[h3][b]Itzi Ku[/b][/h3]

Itzi had spent the last few days waiting for the other boot to fall. It never did.

For all the chaos Carter had dragged behind him, she had managed to keep herself clear of the worst of it. No officers had come for her, no embassy men had pulled her aside, and no one had asked too many questions about where she had been or what she had known. Maybe they didn’t know, maybe they just didn’t care or maybe there were simply bigger problems now. That seemed to be the case given how hectic things were around the place and how bad the front's situation had turned. 

There were certainly enough problems and surprises as well. 

Zoe Spirou was not Zoe Spirou at all, she was Princess Philazoea Hasikos.

The name sat strangely in Itzi’s head, she vaguely knew anything about the Hasikos and the history of the Empire but it had never truly settled in her mind. But now the name spread through the crew like a spark through dry brush, they had been escorting an actual princess this whole time, not just any princess either but the last free daughter of the Emperor. The senior royal not in Calarian hands or taken by their bullets. 

Itzi had not known whether to laugh or curse when she first heard it. In the end, she had mostly cursed Carter's name.

Of all the times to lose patience, of all the times to grab at gold like a desperate fool. If he had waited, if he had just held his nerve, maybe the whole thing might have settled differently. Maybe there would have been payment after all, real payment that could changed their lives, bought land, paid debts and lifted a family clear out of mud and hunger.

But that was useless thinking now.

The gold was gone, taken away into vaults and ledgers and whatever other places powerful people kept the things others could only dream of. The ship itself had been taken over by Mittelander soldiers, stripped of the last of that weight and refitted under military supervision. Their strange little expedition had been swallowed by uniforms and royal claims.

Still, Itzi had decided to stay. She was still asking herself why more than once.

It was not loyalty to Inbur or to a princes, emperors or banner she hqad never grown up under. She was Hunyak, her home was across the sea, in Hunyunak, out there they had something of a monarchy but family mattered more than that.

The real answer was that the sight of the train depot had changed her.

The wounded men, the refugees, the woman with the child. It had shown her what this war really was. Among the clawing between old nations and the people rulingt hem there was people dying, families being slaughtered, homes destroyed, children too thirsty to cry.

If it kept spreading, it would not stop because Hunyunak was far away.

Maybe it was foolish to think one woman could matter. One thin Hunyak woman from the Main, with no title, army or grand name behind her. But someone had to be first. Someone from her people had to see it coming and choose not to look away.

So when the message came from the Princess Regent, Itzi went.

She arrived with the others and waited beneath the shadow of the airship as soldiers moved over its frame and deck. She had half expected to be told to leave the country by the stuck up lieutenant that kept looking at her and the others with visibly scorn.

Then Zoe appeared.

She looked different in uniform, smaller than the authority around her and yet somehow larger for refusing to shrink beneath it. The khaki, the leather coat, the rank insignia, the guards at her back. Itzi watched as the young woman dismissed the Mittelander crew from her own ship with a calmness that made the lieutenant in front of her look suddenly very young.

Despite herself, Itzi smiled. That was more like it.

[quote=@Dyelli Beybi]
She then turned to her companions, switching to Inburian, "Captain Arkadios, the bridge is yours.  Mister Naesandoral, you have the helm.  Set a course due East towards the Morktree." She spoke with the absolute certainty that people would do as she commanded... "I'll explain exactly what we're doing in a moment.  For now, everyone to your stations."
[/quote]

She waited until the order was given and the others began moving. Then she stepped forward, straightened herself as best she could, and raised a hand in her best effort at a salute.

“Princess Regent,” Itzi said with a clear voice, “Itzi Ku, of the Kingdom of Hunyunak.”

With a small lift of her chin she continued.

“Sole volunteer of my country in service of the cause.”

There was a flicker of humor in her expression, plucky despite everything, but the words were not a joke.

“I don’t know if that counts for much,” she added, “but I’m here.”