Ajickal


Chapter one: Peace

Mac 12, 21
4:19 PM
Hillside fort, Chaos

Mercury looked around. "You found what?" she asked the soaking wet, bedraggled boy in front of her.
"Two newcomers." answered Kistriy, her younger cousin and second in command of Hillside fort, under her.
"I hope you're joking." she answered.
"No joke." Kistriy said miserably. "Can I please go get something dry on? Qualz is bringing them back up here."
"Of all the stupid things to happen..." Mercury mumbled, not really meaning any of it as she stalked out the door. "Cani!"
"Yes?" Cani asked, whirling around to see Mercury. As most at the fort, she had a casual manner around her leader, except when she looked to be in a bad mood. Mercury now looked like she was in a bad mood.
"We're getting two newcomers that Kistriy and Qualz found." Mercury informed her. "Register twin girls, about seven years, to the fort. And find an empty room."
"Okay, Mercury." she said, spinning around and hurrying towards the ladder at the end of the hall.
Mercury, quieter, walked to the end of the hall and went down the stairs. The rainy season was coming, and it was pouring rain. Cliffspray had taken back all the help that the first in command there, Jupiter, had offered. Mercury didn't blame him, everyone had problems, but it seemed like Hillside got the worst of them. At least Hillside was a fort, though. Venus, who ran a village, Meadowview, was getting flooded out. Neptune at Seaway must be, too...
"Good news!" shouted another boy. This one was a year younger than Kistriy, about eight or so, and was drier, although not by much. "I'm staying!"
Gia, Jupiter's third in command, spent more time at Hillside than Cliffspray, so Gia's announcement of staying didn't surprise Mercury. But she did pick the little boy up in the hug he was expecting. "Good, Gia, because I have some important things to do." she said, placing him carefully back on the ground and rumpling his hair. "Find Xcivix, and tell her that her brother is up to something involving newcomers and that she has to get down here, okay?"
"Okay!" the boy said, scampering back up the rope ladder. Mercury watched the boy go. He had nearly become a little brother to her, and was always eager to do anything people told him, which made him an excellent third in command, because most thirds were expected to do anything asked of them. Most.
Xcivix appeared on the first floor with her. "Gia said you asked for me." she said.
Xcivix, one of Mercury's two third in commands, was, physically, nearly identical to her twin brother Qualz, but in personality couldn't be more different. Thirteen, the same age as Mercury, with white-blond hair went a bit past her shoulders, and her blue eyes were alert with the excitement that was stirred up in the fort during the first major thunderstorm. As if to remind Mercury of that point, thunder rumbled over-top of them.
"Qualz found some newcomers." Mercury said.
Xcivix didn't say anything, but the look on her face said it all: No way.
"I'm afraid so." Mercury said. "Two girls, about seven, Kistriy said. Twins. Qualz's bringing them back up here."
Xcivix's half-smile at her brother and fellow third in command's antics was slight but Mercury caught it easily. Xcivix was known for sympathizing with Qualz even when what he did was not the smartest thing he could have done. She was also known at her skill in training wolves, and newcomers.
People were walking in and out of the door and darting here and there, most happy and laughing, and at least half damp. But Mercury glanced over and saw a boy she wanted, Anaronack.
"Shadow!" she shouted.
Anaronack was known mainly as Shadow, partly because his name was too difficult and partly because he didn't like it. But 'Shadow' fit the boy, who was eleven years old, slight and with tanned skin and black hair. His dark black-blue eyes sparkled with the electric feeling in the air.
"Mercury, hi!" Shadow said, making his way over to her. "Did you want the report?"
Shadow handled the wolves. He was high-ranking in the fort, but not officially. Animal trainers, however, usually got respect with they asked for it, especially trainers of predators. Wolves, though, were the best animal to train, at least if anyone asked Shadow's opinion.
"Yes, report." Mercury said, paying attention to him. She had the same respect for him that she had for Xcivix, which was a lot, even if she was in charge of them. He started listing damage done, which were sent out regularly from the survey crews, and ended with some messages from the other forts.
"Jupiter says that Gia is clear to stay as long as he likes, and that he's getting a second third in command. He's also offering to trade Gia for Qualz and Xcivix."
Mercury grinned, not even considering giving up her two valuable thirds in command. "Wouldn't he like to?" she asked, grinned at her old friend's nerve. "Who's he thinking of for third, anyway?"
"Zast." Shadow said, frowning. "I'm set against it, personally. Zast might have the training, but he's worse than me or Gia about protocol." Shadow and Gia were friends, and they were both experts at getting around official things used to keep the forts in order. They argued that the fort would run fine without them, and Mercury didn't bother trying to convince them otherwise.
Zast was a boy Mercury didn't know well, but she remember the name from up at Disarray: he must be from that area. A highlander, then, which was smart of Jupiter. The Stanrers occasionally invaded over the border of mountains separating Ajickal and Sarakil, but when they did the Ajils in the area pushed them back. It was a long trek over the mountains, after all, so the Stanrers were usually half-frozen and exhausted, not that most Ajils weren't trained at how to fight.
"Explain more later." Mercury said, looking over at the door again. A boy, looking nearly identical to Xcivix other than the length of his hair and clothes, walked through the door. With him were two sullen children, girls, like Kistriy said, about seven years old. Their hair was black, or else very dark brown, and was dripping wet down to their waists. Their clothes were even wetter. They were holding hands as tightly as possible.
Mercury took a few steps towards them to make sure Qualz saw her, looking around to see what the general reaction was. No one noticed that they had never seen the girls before, and if they did, they simply assumed that they were from a different area. Mercury jerked a thumb over her shoulder, indicating that they should get into her office, and then walked back. Qualz took the hand of one of the girls, and brought them the way that Mercury was leading.

4:28 PM
Hillside, side office, Chaos

Mercury stood in her office, looking around. The place looked clean enough from last time she had been in there. She found three towels just as Qualz got in.
"Hello." Qualz said, grinning as Mercury flung a towel in his face.
"You always have to do things the hard way, don't you?" Mercury asked, handing the two girls the other towels. They were shivering. "You're going to make them get sick, dragging them around in this storm."
Qualz shrugged with a smile. Mercury realized that none of the boys at Hillside liked protocol, including Kistriy. She was considered casual, but that was mostly because she didn't believe that the kids should be kept under a tight leash, and she did believe that they should talk to the people in charge as friends.
"What are your names?" Mercury asked.
"Kalika." one girl said, sullen. "She's Lalita."
Mercury glanced at Qualz. "Nice names. How old are you?"
"Nine." Kalika answered.
Mercury raised an eyebrow at Qualz, and he shrugged. "I didn't ask them much."
"You never do." Mercury said. "Lalita, how did you get here?"
Lalita looked around carefully, blinking water out of her eyelashes. "We wandered around in the woods." she said, so quietly Mercury could barely hear her.
"Where did you come from? Home?" Mercury needed to know because if there was going to be a huge search, they would have to send some people out to sidetrack them.
"Yes." Kalika said. Lalita stayed silent.
"Okay, then." Mercury said. "How long were you lost?"
Kalika shrugged at looked at Lalita. Lalita faced her silently.
"Two weeks." Kalika said.
Mercury frowned. That was the reason they looked so hungry. "Qualz, go get some food for them."
"That's nice, but we don't need it." Kalika interrupted.
"We do." Lalita said, face still blank.
Qualz left the room with a backwards glance at Kalika.

4:31 PM
Hillside, kitchen, Chaos

"So?" Xcivix asked. "What are they like?"
"Kind of weird." Qualz asked. "Kalika's stubborn, which is okay. But unfriendly." Which is not, he added to himself.
"And Lalita?"
"I'm not sure, she's not talking." Qualz answered, scooping soup into clay bowls.
Xcivix glanced at the marking on them indicating who had made them. "Jagrey. I didn't know she was here. She does a good job on this stuff."
Qualz looked at the mark and shrugged. He didn't know Jagrey, whoever she was. "Who's that?"
Xcivix blinked. "You remember. That BA girl, the one who got captured."
Qualz nodded. "I remember hearing about that. Poor kid."
Xcivix nodded. "That one. She's actually none the worse for that. She's here with her crash, and her guardian, Joeie. You know him?"
"Nah." Xcivix said.
Qualz shrugged. "I met him today. He keeps them in order about the same as Mercury."
"Ignore half the problems and procrastinate the other half, making everything go smoothly anyway?" Xcivix asked sarcastically.
"Exactly." Qualz answered, grinning at the easy way Xcivix summed up Mercury's managing skills, which were considerable. But she knew that it was best to leave kids alone for the main part. He balanced the two bowls in his hands, and walked carefully back towards Mercury's office.

4:42 PM
Hillside, side office, Chaos

"And we ended up here." Kalika finished.
Lalita nodded in silent agreement.
Shadow popped his head in. "Jagulety said-- Oh, hi."
Mercury sighed at the interruption. "What now?" she asked.
"Jangulety said that a message from Jupiter just got here." Shadow said, knowing that Mercury would listen if the boy in charge of the Chaos area, Jupiter, was the one the message was coming from. "He said that a double urgent message for you to get up to Cliffspray came in, fast as possible."
Mercury's mind started spinning. The last time a double urgent message from Cliffspray came was a hurricane was heading for them, and in that the message was relayed directly so that they would have as much time as possible to get ready. "What else does it say?" she asked.
Shadow flipped her a note, and she caught it and unfolded it. The top read "Sachi, sachi!" in Ajilan lettering, and Mercury would be the first to admit that something was going on. Translating Ajilan letters and words into English effortlessly, she read carefully, "Merc, put everyone in the fort on alert. Keep everyone under cover. And get up here for explanations!"
With shock, she put it down. "Do you know anything about this?" she demanded
Shadow shook his head. "No, and the messenger said that it wasn't about the weather." he said, knowing what she was thinking of. "A message come to Jupiter from Mayhem or something, and he sent out these to all the centers in Chaos."
Mercury blinked in disbelief. "Something big is going on."
"Something very big." Shadow agreed. "I'll take those two girls, and I'll tell Kist to get everyone in here."
"Right." Mercury said, already putting on her jacket. "And I'm going to need a fast horse that isn't scared of lightning."

4:45 PM
Hillside, Chaos

Kalika and Lalita followed Shadow down the hallway. People were streaming in, asking questions, acting apprehensive. Shadow ignored everyone who asked him questions, and led the two directly to an empty room.
"Can you two stay here for a minute?" he asked, closing the door behind them, not nearly blocking out all the noise from the outside.
"We can do anything by ourselves." Kalika answered confidently.
Shadow nodded in restrained amusement and rushed out the door and around the fort until he found Xcivix.
"What do I do?" he asked her.
Xcivix shrugged. "Call the wolves in. It won't do much, but it'll make them feel safer." she said, referring to some of the younger kids who thought that the wolves could protect them.
As easily said as done. Shadow ran back down, and ducked outside.
The wind drove the rain into his face, and thunder vibrated in his chest. The storm had really picked up on the last five minutes. Cracks of lightning lit up the sky; even though it was only four hours past noon it was so dark from storm clouds.
Shadow whistled. As loudly as possible. The first time he tried thunder boomed at the same time, almost wiping out the sound. He tried again. The wind tore it away, but Kaustuba wouldn't have wandered far, not in this storm.
He whistled again. A particularly loud roll of thunder followed it, and the rain was blowing into his face so hard he wondered if he was bleeding, but the only liquid dripping down his face was ice-cold.
"Kaustuba!" he shouted over the deafening thunder and wind. "Kaustuba!"
A large, white wolf bounded out of the trees near him, and barked a command to the four wolves following it. Shadow sighed in relief. "Inside!" he shouted, pointing towards the door. "Inside!"
Kaustuba obediently followed Shadow into the fort. Once inside, he shook all over everything, but it didn't matter, water and mud were already tracked all over the floor and stairs. The other four, Sazma, Klecha, Seswan and Nevas, follow him silently.
"Shadow?" a girl asked. There weren't many people in main room, but as the largest room in the fort Shadow knew that some were there. He turned.
"Yes, that's me." he answered.
"Hi, I'm Jagrey." she said, smiling. "Did you train those wolves?"
Shadow grinned at the girl who would talk about his favorite subject. "Kaustuba's my old friend, aren't you, boy?"
Kaustuba barked agreement. Jagrey stepped into the lighter area of the room, where torches made illumination enough to see by.
She was dragonoid, Shadow noted now. Draconic wings from the back of her tunic were a dead give-away. She stretched those in greeting now.
"Hello, I'm Jagrey of Shaju, Mayhem. You are Shadow?" she said politely.
"Anaronack of Hillside, Chaos." he answered. "But yes, I am called Shadow."
"I am called Jagrey." she responded, re-folding her wings. "I am here with my guardian and crash."
"Who's that?" Shadow asked.
Jagrey fixed her eyes on Kaustuba. "My guardian is Joeie, my crashmates are Adrin and Krys." she said.
Shadow didn't show a reaction. "I've met Joeie, he's nice."
"He's not your guardian." Jagrey said, looking back as him and talking with an easy smile on her face.
"No, he's not." Shadow agreed. "This is Kaustuba, and Sazma, Klecha, Seswan and Nevas."
"Hello." Jagrey said, extending her wings politely, again. Kaustuba, as taught, dipped his head in response. They sat down in formation, Kaustuba in front and the other four lined up behind him.
"Why did you come here?" Shadow asked.
Jagrey looked at him carefully. "You're one of Mercury's people, right?"
"Yes." he answered, looking around. Surprisingly, they were alone now. The rest of the fort's occupants were upstairs on the third floor, making some racket but not as loudly as Shadow knew they could get.
"I know why Mercury got pulled out." Jagrey said, looking around like Shadow had, seeing if anyone was around. "And I'm one of the people who's lived through enough to help counter it."
Shadow stared at her. "You're not implying what I think you are.... are you?"
Jagrey gave him a dazzling smile and half-ran, half-flew out of the room. Shadow stared after her.

