Lilli led Sara, Raul, and Emma up the stairs to a large room. It was quaint, meant for a family, but lonely since Lilli’s husband died of renx disease a few years back. Now, it was just her, and she kept it neat and tidy, storing all the treasures and strange items that adventurers had given her over the years. Skulls, scales, claws, stones, jewelry, dried herbs, and various cloaks and garbs people left in a drunken stupor and never returned for.

Lilli set them up around a table in the center of the room, big enough for the three, and lit a gas lamp, casting an ambient glow on the room. Then she pulled out a bottle of spirits and three rocks glasses.

“If you need anything else, it’s extra, so make sure to call often, kay?” Lilli winked, making Sara sigh. The woman wasn’t joking. The bottle of greeta, liquor around the same quality as tres but an acquired taste, would cost her twenty silvers minimum. But Lilli was worth the money, and, like most things worth the money, she was soon gone, leaving Sara to confront the realities in front of her. She cleared her throat and looked at the flushed-cheeked redhead. “Hey.”

Emma looked woozy for a moment, staring at Sara with blinking eyes. Then her cheeks puffed out, and her lips quivered. “Hey? That’s all we get!” Emma slammed her hands on the table and caused it to rattle, the bottle of alcohol and glasses clattering under an earthquake. She stumbled backward in shock, and Raul grabbed her, making her cheeks turn red hot.

Sara looked between Raul and Emma and then sighed. “Join the kingdom.” She picked up her twalla and took a drink.

Emma’s flushed face got grumpy again. “Hey! What’s with you all of a sudden?”

Sara raised an eyebrow and turned to Raul, hoping for a translation.

Raul pulled Emma back. “I think she’s saying that you opened up and then went back to the way you were.”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Emma pouted. Then she mumbled, “But yeah. That.”

“Look, putting aside that I’m a world leader now….”

“Can I say something first?” Raul interrupted. He wrapped his arms around Emma like a seatbelt, and the redhead’s body relaxed.

“Sure,” Sara said.

“I broke Mary’s spine and killed Jason,” Raul said. “That wouldn’t have changed if you hadn’t intervened. That’s on me, not you.”

“But I was the one who put you into that pos—“

“No, you weren’t,” Raul said sharply. “You set up a coup. That’s questionable. But you didn’t make Mary try to kill me or tell Jason to run around using soldiers as shields. You didn’t tell me to paralyze Mary or to cave in Jason’s chest. I did those things, and I did it because I thought they were evil. So stop treating us like we’re puppets in your evil scheme. To be honest, it’s getting annoying.”

Emma looked between Sara and Raul a few times before saying. “Yeah,” and mumbling, “I killed someone too… you know…” under her breath.

Sara furrowed her brow. “Wait. You?”

“Yeah. Did you forget she was in a warzone?” Raul asked sarcastically. “I get you want to save us and all that, but you’re super self-absorbed. Even if you are as evil as you think you are, you’ve got a serious persecution complex.”

That stung. Sara could only smile bitterly at her glass, looking at her image in it. Persecution complex, huh? she thought. It was a hard sell in her mind. She was persecuted—heavily. She was chased down like a dog, subjected to threats, abuse, and assassination attempts, and had fought more people off than she counted yet…. Those things hadn’t happened in this life. Right now, she was queen, and not a single damn thing that she hadn’t in some way planned for had happened to her. So did it count? Did anything that happened to her actually matter anymore? That was the question she could never seem to get out of her mind.

“What do you guys want?” Sara asked. “To be part of my schemes?”

“Exactly!” Emma blurted out, falling into Raul’s arms. “Kinda. I don’t like schemes. Call ‘em plans… or something.”

Raul chuckled and gripped her tight. Then he looked into her eyes. “What are your schemes?”

Sara took a drink. “We~ll,” she chuckled sarcastically. “I plan to raise an army and raze the demon capital with it.”

“Not a bad goal.”

“It is once other militaries intervene.” Sara toasted her glass to Raul. “Then we’re killing humans and razing kingdoms.” She took a drink.

