image [https://i.imgur.com/J0sxMkH.png]

The suffocating silence in the room was finally removed once Zalthia decided to speak up.

“But even so, other nations knowing our secrets or whatever doesn’t explain how perfectly set up this all was.” Zalthia remarked, still trying to wrap her head around the invasion. Before anyone could reply, they heard a familiar voice entering the room.

“Ah! Azhane! I was wondering where you had gone. Happy Birthd-.” Said Carmen with a big smile before she suddenly stopped talking. She saw their somber expressions and felt the heavy tension in the air. Something was clearly wrong.

Rivell, Caleb, and Sarah followed closely behind her and they wondered what had happened to make everyone look so defeated. “Is everything okay?” Carmen cautiously asked as she slowly walked towards the group.

“Keep this news to yourself for now, but we’re currently being invaded by Lumen and Arista forces. A war is about to begin…” Zalthia replied coldly.

“Huh!?! But why?? That’s so out of nowhere.” Carmen said with great shock and worry.

“We don’t know yet, Lady Carmen. All lines of communication to those nations have been blocked. Their intentions seem pretty clear just from that alone.” Graymoor chimed in, hoping to shed a bit more light on the situation.

“That’s insane. It’s just one thing after the other..” Sarah responded, shaking her head in disbelief. Zalthia looked over at Sarah and pondered a brief thought, growing curious about something.

“I know last night happened incredibly fast and we all kind of glossed over some details, but I think it's high time you all told us where you went and how you were captured.” She asked, crossing her arms and awaiting an answer.

“Oh, uhh.. Well.. I got a letter from Arista saying that my family had been captured by the Boundless and that The Empire wasn’t going to be able to save them. So, I took it upon myself to go and get my family back. Rivell and Carmen tried to stop me, but after they heard my reasoning, they decided to tag along and help. It was supposed to be a quick, in and out type of thing, but we ended up getting captured instead…” Sarah responded, relaying the whole situation in detail.

“Yeah, but apparently they weren’t even there. We were the first human prisoners brought inside of the Boundless palace.” Rivell added, finding it all to be so strange. Zalthia tapped her chin and didn't respond right away, thinking deeply about the story Sarah just told.

“Hmm, that letter.. Do you still have it? May I see it?” She asked, growing curious about a fairly insignificant part of the story. Sarah nodded and quickly headed to her room to grab the letter from her bag. She brought it back after a few minutes and handed it to Zalthia.

She read it over and upon finishing, Zalthia immediately shook her head in disappointment.

“Gah.. You idiots, this isn’t even an official letter from Arista! The crest is shoddily stamped in the wrong place and there is no such general in their ranks with the name ‘Mark S. Vermant’. Where did you even get this?” Zalthia asked, now looking incredibly annoyed at Sarah.

“What do you mean!? I got it from a messenger the day before we left. He wore a vest with the Arista crest etched on it. It Seemed pretty official to me.” Sarah replied with great concern and confusion. Zalthia palmed her forehead and annoyingly sighs, finding this girl’s words to be rather dumb.

“The Arista Empire doesn’t send letters via traditional messengers.. They always send information with their imperial soldiers. Why? Because the Empress is obsessed with showing their military power and finds it necessary to remind everyone of that power with everything they do. So, even things as simple as mail delivery will be carried out by a soldier.” She said, shocked that Sarah didn’t know this basic information.

“Aren’t you from Arista? How do you not already know this?” She asked, wanting an answer. Sarah was stunned and after a brief thought, she began to realize that Zalthia was absolutely right.

“Wait… You’re right.. I’m an idiot.” Sarah responded, now also palming her forehead in disbelief.

“I was so blinded by what the letter said that I didn’t even stop to think. Geez..” As Sarah sulked from her mistake, Caleb stepped forward and posed a question to the room.

“So, her family was never in any danger? This whole situation was fake??” He wondered with great worry.

“Seems like it..” Carmen replied, surprised to hear this as well. Zalthia continued to look at the letter while deep in thought and then her eyes went incredibly wide as she scanned the map on the second page.

“There’s no way…” She muttered as she realized something about the whole situation.

“What is it?” Asiah asked, finding Zalthia’s stiff demeanor to be quite concerning.

“This letter has to be evidence of something much much bigger. I think someone coordinated this whole situation.” Zalthia responded, all the wheels turning at mach speed inside of her head.

“Coordinated? What do you mean?” Azhane asked, now sitting up in her chair with her interest piqued.

“Think about it. Sarah gets a random letter from supposedly official means about a severe situation. A situation that she can’t possibly ignore. Sarah can’t tackle it alone so she’ll need some help. Who would she ask for help? Well, the one person she spends all her time with. Carmen.. They go directly to the belly of the beast because the letter has explicit details of the Boundless’ location. It literally leads them straight to their city. They get captured, because of course they would. There’s zero chance they could best any of the Boundless in a fight, making a capture inevitable.” Zalthia laid out her thoughts before getting cut off.

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“Yeah, but how does this prove it was coordinated?” Asiah wondered, not really following Zalthia’s train of thought.

“What happened after Carmen got captured? Briddle revealed to Azhane that he had her in his possession. And from that, Azhane was forced to intervene and save Carmen, thus causing all of our confidential information to get leaked to the other nations. And now, we have a damn near immediate reaction from Lumen and Arista mere hours after that information got leaked. You cannot tell me this was all a coincidence. This reeks of a planned set up!” Everyone was stunned when Zalthia finished speaking, now piecing things together.

Azhane’s eyes went wide as she slowly realized that there might be another layer to add onto this unfortunate situation.

“Damn.. If what you say is true then we followed everything to a tee. Played like an absolute fiddle.” Graymoor replied, shaking his head in disbelief.

