The Lesson that Needs to be Learned

144.

It was a small group that Elia the leader had chosen. Rolf was among them though Clarissa felt he was a bit of a bumbler, apparently he had some kind of skill in distraction that would be helpful. Outside of that there were two others, a brother and a sister, one adept at a bow, one adept at a blade. Their job was get Clarissa into the army base, get Gilbert out, and hopefully convince the Army to leave the fey. Not a real plan, but Clarissa figured she could make something up along the way.

Rolf had gone ahead and drawn the ire of the base. Clarissa figured it was simply walking up to the gate and saying hello, his aggravating nature did the rest. Clarissa slipped past the fence, with the other elves remaining behind to help her to escape should it come to that. They didn't want to hurt people if they could avoid it, or Clarissa didn't. She figured she could put on an army uniform, find Gilbert, and get out. It seemed like a stupid plan, but she'd seen stupider succeed with Gilbert.

Once on the base it was really easy to move around, she managed to find the barracks and get in uniform with ease. There were also other military members walking around with bows, so she didn't even look out of place. Clarissa started her search in the prison, but she didn't find Gilbert or anyone there. She moved on to interrogation, but still wasn't finding anyone. She was getting desperate worried Gilbert may have been moved off base, or worse out of the Fey entirely. Almost on accident she walked by a room where Gilbert was. He wasn't in chains, or even looking like he was hurt. He was dressed in a uniform preparing what looked like a presentation.

"Gilbert thank god I found you." Clarissa came into the room and pushed a chair towards the door handles to prevent someone else from getting in.

"Clarissa been looking for you, why are you in a uniform?"

"I had to hide to get in here and rescue you."

"Rescue me? What do you think I'm doing here Clarissa?" Clarissa felt like she had missed something critical. Gilbert was working with the army now, she had wanted to not believe it at first, but clearly looking at the room he was now a willing participant.

"The elves got you all fucked up thinking you're doing the right thing, but you aren't believe me, they have held on to this power for too long, and its about time we take it for ourselves." Gilbert was near her now, and he had a pistol out, there was a banging at the door and mps burst it soon after.

"What are you doing Gilbert?"

"Got to show you what you aren't seeing Clarissa." They lead her away in chains soon after, Clarissa was crying on the way.

****
"So that could have gone better." Rolf was in the prison waiting for her, he had a bloodied face, whoever had chased after him had not liked the struggle.

"You're telling me."

"So did you find Gilbert?"

"He's willingly a part of this now." Rolf cursed under his breath.

"I was worried about that, humans tend to stick with humans."

"Gilbert isn't like that!" Clarissa didn't believe her own words either."

"Well you aren't like that Clarissa, it doesn't mean your boss isn't."

"I don't know what we do now Rolf." Rolf smiled and produced a lock pick.

"We escape Clarissa, we escape."