The trip from Skaia to Derse had been long and exhausting. Commercial ships were not exactly meant for first-class travelling. They had a few seats for the crew, located in a cabin at the front of the ship. This cabin was often badly ventilated and too hot because of the engines. It wasn’t all fun and games but at least you weren’t tossed around like a ball in a rattle. Hiding in the back of the cargo was exactly that, and even worst. You had to go through all the downsides of space travel because these ships weren’t built to carry delicate merchandise or passengers. The storage room was usually extremely cold due to the lack of proper isolation: only the bare minimum had been done to prevent the goods from freezing. You also had to be on the look-out for the carapaces who sometimes passed by. Being caught meant prison back on Derse.

Luckily, it wasn’t Roxy’s first trip in the back of a cargo. She was used to the cold and was what you could call a pro at concealing herself. That time around, she was so excited to go back to Derse that not even the worst travelling conditions could had ruined her mood. The ride took around five hours. Military and diplomatic ships were faster but commercial ships had no such luck. The ship had stopped for an unusually long time at the Veil, probably to cross customs. Roxy should probably have been worried by this but she was too absorbed by her own thoughts.

When they finally arrived, Roxy waited another hour just to make sure the way was clear. When the crew was gone, she came out of hiding and quietly exited the warehouse.

She eyed everything in wonder. Every time she went on Derse, she had the feeling she was whole again, that a missing part of her had been restored. The purple planet felt like home.

The rogue let her feet guide her, following the streets without thinking. After a while, she ended up in the low district. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was odd with Derse. The streets Roxy had once seen full of happy carapaces, were now deserted. Sure, it was getting late... but Roxy had been on Derse enough times to know the streets were never this quiet, even at night. She crossed path with a few Dersites but all of them seemed so nervous and agited they were gone before she could talk to them.

Roxy came to a full stop and cast a circular glance around. She was now alone in a street of the low district. A strange feeling was growing inside of her, one she couldn’t quite explain. She wouldn’t go as far as to say it was fear, but it was something along those lines.

Roxy had to admit one thing: she had no idea where to start her quest.

Dirk had spent the day walking around the Low district, running errands, and he was exhausted. The day had been long and busy, but after spending a few days in the basement of the liquor shop, it felt really good to be outside at last, and to be able to breathe fresh air. He had spent the last few days making plans for a new gadget he wanted to build. The said gadget's purpose was to display a specific area of Derse according to its user's location, something he thought could be pretty useful to the rebels. Knowing the area could be a nice advantage when trying to infiltrate a place. Not that he had anything planned yet, but it was probably something they would have to do eventually. They would need weapons, eventually, and if they wanted to stand a chance against the agents, that meant stealing them from the armory. Planning the making of the gadget had been unusually complicated, but Dirk eventually got it done, more specifically, the same day, around four in the morning. He had caught a couple of hours of sleep after planning out what he would do later on, and around eleven 'o'clock, he was going out of the liquor shop, cloak on, and hood up.

The first thing he did was pay a visit to his friend Equius. Going to the High district, where his friend lived, was always a bit more risky, since it was always crammed with highbloods and agents. There usually wasn't a lot of people in the back alleys, though, so that's the route Dirk took most of the time. Dirk knew he probably should avoid visiting his friend if he wanted to stay alive, but it's not like he had a choice; he didn't live in the Palace anymore, and the material he needed to build his things didn't exactly pop out of thin air. Equius was the only person he knew who could provide him. He spent an hour or two at Equius's place, and when he left, he was carrying a crate full of electronic circuits, wire, and chips.

He spent the rest of the day walking around, sketching maps of the Low district for his gadget. He couldn't exactly just show up in a library and ask for a map of Derse. Anyway, any material likely to be dangerous to the government had been confiscated by the agents, which meant that, among others, no maps were available anywhere anymore. So Dirk basically figured he should just make one himself. He trusted himself better anyway, and he didn't mind the painstaking work it would take. He thus sketched maps all afternoon, stopping under a lamp-post anytime he need light. When he went through the market, he grabbed a bite at a stall.

It was getting pretty late when he decided it was about time to go home. His muscles were sore, both from walking and carrying his bag and his crate along all day, and he was pretty much drained, physically and emotionally too. Spending an entire day covering your face because you're the escaped Prince and everyone is looking for you, and having to be constantly vigilant can be pretty nerve-wracking. Besides, the streets were deserted, which meant that the agents would probably start patrolling soon.

