Cairo

Aerie looked around the room. Everything in it was a sparkling white and smelled too much of cleaner that'd probably been run over place more times than needed to create a sparkling clean that no one would notice. The shades over the window were closed, and the lights left a long shadow over the four people in the room.

Even though everyone had been present for over five minutes no one said anything. They said in their chair, looking at the desk with their heads bowed. Coaltrice looked sick to her stomach, and Aidan had no expression on his face, though it was clearly obvious that he understood the gravity of the situation. It was was only Cairo, who sat like the others, who didn't look like he was bothered by the situation. He glared at his hands resting on his lap that were balled into fists. His jaw muscles were tight, and his eyes shook with a poorly hidden rage.

Cairo unclamped his jaw when Aerie put a hand on his leg. He looked over to her. For a moment he looked mad, but then he sighed, interlacing their hands with a tight squeeze.

"There've been too many sacrifices already," Cairo said, gaining both Coaltrice and Aidan's attention. "We can't fight them with just three Fire Mages and a limited amount of poorly trained troops. Why don't we just surrender and save the casualties?"

Aidan slammed his fist down on the table. "They're rebels! Have you lost your mind? They're conspiring against us which is the same as conspiring against the country. We're helping them--"

"Helping them?" Cairo scoffed, shaking his head. "Have seen them? Of course you haven't because you have 'people to deal with the people.'"

"We're working on matters to help them," Coaltrice said. "We need policies and trade to boost the economy back along with provisions and—"

"Dr. Savas is the only example I need. You were never interested in helping the people since I've been around. If you really were, people like my mother wouldn't be dying."

"Your mother has nothing to do with this," Aidan spat.

"My mother has everything to do with this. Because you wouldn't give the provisions and improve towns when you had the chance instead of waiting for years later to even start it, my mother wouldn't have had to go and break her back every day to work. Her illness would have been cured, not gotten worse to the point she couldn't fix it."

Coaltrice balled her hands together on the table in front of her. "That was—"

"What are you hiding from me?" Cairo asked.

"Why would we be hiding anything?" Aidan asked.

"Again, Dr. Savas is the only example I need. You wouldn't have spent so much time and attention to him unless you wanted something from him, and since his specialty was Kleptos, it clearly had to do with them. Why bring Kleptos affairs into the Government?"

"We think that a Kleptos caused the Great Fire," Coaltrice said, shifting her eyes away from Cairo. "All I was trying to do was figure out the truth."

Cairo stood up from his seat. Aerie pulled on his arm. "I'm not a fool; don't you dare lie to my face. I'm sick and tired of you lying to me so easily like I'm fucking piece of dirt to you."

"I didn't mean it like that," Coaltrice screamed. "I just—"

A screech rang through the air. Coaltrice slammed her hands on the table, rushing for the door. She stopped quickly as it flung open. One of the Government soldiers saluted her, a sweat clearly visible on his disheveled appearance.

"Status report," Coaltrice ordered.

"The rebels are at the gate. They're heavily armed. I don't know how long the gates will last. It's likely they're already gone, and the rebels have begun infiltrating the building."