I immediately drew my sword, hoping for the best, but planning for the worst, but as I drew my sword, he grabbed my hand and tried to twist it.

My sword clattered out of my hand, and I ran for my spear.

“Coward!” He roared, walking after me.

“No.” I said, grabbing my spear and rushing him.

He caught the blow with his own spear, which he had drawn from his back at just that moment.

I tried to grab my sword but he stepped on it. He pushed me back with his strength and drew his own sword.

At this moment, I knew that this was the moment that would forever decide whether I would live or die.

Just before he was able to put his sword into action I dived and grabbed my own sword, but it was too late.

He rammed his spear into my leg as I tried to stop him with just my sword, my spear out of my hand.

I screamed and he backed away for just a moment.

Adrenaline filled me and I got back onto my feet and I fought him once more, sword against sword and spear. I knew that if I was going to win I had to take away one of his weapons, as he seemed to be particularly proficient with both weapons.

With a quick disarming motion as I ducked, I relieved him of his spear as I ducked to avoid his sword from taking off my head.

He roared and tried to cut off my head but I would not allow it. I slammed his blow into him and he almost went flying. As it was, he took a few steps.

I picked up my spear and threw it at him but he blocked it.

But I was already running at him and when he blocked me I was quick to slam more and more blows at him.

But I was growing weaker and weaker now. The adrenaline was starting to go out of me. I knew that it was now or never. I ducked from one of his other blows and slammed another blow into him with all of the force that I could muster. He stepped back, stunned.

For most of the fight it had been equal but at this moment it was clearly toward me.

I rushed at him with all of my speed, slamming my sword into his heart, then drawing it from his chest.

He tried to gasp for air as the adrenaline seemed to fly out of me and I did the same.

No, I thought, It can’t end like this. It doesn’t end like this.

With the last of my adrenaline, I limped toward the tent to bandage up my wound.

When I awoke, I thought to myself, I thought, I will never allow this in the world that I shall create. None such tests like this, nothing like this, coming from neither man nor woman.

I had managed to wrap a bandage around my knee before I had passed out, but only barely. The bandage was soaked through with the blood, and it was increasingly clear that it had never been meant to be used like this.

The bandages themselves looked like they had been made in the cities, which was strange, because I was sure that it had been a chief, one chief in particular, that had left me here.

Here to day. That was what Ani’sja had done this time, not because I was insane or anything like that, it was because I was a threat, I figured. Still, I did not know why he had done this or what had compelled him to do this, so I figured that if I found out—wait—what was that?

The wind was still blowing the flaps of the tent, and I could see a man, one who looked like he was searching for something.

I limped out of my tent, hoping against hope, for some reason, that he would be searching for me, and for a good reason that would help me in some way.

When he saw me he immediately smiled.

“We’ve been looking for you the whole week!” He said, running toward me as I collapsed. “The chief…the chief Ani’sja was furious when he heard that you were being nursed back to health…all of the others tried to stop him, but…oh, we have to get you to the House of Healing, and fast.”

“Brrr…” I said as everything went dark.

I woke up in a bed with various healers caring for me. This House of Healing was a large one and looked like a chief’s house, except all hollowed out and in the place of most things, almost thirty beds. It was built out of wood and stone, except for the ceiling which was built out of…something else. I just couldn’t remember the name.

“…Her leg will never be normal again…she will have to limp for the rest of her life.” One of the healers was saying.

This time, the bed was a normal bed, though made out of sticks, and had a blanket made from animal furs.

I frowned and got up. The healers immediately looked at me and told me to get back down.

“Chief,” One of them said, “You must rest. You must get your strength back.”

“No,” I said, “I already have enough—wait did you just call me ‘chief?’”

One of them nodded. I lied back down in order to appease them so that they would answer my questions.

“Why?” I asked. “Just…why?”

“Former Chief Ani’sja has been deposed, and it has been determined by the elders and the Shantus of the various tribes present that you are the chief of ‘Sja. If you do good in that position, they shall make you chief of all the allied tribes.”

I nodded, still shocked by the notion. There hadn’t been a female chief since…well…since the golden age, and at that time, they hadn’t been called chiefs, but rather…something else. I could not remember the title, but I knew that they had been called something else. Something like…Ayiso.”

“But…” I said, shocked that they would make me a chief when I had done so much against the tribes, “I am a woman. How could they make me chief? It’s against the law.”

“Not for the uniter to be chief.” One of them said, a dark-skinned woman with blazing blue eyes and a sing-song voice.

Another one of the healers nodded. It was a man with long hair blond hair and a dark complexion with dark brown eyes.

“You are not just anyone. If the uniter was not to be chief, then she could only be director of the tribes, and that would not suit her, would it, eh?” He asked in a deep voice.

I could only try to nod.

