The steps go on and on, up and up. Enough to make the breathing hard for a while. This could not be a more direct path into the city, the ones outside took meandering winding paths through the hills and rocks, but it was a steep one to take upstairs that were roughly carved into the rock itself. Not walked on enough to be smooth. After all, it was a secret tunnel, if there were workers in here shaping every stone, it wouldn't be that secret, she supposed as she kicked a stray stone in the effort of climbing them.
Until at long last, they do start to hear the sounds of life - people, rumbling above them. Until they reach the top of those endless stairs, and what lies in front of them is an assuming wooden door. Old, rough looking. Eagerly she stepped toward until rather more pointedly, Jhalkari cleared her throat. Nodding to the door and the unspoken - Rani, what if it is a trap? that makes Lakshmi pull back to let the other woman go first. Watching her open it only a fraction, enough for her guard to slip through to the dim light that left her paused and nervous next to him. Her own nervous tick, of sinking her teeth into the inside of her lip playing in the anxiousness of waiting. "She will come as soon as it is clear."
At least he has no trouble navigating it with his slight frame; poor Taura is bent down in spots trying to get through the tight tunnels. But they make it to the door eventually. Miles is eager to get moving, but - no, Lakshmi stops him, which is probably for the best. They'll just wait for a moment. Here in the dark, close together, waiting to see if disaster or deliverance waits on the other side.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," he breathes. "We've come this far, haven't we?"
She sighs, looking across to him into the half-dark of firelight. Behind the door the music could be heard now - could hear... what she hoped was her guard, moving through the rooms the other side, and more distantly, the drums that beat loud enough to be heard all the way even in here. Where had Rao said they would be? At the edge of the slums but before the merchants. Near the main thoroughfare, close enough that no one would think too much of strangers coming and going.
Nothing for it for the moment, she dropped down to bob on the balls of her feet. "She will, but... " they had come so far, and in the moments where she ever had to be still, there was the uneasy feeling of what she had to lose, too.
He really shouldn't do this. But - he can't help but reach out and put a hand on hers. To steady her. Focus on him if you must. "We'll deal with it either way," he murmurs. "Just trust me, my lady"
And by all rights, she should push that hand away. Demand to know what he is thinking. As if is, Vijay makes sure to keep his eyes on the wall to not pry on her more than inevitably happened.
She doesn't touch him turn, but there is the turn, however slight, of her head towards his hand, how she had turned up into him the night before. That must be enough for now, and for that, it is everything. "We will." I do. and she realises as she thinks it, that she does, she trusts him, implicitly, with her whole being. More than for stolen kisses, than the warmth of his body against her. With her life.
This isn't the time. She hears more movements, and then the door is pulled open and Jhalkari appears again, dusty, but none the worse for wear. Rattling off her report as she makes room for everyone to come through, a hour or so until the festivities began. But clear for now.
She should, she should, and he hopes he's not crossing any lines. Her headtilt is enough for him; he drinks it in gratefully, just. Taking a moment to enjoy the shape of her silhouette against the promise of light outside. "Good," he says, and he takes his hand back for now.
It turns out that he was right, which he's glad about. He rises back up to his feet, looking to Lakshmi for guidance. "Off we go, then? While the coast is clear?"
Hardly like she needs to ask - but she does, if only to make sure before she nods to her own people, they begin to arrange themselves carefully, making sure they were covered in the long looping material, to keep themselves obscure. To make it seem like they were just an odd family out to enjoy the festivities. Like anyone else.
Here's for hoping no one else looked aside. But once it's done - her hand grips to the sword at her hip in comfort - her eyes forward and she nods at them to open the door that connects the rooms to the streets outside and it's a floodgate opening to step out into the street.
The firecrackers are loudest. Set off in these back streets and from rooftops, the thick wash of smoke that filled the air, the shrieks of laughter, singing and the drums - beaten over it all filling the streets. Each doorstep with images of lotuses in brightly coloured powder (a great deal smudged now from when they had been done in the morning). Flowers that hung in ropes of rich jasmine that made the air sickly sweet that hung around the necks of men and women, and caught in the hair of children as they ran with sparklers - and around everything, lights. Thousands upon thousands of lights, lanterns and oil burners left that became brighter as the sunset.
There was a different tang to it, at least tonight. A fullness in the air, a snap to each breath that she took. The people looked just as she said, hungry. Lean. Some of them half starved. A sharp edge to it, no matter the festivities. Waiting, with a deep, deep breath before a deeper plunge. The night air at least was not as hot, as they came into cooler seasons. Made the fires seem warmer, a relief to be near.
