pressing close to the building. I wonder how many have gotten in so far. "The mob's breached the building but not this floor yet. If this gets worse, how do you feel about hiding on the roof?"

"If it gets worse, I can," I nod, "but Lucien and Mab and Mr. Klavec and Mr. Hollow and Silence," I do not know who she is, but she is helping us and so I am concerned for her, "are still fighting downstairs. I do not want to leave them." I know that I can be no help, and perhaps it is selfish, but I would worry for all of them so.

I listen to Miao, nodding as she tells me who's fighting downstairs. "If it gets worse, I can,.... I do not want to leave them."

I rub her arm. "I understand, Miao, but you're not a warrior, and this is definitely a battle." There's more yelling outside and I pause, trying to make it out before continuing, "The worst thing for a warrior is to have their mind distracted from the fight and as much as I adore you, you're a distraction."

I smile as I offer, "So it's either the roof for you, or a closet... Does Mab have a closet?" She can hide there but what if someone finds her? "But we don't have to worry just yet... unless the crowd firebombs the building."

Suddenly, an idea occurs to me and I ask, "Can you fight or not? Not one-on-one, but something that will let you keep some distance between you and someone else? Maybe throwing knives. How about that?"

Verdandi touches my arm in comfort, "I understand, Miao, but you're not a warrior, and this is definitely a battle. The worst thing for a warrior is to have their mind distracted from the fight and as much as I adore you, you're a distraction."

She is right, of course she is right, and I bow my head in acquiescence. "So it's either the roof for you, or a closet... Does Mab have a closet?"

"I think that the roof may be preferable," I smile at least a little.

"But we don't have to worry just yet... unless the crowd firebombs the building." That is a horrifying thought, and I shudder as Verdandi continues, "Can you fight or not? Not one-on-one, but something that will let you keep some distance between you and someone else? Maybe throwing knives. How about that?"

I shake my head, "I have never wielded a weapon of any kind. I would not know what to do with it." To be true, I have no desire to wield any kind of weapon. I do not think that I could bring myself to hurt someone.

I smile and hug Miao as I say, "Not everyone is meant to fight so don't worry about it. You're a gentle person, Miao, and I like you just the way you are."

I peek out the window again, judging the distance to the ground before deciding that up is still a much better idea. Turning back to her, "I'm ready when you are but first--" I hand her a small vial, less-than-half filled with a pale-green liquid. "That's the last of it but you're small so I think it'll be fine, and it'll only work for about ten minutes. We should be on the roof in plenty of time before it wears off."

Thinking out loud, I say, "You weigh hardly anything so I'll have you hang onto me as I climb up." The window ledge isn't so far and I smile when I look back at her. "And when this is all over, I'll come back and get you. In the meantime, you'll have the best view in town."

Verdandi embraces me again. "Not everyone is meant to fight so don't worry about it. You're a gentle person, Miao, and I like you just the way you are." Even with the dire circumstances, I cannot help but smile. Verdandi is so very kind.

"I'm ready when you are but first--" she hands me a small glass bottle. There is a liquid inside, the colour of absinthe. "That's the last of it but you're small so I think it'll be fine, and it'll only work for about ten minutes. We should be on the roof in plenty of time before it wears off."

"We are going now?" I say, startled. "I thought that we would wait..." But from below comes another sound, a sound that makes me want to weep and sing, a sound like the tolling of a great bell. And I know that Verdandi is correct.

"You weigh hardly anything so I'll have you hang onto me as I climb up. And when this is all over, I'll come back and get you. In the meantime, you'll have the best view in town."

"I am not so sure that view will be of anything I wish to see," I say quietly. But I unstopped the bottle and drink the contents quickly. It tastes of honey and fresh herbs. When Verdandi turns, I loop my arms around her shoulders, as I did with my brother when we played horsey-back as young children. "I am ready."

Edited 2010-09-01 00:57 (UTC)

"I am not so sure that view will be of anything I wish to see." I know she won't but from the roof, no one can see her and really, that's the important thing. She empties to vial and I tuck it back into my pocket.

After propping the window open, I turn around, smiling at her as she says, "I am ready." I warn her one last time, "Hang on," before pulling the both of us onto to the window ledge. "Close your eyes if you have to. Just don't scream or the crowd might notice us."

Back out the window I go, and Miao's slight weight is much less than Iago's. I catch the handholds, careful to move as quick as I can without endangering her. I'm a bit slower than usual and I know it's Azrael's doing but finally, I make it to the top (http://community.livejournal.com/estdeus_innobis/377832.html?thread=9672168#t9672168).

I predict a riot.

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