“And I’m guessing they know about my abilities now too..” Azhane softly added, her heart beginning to race vigorously. Carmen glanced over and saw how empty Azhane’s face was, causing her to grow more concerned.

“But what else is there to know? It’s not like your abilities are some big secret.” Carmen questioned, not knowing what that issue is. Azhane turned her head slowly towards Carmen and sighed, scared to speak her next few words.

“..They know my weaknesses now..” The room grew quiet as Azhane adjusted herself in her seat, preparing to divulge some highly confidential information about her.

“My Manifest, The Grasp of Nihility, serves me without question and heeds my call whenever I need it. But, when I use its special ability, the plain of nothingness, for the third time in a year… My abilities and strength get sealed away for a short period of time…” Everyone besides Zalthia and Graymoor was stunned to hear this.

“What!? Your Majesty, what do you mean by sealed away for a short time?” Asiah asked with great confusion, having never heard this information before. The others wondered as well, growing more concerned as the seconds went by.

“Hard to say.. Could be four months, six months, a year. It’s based on how much Core Energy i’ve used throughout the year, but it might as well be completely random. My Manifest essentially sleeps and recharges during that time.” Azhane replied, now sitting back in her chair with a dejected look on her face.

“It’s only ever happened twice before and the recovery time varied. However, during both of those moments, I was no stronger than a Pearl Class Vesta. My combat abilities and strength were non-existent…” Rivell stepped up and quickly asked a question.

“How many more times can you use your Manifest’s ability, Your Majesty?” Azhane turned her attention towards Rivell and then up at the ceiling, now frowning as she thought up her response.

“...One more use…” Heavy tension and shock filled the room as everyone realized that Volaire’s ace in this fight was about to be rendered useless.

“And with Von Melrose and Varric Clover on the front lines, Her Majesty will have no choice but to use The Grasp of Nihility’s last skill charge. If she doesn’t, there is absolutely no hope of her beating both of them at the same time…” Graymoor added with a cold tone.

“Once Lumen and Arista learned of that, I’m sure they thought their assault was a no-brainer. Azhane’s very existence is a deterrent and if you take her out of the picture, it’s pretty much a checkmate…” Zalthia muttered, not believing that they really fell so deep into such a simple scheme. Carmen began to panic and quickly brought up a desperate idea.

“Can we ask the other nations for help? What about Melspire? Caleb, surely your father can assist us right?” She frantically asked, hoping to hear any kind of solution for this problem. Caleb looked rather somber as he shook his head no, unable to provide Carmen with an answer.

“Melspire and the Olun Kingdom are neutral nations. They aren’t allowed to interfere or assist with other nation’s wars and battles, as this would break a plethora of treaties they have in place. And Siestro only looks out for their own people. They’ve no interest in any combat related affairs between other nations that occur on land. We're unfortunately on our own with this one…” Graymoor replied, helping Carmen understand why calling for help wasn’t so easy in this situation.

The room became quiet once more and hope faded from everyone present.

“So what do we do?” Sarah asked with a scared tone, feeling fearful of the future.

“We’ll have to fight with what we have.. But.. Once Azhane goes down, I say we have a few days or so before their forces reach the capital and take it over. Lumen and Arista’s militaries combined are too much to handle with the numbers we have. We should prepare for and expect the worst..” Zalthia responded, feeling not so optimistic.

*SLAM!!!* Azhane pounded her fist on the table, fully losing her rather calm composure.

“I should’ve seen this coming! Why didn’t I think with my head and not my emotions?! Now, this nation will fall because of me!” She remarked, overcome with loud emotions and rare tears beginning to form. No one said a word as they were all stunned at the Queen’s never before seen demeanor. Graymoor sighed and just before he responded, Azhane continued her saddened venting.

“Mother and father never would’ve allowed this to happen.. Ever since I took over as ruler, nothing has gone right. I’m not fit to rule a nation. I have failed as Volaire’s Queen..” Azhane added, her head looking down at the table as tears slowly dripped. Carmen quickly stepped up as she disagreed with Azhane.

“No sis, if I didn’t go berserk at the festival, you wouldn’t have needed to use your Manifest on me..” Carmen said, wanting to take the blame. Sarah and Rivell also added their two cents on the matter.

“Yeah, and if we didn’t get captured by the Boundless, you wouldn’t have needed to come rescue us. If it wasn’t for us, this supposed plan of theirs would’ve never worked! It’s our fault!”

The room rapidly filled with chatter as everyone continued to shift blame onto themselves, bringing up everything they could think of that was linked to this situation. However, this didn’t last long as everyone was cut off by a loud, booming voice.

“ENOUGH!!” Graymoor had grown incredibly tired of all the back and forth.

“No one is to blame for these unfortunate circumstances!! Regardless of what anyone did, conflict was inevitable, certain things just accelerated this moment. What’s done is done and the most important thing now is how we deal with the situation. So please, stop blaming yourselves for every little thing that happens. We are better than that!”

Graymoor’s heavy words knocked everyone back to reality and they began to feel bad about the previous back and forth. He then turned his attention towards Azhane as he spoke up once again.

“My Queen, don’t ever say you’re not fit to lead. You are my sole reason for serving this nation and I would throw my life away for you without a second thought. Don’t trivialize my resolve by downplaying your worth. Got it!?”

Azhane stared at him with a stunned expression, completely caught off guard by his sudden and blunt words. She slowly nodded as she composed herself, knowing that her previous show of weakness was unbecoming of a ruler.

“Ahem.. Thank you Graymoor.. I needed that to snap me back to reality.” She said while giving him a slight smile. “With that out of the way, we really need to figure out a plan. We’re running out of time here.” Zalthia chimed in, eager to get any course of action going. With everyone's composure reset, it was now time to devise some sort of plan to handle this imminent threat.