4:45 PM
Cliffspray fort, Chaos

Jupiter frowned at Zast. "Where is that girl?" he asked, pacing some more.
"Come on, Jupe," Zast said. "It's twenty miles to Hillside from here."
"Same as it's always been." Casha added.
Jupiter stared at his second in command. "I know that." He held up his hand to not be interrupted. "I also know that it's the first big thunderstorm of the season and her own fort is likely to be in the same state of confusion as ours and that she has to go through an area of major flooding. But, as the leader of Chaos, I am allowed to unreasonably expect Mercury to get here faster than I know is possible."
Casha snickered. "As we all very well know. Deblin and Neptune are getting impatient as well."
A girl crashed into the room. "Jupe, Veen's here."
Venus popped her head in. "Do I hear frustration? What, am I the last one to get here, as usual?"
"No." Zast said, sighing. "The messenger to Hills had to go through a area worse flooded than yours."
Casha considered correcting the younger boy's grammar. "We're still waiting for Mercury to get here."
Venus sat down. "Oh. Good. Where's the rest?"
"Deblin and Neptune are in the conference room." Jupiter said. "I think Shekl's downstairs."
Venus grinned. "I'll go talk to Deb. How is he, by the way?"
Zast spoke up again. "I think he said that a few trees hit by lightning, no fire, and nothing serious." He added a running joke in the area. "Climbers live through all."
"All except cross-examination from Venus." Casha observed after Venus left the room.
Jupiter smiled slightly and then started pacing again. "Does anyone know what happened to Gabriel? He looked hurt bad when he got to Harna."
Casha frowned. "You're right. I think he ripped part of his wing... poor sa. Sarina's at Harna, so he should be okay."

4:46 PM
Hillside fort, Chaos

Thunder echoed in Kalika's ears, and the disturbance in the air made her heart skip it match it. She frowned, and Lalita shrugged. She didn't know why thunder did that.
Kalika yawned and leaned against the wall. It was warm in the building, but it was an almost suffocating warmth. Lalita didn't seem so affected, but Kalika couldn't concentrate.
Without a word, Lalita touched Kalika's arm with her hand. It was almost ice-cold, and Kalika jumped, but then relaxed again. Thunder rumbled again, and Lalita grabbed Kalika's hand. Kalika winced at how cold her sister's hands were, but squeezed her hand tighter as people pounded down the hallway, laughing and shouting.
Once of the kids, a boy that they thought they had seem earlier, popped his head in. "Hey, is Mercury here?"
Kalika shook her head. "She left."
"Oh, hey, you're those newcomers. Nili. How do you like it here?" he asked.
"We just got here." Kalika said.
"Oh, well, so far?" he tried.
"It's okay." Lalita said softly.
"Yeah." he said, glancing behind him. "I'm Jangulety."
"Kalika." Kalika said.
"Lalita." Lalita echoed.
"Nice." he said.
"Jang!" someone shouted, running up. It was a girl with silvery-blond hair and a strange white outfit.
"This is Kalika and Lalita." Jangulety said in introduction.
"Hello." the girl said in a rush. "I'm Jangulity. Come on, Jang!" she added, pulling the older boy by the arm, propelling him down the hall.
"Seeya later!" Jangulety yelled before turning around and running down the hall after his friend.
Kalika stared at the hallway where they had disappeared. "Well, that was odd." she said.
Lalita nodded in complete agreement.
"You're still here?" Shadow asked, skidding to a stop in front of the door. "Good. If you can't tell, things are getting confused around here."
"We could tell." Kalika said, glancing at Lalita.
Shadow nodded. "You're on the second floor right now." he said, quickly, while leading them out of the room. "The first floor is a big room, mostly just for eating and talking. Above us are the actual rooms, where you sleep and such. And at any given time there's people here on the second floor, which is where everything else is and where storage is. Got it?"
They nodded.
Shadow helped them up a ladder while still talking. "You're going to go to your rooms, and then we're coming back down to the first floor. The Janguls are putting on a show tonight."
Kalika blinked in confusion.
"It's a distraction measure, actually." Shadow said, talking more to himself than the girls. "But it's a good idea. Jangulity said that they wanted to play tonight, anyway, so it's good timing."
"We met Jangulity." Lalita offered.
Shadow grinned. "I would have been surprised if you didn't. Jang makes it his job to find out everything... although that just makes his actual job better."
Neither one bothered to ask what his actual job was, because Shadow stopped walking and turned into a small room. "This's your room. Small, but you don't really stay in it unless you're asleep."
Kalika climbed up to the top bunk and considered. "Cool."
Lalita nodded. "Who else is in here?" she asked, pointing to the other pair of beds across the wall. Blankets and clothes were strewn across them.
"Jagrey and Krys, I think." Shadow said. "Did anyone tell you about the dragonoids yet?" The sooner the better, because when they see them they might freak, Shadow thought.
"No." Kalika said. She stood up on the bed, crouching because of the low ceiling, and launched herself feet-first downward.
Shadow stepped forwards uncertainly when she hit the ground. She stood up from the crouch and glanced at Lalita. "Where do we go now?"
She had nerve, Shadow realized. He respected that. From his experience with wolves that took him from Disarray to Mayhem, he had learned that nerve, when combined with intelligence, could actually save your life. He would have to wait and see if she was smart enough to handle it.
"Downstairs." he said. "I'll introduce you to Jagrey and Krys, plus their friends Adrin and Joeie."
Grabbing her sister's hand, Kalika took the lead back down the halls toward the ladders.

4:48 PM
Shaju, Pandemonium

"Sarina-- oh, what's wrong?"
The tiny child looked up from the small wing she was working on. "Gabriel had to fly a message here."
Dalgin peered at the tiny, neat stitches that Sarina was putting into the ragged tear of Gabriel's left wing. "That's a good job there. I didn't know you were a suj."
"I'm not. You have to be at least four to be a suj." Sarina said, carefully applying another stitch. Gabriel's eyes fluttered open and closed again. "That's it, Gabe. Just relax, it'll all be better soon."
The one year old dragonoid closed his eyes again. Sarina pulled another stitch through his wing. "What did you need me for, Dal? I heard about the state of emergency." she said calmly.
"You did? Oh. I came to bring you down to the council room. But if you're busy..."
"Obviously." Sarina held her breath as she added two more stitches to the row.
"Then I'll tell them that." Dalgin said.
"Don't bother." Sarina said, frowning at the remaining tear she had to sew. "Tell them to either start without me or delay, I don't mind which. I heard the news already."
"You did? What is it?"
"Tell them to go ahead with the council. You're obviously ready to hear what's going on."
Dalgin hesitated. "But Sarina... you're the head of the winglings. They can't have a meeting without you."
"Can't they." Sarina said evenly. "Tell someone to sub in for me. Is Jagrey here? She should hear this."
"No." Dalgin said. "She's somewhere in Chaos."
"Too bad." Sarina said, continuing her sewing. Gabriel flinched.
"They really should lower that suj age limit." Dal observed as the two year old calmly comforted Gabriel and kept sewing up his wing. "I'll go tell them." he said, walking out. "I'm also going to bring up that age limit in the next council meeting."
The door closed behind him, and Sarina looked back at Gabriel, who was fidgeting nervously. "If there is another council meeting." she said softly.

5:12 PM
Hillside, main room, Chaos

Jangulety glanced at Jangulity, who was sitting in the back of the room. She nodded and touched her forehead, meaning that he should start moving as soon as he got through the checks.
Ryeu looked up and flashed him a grin, pushing her way through the crowd to get over to them. She was ready and walking like she was as electrified as the lightning, which was still lighting up the sky.
Jolkin, who had been waiting impatiently for some time, broke into a huge smile on cue, and mouthed apologies to his friends; it was too loud for actual talking; and made his way up to the stage.
Cadin took a last bite of his apple and tossed the core into the trash bucket, grabbed his soaked hat off the chair, and took a few quick steps over to the rest of the group.
"So, are you guys ready?" Ryeu asked. She was always a little nervous before performing, until it actually started.
Everyone nodded and said 'yeah' with varying enthusiasm.
"Then let's get going!" Jangulety shouted, nearly bouncing with energy. His eyes were bright and the people around them could practically see sparks coming from his fingers as he bounded onto the area marked as the stage. Everyone stopped what they were doing and backed off from the area.
Kalika landed on the ground under the ladder and glanced up at Shadow. "What's going on?"
Shadow smiled. "They know how to put on a show."
The five kids, with a bit of glancing around to get an accurate idea of when they were starting, had just gotten Jangulity's cue and were singing.
Singing was not the way to put it.
Two words into the song, everyone else picked up enough to realize which song it was and started making a racket. Stomping their feet, banging on the walls and tables, and making the most noise that Kalika and Lalita thought possible, all to some definite rhythm which was too complicated to understand. Gasping at the sudden explosion of noise, Lalita backed into the wall.
Kalika marveled at how they were keeping time so precisely, because there were four or five different patterns going on at once, but they all fit together at the right parts. The pounding drove out the noise of the rain, the thunder, everything.
Reeling from the complete noise, Lalita staggered and then looked around. Shadow had joined in now. It was infectious. A weird drumming made of slapping his hands against the wall and clapping. Left hand slap, right hand slap, clap, clap clap... Lalita covered her ears from the volume of the pounding.
Shadow, who knew this 'song,' was mentally following the words as he was banging, clapping, stomping, and once in a while yelling out the words. It was, originally, a nice song Jangulity had written. Nice wasn't the right word, but it hadn't been so... maniac, until Jolkin and Cadin had figured out which clapping rhythms to put together.
The song itself was about the time that the whole area had been fogged, not just fog, but clouds that covered the sky and blotted out any light. Fog so thick that you were breathing ten percent water. So dense you couldn't see more than two feet in front of you, even inside where they had fires to keep away some of the darkness. For six days. Jangulity finally snapped and started screaming. Not just screaming, but actual words. Jangulety copied down all that she said, and the day after the fog lifted, he showed it to her. And she finished what had now become a song.
It wasn't exactly a switch from their usual songs, except for the writer. Usually, Ryeu and Jangulety wrote the songs, and Jangulity polished them up. It had the same kind of beat, although the clapping, stomping and banging beats varied from song to song, and the same type of words, screamed with a slightly hysterical tinge to them. The best part was, everyone loved it.
Shadow was caught up in the beat. Every time he banged his hands down, more than a hundred people were doing the same. Every time he clapped, stomped his feet, or shouted out one of the echo lines, it felt like they were the same person, just one person doing the same thing.
It ended with the four parts coming together with a 'clap clap, slap-clap slam!' Lalita cringed from the noise. Kalika had gotten used to it and was intrigued. And Shadow snapped out of the feverish pace to realize that the song was over and he had to get Kalika and Lalita to meet Joeie's crash.
"C'mon!" he shouted over the now-building volume. It was one of the 'quiet' songs, but for Jang's group, that meant very little except that the noise would build gradually instead of suddenly assaulting your ears.
Kalika grabbed Lalita's cold hand and pulled her through the crowd. Lalita stumbled this way and that, saying 'sorry' after bumping into someone, every few seconds.

