The Seven Before - III. Plans

Chapter III.
Plans and Where to Begin

Maxandria strode down one of the off shoot hallways in the living corridors. It was somewhat occupied with other residents, her own quarters were in this hallway. She passed by the door to her room and went down a few more doors, nearly to end. All these rooms were single rooms, designed for one person without need or want for much room or other commodities.

She stopped before one door, as plain as the rest and beat on the door with all the force she could muster for a good minute. It created an awful ruckus the echoed through the hallway and made her ears ring almost painfully. She waited while the echo died for a response from within. The silence after her commotion was deafening, but she received no answer.

Once more she began to hammer on the door, trying to put more force into the poundings. Her hand was throbbing and she passed to massage it, her ears laid back to her skull in attempt to dull the clamor. This time there was a solid thud within the room and some rather loud obnoxious swearing. There was a sound of clanking glass and then the door slid open.

The view Max looked at was unsurprising but she thought it showed a bit of excess even for the woman she observed.

Mitzi was in the state of almost the worst hangover Max had even seen her in. Her hair was ratty and looked like something had been spilled in it. She wore nothing but a frayed tank top and underwear. The bags under her eyes looked like they could fit an apricot and rivaled the dark brown of her irises. If looks could kill (and sometimes they did).

Behind Mitzi, Max could see several empty beer bottles, and a whiskey bottle Max knew was somewhat precious and only opened in specific situations.

"Why don't you just take a sleeping pill like a normal person?" She gave Mitzi a sympathetic look that seemed to only make the other woman more irate. "You need to clean up pronto, Mitz. Seems we're going over everything. Again."

She received and impressive imitation of a growl in response. "Pills give me nightmares, Jackal. You know that. And why for [eff's] sake are we meeting about this again?" She turned and went back into her cluttered but surprising clean apartment. A small, lazy wave was Max's invite to enter.

Max shrugged and followed, "I don't honestly know. I found some evidence of others gathering to fight, but nothing that will really change our current course. But higher rulings have been made."

As Mitzi pulled out fresh clothes and some hygienic items she sighed. She offered no insight to her thoughts but gathered her stuff into her arms and nodded at Max, "I get it. I'll be right there. Sorry you had to fetch me, just gets hard to think about what we're about to try to pull off sometimes. Y'know, Jackal?"

A small smile and nod was the only response she had for Mitzi. They left the room and parted ways at the larger main corridor. This floor had the working showers, which was why Max had chosen it, and probably the same reason for Mitzi, she imagined. That woman liked to drink, but seldom to a drunken state. Funny how as a medic, the very medicines she divvied out often had unpleasant side effects of her.

She dispatched the those thoughts and thought on where Kit and Cori could be. When they would show themselves from day to day often varied unless there was a reason to raise at a certain time. Though they planned I leaving today, there was no real specific time they had planned to leave. Only before the morning was up. Some dramatist had tried to insist they all disperse at dawns first light, but thankfully that had been overruled fully.

Max made her way towards the apartment the two women shared. As good as any place to start. The journey was short. She rapped upon the metal door with her knuckles. The action was lighter than she would usually knock, but her hands and wrists were still tingling from her efforts to wake Mitzi.

It was only a moment later that the door opened. Cori stood there in a pair of jeans that looked comfortably worn, and a t-shirt displaying a skull and other scattered bones. The cut and style of the clothing was rather masculine, giving Cori the appearance of a male. Such an appearance that it was seemed missed place to say 'she.'

Idly, Max thought about how her and everyone just kind of referred to Cori as a girl, though that was not entirely accurate. No one really knew for sure was gender Cori was. However, the rest of the group was comprised of women and Cori appeared feminine whenever she wore something like a dress, or some other such girly clothing, so it had just been kind of adopted to refer to Cori as a her or by name.

Before Cori could say anything, Kit appeared dressed in an outfit that fit her tight curves snugly but was made of a material that would beeasy to move around in. She smiled sweetly at Max, "We were just about to leave, Max."

Max returned the smile with her characteristic grin, "Perfect timing then, I just roused Mitzi. Seems we need to speak briefly before we go."

"Cori cannot see any reason for another meeting," Cori responded. That was one of the things that made Cori's gender such an enigma. Cori always spoke in the third person.

Max let out a soft sigh. "Well, I couldn't convince them that it was unnecessary. I did decrypt a few messages last night indicating that some places are beginning to gather for their own rebellions, but nothing gave hint at any actions going to be taken soon. Really, I've seen dozens of messages like this for a year or two now, why suddenly they have to se them is beyond me. Gerolf is in part to blame."

Kit nodded almost sympathetically and Cori just looked at Max.

"We'll I suppose we should all get going then," Kit stepped past Cori and into the hallway by Max. Cori was right behind her and the three went up to the meeting room.

When they arrived at the meeting room, the others were already there, including other council members. Max looked around taking note. Nick looked like she was trying to keep as much room between her and Gerolf who sat next to her, while pointed visiting quietly with Dreamfire to ignore his continuous attempts to gain her attention. Usually, it seemed to Max that Nick enjoyed his company, but apparently today was not so.