No need to rush, now, to seem like any other family moving through the crowds as they began towards the main streets. Because there was one thing that cannot be ignored, the people on the streets were dressed in a dozen colours, wearing their newest clothes, as fine as each person could afford. Every colour, and many of them all at once. But removed at the side of the streets, were the UC guards. Dressed in the favoured deep red and white of their uniforms. Wearing their plasma rifles openly without even the pretext of stunners, helmets over their faces. Removed and joking amongst themselves as they stood at the edge and were given wide birth by almost everyone. A palpable fear of them in the way people turned their faces away.
She slipped until she was standing beside Naismith, dropping low to speak to him. "Tonight we celebrate the triumph of Good over Evil. When Lord Rama defeated the Demon King Ravan."
"Of course." The scanner at his hip, the dagger at his belt. And Taura, of course, who is decked out herself. Between the two of them they ought to be fine.
He follows her out into the streets - and wonder stops him a moment, despite his awareness of how urgent their cause is. He shouldn't just stand here, but it's hard not to. Fireworks, flowers, and festivities, it seems. The air seems heavy with impending frivolities. And - danger too. He need only look one person in the face to remember why he's here. They have a liberation to finish ...
He stays close to Lakshmi as they go, not entirely sure what role he should assume here. Pretend to be a child with that stature of his? Pretend to be Lakshmi's companion? Maybe he'll just walk close and hope everyone else figures it out. He lingers a moment on the UC guards, sizing them up. Best not to get into a fight if they can avoid it.
"An appropriate night then," he murmurs. "Maybe it's good luck."
But oh, she might love him, now she thinks of it, as she watches him size the guards. If only it would be so easy as to tell him to throw them down. But this isn't the time or place. No - they have business to attend too, and it would not do if they were to look so serious when everyone else, no matter how hungry and embittered, was throwing themselves into the only respite they had.
Before the guards can catch any of them looking too long, she pushes to carry them along, if a great deal more sedated, in the mime of that dance she had performed for him. Playful, light, catching the eye of Jhalkari with a jerk of her chin as she does so. Something the woman follows along with, hastily going to get them flowers, just like everyone else. An easily procured item of the many, many people on the streets. Half a dozen that had been discarded in the festivities that are procured and tossed to her. Caught in one hand, she steels her face into something a sight more cranky. "Eh -!" The bark of her voice is deeper, where she rolls into her native tongue. Not a Queen but just one of the many people on the streets, cutting on her words a great deal more rougher than the air of gentilities her tutors had given her. I was born on streets like these, after all.
"-Piya, you had best not look at other women! Or I will pray that Lord Ganesh cut your fingers from you." A nagging jealous beloved, who the guards laugh at, the other people wave on with smiles of their faces for foolish people in love, as she tugs a handful of flowers free from stems of the necklace and tosses them at him. Showering him in flower petals in her mocking ire, at him and then at Taura for good measure. It's an easy role to play at least, and Jhalkari laughs for it, Vijay rolls his eyes.
Sigh. Miles would sure like to stun a few of them. But happily he's distracted by her reaction. So he's a lover, then? A husband? Goodness, that warms him so much that he can't help but smile a little, despite her "nagging." Some part of him is also deeply relieved that she isn't going to pretend he's her child or something like that. Husband or beloved, please, a thousand times yes.
"My apologies," he says, mimicking her accent, though he makes a show of taking a moment to tear away his eyes. As if he really was cheating a little just now. "I was just thinking of how much more beautiful you were?"
He hates to lilt the question into his tone, but. Well. Keeping up the act. It makes it easier for him to grin as she showers him with petals, to catch one of the flowers out of the air and offer it to her.
She stays obviously cross a moment more until he presents her with the remains of one of the flowers. She giggles, soft, sweet, snatching at the veil that hangs around the edges of her face. Tugging it over the bottom of her face, her eyes lower as she pretends to smother her laughter. False embarrassment, to be utterly smitten with his attention as she shyly ventures for the flower he gives.
"Rascal." Mollified, as she fixes it into her hair. "I still might, just so you can't trouble me anymore with your wondering."
And she flicks her skirt, skipping a step forward that is more pointed. Direct. Her eyes sharp with it as she directs him onwards - run, Admiral, and the guards will not look too hard at a lovers squabble. Rather they whistle, cheering them on. Go on then, let's see her catch him.
Ah, yes. he catches her meaning instantly. He pales a bit, as if still threatened by her. Then - a grin. "Only if you can catch me, my lady." And here he runs off in the direction she'd indicated. His poor legs have been replaced by now, at least, so he can run without tripping and breaking something. That would just be the worst in this situation.
She takes off after him immediately, and they are just one more pair in the crowd, weaving through the many, many people that move about in the festivities. The night gets deeper around them, and the firecrackers continue. Setting off from rooftops to a thick and heavy haze of smoke and taste of ash. Easy to be obscured in.
