The wolf surveyed the crowd. "So, we've gotten the Derefoni, Lamour, Westchoice, and Kays Nobyls to support Catastrophe, and we have spies in the Resistance, Derefoni, and Lamour. Is that good enough for the dragon? I'd like to do something a little more exciting than tricking fools."

Rose's eyes flashed red for a moment, then returned to normal. "That's enough sponsors. It's time to end the party."

"And what does that mean?" Sybill asked.

A small smile played on Rose's lips as she spoke. "Right now, a large group of Resistance and FaFA members--and their sponsors--are all in one place. If say, a group of Catastrophe's soldiers were to surround the building, and the soldiers inside launched an attack..."

"It would be an easy victory." Sybill's eyes glinted in eager understanding.

"And a meaningful one at that," Rose added. "Without any funds, the Resistance will never win."

The wolf bared her fangs in a vicious smile. "So how do we begin?"

"Simple," Rose said. "Jaaws has already prepared a force of Catastrophe's soldiers, who are in position around the manor. Soon, she will give the signal to attack--our job will be to get the Catastrophe-supporting Nobyls to safety."

~~~

This isn't quite what we had planned, but it works a little better. Besides, we desperately needed some action on this thread. 

Speirys~

I have to admit that Finni, Taurus and the rest were my last resort. But talking to them is a lot of fun. The experience isn't all that it could be, though, considering my concern about Kamau. I can see that Gamgi isn't all that comfortable with the conversation she's having with him. Not to mention how I need ( or least want) to keep checking on Bell. She likes to insist that we're nothing alike, but I'm certain about one thing we have in common: we're fantastic at coaxing people to believe something just by using our words. Though I uphold some more sincerity than she does- I want to campaign for something good and right, and she wants people to see things her own way.

I want to say more about Finni and Beacon's missing sister, and I consider offering to help find her in the future, but poor Beacon is so uncomfortable already; I doubt a subject like that could be any help to him.

I open my mouth to change the subject when I hear a very faint rustle behind me. I turn quickly to try and find its source.

"What's wrong?" Finni asks loudly. I press my fingers to my lips, trying to signal to her to be quiet. I peer through the tall glass window behind me, straining to see what made the sound. Did those bushes really sway, or am I just getting paranoid?

After a moment, I'm satisfied that we're not in any immediate danger. "Sorry about that, Finni," I say. "I thought I heard someth- oh, crap."

It's definitely not just my imagination. There are shouts coming from outside, and when the Nobyls notice this, far from going silent, they only start talking louder. If these are Catastrophe soldiers- which I'm almost certain they are- then I should get this group out of here quickly, or at least out of sight. Catastrophe's army wouldn't be stupid enough not to surround the whole building, and I'm sure they know that there are some Resistance soldiers here. The Nobyls hopefully won't notice us slipping away, but Bell would certainly notice if I disappeared. She would waste no time in selling me and the others out to the soldiers who, I realize, could very well be under her command. The only solution is for me to stay behind and get captured.

"Everybody move. Now," I whisper. "There's Catastrophe soldiers here. We've got to hide." I hate to lie to them, but I'm sure that if they knew my plan that at least one of them would object. And we don't have time for that.

"What?" West asks far too loudly. Astrid looks like she might cry.

"West. Buddy. Please, please shut up," I beg. "Everybody, keep your eyes open. We need to hide in a place that the soldiers wouldn't look." I silently beg that such a place exists. Trying not to think about how much of this plan hinges on pure luck, Gamgi and I shepherd everyone through the empty halls. The noises are getting louder in the main room. I should move quicker. 

When Taurus starts to take the lead, I motion towards Gamgi. I figure I should tell someone what I'm doing so they can explain to everyone, and I'm trusting that Gamgi will understand and be able to explain. I whisper to her as we move along, telling her what I'm going to do. I'm grateful when she accepts it without question and starts to direct everyone to the right. I take the chance and run, quietly and quickly as I can, back towards the ballroom. It's dead silent except for a single voice, which is too muffled for me to hear clearly. I slowly move closer, trying to figure out what to do. Then I hear a voice behind me.

"What the-" I whisper loudly as I turn and see... Taurus? "What are you doing?"

"I figured out what you're doing," they say. "I'm not dumb. Catastrophe's army wouldn't expect there to be only one Resistance representative, would they?"

"We can hear you!" A voice barks. "Show yourselves, Resistance filth, you can't hide from us!"

Without taking my eyes off of Taurus, I step into the ballroom with my chin up, and in a spontaneous act of something like defiance, I take off my hat. Now the fact that I'm a Homo Aquarius is on display for all of the Nobyls to see.

I don't pay attention to the Catastrophe general as he shouts at Taurus and I, or even when my wrists are forced into handcuffs. I just stare at Bell, and she stares back. There are faint lines of confusion and even frustration on her face- she's hidden her feelings well, even from herself, but I can tell what's happening in her brain. She's not leading this squad of soldiers, and from the looks she's giving the other general, I don't think she knew about this plan. 

As I thought, a group of soldiers is sent to search the rest of the mansion. Two average, "expendable" Resistance soldiers won't justify all their planning and setup. Claaws knows if the others will be found. I can only hope that they won't.

I'm still staring at Bell when I'm shoved out of the door.

Astrid~

I have to get West to be almost completely silent for about an hour while keeping almost completely silent myself, and I doubt that a worse form of torture exists in all of Kyngdom.

Still, we manage it. The mansion is huge, and we managed to run pretty far from the ballroom- for enough that by the time the soldiers got to our area, they didn't bother to check the broom closet we're all squashed together in. It's not a small closet, but there's less space since we put up a curtain halfway across it to pass as a wall, and we all hid behind it.

When we crack the door open (finally), it's so quiet. I figure, an hour or two after Catastrophe soldiers burst into the ball, the Nobyls would decide to clear it out. 

Gamgi looks cautiously out of one window, then two, then three. She confirms that there's no Catastrophe soldiers to speak of. We leave through a small door and try not to slip on the ice that surrounds us, with Gamgi leading our group, Finni and Beacon trotting along behind her, West and I following them, and Kamau bringing up the rear. 

We walk without any spoken destination or plan. All I can do is try not to think about Taurus. How I didn't even notice he was gone at first. How Finni was more determined to go after him than I was. When Gamgi told us Speirys's plan, and how she presumed that Taurus had worked it out, I accepted it. I recognized that he was being smart and noble. But now I'm wondering if I should have fought it.

"Hey Astrid," says West. "When are we going to plan Taurus and Blue Boy's rescue mission?"

"I-" I'm about to dismiss it, but then I start to consider it. If I feel bad about how Taurus's capture went down, what better solution is there than to rescue them an Speirys as soon as possible?"

"Right now," I tell West. He grins as I ask, "Do you have any brilliant ideas?"

