[ooc| Here it is, Sunshine, sorry it's so short for such a long wait. Do you mind if I leave this open for anyone else to join?]
The rhythmic, foreboding rhythm of boots echoed through the square. They marched in perfect precision, their rows and columns flawlessly straight, expressions blank as marble and eyes fixed unwaveringly ahead. Rhett flattened himself against the wall beneath the shade of an arch to watch them pass. It was only a small platoon, maybe thirty soldiers, and who knew what they were doing marching through the city in mid-afternoon, but any number of soldiers was enough to make Rhett nervous.
When they had passed, the young man peeled himself off the wall and emerged tentatively into the sunlight again. He stared after their retreating backs silently, but with a quiet hatred for the military, for the government, for everything they stood for. Others might hate the royal family for their lack of aid for poverty or disease, or praise them for their intolerance of magic, but Rhett hated them for that exact reason. It was all too easily to envision the massacre of his entire family for something his sisters had simply been born with.
But no one would ever suspect Rhett of such treasonous thoughts. Even now, moving and sliding through the crowd of the marketplace, no one paid attention to him; he was nearly invisible, his shoulders and spine slouched to minimise his height, his eyes directed meekly at the ground and avoiding contact with anyone else. People didn’t think the young, awkward Garou was a threat to anyone, and because he spoke so little (and chose his words so carefully when he did), he never let on how much of a traitor he was to his country.
His thoughts were still on the soldiers as Rhett lingered at a stall to purchase some pretty new ribbons for his sisters. He was often careful to bring them something nice when he went out to market, because they so rarely left the house these days; they loved the small, thoughtful gifts he brought them from the Reajh market. The knowledge that the military was responsible for his sisters’ isolation redoubled his hatred, making him avert his eyes so no one would see the rage glittering there.