Chapter Text
Velina ran behind Sigrid as fast as she could. All around her, guards were spreading around the Solarion like frightened ants, screaming to each other about security breaches. The blood chilling news given by an ashen-faced clerk to the head of Roscalifer's armed forces had sent all security in the highest seats of the flying city into panic.
"Lady Sunbringer was attacked!"
More frightening however was the fact that the honourable Consul Sunbringer had not called for security herself. Guards were few around the private quarters of the consul and her wife, because who in their right mind would attack two first generation Void Hunters, but there were still some, among them general Sigrid, and multiple alarms within their apartments which could be used to call them, yet no words had come until the poor clerk has apparently walked onto the scene.
Which was why the external strategy department lead officer was currently helping her horse thiren colleague break down the door to Sunbringer's office.
The sight within was indeed concerning, but not as critical as Velina had first feared.
Sunbringer was alive, and aware and able enough it seemed, to turn towards them as they broke in. The good news stopped here though as the front of her appeared to be soaked with blood, and the room was in complete disarray, broken furniture and fallen papers lying everywhere, swaying in the wind from a shattered window. The moonlight pouring in was accentuating the blank and somber expression on Sunbringer's face as the wounded woman stayed silent at the intrusion.
"My lady!" Velina rushed to her liege lady's side as Sigrid ran to the broken window to look for assailants, a few more guards running in to sweep the room.
"Lady Sunbringer what happened?" Velina frantically started assessing the woman's wounds, which thankfully upon inspection seemed to not have hit anything major despite the concerning amount of blood on her clothes.
Sunbringer did not speak a word to enlighten her staff.
"My lady, what happened? Why did you not call for the guards?" Once again the white haired woman did not say a word, even pointedly looking away from them, refusing to answer. This did nothing to appease Velina, especially since the notable absence of a certain pink haired First Lady birthed worrying thoughts into her mind.
"Lady Sunbringer," Sigrid, who had been looming over them and giving some terse instructions to her guards to search for intrusions, knelt before her consul "if you wish me to ensure the safety of the people of Roscalifer against an enemy strong enough to best you in battle then please, you must tell us what happened" the blonde woman pleaded.
Sunbringer stayed quiet for what felt like an eternity before finally speaking, looking like she would rather pierce herself with her flagpole.
"........The lady Remielle has made an attempt on my life. She failed and fled, presumably to Eridu. I don't think she'll be back."
There was a beat of stunned silence before Sigrid let out a shocked "What?"
Velina was inclined to agree with the sentiment. Consul Sunbringer and her wife had indeed seemed to disagree on every matter more and more these days, but attempted assassination seemed excessive. And very concerning if she had gotten so close.
"If she has fled to Eridu we must warn Mayflower and TOPS." Velina started, mapping out the next move methodically to keep herself calm "It's much too dangerous to have her out in the wild now that.." she was interrupted by the pain of Sunbringer grabbing her wrist so tight she feared bruising
"You will say nothing." Sunbringer growled, glowering at her subordinate, her blue and gold eyes filled with cold rage.
"I must." Velina stated cooly, remarkably calm for one being threatened by a first generation void hunter. " She is a danger and has attacked the leading authority of Roscalifer. She could start targeting other executives within Eridu or even civilians."
"You will say nothing to them. I forbid it. No one outside of this room must know about this." The horned woman snarled furiously.
"This is a matter of national safety for Eridu. As the bridge between Roscalifer and TOPS, my duty to inform them of a political assassination attempt supersedes the authority you have over me." The external strategy department officer could hazard a guess as to why Sunbringer wouldn't want the news out but a crisis was a crisis.
"You dare defy a direct order?!" Sunbringer hardly ever used her authority this pettily without a good reason, but Velina was getting tired of her attitude, especially coupled to the pleas for peace from the general in the background.
"Yes. It is my job as external strategy department officer to ensure peace between us and Eridu."
"Enough!" Sigrid finally resorting to shouting after her attempts at peacekeeping were unheard. "What we must do first and foremost is get Lady Sunbringer to the clinic before you bleed out. Everything else can be discussed later."