One of the others sighed. “You should know this. You are the uniter. The uniter knows all of the prophecies, and she does not even think of forgetting them.” He said in a dry, but deep, voice. “That is why I do not believe.”

He had a dark complexion, his face with no facial nor scalp hair, with eyes so brown that they were almost black.

I must be in the cities, I realized, for only the people of the cities look so different from my people.

My people? I asked myself. That was strange. I was starting to recognize them as not just people, but mine to protect and nurture, not that I was the best example of good humanity.

“Where am I?” I asked, just to confirm it.

“In the city of Trandrangiak.” The dark-skinned healer told me in his deep voice.

“Why?” I asked.

“The uniter needed the healing of the best. But do not worry, we believe. At least most of us do.” She said in her usual sing-song voice. “I am Jian’o.”

My mind immediately questioned this. The people of the cities were not part of tribes or clans, so how did one of them have a tribal name?

“Now we must get back to healing the others. Get some rest, uniter. It will be a time before you can fully assume your responsibilities as chief. In the meantime, you must get your strength back.” Jian’o told me.

“What about my tribe and all of the others?” I asked.

“They are in the city, awaiting your recovery. The people have not taken to them easily, but the chiefs have done a good job of making them more likable.” The dark-skinned healer said. “I am Yujin’í, by the way, and I am supposed to be your personal healer. Now you will sleep.”e

I nodded, wanting to hear more of this, and slept.

Over the next few days I followedhisr advice and rested. Periodically, I would hear more and more about Ani’sjaand what was happening until one day whenhee said, “Well, this is the earliest possible day that we can ralaes you from the ward, but if you really want to, this is your day.”

I nodded and got up. My leg was in a cast, and I had been told that I would never be able to fight effectively again. That was fine with me; by that time I had realized that I could lead in other ways as well as inspire people to do great things in other ways. In a way, I had always known it, this was just the time that it had come into the light because of my wound.

When I got to the chiefs, they were discussing things, and the regent chief, who I had been informed was the regent chief, was in that heated discussion. The room that they were in was a small one with, as always, a table with a map around it. It had a few windows that provided much light, but they were all the mystical one-way windows that were made in the cities to protect outside people from seeing anything.

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The regent chief was a person that I had initially objected to being chief, but slowly, I had come to like them. He was Ani’sja’s brother who had been cast away by his father for safety, but had been found again in the city of Trandrangiak, identified as the rightful heir to the tribe ‘Sja.

He was a young man, but older than Ani’sja, with a fire in his eyes. Those eyes… were a strange color. Maybe that was why he had been cast away…the chiefs had never been approving of mutations among their clan, and so most of the mutated ones had been cast away. But this little of a mutation…I almost thought bad of the late chief. He didn’t seem like a very good man after all, though he had been whenever I had spoken with him. I hadn’t even known of this brother, and neither had Ani’sja, it seemed, for he had never mentioned him. Or maybe I was giving Ani’sja too much credit. Most of the time that I had been around him he had been trying to seduce me, so maybe he thought that a long-lost brother that his father had seemed to hate was not a good way to earn my hand.

“He will be the chief of ‘Sja when you ascend to the throne of the world.” Jian’o had told me once as I shivered at even the title of Queen of the World.

More chiefs had been gathered, it seemed, though the healers had told me that the war was now at a stalemate. As it was, our enemies would not attack a fortified city, for the city people were notoriously great at fighting off sieges, but the food wouldn’t last for long. We were already straining the city of its resources, what more could we ask the city until they told us to ‘get lost.’ I personally would not blame them for any resentment toward us because we were taking thousands of pounds of food in one day from them.

They didn’t seem to notice me at first, too focused on looking over the map of the known world, with the various tribes and their territories told on the map.eOne of them, whom I quickly realized was not a chief, but a servant had a brush with icons to indicate their forces on it. Another one had another brush with the enemy’s forces on it.

“…It’s going to be hard to stop them when they do their final push.” A man who matched the description of Ani’sja’s brother, Uno’sja, said.

“But we must try.” Another chief, one who I didn’t recognize, said. “We have the prophesied hero behind us, after all.”

I smiled. “Literally behind you.”

There was a collective gasp all throughout the room.

“You always do miss me coming in, don’t you?” I said, not able to stop the grin on my face from showing. I’d done this exact thing what, three times, already, and it always worked.

“My queen,” Chief Uno’sja said and all of the others dropped down to their knees.

I smiled. “Get up. I am not queen, I am the uniter, and the uniter has no titles except for the prophesied one.”

“But you are the leader of the tribes, and so you must be a queen.” Chief Ail’ujao said, gasping.

“I have heard it from the mouth of a Shantu.” Said another.