Raul bit his tongue.

“Also, unless I’m wildly wrong, Daniel has some type of relationship with Agronus,” Sara said. “So the logical thing to do would be to kill him.”

Emma looked at Sara with wide eyes and then curled back into Raul’s chest.

“And he’s not the only one, Raul. Unless you think I’m invincible, you’d know that there’s dozens of wildly powerful children who can rise up and destroy our army.”

“You’re sounding like King Escar,” Raul warned.

Mary’s voice corrected him in Sara’s mind. You’re worse!

“And King Escar was right.” Sara sighed and took a drink. “That’s what you don’t get, Raul. I can kill Agronus—Escar can’t. That doesn’t make him an idiot for trying to stop me. They’re two different things.”

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Raul contemplated my words. “Point taken.” He uncorked the bottle Lilli left behind and poured a glass. “So what do you plan to do about it?”

“I’m going to train and unite the heroes, establish the Escaran Kingdom as a deterrent power, and bring other kingdoms to our side,” Sara declared. “I’ll do that with the least amount of bloodshed and drama as possible. That’s the truth and what I’m sure you want to hear. But the reality is, if the children rise up and start butchering people like Jason, they can raze kingdoms to the ground. So the “least amount of bloodshed” often involves executions. That’s just how it is. If you’re not prepared to act like a monarch, you shouldn’t get involved. Because the ‘best way’ is often the darkest.”

Raul and Emma’s faces darkened, and she could almost hear Mary’s words come out of their mouths: Are you fucking serious? What type of nazi are you?!

But that isn’t what happened. Instead, Raul just looked into her eyes and said: “Isn’t that what we’ve already been doing?”

Emma curled up into a ball and hid her face in his body, not crying but on the verge.

“We joined your rebellion, Sara.” He took a drink from his recently poured glass. “We fought our own. And even after all of it, we’re still here. So just stop.” He took another drink. “Just stop.”

The group sat in silence for about twenty minutes, with Sara drinking with her eyes on the table and Raul holding Emma, who moved in and out of tears, laughing and gripping Raul, who was treating her tenderly. They were a great couple. Sara hoped they realized their feelings sooner this cycle. With the way things were going, time could still be limited.

“I want in,” Raul said. “On everything. Killing Agronus, the war, the schemes. Will you let me?”

Sara picked up her glass and found it empty. She poured herself a glass of the spirits Lilli left behind and brought the glass to her lips, stopping before it touched her mouth. “Yeah.”

“Me too….” Emma said.

Sara’s cheek twitched, and she took a large swallow. “Sure.” She paused and then looked them in the eyes. “Then this is what’s going to happen. The Lemings Kingdom will soon march on Lemora. I need you two to unite the heroes as I raise our army. Do that, and I’ll train you and… let you in, or whatever.”

Raul winced. “That’s not going to be easy.”

“Everything’s easier when death’s knocking on your door,” Sara said, Mary’s words echoing in her head.

2

The next day, soldiers wearing the red and gold armor of the Lemings Kingdom rode montas into a farming village thirty miles from the border. Behind them were wagons with humans locked inside. Yet things weren’t quite as they seemed.

“Don’t kill the villagers!” a woman yelled to her platoon’s soldiers. “Clear ‘em out first!” She chanted a spell, and a fireball slammed into one of the huts, causing it to erupt in a violent explosion of flames. The serfs started screaming, and women clutched their babies to their chests as they tried not to trip over their dresses.

“What about the soldiers?” Her subordinate pointed to Escaran Kingdom forces approaching from the distance.

“Part of the plan,” she said coldly. “Kill them.”

Her soldiers rushed out, meeting the green and silver soldiers head-on with a clash of red and gold. It turned into a vicious battle, leading to dozens of casualties on each side before the Lemings soldiers finished them off.

“Unlock ‘em,” she ordered.

“Ma’am!” A soldier saluted and unlocked the chains on the wagons. Once he unlocked the first door, he looked at the people inside, each wearing serf garb no different from the villagers. “You get three minutes to run before we give chase. Go!”

