Written from a writing prompt: ‘A porpoise that can survive on land.’ Needless to say, the porpoise took a backseat in the story. Wars, drinking, and A names abound....

The liquor that was currently being swirled around in the glass matched the sky outside the castle walls. Sometimes The Watchers, who controlled everything these days, including the color of the sky, had weird senses of humor. Or maybe they were just all-around weird.

‘Or very, very twisted,’ the alcohol swirlier thought, his eyes on the amber liquid. He was so enthralled, he failed to notice the slight figure that came slipping into the room. It wasn’t until he felt eyes on him that Akito, the Prince of Discordia, looked up. His tired gray eyes met a pair of black eyes that were nothing but irises.

“Ack!” Ayame jumped and gin went everywhere. “Alyce! You scared me! What are you doing out of your room?”

Thanks to The Watchers, he was forced to keep his little sister in her room as much as possible. What good that did, he didn’t know, but it made him feel better to know where she was; if she was still on

Discordia.

Alyce extended a hand in answer. A white telegramaphone was held securely in her long, pale fingers. Ayame reached for it listlessly, then sat up straight when he read what was on the paper. The note

was terse and to the point.

“What does it say?” Alyce asked. She spoke so seldom but Ayame was in no mood to appreciate it.

Mouth dry, he forced the words, ‘King killed in sniper attack,’ over his equally dry lips.

Ayame heard his name being called, but didn’t bother to respond. Any other time, he would have been up and running towards the voice, but now, he barely heard it. It didn’t matter if he answered or not, because in the next second, the crier came bursting though the doors. Ayame looked up at a brown-haired man standing in the doorway, still dressed in his state robes, which were now looking very well worn. His eyes flashed in alarm behind his glasses.

“Ayame!” the man cried. “Are you...where...when...what.... Isn’t this the same position I left you in?”

“I’ve moved,” Ayame said quietly. The man’s attempt at humor dropped immediately.

“Ayame, I’m so sorry. Where’s Alyce?”

“I sent her off to play with Roland. She didn’t know what the telegramaphone said until I told her, but she knew it was bad. She wasn’t expecting anything better.”

The man swallowed, looking distinctly unsettled. Ayame sighed.

“Akito, calm down. I’m fine, and so is Alyce. I think Father knew what kind of trouble he’d be getting into over there, but he couldn’t afford not to take the chance.”

“What about the Insurrectionists?” Akito asked, coming over to sit by Ayame on the sofa.

“I’ll just have to lead them without Father’s help now, won’t I?” Ayame responded, the first of the tears threading to break forth. He felt his face scrunch up, but he wouldn’t let them fall. There was no time for weakness. Not when so many depended on him. “I’ve been... leading them for...a while now....”

He stopped abruptly, hearing his voice waver. He put his elbows on his knees and let his hands dangle between his legs.

“I think... Father had been preparing me... for... something like this.”

Then, his munitions broke and tears splattered on his hands. He felt Akito’s hands on his sides, and he fell sideways onto his friend’s knees, tucking his feet under the pillows he had been lying on.

“So many deaths,” he sighed to Akito’s legs, still half-lying on the couch. “And now, the final straw. Did it have to be another death to make me work harder at defeating The Watchers?”

Akito didn’t answer. He simply sat there, calmly letting his friend cry his sorrow for his father out on his knees.

A week later, a white-faced Ayame was standing on one end of a long table, the seats occupied by about fifty men and women.

“I suppose you all know why I’ve called this emergency Insurrectionists meeting today?” he started in a clear, firm voice. There were murmurs of assent from the assembled.

“Needless to say, the death of my Father puts a hitch in our plans. But only a slight one.” Ayame raised his voice over the swell of conversation that had ensued. “No matter what your feelings on the matter may be, I am going to treat this as a casualty of war, and am going to use to only to spur me harder to end this war.”

“Here here,” a man cried out.

Ayame smiled at the outburst. The man who had spoken was probably one of their most important allies. His name was Randy, and he and his twin brother Randall were both Watchers, turned traitor for the Insurrectionists. The Watchers had many spies out of ordinary citizens, but in all the history of Discordia, Ayame had never heard of a Watcher turning traitor.

In the year 1313, Earth had fallen apart. Not literally, but it was no longer fit to be inhabited by humans. The cause was what everyone was fearing: pollution. The air had become toxic, and just one hour upon the planet was certain death.

