Chapter 16:  Civil War


    Beetle''s sandals slapped the cobblestone underneath. Her legs were burning with fatigue and puffs of hot breath had her throat hoarse. In her past life as Rewe, she was sure she wouldn''t be running so hard for someone else''s sake, but she owed this much to Gareg, or perhaps to whatever ideal she was trying to imprint on herself. They had done so much for her, but all Beetle had ever done for them was bring harm their way, to say nothing of Rewe’s crimes.


    The moon was still high above and the light was sickly pale, but the lifeless form of the city was stirring with shouts: Maelys'' takeover had begun and no doubt any known dissenters were being removed. The idea bothered Beetle, the thought of Maelys getting her way, but worse still was the thought of finding corpses instead of her friends. She pushed her legs harder and dipped into one of the many alleys.


    As she turned into the dark funnelway, a pair of dead eyes caught her vision. A man with his throat cut lay slumped against one of the alley walls. No doubt a knight had made their way through here. The sight of the dead man slowed Beetle to a trot, and she could feel anger in her heart. Once upon a time, Rewe used to say to herself that the world wasn’t meant to be like this. Beetle chewed her cheek and with one final look, returned to a sprint.


    ***


    By the time Beetle made it to Gareg''s front door, screams and shouts were the cacophony of the night. With her back on the door to make sure no one was following from behind, Beetle pushed through. The night air was replaced with the musk of stale dinner long since cooked and eaten. Beetle turned to the scene.


    The table was pushed up against the wall and several clay dishes were scattered and broken on the floor. All the cabinets were torn open and every basket was toppled and ripped to shreds. A cold fear beat through Beetle  as she stepped forward.


    "Mar Gareg? Mar Brenna?" Beetle called to the hollow home. Her sickening feeling worsened when nothing returned her shout. It was a terrible anxiety, one that clawed at her heart and soul.


    "Probably dragged out and killed," Rewe thought, her wicked voice grating in Beetle''s mind.


    “Shut up,” Beetle thought back. The idea was hard to swallow, even if it was starting to seem possible.


    “You saw the man in the alley, who is to say they stopped at him?” Rewe wasn’t wrong.


    Biting her lip, Beetle pushed further into the house. With her sandal, she kicked over one of the destroyed baskets and mounted the stairs to the top floor. “Mar Brenna?” She called again, voice bouncing up the stairwell. At the top of the stairs, Beetle pushed the door to their bedroom.


    “Hello?” The door creaked open, but Beetle’s voice was met with emptiness. The bedroom was divided into two parts, one presumably for Charlie and the other for his parents. The beds were ripped apart with blankets and pillows every which way. The mess that Beetle used to sleep on was slumped in the corner, and a trunk was hanging open by a dresser. Beetle’s blood ran cold.


    “Mar Charlie? Are you under the bed?” Her voice was a squeak.


    “Dead,” Rewe thought again, but Beetle did her best to ignore it. Her anxiety was starting to churn to something more molten. Stepping over to the trunk, the warrior found it was filled with nothing but cloth, as if whatever was kept safe in the chest had been removed. Beetle backed up and slumped onto the bed. Wood creaked.


    “Fuck,” Beetle swore through her fingers. Without thinking, her other hand was twiddling with her dagger. Each beat of her heart seemed irritating, especially as realization dawned. Rewe was grinning, she thought she was right.


    “They could still be alive,” Beetle argued to no one but herself, but any sadness she was feeling was masked with an old anger.


    “Good for them,” Rewe replied. “Better than everyone else right about now. Perdi is a bloodbath.” Rewe’s scowl was on Beetle’s face. “Perdi is disgusting.”


    The warrior stood up, and slowly made her way back downstairs. “You know,” Rewe continued. “If you really think about it, you could have avoided all of this if you just slit that bitches throat when you first met her. Void, if you just slit Gallo too, maybe you wouldn’t have even met her. Let’s go further than that,” the thoughts were unceasing, and Beetle’s heart was racing with adrenaline. “You ran back to save Crocodile, and made yourself a tool for the bitch, you didn’t need to do that. Why did you even bother, you barely know the Verdokian, and he was only caught because he interacted with you. You reached out a hand of friendship and doomed him and Phin. He is probably dead in the streets.”


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    Beetle took in a deep, shuddering breath and tried to still herself in the kitchen, but her thoughts kept coming. “This world is cruel, its people are even more cruel. Everyone’s greedy, everyone’s selfish, no one cares, and they want to use you and everyone they possibly can. It doesn’t deserve life, it never had. Beetle’s way is being a tool. You made deals, as if you had agency, as if Gallo or Maelys cared to uphold their promises. Honesty died before you were born, you know better than that!” With a burst of frustration, Beetle threw her arm over the counter, knocking the bowls to the floor. Beetle looke to the exist, to the portal back to the wretched city.