Letting get him ahead of her in the thrall before she lengthens her stride to catch up with him. Less a playful weave as more direct. Sparing a glance behind her to check the rest of their team were coming up behind them. At a reasonable distance past the guards, she comes against his side. Catching him by linking her arm through his. Laughing breathlessly with the effort of running. "Well done."
Miles slows at that, grinning back at her. He sure enjoyed that little jaunt - and that arm linking, for that matter. He laughs a little in return. "I am nothing if not flexible," he says. "Where to next?"
She turns her face up and - as they wind up the street, their group slipping to their sides - they seem to go up and up. The streets that wind and turn until she can point up, looking over the rise.
"There - that is where we are going." And they weren't the only ones, many people were heading that way - as she pointed from the top of the hill they walked up, and before them like a snaking squall of lights, music and brightly dressed people - that were working their way to the Palace that towered up and above.
Ah. That is a hell of a place. Miles can't help but look a bit nervous
staring up at it. "It'll be a hell of a place to escape if you're wrong
about your friend," he murmurs. Not that he truly doubts Lakshmi, just.
Considering tactics.
"He won't. He will help us, he always looked after me when we were children."
She insists on it, she has too. Like the world is ever that simple, or that kind. Not self-aware enough, maybe, or her own brand of naivety. It will not happen, because she is sure of it. But even so, her hand absently grips to him tightly before she forces it to loosens. A face-masked in calm festivity.
It has to be better, it must be better, so many had given so much.
That ... seems a little foolish, admittedly. But what can Miles do but try to believe her? He certainly doesn't have a better plan. "All right," he says with a soft sigh. "But I'm preparing for the worst here."
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The steps go on and on, up and up. Enough to make the breathing hard for a while. This could not be a more direct path into the city, the ones outside took meandering winding paths through the hills and rocks, but it was a steep one to take upstairs that were roughly carved into the rock itself. Not walked on enough to be smooth. After all, it was a secret tunnel, if there were workers in here shaping every stone, it wouldn't be that secret, she supposed as she kicked a stray stone in the effort of climbing them.
Until at long last, they do start to hear the sounds of life - people, rumbling above them. Until they reach the top of those endless stairs, and what lies in front of them is an assuming wooden door. Old, rough looking. Eagerly she stepped toward until rather more pointedly, Jhalkari cleared her throat. Nodding to the door and the unspoken - Rani, what if it is a trap? that makes Lakshmi pull back to let the other woman go first. Watching her open it only a fraction, enough for her guard to slip through to the dim light that left her paused and nervous next to him. Her own nervous tick, of sinking her teeth into the inside of her lip playing in the anxiousness of waiting. "She will come as soon as it is clear."
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"I'm sure she'll be fine," he breathes. "We've come this far, haven't we?"
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Nothing for it for the moment, she dropped down to bob on the balls of her feet. "She will, but... " they had come so far, and in the moments where she ever had to be still, there was the uneasy feeling of what she had to lose, too.
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She doesn't touch him turn, but there is the turn, however slight, of her head towards his hand, how she had turned up into him the night before. That must be enough for now, and for that, it is everything. "We will." I do. and she realises as she thinks it, that she does, she trusts him, implicitly, with her whole being. More than for stolen kisses, than the warmth of his body against her. With her life.
This isn't the time. She hears more movements, and then the door is pulled open and Jhalkari appears again, dusty, but none the worse for wear. Rattling off her report as she makes room for everyone to come through, a hour or so until the festivities began. But clear for now.
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It turns out that he was right, which he's glad about. He rises back up to his feet, looking to Lakshmi for guidance. "Off we go, then? While the coast is clear?"
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Hardly like she needs to ask - but she does, if only to make sure before she nods to her own people, they begin to arrange themselves carefully, making sure they were covered in the long looping material, to keep themselves obscure. To make it seem like they were just an odd family out to enjoy the festivities. Like anyone else.
Here's for hoping no one else looked aside. But once it's done - her hand grips to the sword at her hip in comfort - her eyes forward and she nods at them to open the door that connects the rooms to the streets outside and it's a floodgate opening to step out into the street.
The firecrackers are loudest. Set off in these back streets and from rooftops, the thick wash of smoke that filled the air, the shrieks of laughter, singing and the drums - beaten over it all filling the streets. Each doorstep with images of lotuses in brightly coloured powder (a great deal smudged now from when they had been done in the morning). Flowers that hung in ropes of rich jasmine that made the air sickly sweet that hung around the necks of men and women, and caught in the hair of children as they ran with sparklers - and around everything, lights. Thousands upon thousands of lights, lanterns and oil burners left that became brighter as the sunset.
There was a different tang to it, at least tonight. A fullness in the air, a snap to each breath that she took. The people looked just as she said, hungry. Lean. Some of them half starved. A sharp edge to it, no matter the festivities. Waiting, with a deep, deep breath before a deeper plunge. The night air at least was not as hot, as they came into cooler seasons. Made the fires seem warmer, a relief to be near.
