Chapter Text
“So you won’t come? No matter what?”
Kross gripped his arm tightly, unable to meet her pleading stare.
“I can’t. I won’t. I won’t ever go back to that life. There’s a reason I left the Zzyzx Empire, and I just-” He cut himself off abruptly, his pupils dilated and eyes far away as he felt a cold sweat begin to crawl across his skin.
Behind his fence, a pair of woolies chased each other in carefree circles as he and Mist stood by the road and spoke. The sun shone brightly through the clear morning sky, and though the spring breeze was warm, Kross’s countenance was as gloomy as ever.
“I understand.”
A long sigh of relief punctuated his shoulders’ relaxing back into their usual slouched posture. Finally, Kross lifted his gaze to meet Mist’s, finding her smiling at him oddly comforting. Normally, her boundless energy and spacy lack of personal boundaries were far too much for him, but for once she genuinely seemed to be listening and processing everything he had said.
“Thank you. I do appreciate...that you even remembered I was here. I was...surprised when you called on me. Though, it would have been better if you hadn’t…”
Mist tilted her head curiously.
“How could I not remember you? You’re a pretty unusual guy.”
“Speak for yourself. Hearing that from you is...nevermind.” When Mist only continued to stare at him, as if waiting for an explanation, Kross coughed uncomfortably and quickly added, “So, what will you do now? Surely there are others you can recruit. You seem to get along with absolutely everyone, after all.”
For possibly the first time since they’d met, he smiled at her, though faintly and somewhat forcedly. It was an effort he rarely found worthwhile, but he genuinely wanted her to know how thankful he was for her immediate understanding, and he didn’t trust his tone of voice to get his feelings across.
“Well, I do have a few more favors I’m going to try to call in, but to be honest, you’re the only real soldier in Trampoli. The only one with any official training, at least. Raguna kinda counts, but there’s a definite difference between raw talent and regimented training. Of course, there are other positions to think about, but we can’t ignore the obvious: this is war. To get another real fighter, I’ll have to go back to-”
“Hraah!”
A brazen cry bellowed from somewhere nearby, sending birds scattering to the winds and causing the woolies to trip over themselves in their rush to cower in the corners of Kross’s field in fright. Suddenly, from behind some low shrubbery across the dirt path from Kross’s house leapt a tall, tan man with spiky white hair and impressively broad shoulders. Landing just in front of the pair, he smirked up mischievously from his three-point landing.
“Hi Brodik.” Mist smiled at him, unfazed, as Kross merely sighed, exausted.
“Whuh!?” Brodik’s eyes went wide as he stood, easily looming a foot over the delicate maiden before him. “Come on! Weren’t you surprised at all?”
“Oh! Was I supposed to be?”
The innocent, airy, almost intentionally ironic way she said it infuriated him.
“Brodik…” Kross lamented, shaking his head at the antics. “What were you doing lurking around in the bushes?” His chronically exhausted appearance took the edge off of the glare he attempted to shoot at the other man.
“Ah! Brodik!” Mist’s forced tone of shock fell flat, leaving the much taller man staring at her in dumbfounded exasperation.
Pointedly returning his attention to Kross, Brodik smirked, setting a hand on one hip as he thumped his chest proudly with the other in a fist.
“Even if I am stuck in this podunk hamlet for now, I refuse to slack on my training! Stealth is a crucial skill for a soldier,” he explained, wagging a finger derisively. “I’ve got to practice at every opportunity so that I’ll be ready when the Empire is ready to take me back. I saw you guys whispering suspiciously; conspiratorially even! So, I decided to do some reconnaissance.”
“But then you got offended because Mist failed to include you when she mentioned me being the only ex-soldier in Trampoli and ended up giving away your position...patience is a virtue too, you know…” Kross shook his head disapprovingly.
Brodik turned on Kross, his face red.
“I’ll defeat both you and Raguna one of these days! Just you wait and see, you lazy coward. I’ll easily surpass you, and then I’ll drag you both back to Zzyzx. Then they’ll have to let me back in!”
“Why would you take Raguna there? He has nothing to do with this,” Kross muttered even more softly than usual, gripping his arm, eyes once again on the dust tumbling by their feet on the spring breeze.
Mist glanced back and forth between the two before seeming to settle on Brodik as her target.
“What do you mean you’re stuck here?”
“Tch.” Brodik crossed his arms obstinately, his furrowed brow his only answer.
Kross demurred at her query, however, sparing Brodik a pitying glance.
“He failed his mission to retrieve the AWOL soldier they sent him here to retrieve...not only that, but he kept going AWOL himself to challenge Raguna to fights in the ruins here, so the Zzyzx army eventually kicked him out.”