The haggard men and women inside immediately rushed out of the wagons, running into the burning city.

One after the other, the woman’s soldiers unlocked ten wagons with over a hundred people. Once they finished, the woman said, “Don’t leave a single one of them alive.”

“Yes, ma’am. You heard ‘er boys! Clear out.”

The woman felt a myriad of emotions as she watched Escaran prisoners get slaughtered before her eyes. The normal human mind—no matter how callous—was unable to view killing without negativity. Yet of all the strange emotions she felt—pity wasn’t among them. So she just kept watch, preparing to give orders in case one of them escaped with the real citizens.

3

Tara was sitting out in the courtyard, boycotting training with another dozen of her classmates, when drums and brass instruments sounded in the kingdom like an alarm.

“What’s going on? Mr. Moorten!” She turned and saw Sycount Recken Moorten, Aelia’s replacement instructor, running into the castle. “Where are you going?”

“One minute, Lady Alba!” he yelled, disappearing into the building.

Tara’s heart started pounding as she looked around. It wasn’t just Recken. Everywhere she looked, from the windows of the castles to the embattlements on the outer walls, there were soldiers rushing, yelling, and raising weapons. “Invasion?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” Andy said, running up. Tara didn’t particularly care for Andy. He was a good guy, but he was pro-fascist, and the only reason that she usually put up with him was because he was her friend Helen’s partner. But now, as the world was collapsing, she felt better having him around. “I’ll find Raul.”

“No, wait!” Tara said. “If this is Sara’s doing, the second you go to Raul, you’ll get wrapped up in—“

“Then what should I do?” Andy asked. “Just wait here with no idea what’s going on?”

Tara swallowed hard.

“This sounds serious,” Andy said, turning to Raul, who was running out of the building with his axe on his back. “Look. If you see Helen, tell her that I’ll meet up the moment I know what’s going on.”

Before Andy left, Sycount Recken Moorten returned and made an announcement. “The Lemings Kingdom is attacking. Remain calm—“

“Why?” Tara yelled. Her chest was a pressing cooker of fear and anxiety, and she yelled to relieve some of that pressure.

Recken remained calm. “King Escar broke a blood alliance by having a bastard son—“

“Bullshit!” Tara yelled. “Everyone knows that’s just a lie! It’s just a justification. I’m asking why—”

“Lady Alba!” Recken’s characteristically gentle voice turned dark and harsh. “Breaking a blood alliance is the gravest sin that a king can commit. War was guaranteed the second it was announced.”

“T-Then she shouldn’t have announ—“

“She was getting executed, you stupid bitch!” Greg, one of Sara’s Stans, threw his water bottle at her, and a fight immediately broke out. But before it could take off, Raul released a crushing wave of pressure that cut off the fighting.

“Are you children?!” Raul yelled. “We’re getting attacked, and you’re going to point fingers? Grow up! Being right means nothing if you’re dead!”

Everyone froze.

“This is serious!” he continued. “I know you all think that Sara’s this omnipotent God, but she’s not! This kingdom is thousands of miles across. Who’s going to protect you if she’s gone?”

Tara took rapid breaths, feeling her vision blurring from hyperventilation. Panic attack. She was having a panic attack.

“No one! So get your shit together and stop bickering. Even if you’re not going to fight, you need to at least protect each other.”

Tara looked to her group for emotional support and found them all looking away. Things got real, and they were all realizing just how fragile they really were. She didn’t blame them.

4

Raul did not like Sara’s methods for doing things. He found them almost exclusively detestable. But just as with the uprising, Sara’s tactic to use war to bring people together worked like magic. There was no way that Raul or Emma could change Tara’s mind about Sara. But under the threat of immediate attack, the bonds Tara and the others shared in hating Sara magically disappeared—if only temporarily—and that’s exactly what they needed. If Raul and Emma wanted to be part of Sara’s party, they couldn’t fuck this up. So he took a step forward and assumed his role of uniting the heroes. He would accomplish it—

—at any cost.