The Earthlings had then traveled many galaxies in search of another planet. They finally found one and named it Discordia, so they would never forget what had happened the last time.

The Earthlings, now turned Discordians, had lived peacefully on their new planet, which was very much like Earth atmospherically. It was inhabited by no strange animals, and people were able to get their

lives up and running again in no time. Pretty soon, life on Discordia was like life on Earth, save that everyone was extremely atmospheric-conscious.

Upon arriving on Discordia, the government decided to let the Royal Family have power again. They worked more intimately with the public, while the government ran things behind the scenes.

Then... disaster. A new President was elected. Things went fine for a few months into his term, then the nightmare hit. He decided that the reason that earth had failed last time was thanks to the women. He claimed that since women were in charge of birthing and living, they were also in charge of death. The planet wasn’t called Mother Earth for nothing.

It started out harmlessly, if not unjustly, enough. He kicked all the women out of their government positions, and encouraged the Royal Family to do the same. When the Family heard his suggestion, they

laughed in his face, which, of course made him mad. He then cut the Family’s power drastically, until there was almost nothing they could do anymore. He then made the government more powerful, and set the police on the public to watch the women.

It didn’t take long for the people to realize that this new system of leadership wasn’t working out too well, but buy that time, it was too late. The only people who could have helped them was the Royal Family, and they were reduced to nothing but figureheads.

The years went by. The president went more and more crazy with power, and soon, women were nothing more than slaves. The public also began to accept it, and soon, it was like nothing else had existed. Then

president had then gotten the bright idea to slowly eliminate women entirely.

Working together with the police, who, by that time, had come to be known as The Watchers, the government had devised a contraption that sent random women back to Earth at random times, where the atmosphere killed them. Giving credit where credit was due, the invention was most ingenious. All one had to do was type in who they wanted to transport, and where. The timing mechanism was set to ‘random’, so no one had to man it.

So if life wasn’t terrible for women before, it just got terrifying. A women could be walking down the street, coming back from shopping for their husband, when they would disappear. It kept every women on

constant alert.

As the years went by, the Royal Family started losing hope of whether they could ever help again. Then Ayame’s father came into power. He married the beautiful Cecilia, but even being Queen, he was still expected to treat her as a slave. He refused to do so, however, and kept her safe inside the castle walls. Everything went fine for a while. The King got a son to which he could pass the crown onto, and ten years later, Alyce was born.

Then, one day, during breakfast, Cecilia vanished. Nothing of her presence remained, save for her fork, which hovered for a second in the air, before clattering down on her plate. There was silence at the table for a second, then the king buried his face in his hands, and Alyce started crying, the first sound she had made since she had been born, five months ago.

That’s when the Insurrectionists were formed. Sick at the thought of not being able to save his wife, the King of Discordia rallied the rebels of the planet together, in secret. Both men and women alike joined, though there was doubt on both sides to whether the king was sincere or not. He soon proved that he was by forming a team to try and disable the machine that transported women to earth, but it failed. Ever since then, the Insurrectionists had stood silently in the wings,

helping what women they could they best they could, until it was their time to strike.

Now, ten years later, Ayame, son of Maximilian and Cecilia, stood in front of the members of the Insurrectionists, many of whom were original members. All were stedfast and brave, but none were so valuable as the twins, Randy and Randall and Ayame’s friend, Akito. The three of them had enemy ties; the twins were elite Watchers, and Akito worked for the government as the ambassador for Discordia.

“Now, I know that what I know about my father’s death isn’t going to satisfy you,” Ayame continued. “So I’ll have Akito take over for me.”

He sat down in his chair and nodded at Akito, who stood up.

“As most of you already know, I’m the Ambassador for Discordia, so it was only natural that I was with the King as he oversaw the war on Plex. It was his hope that if the people of Plex won, they would lend their hand to our cause. We were there for a few months, and everything seemed to be going rather well, but then a stray bullet hit the king, causing instant death.”

Akito shot a look over at Ayame, checking to see if he was offended by this offhand report but Ayame wasn’t listening. His hands were buried in his black hair, and he was staring at the table.