5:16 PM
Hillside, Chaos

Jagrey fanned Krys with her wings. Joeie had shouted them in after one of their five-minute games of tag, and dampness combined with the heat and the already humid air in the fort was unbearable. Not to mention that they had participated in the last 'song.' It had a kind of hold on the kids who knew it. Once you knew the song, you had to sing it when everyone else did. It was nearly impossible not to.
"Hot." Krys said, stating the obvious.
Jagrey stopped moving her own wings as Krys fanned her in return. "Really hot." she said, wings hanging down limply at her sides.
"I can't believe you two." Joeie said, flapping her wings with almost enough strength to lift himself off the ground. Cooler gusts of air rushed past the two girls. "You were having a great time a few minutes ago."
Krys nodded, and Jagrey also opted not to open her mouth. She had learned when it was smarter to stay quiet.
"Guys, the next song's going to start soon!" Adrin urged as there was sudden, and almost eerie, silence.
Krys and Jagrey grinned and rushed out of the room, but they first covered their wings back up when Joeie glanced at them. The flaps in the backs of their shirts made it easy to hide them, but they weren't used to being a minority. In Shaju, dragonoids outnumbered the regular humans three to one, so there wasn't a problem with politeness to 'the wingless ones,' as Adrin put it when he was in a careless mood. Joeie put up with that only until there was a regular human, and then he made them straighten up.
Krys and Jagrey ran into the room just as Ryeu and Jangulity were started up the third song, and echo song where it started out with them babbling out words and phases and occasionally just nonsense in any language they knew. It was a well-practiced routine, though, and the audience was responding flawlessly. It only seemed slightly ridiculous to the two girls as the babbling stayed the same volume but gradually got faster, harder, more complicated, and then they started clapping again. None of the intricate rhythms they had done earlier, but a steady banging that drove every other thought out of your head. Jagrey found herself speed-talking in odd phases of English and Ajilan with a few other languages thrown in for good measure, and the pounding kept going.
Jagrey wondered if it was possible to lose your mind from this. The pounding kept going, driving deeper into her brain.
She couldn't turn to look at Krys to talk to her, but she had the feeling that Krys had been sucked into the vortex as well.
Then something hard seemed to strike the back of her head, and a volcano of noise erupted from the front of the room and rolled backwards.
What had seemed to hit her so hard was a break in the words, and the noise was some combination of cheering, screaming, shrieking, and complete .. noise.

5:23 PM
Hillside, main room, Chaos

Lalita wondered if her eardrums could burst from simply standing there.
Kalika was getting caught up in the noise, it seemed to be the kind of thing Kalika liked, but she was silent. Shadow, on the other hand, was yelling himself hoarse. Everyone seemed to like doing this, just the noise. The pure noise, deafening shouts and everything seeming to vibrate. Lalita was breathing raggedly, it was getting inside her head.
It stopped dead, and Lalita put her hands to her head and rocked back and forth. The sudden stop was nearly as bad as having it start in the first place. She could still hear it rattling around in her head.
It started up, this time without warning or preparation. Probably there was some kind of sign, but with her head down, Lalita couldn't have seen it. She moaned and pressed her hands over her ears.
She didn't even know is was possible for people to be this loud. Banging, screaming, stomping, yelling, shouting, but never confusion. It was all perfectly organized, but it was threatening Lalita's sanity. She had the desire to stand up and scream, just to break the strange sort of pattern the noise had built into. But she couldn't move.

5:23 PM
Hillside, main room, Chaos

Jagrey was screaming along with the rest of the crowd. The thing was, although most of them were screaming, there were some kids, mostly boys, who wandered around under the main current saying, "Ja mil a cas tana, ja mil a cas tana, ja mil a cas tana..." which Jagrey translated, roughly, into, "Chaos reigns and rest sleeps" or something of the like. 'Chaos,' of course, was not the exact translation, 'Ja' simply meant 'mass confusion,' and mayhem or disarray or pandemonium, the names of other areas in Ajickal, would have translated just as easily.
The undercurrent was what kept the noise going. Jagrey felt her voice start failing, so she took another deep breath and shrieked at the top of her lungs. As long as she was listening to "Ja mil a cas tata," she couldn't make a mistake about the timing. There was no timing. It was simply mass confusion that added up to something.
Everything went silent again.
And started right back up. Jagrey didn't worry about signs she should be listening for, she was simply glad to be part of the huge group....
She didn't know how long it lasted, but it was long enough to make her heart beat almost in time with the chant. It didn't stop like it had the last times, but slowly melted away until she could barely realize it was leaving, then realized that she had almost complete lost her voice.
"Time for a break!" Jolkin announced cheerfully. He had been one of the chanters, and he could still talk, although he was hoarse. Ryeu and Jangulity were through with even whispering for the rest of the night. Jagrey realized that she could talk, although it rather hurt. She took a drink of water and choked out a few mumbled phases in Krys general direction. Krys mouthed something, but it was obvious that she could barely squeak.
There was a pretty long break, which, for the most part, was quiet. Only a few people could talk normally, and even so they winced as they did.
Shadow caught Jagrey's eye. She waved and nodded, and walked over to him. He had two girls with him, newcomers from the looks of them.
"Hi." Jagrey coughed weakly. "I'm Jagrey."
"Kalika." the first girl said with a slight catch in her voice. She must have been yelling, too, but not for long.
"I'm Lalita." the second girl said. She must have been one of the only people in the building not yelling. She looked like she was in pain, though.
"Nice to meet you." Jagrey managed to choke out.
"They're your roommates." Shadow said, with a significant look and some straining to keep his voice steady.
Jagrey nodded. "I get it. Newcomers. Uh-huh."
Shadow nodded as well, trying to communicate in the fewest possible words. "That's it."
Jagrey glanced at Krys, to make sure that she understood. Krys nodded impatiently and ran off to get another drink.
"Shadow said you were going to explain something to us... dragonoids?" Lalita asked, glancing at Shadow for the correct word.
Shadow nodded.
Jagrey nodded hesitatingly. "Dragonoids. Later." she said.
"When you get your voice back." Lalita agreed sympathetically.
Jagrey decided that Lalita would be a good friend.

5:24 PM
Hillside, main room, Chaos

Jangulety cleared his throat, coughed a few times, and rubbed his hands as if they hurt. "Well, it was a success. How about more?" he asked painfully.
"More?" Ryeu asked. She could barely speak above a whisper, but she was definitely shocked. "No, way."
No. Jangulity mouthed, shaking her head. She actually couldn't speak at all. No way in a thousand years will you get me to sing while I feel like this.
Jagulety turned to the boys for a final vote. "So?"
Jolkin nodded eagerly. "I'm still fine. The girls can do the crowd part."
I'm sure not doing that, Jangulity tried to say.
"I'll try." Ryeu said cautiously.
"You won't have to do much." Cadin said. "They've already turned themselves into a mob, we have to keep it slightly under control, so we don't need you to do much. Actually, the songs for just us three are energetic..."
"Mob-creating." Jolkin amended.
"Right." Cadin said, with a glance at Jolkin. "So why don't you two try to keep the tone down?"
"Good idea." Qualz said, appearing suddenly by Cadin's shoulder.
"Qualz! Nice to see you! Look, we have a slight problem..." Jangulety grinned, knowing that Qualz was perfectly agreeable to helping out.
"The same problem you have every show." Qualz said with a grin. "Xcivix already said that she will be glad to help."
"Shaj. I owe you two, Qua."
"Don't even mention it." Qualz said. "We owe you guys. Instead of a angry, barely restrained mob, we have a happy barely-restrained mob."
"Oh, I forgot to ask you about that earlier." Jangulety said. "Why did the fort get crazy? It couldn't have just been the weather."
"And you said angry, storms don't make people angry." Jolkin added.
Qualz chuckled. "Can't keep anything from you. Actually, I have as little idea as you about what's going on. Mercury was called away to Cliffspray on an urgent message, and we've been on edge since then."
"Harna." Cadin said wisely.
Qualz nodded, glad that they took the hint. "We don't want this to turn into a huge fighting match like that time ended with. I've gotten all of the kids I can trust in a group, they're patrolling the whole thing. If even one fight breaks out, that's the end of this and everyone's going to their rooms."
"Which kids?" Cadin wanted to know.
"Oh, the usual; Dajin, Cani, Gia, Agler, Medri... everyone but Shad. He's showing some newcomers around." Qualz added.
"And that's bound to set off a few arguments." Cadin said.
"Right." Qualz said, bouncing his wrist in a 'who knows?' gesture. "They're twins, and they're sharing a room with two dragonoids."
"Ouch." Jolkin muttered. "That's got to be a problem."
"Not the half of it." Qualz said. "This place is ready to explode, I want to be careful. But." He held up a hand. "We don't want anyone complaining. You to take it to the edge, got it?"
"Shouldn't you verify that with Kist?" Xcivix asked, ducking out of the crowd.
Qualz waved that off. "Kistriy doesn't mind as long as you keep it under control." he said to Jangulety. "And you." He turned to Xcivix. "You ready to do exactly that: take it to the edge?"
Xcivix grinned a mischievous smile that made the rest of them grin as well. "Am I ready? When have I not been ready, brother?"
Jangulity snapped her fingers for attention, then mouthed, So, what are we waiting for?
Xcivix shoved them back up in their former positions. "Get going, guys! I'll take care of it."

5:38 PM
Hillside, main room, Chaos

"They're back on." Jagrey whispered to Lalita and Kalika.
She wasn't surprised by the reaction. Kalika bounced back onto her feet smiling. Lalita covered her ears and buried her face into her arms.
Jagrey knelt down by the smaller girl. "Come on."
Lalita moaned and buried her head deeper into her arms.
Jagrey sighed. "Shi, jak." she said gently. "Get up. If you're facing the music it doesn't hurt."
Lalita hesitated, and Jagrey repeated, "Jak."
Lalita shoved herself up and stood, Jagrey next to her. "I'll try it." she said. "But only if you tell me what 'jak' means."
Jagrey grinned. "Please. Jak means please. And it looks like they're going to start right now."
Lalita took a few steps into the crowd, stood still, and listened for the whole song.

5:39 PM
Cliffspray, main office, Chaos

"Mercury!" Zast yelled. "We've been waiting!"
"Nili!" Mercury shouted back over the wind. "They weren't exaggerating those floods!"
"Not the way Veen's been talking!" Zast shouted back. "Hurry up!" he added.
Mercury didn't give herself time to think of what Zast was talking about she just managed to get inside the fort.
Cliffspray was named for a good reason. Riding on top of the cliff, Mercury had continually been worrying about the wind blowing her and her horse off, which made he keep her distance from the edge. Down below, the ocean looked like it was getting mad.
"Venus and Neptune are completely flooded out." Zast said quietly. Mercury realized that Cliffspray fort was barely hanging on. The kids, it seemed, were confined to the rooms, and the mood was one of sullen darkness.
The fires had no one to tend them and had nearly gone out. Zast grabbed a torch from the wall. "They're useful in these cases." he said, before running to the meeting room.
Mercury, still soaking wet, collapsed into her seat.
"Great, hi, Merc. First off, Seaway and Meadowview are moving out of their forts."
Neptune muttered something, and Jupiter gave him a sharp look. "The weather isn't the most important thing, but let's get this taken care of. Merc, how's things look from inland?"
Mercury wrung out her hair while answering. "Not as bad, but getting there. Every creek and river is flooded at least three feet, we've lost quite a few bridges, and the Kalkin is a good fifteen feet up."
Jupiter winced. "I'm sorry, but you're taking on all of Meadowview."
Mercury's mouth dropped open. Casha put her hand on Mercury's shoulder. "We're taking everyone from Seaway."
"And out of the forts?" Shekl asked nervously.
Deblin nodded.
"You said that, under the circumstances, you're holding up pretty well." Jupiter said. "But, that is 'under the circumstances,' so I assume that there are problems."
Shekl clenched his jaw. "We're on complete storm alert and people from Seaway kept coming! You can't fit them all here."
And that, Mercury decided, was a fair assessment. She wouldn't be able to take all of Meadowview, either. She looked at Deblin.
"Don't even think about it." Deblin snarled. "We're in the same condition as you. At least you have a fort to stay in."
At times like this, Mercury wondered about the practicality of calling the village of Meadowview a fort, and how difficult it could be to build three more, one for Meadowview and two more for Shekl's Drinin and Deblin's Partkay. But, Partkay was an independent climbers village and Drinin was a system of caves. It wouldn't work, she knew.
"We'll take 'em." she said flatly.
"Good." Jupiter seemed relieved. "Any other problems?"
"Not right now, but there will be if you don't tell us why we're here." Deblin muttered next to Mercury.
Jupiter heard, because he looked annoyed and then sighed. "I don't know exactly how to put this."
"Then put it now!" Deblin yelled.

