I know what you're thinking, but none of your caterwauling will distract us.
Selmon
Really? Sounds to me like they're putting up a fight over their end. Sure you shouldn't give them a hand?
Soldier on Guard
Quiet.
Selmon
Hah. You've got some balls to be giving me lip, Viccy!
Selmon
Gugh—!
Soldier on Guard
Quiet, or I'll split your skull open.
Selmon
You—Victorians... what gives you the right?
Soldier on Guard
Don't oversell yourself, Taran. I've no prejudice or hate against your lot. At most, I think you're just sad.
Soldier on Guard
You're a political force to be used. A piece on the Dukes' board.
Soldier on Guard
We've been as friendly as we can be to you, since that's just common courtesy, but you should know a band of refugees dying here won't be any skin off our backs.
Soldier on Guard
...Have we got orders?
Soldier on Guard
If they want backup, we'll do as the captain told us and deal with the ones here first.
We've confirmed the enemy commander's identity. It's exactly who you said it would be.
Fischer
The Redsteel Guard Captain... He came to rescue the Draco as a Dublinn member?
Fischer
Just as I thought.
Fischer
This might turn into an open confrontation between two dukes. The Iron Duke is seeking to turn County Trent into a battlefield. They won't act too rashly just yet.
Long time no see, Loughshinny... Say, we're old friends, aren't we?
Harmonie
Don't be too nervous, now. And no getting worked up, either. Such a touching reunion—I can't imagine you'd approve of greeting your old friend with violence, hm?
Reed
......
Harmonie
It really is such a shame. You know, you were always open to leave.
Harmonie
In fact, the Leader's acquiesced to your little runaway act.
Reed
Are you... taking me back?
Reed
But I can't go back. There'd be no place for me there anymore.
Reed
No... there never was... any place for me.
Harmonie
No, I understand. Not fond of your status as a shadow. Untrusting of the men recruited by your own lies.
Harmonie
But where else could you go, if not Dublinn? Where would you make your home, as a Draco?
Reed
I...
Harmonie
Loughshinny. Oh, poor Loughshinny... To tell the truth, I have some genuine sympathy for you.
Harmonie
You see, you only ever spare a few more words for me when it comes to all that fictional poetry, all that made-up flowery language. It makes us feel like we really are old friends.
Harmonie
If you had your own life to live, you'd be roaming the ancient moors like the bards do, or whiling the day away reading, cozied up in a nice little hut, making a living for yourself by writing copies... Wonderful, wonderful dreams, I can say that.
Harmonie
So living aboard the ship must've been oh-so satisfying for you. Why didn't you keep laying low, I wonder?
Reed
The Leader... knows, doesn't she?
Reed
In County Hillock. So many innocent civilians, killed in the scheming and the plotting. She... She knew for the longest time, didn't she?
Harmonie
Well, you know her best. Why double-check with me?
Harmonie
If they hadn't perished in the County Hillock melee, the Leader would've done it herself.
Harmonie
Truly, a series of shames. If 'The Elocutionist' and his merry men went about County Hillock following their orders instead of getting up to their little tricks, they could've lived out a few more days by the Leader's side.
Harmonie
If Mandragora had done what she was told in Londinium and brought 'The Spy' back, she wouldn't have needed to die that horrible death down in the sewers.
Harmonie
...And if you'd just kept on staying in hiding out of fate's way, I wouldn't be so inclined to fetch you back for Dublinn, either.
Reed
......
I have to run.
But where will I go?
Harmonie
You should feel lucky, honestly, that I found you first. I'm sparing you the time you need.
Harmonie
If it was 'The Brigadier' who came across you, he would have murdered you the moment you'd hesitated.
Reed
No... They want me no more than a shadow. I won't live a life like that again...
Every time she casts her Arts, Reed closes her eyes.
But not Bagpipe. Bagpipe sees a flame light atop the apex of her spear.
Right. Didn't she meet her in County Hillock? She was the Dublinn Caster stood under the statue in the square, staring coldly out at the burning streets, at the deaths of countless people.
She trusts Outcast, and Rhodes Island... and it makes her not want to believe her own impression, her sole single glance.
Bagpipe
You're...
Ch'en
Bagpipe, how is it going over there? Can you lure Dublinn's side and the Intelligence Service muscle together?
Bagpipe
Eh?
Bagpipe
Aye, I'm on it!
Bagpipe
Och, you're not layin' hands on Reed! Out of the way!
Bagpipe
......
In the brief breath she catches between stance and attack, she reflexively looks behind herself again.
A mist sweeps across her view, crossing between her and Reed.
She has to run. The fog is giving her a chance. She knows the strategy of turning a battle into an uncontrolled brawl well. All she has to do is take her spear up and spur on the flames.
But what comes after?
She is Dublinn's 'Leader.'
She stands for Dublinn's flames. She set light to the land in swaths. She took lives upon lives.
She made illusory promises, all in her own voice. She proclaimed, time and again, she would bring about a new age, one belonging to the Tarans.
Special Forces Soldier
Team 1, attack straightaway. Do not be concerned about hurting the target!
Special Forces Soldier
Dracos have excellent physical resilience! A few wounds won't kill her!
She is a Draco.
Her parents died on the snowiest of festival nights for this bloodline. She and her sister traveled to one city after another, living the childhoods that ambitious politicians who aimed to restore the monarchy had in mind for them.
She was born with her flames. Even now, her veins and organs can feel that scorching pain.
Where must she run to escape from that fate?
Once, she woke up on a sickbed aboard Rhodes Island. There, she laid on the bed and read. In the books were descriptions of Victoria's exquisite peace, of Tara's gentle, melodious madrigals.
But past her window, there outside, her injured allies would walk.