“They’ll see what a mistake that was!”
“Brodik, you’re a soldier?” Mist asked excitedly, her voice full of hope. “Or, ex-soldier, I guess.”
“Hrk!” Brodik looked as though she had run a dagger straight into his gut.
“Would you like to come with us in Kross’s place, then?”
“It isn’t really ‘my place’ to begin with, and it isn’t as though it’s a draft...but Mist does have a point. Seems pretty convenient that she needs soldiers, and here you are with nothing else useful to do.”
“Hello! You do realize you’re speaking directly to me, right?” Brodik shouted defiantly. “What’s with you two and all these nonchalant insults!?”
Glossing over his protests, Kross continued steadily.
“Besides...if you go and fight, I bet you’d get even stronger…this is a much more personal war, one fought in the hills with wits and fortitude, not tanks and underhanded tricks.”
“Oh yeah,” Brodik said as the aggression somewhat lifted from his voice, “I heard you two talking about something like that. What was she inviting you to, anyway? Is there another war staring up?”
“You’re angry about not being invited yet you don’t even know what’s going on. Your ‘reconnaissance’ was a total failure…” Kross casually twisted the knife deeper into the wound.
Thankfully, Mist interjected fairly swiftly. For the first time since Brodik had encountered her, her expression turned serious.
“Do you know of the Sechs Empire’s conflict with the Kingdom of Norad?”
“Well, yeah, duh” he confirmed. “Everyone does. It ain’t exactly a cold war. Zzyzx hasn't exactly been shy about testing out our technological developments in the conflict. Some reports say we went so far as to open gates to the Forest of Beginnings, send experimental magic weaponry, and even summon the Grimoire right into Norad itself, all right over the border. That’s all above my paygrade, but I could believe it.”
“Huh?” Mist seemed confused. “No, I’m talking about Sechs, not Zzyzx.”
“You...you know Sechs and Zzyzx are the same place, right?”
“What!? No way! How can that be?”
“Oh,” Kross interjected, “it’s a...regional dialect thing. I was wondering...why you seemed to distinguish between the two. I thought…” he hesitated, stuttering for just a moment, “maybe it was because of the civil war. That maybe you were refussing to use the name the last rebellion had championed.
“See, ‘Sechs’ is the pronunciation in a standard Sechs accent, like you’d hear in the capital, but in the western part of the country it’s pronounced more like ‘Zzyzx.’ I don’t know why Trampoli uses that pronunciation, but...it kind of made me happy...”
Silently, Mist studied Kross’s expression for a long moment. Uncomfortable under her gaze, he looked down again and bit the corner of his lip.
“That does explain a lot,” she admitted, finally breaking the stare. “And...no, I hadn’t known that the previous cause had tried to standardize ‘Zzyzx’ instead. Zzyzx,” she repeated with eyes closed, as though consciously internalizing it. “There we go. Zzyzx it is, then.
“So...wait. Why do the two of you use ‘Zzyzx’? I thought you were both part of the imperial army.”
“I’m from the west.” Brodik proudly thrust a thumb to his chest. “And I ain’t about to change the way I talk just because some idiots tried to start a fight under our name for our country.”
Crossing his arms and scratching absently at his elbow, Kross muttered shyly.
“I...well, I...I wonder if things wouldn’t have been better...if they had won after all…”
Brodik scoffed.
“Disgusting. A coward and a traitor. Anyway, so this all has something to do with Zzyzx?”
Mist nodded solemnly.
“I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that even some of the Empire’s own citizens have begun to grow restless again at the army’s constant provocations and dangerous experiments. There’s an underground resistance building within the Zzyzx Empire, hoping to thwart the army’s bloodthirsty advance, or at least to slow them down enough to make all-out war too costly to justify.”
“Ha! Another rebellion. What idiots.” At his scorn, Mist scowled fiercely. It was almost cute, Brodik thought. “There was already a civil war and the dissenters lost. Do these new kids really think they stand a chance against the kind of magic and tech that the Zzyzx Army proper’s got?”
The girl’s gaze hardened, her lips pursing into a thin line as she bit back her words to better measure them.
“They aren’t idiots; they’re heroes. No one in power is doing anything to curb all of the senseless fighting that the Emperor is pushing for, so the people are taking matters into their own hands. This isn’t just them trying to save themselves and their homeland either, but to ensure no innocent neighbors are pulled into this conflict as well, including Norad.” Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as she challenged Brodik’s harsh criticisms. “Empathy is not a weakness; it is their strength. Hope is not a weakness; it is their fire. They’re fighting for what they believe is right, and the fact that they’ve survived as long as they have in their circumstances is proof that they stand a real chance in this fight.”
