Chapter 3 3. Council Meeting

"We know where she is, Morgan," Nila told him, Morgan, the main leader of the Resistance. "We need to get her!" Nila practically shouted at him. The Ravens had gone straight to the council when they arrived back at the Resistance Headquarters.

"We don't have the resources, nor can we risk sending in anyone to get her out." He snapped back, They were nothing to him, nothing. He saw them as spies but didn't recognize the sacrifices they made to obtain the secrets that had led the Resistance to its small victories.

Serphina had known it was pointless to speak there. To them, she was considered angry and hysterical. The other Ravens were the same in their eyes. Tools that fed them information, but, as the Sovereign and the Reapers saw them, they were nothing, really.  Nothing more than parts and to the men in this room, damaged ones at that. Serphina used to be more in their eyes.

She was the smartest in the room, or they used to say she was. She had found a way to use runes after all. She had given them a way to hide, an ancient way that even non-magical people could use. Though not as powerful as they didn’t have magic, not like magicians did.  Regardless of her contributions, regardless of how much of herself she sacrificed, she was just a body to them now.

One to use to get information, no matter how much it broke her spirit. "Please reconsider." Prudy implored the room. "You two aren't even allowed in the council meetings." Someone barked. Serphina was allowed, despite her silence; she had opened the door for her sisters to plead their case. Her fellow Ravens had a right to be there, in her opinion; they had done more than enough to earn a spot when it came to decisions, though it seemed she was the only one.

"I wish we could save her, but we don't have the resources we need to secure the Philosopher's Egg. It needs to be the priority right now; it could be the key to taking down the Sovereign." Morgan said. Prudy and Nila's faces both fell. They looked to Serphina, expecting her to defend their point. She offered a sad smile. It told them everything. We have each other, and we will get her without them.

They didn't nod; they didn't fight to stay in the meeting; they simply left, knowing their sister would help them. With the two Ravens leaving, Morgan tries to redirect the meeting. "So, the Philosophers' Egg, we have a lead." He said. Seraphina's anger bubbled. How dare he sit there and make plans that were based on a possibly fake artifact when she had someone she loved being held and tortured?

He was as vile as the reapers. He didn't care about who he had to sacrifice, what parts of themselves had been stripped away. No, the opposite: he wanted her to train more girls to become Ravens; his reasoning was that they needed more spies. Apparently, the four of them were not doing enough. He didn't know, or he didn't care, at least what she gave to get the information he was working from now.

Serphina had refused. If he couldn't even help rescue them when they were taken, why would she risk anyone else? It wasn't easy or pleasant extracting the information they gave to the Resistance. It was torture in itself being in the dollhouse. No one else should be subjected to what she and the Ravens did. The Resistance didn't want to acknowledge the suffering they inflicted. No, they were the good guys, wanting to bring down the Sovereign and his Reapers.

It was all worth it to them; they didn't care about those they let be subjected to the vile ideologies of the men they were fighting.  No, it was justified, and that was why Serphina hated the lot of them. The only things keeping her there were her sisters and the desire to end the war with the Resistance winning. Because, despite them not caring about them, how they used them, at the very least, if the Resistance won, she would never be a doll, like the women she had to witness.

"The egg is in a crypt under the ruins of the Notre Dame," Blue said. Serphina just listened, making her eyes focused on the brick wall in front of her. Blue had been her boyfriend for a time. Their relationship had quickly fallen apart the night after her first mission at the Dollhouse. When she came back to Headquarters in tears. Only to find him in bed with Hannah. The explanation tore her apart.

Something along the lines of her selling herself to get information. She had cried, her sisters holding her, comforting her. To Blue and most in the Resistance, the Ravens weren't fighting;; they were not bleeding or scarred on the battlefield; therefore, they didn't have a say. They didn't sacrifice outwardly, so they didn't suffer, but Serphina knew better. The Ravens, the sisterhood knew better. They suffered plenty and were scared so deeply they could feel it in their soul.

They made their plans in front of her. They gave directions and shared orders, all based on the intel she and her Ravens had given them. When they were dismissed, she tapped her bangle, telling her sisters to meet her in the attic. The Resistance could try to get the Philosophers' Egg like they wanted. She and her sisters were getting Emma. Who would be there to stop them?

They hadn't been forced to stay at Headquarters. They had gone to the Dollhouse for their own information tonight; it had been the Ravens' objective, not the resistance. As she went to take her own leave and have her own meeting, Archie blocked her path. The knowing look said he was on board with whatever rescue the Ravens would devise.

She gave him a nod of her own. Archie was not a part of the sisterhood, but he was an ally. As much as she was looked down on for not doing enough, Archie, too, was subject to that. Being a healer brought no thanks to the Resistance. It didn't matter that he patched them up; he wasn't the one bleeding, so no thanks, no recognition came.

Ethan, the other Alley in the Resistance, to offer his assistance to the Ravens, was already heading up the stairs to the dimly lit storage space that the Ravens used to discuss their own plans. He fought, he bled, and he was recognized. However, the Resistance felt he was now a risk to put into the field. Since his brother had died the year prior, he had lost his sense of control, or rather, the Resistance lost a soldier they couldn’t control.

"We are getting her out, right?" Nila asked as the group stood close by in the attic. Away from prying eyes and people who used them, despite their own disgust with what they had become. What they had made them into.  Seraphina spoke clearly and with determination, "We never leave a Raven behind."