Ulzre Galerose’s little sister Somnia was something of a prodigy. The 14-year-old girl fought so well back home that their mother personally insisted on bringing her to Minashire to develop her talent further. Now that she was here, it meant she’d have to join the family on missions and expeditions. She’d been on plenty over the past few months, very quickly falling in love with Minashire and its people, but she hadn’t been on any missions like this yet.
The Family had been called out by the Mamoru Clan to assess the damages to a village in West Burnchester named Ironlake Village. Though the comparison may have been inappropriate coming from a Galerose, Ulzre couldn’t help himself. The place looked like Hell; smoke and dust filled the air as scents of fire mixed with blood and gore from the mangled bodies strewn about. There were about thirty Galeroses in the city right now, and not a single one of his siblings reported a survivor. Whatever caused this had been thorough. Too thorough.
Remembering his sister was witnessing this as well, Ulzre looked down to find Somnia staring at the carnage with wide, horrified eyes. He placed a hand on her trembling shoulder. The moment she started crying, Ulzre placed a comforting arm around his little sister. She leaned into the embrace, crying into his chest.
“My first… mission…” Somnia sniffled. “I had to fight a group of Nixies in a lake near here. The people kept apologizing to me for not being able to pay, and I told them that supporting me was payment enough.” She cried harder. “They baked me a cake and taught me how to play football. They were so kind to me…!”
“And their memory will live with you forever,” Ulzre said. “May they find their way to the Well of Souls.”
“I don’t want this memory to be mine alone. I want them here! As they are!”
“I know you do, Somnia. I’m sorry they can’t be.”
Somnia continued to cry as more Galeroses appeared on the scene. Once it’d settled that there were no survivors, they instead moved to begin dousing the fires and identifying the bodies. Ulzre doubted anyone would want to receive the charred, mangled remains of their loved ones, but it wasn’t his place to make that decision. As the work continued, Somnia separated herself from Ulzre’s embrace and knelt before one of the bodies. It was an older woman whose eyes had been scratched out with a hole blown into her torso. Somnia held the woman’s hand for a long time and cried again before finally standing to her feet.
“Why is she dead? Why are any of them dead?”
“Because we didn’t get approval to save them when they reported their city was in danger,” Their sibling called in a borderline sarcastic, somewhat challenging tone. It was Sachiel, who’d been in the middle of dousing the fires of a burned house.
Oh, brother…
“Approval from who?!” Somnia asked, with a mix of curiosity and outrage.
“The Mamoru Clan,” Averyl shouted. “It’s their job to make sure major continental threats like the Demogorgon and Typhon are dealt with safely.”
“And what about every other threat?! Are they just unimportant to the Mamoru Clan?”
Sachiel and Averyl both scoffed at the same time, prompting Ulzre to speak up before they all started acting like Galeroses.
“We didn’t get approved for this mission because the people didn’t submit the request to Mamoru standards. Had they done so, they may have–”
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“Are you kidding me?! They got killed over some semantic BS like that?!” Somnia threw her hands up. “What are we even good for? All we can do is arrive at disasters too late, fund Rogue Hunters, and play pretend hero for people’s minor conveniences – only if they submit their requests to ‘Mamoru standards’.”
”We don’t have much choice in how we operate, Somnia.”
Somnia turned to Ulzre slowly. Ominously. “So long as Mamoru Ruma exists and manages our Family’s affairs, we’ll continue to be at their whim.” She smiled in a way that emphasized the ‘Rose’ part of their family name. “I’ve been around you all to know just how much you all hate Mamoru Ruma and her Clan. She thinks herself above us; the Galerose Family.” She clenched her fist as her innate Dominion flared. “How dare she place herself above us! It should be Mamoru Ruma and her kin dead in this village, not these innocent people. If they were gone, we could claim their throne and make actual change in Minashire! The Mamoru Clan only cares about their image. We’re the ones who care about the continent!”
Nobody said anything for a long while. Not even Sachiel or Averyl, who’d intentionally or otherwise led Somnia down this train of thought. Ulzre recognized that Somnia was merely saying what they were all thinking, and given how much Dominion and bloodlust flowed through the air, it was clear those words had resonated. They all wanted Ruma dead and her Clan destroyed, for the simple reason that they disrespected the Galerose name. Ulzre was no different, though unlike his siblings here, he had their father’s sense of reason.
”Have you all forgotten that we’re in Minashire and not the homeland? If we’re going to thrive here, we need to play by Minashire’s rules!” Ulzre shouted, taking his role as the one who splashed cold water on their faces.
“Do you think we aren’t strong enough to kill them all?” Somnia challenged.
“Yes, we are!” Ulzre said bluntly.
Somnia turned her nose up at him. “How dare you call yourself a Galerose.”
Ulzre took a deep breath. “Somnia, the Mamoru Clan controls the media. They own nearly every food source on the continent. They have outposts in every region both above and below ground. They fund elite Bounty Hunter teams and mercenary groups. Hell, they literally monopolized two of the Aura Points! Do you even know what the Aura Points are?!” Ulzre looked around to the rest of the Family, who through equally bitter expressions had come to see the sense in his words. “If we start going all Aunt Kaliyah on the Mamoru, not only will we get outnumbered, but they have enough connections to turn the people against us and our entire Family! We cannot win a fight against the Mamoru Clan, even if we were to outmatch them – which we don’t!”
Finally, the stench of bloodlust and the overwhelming weight of Dominion began to flicker away. He didn’t like seeing his family like this, which is why a small part of him was happy to see Somnia’s Dominion continue to surge. Sure, she was using it subconsciously, but it still pleased him to see – though he couldn’t let that show on his face right now. He had to be serious.
“Somnia, our generation is the first in Minashire without mother and father’s supervision. If we mess that up, that’ll affect all of us.”
Somnia scoffed. “So all we need to worry about are family politics and making mommy and daddy proud while the average citizen has to worry about getting ripped apart and left to burn alive in their home. We sure have it easy.”
“I’m saying we have an opportunity to make positive changes in our own way, but we need to play the game in order to win it. Our way isn’t going to work here, Somnia. You’re a smart girl. I know you know that.”
Her Dominion flared one final time, the black and red torrent of aura blazing like an inferno. It faded just as quickly as it rose. Despite this, something about Somnia was different. Felt different. Ulzre felt as though he were staring down his mother.
“So be it, Ulzre. I’ll ‘play the game’. I’ll get stronger, and I’ll make a difference in this world in my own way. And if Mamoru Ruma has a problem with how I do things? Well,” Somnia smiled, looking like the spitting image of Cerus Rose. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, won’t we?”