The group was met with a problem: they couldn’t investigate more than what they did, since everything pointed to the King having kidnapped her.
If they tried to force their way through, they would instead be branded as traitors of the country, and be either exiled or executed, with everyone being hostile to them, even those outside this country.
They didn’t know what to do, so they went to see Aftri once again.
He quickly told them to come in, and then asked what happened.
When he learned that Finn’s mother was detained in the King’s house, he was quite troubled.
“So... If...... Hold on, what is her name? Did you ever tell me?” (Aftri)1Whoops, didn’t put it sooner x) I actually knew I should have put it sooner, but I couldn’t find a good place to insert that...
“Now that you talk about it... Her name is Fali. And my dad’s name is Fiko.” (Finn)
“Oh. Well, If Fali is actually detained in the King’s house, then it is a clear treason. But I cannot just come and say ‘you are treacherous, free Fali’ because no one would believe me. After all, he is higher-ranked than me. I would need to get the agreement of two more high-ranked nobles for that... Scratch that, one more noble. Hello Atsi.” (Aftri)
“Hello Aftri. Yes, you have my voice. But I do not know who could be the third one. We will have to leave that to you four. During that time, we will prepare the evidences to show.” (Atsi?)
Atsi suddenly appeared half-transparent, meaning that she wasn’t really present. But it was still a live projection, a magic the group never saw and only heard of in legends.
After that lightning quick apparition, she disappeared, leaving Finn, Tris, Daler and Jiro alone with Aftri.
She explained what the four needed to do, then they decided to leave for now, and to try and find someone that would be influenceable enough to accept to go against the King.
In the meantime
POV: Atsi
There is an obscure clause in the Noble’s circle, that if three Nobles of equivalent ranking are opposing one other Noble of the same rank or one above, then that Noble would fall to a lower rank.
This rule is not misused by a lot of people, since there are two requirements: first is that the nobles must be of a certain rank (though me, Aftri and the King are sufficiently ranked), and there must be no opposition from any of them.
That last clause is the main reason why no overthrow was successful until now: they would always meddle and cancel anything before it even started.
In fact, the only reason why this clause even exists is because of them, so that they could do it any time they wanted.
Anyway, I digress.
We still need to find evidences that he ordered the kidnapping of her.
Since Aftri is already in Brig, he will do his search over there, while I will search over here, where she was kidnapped.
There must be someone, somewhere, that escaped detection and still remember everything... Right?
In the meantime
POV: Aftri
Now that they are off to sway a noble to our side, I need to think of a way to find anything.
Where should I start?...
I first went to the castle, to ask around. It would be a pretty dumb mistake, but you never know.
... And indeed, I came back with nothing.
Well, I could not ask everyone, but I did ask anyone I could see.
Now, I need to act quickly, before the King sends anything back at me. He probably heard of what I was doing.
Well, I am clear of any illegal activities, but being the King he could probably get away with fabricated evidences. Not that it would do him any good... Not that he knows that.
...Aaanyway, my next idea was to search for hints of snuggling, by spying on his house. Good thing I have a 24/7 recording of the whole city. I knew it would come in handy at some point.
...Yes, I found some hints!
Now, I need to trace forward where they are right now... Oh. Well that makes it easy and hard at the same time. Why always in his house...?
In the meantime
POV: 3rd person
After leaving Aftri to do his things, they needed to meet a highly-ranked Noble willing to overthrow the King.
To do so, they first decided to look around and ask various things to the local inhabitants, learning about the local political climate.
After a while though, people started pointing at a specific Noble more or less obviously (usually more), leaving the four quite suspicious of it being a trap, so they decided to not meet him at first.
What they then did was that they stopped looking around, and simply reunited what they knew.
They decided to go see the first Noble in their ‘list of potential targets’, which ended up being a failure (though he agreed not to talk about them). So were the next two ones, but they managed to convince their fourth candidate.
After leaving, they kept going to the next Nobles, to make it seem like they were rejected each time, then they went back to see Aftri, as Atsi arrived too.
The four told the two about the Noble that agreed, then the two told them to go to an inn and sleep for the next day (without formulating it as an order).
Given that they had nothing to do but wait, they agreed.
During the night
POV: ???
*Sigh*, why is he trying to kill me... I did nothing... The only one I can trust really is Galer... Urgh, my head. Why is everything spinning...?
“Galer, can you come here?”
“Yes, my King. What is the problem?”
“Please, can you bring me to my room...? I am feeling quite tired...”
“Oh, but of course, my King.” I couldn’t see him, but I am sure he was happy to help me. As a friend would–
“Oh, so you too were being manipulated by Galer, huh?” (???)
apple
Thanks for the chapter