Remarkably well timed, a group of medics flooded the room all hurriedly flocking over Sunbringer. The consul let go of Velina's wrist at last, the woman hissing from the ache. Her fault for angering a void hunter she supposed. In all her years in service of the Solarion, she has never seen such blind fury on the woman's face.
She was given little time to gather her thoughts however as her lady's vice grip was replaced by Sigrid's gentle yet firm hand on her shoulder, guiding her to follow the medics taking Sunbringer down.
Sunbringer was being examined and had apparently ordered neither Velina nor Sigrid leave the waiting room or speak to anyone except her doctor until she was better and had seen them first. The horse thiren, ever loyal and ever dutiful, has thus positioned herself in front of the door and posted guards outside to let no one go in or out. The most communication the external strategy department head had with the outside was a few instructions texted to Norma before Sigrid took her phone.
Thus Velina, unable to get her message through to the city below, was steadily losing her temper from the repeated peaks of stress, pacing the med bay waiting for updates, nervously establishing backup plans in her head to ensure information would reach TOPS even in case of further impeachment from the Solarion, and snapping at Sigrid's every attempt to calm her down.
Finally, after far too much waiting for the severity of her lady's wounds in Velina's opinion, a doctor came out to meet them.
"She's stable and she will be fine." The woman started, " some wounds were deeper than anticipated but nothing we can't handle. The main concern was blood loss, she lost a lot, presumably from staying so long without treatment, but thankfully we're ready for that. I'll transfer a copy of her chart to you if you need it." She added, looking at Velina. Good call, Mayflower would most likely want to send specialists to assess her health.
She heard Sigrid sigh in relief.
"As long as she's fine that's all that matters."
"She's tough. I don't know who attacked her but they must have been strong to leave such damage on the Sunbringer."
"You don't say." Velina mumbled somberly.
"That being said." The doctor looked up from her chart "She's still pretty banged up. She'll need rest. A lot of rest. And I don't know what's causing it but she seems to be abnormally slow and unreceptive. Not in the way we usually see coming with shock, more like her response time is delayed and slowed down." That was consistent with Remielle's fading ability, Velina noted. "She's gonna be in a rough state for a long while. I recommend seriously increasing her security details, and for the love of everything, reduce her workload. You know it's been a concern before." That last part was emphasized by a pointed look in Velina's direction.
"You think we haven't tried?" She sighed "That woman won't delegate even on her death bed."
"Well you'll have to make her because she can't be working that much now or she'll have to stay in bed the rest of her life." The doctor stated.
"I thought you said she'd be fine." Sigrid's ears stood up in alarm.
"If this was just this yes, but you know her condition has been getting worse. And the constant all nighters and stress of dealing with so many things at once are ruining her overall health. She needs rest and less work. I'll keep her bedridden for as long as I can but we all know that won't be long." The poor woman pinched the bridge of her nose.
"We'll do our best." Sigrid assured.
"Thank you. And please ensure all instructions are transmitted to First Lady Dan when she gets here. I'm assuming she'll be her primary caregiver, she'll need the prescriptions and everything."
There was a too long beat of awkward silence from the two women.
"Will do." Sigrid said somewhat nervously.
"Okay.... Well she's in room one now, she wants to speak with you." The doctor looked at them weird from behind her glasses before walking away.
Sigrid stopped her colleague before she could move forward.
"Don't do it." Sigrid had always been the most earnest out of the four of them.
"I'm assuming you're blinded by loyalty right now. You know we don't exactly have a choice. We have to tell New Eridu about this."
"Then let someone else do it. Don't make yourself a traitor to Sunbringer."
"If someone else tells them we immediately get a target on our backs. We have to stay on their good side. I have to do this for the peace of Roscalifer and New Eridu alike. It's my duty."
"She won't keep you as her advisor if you sell out her wife. Then what power do you have to keep protecting that peace?"
"The one I've always had. Negotiation."
The two subordinates, each loyal in their own way, looked at each other wearily before walking over to the patient room to meet the presumed ire of their honoured lady.
Sunbringer was indeed angry, both from the news of her sentence to rest and, obviously, Velina's insistence to warn their downstairs neighbours.
Sigrid, bless her heart, was doing her best to defuse the tension by addressing the topics they could solve reasonably easily.