~~~~~I realize that probably wasn't the angle you were going for, Sybill, and it doesn't leave a whole lot of room, But if you want to do a different POV somewhere in the middle of all this, that'd be great. (also, top.)

Aakash pur Keteque~~

The room where Catastrophe's soldiers have herded all of us non-Catastrophe supporting Nobyls is hot and stuffy, nearly impossible to breathe in. I can hear several Nobyls crying, and at least one is hyperventilating. I try to remind myself that many of these people have never faced hardship in their lives, but it's still frustrating to see them sitting there and doing nothing to save themselves.

My hands are tied together, but thankfully the soliders didn't tie them behind my back. I manage to press my knees close enough to my chest to where my toes can push the rope off. I rub my aching wrists and begin to crawl closer towards the door. The other Nobyls don't seem to notice me moving in the dark, and I do my best to avoid them.

I press my face against the locked door and look through the keyhole. I can barely see anything, except for the legs of several soldiers. So getting out that way won't work. 

Thankfully, I've lived in this mansion for a large portion of my childhood, and I know how it's built. There should be an air vent in here somewhere, and I think it's large enough for me to squeeze through. The hard part will be getting inside it without the other Nobyls throwing a fit.

Luckily, it's in a back corner where most people have been avoiding--possibly because there's a mouse trap there? I decide it doesn't matter why they aren't there and creep closer towards the vent.

There's a small knife in my boot which I pull out and use to unscrew the bolts holding the vent cover in place. It clatters to the floor, and I glance around, panicked--but nobody seems to care. 

I begin to crawl into the vent, but something grabs onto my ankle with the strength of pyhton constricting its prey. I struggle uselessly for a moment, but the thing pulls me out and kicks me towards the center of the floor.

The other Nobyls all stand up and form a circle around me. I look up at them, feeling my insides melt as I see their eyes, which are glowing bright red. Possession.

"Get his necklace," One of them growls. I instinctively reach for the moon necklace my mother gave me before illness took her. Supposedly, it has protective magic--maybe that's why I'm not possessed yet?

The red-eyed Nobyls lunge for me and leap away, waving the knife towards them. Their eyes focus on it for a moment before they attack again.

I'm able to fend them off for a moment, but there's far too many for me to fight on my own. Eventually, they pin me to the ground.

One of them grabs the necklace, but then cries out in pain. Their hand is smoking--burned, somehow. I guess the necklace has more enchantments than I originally thought. Even so, there's nothing I can do to free myself.

"Just take him prisoner," A Nobyl says. "We'll figure out how to get it off later."

"We'll take it from here, actually," A new Nobyl says. I recognise her as Karune pur Lamour--wait, wasn't she with the Resistance? And then her sister...

But that doesn't matter now. Her eyes are the same bright red as everyone else's, and on top of that, she's got a wolf with her. Great.

"You've all done wonderfully, and Jaaws is very proud of you," The wolf snarls. "But we're in charge here, so let us take the prisoner." Jaaws is the one behind this? More fear brews within me.

The Nobyls clear a path for Karune to take me, which she does. She snaps real handcuffs on me, and pulls my arms so far back they threaten to fall off--I am unable to avoid crying out in pain.

Karune drags me towards the door, and then bangs on it. Right away, one of the soldiers opens it for her. They bow, but their movements seemed forced and robotic. Are they being controlled, too? Karune tosses me at the guard and I fall to the ground, but only for a moment. Two of the guards lift me up and drag me back towards the ballroom.

They drop me on the ground next to a Homo Aquarius and a tall human with a bald head and dark skin--I think they're both Resistance representatives. There's several soldiers with their guns pointed at us.

"Who's that?" One of the soldiers growl.

"Aakash pur Keteque, son of Sitaara pur Keteque," Karune responds, sounding far too serene for the situation. "His necklace won't allow him to be controlled like the rest of the Nobyls we've captured. I trust you will be able to keep him captive?"

"Obviously," The soldier sneers.

"Good." Karune drifts away, the wolf at her heels. 

And I'm left wondering how in Kyndgom I'm going to get out of this situation.

~~~