He walked by what he thought was a carapace, who was standing in the middle of the street, looking around herself restlessly. He glanced at her, vaguely wondering what she was doing there, but didn't stop to talk to her. He couldn't afford to be recognized by anyone. He kept walking in the direction of the liquor shop.

The low district's street were quieter than ever, but Sollux knew he should not be fooled; highbloods were roaming all over the place like hungry hell hounds, looking for weak preys to quench their bloodlust. Since the Condesce's coup d'état it was rather difficult to go around Derse's low district as a lowblood, but Sollux had succeeded concealing his hemospectrum up until now.

He had been wandering the low district's streets for hours now, hoping to find a place where they would let him work in exchange of a place to stay for a while. The last pub he worked at was completely booked with highbloods and the condesce's officers, he wanted nothing to do with those people. They threatened his safety.

He missed his quiet appartment so much. Sure, it wasen't luxurious, one room only and quite the mess too, bathroom shared with the rest of the residents, but it was his own private space and he enjoyed the peace he had in there. Voices in his head were more than enough, he did not need a pub's daily racket on top of the ancient trolls' whispers. They had been rather active lately too and it bothered him more than ever. "At least the streets are quiet", he thought to himself.

There was only one last place he wanted to stop by and try to offer his help before calling it a day and finding a somewhat decent and well hidden ditch to sleep in. If he had to resort to that, he could only wish the agents didn't find him. He was headed towards The Royal Boy when he passed by an odd looking carapace near the docks. She seemed quite distressed. And quite odd, to be honest. Mostly odd. He stopped and stared at her, squinting his eyes behind his shades, trying to figure out what exactly she was. Poor thing, if people thought HE was weird, they sure as hell had not seen this deformed carapace.

He was just about to go on with his quest when he saw a man in a cloak passing him right by. A human. Humans were not very common in the low district, most of them being royalty. A bunch of snooty pink snobs, really. It's not like they'd ever do anything to help anyone. At least that's what Sollux thought. But now was not the time to ponder about that human, he needed to get to The Royal Boy as soon as possible. It was not very far now, he could probably make it before the Agents started their patrol. Back on track, he resumed walking towards his destination.

Roxy was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t hear the footsteps approaching until they were really near. A shiver went down her spine. “Come on Roxy!” she mentally told herself. “You’ve seen worst. Brace yourself girl! You wanted to go alone, now deal with it!” The rogue took a deep breath and decided to stay still, waiting for the stranger to come and go. It was probably just some Dersite running a late errand, nothing to worry about.

A humanoid shadow stretched on the purple pavement, announcing the incoming stranger. Roxy’s heart started racing in her chest; she raised her head quickly, expecting to see another human walking by her. Instead, she saw....

Well, she wasn’t quite sure what she saw exactly. The creature seemed to be a male; he had gray skin and four yellowish horns were poking out of his messy black hair. To complete this weird picture, he wore black sunglasses... at night. Roxy blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. She wasn’t drunk either; the last time she drank wine was a few weeks ago. The strange thing stopped in front of her and stared at her shamelessly. In a normal situation, she would probably have snapped at him for being such a jerk. However, something in that creature made her hesitate... and it wasn’t its strange appearance.

Roxy was still in shock when another silhouette passed by her. This time, it was a hooded figure. It briskly walked by her, only glancing at her for a moment then looking away. It was a short, fleeting moment, but Roxy had caught a glimpse of the face under the hood. Pale skin, blond, almost white hair, and those eyes... a shade of orange she could barely describe.

Her heart started beating even faster than when she saw the strange creature. After all those years, she had finally found another human! Under her mask, she felt her cheeks were unusually hot, something she only felt when she started to be drunk. Roxy shrug it off. She was so tired; her mind was playing tricks to her. Even if she forced herself to believe that, it was obvious the mysterious man she just saw impressed her deeply, even more than the handsome officer she had seen all those years ago.

After a minute of mute contemplation, Roxy finally decided to move. She took the same path as him. She was fast enough to catch up. When she did, she hid behind a building. For some reason, she didn’t want him to know she was there.

As he kept walking away, a nasty feeling of guilt started taking over Dirk. Maybe he shouldn't have let that carapace alone out there. What if the agents found her? She looked so helpless. He was supposed to help the people, and to protect them from the Condesce, not leave them alone when they needed help. However, he couldn't help anyone if he was dead, hence why it was probably better to just move on.

