FIVE MONTHS EARLIER

It started out with looks and voices. Murmurs amongst the angry mob. The man standing on top of a stack of boxes crossed his arms over his chest, watching with a self-satisfied smile as the crowd buzzed with anger. Kias had started out the gathering, speaking and preaching, but that was never meant to last. His mission and goal was only to start the chain reaction, to empower the crowd, before fading into the background to keep watch.

"We can't stand by anymore and watch him poison our town!" someone near the edges yelled.

The crowd cheered in agreement.

Another person said, "And the queen hasn't sent that vile vermin away either. Yet it's been more than a month since he came here!"

The crowd yelled back again, people nodding in agreement and shaking their heads with anger and disappointment in their queen.

"He’s burrowed in deep! Think: how much information must he know by now?" a third voice asked. "The invasion failed, but perhaps they never meant for it to succeed! It was meant to be one from inside all along! He's had plenty of time to infiltrate us, study our weaknesses. I heard that he's not confined to his rooms, and his communication isn't even restricted or watched. Wasn't there an important document that disappeared, just a couple of days ago?" The crowd grumbled and swore in reply.

Kias watched as Seera continued, yelling to make herself heard over the growing growl. "I bet he took it! I bet he sent it back to Ga'ani! I bet that he's a spy, sent here to steal our information. I bet that the war will only start once he sends enough information back. Will we stand for this? No! I say we need to send a message instead!"

There were still yells of support for that statement, albeit not as many. They were also quieter than the angry yells of agreement that had adorned the air before. The people were bold enough to gather in broad daylight and air their concerns and rage, but attacking someone, even a Ga'anite, was only something they entertained in their thoughts. Hearing this thought out loud made them retreat, to try hide from that extreme.

The man hovering over the crowd narrowed his eyes as a few people on the outskirts dispersed, going about their day once more. Kias was losing them. The other agents he'd spreak inside of the crowd to help rile them up had yelled agreement and support for that notion, but they were the minority. ‘It was too extreme, too much, and too fast,’ Kias thought to himself. He'd rushed things to try to take advantage of the townspeople’s newfound emotions, and now he was paying for his brashness.

He had to find a way to bring back their sense of self-righteousness. Even if it wouldn’t get anywhere now, the anger would boil in people’s veins, tiding them over to the next meeting where he would try again. Just as Kias was about to step up and try to salvage the situation, the Ga’anite in question walked into sight.

Sonas walked timidly around the edges of the square, body hunched, trying to make himself as small as possible. Like hounds sensing their prey's scent, the crowd turned to watch him slink about the square’s perimeter. Eyes glowed. The agents in the gaggle of people started jeering, calling out names and insults in broad daylight, making it crystal-clear that the barbs were directed at him. Kias was about to hush them, chiding them for going too fast. Did they not sense the shift in the crowd after the failed attempt to harness their temper? Imbeciles.

Before he could gesture at them to stop, everyone else joined in, some of the more brazen ones even picking out rocks from the ground and throwing it at the Ga'anite. 'Whims strike me down,' he thought, joining in and egging the crowd on. 'It's not all lost!'

A stone aimed at Sonas actually hit his thigh and he hissed out in pain. Quickly, he ducked into the library, slamming the door shut behind him with a pounding heart. He'd told Rae that he didn't mind staying away from the city, but that was two weeks ago. He was going stir-crazy, confined to the keep (even if it was for his safety, and with good intentions). This was just supposed to be a quick trip down to the library. He just wanted the chance to say hello to and have conversation with someone other than the non-responsive cribs, and to fetch more reading material to help pass the time.

An idea popped into Kias’s head. He clapped his hands a couple of times, drawing the crowd's attention back to him. "Hey! Keep the Ga'anite in there," he directed, pointing to the library. Confused faces looked up to him and one of his underlings sidled up to him.

"What are you planning on doing?" Seera asked.

"Just moving things along," he replied quietly, before addressing the larger crowd once more. "It is time to find out what secrets that rat has been stealing from us! If he is out here, that means that no one is in his rooms."

"So we can go and look through to find what he's stolen?" someone asked nervously.

"Do we not have a right to do so?" the leader of the conspirators asked, voice booming. He waited for an answer, but none came. Kias let the silence go on until Seera walked back into the thick of the crowd, then he gestured discreetly.

Eyes glinting, Seera yelled, "We can't just sit by and do nothing! If the Queen will not listen to reason and not protect the land, then that responsibility falls onto more capable hands. Our hands. We have the right to defend ourselves and this town. Should we stand by until their whole army is at our door?"

Slowly, more and more people trickled over to her side. Kias worked them carefully, patiently, pushing at times then retreating and letting them work it out themselves, until he had the majority of them in his palm.

"It is decided, then. You are all correct. We can't just sit by and do nothing. We must attack, now, before it is too late," he said, spinning the idea as if it had come from them. This didn't go unnoticed, but they were too entranced by zealousness to bother to object. "Who will lead us to the keep?" He would prefer for one of the townsfolk to step up, but it would be no problem if one of the other agents had to volunteer. They were there for a reason, after all. Sometimes the crowd just needed a bit of a shove, and stronger guidance.

