Standing before the gates of the broken kingdom they left behind, the travelers waited. The first of them believed waiting was enough – he begged at the foot of the gate, begged it to open unto the new world that lay beyond. He rubbed his hands on the earth until they were raw and cut by the glass and sand, and his nails split from his fingers and dug into the soil. He wailed until he had no tears left, and then lay down in the dry to die. The second of them stood over the corpse of the other, and said to the gate, “I know the error of my fellow – now open, gate! Take us home! And he called on the fragment-spirit that lived in him, and sent it to force itself against the gate. The fragment-spirit strove against the gate, to coax it open by its power, but the archway crumbled to dust. Screaming and driven mad by the sight, the second traveler took his own life. As for the third traveler? He had already turned away and left the other two, saying, “There is no need to seek shelter beyond that gate. We are already in paradise.”

-From the First Codex

244 YT, Late Spring: Carakhte.

“We can’t just wait around, waiting for something to happen.”

Luca leaned against the window of the bar, watching the stars in the sky outside. Past closing time, the place felt oddly more alive than it had during the day. Luca’s fellows gathered at the surrounding tables, lounging against them, sipping on mugs of wine and glancing through books of intercepted documents and watching the bar. The barkeep kept himself quiet, leaning over the counter now and then to clean or to polish a glass or just to take a little weight off his feet.

“What else are we supposed to do?” Luca said without turning to look at the one who’d spoken. Names flashed through her mind – she still couldn’t match the words with the faces, and she didn’t need to. This was all temporary, anyway. “It’s not time yet.”

“Well, what do you mean ‘it’s not time yet?’ They’re bringing in more soldiers everyday.” The voice got closer to her, the scratching of chair legs against the floor and the creaking of footsteps behind her. “They’re massing. They’re getting ready for a big march up north. And even in the meantime they’re tearing through the southern villages, aren’t they? How long are we supposed to wait, anyway?”

Luca tapped her fingers on the table, a drumming motion, sighing quietly to herself. “We’ll wait as long as we have to wait,” she said. “If we rush into things, if we try to take this city down before it’s time, what do you think is going to happen?”

“We’ll stop the attacks on the Vale,” said the infiltrator, leaning forward. Finally Luca turned to get a good look at his face. Haggard, sallow, his eyes were darkened by bags of worry and fear. “They razed Oxdal once, do you think they won’t do it again? I left my family there so that I could come join this mission of yours and we still haven’t made our move! How long are you going to wait?” Pavel – that was his name, Luca remembered – smiled grimly. “If you aren’t willing to do what’s needed, we’re going to start without you.”

Luca looked up, glancing between the tables around her. Max, normally the cheerful one, nodded along with Pavel’s words. Luca groaned quietly in her throat and set her hands on the table. Pushing against it, she stood up. “Look,” Luca said, raising her voice. She glanced at the wall, not too far from where she stood, and took in a deep breath, and continued more quietly:

“The army is massing right now, and yes, they’re conducting raids in the south of the Vale. And it’s hurting our people, there’s no denying that. But what do you think will happen if we attack now? They’ll realize they have an internal enemy here and they’ll adjust their plans. We need to do the most damage to this army that was possibly can before they make it to Kivv. Evacuate everybody from the south, if need be –“

“Evacuate an entire region? You can’t be serious, that’s never going to happen. People are going to stay and they’re going to get hurt or killed because we aren’t doing anything. We could be sabotaging supplies, destroying vehicles. We could have this town in shambles if we just took out a few of the right people!” Pavel’s foot scuffed against the floor and he leaned forward. Luca could feel his breath – uneven and uncomfortable.

“When the time comes,” Luca said, “we have to strike as if from nowhere. The most powerful people in the Empire are coming through this town and when they do… we’re going to burn it to the ground.”

“We can’t wait,” Pavel said. “Haven’t you at least learned something about the smaller armies attacking our villages?”

Luca nodded. “You know as well as I. There’s another unit getting prepared. They’ll leave by the north gate and head northeast and take the nearest village from there.”

“And yet you stay here and do nothing. You haven’t even left this place in a week, Luca. You’re accomplishing nothing, and there’s little enough we can do without your say-so. You have all our documents, you control all our tools. What are we supposed to do?”

“We’re supposed to wait.”

“I think you’re a coward.” Pavel sneered. “I think you’ve gotten spooked and you just want to take the easy way out. Play it safe? It’s not safe for our families, is it? It’s not safe for all those people who are going to get hurt because we can’t take a little risk.”

“And when we decimate and scatter the army of the Invictans?” Luca glanced toward the window, covered by blinds. “There is someone who’s come to this city who, if she saw me, would quickly reveal my identity to the authorities. I can’t risk being seen.”

“Then help us from here!” Pavel shouted, slamming his hand on the table. Luca jumped at the sudden, sharp noise – a phantom pain lancing through her hand. “It won’t help my children if we put a stop to the army’s march after they’re already dead! We need to do what we can, whatever we can, now – and we’ll strike out at the army when they come. But until then, we won’t just leave our people to suffer.”

“Yeah!” One of the others rose up to his feet, and then others followed suit. Closing her eyes, leaning back a bit, Luca took a deep sigh, and then slowly she nodded.

“Alright,” she said. She glanced over to her left. The barkeep’s elbows were on the counter as he watched the scene curiously. Luca nodded slightly, and sat back down at the table. “You want a target? I’ll give you a target. But no one traces this action back to anyone other than you, you understand? As far as anyone has to know, you’re a civilian citizen of Carakhte. You’re disgruntled at the government for favoring the war effort so heavily over the needs of the people living there. And if those of you who wish to take part of this bring any attention on the rest of us…” Luca paused, and glanced toward the bartender. The man drummed his fingers on the counter, loudly, smiling to those who turned his way.

“I’ll kill you myself before the Invictans get the chance.”