Curious, but not enough so, she took a seat next to Dreamfire, and the others filled in on her other side. Mitzi was still absent.

"Wonderful, perhaps while we wait, Max can pull up what she discovered and we will see what there might need to be done." Blitz was cheerful and despite how feeble he seemed, everyone quieted down when he spoke remained quiet. Though the silence was expectant and focused unpleasantly on Max herself.

Oh, how she hated attention. Her jackal-like ears folded back and she busily began typing away at her keyboard. Almost immediately a few dozen screens began to pop up. Each had a coded message and the gathered watched as the coding shifted away into words they could read and understand.

Below the hovering messages, a horizontal screen flickered into life displaying the map of the realm with certain cities highlighted. The marked cities were colored coded with the messages to show which ones came from where. Everyone studied the messages and map quietly, with a few comments here and there amongst themselves. That is when Mitzi slipped in silently and took a seat.

Max reviewed some of the messages herself.

"We need to find others. So many people are talking about it, where are they now that we are trying to stand up?"

This message was in multiple parts as there was a conversation between the sender and recipient.

"You know what they say about talk. Yes, we need more people, but maybe we should try somewhere else. Somewhere that cowards are few and this [crap], with the 'all mighties' that be, is not put up with."

"I just can't abide by the idea of abandoning everyone. We are equally miserable. I think we should give it more time and trying to convince them."

"Okay, I really don't see anything that changes much. Only maybe we ought 4o get moving," Mitzi spoke up after several minutes.

"Now, hold on a moment," A woman of the council, Cecilia, said with quiet dignity, "I only glanced at the messages themselves. They alone are not a big concern. However, look at the map and where the messages stem from. Maxandria, would you mind group the messages by what city they originate from, and perhaps give us a count on the map, please."

Max grinned catching onto the idea Cecilia had. In a second all the screens lined up and over lapped into a sort of condensed list each with its own color and numbers began popping up over the colored cities according to the number of messages from them. It was an interesting enlightenment. Max hadn't paid much attention to how many messages came from where while she was decoding, but now it it seemed more important than the messages alone.

It gave an interesting perspective. What initially surprised Max the most was how there was almost nothing going on in the outer reaches of the realm. The Most messages were actually from places closer to the capital. It made more sense, though, as she thought about. They felt the horros most keenly, and the capital and its closest cities were, of course, the most wealthy and favor the blessings of the gods.

"Well, that is certainly most interesting, " Blitz spoke softly and in a way that all this held a greater meaning to him than the rest saw.

To Max, it only seemed like maybe the Outer Reaches would be a placee to go last. They appeared rather unconcerned, but if there were already alarger force built up to 'redistribute' power, they may be inclined to help. If not that, she figured they were more likely stay out of it all together.

Then another from the council stood. He was perhaps the tallest person of everyone living there, but was shocking mild mannered. His voice was deep as he put voice to Max's thoughts. "We forget, though, how limited the Outer Reaches are looking at things this way. They suffer the worst. Their sacrifices are not a choice. Everything is taken from them. I still stand by our course. I have seen them. They stick together and they will jump to abandon the ways of the present."

Others murmured a bit. Some showed agreement, and others shook their heads. Max watched them. She knew all the messages, she could see everything going through any form of electronic system. That her gift, she was conected without need of assistance. Everything she did here was mere rearrangement with thought. She felt it was tied to her origins. Origins she was still trying to figure out.

Nick broke into the quiet disagreements, "Seriously, we should hold course. If we dicker over every little thing like this we will never get anywhere. Yes, people are starting to try to rally others in the Middle Reaches. This is good to know, we will have places to start there. But many of them are either still too afraid of the gods or not yet ready to stand and fight. Let their own work on bringing them around for now. They are a far cry from taking any action. The Outer Reaches are already gather together they are simply so community focused they don't realize how many are fed up. If we can get them going we can begin to have a forcenlarge enough that the Middle Reaches will see that they don't have to keep giving up their children. Then theybwill be more likely to see how life can be different." The woman let out a breath, and sat back down in a huff. Her silver eyes lookedmfrom one person to the next with a daring challenge.

Surprisingly, Gerolf Was tyenone to argue against Nick. "You can't know that-!"

"We can't know know anything, Gerolf! Don't even try that point," Dreamfire jumped in the middle of his argument. "We stick to gather the Outer Reaches and work inward." She broked no room to argue.

Cori stood up, "Cori will not alter her course."

"We're not changing anything," Kit spoke up, "whether any of you like it. This is our mission."

"It is high time we took control of it," Mitzi was standing now as well.

Max took to her feet all the screens fading out. There was a slightly mocking edge to her last words, "If you would excuse us, we need to get going."

The six women, Max, Mitzi, Kit, Cori, Dreamfire, and Nick, left the room without another word from anyone.