Fantasy Bound by the Light (Completed)

[Ezri]

Gathering information about Vlask and the rising was top priority, but Pauline Hart did pique her interest. How did someone so young get into a position like this? There must be more to her than met the eye, and someone who didn’t quite fit in with the majority might be a good person to set her sights on. Margaret had more than enough reason to watch herself most, but being overly cautious could just be a waste of time. Time she didn’t really have, at that.

“Hey, hope everything’s going well. Oh, do you have a minute?” She tried to catch her at the end of a meeting, greeting her lightly, with the tone you put on when you’re meeting a friend of a friend. Her question would come off nosy, mo matter how much small talk she preceded it with, but ideally at worst she would just seem like a busybody rather than a double-agent. “I’ve just been curious, you know, about how you got into this line of work.”

 

[ArcticFox]

Miss Hart smiled cheerfully at Margaret.

"I am accounted a clever inventor, by those who know me well." She explained. "No reputable university would admit me to study, but the Professor pays me handsomely for the skills I already have."

- Praise the Professor.
- Ask did she make Alexander's boots.
- Say this work is very dangerous for her.

 

[Ezri]

“An inventor, huh? Well, I don’t doubt that you’re as clever as they say.” Margaret nodded. The Professor was certainly talented at collecting people who’d fallen through the cracks; it wasn’t any wonder that these people followed him so loyally. Even if they knew the truth about what his plans would cause, would they waver at all?

Margaret stopped herself before she started musing too deeply, but the topic of invention made her remember something she’d forgotten for years by now. But now that she recalled that time on the airship, the image of Townshend floating in mid-air was clear in her mind. “Were you the one who made those flying boots for Townshend? That show-off...”

 

[ArcticFox]

Pauline nodded with a grin. "And a number of other items."

In addition to Pauline Hart, Margaret became friendly with Jerry Bancroft, whose forgery skills were fairly good and whose acting and administrative skills were excellent. Finally, she also got to know Jack Kendall, a big surly man who she was somewhat concerned to learn was very friendly indeed with Colonel Fearnley (the man who tortured her and Finch) before the bloodthirsty Colonel was dismissed from the Professor's organisation.

"So..." He said the first time they were alone together. "What's your game, then? Slumming for the thrill of it, or collecting enough on us to feed to your government masters?"

How do you want to handle this?

- Calmly, his suspicions are understandable.
- With contempt, he is trying to provoke you.
- Physically, it's going to get to that point someday anyway.

 

[Ezri]

“I get it. If I was you I wouldn’t believe me either.” She shrugged, making great efforts to grind her teeth together. If he was pals with that disgusting excuse for a man, Fearnley, he couldn’t be much better himself. “But whether you believe me or not, I want to get rid of my former ‘government masters’ just as much as anyone here. Maybe more. I know very well exactly how rotten they all are.”

He had more right to be suspicious than he realized, and as much as she wanted to lay into this guy either verbally or with a fist, being overly defensive would just raise more suspicion. He’d get what he deserved in due time — it was harder and harder to keep up as the days went on, but she just had to be patient.

 

[ArcticFox]

He snorted. Thankfully Alexander entered the room, took in the situation, and raised his eyebrows. Kendall paused.

"We'll take this up another time." He growled at Margaret.

--

Days passed and she watched Alexander, Pauline, Bancroft, Kendall, and the others as they went about their business.

The explosives experts were slowly but surely stockpiling the ingredients for some impressive devices. The organisation's best smugglers sneaked firearms and ammunition into the city. Pauline Hart was working with a blacksmith's son to create an entirely new kind of weapon: a foldable pike that can be hidden under an overcoat.

And Callahan's slipperiest couriers took messages to his Resistance contacts in other large cities.

It was obvious they were planning a Rising. But no one spoke of the Vlaskesari and with the exception of a few youngsters, no one seemed particularly enamored of Vlask.

--

Finally Margaret was brought to a meeting where the word "Rising" was spoken out loud.

Callahan took the stage, instantly commanding everyone's gaze. "For years..." He said. "We have wrought miracles with grains of sand. Tiny interferences, small irritants, wedged into the system here and there, wearing away at the chains that bind Mercia. I have long promised you that one day we would be able to shatter those fetters with a single hard blow.