"We can most likely keep this from the population of Roscalifer for a while if we make sure the staff keeps quiet. The First Lady already retreated from the public eye years ago, we can have clerks running everything she was doing and have you sign up on anything important. As for her....prolonged absence we can say she's doing dealings with Eridu." Velina scoffed at that. "We have some control over the media, it won't be easy and it won't be pretty but if it can keep the situation manageable for some time then it's worth a try."
"It'll work even better if you start delegating everything that isn't political decisions." Velina added "helps muddy the tracks."
"I don't need to delegate, I can handle the work." Sunbringer muttered.
"Well you'll have to. Doctor's orders. It's either that or you stay bedridden for life and then you'll just have to delegate everything."
The night was getting long and they were all alone and Velina no longer had the energy to maintain the facade of professionalism and distant respect. Sunbringer was her liege and her superior but she was also her friend. Velina had spent countless sleepless nights going over work with her because the void hunter had dragged her out of her quarters in a panic the nights before bills went through the Consul’s Chamber, worried that the decisions she was making would cripple her city and make her people unhappy, writing contingency plans until dawn and talking her out of spiraling. She'd dragged her out of her workshop whining and hissing to go to cabinet meetings instead of spending her days working on Remielle's porceloy wing prosthetics more times than she could count. She'd helped the damn woman write her wedding vows when the PR department (in leagues with Remielle's hopes of a vow renewal) had convinced her to set up a wedding ceremony to appease a frightened and untrusting population and cement Remielle's position when there had been no record of their union more than a hundred years ago. Velina too was hurt and confused by Remielle's betrayal. It made no sense. It would have accomplished nothing if it succeeded. It was the most ineffective course of action for someone as high ranking as the First Lady of Roscalifer. It had put Sunbringer in danger, someone Velina knew Remielle was truly, deeply in love with because she'd been there the whole time. There was no logic whatsoever to it from the outside. But no matter how confusing the situation was, Velina knew this: Sunbringer was her friend. And she couldn't possibly let her friend make such poor decisions based solely on shock and affect, especially with the fate of an entire city depending on what the repercussions of those decisions would be.
Sigrid had been here just as long and was probably just as concerned, but she could also tell when Velina didn't want her around. And for that matter she had other urgent things to take care of.
"I'll go strengthen your security details. I'll call in extra hands from around the precincts and some people from the day shifts as well. We'll clean up the schedule for you."
"I don't need.."
"It's not negotiable." Sigrid cut her off. The two white haired women stared at her in mild shock. Undermining Sunbringer's authority was unheard of from the general. The momentary pause allowed the horse thiren to nod to them both and quickly walk away
There was more silence after this. Neither of them wanted to approach the topic, but unfortunately they were out of options. Velina dove first. Fly or fall. Make it or die.
“Sunbringer, we need to talk about what happened.”
She was met with tense silence once again.
“I know you don't want to talk about it. I know you’re somehow scared I'm going to use this against you, but Remielle attacked you. Your wife attacked you, with intent to kill according to your own words. I need to know what happened.”
Sunbringer gritted her teeth and glared at her defiantly. Velina held her gaze with as placid a look as she could muster.
“What happened?”
Sunbringer broke. Fall.
“Nothing that warrants such measures from you. We had a disagreement. We have lots of those. We wanted different things for the future. We had different fears and different enemies. She wanted things I wouldn't do and answers I wouldn't give.”
“And she tried to murder you for that? So what, it was a political move? She was trying to take power by force? Get information to the enemy? This is bad Sunbringer, this is why I have to report this before people less strong than you die!”
"It was not a political move!" Sunbringer cried out, exasperated "It was a lover's quarrel over long standing personal issues! Your concerns are ridiculous! Remielle would never go around just killing people!"
"A "lover's quarrel" that ended with you almost bleeding to death?"
"She has a right to my death."
"No human has a right to..... What are you even on about!?" The conversation was veering to the surreal. Velina wasn't sure if it was from Sunbringer's usual incomprehensible dramatism when it came to her life, or from her own lack of sleep stopping her from keeping the conversation on track, but she was getting too tired to try.
"Well she has a right to kill me. You know nothing of our lives and our sins. Some things can only be atoned for in blood, and some answers can only be found in death."