He did take a look over his shoulder though, even if he was too far from the carapace to see if she was ok. His heart skipped a beat when he saw what he was aware he shouldn't have seen: the carapace, she was there, she had followed him. He had only caught a glimpse of her because she hid behind a building when he turned his head around. It was enough for him to be on the alert, though. He was absolutely sure of what he had seen.

He turned left, into a dark back-alley. He put his crate and his bag down, and pulled a dagger from his boot, self-preservation quickly taking over the guilt he was feeling earlier. He flattened himself against the wall and cautiously looked at the street. The carapace had came out of hiding and she was walking towards where he was hiding. He watched her as she was getting closer, and when she passed by the back-alley, he quickly grabbed her and pushed her against the wall. He pressed the blade of his dagger on her throat, his free hand on her shoulder, securing her to the wall.

"Now, tell me why you're following me. You recognised me, is that it? Isn't that the agents' job? Or did they put a price on my head already?"

You could hear the panic in his voice. He had spoken a bit louder than he had intended. The place was deserted though, so it probably wouldn't be a problem. He had walked by a troll earlier but he was probably too far to hear anything.

Dirk took a closer look at the carapace. There was definitely something odd about her. He hadn't noticed earlier, but she was strangely deformed, and even as she was being threatened by a blade, her face seemed kind of... lifeless. And poking out of her hood was something that looked like a strand of blonde, human hair. He looked at the creature's fixed expression, dumbfounded. What even was she?

Behind the wall, Roxy waited for the footsteps to resume. Once they did, she peeked to see if it was safe to continue her inoffensive stalking. The hooded stranger was nowhere to be seen. The streets were as quiet as ever. “Damn.” She cursed under her breath, bolting out her hiding spot and hurrying in the direction she thought the stranger had gone. She could not bear to lose his track, not now. Something about him was telling her he was the right person to begin her quest with. Maybe he could answer some of her questions.

She was passing by a dark alley, on her left, with the intention to continue past it. The next moment, she felt pulled back by her tunic. She let out a cry of surprise. In a second, she was pinned to a wall with a dagger on her throat.

Caught like a beginner. Sweet move, Roxy!

Her aggressor was bigger and probably stronger, judging by the hold he had on her shoulder. Wasn’t it for the adrenaline rushing through her veins at this instant, she would probably be wincing in pain.

Roxy promptly analysed any detail of the situation. She was trying to find a way to wrestle her way out of his grip. She would be able to do it... without the dagger, that is. She had no weapon on her; she always fought with her bare hands and was pretty good at it.

When he started interrogating her, the rogue couldn’t help but almost feel sorry for him... even if she was the one being threatened by a dagger. His voice was so panicked...

“No I-“

She stopped abruptly, realising her mistake. “Fuck.” She thought. “Way to reveal you wear a mask, dumbass!” She shook her head slowly, being careful not push the dagger in her skin.

She gazed around frantically, trying to find an escape. There was none. This guy was going to kill her right there. A drop of sweat started to slide down from the root of her hair on her right temple. Her only hope was to make him drop the dagger.

Her right hand, the one that wasn’t incapacitated by the man’s grip, flew to the hand holding the dagger. She gripped it tightly and, using it to raise her lower body from the ground, sent both he feet to hit her agressor’s chest.

At least, she would die fighting.

The carapace was fidgeting a little, and then she started talking. She only said a few words before abruptly falling silent, obviously realizing the mistake she had made. Her voice sounded a bit muffled, and her mouth didn't move when she talked. That only confirmed what Dirk had suspected. He didn't know a lot of carapaces with blonde hair, which was typical of the dersite humans, or with any kind hair, as a matter of fact. She obviously wasn't a carapace. But why would a human want to disguise themselves as a carapace, he couldn't fathom. As far as he knew, he was the only human who had gotten away from the Palace, so it couldn't be because she didn't want to be recognized.

He was beginning to think that dressing up as a carapace was actually a pretty good idea, when the girl suddenly grabbed his hand, which made him drop his blade, and lose his balance a bit, and then she kicked him in the chest. The impact knocked the wind out of him, and he took a couple of steps back. The girl fell to the ground, which gave him a short respite to catch his breath. The fake carapace tried to get away, practically crawling on the ground, but Dirk pinned her to the ground.

"You're not getting away before you tell me who you are, and why you were following me."