"The day is nearly upon us.

"From every corner of Mercia the downtrodden will rise! We may be armed with only slingshots and pebbles against the lumbering Imperial giant, but a hundred pebbles will fly from a hundred slingshots all at once, and their collective power will be so great that the giant will shatter, the entire rotten edifice collapse!

"And then - why, then, we begin the real work. The hard and glorious work of showing the world how a nation should be run!" The room was murmuring excitedly and Callahan shouted above the swell of noise. "Never again shall children labour in the darkness of the mines or the stinking depths of the factories! Never again shall sun worshippers fear to openly profess their faith! Never again!" The crowd was shouting now, on its feet, the pounding rhythm of Callahan's words pulsing through it like blood pumped to every capillary by the heart's striking force.

- You are on your feet as well, swept away by the power of his words.
- You are on your feet just to blend in.
- You cannot bring yourself to get up to your feet.

 

[Ezri]

As the Callahan’s speech ended, and the room filled with raucous applauss. Margaret stood a few seconds late and she clapped, her movements stiff. She suspected that the surges of energy she felt running through her veins were not the same excitement that everyone around her felt. Margaret was tense; she knew how powerful the Professor was, but now she’d seen firsthand how well he could affect people. For a moment there, even if she didn’t want to admit it, she’d been taken in, listening with rapt attention, and that realization was scary. He wasn’t telling the truth, not the whole of it— there was no mention of how Vlask swoop in and what that would mean. But his followers didn’t seem to have any idea. How was she supposed to stop something like this?

 

[ArcticFox]

"We shall rise up from the alleyways of Kingsford!" Callahan was shouting. "We shall rise from the mines of Turndale, from the harbours of Stratmouth, and from Dunleitir - once fair Loegria's capital and Kingsford's most loyal comrade-in-arms!"

Now would be a great time to ask something, if Margaret wanted to risk drawing attention to herself.

- Ask how will you do it.
- Ask how can such a small group prevail against an army.
- Ask how will the government be structured.
- Stay silent.

 

[Ezri]

It was difficult for Margaret to ask exactly what she wanted to; Callahan was an expert at fanciful language that didn’t amount to much in the end. Even if she asked for specifics, wouldn’t he just go on and on about grains of sand again? It was a risk, certainly, and she’d probably get a few unwanted looks... but it was important to try and get what information she could here.

“Can we beat the army alone?” she called, and at least the act of simply yelling to be heard didn’t leave much room for tone. This might put even more of a target on her back but if she could just get him to say something, anything about Vlask, then it would be worth it. “Are we enough by ourselves?”

 

[ArcticFox]

"We couldn't." Callahan acknowledged. "Without a bit of secret help from the Vlaskesari."

And there it was.

"From who?" Someone muttered behind Margaret.

"I have made contacts with members of the Vlaski Imperial Court." Callahan continued. "They're willing to aid any enterprise that discomfits their old enemy, of course. They want to see first that we have some fight in us, but if we prove we can seize Kingsford, then we shall have arms and money and some border raids to keep the Mercian Army distracted while we consolidate power in other cities."

She heard a few murmurs of unease now, but they were drowned out by the eruption of wild cheers.

Callahan said nothing of any plan for Vlask to take advantage of the chaos caused by a Rising and actually invade. Perhaps only Callahan and his lieutenants knew and they were keeping it from the rank and file? Perhaps the lieutenants didn't even know. Would they support it, if they did? Perhaps not…

So what do you do?

- You don't think that Alexander Townsend would support this, speak to him and Violet privately.
- Continue on your own, pretending to work for the Rising, and find a way to sabotage it.
- Change your mind and work to make the Rising happen.

 

[Ezri]

Margaret had to fight the triumph that threatened to light up her expression; the news wasn’t good by any means, but the uncertain mutters she could make out among the cheering were music to her ears. This was it. The truth, at least part of it, was out there, and now she could make proper plans against it.

And that meant it was time to make some friends.

