“Reports from the field suggest that the Yellow forces have grown a significant amount. Current reports suggest that Purple forces landed on the east coast and navigated to meet up with Yellow’s march. We have confirmed that this is officially a Royal attack on Green.” The sound of the morning announcements leaked into Sina’s ears from the living room. Her ears had been conscious of the sound of her mother listening to the announcements, but she hadn’t been really paying attention until she heard them say something about the campaign by Yellow on the southern plains. Her eyes were cracked open and her mind fully conscious when they said that the march north by Yellow had become an attack on Viridia by Royal, a combination of Purple and Yellow forces. Royal was infamously dangerous, and now that it had been confirmed Royal was marching north, that meant that there was truly intention to attack, something that hadn’t happened since Sina and Josef were born.
Sina bolted out of bed, put some clothes on quickly, and walked out into the tiny living room where her mom was seated. She was looking nowhere in particular, and Sina could tell that her focus was on her hearing and her thoughts. The Verdancy on the speakers started to talk about specifics of the information they received, about numbers, position, and broad strategy to countering this attack. They were about a day’s march north of Senka, something that hadn’t happened in living memory, and showed no sign of stopping. Sina could tell her mother was scared, but it also seemed like her mother had no urgency. It was a still acceptance in her eyes, at least that’s what Sina thought she could read in the still unmoving, dull eyes. It was a still fear.
“I doubt they’ll get any further,” Sina said, somehow not believing a single word she said, “They’ve never gotten this far, I bet it’s a fluke.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” her mother replied slowly. She was an old and tired woman, working two jobs to barely make enough money to keep up with rent on the tiny apartment. Not a day went by where Sina saw her mother lively and energetic. She always dragged her feet and never spoke in more than a few sentences. Neither her eyes nor head moved while she talked to Sina now. “I’ve heard that this campaign won’t end well.”
“That’s just what you’ve heard mother, people like to fear-monger. There’s always a rumor that ‘this time is the time we’re going to get hit,’ or whatever.” Sina’s mother didn’t respond. She just kept sitting there, looking at the same spot on the table in front of her. Sina traced where her mother was looking, and saw it was where she found the vibrant, pink rose on the table from last night. There was still a petal there.
“I want you to keep the flower safe, Sina,” her mother said. Sina looked at her, understanding what she was talking about, but confused as to what she meant.
“Did you mean to give me that flower? Where did you get it?”
“You’ll figure that out in time, sweetheart.”
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Kaspar couldn’t get away from the talking, the mentions of the march, the fear that they were coming, the speculation. He just wanted to work and to have something that could take his mind off of this one thing that made him the most scared he had ever felt in a long, long time. He couldn’t read because he could still hear his coworkers talking. He couldn’t write reports because his mind kept telling him that something was wrong. He couldn’t pretend to be busy every time his boss walked by because that takes a level of conscious focus that Kaspar wasn’t able to spare. He just wanted to go home and hide.
His entire day was like that. He drifted through the motions, withstood the torture of his coworkers fearmongering and his own thoughts playing at his anxiety, sat through an hour and a half seminar that he didn’t listen to, and finally made it to a point in the day where he could leave without his coworkers or boss being suspicious of his work load for that day.
It was about two hours before it was usually time to leave when Kaspar headed back to his office to start packing up. He walked up to the dark wooden door with a name plaque that read “Kaspar Hauke” on it in gold letters, and opened the door quickly. He had his thick coat over his shoulder. In his haste to grab whatever papers he needed to look over at home, or at least the papers he was supposed to look at at home, he almost didn’t notice the single pink rose on his desk. He only noticed it when he had to grab something out of the central drawer, and the bright, vibrant pink stood out greatly against the dull wood of the desktop. He paused to look at it.
It didn’t have a stem; it was only the flower itself. The petals were a beautiful pink, and the shape of the flower was nearly perfect. Pink was rare in Verdigris. In fact, it was a rare color to see anywhere. In any other nation, not just Viridia, Pink was seen as a symbol of peace, and while it wasn’t seen as blasphemous, it wasn’t a comfortable sight. Seeing the color was one thing, but having a tangible pink thing in front of Kaspar made him even more uncomfortable.
He quickly grabbed the rose and shoved it into his pocket, and continued to keep packing his things, this time with a little bit more haste. He just wanted to get home.
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Sina’s mother left for work shortly after the morning announcements ended. The conversation they had wasn’t really irregular. Sina’s mother wasn’t the most talkative or straightforward person. She was a cryptic middle aged lady that was overworked and barely surviving with the help of her children who she knew were doing illegal things on the streets to keep an income of food, but actively refused to acknowledge it. But that conversation they just had unsettled Sina. She couldn’t quite place why, but what her mother said, about not being sure this time around, made her uncomfortable.