"I can't deal with your theatrics right now." Velina finally reached her breaking point, briefly passing her hand over her face to try and string her thoughts together and recompose herself. Losing her composure before Sunbringer was an assurance that she would fail. No one could beat this woman if they were making emotion based decisions, and even now, she was all too good at coaxing people back into starry eyed devotion if they didn't have an iron tight hold on their goals.
"Velina." How unfair it was that hearing the hurt in her friend's voice was enough for her determination to waver just for a moment. "They're developing anti void hunter weapons. If we tell TOPS about this, they'll jump at the chance to deploy them and if they're actually ready for use she'll die." Velina wasn't sure she ever heard Sunbringer express genuine fear before. Panic sure. Anxiety almost every day. Pure terror like a child with a broken leg at the mercy of Nineveh though? Never. But that expression on her face just now was certainly it. Just how strong had TOPS's weapons become that the worshipped saviour of Eridu would be so afraid?
"Velina please. Don't let them kill the woman I love over nothing just so you can get extra credit with TOPS." Velina would wager she could probably count on one hand the number of people in all of history that heard THE Sunbringer beg for anything. But the problem wasn't there.
"I know about the weapon. But she's strong and it's unlikely they have enough data on her to make the weapon accurate."
"So you know this is useless, but you're gonna do it anyway?"
"We need to show good faith."
"They could have gotten Thaumiel from the hollow. Then what will she do?"
"Get it back I assume. That's not the point. Sunbringer you know we don't have a choice in this. In the eyes of everyone that isn't you and Sigrid, she's a major threat to the rest of Eridu. And we can't afford to look complicit in this. If she actually goes and attacks people from TOPS-"
" She won't!"
"You don't know that! And if she does, and if the news about the assassination attempt on you reaches them from anyone other than us, we'll look like we either kept this hidden on purpose to take advantage of them or outright sent her. Your opinion of TOPS is no secret. We can't afford open conflict with them, not now and especially not if you're weakened. I have to tell them and you know that." Velina was so tired. Arguing with Sunbringer was always like this, leaving her drained of all energy if she wouldn't let go of her will to fight instead. She had no idea how Remielle did it so often.
"You can't." The great saviour's voice was shaking.
"You can't stop me. Even if you got up and killed me now, I have people ready to send the news on my behalf. And even if you sent poor Sigrid to arrest everyone in my department I still have others outside. At most, the news will reach Mayflower in ten hours and TOPS probably before that."
The look of betrayal on Sunbringer's face was the worst part of it all.
Please understand Velina begged internally please see that I'm doing this for you and your people.
"If you do this" Sunbringer's voice was barely a whisper "I will remove you from your post as my second in command and strip everything from you. I can't take you out of the External Strategy Department right now without catastrophic collateral damage but I will take everything else. You will never work in my service again. You will never come close to me again. You will never set foot in the Solarion again. Scratch that, you will never enter the inner city of Roscalifer past your offices on the craft bay. If you love the undersiders so much you can stay with them."
"I know you're grieving and feeling betrayed right now, but please try to understand-"
"No! This is about loyalty. Either you stay here and work with me, or you turn your back on me and you walk away for good."
Velina wanted to scream. Is this not loyalty? Have I not done enough for you the past three decades ?
"I am loyal. I am loyal to the people of Roscalifer and New Eridu, and my duty is to them and to protect the peace between them. I took this oath before you. As you took it a hundred years ago as a Void Hunter."
Sunbringer said nothing to that, looking away from her, waiting to see the choice she would make. Velina took one last look at her liege lady, so frail and defeated in her hospital bed.
Someday you'll understand.
And walked away. Fall.
She walked into the Storyteller on her way out as she was leaving her id card to the front desk.
"Abandoning ship are we? I didn't think there'd be two of you tonight."
Velina snapped.
"Do none of you understand why I'm doing this? Do you not understand this is necessary for our survival? That this is the way this world is? Do you think I want to sell out Colonel Dan?"
"I don't. I'm sure most people here would agree with you. But Sunbringer doesn't and now that you're taking the fall, everyone will side against you because it's what she does."
"That doesn't sound like a good system for a government."
"Well she's been around a long time and been betrayed a lot by a lot of people."
"Maybe we need a change of leadership."Velina mumbled.
"Adding treason to your record now?"
