Chapter 4: Scheming
Altaira
Altaira scanned the crowd of people, looking for Mefune. This time, she wasn’t trying to avoid him. She had to admit, his words and Daya’s encouraging were finally sinking in. There was no reason to hold a grudge against him when he could potentially help her, and it wasn’t anybody’s fault but her own that he was better than her. After waiting to see if he would walk by, Altaira sighed and headed down the hall towards the council room. It was the first time she’d visited this part of the Brotherhood’s headquarters in a long while, knowing he spent a lot of time there now that he was the Brotherhood’s leader.
The council room was filled with rows and rows of seats, enough to seat the whole Brotherhood. Toward the front of the room were seven slightly raised seats, facing the rows. These seven seats were reserved for the Council members and the Brotherhood leader.
Altaira really didn’t expect to find Mefune here since the council wasn’t in session, but she walked in anyway. To her surprise, he was sitting alone on one of the higher bleachers, staring down at the ground as if he was in deep thought, his arms resting on his knees, his chin in his hands.
Altaira started slowly up the bleachers, feeling apprehensive. No matter how much she told herself hating him was no longer a good idea, it still didn’t make talking to him any easier. He had chided her like a child that day on the cliff, and even though he had been right, it still stung.
Mefune looked up as she reached the bottom bleacher, but he didn’t move. Instead, he looked back down towards the front of the room, allowing her to approach in silence. Only when Altaira reached him did he look to her, finally acknowledging her presence. “Mefune…” she started, trying not to show how uncomfortable she was. With a sigh, she forced herself to continue. “After we talked a couple of days ago, I realized I’ve been acting stupid and selfish. The council had the Brotherhood’s best interest in mind when they named you leader. So… could we call it truce?”
Mefune nodded almost imperceptibly and said, “I figured you’d come to your senses eventually.”
She tried not to show how his words bugged her. Instead, she said, “Yeah, I guess I did. I… I have to ask you something too.”
He raised a brow. “This isn’t about the bag again, is it?” he asked in clarification, sounding just a bit amused.
She shook her head. “No—though I’m still curious, but that’s a conversation for another day.” She paused, and he waited quietly for her to ask her question. “I really don’t know how to ask this, but… I guess I’m wondering what you plan to do with the Brotherhood.”
He stayed silent for a long time, studying her with his piercing blue eyes. Eventually, he asked coolly, “What’s your interest in my plans?”
Altaira shrugged. “Rumor has it you have intentions to return it to some purpose the Brotherhood once had. Something to do with the demons.”
He didn’t confirm or deny her suspicions. Instead, he leaned back against the back of the bleacher and asked, “And if I was?”
I hate his indirect answers, she grumbled inwardly. Stop dancing around my questions! “You might say I’d be interested in helping.”
“Hmm.” Once again, he sat in silence, contemplating her words just long enough to make Altaira impatient. Then he frowned slightly. “I would love to say that is my goal, but it’s not possible.”
Altaira was surprised. “Why not?” she demanded, forgetting to control her frustration. She heard it in her own voice.
“They’re standing in my way,” he said, gesturing to the floor below. Altaira glanced over her shoulder to see the council seats below, and got his meaning. “They have all the power now. It’s been that way for several years. Maybe from the formation of the council.”
She snorted, shaking her head. She almost felt like laughing. The irony of everything was enough to tip her over the edge. Even if she had won Mefune a few days ago, the position wouldn’t have done her any good. “It’s ironic, isn’t it?” Mefune muttered, almost as if he had read her thoughts. She found herself agreeing with him. “We both tried so hard to get this position, only to find it carries hardly any power.”
They fell silent, both contemplating the annoyance the council had become for the both of them. “Well…” Altaira muttered, thinking out loud as her gaze temporarily became unfocused. “If the council is such a problem, why don’t we just eliminate it?” She looked up and met his gaze.
“It’s funny you mention that. I was thinking the same thing, but I wasn’t sure I could do it alone,” Mefune admitted.
Altaira smiled. “Great. How do we do it?”
Mefune almost seemed amused. “You’re enthusiastic.”
“You have no idea how much this means to me,” Altaira told him.
He fell silent for a moment, watching her again. “So it wasn’t just for the power, was it?” he asked softly.
She didn’t hesitate to answer. “It never was.”
