Aureum watched Gaudi's words become true. Even with the violence already suffered this night, despite the orderly way all had conducted themselves during the attack, as soon as the enemy left, they floundered.
Questions and chaos filled the air. Despair and outrage filled the refugees' voices as they spoke.
"Why do they still attack?! Haven't we convinced them we're harmless?"
A woman asked this with a shrill voice filled with terror.
"Quiet!" Lilium, Lacuna's mother, hissed.
"We can only hope—
Lacuna began to reply, but her gentle voice was cut over.
"Hope is not enough!" A man said. "We must do something! They are going to keep attacking us! In our city! Our home!"
Together, they were a crowd of hundreds, maybe even thousands. All talking and arguing.
Lacuna and Sitis should not be the leaders of such a group. The teachers, the faculty, and the researchers were the ones that should have been talking to the crowd.
Everywhere Aureum looked, though, she only recognized students of Fluentem. She didn't know what had happened, but she could guess.
Nix must have taken them or killed them.
This realization was a side note to her first concern, though.
"We should do something!" Aureum said, stepping next to Lacuna. "But we don't need to discuss it out here. Shouldn't we go inside?"
Namely, her goal was to try and break up the crowd to calm them down. The crowd quieted only a little.
"You're the one who burst all our eardrums! Who are you to tell us what to do?"
"She's the one who attacked us?! I thought it was a trick by Nix!"
From that point, Aureum's words weren't doing her any favors. She considered using mana to amplify her voice for a moment to cut through the clamor, but a second thought rejected that idea. It might just make things worse.
"She has a point," another man said. "We should at least get the children to bed,"
"But she attacked us!"
"So? Is she attacking us now? She was probably just trying to help. Let the university deal with her."
Cooler heads prevailed for tonight. No more had died tonight, and it wasn't the first time this happened. The refugees slowly dispersed.
"You'll tell us anything new, Lillium?"
"Of course," Lacuna's mother replied to the other woman. "Get your children to bed, silly girl."
There were many that didn't go. Maybe forty in total, still a small crowd. Sitis, Lacuna, Lilium, and Gaudi were among those still there. There was a heavy uneven split between those from university and the refugees.
"We should head inside ourselves," Sitis said.
It was the first thing he said directed at the entirety. Everyone followed him back inside like all of that was normal. Aureum couldn't tell if that meant he was the leader. She didn't know if there was a real leader here.
The nearest auditorium served as a much better setting for discussion than standing around outside.
Aureum found herself without anything to do in the brooding silence. Where the crowd had all been loud, angry questions, this group was muted burdens.
"How are things with the food, Lilium?" Sitis finally asked.
"We've managed to beg something from some bakeries around the city, but as kind as a gesture it is, it won't last."
"I see," Sitis said.
Aureum felt the weight of the silence that followed bearing down on her.
"They aren't wrong," a stranger to Aureum said. "We need to attack."
"How?" another man said. "They took any weapons and nearly everyone who can fight. No offense to Sitis and the rest of the university. We all know what they're capable of. But they aren't enough! Do you think us men from the Outer City have a chance against soldiers?"
"We have plenty of motivation!" The older man nearly growled his words. "And it's just going to keep growing!"
"There weren't any deaths," Sitis said, cutting in. "Our motivation is to live. Unless we can remove Nix entirely, any fight we have will only end in death."
"Sitis, are you talking about the university or the people living in it?" Gaudi said.
"Both," Sitis said, grimacing after speaking.
"Well, I guess the wedding didn't get them off our backs for long," Gaudi said. "What are we going to try next? If they don't respect marriage, and we sure know they don't respect life, what's next?"
"We don't even have a chance? The main army from Nix is already gone!"
The man who wanted to fight looked at Sitis with desperation. Sitis' eyebrows twitched.
"As a mercenary from Bonumbas, I never dealt with large forces," Sitis said.
Ah.
Some things now made sense to Aureum. Like why the older men were questioning and looking to Sitis and not the rest of the university students. Or why the rest of the students stepped aside when he must have been one of the newest students.
Sitis had the most experience in fighting. He was originally a mercenary from Bonumbas.
He's their commander, if nothing else.
If a group of refugees and errant fledgling sorcerers could have a commander.
"You've been watching us deal with the soldiers. You don't have any idea how we'd fare?"
Sitis shook his head.
