My Afterburners, so lethargic now, dread every time they take flight. Its as if the sky only holds death for them. And with Legosia conquering the eastern territories, perhaps they are right?

My wish of knowing how Afterburners felt is finally met, for I too fear for my life and my kingdom.

-From The Recently Deciphered Notes of King Arneshal, 5th Grouping

Dolish Venastian walked with a sense of purpose throughout the camp. And though other soldiers stared and muttered among themselves, Dolish ignored their thoughts. Truancy is bad form for a soldier. His honour guard walked behind him, and kept the others at bay. After being attacked, none of them knew if the camp was even completely safe to walk around in.

The Armon had saw it fit to free him, under the condition that he no longer harass the lieutenant General. That would be well and good for Dolish, as he had no expectation of doing so. He just wanted his men back from the man as quickly as possible.

He passed by Amarna on the way, and watched as she left. Had she known? That there was a hidden threat coming for them? And if she had, why not tell Dolish? He’d been working towards his goal of peace for so long precisely because he thought they could handle the South Gejsans.

Now? Now, he felt himself a fool. Come to a war without a sword and you’re bound to get cut down. They would need the biggest blade on offer. Not just anything will do, they needed the weapon, and they needed it soon.

“Feels like everyone’s staring daggers at us,” Borne spoke idly.

“Not us. Just me, soldier,” Dolish replied.

“Do you think they’d stop if I told them I was just walking down the same way?” Borne asked.

Dolish grunted. Perhaps not.

“Whatever, the others make piss poor company anyways,” Borne spat, and his brother sighed.

“We’ve got work to do, Borne. Try to act your position for once,” he chided his brother, though the man flashed a toothy grin. When he saw Yennel’s camp come up in the distance, the smile faded though, replaced by an expression of worry.

“Do you really think he won’t try anything?” he asked the General.

“If he does, I’ve got you and the others to handle him,” Dolish replied.

“Will that be enough?” Vaness asked. She seemed to be estimating their odds even as they spoke.

“It will have to do.”

She seemed to compose herself after that, and went to the back of the group. When they arrived in front of Yennel’s office, a soldier was there posted.

“He’s out in the field with some of the Colonels and Brigadiers, talking to them,” the soldier pointed out under Dolish’s orders.

“Good.”

Dolish stomped over to the edge of the camps, where they found a small army of them practicing. Some of them ran drills, while others, like Bladeborn, focused on improving their own powers. And in the middle of the ruckus, there was a single tent set up, to block the sun coming through to Yennel.

The Lietenant General looked as noble as always. Cleft chin and brown hair framing him in a regal light. But Dolish never had any love for nobles or the system of nobility, so he saw fit to ruin their party.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Yennel caught sight of Dolish as he was stomping over, placing his cup of tea back onto the table he had brought out. Even that was carved intricately, more for decoration than a simple picnic.

“General, what are you doing here? Did the Armon not tell yo-”

“The Armon told me plenty, Yennel. I’m here for my men,” Dolish ordered. The other soldiers around the table stopped talking, and some of them looked scared now. They darted their eyes in between the two Generals, wondering their next words.

“…What soldiers are you talking about?” Yennel asked.

“Don’t play dumb with me. I ones I lent to you.”

“I know that. I just meant whether you want the ones you lent me and who want to come back to you, or the ones that wanted to stay under my command,” Yennel asked.

Was Yennel trying to confuse him? Why was he phrasing it as such?

“You cannot simply have my troops, Yennel. They’re the ones I’ve trained, you’ve no idea of their capabilities.”

“Yes, quite, but I didn’t take them. They asked to switch over of their own will, after I promised them better treatment than your camps would,” Yennel replied, taking an annoyingly long sip of his tea as he did.

“The Armon won’t stand for this!” Dolish told him.

“He already has. I hope the letter you received explaining this didn’t get lost among your other documents,” Yennel told him with concern.

“I was no such letter. Vaness sees to it that all my documents are properly sorted.”

“Then perhaps she made a mistake,” Yennel shrugged. He took a bite out of a cake he had placed on the table, and Dolish wondered what the sentence for killing a military official was. Had Yennel tampered with his documents? And if so, what else had he tampered with?

“You’re a real snake, aren’t you?” Borne told him. His brother smacked him upside the head, and Borne glared back. Instead of responding, Yennel just turned to Dolish.

“Keep your men under control, General. That kind of insubordination reflects terribly on you.”

Dolish clenched his fists. Why did this have to happen now? Almost half of his troops, now under Yennel’s command entirely. What kind of poison was he going to feed into their minds. Dolish looked out towards the field, where they were practicing, and wondered that fact.

If they spent long enough here, they were undoubtedly going to become a part of whatever the Lieutenant General had planned.

“The Armon thought you could use the break from managing your own troops. I agree. You needn’t worry too much, General, I’ll make sure they’ll well taken care of,” Yennel told him.

“Why are you doing this, Yennel? What do you get out of it? You’re favoured by the common folk, His Sharpness thinks highly of you, and you’re the youngest Lieutenant General in our army. Why is it that none of that is enough for you?” Dolish asked him.

“Perhaps you need to visit an Archdevoted, General. I’m doing nothing but ensuring victory, and going about it the best way that I can,” Yennel replied.

“By trying to have me killed?”

“I did not! Tell me, where did you hear of this betrayal from?” Yennel asked, placing his cup back on the table and standing up. He looked genuinely insulted at the insinuation.

“The men you sent to accompany me to Sanasira. They attacked us, killed one of my honour guard and tried to have the same done to me.”

“And which of them was it who instigated it? Was it an Afterburner, perhaps? One who was known for his outbursts? I admit it, General, sending him along with you was a personal mistake. But it was not out of malice. I had no intent of having you murdered!” Yennel reasoned. And the way he spoke, it almost made Dolish want to believe it.

But the way Yennel had been acting. Perhaps if it was one event, he could’ve even forgiven it. But what he felt from Yennel was a deep desire for something. His correspondence with a historian, this massive shift of troops. It was like a guillotine being raised, and Dolish saw the Armon’s head sliding slowly into place for it to be cut.

“If that is true, Yennel, if you are really a friend, then tell me something,” Dolish asked.

“What? I’ll do what you ask if it convinces you.”

“Who were those letters from. The ones that spoke of Sanasira and its fall. Who was it that wrote them?” Dolish asked.

“Those… they were from a friend. She’s a good advisor to me,” Yennel replied, though the answer felt unearned.

“Where does this friend of yours live, Yennel?”

“…Near Birralia! We met there, in fact!” Yennel told him.

“So, just a simple friend of yours, then?” Dolish asked, and activated his Commander field. The blue beacon reached into the sky, and under its gaze, Yennel seemed to still.

“…We can all use friends, General. Especially in times like these,” he said flatly. Dolish got a read of his emotions, the mix of fear and respect, hoping to find something like guilt or shame. But there was none. Only confidence in the answer.

Dolish gave up and retracted his Commander field, addressing his honour guard.

“It seems we won’t get what we came here for, men. I’ll be seeing you, Lieutenant General.”

“And you as well, General,” Yennel replied.

As they walked away, Raisha addressed Dolish in a whispering tone.

“What did you find in his heart, General?” she asked him.

“Fear, and much more than one should have when facing someone who cannot harm them.”