“The report made to the public was that it was a simple casualty of war,” Akito continued. “However, we know that it was a sniper attack, orchestrated by the government itself. I’m sure the twins can back me up on this.” Randall didn’t look up from the documents that were spread out in front of him, but Randy nodded. They did indeed know for a fact that the government was behind the assassination, but their knowledge came after the fact. “Thank you. Anyway, in short, Ayame is now King of Discordia by murder. We weren't going to lie to you. If the government has to start picking off the last good power this planet has, I believe that we have to do something about it.” Akito sat back down amid heavy silence.

“In other terrible and depressing news,” Randy spoke up. “Stocks are down.”

Everyone burst out laughing, shocking the silence out of the air.

“Eh, thank you Randy,” Ayame said as Randall smacked his twin upside the head. “So if anyone needs to dash out and sell, I’ll understand.” He was marginally amused to see everyone murmur and shake their heads. He caught Akito’s eye, who put his hands together and inclined his head in a bow.

‘Everyone is going to take you seriously now,’ Akito’s expression said. ‘Even on the most trivial things.’

The meeting was over in two hours, and Ayame was still trying to decide if Akito’s silent prediction was a good thing.

The two men were sitting in Ayame’s study, having a few nightcaps before the execution of the plan, which was set to be put in place tomorrow. The Insurrectionists would gather as many weapons as they

could and tomorrow, at Ayame’s signal, they would attack. However, the attack was a decoy. Ayame, Akito, the twins, and Alyce would get inside the building that held the transportation machine, and they would disarm it, like Ayame’s father tried to do, all those years ago. The plan was purposely simple. Ayame was afraid that The Watchers would be prepared for anything more complex. Randy assured him that the plan was uncomplicated enough.

“Personally,” he had volunteered. “I would be surprised.”

“Where’s Alyce?” Akito asked. “Have you told her about the plan?”

Ayame nodded. That was another thing to fight for. It was absolute essential that the women of Discordia be safe. He had his sister to look out for, and she was their only hope. All the women born into royalty were amazing in some way, none so much as Alyce. She was born with the ability to see glimpses of the future. Although education for women was strictly prohibited, Ayame and Akito had done their best to teach her all that she needed to know about the world, hoping that her gift would grow.

It didn’t reach it’s full capabilities until the arrival of Roland, a small porpoise that was able to breath on land for an extended period of time. It was soon found out that the porpoise was very intelligent,

and could speak to Alyce through the power that they both seemed to possess. It was through Roland that Alyce’s power grew so to such extents, that she was able not only to see what would happen, but to sense it far before it happened, as well.

“She didn’t seem too thrilled about it, though,” Ayame said.

“Who would? We’re putting her life on the line,” Akito replied, pouring some more bourbon. “As well as our own.”

“Well, this should be fun,” Ayame sighed. There was a knock on the door. “Come.”

The twins, Randy and Randall, plied in the room, each talking at once. Ayame raised a hand to quell the flow of words.

“One at a time, I beg you,” he said wearily.

The twins looked at each other, then back at Ayame.

“The women are under attack!” they cried. Ayame and Akito jumped to their feet, all weariness that they may have felt before falling away from them like a blanket.

“Where?”

“The town square,” Randall said. “We didn’t know about this. It seems to be a spur-of-the-moment action put into play by a few gangs in The Watchers. As they went along, more and more Watchers joined in,

until we were all attacking. Randy and I managed to get away with a few stuns, and we got here as soon as we could. If you would permit me, your Highness, I would venture to suggest that you put the plan into action a little sooner than planned.”

“You’re right,” Ayame said, running to the door. “Get Alyce....”

“Right here,” a quiet voice said. Alyce was standing in the doorway behind the twins, Roland at her feet. She was already dressed for bed; her long white hair was caught in a red ribbon that trailed down the back of her nightgown, but she looked ready to go. “Shall I give the signal?”

“If you would,” Ayame said.

She put her hands together and closed her eyes. To everyone’s slight amusement, Roland did the same, putting his flippers together and shutting his little eyes. They stood there silently, then Alyce’s

nightgown began to rustle, although there was no breeze outside and the windows were closed. The ribbon in her hair started flying around her face. Her eyes opened, and the twins gasped. Alyce’s eyes were totally black. Normally, her eyes had no pupils, but now there was no whiteness whatsoever. Ayame and Akito didn’t even flinch. They had seen her in action, and none of this was new to them.

Alyce parted her hands and raised them shoulder-high. The wind started howling and just as Ayame thought he couldn’t take it anymore, everything stopped. Alyce’s irises went back to normal and the wind stopped blowing. Akito lowered his hands from his glasses and looked around warily.