She was still banking on the hope that Townshend wouldn’t agree with Vlask’s involvement, and hopefully Violet too would give it more thought if she heard others in Free Mercia doubting Callahan’s claims. Those two were her best hopes for allies, and she didn’t want to waste much time finding out where she stood with them.

 

[ArcticFox]

Violet was willing to go with Margaret and also more than willing to share Magda's story with Alexander. Once he heard it, though, he stared at both of them dumbfounded. "No. I can't believe it."

"I'm no liar!" Violet protested. "Magda wasn't either!"

"No, no, of course you aren't." Alexander soothed at once. "And of course she wasn't. I believe that Magda believed it was true, but I can't… There must have been some misunderstanding somewhere. There must have been. I can't believe that Callahan would ever…" Margaret could see the wheels turning in his head as he thought about Magda, conveniently set upon as she fled to Taggart's temple to share what she had uncovered. They both knew Callahan to be capable of ruthlessness in response to betrayal. "I can't..." Alexander said again, but with an undertone of desperation. "I can't believe this without proof.

"Right." Alexander continued, staring off into the distance. "Magda found something that made her certain of this plan. She didn't find it here, because Callahan would never have left it for her to find. So she found it somewhere else. What was Magda doing that day?"

- Rely on Violet to find out Magda's movements.
- Rely on Alexander to do it.

 

[Ezri]

Alexander sounded very against any Vlask involvement, which was good — great, even. Now the only trouble was proving it to him. Margaret shoukd have expected he wouldn’t take her words at face value, no matter how true they were. His loyalty ran pretty deep.

Violet and Magda appeared to be practically connected at the hip, as far as she could tell, so if she didn’t know already what Magda had been up to then that sounded notable in itself. But Alexander was well-connected in Free Mercia, much more than Margaret or even Violet, so if anyone could do some digging and not arouse too much suspicion, it would be him. And finding proof firsthand would definitely seal the deal and get him on her side.

“Do you think you can find out?” she asked him, sounding more earnest than she ever did when talking to him. Hoping to save face, she tacked on a half-hearted grin. ”It wouldn’t be too difficult for you to handle, would it?”

 

[ArcticFox]

"Is that a challenge?" Alexander smiled.

It didn't take him long to get results. The next day he was able to discover that Maga spent the day before her death plying her trade as a charwoman. Further discreet investigation generated a list of the houses she visited. One belonged to an undersecretary of an attache of the Vlaski Ambassador.

Alexander invited Margaret on a recon mission. They spent a few days watching the house, to be sure of the routine of its inhabitants, and then, when the maids had the night out and the undersecretary was at the theatre and the cook was asleep, she and Alexander engaged in a spot of burglary.

"Do you want to keep watch, or do you want to go in search of the goods?" Alexander asked.

There were a couple of factors to consider: the ivy-covered wall leading up to the undersecretary's second-floor bedroom; the lock of the kitchen door; the need to leave no trace at all of a break-in; the timing of the local patrols.

- Climb the wall and search the house.
- Pick the lock of the kitchen door and slip inside.
- Keep watch while Alexander gets inside, he is more agile.
- Keep watch while Alexander gets inside, maybe there is a safe inside that he could crack easier.

 

[Ezri]

Finally, after all that waiting, Margaret was well on her way to finding a concrete plan to stop Vlask and Free Mercia’s plan. Of course, this step forward wasn’t going to come easy. If the undersecretary or anyone else found out that their information was compromised, that could spell the end for her plan. And her, herself. And maybe the entire country.

Considering her line of work and who she used to live with, she knew how to pick a lock or two even if it wasn’t her preferred way of doing things. The bedroom might be a better place to start, and she could certainly get up there more quickly than she would fiddling with the doors. She would just have to be quiet getting in. That much she could handle herself.

She took a breath, steeling her nerves. As long as she kept it in the forefront of her mind — in and out, without leaving a trace— this was doable. She gave Alexander a serious look. “I’ll go in. Shouldn’t take long — you keep watch.”

 

[ArcticFox]

Perhaps it was just as well for her to find any evidence herself. She would not want Alexander's affection for Callahan to prompt him to suppress something.