The girl was struggling beneath him, and he proceeded to turn her over on her back. Kneeling over her, he secured her to the ground by holding her wrists in one hand, above her head, and with his free hand, he took her mask off her face. When he was finally able to take a good look at her features, his jaw dropped a little. Bright pink eyes. He only had ever heard of one person with such eyes, and he knew he wanted nothing to do with her. The Princess. After seventeen years, honestly, what were the odds of her ever coming back? He was taken aback. He didn't know what to say. And what was he supposed to do now that he had basically assaulted the Princess of Derse? Was she even aware that she was a Princess? One thing he was absolutely sure about, if she wasn't aware of who she was, he certainly wouldn't be the one to tell her.

Sollux had just set foot on The Royal Boy's porch when he heard a racket coming from around the corner. Normally he wouldn't bother; he would even avoid it, afraid that they might be highbloods picking on a poor lowblood or even worse, Agents grabbing some poor beggar off the streets. But this time it intrigued him. He had the feeling it was about those two weird individuals he had spotted at the docks. He spun on his heels and headed towards the noise where he found the odd female "carapace" laying on the floor and the tall human on top of her, pressing his weight on her so she was trapped under his body.

He didn't really want to know what was going on, but he knew it probably wasen't right. This young female seemed pretty distressed earlier, perhaps he should have helped her? For a split second, Sollux felt a little bad for all the times he passed an occasion to help someone just because he couldn't bring himself to care. What a terrible person he was. But now wasen't the time for self loathing, he had to do something about this young... thing... getting assaulted right in the middle of the streets in front of the liquor store. For sure the man was drunk.

He did something incredibly dangerous to help this female. Something he could deeply regret, but he wasen't thinking. It just sort of happened. He used his telekinetic powers to send the man she was struggling with flying a few meters further.

"Fuck what did I just do...", he muttered as he hurried over to the girl. Girl. Yes she was human too. And quite pretty he noticed as he briefly checked on her before holding out his hand to help her up...

The stranger was as strong as Roxy initially thought. Her kick barely made him step back a little, but at least, he dropped her. The fall was painful but Roxy didn’t linger or wait for the pain to kick in. She tried to make a run for it by crawling out of the back alley. She almost made it. But the other guy was too fast and too strong for her.

Once again, she was pinned under his weight, on the ground this time. She fought back like crazy, kicking and clawing helplessly. Her assailant managed to turn her around and to grab both her wrists; she was trapped.

Instead of finishing her off, he simply took off her mask and then fell silent, with the expression of someone who just saw a ghost.

“Look” she muttered, her voice trembling a little. She shook her head, than looked him straight in the eyes, for once being completely honest. “I don’t want you any harm I just-“

She was interrupted mid sentence. The man had been pushed aside by some unknown forces. The rogue stayed on the ground, trying to figure out what just happened. Things were getting weirder and weirder. Immediately, the creature she met earlier appeared in her field of vision. He wasn’t hostile; he was holding his hand to her. Roxy grabbed it without thinking twice; she was the type of person to trust others easily.

“Thanks!” She said, giving him one short smile and then falling serious again.

She stood up with his help, glancing at the blonde man just a few feet away from her. She wanted to say something. Anything. It felt like she was inches away from the truth and yet, she couldn’t grasp it. She had a lump in her throat and her eyes were itching unpleasantly. She wiped the newborn tears discreetly.

Roxy looked at her savior who probably knew Derse better than her.

“So what now, do we make a run for it or do you have a white horse stationed somewhere?”

She was acting lightly but she only felt like crying, really. This first human encounter had been a mess.

The girl, Roxy – if she was really the Princess, that was her name –, started talking to him, saying she didn't want to hurt him, and for the first time, he considered that possibility. She hadn't been acting in a especially threatening way. He had spent the entire day being alert, and probably had jumped to conclusions too quickly. Being sought after by the agents also made him a bit paranoid. He probably acted based only on what he felt, instead of using his brain... like he often did, come to think of it. He just couldn't make any intelligent decisions when he was in the heat of the moment, could he?

He started wondering why Roxy was following him, though. If she didn't want to hurt him, then why? Was it because of all that marriage crap? Maybe she actually had recognized him after all. It may have been a strange, and a bit childish reaction, considering the situation of war, but right now, the only thing he was thinking about was that he really didn't want to have to marry her.