“Did it work?” he asked.

Alyce looked down at Roland, who looked back up at her.

“Yes,” she said, finally. “They know.”

“Good,” Ayame said. He scooped Alyce up in his arms and trusted Roland to follow. “Lets go.”

The twins weren't lying: the town square was in absolute chaos. The Watchers seemed to be shooting everything that moved, regardless to weather it was female or not. People were screaming and dying all around them and a few fires seemed to have broken out. The smell of ash and blood was thick on the air.

“Here,” Randall yelled over the noise. “Give Alyce to me.”

“Why?” Ayame yelled back, tightening his grip on his sister.

“Because she’ll most likely be shot if they see she isn’t at least in custody of a Watcher.”

Ayame handed her over without another word. Randall gently put her over his shoulder and held her in place by the legs. To anyone else, she looked like a sack of meal that had just been picked up from the ground.

“Look dead,” Randall ordered. “I don’t have any rope to tie you up with.” Alyce’s eyes immediately went out of focus, and her face slack. Ayame shuddered.

“Look!” Akito screamed, grabbing Ayame’s arm. There was a huge swell in the crowd of pedestrians, but these people seemed to be brandishing weapons and running in a purposeful way, rather than a panicked frenzy.

“All right!” Ayame cheered. He pulled his gun out of his belt and motioned for the others to arm themselves. The twins pulled their guns out, which were remarkably different from Ayame’s and set them

from stun to disintegrate. Akito snapped his fingers and held out his hands. A bow and a quiver of arrows appeared in his hands, and he quickly slung the quiver on his back. He notched an arrow in the string and shot an arrow up into the sky, where it burst into flames.

“Insurrectionists, to me!” Ayame yelled at the top of his lungs. Instantly, about twenty people were at his side guided by the flaming arrow. “We’re putting the plan into action a little early, so we need our covers now!” About half of the people instantly surrounded the small group, and they ran to a huge silver building that rose a few stories above the rest. That was where the machine was. The machine that they used to transport the women to Earth.

“The guards!” Akito yelled, gripping an arrow in one hand. He had no use for it yet; the covers were shooting left and right. “What are we going to do about the guards?”

“Leave that to me!” Randy yelled back before Ayame could say anything.

They reached the foot of the stairs. Randall put Alyce down, and Akito and Ayame immediately formed a protective shield in front of her. Roland jumped into her arms.

The twins ran up the stairs, shouting on the top of their lungs. They dashed though the doors, and a few seconds later, a horde of Watchers poured out of the building. Randall and Randy stood on the top of the stares, waving cheerfully to the departing mob.

“How did you do that?” Akito asked, as the three of them (plus Roland) ran up the stairs to meet them.

Randall shrugged.

“We just told them that the president wanted everyone to help with the fighting,” Randy said. “Even those that were guarding the transportation device.”

“Well, whatever. Just as long as it worked,” Ayame said, and pushed open the door.

“Wait.”

They all turned to look at Alyce.

“I’m going to go help fight,” she said.

“Alyce, at the risk of sounding cliché, it’s way too dangerous for you out there!” Ayame cried, panic at letting his sister out of his sight cramping at his chest.

“I can fight! Watch!”

With that, she turned around to look out at the chaos that was going on in the streets. Immediately, her dress flared out, and her hair started whipping wildly. She put a hand out and the group of Watchers that had just ran out of the building fell to the ground, holding their heads. Alyce smiled slightly and turned to look up at her brother.

Ayame exchanged a slightly doubtful look with Akito.

“Well, all right,” Ayame finally said, feeling like a father that's just been nagged into giving out a treat. “But only if the twins and Roland go with you.”

“Sure, we’ll go with her,” Randall said.

“Are you sure you won’t need us to disable the transportation device?” Randy asked.

“No problem,” Ayame said, trying to smile. “Come on, Akito. Be safe, Alyce.”

He and Akito ran though the door into the lobby and out of sight. Alyce looked back at them.

“Goodbye.”

Ayame and Akito dashed down a hall to the nearest elevator.

“So,” Ayame panted. “Do you know where this thing is, exactly?”

“On the top level,” Akito said, dragging him inside the elevator. “According to Randall.”

“He’s actually seen it? Too bad he couldn’t disable it while he was near it.”