5:40 PM
Shaju, Pandemonium

Sarina hit the bottom stair and instantly, her wings were open for balance. She tripped over to the side, but jerked back and fanned her wings behind her when she nearly scratched Dalgin. "Nili." she said quickly, folding her wings along her back.
Dalgin stared at her in shock. "Do you know what this means?"
"What, do I owe you something?" Sarina asked. "Umm... Gabriel's sewn up, I think he'll be able to fly well in three or--"
"No! The Stanrers!" Dalgin said.
"You've heard the news." Sarina said grimly.

5:41
Cliffspray, Chaos

"Okay." Jupiter said after Deblen's outburst. "I'll put it as easily as possible: The Stanrers have launched a full-scale attack on Ajilan lands."
The room was silent.
"Not just Disarray, either. They're moving inland." Jupiter specified. "Mainland Tumult and Turmoil was hit hard."
No one moved.
"Kids are dead from this." Jupiter said, clenching his fists as tightly as possible. "It was an outnumbered attack. They didn't even have a chance."

5:41 PM
Shaju, Pandemonium

"Don't know know what that means?" Dalgin asked.
"Yes, I do." Sarina said, calm as ever. "They have just started a war."


Chapter two: War

Mac 12, 21
5:41 PM
Shaju, Pandemonium

Sarina and Dalgin stared at each other for a long time. Dalgin realized he had been holding his breath and exhaled slowly. "War?" he asked.
Sarina nodded swiftly. "War. It's the only answer."
Dalgin stared at the fairy-like child in front of him. She was still unruffled, standing calmly in front of him. But she had just made an unbelievable announcement.
This was Sarina? Sarina the peacemaker, who hate the tradition of two younglings fighting it out when they had a disagreement? Sarina, the youngest council member in Ajickal and probably the most clear-headed of them, said that they were going into war? Unbelievable. But Sarina looked so solemn, Dalgin couldn't laugh like it was a joke.
"War?" he asked.
"War." Sarina answered.

5:53
Hillside, main room, Chaos

"So what do you think?" Jagrey asked.
Lalita thought for a moment, then her face burst into a grin. "It was kind of cool." she said.
Jagrey blinked. "Okay." she said. "I wondered if you were one of those people who just hated it... I guess not, though."
"I loved it." Lalita admitted. "But I understand why they don't do it often. Too..."
"Maniac?" Jagrey suggested.
"Chaotic?" Kalika spoke up, glancing over from a conversation with Krys and Adrin.
Lalita nodded. "That."
Jagrey shrugged. "That's what they know. They're great at it, especially Jangulety. He plans out most of the 'maniac' parts. That's really what he calls them, though. The 'maniac' parts. No one ever even thinks for a minute that he misnamed them."
"That's for sure." Krys said. "So, who wants to go back up to our rooms now? There's not much left to do..."
"And you two are going to teach them a few things about Ajickal." Joeie spoke up. He smiled nicely at them, then melted into the crowd, shouting at some boy.
Jagrey and Krys sighed and exchanged glances. "Yeah, come on. Don't worry, Shadow, we'll make sure they don't get lost."
"What?" Shadow asked. He slapped his ears, rubbed them, then gave up. "Just stay with them so they don't get lost." he said.
Jagrey nodded tolerantly and herded the other three girls up the stairs and towards their rooms.

5:56
Senreda, Disarray

"Alright!" Sendarea shouted.
Everyone shut up.
"Now I know everyone's a bit on the edge after these big attacks." Sendarea said, pacing. "But all of you just sit down and I'll get to it." When there was hesitation, she shouted, "Si'down!"
There was hasty movement and soon everyone was seated around a table. The whole Disarray council was gathered, and Sendarea knew that the only way to handle the edgy group was to shout, order, bully, and appear totally in control.
It usually worked. Of course, the leader of all of Ajickal could afford to shout at the people, order around council members, and bully the whole country into doing what she wanted. It was her job, after all.
"Now! I'm going to explain the situation!" Sendarea shouted with the air of a drill sergeant. "I'm only going to explain this once, you got it?!"
Dead silence.
"Good!" Sendarea yelled. "I want it to stay that quiet!" That said, she could go on to the bad news. "The Stanrers have begun to invade Ajickal."
There was a short pause, and Sendarea held her breath, waiting for just one person to say something. Nothing. Not ever a whisper.
"Here, in Disarray, we got some hard hits! I want everyone to know that we are perfectly fine and that the Stanrers have been defeated here in the highlands! As you all know, frequent minor attacks got us ready for a larger one and this hardly hurt us. However! Some of the Stanrers got around to our small island/coastal nieghboring states: Tumult and Turmoil. They ordinarilly do not need our practice and drilling, as small Stanreran revolts are usually stopped here, as soon as they get through the mountians. So we have two small island dragil villages completely wiped out by the Stanrers."
She paused again. Everyone was still completely silent, hanging onto her every word.
"We're preparing for a full-scale attack. Some Stanrers were captured, and, under some..." Sendarea smiled morbidly. "...persuasion, we managed to get enough information to expect more such attacks, and an invasion when our northern defences are sufficiently weakened.
"I expect you all: every single one of you, to spread the word everywhere and to everyone in Disarray. The news is already passing to village and fort leaders in Turmult, Turmoil, Pandemonium, Mayhem, Disorder, Daze, Chaos and Jumble. The general population doesn't particularly need to know in those states, but everyone in Disarray must know! Understand?!"
There was murmering and nodding.
"Good! I want you to get everyone through drills! Find some good teachers and make sure they get temporary but indefinatly timed leave from whatever jobs they may hold and get them to drill! Any questions?!"
One girl caustiously raised her hand.
"Brin?" Sendarea snapped.
"Do... I mean, do we need to get together assault teams, I mean..."
Sendarea nodded at the girl to shut up. She did.
"Yes." she said to the whole group. "We are getting ready to mobalize the whole Ajilan army, ya'got it?" Her strict look faded for a second, she swallowed, and finished. "Yes. We're getting the death squads together again."
Brin didn't look too happy at this answer.

5:57
Hillside, Chaos

Jagrey jerked her head towards the stairs, and gave Joeie a questioning stare. When he flipped his fingers at them absent-mindedly, she grabbed Krys by the shoulder, managing to re-direct her hand in air from yanking on her hidden wings. "Shu'ea." she whispered. Let's go.
Krys motioned for Kalika and Lalita to follow her. Jagrey grabbed Lalita by the wrist and with Kalika close behind, rushed them up the stairs, through the halls, slowing down when they reached the third floor where the rooms were.
"What's wrong?" Lalita asked, eyes wide.
"Nothing." Jagrey said, slightly confused.
"Then... why are you dragging us around like you wanted us to get out?" Lalita said honestly.
Jagrey frowned and exchanged looks with Krys. "We're always in a hurry."
"Is everyone here like that?" Kalika asked, leaning against the wall with the attitude of a moody teenager.
Jagrey shrugged. "Just 'bout. You can't be slow, you need to get everything done real fast so you have time to do fun stuff that you want to do."
"Like what?" Lalita asked, intrigued.
"Ah, normal kid stuff. I live at Shaju, that's Pandemonium... actually, I'm a variable so I switch a lot. I'm staying here a month. Last few months I've been living at Pandemonium, Harna, do you know where that is? Probably not... and before that I was down in Mayhem."
"What kind of names are those?" Kalika asked, looking annoyed.
Krys matched her gaze. "They're the usual names, trani." she said, knowing Kalika didn't know the word but making it sound extremely insulting. "I suspect that you're going to get used to it like your sister, or just we might throw you off a cliff. Either way, you're not going to cause any problems for us."
Kalika, sullenly glaring, decided that she would stay silent the rest of the time.
"What's 'trani' mean?" Lalita asked.
Kalika stared at Lalita like her sister was abandoning her by asking friendly questions.
Ignoring Kalika, Jagrey answered. "Trani: it's an insult, really. It means newcomer in Shaju dielect. It means more like 'unlearned' in Ajilan, which means newcomer, which is pretty much making the generalization that all newcomers are idiots."
Lalita blinked. "Okay."
"Don't worry, we don't actually believe that." Krys said. "With a few noteable exceptions.
Kalika smiled with exaggerated sweetness.

6:12
Shaju, Pandemonium

Sarina paced. "What's wrong?" Dalgin asked.
"What's not wrong?" Sarina asked. "I'm not even sure how Gabriel'll heal... he's a tough little winglet but I'm not a suj. Do I look like a suj?"
Dalgin blinked. "Not exactly. Most zsuj are... well, older."
Sarina rolled her eyes. "Yes, trani." she said like a patient teacher. "I know that. It's a figure of speach. Zsuj have to be at least younglings and preferably variables."
Dalgin blinked. "Well, as you know, I still maintain that you are capable of running all of Ajickal by yourself, so healing withs and doing a zsuj job isn't the least of your worries while you're leading all the winglets and winglings in Ajickal."
"I'll leave all of Ajickal up to my sister." Sarina said, laughing. "I wonder what Sendarea's up to, anyway?"
"Probably yelling the hell out of her troops." Dalgin suggested. "At any rate, she's in this deep. What about Dashil?"
"Her second-in-command?" Sarina asked. "I don't know if he got back to Ajickal yet. Sendarea sent that she was afraid that maybe he had gotten captured."
"Dashil? Yeah, right." Dalgin said, snorting, but didn't elaborate.
Personally, Sarina thought that Dashil was a self-absorbed jerk that just had to do eveything exactly to protocol. Not whiny... like a few other high-ranking people she could think of; but just annoying. She kept this opinion to herself, as they were aproximately equal rank and Sendarea was equally attached to both of them, making any argument between them public Ajilan business. Sarina had no problem with hating him privately, though, because he equally disliked her. In one of the few times they were alone together, Sarina had looked at him and said, "I really hate you." And he had responded, "Same for me." After a few minutes of silence, Sarina added, "Don't tell anyone else about that." "Wouldn't dream of it." the sixteen year old answered. And that was the end of that. Dalgin suspected that they weren't the best of friends, but being separated by a few hundred miles would keep anyone from being good friends, so there wasn't much be be suspisious of. They were remarkably civil to each other around other people.
"Yeah, Dashil." Sarina said. "I wonder if he was, too."
"Dashil, no." Dalgin said. "He's a great fighter..."
"Hm." Sarina said, glancing around. "He should have gotten back on the fifth. It's the twelth. Something happened."
"Maybe he got held up at the mountians?" Dalgin suggested.
Sarina sighed. "The pass probably got snowed in. The only reason we beat the Stanrers, probably, too."