His train of thought was interrupted, though, as he suddenly felt like he was being hurled through the air by some invisible force. He barely had the time to spot the figure of a man at the entrance of the back-alley before he violently, and painfully hit the ground. He hit something that he identified as his crate, which cracked open at the impact, dumping its content to the ground. He had the time to be annoyed: "Good thing I'm just next to the liquor shop", he thought to himself ironically, and then he hit his head on the stonework wall, which stunned him pretty badly. He felt tears sting his eyes a little – the pain was awful.

He looked in the general direction of his assailant, and he thought he identified a troll, even if he couldn't be sure; it was dark, but he was also very dizzy, and his vision was blurry. He was pretty sure it was a troll, though. Probably a psiionic. He had learned about them during his history classes. That would explain why he had been able to send him flying through the back-alley without even touching him.

He watched as the troll helped Roxy up, and he decided it was probably best that he stayed down until they left. It's not like he would be able to stand anyway, let-alone to fight, especially against a psiionic.

Still under the shock of his own actions, Sollux stared blankly at Roxy for a little bit. What now? That seemed like a good question. However a hoofbeast, whatever its color might be, would be completely useless in this situation, he thought. Humans were so illogical sometimes. How would a hoofbeast go around Derse's narrow streets quickly? It would be rather bothersome. But she had a point, they had to get out of there. He glanced in the general direction where the hooded man landed. He seemed out cold.

"Let's go...", he said, grabbing her wrist and dragging her with him into the alley leading to his original destination. He nearly passed the pub by. He was panting and wheezing when they finally stopped running, he leaned against the pub's wall to catch his breath, his chest raising up and down rather quickly. He never liked running for too long or doing physical exercise, he wasen't in great shape after all. He looked away from the girl, a bit ashamed of his performance. Kids in school often made fun of him for it but if only they knew... If only they knew the power he had been gifted with, perhaps they wouldn't have picked on him so much... perhaps he would have been respected.

It didn't matter right now. He started feeling nauseous as the adrenaline rush left place to some odd feeling of discomfort. Fear? Maybe... What if someone had seen him using his powers? What if that human reported him or tracked him down and sold him to highbloods. They would give a real good price for a psiionic like him. He brought his hand to his mouth when he started coughing. Blood. His eyes widened. He quickly wiped it from his mouth with the back of his hand and onto his clothes, rubbed it in real good and hoped the stain wouldn't show on the purple-ish pink fabric.

"Are you ok?", he inquired without daring to glance at his interlocutor.

While her savior seemed to be lost in thought, Roxy bent over to retrieve her mask. The human had dropped it when he was sent flying at the other end of the alley. It was a necessary part of her disguise; she would need it to keep exploring Derse.

After a moment, her savior finally snapped out of it and decided it was time to go. She let him lead her out of the alley, but she couldn’t help looking behind her one last time. The man was still there, lying on the ground, apparently unable to stand up. Roxy couldn’t help but feel bad about it. Whatever his motivations were, he obviously didn’t attack her for fun. It was the fact that she was following him that made him jump. She let out a barely inaudible sigh. She would probably never know what was really going on in this guy’s world.

They were out of the alley now, and she couldn’t see the other human anymore. She had a final thought for him, hoping he would be ok. They ran for a few minutes and then stopped in front of building with large windows. Bright light filtered through the curtains hanging from the windows, and you could hear voices coming from inside. Roxy recognised the ambiance at the instant: it was a pub.

The strange humanoid leaned against the wall of the building, obviously not feeling well. He was apparently having hard time breathing and he even coughed; Roxy could have sworn she saw a yellow liquid coming out of his mouth before he wiped it with his hand.

“Yeah, thanks to you... I wasn’t really having the upper hand in the fight, was I?” She frowned and added: “Not to be rude or anything but you’re the one who looks not ok.”

She moved closer. With the light coming from the pub, she was able to have a better look at him. He definitely had the features of a man but she couldn’t say for sure... maybe those of his specie were different from humans? She wondered how he could have saved her. His general stature didn’t indicate a strong fighter...

He finally looked up at the human when she replied to him. She had her mask back on. He wondered for a second what were her motives to hide her face. He had read rumors of royal family members were wanted by the agent. Apparently they had fled when the Condesce took over Derse or something... But he wasn't really sure of what he read, he didn't really care about all of this and he really doubted this young female was of royal blood. She seemed a little bit trashy and kind of smelled weird, like she had just spent a week in a dirty cargo or something.

"I'm okay...don't worry.", he said in almost a whisper.