He nodded. Altaira wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw a hint of admiration in his gaze before he turned away. “I’m honestly not sure how we go about doing this. I want it to be peaceful. We’ll never convince the Brotherhood to follow us if we don’t.”
“I agree, but until we figure out a way to peacefully remove them, why don’t we treat it as if it will be violent?” Altaira suggested.
“And why is that?” Mefune asked.
She didn’t answer for a minute, realizing her next comment would require her to admit he was better than her, and her pride almost wouldn’t let her do that. Finally she said, “It wouldn’t hurt if I touched up on my fighting a bit. There’s obviously a few things you could teach me, and… training could be a good cover up for us meeting to plan things.”
He nodded slowly. “I don’t see why not. I’m willing to share some secrets.”
“Okay,” Altaira said, feeling surprisingly relieved. “It’s settled then. When do we start?”
“Follow me,” Mefune replied simply as he stood, surprising her a bit. I guess we’re starting now, she thought, a bit surprised.
He led her to an open sparring circle filled with soft dirt. When he began instructing her, she had expected him to start out showing her little things that would improve her skills, but weirdly enough, he started with the basics. At first she felt a little bewildered and frustrated that he was starting so easy, wondering if he thought her completely incompetent, but she started to realize there was so much she could improve on. It was mostly things she had become lax on over the years as she had risen above the pack and no longer felt it necessary to try so hard. Now she realized she was slacking off.
As he helped her correct a minor detail in her stance, he told her, “Though to most your stance would be perfect, I notice little holes here and there. That’s something we have to remember; the basics are our foundation. How well we perform depends on how well we retain the basics. If we forget, or slack off, a superior swordsman could find weakness. Even I practice the basics when I’m practicing alone. I go over footwork. I constantly check my stance. Remember this.” She nodded, absorbing his words.
Eventually they moved on. They sparred a little bit, first slowly so he could watch her footwork, and then they did some real sparring. She was amazed at how much he could show her.
By the time they finished, it was late at night. Altaira lay in her room, exhausted. Okay, she thought, he’s not a complete idiot. Then she laughed to herself, realizing that she had just admitted she was starting to hate him a little less.
Mefune
“I may have an idea,” Altaira announced as she approached Mefune. After discussing their plans for a week, all of their ideas had fallen short of their goal for one reason or another. Altaira had quickly grew frustrated, but Mefune assured her they would figure out something. He was beginning to realize just how impatient she was compared to him.
Curious, he nodded, but then told her, “Let’s not talk here.”
She nodded, understanding that discussing these plans out where anyone could overhear probably wasn’t the smartest idea. “Where then?” she asked.
He motioned for her to follow, and started down the hall. Eventually, he led her to the cliff overlook, figuring nobody would bother them here. “So what’s this idea of yours?” he asked once they were alone.
“What if, instead of removing the council, we replaced the members with people that agree with us?” She suggested.
He considered this. “That’s possible. I would rather just be rid of the council, but it’s a good temporary fix,” he mused. “We would have to find six people we can trust.” They both knew that wasn’t easy in the Brotherhood; suspicions were high, and many had their own motives.
She nodded. “We already have two though,” she pointed out.
“Two?” he asked. “I can’t be on the council and be the leader.”
“I was referring to my friend, Daya,” Altaira clarified. “She’d be perfect.”
Mefune recognized the name—he at least knew the names of most of the Brotherhood, with the exception of some of the newer members—but he wasn’t sure he knew enough about Daya to trust her. “You sure we can trust her?” he asked.
Altaira nodded. “She’s practically my sister. If I can’t trust her I can’t trust anybody,” she insisted.
Mefune shrugged, and couldn’t help but think he wasn’t sure he trusted Altaira yet. “That’s two then. Who else?”
Altaira looked stumped. “I can’t think of anybody else. You?”
He shook his head slightly. “I don’t have many friends here,” he admitted. “Not ones that I can trust.” He knew he had himself to blame for that—he chose to stay distant—but that was beside the point.
“I guess we’ll have to find some people,” Altaira decided. “Anybody on the council we could convince to help us?”
Mefune sighed. He was beginning to get to know the council pretty well as he worked with them, and didn’t really have a good opinion for many of them. He shook his head as he said, “Not really. Maybe Garrett, but I’m not sure I could trust him to keep this quiet. He’s pretty loyal to Samar.”
“Hmm.” Altaira muttered. With a shrug, she mused, “Well, we can at least start with getting me and Daya on the council. How do we go about doing that?”