No need to rush, now, to seem like any other family moving through the crowds as they began towards the main streets. Because there was one thing that cannot be ignored, the people on the streets were dressed in a dozen colours, wearing their newest clothes, as fine as each person could afford. Every colour, and many of them all at once. But removed at the side of the streets, were the UC guards. Dressed in the favoured deep red and white of their uniforms. Wearing their plasma rifles openly without even the pretext of stunners, helmets over their faces. Removed and joking amongst themselves as they stood at the edge and were given wide birth by almost everyone. A palpable fear of them in the way people turned their faces away.
She slipped until she was standing beside Naismith, dropping low to speak to him. "Tonight we celebrate the triumph of Good over Evil. When Lord Rama defeated the Demon King Ravan."
no subject
He follows her out into the streets - and wonder stops him a moment, despite his awareness of how urgent their cause is. He shouldn't just stand here, but it's hard not to. Fireworks, flowers, and festivities, it seems. The air seems heavy with impending frivolities. And - danger too. He need only look one person in the face to remember why he's here. They have a liberation to finish ...
He stays close to Lakshmi as they go, not entirely sure what role he should assume here. Pretend to be a child with that stature of his? Pretend to be Lakshmi's companion? Maybe he'll just walk close and hope everyone else figures it out. He lingers a moment on the UC guards, sizing them up. Best not to get into a fight if they can avoid it.
"An appropriate night then," he murmurs. "Maybe it's good luck."
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But oh, she might love him, now she thinks of it, as she watches him size the guards. If only it would be so easy as to tell him to throw them down. But this isn't the time or place. No - they have business to attend too, and it would not do if they were to look so serious when everyone else, no matter how hungry and embittered, was throwing themselves into the only respite they had.
Before the guards can catch any of them looking too long, she pushes to carry them along, if a great deal more sedated, in the mime of that dance she had performed for him. Playful, light, catching the eye of Jhalkari with a jerk of her chin as she does so. Something the woman follows along with, hastily going to get them flowers, just like everyone else. An easily procured item of the many, many people on the streets. Half a dozen that had been discarded in the festivities that are procured and tossed to her. Caught in one hand, she steels her face into something a sight more cranky. "Eh -!" The bark of her voice is deeper, where she rolls into her native tongue. Not a Queen but just one of the many people on the streets, cutting on her words a great deal more rougher than the air of gentilities her tutors had given her. I was born on streets like these, after all.
"-Piya, you had best not look at other women! Or I will pray that Lord Ganesh cut your fingers from you." A nagging jealous beloved, who the guards laugh at, the other people wave on with smiles of their faces for foolish people in love, as she tugs a handful of flowers free from stems of the necklace and tosses them at him. Showering him in flower petals in her mocking ire, at him and then at Taura for good measure. It's an easy role to play at least, and Jhalkari laughs for it, Vijay rolls his eyes.
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"My apologies," he says, mimicking her accent, though he makes a show of taking a moment to tear away his eyes. As if he really was cheating a little just now. "I was just thinking of how much more beautiful you were?"
He hates to lilt the question into his tone, but. Well. Keeping up the act. It makes it easier for him to grin as she showers him with petals, to catch one of the flowers out of the air and offer it to her.
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"Rascal." Mollified, as she fixes it into her hair. "I still might, just so you can't trouble me anymore with your wondering."
And she flicks her skirt, skipping a step forward that is more pointed. Direct. Her eyes sharp with it as she directs him onwards - run, Admiral, and the guards will not look too hard at a lovers squabble. Rather they whistle, cheering them on. Go on then, let's see her catch him.
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Letting get him ahead of her in the thrall before she lengthens her stride to catch up with him. Less a playful weave as more direct. Sparing a glance behind her to check the rest of their team were coming up behind them. At a reasonable distance past the guards, she comes against his side. Catching him by linking her arm through his. Laughing breathlessly with the effort of running. "Well done."
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"There - that is where we are going." And they weren't the only ones, many people were heading that way - as she pointed from the top of the hill they walked up, and before them like a snaking squall of lights, music and brightly dressed people - that were working their way to the Palace that towered up and above.
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Ah. That is a hell of a place. Miles can't help but look a bit nervous staring up at it. "It'll be a hell of a place to escape if you're wrong about your friend," he murmurs. Not that he truly doubts Lakshmi, just. Considering tactics.
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She insists on it, she has too. Like the world is ever that simple, or that kind. Not self-aware enough, maybe, or her own brand of naivety. It will not happen, because she is sure of it. But even so, her hand absently grips to him tightly before she forces it to loosens. A face-masked in calm festivity.
It has to be better, it must be better, so many had given so much.
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