- - - - - - -

Finally calmed down enough that he was no longer shaking, Sonas peeked through the windows, his stomach dropping. Half of the crowd had dispersed, but the other half remained and had moved closer to the library, almost surrounding him. He hoped that they would be gone by the time he picked out a dozen books. Even then, getting out of the store was not going to be easy.

Sonas waited for as long as he could, sitting down in a corner and reading the same passage over and over again to pass time. He struck up several conversations with Jakar, who was starting to get suspicious, but thankfully didn't push for answers. Only one or two people had left; the rest of the horde remained, waiting to pounce on him the moment he left safety behind. Sonas had no choice but to go out if he wanted to be back at the keep before someone discovered that he hadn't come down for dinner. As antisocial as the scribes were towards him, very little passed by them without notice. He had come here for books, but now he would probably have to leave without them, Son realised as he looked out the window once more. He asked Jakar if he could send the books over to the keep for him, then opened the door.

The rocks returned as soon as he was out in the open. The plinks they made as they bounced off the ground and walls drowned out the 'click' of the door closing. Angry faces leered above him as he hunched down and tried to find an opening in their ranks. Their comments washed over his head, but their barbs still pricked his skin, alongside the stones they threw.

Sonas finally managed to break through the mob, determinedly pushing against them until they let him through. He didn't wait to see what they'd do next. As soon as he was free, Son started running, giving up all pretence of normalcy or calm confidence. The mob followed, the cacophony of their stampede forcing him into a sprint. His heart was racing far too quickly for him to convince himself that there was nothing they could do to him if they caught him. In that moment, there was nothing they couldn't do to him if -- when -- they caught up to him.

The majority chased him all the way to the edge of the town, cheering when they watched him disappear after a turn. The more bloodthirsty and younger of them stuck right behind him. A pair easily caught up to him, flanking him on either side and bumping into him, enough to slightly trip him up, but not enough to force him to stop, or worse, allow the rest of the pack to catch up to him. They particularly enjoyed sticking a leg out in front of him, then pulling it back just before Sonas could trip, especially when it caused him to miss a beat and stumble regardless. Their laughs joined with his panting, keeping him company and reminding him that it could be much worse.

- - - - - - -

There was an ominous silence back at the keep. The few stragglers that stuck by chasing Sonas until the end had only stopped when the keep wall came into sight. They broke away with a parting gift of stones that came just short of hitting his heels, and jeers that flew true like arrows, returning towards the town. Sonas slowed down after he walked in through the gate, but his heart remained beating at the same pace, the thudding in his ears growing louder. He was too tired to go to dinner.

Instead, Sonas made straight for his rooms, not bothering to remain out of sight and sneak past the scribe's building and its wide-open door. It took enough effort to force himself to move; he didn't check to see if there were any stares. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, but it had been like that since he first entered the library and realised that he should've stayed in his rooms. The two flights of stairs seemed infinite. It was a pleasant surprise to see that it only took a few minutes, and he did make it up without tripping.

The sight that greeted him when he opened the door was not pleasant, nor was it as surprising as it should have been. Sonas stepped in, letting the door close behind him. Everything was a mess. From the hallway, the door was straight, in one piece; on the other side, it was filled with scratches and hateful messages. 'When did this happen?' Sonas thought, leaning against the wall for support. Splintered chairs and table legs lay in heaps on the floor. The carpet was cut up and muddied, and again, filled with messages. The dying light cast from the window onto the room prevented him from turning away from the sight. The shadows rooted him in place, imprinting the images in his mind. His nose twitched at the horrid smell that wafted from everywhere, his skin crawled at the mess. The walls were slashed as well, which he now expected, but as he looked up to try to take a break from the mess around him, Sonas saw that even the ceiling was marred.

He followed the scorch-marks on the carpet, tracking soot on the ground as he went deeper into his suite. The curtains had been ripped off and laid on the ground, but it was already getting dark outside. ‘Where is the light coming from?’ he thought, before answering his own question. ‘The fireplace.’

Carefully avoiding stepping onto pieces of broken porcelain, Sonas went to the bedroom. The bed was stripped of any sheets or pillows, yet the mattress was oddly intact. The linens were burning in the fireplace. Sonas left them there, wandering over to his ransacked desk. Drawers lay capsized on the floor. The minutely ripped pieces of paper that had been left behind were the only sign that there had ever been something inside of them.

A flash of clean white caught his eye among the mess. Laid flat in the middle of the desk was a piece of paper, with big letters scrawled on top. It read: "It is only difficult because you made it so. Make a better decision, and it will all become much better."

Sonas snatched the paper, then hurriedly threw it inside the fireplace. It landed on top of the bed sheets, but burned much more quickly. Sonas stood, unblinking, watching until only ash remained behind.