“What exactly am I fighting for?”

Alex wanted an answer to something which had been bothering me just as much as him. I was struggling with the same thoughts myself. When I first declared my desire, I stated that I refused to be the only one to carry the story of Marlisle. As I looked at Alex, I thought back on the memories that I was willing to die for…

***

Marlisle was a lot like Corith. Corith never participated in any large scale wars, nor did it ever play a major part in the rest of the world’s history. It was a nation that simply existed while the rest of history happened around it, and it was content with that. Marlisle, just like Corith, existed and was content with that existence. It was a border town which sat on the edge of Nacilia, nestled in a small gap between cleared land and the forest.

Corith’s nature of simplistic existence didn’t result in wealth for the nation. Not having many natural resources meant that there wasn’t a lot outside of logging to support itself on the world stage. Its land was arable, but just barely. The land which was the best for growing crops was part of the woods, which could only be slowly chipped away over years due to the creatures that roamed it. Marlisle grew crops and had small pastures for our animals to roam, but its produce was minor and could falter in cases of drought or bad weather. It was a place which had little identity and didn’t stand out other than its position on the edge of the forest where monsters roamed unbound. Marlisle was a place that was notable for its lack of notability.

It was also the place I called home.

***

I was named North for the simple reason that my mother thought it sounded good and it wasn’t a name anyone else in the village had. Not having last names meant that having a unique first name was important. It was so important that the village elders kept a log of all of the names in Marlisle to make sure that no two people had the same name. According to Sera, there were 230 unique names in the logbook.

My family were candlemakers and the source of most of the wax in the village. We grew the soy for the wax and created the individual wicks for each candle. It was our family trade, passed on by my father’s father. The lights of the town came from our household, and our names were synonymous with them. The “Candle Family”, who lived in the small shop west of the town center and who always had a small light flickering in the windowsill.

We were not rich, and were often uncomfortable in the winters with food. Our small farm of soy always contained a patch of wheat for when the harvest of the rest of the town was low and our business would falter. It was a basic life which left the village aware of us, but never the focus. I was a child who never ventured into the forests or forged into unnecessary paths. We were a family of rules that I was asked to follow or else I would end up with red cheeks.

My friends were few, but strong. Sera was not one of them. Their names had faded, and could only come back to me in short bursts as I reflected on stories of injury or comedy. My family was friends with many, but never too deeply. We always seemed to stand alone from the rest of the village despite our vital role in their darker nights.

Marlisle was my home for 14 years.

And then it was gone.

***

For nearly 2 years, we sat on the edge of Arlin’s newest border. After having acquired Nacilia, they took time to lie in wait as it slowly began to convert the now annexed nation into fertile ground for its future endeavors while searching for new sources of magore. We were fearful, but believed that Arlin would not see any value in our territory. Our forests and lack of natural resources would have made our land undesirable to any nation who had normal goals. Under false pretenses of good faith we would even trade with them whenever their merchants would enter our town. We held onto hope that they would never find interest in Marlisle, but we were wrong.

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Two days after the Arlin Empire declared its 9th Campaign, they arrived in Marlisle. It ended in one single night. When the sun had set in the west, there were 230 unique names in our town.

When the sun rose in the east, there were only 2.

The son of a candlemaker and the daughter of a village elder.

North and Sera.

Marlisle was dead, and we were all that remained.

***

3 weeks later, Corith’s capital would declare surrender. The royals, the only people in Corith with the right to have last names, hoped to find mercy from their new subjugators. 2 days later, their heads would be paraded around the capital to signify the beginning of a new era and a declaration of glory to the Arlin Empire. I would watch from the back of a carriage, chained to the floor as soldiers cheered and celebrated the dawn of a new day, a day which Marlisle would never see.

It was then that I began my life as a miner for the empire. Over 3 years I moved to two different mining locations across the empire's ever expanding lands until I finally ended up where I was now, where I met Sera again.

***

My name is North.

I lived in the town of Marlisle in Corith, a town without names.

I was the child of two candlemakers.

I was a slave to the Arlin Empire for 5 years.

And I was staring at a man who was desperate to know what about me made me worthy to have him be willing to die for a cause he’d seen fail so many times before.

***

Alex looked at me, his eyes still wet with tears. He needed an answer. I took a deep breath and focused my thoughts.

“You’d be fighting for the story of a land that only exists in the memory of two people. Because the one thing that the empire would hate more than anything else would be to know that it can never truly replace a people. If Marlisle dies, if Sera dies, Arlin and all those bastards who destroyed Nacilia win because it is proof that they can rewrite the stories of those it overtakes.”

I reached out my right hand in front of me.

“Don’t let them win this fight. Because if they can erase the history of my homeland, they can erase the history of yours too.”

I could see Alex take a moment to ponder my words as he slowly reached out his arm, locking his hand with mine.

“Are you sure about that? I’m pretty sure the only thing that they care about are their mines.”

He might be… wait.

I’d been searching for something to distract the guards. I knew that one major step had to be distracting the guards so we could help everyone get their cuffs unlocked or get to the armory. I’d been overlooking it the entire time because I was so focused on my work and thinking about the ways that they utilized it. They had refined magore, but we could utilize our aptitude to interact with the stuff that was much more dangerous. From a logical perspective, it was suicide, but it was an advantage that only we had. It’d taken a while, but I knew where we could start.

“Alex, you just gave me the first step to our plan.”

His eyes immediately widened. I could feel a smile creep across my lips for the first time in what felt like forever.

“We’re going to blow up the mine.”