Sparrow Truman May 23th,20XX

Chaos.

That was the only word I could use to describe the scene before me. The main tower of the capital, where Rubella stayed had crumbled like a house of cards and the debris had taken almost all of the surrounding buildings with it. Witches on their brooms dotted the skies, each flying at similar paces.

Fortunately, I’d been outside when the fairy had smashed into the building and had caught a glimpse of her before she’d made an impact. Her hair, like golden threads and the vicious expression on her familiar face. She had been beautiful, but not in a comforting way. Like a bejewelled sword, or a toxic flower.

The harsh wind slashed at my skin as I flew, and snapped me back into the moment. Three witches flew behind me, occasionally diverting to save someone trapped under some form of rubble or was hurt from something else.

“Dione!”

The blue-haired witch flew back to my side, hair askew and occasionally hitting her in the face. Her expression was wretched with frenzy as she hauled the group of witches behind her on her lasso.

“Red! Go help her!”

It had only been a day and a half but he had completely adapted to the low effort nickname and responded quickly. His primary weapon was a spear, so he was a bit clumsy maneuvering the net as he flew, but it was better than nothing.

Another boom echoed from the distance and showed the royal had targeted another building.

I shivered as I flew and focused on collecting the young witches. The older ones could fend for themselves, and I could see a lot of them helping out others or doing the same thing that I was. It was a pretty heartwarming scene save for the shameful amount of older witches fleeing the scene with brooms weighed down by supplies and not other people.

Supplies were important, but essentials could be saved into their tattoos. Abandoning lives for items was simply… disgusting.

“Orange!”

She flew in front of me with a stony expression and sent a blast at a large boulder that had threatened to crush a crippled group of witches. The fine debris would hurt, but at least they would live.

As long as one lived, then they could be healed. But there wasn’t much anyone could do if someone died.

Or well, there was. But it wouldn’t be pleasant for any of the parties involved.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

From what I’d heard it looked like the royal had solely targeted the capital, and the widespread destruction, narrowed in closer and closer around a certain area of the city. It was clear that she had a target, and it was even clearer what that target was.

Rubella.

I cursed her name in my mind and lifted the end of my broom toward myself. It was a reckless way to stop, but it was faster than gradually slowing down. I took another look around and realized with a relieved sigh that the destroyed towers had mostly been empty. I had yet to see a single corpse as I flew, although there were more than a few witches that looked close to becoming one.

“Red! You take charge and keep going! I have something to do. Dione, pink. Come with me. Remember to stick to the plan! If any of you veer off it, I won't even have to punish you. The lives on your hands will be enough.”

Although the casualties were somewhat large, the situation was still contained. The plan I’d discussed with the teens the other day could still happen but only if they all cooperated with me. I’d had my fears at first but seeing how hard they were all working, some of my worries were soothed.

The more of my memories I'd unlocked, the softer I became. One might even say that I held some affection for these ex-bullies.

Pink and Dione flew to either side of me and had burdened expressions on their faces. I could tell that they were both unsure of my plan, but neither of them questioned me. Dione, out of trust and Pink out of fear.

If there had been a time I would have wanted to sit down with Pink and detail all my plans so she could wholeheartedly understand and support them, but there wasn’t even nearly enough time to do so. I had to trust Dione to keep her partner in control.

We split off once we reached the rubble of the main tower, and each went to the holding cells of the goblins. When they weren’t under direct orders, they would retreat to those cells and wait to be summoned.

With all the chaos going on, I was sure that all the witches had abandoned the goblins and had left them to be crushed to rubble.

Blatant racism aside, I couldn’t help but be shocked into wonder at how little witches recognized a goblins worth, despite being weaker than them.

It was probably the lack of external magic that did it.

It would also explain why witches idolized fairies so much and saw them as the pinnacles of existence.

I didn’t get it, and I probably never would. But right now wasn’t the time to sink into an existential crisis of values and ideologies.

Right now I planned to find the goblins and loosen the spells on the goblin’s minds. While red and the others would gather other witches to help us take down Rubella and her minions, I would entice the goblins to do the same. Under the condition that I would free them after.

I wished I could simply set them free without going through the hassle, but I needed all the help I could get. And I knew that only having the few witched that volunteered would not be enough. Rubella, for all she was, hadn’t been a tyrant. And aside from having a few stupid ideas, she had been voted into power fair and square. I doubted there would be enough people that hated her enough to risk their lives in taking her down.

It was a risky move, and I was essentially staging a coup with little to no planning but I had no plans of taking power. I just needed the witch lands destabilized enough that I could take Rubella’s transporter and stabilizer.

I hadn't been expecting the fairy queen to come here and cause so much chaos, so I had to abandon my plan of trying to find the prince and take him with me.

I would prioritize getting Jake, and then beat it out of this world.

I'd have to completely unlock all my memories once I got to the human world, but I'd feel a lot safer doing it over there than here.