Vain Redemption

"Evangeline!" 

My name cut across the roof tops in the early morning air. I skidded to a stop and clung on to the nearest chimney. Turning around on my heels, I let my eyes dart to find where the voice had come from. 

"Evangeline! Here!" I snapped my head in the direction and peered through the blackened mist. 

"Jack, where are you?" I called out, just as a figure leapt from the adjacent rooftop. "Have you got it?" I asked him as he leaned against my chimney to catch his breath. 

"Yes," he panted, his breaths ragged. "Word on the street is that they are meeting tonight at the high tower."

"The entire council, in one place?" I asked, turning the rumor over in my mind. This wasn't the first time I had heard of the council, all of the council, meeting together, but there had been something about this rumor that had rung truer than any other that had come before. Something in the city's mood, in the watchmen's new vigilance, in the way the newspapers told us very little these days. I could feel it in the air.

Jack raised his eyebrows and smiled. "And Eva, that's not all."

"What do you mean." I asked, leaning forward as if the closer I was to him the faster I could snatch up the words. "Jack, don't mess with me, what else have you heard?"

"That the council won't be the only ones meeting."

I gasped. "You don't mean..." 

"I do. The king will be here also." 

I let go of the chimney and bounded to the next roof. There was no time to lose. If the council and the king were truly meeting together tonight, there was much work that had to be done. 

Jack was right behind, catching up to me upon the next roof. "Don't rush this Evangeline, don't be hasty. You realize the consequences of the actions you're about to execute, don't you?"

Intensity filled my eyes just as a passion filled my heart. "I know, and I am willing to die for our cause."

A light filled his face that, like the sun, broke through the mist surrounding us. "Just making sure you're still loyal to our cause before I give you this." Jack grabbed my hand and I opened it so he could drop a pocket watch sized gadget in my hand. "What ever you do my dear, don't lose this. This is the only thing that I can give you, but it is worth every life we are putting in danger tonight." 

"I understand," I answered, tucking the gadget away in my dress. "Now go Jack, we must flee before the mists lift."

"Shall I see you tonight?" he asked, sounding as innocent as a hopeful young man inquiring after a date to a coffee shop. But I knew what he really meant, the double meaning quite transparent to me.

"Yes, yes, I will be there, precisely at the strike of nine," and, with that, we went our different directions, flying across the roof tops, dreaming of the freedom we would win this night.