    Rewe’s voice pounded. “Stop trying to live like a Beetle in a world that only knows Rewe.” Her fingers tightened on her dagger and she held the point forward. “Go kill the bitch and gut anyone in the way, then get the fuck off this island so you can go back to making this forsaken existence wish it never opened its eyes.”


    Rewe walked over and placed her hand on the door to the city, her breath hot and her heart pounding. Maelys had to die, right now, by her hand. Fuck Perdi, let it all bleed and burn. With that, Rewe pushed through and exploded onto the streets, weapon in hand.


    ***


    The way to Maelys’ estate was similar to the one Rewe had taken to get to Gareg’s home in the first place, except this time, she made no effort to hide her presence, and as she ran through the main streets, the masked knights started to swarm. On her peripherals, cityfolk were being beaten or harassed, some were already slaughtered while others put up a fair fight, but all in all, most people had the intent of getting as far from the estate on the hill as possible and preferred to run in the direction Rewe had come from.


    A masked knight rushed over the moonlit cobblestone and with a mighty sword, took a swing at Rewe. The pirate barely gave them a glance and swiftly dodged the swing before savagely punching the point of her dagger under the knight’s armpit. With a sickening crunch, Rewe slipped the dagger free and pounded it into the back of their neck.


    Another knight appeared. Blood sprayed. Before the knight even had a chance to attack, Rewe had zipped over to him and placed three brutal stabs into their belly, the stiff blade making easy work of the thin cuirass. The spear in the knight’s hands slackened and Rewe ripped it free. Her dagger slammed back into its sheath and with both hands on the spear, Rewe charged up the street, the silhouette of the estate lingering on the night’s horizon.


    Cries of pain and battle came from the buildings on either side of the road, and out from the alley slithered some more of Maelys’ thugs. The first caught Rewe’s spear on his shield but no sooner did Rewe slide up the length, grip loose, and rip her dagger free again. She parried his sword and sliced his armpit open. The knight’s arm went limp and Rewe sprinted onward. The next knight wasn’t alone and a group of three rushed the long pirate.


    This time Rewe staggered her approach and when the knight flinched too early, Rewe redirected her spear and plunged it right into the knight’s neck. Crimson sprayed and the other two knights rushed in, specked with gore.


    Rewe ducked a sword swing and spun to avoid a stabbing spear. Her dagger danced and sliced open the back of one of the knight’s knees before plunging into the wrist of the other. Screams of pain hollowed the knight’s throats, but with both hands on her spear now, Rewe silenced them with quick strokes of her weapon. Their bodies crumbled and Rewe pried her dagger free.


    Rivulets of red leaked between the cracks on the cobble and Rewe continued her warpath up to the estates. The buildings grew taller as the pirate went further into the wealthier districts of Perdi, and in turn the alleyways on the sides grew darker and more dangerous. Knights were flooding in and out, as were looters now, and victims. The whole of the city was in distress as Maelys’ coup was in full swing.


    A knight closed in, Rewe blasted her spear through their gut. The pirate’s sprint didn’t falter, and as he ran, she took her impaled victim with her, slamming the spear time in a knight already embroiled in a fight with a townsman. Rewe let go of her spear and ripped the sword from the dying soldier and kept her momentum forward.


    With a zip, an arrow whizzed by, thunking into the townsman from earlier. Rewe spun into one of the alleyways, just in time to miss a second arrow. She collided with a knight, knocking the soldier’s mask clean off. The young man fell backwards and Rewe bared her teeth. With eyes frozen in fear, the young knight looked up at Rewe, shaking. He scrambled to his feet, back against the wall and shield in front. He was a coward, weak behind a wooden disc.


    “Beetle!” Diamond’s voice cut through the darkness of the alley. Rewe didn’t flinch, Beetle wasn’t there. The pirate’s eyes never left her victims. He was young, sure, he was scared, sure—Rewe gritted her teeth—but he was also doing the will of Maelys. He was perpetuating her will. This was the real world, you don’t get forgiveness for being young. Rewe ripped the man’s shield away and with a fluid motion, sent her stolen sword in to gurgle his throat.


    The sword snagged flesh and Rewe’s arm tugged. Blood sprayed into the air but Beetle’s eyes widened. Diamond stared her in the eye, shocked. Beetle’s blade had sunk into her chest. Beetle watched as the gladiator slowly fell. Even in the dim light of the moon, Beetle could see Diamond’s fingers were purple and broken, her arms striped red from abuse, and now her own sword was jutting from her body. Rewe’s rage was set aside for a moment, as a cold shivered the warrior.


    “Diamond?” She whispered, but her question was cut short by the twang of a bow. An arrow ripped into Beetle’s back and before she could turn, three more came pounding in. Blood colored her vision, and with a stumble forward, blackness stole her.


    For a moment, in her own personal void, her ears still took in sounds. A humming, and the song of a yexara. A few shouts, the sound of metal on flesh. That humming, that song, Rewe knew it.