“Are you kidding? He said it was very heavily guarded.”

They stood in nervous silence, which was soon broken by a gasp from Akito.

“What if it still is?”

“Say what?” Ayame said, turning to see Akito, his face pale and his eyes round behind his glasses.

“What if it still is heavily guarded?”

“Well, the twins go everyone out, didn’t they?”

“That was pretty quick for a multilevel building stuffed full of people.”

“Well,” Ayame said nervously. “We’ll see when we get there.”

The doors slid open silently. Ayame and Akito peered around the sides, their backs pressed against the elevator walls.

“Clear.”

“Clear.”

They ran swiftly and silently down the hall; Ayame held his gun at the ready, and Akito had two arrows notched. They reached a big wooden paneled door about halfway down the hall. Ayame looked questioningly at Akito, who nodded. Ayame gestured Akito back, and

kicked the door open. The door banged open. Ayame jumped in the room, gun at the ready. Nothing was there, save for a metal ladder that led up into a hole in the ceiling.

Akito strolled in after his enthusiastic friend, rolling his eyes over his antics. He took his arrows off the string and held them in his hands.

“There’s no one in this room. I could have told you that,” he said, as Ayame gazed up the ladder.

“The machine’s up there, then?” Ayame asked. Akito secured his bow to his back and put the arrows in his mouth before swinging himself on the ladder.

“I believe so,” he said in a muffled voice, starting to climb.

“Let’s go,” Ayame said, climbing up behind him. “The more I can’t look after my sister personally, the more antsy I get.”

Akito’s hand touched the second to last rung on the ladder and the metal door covering the hole opened. He poked his head up cautiously, expecting it to be shot off at anytime.

“All clear,” he said.

“Good,” Ayame said. “Now get up there.”

“Right. Sorry.”

Akito scrambled out of the hole and took his arrows out of his mouth and put them back into the quiver. He turned around in a quick circle and made his way over to the biggest machine in the room.

The King of Discordia hoisted himself up and looked around quickly. Most of the equipment was a form of control, but the mainframe seemed to be sitting in the far wall. Akito was currently peering at the screen and control buttons.

“So how do we disable it?” Ayame asked, coming up beside him.

“Um...bash it with something large and heavy?”

“I’ll bash you with something large and heavy,” Ayame muttered, staring at the buttons.

“That’s just vague enough to hurt,” Akito retorted cheerfully. “Here.” He pressed a few buttons. “Look, it’s the programming for the machine.”

“Reconfigure it to send all the Watchers to Earth,” Ayame ordered.

“Right away, Your Highness,” Akito said, now typing rapidly.

The screen started flickering too fast for Ayame to follow, but Akito’s typing never slowed.

“Aha!” Akito said triumphantly. “Got it!”

“Wait!” Ayame said, grabbing Akito’s wrist. “You set it to transport all the Watchers, right?”

“Per your orders.”

“What about Randall and Randy? They’re Watchers to!”

“Oh, not anymore,” Akito said nonchalantly. “I just kicked them off The Watchers ranks, and back on the citizen list. As far as the computer is concerned, they’re just regular people.”

“All right!” Ayame beamed. “What are you waiting for? Delete the suckers!”

“Um, right,” Akito said, not missing the slightly maniac gleam in Ayame’s eyes. “Let me just say though, that drinking bourbon before a rescue mission to save the world does not do you any favors.”

Then, without further ado, Akito twisted the dial from ‘random’ to ‘now’. The computer made a soft whirling sound, then the word ‘complete’ came up.

“Did it work?” Ayame asked, after a few seconds of staring at the screen.

“One way to find out,” Akito said, crossing to the door.

“Wait,” Ayame suddenly said, putting a hand on his wrist.

“Hm?”

“The transporter.”

Akito read the message in the young king’s eyes loud and clear.

“You want to destroy it? What if it didn’t work?”

“Well do you think we’d get a chance to do it over again?” Ayame asked, exasperated.

“No, but... oh what the heck,” Akito sighed. He dug an arrow out of his quiver, concentrated briefly, then notched it in his bowstring.

“What are you going to do?” Ayame asked, backing up a bit. Akito could have his arrows do much more than just pierce something. It was sort of like Alyce’s gift, except the arrows were programmed to pick up Akito’s particular thought command.

“Short it out.”