“We could always kill the members. That would definitely open up a few spots,” Mefune suggested with a light shrug.
Altaira looked surprised. “Are you serious?” she asked cautiously.
He smiled, shaking his head slightly. “No. I said I wanted this to be a peaceful transition, remember?”
Looking relieved, Altaira agreed, “That would probably be best.” After a pause, she added, “I mean, I guess it’s always an option—I’m willing to do anything to get at the demons—but let’s keep it our last option.”
Mefune agreed, and then the two fell silent for a minute as he thought through their options. “There has to be rules the Council has to follow, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if they’ve violated at least one of them every now and then. The rules would be on record, from when the Council was first established. I have free access to those records. Give me some time, and I’ll find something on somebody that we can use,” Mefune decided.
Smirking slightly, Altaira inquired, “Are you planning on blackmailing them?”
Mefune shrugged. “If that’s what it comes down to. It would be better than killing them all. Though there may be some way if we bring these things to light, they would be forced to step down without our influence.”
“Either way works with me,” Altaira agreed with a shrug. “Let me know when you find something. I should tell Daya.”
He nodded. “I would like to meet Daya, before we do this,” he requested.
“Sure,” Altaira agreed. “You could come with me to tell her.”
He nodded again, and they headed back inside. Altaira led them to Daya’s apartment, and he waited with her after she knocked on the door. Daya answered after a moment. “Well, I see you two don’t hate each other anymore,” she said in way of greeting.
“I never hated her,” Mefune pointed out.
Daya chuckled. “She definitely hated you.”
“Shut up,” Altaira demanded, but she didn’t sound too sincere. “We need to talk.”
Daya smiled slightly. “You going to include me in your evil plans?” she joked.
“Maybe. He wanted to meet you first,” Altaira informed her.
“Ah,” Daya said with a slight nod, her gaze turning to Mefune. He briefly thought they could easily be sisters; they both had brown hair, but Daya’s was lighter, and she had pale brown eyes. She offered a hand, and Mefune shook it. “Nice to meet you.”
He nodded in agreement, and then said, “Altaira said we could trust you.”
Daya smirked. “I would hope she would say that.”
“Yeah well, don’t make me second guess myself,” Altaira told her, her smile telling Mefune she was joking. They seem close, he observed.
Daya laughed, and then waved them into her room. “Let’s not talk about this out here,” she suggested.
Inside, Altaira and Mefune quickly explained their plans to place the two women on the council. As they finished, Daya slowly nodded. “I’d be fine with that. So this is your new way of getting revenge then, huh?” she asked Altaira.
Altaira shot a glance at Mefune, and then nodded. “It’s the best I can do.”
“Have you—” Day started.
“No,” Altaira interrupted, obviously understanding what Daya was getting at and not wanted her to finish her sentence. What’s this about? Mefune wondered.
“Will you?” Daya asked.
Altaira seemed uncomfortable talking about whatever it was Daya had brought up. She hesitated a moment, and then muttered, “Maybe.” Daya nodded, seeming to understand Altaira didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Deciding he didn’t need to pester Altaira about it, Mefune stayed silent. If it was something important, he hoped Altaira would tell him on her own.
“You should consider letting Desiree keep her position on the council,” Daya suddenly suggested, changing the subject.
“Why?” Mefune wondered. He probably knew the least about Desiree; she was the only girl on the council, and was very soft spoken. She usually just agreed with Samar and didn’t say much. Mefune wasn’t sure how she had even gotten a position on the council to begin with.
“I know her. She’s a pretty good person, and she wouldn’t be too hard to convince to go along with it and keep things quiet. Plus, if she did blab, she’d have a hard time convincing the others that she’s right. We’d have time to do damage control before she has them convinced,” Daya explained.
Mefune glanced at Altaira, who nodded in agreement. “Sounds good to me,” Mefune agreed. “That makes three.” Looking to Daya again, he asked, “Anybody else you think might be trustworthy enough for this?”
Daya considered it for a moment, and then shrugged. “Not really.”
“Hmm,” Altaira muttered. “Well, Mefune said he’d do some digging, see if he could find anything we could use against them. Until then, there’s not much we can do.”
“Alright. Keep me updated, okay?” Daya requested. The two agreed. “I’ll tell Desiree about this sometime.” With that, the three went their separate ways.