“Then that Shantu was wrong, for I do not take any titles. I am the chief of all, but at the same time, the chief of none.” I told them. “Now, by my authority, I ask you to get up.”

They all got up, sighing and muttering.

“I thought you took no titles,” Chief Uno’sja said with a wide grin on his face.

“I do not,” I told him. “But I still have authority.”

He shrugged as if he couldn’t understand this, which was perfectly fine because I could hardly wrap my head around it myself.

But the healers had told me the prophecy and made me memorize all of it, saying that the chiefs would only recognize me as the true uniter if I knew all of the prophecy.

“But why?” I asked. “Why do you want me to unite all of the tribes and all of the cities?”

“Because you may be able to bring an end to all of the endless wars that the cities have.” Was the simple answer.

“What has happened when I was gone?” I asked. “I want all of the military details—even the ones that you would prefer to keep secret.”

And so they explained it all to me—even the part about Ani’sja being a chief with the enemy and a part of tribe ‘Sja going to his side—only a small part, they assured me. Still, it was a part of tribe ‘Sja, which, although not a major tribe, was still a large tribe. Everything else seemed to be relatively minor compared to that, and so I decided to focus on it.

“Why was I not told that Ani’sja had gone over and joined the other side?” I asked.

“Because it’s been a secret,” Ail’ujao responded, sounding like he did not like that.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because we thought that if the people knew that, they would go over to the other side, too,” Uno’sja told me.

“Reveal it, then,” I told them.

There was a collective gasp throughout the room, though I could see Ail’ujao and Uno’sja smiling.

“Are you crazy?!” Yuo’cala asked.

“The truth is always better than any lie. Sooner or later they will find out anyway, and more will join the other side.” I told them. “Plus, don’t you realize the opportunity in this?! We can use it to denounce all of those who went to the other side! Even while telling the truth, we still have the advantage of telling it in our light! We can tell the whole story, of how he injured the uniter, and how he cheated on her! They took a risk, hoping that you would do this very thing, and you are doing it!”

Ail’ujao smiled. “From my mouth to hers, the truth is hard to deny. If we do not tell the truth now, who is to say that they will not brainwash the tribes with their story? If that happens, we could have thousands go over to their side. It would be a disaster!”

“They would not tell their people about this if they had the same thing happen to them!” Yuo’cala almost yelled.

“No,” Said a voice from the other side of the room, from someone clothed in almost rich garments, but with a kindly face. It seemed weird that I hadn’t noticed him, but I seemed to only notice people clothed in chieftain garments. “But I am sure that you do not play by their rules.”

“We do not listen to you!” Yuo’cala roared. “You are not the chief of a tribe or the uniter. You—”

“No,” Another chief whom I did not know said, “You may not listen to him, but we do. He is, after all, the lord of this city.”

I nodded. “It seems that it should be useful for us to listen to him. After all, he is the one that our enemies fear the most, not all of us. He is the reason that they hold back from attacking.”

Yuo’cala immediately drew his sword. “You insult my strength? You—”

Ail’ujao immediately disarmed him, grabbing Yuo’cala’s wrist and twisting it and then pointing his sword at Yuo’cala.

“That was not wise for you to threaten the uniter. After all, we are all allied to her.” He said. “It was neither honorable nor manly of you to try to kill because of an insult. That is what children do. Are you a child, Chief Yuo’cala?”

I thought that Ail’ujao had taken it too far and Yuo’cala was going to storm out or try to fight Ail’ujao, but the chief just lowered his head and sighed. “Forgive me, my fellow chiefs. You are completely right.”

Chief Ail’ujao lowered his sword. “That was very…mature of you to admit your fault. Now pick up your sword and rejoin this council not as a child, but as a true man.”

He picked up his sword and did so.

There were now a little over ten chiefs present at these councils, and at that specific council, we decided our next actions. We would move out as soon as possible after we told the truth. Since we all had spies that we liked to not talk about, we decided to dedicate a portion of those spies to the war effort itself, as we would be sending spies into the enemy’s ranks to better locate them. There had already been talk of things like this happening, but the chiefs had all resisted it, as no one wanted to admit that they had spies. However, I admitted it and once I did, most of the others did.

“Just for safety,” one of them used that statement to justify their use of spies, “In case one of you betrays me.”

After that, it wasn’t hard to get them to dedicate their spies toward a mission that would benefit all of us. I would send the most spies, as they convinced me that it would make the most sense for them to send the most spies from tribe ‘Sja as that was where the most betrayers had been. Fortunately, my spy network was huge and filled with almost one hundred spies so I could afford to do that. The only catch to that would be that I would never be able to use those twenty spies ever again on those chiefs.

