[Lauchenoiria]

Zichitla tapped on the side of her tablet as she read the article. Though her face gave nothing away, inside she was allowing her anger to build up without even a cursory attempt at preventing it. The rogue Aurora was most displeased by the latest news from Huenya. She despised Calhualyana, of course: it was her whole reason for threatening the Councillors in the first place. But Huenya allowing those Necatli males to dictate their form of government, especially removing the family that had saved so many Auroras from power? No, that simply could not be allowed.

“The Necatli are a problem,” she said to Layla, aka Mackenzie Walhorn, her second-in-command of their burgeoning army of rogue Auroras. “Not to sound like a Xiomeran, though ethnically I am one, but they have always been troublesome. They have always been the most patriarchal people of the Huenyan landmass.”

This was not necessarily true; there were no statistics nor academic studies with these conclusions which Zichitla had read. But why should one allow truth to get in the way of convenient propaganda? She had to convince her fellow Auroras to do something about the Necatli, and the only other ethnic Xiomeran in the vicinity, Nelichē, was still refusing to side with her and thus was safely locked up.

“What do you intend to do?” Layla asked.

“I intend to send a message,” Zichitla responded calmly. “The Council are weak, and are merely reacting to current events. They have lost their way; they are no longer the vanguard of the women’s revolution. We are.”

Layla, who was in this for money and power rather than ideology, nodded along noncommittally. “Right, but what kind of message?”

“A bloody one,” Zichitla replied, allowing a slight smile to cross her face.