6:32 PM
Chaos, Hillside

Jagrey and Krys were still stalling explaining about dragonoids. They were, instead, explaining to the interested Lalita and indifferent Kalika about Ajickal.
"So why so you mix up the languages?" Lalita asked.
"We don't on purpose." Krys said.
"We get some slang English from you types... newcomers, no offence. Newcomer is the only polite term we have for you guys, other than the Aspect term that no one but the Aspect use." Jagrey added.
"Aspect? What term?" Lalita asked
Kalika stayed obviously silent.
"Aspect is a sort of... what do you say, religon?"
"I would say." Krys answered.
"Okay then, Aspect is a religon. Their term for you is 'ari'cana shali.' You see why no one uses it."
"No, why, because it's long?" Lalita asked
"That's part of it." Jagrey said.
"The other part is the meaning." Krys said, "Which is something like... 'welcomed innocent visitor'--"
"Harmless new child..." Jagrey added.
"Kind, pleasant guest." Krys added.
"The first one's most common." Jagrey said.
"There's a lot of translating problems." Krys finished.
"What else about Aspect? They sound nice. What kind of religon is it?"
Jagrey frowned. "Well, a religon isn't a god word for it. How about philosophy?"
Krys nodded agreement. "That's the word I was thinking of. Philosophy."
"Well.... what is it?" Lalita asked, shifting position to lay on her stomach as she listened to the two girls talk. Jagrey and Krys had been friends forever, trained together, taught together, but they still knew different things and had different interpretations of present day Ajickal. That was no problem to Lalita, who was enjoying every minute of the talk. Kalika was sitting on the bed with her face totally expressionless.
"Aspect..." This was one thing that Jagrey could never really understand, even though she had spent a few months in the Aspect village Canan. Krys had gotten into Aspect much more and still kept Aspect friends, although she could never completely understand the non-violent code they kept. Besides, if she became part of Aspect, Jagrey would never go along with it and they would have a huge break in their friendship. But Jagrey had no problem with Kry's like of Aspect. "Go ahead and explain, Krys." Jagrey said.
Krys settled down to talk for a long time, even though her voice was still a bit hoarse. "Aspect is an idea... more like a way that all members live. It's totally non-violent. Most Aspect villages, like the one we lived in Canan, was isolated. Lots of them are in the highlands and are left alone, completely, by Stanrers. Of course, it's very difficult to get in and out of them."
"Jalka is set on top of Swift Point." Jagrey added. "That's a piece of land that looks like it was just pulled half a mile up into the air."
"Like a pillar or something, yeah." Kry said. "So most of them are nearly impossible to reach unless you can fly." Jagrey knew that she was about to say something else, like, 'unless you're a dragonoid' but had quickly changed her words to something she knew Lalita would pay no attention to, thinking it a figure of speach. "So Aspect places are usually peaceful, quiet."
"They're hard workers." Jagrey added. "Lots of them are in Mayhem; that's where most... agriculture is here." she said, finding the English word.
"Agriculture?" Lalita asked.
"That's English, isn't it?" Jagrey asked Krys.
"Yes." Joeie said from the doorway, startling eveyone except Kalika, who was still pointedly ignoring them all. "And isn't it time for you four to get some sleep?"
"But Joeiiieee..." Krys whined.
"We're telling them about Ajickal." Jagrey said. "It's educational."
Joeie raised his eyebrows, like he doubted that. Then, like he thought they were too stupid to understand, "You. Bed. Imediantly."
When no one moved, he added, "Get going, shi. We have a lot to do tomorrow, so just go to sleep so you don't collaspe tomorrow."
As he left, Lalita looked at Krys and Jagrey. "Shy?"
"Shi." Krys corrected, both of the dragonoids resigning herself to having to spend the night with her wings still hidden underneath their tunics. "It means variable."
When that got no more than a blink from Lalita, Jagrey threw a few blankets across the small room to her. "It's the name for everyone from seven to nine years old. If you don't have a different rank, like the leader of something, you're a winglet, wingling, youngling, variable, we get our names from the way we move around so much for training; hiflyers, you can't go over the lowzone until you're ten; jilas, and shiu."
Lalita nodded. "Oh. Okay."
Krys snickered and climbed on top of her bunk. It felt strange not to be flying, or at least have her wings out for balance. But it was preferable that Lalita, and, more importantly, Kalika, didn't freak out.
"Winglet, wingling and youngling are just names, ages zero to one; two to three; four to six. Variable is uncertian, it's at the end of normal begining training and before we start jilas. Seven to nine. Jilas is the name of training, it's combination of just more advanced stuff we already know: math, different languages, fighting... and it gets into boring stuff like scribing. If you want to learn that stuff at any age, though, you can; me and Jagrey both used to help scribe at Harna. Shiu means out, it's actually shiu'lan, which is outcrash. It just means that you're no longer bound by crashes."
Kalika, who up to them had been on top of the bunk bed doing admirable impression of sleep, spoke up. "What the heck's a crash?"
Krys grinned at Jagrey, making a quick, circular movement near her ear saying, 'I told you so.' "Crashes are groups of three or four kids that we have by the time we're winglings." she explained. "Jagrey and Adrin are my crashmates, and then Joeie's our guardian. He just keeps track of us, makes sure we're learning... well, something."
Kalika snorted. "I'm staying by myself. But Lalita probably wants in. Go ahead, girl. You have my permission."
Lalita paled. "Let's... go to sleep, guys."

6:53
Chaos, Cliffspray

Jupiter had finally gotten the rest of the leaders to get some rest before heading back to their forts. Upon Casha's request, though, he was speaking to Mercury alone. Casha often had a good idea of what was wrong with people, although she was shy to point it out to any of the others, especially considering that Mercuray and the rest outranked her, although not by much. But her observations were valuable to Jupiter because, even though he was in charge of everything and everyone in Cliffspray, he was not known for reading into people's actions. Perhaps it was because he was the leader, and he didn't usually have to talk to anyone with real problems, simply messengers and the higher ranking people in Ajickal. And because Casha would do so for him.
Mercury already had a good idea of what he was doing. She was smiling slightly, kicking her feet in a attempt to ignore the mood in Cliffspray, which was either listless, nervous, or simply tense, Jupiter couldn't tell which. He recalled Casha whispering to Zast about how it was "spiritless apathy." Jupiter wished that he had Mercury's fort. Not because it was larger, he didn't have the skill to hold up one of the largest forts nearly single-handedly, with the long tradition of Hillside second- and third-in-commands totally ignoring politics and anything else leaving everything up to the first-in-command. No, Hillside was a large, happy fort with everyone rushing around, laughing and happy. Kids of all ages coming and going and loud and noisy. Cliffspray was always so quiet....
"So, what?" Mercury prompted.
Jupiter looked up from the place he had been staring, where the floor met the wall. "Oh, nili." he said. "I was thinking--"
"Yeah who isn't, so hurry up with it. If I don't get sleep soon..." she yawned "... then I'm liable to fall asleep standing up."
"Nili." Jupiter repeated. "But... how'd Hillside holding up?"
"You didn't make me stay up just to chat, what's wrong?" Mercury asked.
Jupiter blinked at her. "You know that a lot of kids in your fort joined... well, while there was peace..."
"A whole bunch of us made, trained and became assualt teams." Mercury finished. "And you're worried what that's going to do to Hillside, and, in effect, all of Chaos because we are the largest fort."
"Um, yeah." Jupiter said.
Mercury shook her head. "Don't bother. I'm keeping everyone that I don't think should go out of them. A few of the older kids might go, though---"
"You're actually considering it?"
"It's my job to consider it." Mercury said seriously, all traces of sleepyness gone. "And yes, sending off some of the kids-- my kids-- off in death squads is not my idea of something fun to do. But it's their choice."
"Qualz? Xcivix?" Jupiter asked.
"I'll keep them at Hillside as long as I can, I don't think they'll need much persuasion, but if they want to go, I'll let them go. That's why you gave me Gia, right?"
"Yeah." Jupiter said. "There's no chance little Gia would go out in one of those teams."
"True enough." Mercury agreed.
"But, well, you're not mad about the pull-back? I needed all my people back here at Cliffspray, things were a little--"
"Busy here and you had every right." Mercury finished for him. "Jupe, I've known you forever, I know that was a hard thing to do, especially when everyone in Ajickal obviously needs help. You did what you had to do. Ajickal first, your fort second, yourself third. What I need and what my fort needs comes after that. Far after that. We're--"
"Friends but we're not necessarily here to help." Jupiter finished her sentance for her, like she had finished his. "I'm not sure, Merc, Ajickal is going into a problem that's going to be very hard for us to get out of."
"We could make a agreement. Just make a few qualifications--"
"Let the other countries get into it, and have the Dwenshin so-called 'prince' that we have to clear out the borderlands..." Jupiter continued, giving the example that had caused a major disaster when the Dwens and Ajilans tried to work together. First off, that was a mistake, and second, the people in the borderlands had run wild, and most of the Dwens were killed outright. The Ajils that escaped with their lives were accused of murder by the Dwenshin prince, Sheb, and had been taken to Dwenshin to be judged. Most likely they were found guilty and killed. The Dwens had little patience for justice.
"Shush." Mercury reprimanded. "I know you hate Sheb for that, if he had killed my brother I could be just as hateful, and it would be fully justified. But please. Don't let that cloud your judgement. The Dwens are, you know, neutral in any Ajickal-Sarakill battles, which is what this is."
"The Stanrers started it." Jupiter insisted. "We only defended as best we could."
"Jupiter, go to sleep." Mercury said. "We can't do anything about it now. We go to sleep, think about our options."
Jupiter was walking out the door when Mercury called him to a stop.
"I know it won't help you, but I forgave the Dwens. I forgave them as soon as I knew how. You might think you can't, but your brother was my friend. Forgive them. Forgive the Tryans and the Varins, too, for every battle we've had. If you can..." Mercury fidgeted, "Forgive the Stanrers. The country itself may not be so bad. The leaders may be cold-blooded monsters, but look at the borderlands. Ajils, Stanrers and Dwens live together in their own ways."
Look at the borderlands.
Jupiter almost scoffed, but he didn't. "Did you forgive the Stanrers?"
"No." Mercury said, as Jupiter closed the door behind him, giving Mercury time to think. "No, I didn't..."

Chapter Three: Night War

Mac 12, 21
7:29
Digran, Tranquillity
Sarakill

Ashran paced. What was his brother thinking? Why would he risk this... risk everything!... just to... to do what? It was accomplishing no good. Nothing good could come of it.
He stopped abruptly, in the middle of his tiny room, and grabbed a piece of paper, jolting down his thoughts with a quick hand.


[Shows Stanreran writing- up and down lines with sideways lines branching off, I'd explain the Stanreran alphabet, but that'd take a little while]

Ashran muttered in Stanreran while writing, thinking through his words. He would stop this as much as he was able. His brother would not destroy the hope of peace that some of his people had. Ashran would never be able to stop the war, the war-crazy Ajilans would be sure of that, but it wasn't all their fault. His brother had ordered the attack. Danilp should-- but couldn't-- but stopped, there was no way he could be stopped....
Ashran nearly stopped breathing as he had a sudden idea of what could happen if Danilp suddenly burst in, his brother never knocked. He would burst in, look at the paper, and ask, "Vin ropshish andraga gulin vwespar hupu gulek sum!" My only brother, a traitor aginst me. A smiled to show no hard feelings, then begin reading aloud his ideas, about war bringing nothing but pain and proving nothing, nothing at all... but it was what Ashran believed! But Danilp would simply say "Dulk." Death. He had been known to do worse things.
Ashran crumpled the paper, hesitated, and then decisively threw it into the fire. Flames consumed it, and he breathed a sigh of relief. The proof that he was a potential traitor was destroyed. He had nothing to worry about... nothing at all.
Ashran smiled, but it was an empty smile, almost as bad as his brother's. He leaned against the wall in defeat. The war would come. Perhaps another period like the death years... perhaps something worse.
Ashran named the war now, in his head. He lived in Tranqility... with nothing tranqil about it. Names... names were all wrong. This war would have a proper name.
The Death War? To start more Death years?
No. The Night war. The war would have its own name. Its own identity. And, Ashran was suddenly sure, nothing would ever cause people to forget the Night war, not even more death years...

Mac 13, 21
6:12
Senreda, Disarray

Sendarea was already awake, snapping orders around her left and right. No sooner did someone report to her than she assigned them to a job. Dashil, who she had told to keep track of everything, was silently counting on his fingers and paying close attention.
"Shali: ca'rij kithe," she snapped before Shali got near her. Shali stopped short and turned back the way she came.
"Drith, alk'io Milshan. Milt'vil'nilk na'Stanrers," she told Drith. Drith nodded and gestured for one of his friends to come help him. Sendarea was already turning to see who else needed to be assigned. Dashil sighed and continued his memorization of the children's jobs.
"Gui na'zkish biv'rij't yug'rew."
Dashil gave Sendarea a startled look. "Deb rij't yug'rew?" They aren't awake yet?
Sendarea shrugged. "L'viy." I suppose.
"Byv'dar't deb iyo'yug?" Dashil asked, glancing to the sky for the time. Why wouldn't they be awake?
"Byv'dar l'vif?" Why would I know?
"Fup'ca'rij na'rik, Sendarea." Dashil answered with a trace of amusment. Because you're the leader, Sendarea.
"Vup!" Sendarea answered. Right. "Reth gim'm'iyo na'rik!" So let me be the leader!

