"This #egalitarian dream sounds like just that — a dream," Tiny said. "We're just trying to survive here!"
"I really thought things were getting better," Melody said. "We had made so much progress."
"Things don't just get better," Revin said. "You have to fight for them."
#vss365
Tagvss365
"Can you get home safe?" Revin asked Melody.
"I'm not sure," she said. "The #community has changed and I'm terrified to go out after dark."
"Stay here tonight," Revin said. "You take the bed. I'll sleep on the floor."
Melody laid down, then there was a knock at the door.
#vss365
Rory welcomed Melody into his tiny, attic room. With no chair, they sat on the bed.
"What's happening is horrible," she said. "Why are you here? Aren't you at terrible risk?"
"We needed someone who wasn't a #foreigner," Revin said. "And I was the only one we could send."
#vss365
A restive crowd roared with #thunderous approval as armloads of books carried out of the library were given to the flames. Revin saw Melody let herself down from a window. She cowered when he put a hand on her shoulder.
"It's me!" he whispered.
Hope sprang into her eyes.
#vss365
Revin, wearing worn, rough clothes, stood with his beat-up, old trunk at the Devishire aerodrome & watched as the airship Bellewhether rose to #eclipse the setting sun as it traveled back toward Harway. Then, he turned & headed toward Market Street to see about a room. #vss365
"#Pray do me a favor, Terrier," Revin asked.
"Anything, Sir Revin."
"Do you have any old hand-me-downs that might fit?"
"…"
"Hello?"
"I'm sorry, Sir," he said. "Are you asking about clothes? Old clothes?"
"Yes. For a disguise."
"Ah!" he said. "I'll see what I can find."
#vss365
"Let's use a book #cipher," the Baron said. "But not a book you have or carry with you in case you're captured. What's a book you could get in the library on Devishire?"
"How about 'Throes of Her Unbridled Passion'?" Revin suggested.
The Baron raised an eyebrow.
#vss365 #cypher
"Ssh!" Revin said to Lidja, pulling the sheet over their heads when he heard the Queen open the connecting door. Lidja giggled.
"I know you're in there," the Queen said. "That's not what I meant when I said you would need to go #undercover!"
#vss365
"#Freeze!" the assassin said, holding a crossbow on the Queen. The guards stopped. Revin closed his eyes & spotted an etheric stream. Not certain he was close enough, he tried to make a towline to the quarrel.
"Charge!" Revin cried, as the quarrel was snatched up & away.
#vss365
"Your #utopia on Havelock is struggling," the Queen said. "The commoners are poorly educated and choose their leaders by whim rather than being governed by any principle."
"Oh? Are aristocrats governed by principles?" Revin countered.
The Queen rolled her eyes. "Touché."
#vss365