The next day, I myself said the truth about what had happened, with a speech written by our greatest orator, Chief Ail’ujao. All of the people in the tribes (with some of the city people coming anyway) were summoned to the huge city square that was the center of the city. All around me were buildings and I stood on top of a building with only a cone to magnify my voice.

“I know that you have been hearing rumors of the lost people that fled the city for the enemy with former chief Ani’sja. Those rumors are true. I am not here to tell you lies. I am here to tell you the cold, hard, facts. The facts say that Ani’sja betrayed me not one, but two times. He has tried to stop me, the uniter, from coming back to unite the world. He has cheated on me with other woman when I was still his wife. He is an immoral person whose only strength is in the immoral morality that some men hold to him. Now you might be thinking, why should I believe her? After all, the rumors say that I am an equally immoral person who could do the same exact things…” I told them the whole story, the story of my madness after my father’s death, and after the death of the twelve elders. I left out the part about me witnessing their deaths and doing nothing about it, and said that we had been on a stroll with my then-lover. I ended with, “My comrades in battle, this represents a great danger. Ani’sja knows all of the plans that the chiefs had, and he will know how to counter them, with his men. We have only limited resources, while if he is able to convince more people of what he calls ‘the truth,’ he will have almost unlimited resources. This is a crossroads for humanity, this very war is. I know that some of you have been doubting, but doubt no more! For all of this can be proven, and it can be proven that we are on the right side, and doing the right thing! I could cite those reports, but we would be her for the rest of the day. And one last statement from me: do not fear. Fear is their greatest weapon. If you fear them, they have already won.”

With that, I stepped off the podium after a long speech and went down the stairs.

“That was a lot,” I said to Uno’sja afterward in my place in the barracks. It was dark, and I was packing up my things in case any of the chiefs asked me whether I had packed up my things for the perilous voyage that would be awaiting us outside of the city. I had fought to keep Uno’sja on the council so that he could offer his insight, which was usually good. This time, the bunks were falling apart, but I did not care. So long as the men did not try to talk sex with me, all was fine, and most of them were honorable men with wives and so they didn’t dare do that.

He smiled. “But you did it. The people are on your side.”

“With Chief Ail’ujao’s speech,” I said, wanting to give him credit.

“Still, you gave it your own voice.”

I smiled. I had had hardly any time to memorize the speech, and so the times where he thought that I was giving it my own voice were probably the times where I was improvising the most. I had recognized those times when I was improvising and I personally did not think that it was a good thing for me to improvise. After all, the chief was the most inspiring.

“I think that I left the essence of what the chief intended in the speech in there,” I told him. “So it’s not totally me.”

“I don’t know…don’t you see?” Uno’sja asked. I shook my head. “You spoke that day, and showed everyone that you are not some figurehead that the chiefs are using to unite the tribes that never comes out. You showed that you are the person that is directing them all.”

“I don’t know, seems like I would have to fight in a battle for that to happen,” I said, unashamed that I was trying to get an answer out of him for this question.

“No, but it would be nice,” Uno’sja said.

I gasped. “You actually want me to fight in battle?”

“No, because of your injury, but I would if you hadn’t gotten that injury.” He said. “A leader fighting on the front lines always gives the men ten times more encouragement than not. They will fight harder when they see the leader fighting on the front lines, seeing that the leader actually cares about the cause that they are fighting for and that he will put his life on the line for it.”

“Then what if we have the chiefs fight on the front lines?” I asked.

He nodded. “I’ve been trying to convince them to do that ever since I was summoned to this council. It makes so much sense—you could keep the best strategists in the room whilst you have the ones who don’t have as much of an aptitude for strategy on the field.”

“Do they say that they need all the minds in the Commander’s Room as possible?” I asked.

“In fact, that is exactly their excuse. Even the ones who hardly contribute anything.” He told me.

“I’ll try to convince them,” I told him and intended to make good on the promise.

The food the next day was bad, as always, but that was the food that the city provided: leftovers, the stuff that nobody wanted to eat. The men frequently complained about it, but they never actually made any moves to make it better. They knew why it was so crappy, and while they were willing to complain about it, they still liked having daily food with three meals. This had been the only city, apparently, that had done this for a tribe. The older tribesmen spoke of the tribes sheltering in cities and only being given one meal per day. That would’ve been much harder to deal with for the tribesmen, though not too hard, and so they kept their mouths shut when it came to actually trying to stop the low quality of the food.

When we met for the daily Council of War, however, the focus was more on moving out of the city and I couldn’t steer the conversation anywhere else, no matter how much I tried. When I did, it just got the chiefs annoyed. At the end of the Council of War, we had decided to move out next week, and start to deconstruct the homes starting tomorrow. Finally, we were going somewhere, I thought. We also decided on all of our future tactics, in which we would try to attack their best places in some of the most ambitious attacks that we would ever execute.

Maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn’t. But we had to try.