"Speaking against her should not be treason!"
"I jest miss Velina."
"With all due respect I don't have the patience for jokes anymore."
The Storyteller hummed. They took a few steps in silence.
"There are ways to protect the people of this city without becoming a traitor you know."
"Really? How? Because all I see is more people ready to jump at our throats if we don't give them what they want." Velina muttered cynically.
"You could wait for the wolves to come and pick up your sword when they arrive. That's what most people here will do."
"If we reach the point of conflict we already lost. The citizens of New Eridu deserve better than that."
"Very honorable of you. You'd almost hear Lady Sunbringer in the beginning."
"Has she truly lost that understanding of peace?"
"Who knows. Time and duty are not kind to good people."
The door to the Solarion was in view now.
"I will tell you this." The Storyteller stopped, turning towards Velina in a way that felt like she was starting straight into her eyes despite the blindfold. "Regardless of if it is right or wrong, if you go through with this, Roscalifer will fall."
This effectively froze the blood in Velina's veins. A warning from the Storyteller was not something to dismiss.
"Do think on it. I do wish you wouldn't take all this city crashing down with you."
But there was no going back now. She had made her choice. She new the only path forward Roscalifer had. Now she had to see it through. Fly. Because you won't survive the fall.
"Well then" Velina spoke after a moment of silence "I suppose our honoured Lady will have to raise her blade and cut it out of the sky once more."
The Storyteller hummed and walked back inside.
"Safe travels miss Velina."
Sigrid was waiting for her at the door, looking sadder than she'd ever seen her. They nodded to each other as Velina joined her.
"I have orders to accompany you to the craft bay and..." the horse thiren's voice broke. Velina managed a feeble smile at her which she hoped was comforting. "...and to not let you back in." the general ended weakly.
"Well. Let's go then."
Velina walked through the doors of the Solarion for presumably the last time. There was a time not so long ago, a time when she would still sit on the dusty floor of Sunbringer's workshop with the four of them to drink and talk about new research plans to fund, when she thought the last time she'd do that would be going in, old and wrinkly and feeble, after many long years of loyal work, sharing tea with the unaging saviour of new Eridu, laughing with her one last time before falling asleep on her chair on the terrace at the top of the Solarion.
They took a flying pod through the city in silence, taking in the view and basking in each other's presence.
"I'll talk to her." Sigrid spoke up "She's confused now but she'll change her mind. She'll understand and call you back. This is just the shock of Remielle leaving."
"Is that so? Very well then lady Sigrid, I'll leave it to you to clear my good name." Velina teased her, leaning into her side.
They reached the dock to the craft bay and disembarked. Sigrid looked about to cry. Velina couldn't help herself and let out a laugh.
"Siggy." She chuckled, gently cupping the thiren's face with her hands. "I'm not dying. I'm not even being kicked out of Roscalifer technically. You can still visit me in the craft bay. We can still text and call. I can even take you down to New Eridu, show you what it's like. I have an apartment in Janus Quarter, we can stay there during your next days off, I'll show you around."
Poor Sigrid lit up at the thought, like she hadn't considered the possibility before.
"Right" she chuckled wetly through peaking tears "we can do that."
Velina couldn't help but laugh again.
"Did you think I was going to disappear from your life forever hmmm? How dramatic."
"No no of course I didn't...." the horse thiren muttered, face red from embarrassment.
"I'm not gone forever. You'll just see less of me at work. But honestly, it was about time we put some work life balance into this relationship, don't you think?"
"Right."
Velina smiled at her brightly.
"Alright then. I need to get going, this is going to be a very long day and poor Norma had to deal with everything on her own this whole time."
"I meant it, you know? I'll talk to her."
"I know. You don't have to."
"I'll do it anyway."
"Alright then. Thank you Sigrid."
Velina sneaked a quick kiss on Sigrid's cheek before walking through the automatic gate. Who knew when she'd cross it again.
"If we make it to next week, come have a drink with us, yes?" She called back.
"Of course." Sigrid smiled from the other side. Velina waved at her before walking towards the external strategy department office building, focussing back on the very problematic issue at hands.
"Alright " she sighed to herself as she entered the main office, spotting Norma directing a group of frantic employees around. "Time to call Mayflower." Make it through. Fly.