6:54
Hillside, Chaos

Jagrey woke up with a yawn and stretched her wings.
Feeling material against her wings, she irritably scratched at it with with wingclaws, then remembered why her wings were hidden like that.
Lalita looked at her. "Hi! I've been awake a while but I didn't want to wake anyone else up."
Jagrey mumbled an automatic thanks, and looked around. "Is Kalika awake?"
Without glancing at her sister, Lalita answered, "No, she's asleep. And not faking it, either."
Jagrey shrugged, which felt hard on her wings. "I'll go find Joeie and Adrin." She jumped down to the floor, landing hard, as compared to having wings, and shook Krys. "Gui at."
Krys stirred, and Jagrey put and hand overtop of her wings. "Get up and keep your wings down." she muttered tensely in Ajilan.
Krys understood imediantly, stood up, rubbed her eyes, and wandered out of the room. Jagrey followed her, adding to Lalita in English to stay in the room with Kalika until they got back.
Lalita nodded, and once Jagrey and Krys were in the hallway they quickly managed to get their wings in order, the flaps in the backs of their tunics being easy to manouver using only one's wingclaws.
"So? Do we tell them now?" Krys asked.
"Mm... later." Jagrey said, yawning again. "They have to know sooner or later."
"Preferably sooner." Krys added as she noticed Joeie walking towards them.
"So you told them?" Joeie asked, without bothering with 'good morning.'
"Not yet." Jagrey admitted.
Joeie looked at them, rolled his eyes, and waved with one of his wings. "Bye, then. Tell them within the next hour or I'll get Adrin to."
"Op rik!" Jagrey said, grinning as she flipped her hand in the usual military way of respect and cast a look at Krys.
The conspirators giggled and ran down the hall.

6:59
Cliffspray, Chaos

Mercury paced. The rain had stopped, and the sun was shining, but she had serious doubts about the condition of the rivers. It was not good traveling weather. She wouldn't even bother to start out for Hillside for a few hours. Even then, she might have to wait for the rivers to go down before she tried to cross them. The bridges might be down, too.
Mercury continued pacing.
Kistriy, as second-in-command, would be in charge of the fort officially, but she was pretty sure than Xcivix would take over all the work. Maybe, now that she had three third-in-commands... and how had that happened, anyway? she could instead have two seconds and two thirds. But if she promoted Xcivix, her twin brother would feel left out. The last thing Mercury wanted to do was start an arguement, so she decided to keep that little idea to herself until she saw how Xcivix had managed the fort. If she had handled everything perfectly, then she would have to consider Xcivix for second.... actually, Kistriy was way over usual wait for some vaccation, so while Kistriy was out on leave it would be easy to--
Dammit, what was she thinking? Mercury fought the desire to slap herself in the face. War! They were about to get thrown into a war!
She covered her face and moaned. She hadn't even wanted to consider all of this. It was far too much.
Get a grip, Mercury. You're thirteen, you can handle this. Chaos isn't all that close to the border, we don't have to be in on this if we don't want to. We....
"Merk?" someone asked, knocking at the door.
Mercury blinked. "Is that you, Casha?"
"Yeah, me." Casha said, slipping inside. "The rain's stopped, most of the flooding went down a little. I think that if you take the northern path, you'll avoid any major flooding. You said the Kalkin was really high, so send down a warning if the bridge got washed away. Other than that..." Casha struggled to put on a smile, "You can go, it's safe. We're sending out some safety crews who're jure some bridges and the usual stuff--"
"You're keeping people occupied."
Casha grinned sheepishly. "Yeah."
Mercury put her hand to the side of her head in a "meant nothing by that remark" way and grinned. "Time to go then, Casha."
"Goodbye, Mercury." Casha said, flicking her fingers across her forehead in the formal Ajilan goodbye.
Mercury nodded and got out of Cliffspray.

7:03
Cliffspray territory, Chaos

Ranas coughed hard twice, and turned back to the team. "Okay, guys, let's hurry. We have another ten miles of territory to cover today and it's all probably this bad."
Tolerantly, his team kept working, which at the moment was to tie ropes around the half-fallen tree, other trees, and anything useful that came within their reach. The old pine tree, which was leaning across the river, would make a good bridge if they could just get it untangled from the other treetops.
Ranas slid down the muddy riverbank and grabbed the rope his sister, Temkey, threw down to him. "Whatcha got up there?" he shouted at Aranisa.
Nisa glanced down from atop the tilting tree. "Do I get hazard pay for this?" she asked.
"You're the lightest, with San out. It's not that bad. Just tie it to right there-" He pointed to one of the branches of the pine tree "-and jump into the river."
"I hope you know what you're doing, Ranas!" Nisa yelled back, scampering up the trunk and securing the rope with a few good knots and wrapping it around a few times. She tugged on the rope to make sure it was secure, then glanced at the flooded, rushing river. "You sure about this?"
"You're not going to die, Nisa. We need you in the river to grab onto that." Ranas pointed to the second rope, part of a security bridge that they had hastily raised and intertwined with the rest of their maze of ropes.
"Checkback!" Ranas yelled.
"Check." Temkey said, inspecting the rope she was hanging onto and glancing to the right and left.
"Check." Prach said, glancing at his crash. "Check for them four, too." The four nine-year olds nodded, tightening their grip on their ropes.
"Just don't let go." Nisa yelled at them cheerfully. They weren't attached to her, she she didn't have to worry about them.
"You check, Nisa?"
"Oh, yes." Nisa said, grinning. "If I'm going to fall to my death, I may as well be smiling. Everyone else check?"
"Yeah, just go," Ranas said, digging his feet into the mud.
Nisa took a deep breath, looked at the river, and jumped.
Ranas tensed himself for a jerk as he broke Nisa's fall and dragged her back to the surface as she was dragged under with the weight of her clothes and supplies. Sputtering and half-blinded from water in her eyes, Nisa grabbed the safety rope. Ranas gave her a little extra slack, and she jerked on the rope as hard as she could while freezing cold and half-drown. Luckily, Temkey had taken this into account and the rock was hardly stuck in the mud, and the rushing water took care of the rest of it.
Temkey shouted a warning at Prach and his crash just before the small boulder got pulled out and dragged downstream with the current. It was just heavy enough to pull on the tree, but light enough to get dragged along instead of just sinking to the bottom. The ropes being looped around branches acted as pulleys and the tree started shaking and groaning.
"Did I mention that?" Ranas yelled, pulling Nisa in. The water streamed over her head and the current was incredibly strong.
"What?" one of Prach's crashers yelled.
Nisa jerked twice for Ranas to give her some slack, and dove farther underwater, holding onto rocks and other things to pull herself along the bottom. Ranas couldn't even see her under the frothy water. "I meant about the--"
Temkey realized that Prach's crash didn't have the slightest clue what Ranas was talking about. "Scatter!" she screamed at them.
That was one of the first commands Ajilans learned, and the crash reacted instinctively by dropping their ropes and sprinting away from the area they were in, just as the tree fell exactly where they had been.
Open-mouthed, the crash stared at the fallen tree.
"How could you forget to tell them that, Prach?" Temkey yelled. Ranas turned his attention from the near-disaster back to Nisa, which was a disaster in the making.
"Nisa?" Ranas yelled, knowing that she couldn't hear him underwater. He jerked sharply on the rope, searching the water in front of him. No answer.
"Tem!" Ranas yelled, interrupting his sister, who was still chewing out Prach. "Nisa isn't answering!"
Temkey rushed up, and summed up the situation, ready to dive in. Ranas yelled at her to get on a safety rope and Temkey and Prach started rushing around.
Ranas jerked again on the rope. An answering jerk came back, and a blond head broke surface from the middle of the river, directly to Ranas's right.
Nisa looked back and forth, like she was lost, and found Ranas. "Did we do it?" she shouted.
Ranas nearly laughed in relief. "Yeah, Nisa! We did it!"

7:16
Hillside, Chaos

Jagrey and Krys walked back into the room. "Hungry?" Krys asked.
"Uh-huh." Lalita said, staring at whatever it was that Jagrey was holding and they were both chewing on.
"'s called shapp." Jagrey said. "It's okay... you just plant it, it spreads... it's almost like grass or mint or something."
"It's eatible?"
A sigh from Jagrey. "Yes."
Lalita took a tiny piece of the delicate greenery and nibbled on it, rabbit-like.
"Hey, this is pretty good. Try some, Kalika."
Kalika frowned and have her twin the evil-eye look. "No."
"Aren't you hungry?"
"No." she said simply.
"Come on, Ka-li-ka...."
"No." Kalika said firmly, like an adult insisting that a child stop asking for something.
Lalita gave her a look of pure contempt, giving a clear message, 'I despise you'.
Then it was gone, replaced by something very close to sympathy that might even have been pity. Lalita got those looks across in less than a second, and turned back to the shapp Jagrey was dividing up.
Jagrey and Krys exchanged looks. Obviously, the plan was going to have a few holes in it... time to fall back and regroup.

7:17
Shaju, Pandemonium

Dalgin was getting worried about Sarina. "Sar, are you okay?"
Sarina's sparking blue eyes looked into his, but they seemed to be slightly clouded over, probably from no sleep. Sarina hadn't slept all night, and she had woken Dalgin up. "Yeah." she said, a bit surprised.
"I mean, really okay."
"I'm fine..." she yawned, "Dalgin."
Dalgin stared at her, but didn't say anything further about it. Instead, he changed the subject. "What did you do last night after I fell asleep again?"
"Drew up s'm plans..."
"Tired?" Dalgin challenged
That made Sarina stand a little straighter. "No."
"Good. Plans on what?"
"Psycological plans on the Stanrers. Or at least, their leader."
Dalgin smothered a laugh from hearing the small girl talking officially like that. Sarina took no offence, or if she did, she didn't show it. "I'm serious." she said patiently.
"I know..." Dalgin said, returning to a somber expression. "It just sounded funny for some reason."
Sarina sighed. "Okay. They're probably going as revenge, that's obvious..."
"Exactly how obvious depends on who you are."
"You're probably right. Obvious is relative to who you are and what else had happened. I'll refrain from using it further."
Dalgin almost cracked up again, but managed to put an interested and serious face on.
"So. This is Stanreran society, so we can make a few assumptions. The leader is a male between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. And he has revenge in mind. What conclusions can you draw from that?"
"Um... nothing?" Dalgin offered.
Sarina sighed. "The leader, let's call him Zelak for simplicity, is probably a sexist pig, pardon the expression. As a Stanrer, we expect that out of any of them. Now, Zelak might be very smart, but he'll use things that he's reasonably sure of, and that limits his attacks. Unfortonately, there were probably spies with the first batch of them, so they very well might have reported back to Zelak and he's planning again. That's a 'probably' and a 'might' so we'll just focus on what he knows. We know that he knows," she grinned at the annoying English word usage, "where the coastline is. He can assume that there are farm villages there. And where do most of the attacks go to automatically?"
"The coastal villages." Dalgin said.
"Exactly. We have the advantage of knowing the battlefield, he has surprise. What we need to do is eliminate surprise."
"Pardon?"
"We need our own spies."

7:18
Hillside, Chaos

"Adriiiin!" Krys whined. "Come on, you have to help us." She raised her voice. "Doesn't he have to help us, Joeie?"
"Rule number eight hundred and twenty four: help someone if they beg you." Joeie yelled back. As an afterthough, he added, "And they bribe you."
Krys and Jagrey looked pleedingly at Adrin. "We'll do plowing detail for a ra-jiji when it starts."
Adrin glanced back and forth, and then at Joeie.
"Is it a bribe?" Joeie called.
"Yeah." Adrin yelled.
"Take it." Joeie advised loudly, and pretended to by trying to sleep again.
Adrin looked at Jagrey and Krys. "Okay, I'll do it. For zse'i-jiji."
"Seven-day." Jagrey challenged.
"Eight." Adrin countered
"Done." Krys said before either of them could raise or lower their bids.
"Eight?" Jagrey complained. "I could have at least gotten it down to seven."
"Stop complaining. Adrin, we have a plan but it needs patching. Could you..."