Ayame skipped back a few more paces. Akito fired the arrow. It flew and hit the center of the screen. Bolts of electricity ran down the arrow and the whole machine began to sizzle.

“Let’s go!” Ayame yelled, pushing Akito towards the exit. Blue-white volts of electricity were starting to dance over the rest of the controls in the room. The mainframe was starting to look suspiciously black and charred that electricity itself couldn’t have managed.

Disregarding the ladder, Ayame and Akito jumped down the hole and dashed into the hall.

“Woah, not that way,” Ayame said, grabbing Akito’s arm. “The elevator’s fried by this time, I guarantee it.” He tugged Akito down the other direction of the hall towards the stairs. They made it down the stairs and out the door in record time.

“Now,” Ayame panted as they ran down the street. “If this was a movie, the building would explode at any time....”

That was when the building exploded behind them. The two men were thrown forward into another man, who had been running flat out towards them.

“Ayame? Is that you?” the man asked in a rather choked voice, as soon as the dust settled. Ayame opened his mouth to answer, but Akito slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Hush! Don’t ask him anything. Things explode when Ayame speaks.”

The man who they had knocked down was Randall. He scrambled to his feet, hauling Ayame up by the arm. Randall was nearly naked, save for his pants. He didn’t even have his Watchers belt on. His gun was

tucked in the waistband of his pants.

“What’s with the nudeness?” Ayame asked as they ran back towards the town square. The noise had not decreased in volume, but it didn’t sound panicked and tortured anymore.

“Well, after you sent all The Watchers to Earth, Randy and I figured that it wouldn’t be wise to wear our Watchers uniforms anymore. A lot of people knew that we’re the good guys, but then again, a lot of the people were too eager to shoot anyone who looked remotely like a Watcher. So the uniform shirts had to go. Fortunately, the slacks are inconspicuous. Now hurry and come; she doesn't have much time.”

Ayame’s heart jumped into his throat, and his his legs seemed to lose what blood was in them. He stumbled and Randall caught him around the waist. She? Oh gods...Alyce....

Sure enough, people were still running around and shouting, but no one seemed to be shooting at anyone. The people just seemed to be trying to get their minds in order as much as they could.

Ayame had eyes for none of them. He stumbled, supported and guided by Randall, to where many people had gathered. He recognized all of them as Insurrectionists. The three of them pushed though the

crowd, which parted to reveal Alyce lying in Randy’s arms. Her blank eyes were open and staring even more emptily then usual at the sky. She looked exactly like she had when Randall told her to play dead.

“Alyce,” Ayame whimpered, staggering forward and catching the blank-eyed girl from Randy. “Quit playing. Randall doesn't need you to play dead anymore. You can stop now.... Stop it!” he shrieked, shaking his sister.

Her head lolled back and her hair swept the ground. The ribbon was lying in a tattered mess near her feet, and lying on top of the ribbon was Roland, his opaque eyes staring vacantly at the ground.

“You don’t need to be dead anymore! You need to look around and see what we did for you!” Ayame screamed in wordless agony and clutched Alyce to him. “Stop it!” he screamed. “You can’t die! All we did was for you!”

Akito and the twins pried the girl from him, heedless of his screams for his sister...the sister that had used up the last of her power, energy, and life to save her planet.

The following winter was a bitter one, but no one really noticed. They were all too busy rebuilding the city, rebuilding their lives. Doing that, however, wouldn’t be easy. Society, though better, wasn’t perfect; not by far. A lot of the men were still inclined to treat the female populous badly, but now the women could escape that environment and go to one of the many shelters for women. All contributions came from citizens (men and women alike) and from the

Royal Family.

The town square was hailed as the battleground for the two hour war that went on for independence. That’s where the two men were standing now, their arms wrapped around each other for warmth against the frigid temperature. They gazed up at the statue that was erected in the middle of the square.

“Hey, don’t cry,” Akito laughed, swiping at Ayame’s face with a gloved hand. “It’ll freeze.”

“I know,” Ayame sniffed. “But I’ve just been so busy lately, it feels like I haven't had time to cry.”

“All right then,” Akito said. “Cry away.”

The King of Discordia, Lord Ayame, and the Ambassador of Discordia, the Duke Akito, looked up at the marble statue. Frozen forever in a walking stance on the golden pedestal was a little girl dressed in a long nightgown, her blank eyes staring ahead and her long

hair tied back with a ribbon; a porpoise following close at her heels.