The brick of the old building provided multiple foot-holds and the vines were strong enough to provide hand-holds. Still, it was a difficult task - Margaret found her muscles quivering with the effort of supporting her weight and her palms within her gloves sweated with the knowledge that she had to make this climb before the constable came around the corner.

With a sense of relief she reached the top, forced the latch with a pocketknife and tumbled inside. Within, all was silent.

No papers on the desk gave anything away, but there was a wall safe casually concealed behind a painting. She imagine Magda took the chance of an unobserved quarter-hour to pick the lock and see what might be found, just on general principle.

Before long, Margaret too was rifling through the contents.

The deciphered correspondence removed any doubt that Callahan could have been duped by his Vlaski allies. The agreement was plain: Callahan was to engineer a Rising, causing disruption sufficient to weaken Mercia's defenses and divide its attention while Vlask surged over the border.

When the dust settled, Mercia will be a Vlaski possession.

There was no pretense that Mercia will retain any autonomy, no nonsense about Vlask hoping for an alliance with the new Mercian government or anything of the kind.

Instead, Callahan had apparently promised his cooperation in exchange for freedom for Loegria. Going forward, Loegria will owe nominal allegiance to the Vlaski Empire, but Callahan's correspondent promised to remove all Mercian settlers, to rebuild the destroyed Temples of the Sun, to allow cultural practices currently forbidden by the Mercian overseers, and to reinstate the island as a nation in its own right, governed by a Loegrian Viceroy. Callahan himself.

- Get out of there and show the papers to Alexander immediately.
- Get out of there and find a secluded place to show him the evidence.
- Leave the evidence and relay the findings to Alexander verbally.

 

[Ezri]

Margaret had a tougher time with the climb than she expected (she must be really out of practice, and she wasn’t as young as she used to be) but holding the Vlaski agreement in her hands made all of the stress and physical taxation worth it. This was bad, but finding it— finding it was good. And she needed to show Alexander immediately. She was glad that she’d made sure of the contents herself, and seen it with her own eyes first, he might not believe her completely without hard evidence. He needed to see it now, and then they needed to clean up any mess they’d made and vanish before anyone was any the wiser.

 

[ArcticFox]

"This isn't what I wanted." He said after looking at the papers, in a voice barely above a whisper. "This isn't what we said we were working toward. I would never sell my country to those light eating bastards, not for any consideration. And if I didn't have black-and-white proof in my hands, I would never have believed it of Callahan.

"He bought the freedom for Loegrians, by giving away ours." Alexander shook his head. "I thought we were in this together, he and I. And this whole time, he's been manipulating me – manipulating us – manipulating all of this!" He shook his head again, contemplating the scope of the game Callahan had been playing. "I'd almost have to admire it, under some other circumstances…" He started to pace nervously, before pulling Margaret by the arm into an alley nearby. Leaning toward her with urgency, voice lost and desperate, he asked. "So what do we do?"

- Let the others know about this.
- Dispose of Callahan by any means necessary.
- Sabotage the Rising from the inside as was the plan.

 

[Ezri]

“He’s a sneaky bastard, that’s for sure.” Margaret whispered back, glad Alexander was completely on her side now. If they explained as much to the rest of Free Mercia, would they believe it? What if they played their hand for nothing — if even a fraction of Free Mercia’s people stayed with Callahan then there was no guarantee he wouldn’t just keep going. But... if half of them were anywhere near as angry as Alexander was, then they might just change sides entirely. That would stop the Rising, or at least derail it severely.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, gritting her teeth. “I don’t think we could just kill him, do you? The others — do you think they’ll listen if we tell them the truth? Would they give up on the Rising?”

 

[ArcticFox]

"How do we tell them all?" Alexander demanded. "Publish it in the morning edition of The Resistance Times? The network is too far-flung. And even if we could somehow sit down each of them and explain how horrific the plan actually is, I don't know that we'd dissuade them all. Many of the youngsters have some foolish romantic notions of Vlask and Lighteaters and some of the Loegrians and other sun worshippers might honestly believe their lives would be better under Vlaski rule." His gaze turned dark. "No, we have to do something more direct."

- Dispose of Callahan by any means necessary.
- Sabotage the Rising from the inside as was the plan.