"Don't make me answer that."
The man was desperate, but only ignorance could have given him any optimism on that front.
The soldiers hadn't been fighting for real. It's true that the people of Fluentem didn't have weapons, but.
Without organization, training, and food, they would be a lost cause.
"Is there nothing we can do but wait for death then?" He said.
"We've already sent people to request the Lord—
Lacuna got cut off.
"And heard nothing back! Nothing! If the choices are dying slowly or dying quickly, we should head out!"
"And for those with families?" Lilium coldly questioned.
"We'll be making a distraction so that those with families, and those families themselves, will have a chance to get out."
Lilium lifted her scowl at him a little. This idea was considered for a few moments. Maybe—
"Won't work," Sitis said. "We don't have enough people to split the groups small enough for them to go unnoticed and protected. But if we leave in force, we'll be crushed in the streets with the possibility of being attacked from the walls."
BANG!
"There has to be something! Anything! I can't accept this!"
The man had taken his fist to the table before he spoke.
"Easy there," Gaudi said. "I know exactly the feeling, but breaking the table won't help."
"Sitis, we need a solution! Not half-answers. And what's that girl from earlier doing here?"
Aureum flinched, but then glared at him. She hadn't expected to be pulled into this. Sitis didn't respond quickly enough.
"She made a scene at the wedding too. Is she a friend? Is that why she here?"
"Actually," Sitis began. "We may have one way to solve our problems."
Everyone turned back to him, even Aureum.
"You might have seen Aureum up on the wall," he said.
"Me—
"So what, is she here to be punished? That should be the only reason she should be allowed here. She attacked us and spread incohesion! Even if it wasn't intended, we can't have people follow her example."
"Am I?!" Aureum asked, turning to Lacuna and Sitis.
Lacuna shook her head.
"No," Sitis said. "We didn't even ask you to come sit with us. How could you think we would punish you?"
"I havecaused trouble, but…" Aureum said, "but I was trying to help."
"The situation isn't her fault, but Nix's." Sitis sighed after he spoke. "But something still must be done."
He took a long pause before he continued. His words were directed towards everyone.
"I have an idea of what to do with her, but I'd like to speak to her privately before anything is decided."
"She can't stay here, Sitis." Lilium said. "She made herself such a target. Nix will use her as an excuse to attack us."
"And you think they'll stay put even if she's gone?" Sitis said.
The reality sunk into them. Nix would be coming against them.
Sitis showed no greater concern than when he had first sat down. The same heavy expression wore itself into his brow.
"We still have hope," Sitis said.
"You said we can't fight them!"
"If we fight alone, we lose," Sitis said. "This fact doesn't change. Neither does Aureum drawing their attention change Nix's goals. If it wasn't her, it would be another thing. They would find a way."
"Yes, but it would take more time for them to find an excuse…!"
"If she agrees with what I want," Sitis said. "We wouldn't be fighting alone. But I can't make a clear decision right now. Let's resolve everything else we can, and I'll tell you what we can do tomorrow. We can discuss it then."
"You'll have a plan tomorrow?"
"…Yes," Sitis replied.
The older man stared at Sitis for a long time, then leaned back.
"If you can truly come up with something by tomorrow that'll fix all of this, I'll dance naked on the rooftops of this damn place, forget about anything dealing with your wife's friend."
The rest of the conversation was a blur to Aureum. It was a combination of reports and discussions of reports and plans to react to the reports.
Organization.
From the moment Aureum saw the orderly line of women and children, she had seen the results of this. But, as she didn't know the situation, wasn't familiar with the university, and still hardly knew anyone's names, nearly all of it went over her head.
How am I supposed to help fix this? Aureum thought. I don't even know what part of the city they're talking about right now.
Even if it was just Sitis' attempt to cover for Aureum, she felt the expectations of the room.
I can't run away, she thought. I won't.
The heart was willing, but she had little hope that her will would change anything major in one night.
What will happen when I stay? Aureum thought.
Someone needed to be told about Gemmo, if nothing else.
If he's gone—
Aureum's throat tightened at the thought.
Then that is what it is. But if he's still alive, he can't be allowed to stay in Nix's hands.
It was easy to decide who to tell. Aureum's gaze turned to Lacuna.
