The plan

You all sit down in the meeting hall, the same room you gathered in last night. Some of the girls share grins and giggles, clearly remembering everything about it. You chuckle and shake your head.

“Don’t get any ideas, ladies. I can’t handle another night like that tonight.”

Alex pouts. “Hey, you promised!”

Cassie nods. “Yeah, we were bad girls!”

You laugh. “Calm down. You’ll get what you deserve. I just can’t handle all of you every night. I’m only human!”

Sarah smiles and leans close, purring in your ear. “Don’t sell yourself short, my mate, you’re amazing…”

Victor clears his throat, and you blush slightly. Fortunately, Amara comes in on your side. She leans against him with a smile. “Oh take it easy, my darling. It’s not like we spent the evening doing anything innocent!”

Now it was Victor’s turn to look sheepish. You chuckle, and change the subject. “Anyway! On to our next step. As I’ve said, I want to move beyond raiding ships and hiding here. That can only last so long. Victor, that city we stayed in, what was it called?”

“Thalberg. It’s the closest large city to here.”

You nod. “I want to start working on liberating it from the Order. Unfortunately, it seems that the guards there recognize us. Do you know of anyone who could hide us while we work there?”

Victor shakes his head. “I’ve only passed through. I don’t know the city well. I would imagine there’s someone in town here that does, though.”

“That’ll be our first task then. We need a safe house in Thalberg. A warehouse or some other large, abandoned building would be ideal. We’ll also need to figure out who is sympathetic to what we’re doing.”

Bella nods. “And then what?”

You smile. “Then the real work begins. We need to undermine the nobles and take their power base away. Magic, manpower, weapons, anything we can take, we do. And we redistribute it to the common people, the ones oppressed by the nobility.”

You look at Ben. “At the same time, we need to keep up our training here. Once we start taking a city, the Order will react. If it comes to a fight, I want to be able to win it. So we’ll need to find tradesmen, smiths, that sort of thing.”

You look at Sarah. “I hope you don’t mind if we ask you to do a bit of smithing as well?”

The hellhound laughs. “As long as you’re not chaining me to the forge!”

You wink. “Only if you’re naughty. Thank you.”

Victor speaks up. “You know this will take a long time, right? Months, if not years.”

You nod. “If you rush things, it goes bad. We have time.”

Ben chuckles. “So, your plan is to start a worker’s revolution?”

You shrug. “In a way. But I’m sure there will be nobles sympathetic to our cause, and it’s important to win them over as well. We’re overthrowing a corrupt leadership, not reforming society. Not yet, anyway.”

Melora nods. “There’s definitely nobles who hate what the Order has become, especially in the outlying areas. But the closer you get to the capital, the more corrupt the nobility.”

You smile. “And we’ll deal with that when we get there. I think we’ve got plenty on our plate already. Everyone understand what we’re doing now?”

You look around the table, seeing nods and smiles. “Great. We’ll work out details as we progress. But for now, I have a pressing matter to handle.”

You look at Cassie and Alex, who giggle.