7:20
Shaju, Pandimonium

"Spies?" Mwaril asked, raising her eyebrows while at the same time not pausing at the rate she was devouring her breakfast-- probably the only food she had gotten since the war was announced.
"Yeah. Sorry to disturb your breakfast..."
Mwaril shrugged and swallowed. "No problem. Ajilan, jak?"
"Ah, nili." Sarina appologised. "What do you think of the idea?" she asked in Ajilan
"Nice. Simple. I wonder why I didn't think of it." Mwaril said, staring at her nearly empty plate. "Verify it with someone other than me, though."
Sarina grinned. "I have just as many contacts as you do, diplomat. My sister's Sendarea and I'm friendly with the world."
"The world seems to return the favor." Mwaril said, grabbing a bowl of the nutricious but bland-tasting mush that seemed to be the easiest food for anyone to get their hands on lately.
Shrugging, Sarina sat down on the bench, feet hanging above the ground and swinging in the most childish way. "I'm prepared to find spies for you, but the sky doesn't go dark for anything less than time." She said the last phase in Aspian, and Mwaril cocked her head, wondering why the winglet and wingling represenative would know such Aspian things.
"Besides, I think we're going to find ourselves in trouble with this war." Sarina added, back in Ajilan.
"Is that why you didn't show up at council last night?"
"Hm, no. I didn't want to see everyone's reaction."
Mwaril took a drink of water and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, without responding.
"So, I'm just saying that I got the go-ahead. Whatdaya think?"
"I think that you, Sarina, can get away with murder."
But not treason, Sarina found herself musing. She would not be able to get away with treason...

7:26
Hillside, Chaos

At the third floor, beneath the watch towers, Xcivix was rushing around, rapidly going through conversations with Qualz, Kistriy, Ryeu and Jangulity, while also eating tasteless mush. When Qualz asked a question, she just waved at him, mouth half-full, swallowed, and said in Ajilan, "I don't know what's going on, I don't know where Mercury is, I just know that we're in charge, and you guys all know that that means that I'm in charge."
Kistiry thought of protesting higher rank, opened his mouth, then thought against it. Xcivix was right, Mercury never intended for her younger cousin, even as her second-in-command, or her irresponsible third to be in change. Her responsible, stable third-in-command was the person Mercury had left the fort in the command of, and Xcivix as well as everyone else in the fort knew it.
"Good." Xcivix continued in Ajilan when she heard no protest. "Then let's keep going. Kistriy..."

7:27
Hillside, Chaos

Jagrey and Krys led Lalita and Kalika to the western watch tower. Forts had four of them, one on each side, and they were currently swarming with kids who were awake and had nothing better to do. Down below them, Lalita could make out black dots moving in fields, chasing away birds. Curiously, some of the dots seemed to be almost flying.
It's the height, Lalita told herself. Being so high up, even with the flimsy railings Jagrey and Krys were currently perched on, gave her the uncomfortable feeling of floating-- or falling. Jagrey and Krys seemed perfectly at home, and Kalika was keeping her face icily blank.
Jagrey slid forward and landed on her feet. "Come on, Krys," she said, putting her hand out to pull Krys up--
And knocked her off.
"Krys!" Jagrey shrieked.
Something green swoshed from the back of Kry's shirt, just as a boy Lalita vaguely remembered from the day before dived off the watchtower they had been moving towards, green from his back as well. Krys stopped in midair, re-directed herself, and began flapping her wings-- her wings?-- back up. The boy reached her, exchanged fast words that sounded, to Lalita, fifty feet higher, like gobbledy-gook, and winged back up.
Lalita felt her knees go slightly weak as they both landed in unison in front of her.
Kalika was blinking, her only show of life.
Krys flushed. "Um, nili, girls, but we probably should have told you this earlier..."
Lalita's eyes widened as Krys spread her wings, angled them so that they could see the way they moved and that they were real, and slowly refolded them. The boy briefly flapped his wings into view. Jagrey, with an appologetic smile, clawed her wings out of the strange flap in the back of her tunic.
"What's going on?" a blond girl demanded, running up with two boys trailing behind her. Lalita recognised her, too, from the stage the other night. Is everything gone crazy... does she have wings, too?
"Um, nothing, 'civix. Everything's fine." Krys lied.
"Well, don't wait so long to catch yourself when you fall!" Xcivix admonished in Ajilan. "If you hit the ground when--"
Lalita didn't understand a word of it, but she didn't care. She was already fainting.
Jagrey looked at Lalita, grudgingly supported by her twin sister. "I think we did something wrong." she said in English.
"Ya think so?" Kalika asked sarcastically.

7:36
Senreda, Disarray

"Dashil!"
Dashil ignored the voice. He was going to rest for ten minutes. Ten minutes. He closed his eyes and concentrated on tuning everything out.
"Dashy!"
Dashil stood up and opened his eyes. No one was allowed to call him Dashy except his sister, and she was still in--
"Memriy!" he shouted.
Wearing dripping wet, used-to-be white clothes as well as pretty much dirt, mud, bruises and scrapes from head to toe, Memriy wrung out her brown hair. "Nice to see you again, Dashy," she said.
"You're supposed to be in Shulan." he pointed out, grinning ear to ear. "Not dripping water all over my nice clean floor."
Memriy mimicked him, "Nice clean floor!" and laughed. "I headed back here as soon as I heard the news." Her face turned grave, and looked into his eyes. "It's true, isn't it? There were crews all over Turmoil when I got back to the mainland. They were hiding something big."
Dashil opted not to answer. "Does Sendarea know you're back?"
"Send? Yeah." Memriy said, flipping her still-drenched hair behind her and looking around. "I could hardly hide it from anyone when I walked in here looking like this. But it's nice to be back in Senreda."
"Exactly how did you get 'looking like this'?"
Memriy swallowed a giggle. "That's a long story."
"Try the short version." Dashil suggested.
Sighing, Memriy said, "My horse threw me."
"Huh? Didn't you have--"
"Yes, yes, I was riding Gentle."
As Dashil began laughing, Memriy pulled her wet, muddy headband out of her hair and flung it at his face. "It isn't funny!" she protested as Dashil waved her off, laughing too hard to talk. When he recovered, he started to say, "You were thrown by--" and started laughing again.
"What's going on?" Sendarea asked, appearing suddenly in the doorway.
Memriy sighed again. "I told him I got thrown off my horse."
"Didn't you..." Sendarea got the joke and started laughing as well.
Memriy glared at them.
"Nili, nili, I didn't mean to..." Sendarea trailed off.
Memriy bristled. "Shunagarn!" she shouted in Aspian. "Relicane dru! Shunagarn!"
Dashil stopped laughing instantly. "I didn't mean it, Riy, it's just that--" He stopped when he saw the way his sister was staring at him.
She turned to Sendarea, who appologised instantly. "Welcome back." she murmered. "Meet me in the hall in ten," before bowing and disappearing back down the hall.
Memriy looked at her brother. "What's all this about?"
Dashil shrugged. "She probably wants to make sure you know everything about what we're doing."
"She meant to bring you, too."
Dashil shrugged. "Okay, so I'll come. Right now, though, I want to take a nap...."

7:28
Shaju, Pandimonuim

Sarina made sure the door to the room was closed. "Gabriel?" she asked, turning around and tiptoeing towards the bed.
"Hmm?" something mumbled from under a blanket.
Sarina sat down on the chair right at the side of the bed, a child-sized chair that she could sit in with her feet touching the ground. "Gabriel, you're a messanger, right?" she asked in Ajilan.
A golden blond head popped out from the blankets. "Op."
"Good. Could you take this message to a friend of mine? Her name is Lucki, and she lives in Rulak, in Mayhem. The Apect village. Is your wing healed enough to go there?"
Gabriel stretched his wings, showing it to her. Dragonoids heal fast, especially younger ones, and Sarina could see only a dark green scar.
"Perfect." Sarina said. "To make sure you have the right person--" Gabriel was hanging on to her every word, "--you have to ask her, 'Who so dares/ to walk this path/ when thy soul/ is in flames.' In response, she must say, 'Thy heart lies in flames/ thy soul is untouched.' It's a very old poem we both know."
Gabriel nodded. "Who dares to walk this path, when thy soul is in flames, and the answer is thy heart lies in flames; thy soul is untouched. Right?"
Sarina flashed him a grin. "Exactly. Here, this is the message."
The piece of paper was tied with a faded ribbon in a complex knot Sarina knew that Gabriel could not untie, or re-tie if he did manage to do the former. Even if he could do both of those, he would not be able to read it without careful deciphering: it was Aspian words, and a mixture of Apsian and Ajilan lettering, written slantways, almost impossible to figure out.
"Rulak, Mayhem." Gabriel said, commiting it to memory. "Who dares to walk this path, when thy soul is in flames; thy heart lies in flames; thy soul is untouched."
"Do you remember all that?"
Gabriel nodded decisively. "I remember and I understand."

7:35
Senreda, Disarray

Dashil and Memriy ran into the meeting hall. "I won!" Dashil panted.
"No fair! I haven't been here since they closed off the catwalk exit on the second floor!" Memriy gasped, lightly smacking him in the back of the head. "And you didn't bother to tell me."
Dashil shrugged, and then looked across the room at Sendarea. "What'd you want us for?"
"Help." Sendarea said, gliding over to them. She glanced at the heavy hall door to make sure it was closed, and continued. "I need some internal spying done."
"On who?" Memriy asked. "Seems that you have your hands well enough full to not need any spies in Ajickal."
"Hm, my sister." Sendarea mused. "You know her?"
"Sarina." Dashil asked automatically.
"Right, although I was directing the question more at your sister." Sendarea said with a smile. "I need one of you to go to Sarina, and another to Chaos."
"Why Chaos?" Memriy asked.
"Because that is where newcomers are, and we don't need any problems we can avoid."
"Who goes where?"
Sendarea shrugged. "Pick one."
"I'll take Chaos." Dashil said imediantly.
"I'll take Sarina by default." Memriy said.
Sendarea smiled. "Dashil, pack and get ready to go to Pandimonuim."
"What? What did I do?" Dashil protested.
"I feel like being contrary." Sendarea said. "Memriy, you're to Chaos. Have fun!"






7:39
Hillside, Chaos

Gia dug through storeroom. Most of them were well-used, but this one was old and musty. Everything was already slightly damp from the rain, so it was rather miserable work. He was ploughing through the more recent things-- anything from rakes and hoes to scraps and rags-- when Shadow passed by.
"Shad!" he yelled.
Shadow glanced up. "Oh, now that's a creative way to spend your mornings," he said, and ran his hand through Gia's hair so it stood up on end. Dust drifted down, and Gia sneezed.
"Creative or not, it's Xcivix's orders. And that may as well mean that it's the law."
Shadow raised his eyebrows. "And what's Kistriy up to?"
"He's backing her." Gia said with a sigh. The second-in-command was occasionally power hungry, but never stupid. "So how about you help me?"
Shadow peered around Gia. "You know, I really could think of better things to do with my time..."
With a sigh, Gia turned his back on Shadow and pawed through more of the clothing. That was what he was after, anyway-- the typical uniforms. People didn't use them, at least in large numbers. But...
A messanger had gotten to them to tell them to pull out all available shateg and make sure everyone had one.
The message had gone through two people: Xcivix and Gia. These two were sure that war had been declared. From Jagrey's earlier comment to him, Shadow was convinced of the same thing. He didn't want to help. Shadow knew wolves. Shadow did not know, nor want to know, war.
A whistle blast made him pause in his tracks.
Shadow knew whistles, too. Wolves were trained to respond to them. He was an expert on the code wolf trainers used, which was almost the same as the traditional human's whistle signals.
Alpha coming! the message meant.
Gia had poked his head out of the storage closet. "Hey, what's that mean?" he asked Shadow.
Shadow sighed. "T'fibkak-- Mercury's back." The curse he used was mild, but he knew that something was wrong.
Gia paled. "Does she have news?"
More whistling, this time not from the watchtowers, but from the ground. Mercury ended her commands with a shout: "Get out here!" in case everyone didn't understand the whistle code.
"We're going to find out..." Shadow murmered, moving towards the door. Gia stared after him, but he was lost in the crowd of people moving towards the door with the reluctance of one with a death sentence.