"I understand the concerns about food, but I think keeping the bedding clean and dry has to stay a priority. If someone catches a cold, it's far too easy for things to spread. Without more rooms being ready to use we can only…
Lacuna was hard at work in her own way. Aureum felt that familiar mix of jealousy and awe. Everything Aureum wanted, Lacuna seemed to obtain so easily.
Aureum let her gaze fall into her hands.
She'd be perfect to raise Gemmo probably.
Her hand clenched into a fist. That wasn't going to happen. Aureum tried to refocus on the meeting's discussion. And partially succeeded.
Even such an eventful night had to come to an end. There came a point where, despite everyone's dissatisfaction at nearly every solution they had, nothing more could be done. At least while they couldn't pick apart whatever Sitis had in mind. They had to end it and get some rest.
The others left, broken into smaller groups that mostly murmured misgivings along their way. Lacuna was in the distant doorway talking to her mother. Aureum went to get up, but Sitis spoke.
"Wait a bit," he said. "There's no point in going to another room just to talk more."
Aureum froze and sat down again awkwardly. She barely managed not to hunch.
"I can't leave you here, Sitis," Aureum said. "I may be a coward, but I won't leave everyone here to die."
"I never thought you a coward," Sitis said tiredly. "But I need you to leave, all the same."
"I just said—
"Not to leave us to die, Aureum," Sitis said, turning to face her, "but to bring allies back to us so we can live. Or food, or weapons. Aureum, you came into here while the city was under lockdown, so you can leave and come back. This is my hope."
"That's…
That sounds like an excuse to me, Aureum thought.
Who was Aureum in Sitis' mind that she could find allies for Fluentem?
I can at least store some food in my ring, but enough for all the people here?! No way!
Even as her thoughts denied it, it showed she had considered it. Even if just for half a second.
"Sitis, if you send me out there, do you think I'll be able to come back with gold? …It's pretty likely I'll just start another war on top of the rest of this mess…"
"Aureum," Sitis said. "Look at me."
Aureum did. His warm eyes stared back, her from hollow sockets and a gaunt face. She swallowed.
"We're desperate," Sitis said. "Anything you can bring us is welcome. And if you can't do anything, then I'll still have to ask you to return."
Aureum couldn't speak quick enough. Her throat choked on the words.
"I'll need you to lead out Lacuna and anyone else you can—
"We should discuss it with her!" Aureum said, her minor outrage masking her horror at the suggestion.
"I agree," Lacuna said softly, from behind him.
Sitis, the tall and built Sitis, jumped a little.
"I won't be going anywhere without you," Lacuna said.
The couple shared a glance and a little moment.
Aureum felt even the shadow of mirth fade.
"I came here to ask for help myself..." she said. Her words came out a little surer but a little faster as she continued. "I can't—look, if I manage to somehow make a miracle, can I ask you two for something in return?"
"Anything, of course," Lacuna said.
"Name it," Sitis said.
"There's two… I was separated…"
Aureum tried to speak resolutely, but her throat failed her. If she was to speak, it would be through tears.
"I left," Aureum began again, her voice a hoarse whisper, "two I care about greatly… to the soldiers of Nix…"
Again, Aureum's voice failed her. Lacuna grasped her hand, trying to give some support.
"…and that might not be of such great concern to anybody, and they might already be dead! But! It's of great importance to me! That the baby, well, maybe the boy, is found, and not left in their clutches because that would be bad, very bad—
"Take a breath," Lacuna said. "Take it slow."
"I left Hiems and Gemmo behind and now I don't even know if they're alive!"
And, with that, the truth was in daylight. Aureum collapsed in on herself. With Lacuna and Sitis being patient, Aureum was able to tell them the story more coherently. And the two were finally able to understand it.
Sitis became very quiet. Lacuna asked directed questions for clarity.
Yet, when it was finished, even Lacuna didn't have much to say.
"I know you're worried about Gemmo being controlled by Nix, but the greater concern—
Lacuna pinched Sitis before he could finish that sentence.
Aureum watched this. Lacuna ignored her gaze like it was nothing.
"I know they might both be dead," Aureum said. "But remember what I've said about Gemmo. If—If he's still alive and not being used, then you can't let Nix control him! No matter what happens."
"…"
Sitis was quiet.
"We'll keep it in mind, Aureum," Lacuna said, "but for now, we aren't even able to save ourselves."
"I know," Aureum said, her voice very small. "I'll do my best."