Brodik shrugged.
“Proof nothin’,” he scoffed at Mist’s disapproving frown. “Look, maybe you’re right and they’re kicking ass. Maybe they’re just lucky no one’s found them yet. Or maybe they’re cowards avoiding a real battle. Can’t lose a fight you ain’t in.”
“Is that your strategy?” Despite her harsh words, Mist’s eyes shined bright and clear. “To just play around and wallow in self-pity, pretending that if you just wish hard enough and wait long enough, that you’ll have exactly what you want dropped in your lap as a reward like a good dog?”
Brodik’s jaw dropped.
“Whuh? Why you…! That’s totally different! I didn’t choose to be stuck out here doin’ nothin’ but sittin’ around and trainin’!”
“And the people of Zzyzx didn’t choose to be oppressed, didn’t choose to be thrown into a war that only benefits the rich and powerful. So, they chose another path. And I am presenting you with another option just the same. An opportunity: come fight for our cause.” As she continued, a cheerful smile began spreading across her face once more, and she clapped her hands together lightly. “Now, if you still refuse, you actually are choosing to stay here and do nothing!”
“What!?”
As she revealed her logical trap, Mist’s tone had slid from the dour, reprimanding voice she’d been using to defend the rebels to her usual bubbly lilt. Her ponytail swayed along with her hips as she danced side-to-side in self-satisfaction. By this time, Kross’s woolies had begun roaming the field again; and one, seeing Mist’s little dance, hopped about in a circle, its little arms held out for balance. A few others joined in, ignorant that Brodik was shooting them a death glare.
“What kind of logic is that!? Kross, can you believe this-”
The space beside them was conspicuously empty when Brodik turned to look for backup. Only the bleats of the woolies still frolicking in the grass joined their exchange.
“Where the hell...?!”
“He went inside a while ago.”
“Aaargg!!”
Brodik furiously raked his fingers back and forth through the severe, military cut of his hair he had meticulously kept up even in exile.
“So?” Mist turned to face Brodik fully once more, still smiling. “What do you say? We’ll need all the help we can get, especially experienced soldiers. I’d love to see what you can do on the battlefield.”
Brodik scowled and crossed his arms over his chest in a huff.
“You really expect me to go and fight against Zzyzx, even knowing that I’m trying to get back into the army?”
“Do you really expect the Empire to take you back after they’ve already thrown you out? I’m sure you know what kind of people they are. They sent you after Kross for his going AWOL, after all, and when Lynette failed her mission-”
“Wait, Commander Lynette?”
“You know her?”
“Yeah. Well, no.” Brodik scratched his head, as though trying to think of a way to explain made his brain itch. “Like, I’ve heard the name before. She was really high-ranking and pretty much everyone admired her. Hell, I thought of her as my role model, even when I was just a cadet! She’s legendary.”
“Well, she was given the task of eliminating Raguna, and when she failed, Ethelberd directly ordered her to kill herself on the spot.”
The disbelief on Brodik’s face as he took a step back, as though physically bowled over by the news, confirmed that he had not, in fact, fully realized the cruelty rampant in the army’s hierarchy.
“It’s a wonder you were only exiled. I guess you were too low-ranking to justify making a big commotion.”
“Please, Mist, you gotta stop that,” he finally begged, unable to withstand anymore of her borderline unintentional jabs. “But...do you really think there’s no chance they’ll take me back?”
“You could always see for yourself,” she said nonchalantly, as though his fate meant nothing to her.
Standing stunned, Brodik weighed his options. All he had wanted was to return to Zzyzx a hero. He had failed and, if what Mist said was true, even trying to return could spell the end of everything for him. What had befallen Lynette had never been widely circulated, and most people had assumed from what little information had been made available that she had died in the line of duty on a mission too secret to give her a proper service for so soon. Everyone seemed to think that once whatever mission she’d died on had been completed, she would be given a proper war hero’s funeral. Brodik had had his own suspicions, but it seemed as though the price for failure was even higher than he’d imagined.
Giving Mist a sidelong glance, he tapped a finger to his chin thoughtfully.
“Would this be a hard commitment? What if I decide it isn’t worth my time?”
“It’d be better if you could see things through to the end, but we’ll take whatever we can get.”
“Hmph.” He nodded decisively. “I’ll do as I please, but you can count me in, for now.”
“Excellent!” Mist gave a little hop and swayed back and forth gleefully. “Be ready to leave in the morning.”
“Huh? Why aren’t we leaving right away?”
“There are a few more people I still need to speak with. Soldiers aren’t the only thing a resistance needs to stay running.”