7:42
Hillside, Chaos

Jagrey and Krys decided to use a unique way to get Lalita down. They needed to get to the ground fast, and four levels up, it wasn't easy to get down past everyone, especially if you were unconscious.
Joeie has appeared out of seemingly nowhere. He had flapped up the side of the building and helpfully offered to get Kistriy to the ground fast. When he got back up, he picked up Lalita and got her down the same way.
"Hey! You can't do-- hey! Stop!" Kalika shrieked after him as he jumped off the side of the building and drifted down.
She got even angrier when she saw the way Jagrey was looking at her. "Hmm... how much do you weight?" Jagrey mused.
"No!" Kalika squacked. There was no way she would let someone carry her down the side of the building.
Jagrey was strong, especially for her age, and with Adrin, who was nearly as strong and had a wider wingspan which would be helpful, grabbed Kalika's arms and, hovering, dragged her towards the side. "No!" Kalika shouted. As soon as her feet left the platform, she stopped struggling and went very, very still.
Jagrey spread her wings wide, but Adrin cushioned most of the shock. It was like a living parachute for Kalika, and they drifted downwards slowly. Jagrey glanced at Adrin and jerked her head at the gathering crowd, and Adrin got the message: glide down carefully and land on the other side of the crowd.
As soon as they dropped to three feet within the ground, Jagrey warned Kalika and they dropped her arms.
Kalika hit the ground the only intelligent way she could; on her hands and knees. Jagrey checked only long enough to make sure she was okay, and then landed at the same time as Adrin. Landing was difficult, but while they were gliding down it was okay, she just flipped feetdown and folded her wings a foot off the ground.
They turned and grabbed Kalika by the arms. Krys had been alone and had landed in the middle of the crowd; Krys had a small wingspan and could move precisely, better than the other two.
Jagrey and Adrin grabbed Kalika's arms again and they raced for where Mercury was gathering everyone.

7:43
Hillside, Chaos

Xcivix and Qualz flew down the rope ladders to the third floor. From the third floor they went down normal ladders to the second floor. To their irritation, some of the doors were left open. They were made to block the hallways if the fort was under attack, but they were just an annoyance otherwise. Xcivix re-routed them into the only room they could get to, and found the trap door that was in all rooms under a hammock.
"Whee..." Qualz murmered, jumping seven feet down onto hard, packed ground.
Xcivix jumped after him, closing the trapdoor behind her. Then they pushed through the crowd and got to Mercury.
"Merk, what'd you find--"
Mercury raised a hand to cut Qualz off. "I'm telling everyone at the same time."
Right then, Jagrey slipped through the crowd, Adrin and Kalika no longer tailing her. "Mercury, you're back!" she said, before grabbing her aside from everyone else.
Mercury bent down to listen to what the much smaller girl was saying. Then she nodded.
Jagrey's wings drooped, and a shocked expression worked her way across her face. Struggling, she whispered again. Mercury nodded again, and she flitted back into the crowd.
Jagrey reported back to Krys and Ardin in record time. "Get Kalika and Lalita out of here," she whispered.
Kalika glared at her. She must be able to read lips. Lalita turned to her, but before anyone could say anything else, Mercury began talking.
In Ajilan, at least, Jagrey had the foresight to ask that. Kalika and Lalita would hear nothing but babble.
"Okay, I'm going to keep this short, because there's a lot to organize."
Krys and Adrin grabbed Kalika and Lalita and began pulling them out of the crowd. They weren't sure how big the crowd was, they just headed for open field.
"I regret to tell you all that the Stanrers have attacked Ajickal," Mercury continued.
A buzz and a murmer spread over the crowd. Krys decided to lose the technique of politely slipping past people and started shoving a path to the outside of the crowd. No one would attack them... she hoped.
"And we in Ajickal have declared open war between ourselves and Sarakill."
"Run!" Ardin hissed at the twins as they got out of the crowd that was going to turn into a riot. They fled down the hall of long grass separating the fields.
At the same time, Jagrey, in a suitably bad mood, snapped at a boy who had bumping into her and appologised, at the same time accidently calling her "winger". He blinked at her threats and insults, and backed up. Jagrey was on him and punching in a flash.
She had time to work off frustration before she met Mercury in her office like they agreed.

7:48
Digran, Tranquillity
Sarakill

Ashran listened to his brother giving the speach that he, Ashran, had written for him.
From the platform that was a low part of the castle roof, Danilp spoke in a commanding, clear voice. He almost seemed to give the words special meaning. Ashran knew that anything Danilp said had that power, but he knew that at least part of it was from his writing.
Ashran realized that it was a foolish assumption, Danilp was fully capable of writing his own speaches, and improvising on his brother's.
He was too busy, he said. He was busy, but Danilp didn't even need a written speach. A quick read-through of his brother's writing commited most of it to memory and the rest of improvision.
Danilp's voice echoed off the castle walls. He was to be heard by everyone, and the echo effect had been designed for that. His loud voice was bouced off the walls into the village, making the people pause and consider his words.
He promised them food, because the shortage was near panic level. He promised them safety, shelter, power, anything that they wanted.
He ended with promising the world.
And then there was a loud bang of a slammed door that grated on Ashran's nerves, which felt like they had been rubbed raw. "How was that, little brother?" The voice was worse than the slam.
Ashran glanced up from the reports he was supposed to be reading. "Perfect, as usual."
"If you were a villager, would you go for it?"
"Sure," Ashran said with a shrug, not in the mood to do his usual "it was great they all are going to fall for it, great job."
"Just, 'sure', little brother?" Danilp asked.
"Yes. They're going to go for it. So are the soldiers. And the servants. So are the slaves, for all I care," Ashran said. Anger was building up, but he couldn't do anything about it. If Danilp took this as anything other than a joke, rather, as verbal assault, Ashran would be killed at dawn along with the slaves that he could hear now, yelling and protesting with one of the slave masters.
Danilp pressed his lips together at the disturbance, and turned towards the door just as it opened. Danilp had a way of knowing when things were happening.
A girl was thrown through the doorway, headfirst into Ashran's bed. Ashran held back a gasp; the girl couldn't be any older than five. Definately an Ajilan slave: delicate green wings poked through the ripped holes in her rags that were called clothes. Blood dripped from right above her eyebrow, where she had been punched by the slave master. Fiery fury was in her eyes, not only for the tall boy who had punched her and thrown her into the room, but for Danilp and Ashran. Ashran paled at the sight of those fury-ridden eyes. He knew what the slaves thought of him, he knew what they called him, but he had never seen one that had been anything other than scared.
Danilp threw back his head and laughed. Ashran clenched his jaw to hold back tears and made painful eye contact with the slave.
I did not do this to you.
Ashran wanted to scream, but he had to stay silent. Danilp stopped laughing as suddenly as he had started, and smiled. Danilp didn't smile when he laughed, but this smile was pleasant.
I did not want to do this to you.
"She tried to get the other slaves to riot, sir," the slave master said, towering over the slave, who was already tiny, like most of the winged freaks-- Ashran knew no gentler name for them-- but on her knees she was pathetically small.
Ashran turned his eyes back to his paper in defeat as his brother sentenced death.

8:06
Rulak, Mayhem

Lucki groaned as she realized that she couldn't find any more blank paper.
With a movement like she was lightly tapping on the air in front of her to silence the two diplomat's banter, she stretched her fingers while glancing around. Three years as a scribe made it easier to write for hours on end, but only twenty minutes into the agreement, she was tense. Telshi and Scuma fairly glared at her until she found another few sheets of paper. Then they picked up exactly where they had left off.
Lucki's hand flew across the page and back and forth to the ink-- blackberry juice, actually.
And the paper was strips of lightly peeled, pressed tree bark. Lucki didn't take notice of that, it was completely normal. This is what scribes did, after all.
But this wasn't a normal scribing job. Lucki had been chosen because she was a from Rulak, an Aspian, and a friend of the government. She was less likely to jump into the argument, complain, or protest.
Lucki realized, with pleasure, that the arguments were finishing up. She had heard enough to know who was going to win, usually ten minutes after they started talking.
"Scuma, please, be reasonable," Telshi said.
"I am being reasonable," Scuma said practically. "It's not as though we're telling you to fight, we just want support."
"We do not support war," Telshi said. "We will accept it if there is due cause, and with the initial attack from the Stanrers, there is cause. But we will not help unless we must."
"You must."
"Very easy for you to say. This is not something we take lightly."
Scuma sighed. She looked at the boy who was arguing for peace, and then at Lucki. "I understand. We will withdraw our inquiry. We may ask again," she added, "but for now we will leave things as they are."
Scuma left the room, and Telshi immediantly took up his normal slouching position in his chair.
"Done," Lucki said to assure him that nothing he said would be recorded.
"That went bad," Telshi said, seeming to shrink even smaller.
"Not too bad," Lucki said.
"Bad." Telshi said. "It went bad. Ajilans can't accept that we don't want to fight."
Lucki shrugged. "We're Ajilan too. Aspians don't fight. What more can we say?"
"Aspect." Telshi said with an odd emphasis. The traditional word was more than just a word, it was anything the speaker wished it to be: a calming comment, a command, a reminder, or even a curse. Telshi seemed to say it as a prayer.
Lucki nodded, and in traditional response, answered with the same. "Aspect."
Only with Lucki, it was a promise to stay out of the fighting. Now and forever.

8:08
Hillside, Chaos

Jagrey pulled herself out of her daze and helped the boy to his feet. "I'm sorry, nili," she said as he reluctantly took her hand and allowed her to pull him up. "Ah, I'd help clean you up but I gotta get to Mercury--"
"Mercury?" the boy asked.
Funny, Jagrey thought, he still seemed scared of her. Or of Mercury. One or the other. Maybe both. Oh well. "Uh, yeah..." Jagrey said, pushing out of the crowd. Everything was mainly quieted down, and she could see people were going back to their rooms, standing around in grounds, talking.
She could tell that the boy was following her into Mercury's office, but she ignored him. He was probably heading to the hospital station, right next to Mercury's office. The boy in charge was handing out bandages by the dozens, while trying to bind up someone's sprained wrist. If she wasn't already late, Jagrey would have gone to help him.
Jagrey only realized that the boy was still following her when she stepped into Mercury's office and he side-stepped her, stopping in front of Mercury as well. "L'nili," he said before Jagrey could get out anything. "I didn't mean to provoke her into fighting, I promise I won't do it again, I--"
Jagrey cut him off. "What's wrong? You didn't even do anything? You hardly fought back!" This was the truth. He tried, but he put up almost no resistance, like he wasn't taught how. But everyone except Aspians were taught--
Jagrey cursed and sighed. "Okay, what's your name, Aspian?" she asked, more sharply than she wanted to.
"Fevwar," he said quietly. "I'm from Rulak."
"Okay, well, stay out of people's way if they look mad, got it? Or just walk around with "Aspect" painted on your forehead, that would probably work. And learn how to put up a better fight." Jagrey realized that she was probably insulting the boy, but he just looked smaller and more pathetic as she did so. "Oh, I forgot, you can't learn how to but up a fight, can you? It's against your trilkoren Aspect rules, now isn't--"
"Jagrey!" Mercury's voice called her to attention.
Jagrey growled and stared challengingly at Mercury before she closed her eyes, then slowly opened them.
"Nili," she said to Fevwar.
"You're probably going through a lot, aren't you, Fevwar?" Mercury asked.
Fevwar nodded, looking defeated. Jagrey was strangely angry that Mercury didn't think the same thing was wrong with her.
"Why don't you go up to your room? I'll talk to you later about getting back to Rulak."
Fevwar nodded, then darted out of the room like a squirrel.
"Sometimes..." Jagrey said. "Sometimes I just can't stand those peace-minded Aspians."
Mercury looked at her. "I thought that you liked them."
"No, I admire them, that's different," Jagrey corrected. "But I'm here to talk about war, not Aspect."
"So, what about war?" Mercury asked.
"I want to get together an assault team to invade the Digran castle. That's when the leader, Danilp, is, you know. I know the place. I know how to get there. I can get a team. I can go."



It's not finished, but when Kyla writes more, I post it up.


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