He leaned against the wall for a couple more minutes, trying to catch his breath and coughing a little bit. It had happened to him before, when he had used his psychic powers abusively or without proper mental preparation. He had acted without thinking, "on a whim" like they said. He did that a few times before and it always resulted in more or less severe incidents. He was scared now, he couldn't stop playing what had just happened over and over in his head. He haden't been this nervous since a long time ago, back when he lived with his custodian. Whenever he would break something and his guardian would find out about it, he knew he would get punished, he'd start feeling that way.

Sollux noticed the girl was staring at him, observing him like she had never seen a troll before. Heck, now that he thought about it, it wasen't impossible that she haden't ever seen one. The poor girl seemed quite confused about all that was around her. He let her watch him for a little bit. His horns and complexion seemed to intrigue her. Thank lord she couldn't see his eyes, she would probably freak the hell out.

"The hell's your problem, never seen a troll?", is all he could say after letting her stare at him for a couple minutes. It was rude and cold. He didn't mean it, but that's all he had ever known. For a split second he whished he could have thought of something nicer to say. Being nice had never been his forté, even with Aradia...

Aradia... Where could she even be right now. He hoped she was okay, that the highbloods didn't catch her and that he would see her again.

Roxy nodded but she wasn’t convinced at all that her savior was ok. She let him pretend, though. It wasn’t her intention to annoy him or to hurt his ego. She noticed that he looked kind of nervous, like he was afraid of something.

She was about to suggest they go inside the pub and rest when he snapped, probably inconvenienced by her constant staring. Roxy should have felt hurt by the cold and aggressive tone of his voice, but she didn’t take offense. She was the one who stared at him for several minutes, unable to hide her curiosity.

“A troll?” she whispered, analysing the information out loud. “Well to be honest, no. I’ve never seen anyone like you!”

She chuckled. Now at least she knew what he was and she could stop mentally referring to him as “the creature” or “the weird humanoid”. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him... like where he was coming from, how many of his specie there was on Derse, where he lived, how old he was, if he was really a male, and so on. But maybe it wasn’t a good idea to ask things like that to someone you just met.

“I guess it sounds really dumb when you say it out loud like that. Seems like I didn’t know Derse as much as I thought...”

She glanced towards the pub, really wishing she could sit somewhere and just evacuate the tension from her body. A trip in a cargo was not exactly relaxing and if you add the fighting to it, you can understand why Roxy’s body was a little sore.

“Look, I’m exhausted, I had a long day... and you too, I assume! Unless you are a hero and saving girl in distress is your average day?" She laughed and then added: " What about we go inside?” She pointed at the pub.

A hero. No one had ever called him a hero. A freak maybe? A weirdo at best, but never once had he been called a hero. Well, she had the eye to spot awesome trolls, he had to give her that much. After all, his powers made him better than so many others, he was kind of a big deal actually. At least that's what he liked to think. Then again, hopping from self loathing to overwhelming self-esteem was something he was not unfamiliar with.

He nodded at he inquiry. He did have a long day, an extremely long one. He spent part of his day trying to avoid a "hemospectrum checkpoint" that had been improvised by some purplebloods in the neighborhood. They were intercepting by-passers and checking their blood colors by making a small incision on their skin with a sharp knife. Lowbloods were taken away, probably enslaved to be sold to Her Condescention afterwards. He shivered at the thought.

The other part of his day consisted in investigating rumors he had heard through his friend Aradia a few days ago. Well, to him they were more than rumors, he trusted Aradia's words even though they were usually pretty far fetched. She had told him a rebellion was organizing and that he and she would join their ranks "when the time would come" and that they would be "pretty okay" with the whole thing. In fact, he had visions of that too, he knew she was saying the turth, however he had also seen that the mind behind this movement would be human and he honestly wasn't sure how "okay" he was with it. Damn those humans, they certainly weren't smart enough to plan something as great as a rebellion. Who did they think they were, meddling in trolls' affairs? They knew nothing of their culture and they probably didn't care about it either way, how could they even pretend being able to find a solution to the Condesce's uprising tyranny?

In spite of it all he still wanted to investigate the matter and went around the low district for a few hours, trying to find bits and pieces of useful information. Perhaps he could find Aradia if he gathered enough clues about this so-called rebellion. Besides, by no means would he side with the Condesce so he might as well at least try to fight against her.

Sollux pattered inside of the pub along with the girl. He flinched a little when they first set foot inside, unsettled by the unceasing cacophony of drunks and laughter inside. Hopefully it would calm down later on, but he somehow doubted it...

(to be continued in The Royal Boy)