 

[Ezri]

“So what, then?” She huffed, frustrated by how right he was. As much as she wished it would, just exposing Callahan’s plan wouldn’t solve anything, not for long. Direct intervention was the only way they could stop this.

Her plan, originally, was simply to sabatoge the Rising itself — easier said than done. But if this Rising failed, would that be enough? The thought of killing Callahan was undeniably tempting — as long as he was alive and free, he wouldnw probably just build up another group of followers and try again. It would only take time. And as far as she knew, no one else was in on the Vlaski plot...

But killing him wouldn’t be a walk in the park, either. He took every precaution and was always on guard; Margaret might be good at her job, but she was no assassin. And even if he died, there was a chance Free Mercia would go ahead with the Rising anyway. “Fine, we just have to stop it. We’ll shut the whole thing down somehow — we’ll sabotage the Rising. The important thing is to make sure this Vlaski invasion doesn’t happen.”

 

[ArcticFox]

"Sand in the gears?" Alexander asked with a smirk. "It's been proven an effective strategy, that's true…" He paced the length of the alley and back. Then he sighed, straightens his shoulders and met Margaret's eyes. "Yes. Sand in the gears."

So Margaret Blackwood and Alexander Townsend were about to engage in a battle of wits with Sean Callahan… for no less a stake than the future of Mercia.

- Ask Woodsworth for assistance.
- Continue on your own.

 

[Ezri]

So the plan was set, insofar as there was the bare hope of a plan. But she and Alexander probably couldn’t handle this alonw, as much as she’d like it to be that simple. No, with what time they had Margaret needed all the help she could get. Running through possibilities in her head, she couldn’t help but frown.

Woodsworth was not someone she particularly wanted to work with again, but was it really the time to be picky about her allies? That group was always so dismissive of both Free Mercia and her temple’s ideas, it was hard to believe that Woodsworth wouldn’t just try to take over the operation himself, with possibly disasterous consequences. He was not a man with a sense of nuance, and one wrong move could cause everyone involved in this conspiracy to either go into hiding or do something rash.

In the end, though, her pride probably wasn’t more important than the security of the entire country. Maybe if she talked to Finch first, she could convince him to let her handle this her way. There was a lot at stake here and maybe, as long as she kept some cards close to her chest, it would be smart to get their assistance.

 

[ArcticFox]

Perhaps if Margaret made it clear that Callahan did not speak for everyone in the East End, if he understood that there were two Resistances, the mad one that sought alliance with Vlask and the sensible one that sought to reform the laws of Mercia… that could only be good, surely?

"Absolutely not." Alexander cut off her musing. "No. It would introduce an unacceptable level of risk. Callahan could easily find out, or Woodsworth might go off half-cocked and actually hurt some of my people. We need to handle this from the inside only."

Still, Margaret could always go behind Alexander's back in order to ensure Woodsworth was there as backup if things didn't go as planned. Only that would certainly affect her relationship with Alexander once the Agency stormed into the Resistance.

Like most of Callahan's plans, the Rising was made up of many small pieces, designed to work together like clockwork. While no one component was big enough to draw the attention of the authorities by itself, full success was dependent upon all components operating at their full capacity.

"It's better if we work separately." Alexander explained. "That way, if one of us is caught at our sabotage efforts, the other may yet achieve success. I can think of several things I can do to subtly weaken our forces so find something you think suits your talents, and we will hope our joint efforts are enough."

And so Margaret set out alone to throw sand into the gears of the Rising.

- You still sneaked out to get in touch with Finch.
- You continued on your own.

 

[Ezri]

Townshend only enabled her initial misgivings — Woodsworth couldn’t be trusted to do what she asked, and eveb Finch might not be as cooperative as she’d hoped. Right now the operation was in a precarious place, and introducing an unpredicable factor like Woodsworth could ruin everything. He was right, she couldn’t tell him.

For now. It was something to keep in her back pocket — a desperate measure, if something happened to Alexander or the situation was clearly too much to handle. If it reached that point, the consequences of telling Woodsworth would no longer be a consideration. But until then, if that day ever came, she’d have to do what she could on her own.