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The conversation left her so unsettled that her original plans of going out and scouting out future possible heists for her and Josef to perform no longer sounded appetizing to her. Instead, for the first time in as long as she could remember, she found a stray book, sat down in the small living room, and started to read.
She read all day, until the darkness that had descended on Verdigris was broken up by a sudden light in the sky on the southern plains, accompanied by a harsh, searing scream.
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Seth walked into the apartment to find Kaspar already there, sitting in the living room, looking out his favorite window already. He simply assumed work had been rough for him, and decided not to try to talk to him. He walked to his room, threw his bag onto his desk, and closed the door to his room.
Kaspar barely noticed Seth get home. Instead he just sat, looking out the large window that observed the southern plains, mindlessly thumbing the mysterious pink rose in his hands. It had survived being shoved into his pocket hastily, as well as being crushed in his pocket during his entire walk home. He didn’t think at all. He just sat, watched the light that illuminated the southern plains dim, and passed the petals through his hand. The flower was strangely resilient.
Just as the last bits of light started to retreat from the southern plains, Kaspar could see something moving away from the outer walls of the city. He squinted to try and see what it was as the world came back into focus, the mindlessness of watching fading into full attention to the world. It looked like a sea of lights, moving as one, in straight, steady columns and rows. There were occasional breaks in the lights, and in those breaks, was a cluster of more irregular, brighter lights that illuminated something that Kaspar knew the sight of all too well, even from this distance.
Spider tanks, he thought, they’re mobilizing. Kaspar wanted to shoot up from his seat and to tell his brother. He wanted to shout at him to come out of his room and to see what he was seeing. He wanted his brother's input on this. But he didn’t do anything. He just sat, watching the Green army move south.
They’re moving south. Royal must be getting close… Kaspar looked to the horizon, and he thought that he barely caught the glimpse of the distant shape of men in ranks on the dim horizon. The last twinkles of twilight were finally departing, and anything beyond the walls of Verdigris had become a dark, endless void.
Suddenly, an abrupt flash of white light erupted from where Kaspar thought he had seen the distant shape of Royal’s ranks. The void quickly fought the light back into submission, until another light, this time rising slowly into the black sky, lit the plains up again. It rose higher and higher, and continued to get brighter and brighter. Kaspar finally shot up from his seat, ran over to Seth’s room, and slammed the door open. He was cluelessly scribbling something down, his head in his left hand. He took three brief steps over to Seth and grabbed his collar and pulled him from his seat.
“What the hell, Kaspar,” Seth complained as Kaspar dragged him out of his room, “what is it for this ti-”
Seth’s complaining was cut off when he saw the bright, white, searing light rising slowly into the sky. As he stared, a screaming accompanied the light as it rose higher and higher, and its illumination of the city became brighter and brighter.
Seth tore himself from Kaspar’s grip and ran into his room. Kaspar opened his mouth to ask something until Seth started to yell at him from his room.
“Grab a bag, fill it with money and clothes, we’re heading out of town.”
“What?” Kaspar said, slowly making his way to his room, “Why? What is that thing?”
“Energetic artillery. It doesn’t have a large blast radius but has range,” Seth spouted off as he shoveled clothes into a backpack, “They’re probably aiming for the south side of the inner city. Probably trying to topple Verdigris tower but that won’t happen.”
“What are you talking about?” Kaspar had to shout to overpower the screaming, which had gotten louder.
“Magic explosive artillery,” Seth said, poking his head out of his room, “Coming straight for our section of the city. It’s slower and less explosive than a missile, but it’s still dangerous, and will probably hit our building. We can make it to the northern middle city before it lands. Now get packing.”
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The white light broke into the dark sky, and Sina did nothing but watch. She watched and watched, and didn’t move until it started to whine. As she watched, Josef came out of their room to see what the sound was, and was immediately struck by the ball of white light slowly rising into the black sky. They both looked at each other, and locked eyes. The light from the small window reflected in their eyes, and they both knew what to do.
They didn’t grab anything on their way out. They both raced out the door and immediately made their way to the stairwell. A few people in other apartments were starting to do the same, although it seemed like Josef and Sina were leading the pack. They ran down the stairs, taking two or three at a time, all the way to the base floor, where they found a small crowd of residents forming to do the same as Josef and Sina were trying to do. They paused in the doorway to the stairwell, watching the small crowd of people slowly filing into the basement of the building.
Again, the twins looked at each other, locked eyes, then looked back at the crowd. It was then that Josef piped up with his impressively loud and deep voice, “Parents, Children and Elderly get to the front of the crowd, everybody else get back from the entrance.” Sina followed behind him, and started helping a small old lady make her way to the front of the line to get into the basement.