“As equal monarchs, we have no reason to ever push the world to nuclear annihilation. Your throne will remain intact, and so will mine, no matter how this war ends up.”

- Letter by Queen Areya Ludendorf to Empress Melaniya Illyenov.

+++

West Orland

Duchy of Rimwurrz

November Palace

“We’ve already suspected it,” was the gruff response from General Albrecht. The man just sat with a heavy breath inside the conference room. The rest of the Heiss Cabinet was now present, being briefed about the findings made by the OPM and RIU. “We’ve received the reports from the NID. I’ve already arranged for bomb retrieval teams to get in on the job.”

Amelie’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Wait, when did you find out?”

“Fifteen minutes ago,” General Albrecht answered. “Admiral Halberd gave me the details. We’re now planning on immediate evacuations for our marines and troops if need be. We’ve already shared the information with the Lorathian High Command.”

“...Well, we’ve known it for hours,” Amelie admitted. “We were just…paralyzed.”

“Good thing, because this is a sensitive issue. It’s nice then that we’re proceeding to it cautiously. I assume the RIU has now begun acting?”

“Yes,” Marie said. “I have two teams on site. They were the ones who discovered it. And they’re now tracking where the bomb is to attempt defusing it.”

“Smart idea, Your Majesty,” General Albrecht smirked. “Bold and ambitious. I like it. The AFI and the NID are unable to get deep inside of the battlefield at the moment. Too hot. Way too hot to insert our SOF guys for any mission.”

“My teams use magic,” Marie said. “So they’re overwhelming most opposition that tries to block them. The problem is they’re taking too long. And I’m not sure if they can get in close to defuse the bomb.”

“Have we tried talking to them already?” Jacqueline asked. “Or is it just these audio tapes that we have?”

“That’s the only thing we’re working on. Both my men and the RIU are still trying to crack into their networks to contact them. They seem to be disinterested in talks as of now. Or they’re trying to make us anxious. Could be both,” William crossed his arms. “Sucks.”

“That’s extremely concerning,” Pristina said after she finished analyzing the documents presented to her. She looked at Amelie. “I think we should already begin evacuations of everyone. Civilians, soldiers, you name it.”

“That’s the problem,” Amelie shook her head. “Ordering evacuations might trigger them to start the detonation sequence. The general plan I have is to buy time…both by not acting rashly on the field, and talking to them. We can do that while Marie’s Rose and Lotus teams infiltrate the positions of the enemy. We’ll stall them from detonating it, and then defuse it before they can even have a chance of pressing the red button.”

“How close are we to gaining contact with them then?” Walter curiously asked. “Because I imagine there ain’t no buying time without talking with them. And we’re not yet talking to them. We’re functionally screwed. We have no idea how close their fingers are from hovering to the big red button.”

“Should be a few hours away,” William answered. “We’re trying every route to communicate with them. Once something works, we’ll have someone talking to them—”

“I’ll be doing it,” Amelie answered. “I’m the person they’re looking for after all. I have to do everything then to make them calm down.”

“How are you going to do that?” Jacqueline asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” Amelie smiled bitterly. “They want me to end this war at once, but that’s a ludicrous idea. And I don’t know anything about them. They’ll probably talk to me using an encrypted voice so I can’t even recognize or decipher who they are or their emotions. But I think they have a genuine reason to want this war to end.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Jacqueline mumbled. “I mean, everyone has good reason to want this war to end anyway. I don’t think they’re anything different. Except, they seem to want to escalate to de-escalate.”

“Crazies, but if you think about it, they sound kinda sane,” Walter chuckled. “I mean, what better way to get the two superpowers to stop their bullshit project of killing millions of your people other than blackmailing them with nukes?”

“It doesn’t sound sane at all,” Pristina countered.

“Yeah, but we’ll see,” Walter looked back at Amelie. “We’ll see how these people talk to us. And if they’ll be able to see reason.”

+++

Latia

Corinthia City

Moritz and Florena continued through the destroyed city as the afternoon set in. Above them, Orlish and Lorathian jets flew overhead, dropping bombs that rocked Corinthia. They passed by a bunch of civilians who were attempting to get out of the business districts, but they were gunned down on the road.

Moritz immediately pulled Florena down into cover.

“Get the fuck down, woman!” Moritz shouted at her. “You rush too much. You’ll get yourself killed.”

“I have barrier spells!” the RIU agent insisted.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Doesn’t mean jackshit if those heavy machine guns nail you,” Moritz then took a brief peek at the buildings occupied by the militants. “There’s probably two dozen of them out there. Are you sure your team is deep over there?”

Moritz pointed at the wide highway ahead of them, and Corinthia’s downtown. The high-rises and skyscrapers, coupled with the open area filled with abandoned or destroyed civilian vehicles, weren’t exactly a hospitable environment for anyone to move into. But, to Moritz’s surprise, Florena’s team was already deep inside the city.

“They should be,” Florena said. “The last communications I had with them told me to go to the ‘Central Bank Building’. And it’s over there.”

Moritz sighed and pulled out a map from his pocket. He checked it, and looked for the ‘Central Bank Building’. He peeked again and checked the buildings in front of them.

“Yeah, it’s over there,” Moritz said. “How did you ladies even manage to get that deep into the city?”

“Follow me,” Florena, without warning, rushed forward. Moritz groaned and followed her, and the two moved through lanes and apartment blocks. They tried their best to hide and be out of sight, but they could hear roving militants walking around them. The two soon stopped and hid behind a dumpster, as they found four militants talking to three unarmed Latian soldiers.

“Hey, do you understand what they’re talking about?” Moritz asked as he slightly peeked, his gun ready. “That guy’s preparing his pistol.”

“They’re asking those three why they dared to side with the Orlish Queen,” Florena frowned, as the militants began shouting. “Damn it! They’re going to execute them!”

Florena exposed herself, her rifle aimed at the militants. One of them spotted the duo, and he immediately raised his rifle in the direction of Florena. But Moritz watched as Florena’s gun glowed yellow. Four pulses of yellow light came out of her arcano rifle—the shots piercing the Kevlar armor of the militants without much resistance.

Dang…even my rifle will take a few shots to get through those vests.

Florena lowered her rifle as she jumped out of the dumpster, running straight into the disarmed Latian soldiers. She began speaking Latian to them.

“Are you guys alright? I’m Orlish. Friendly,” Florena reassured, as she began cutting their binds. “There, there…all good now.”

“Thank you, Miss,” one of the soldiers kneeled and almost broke down in tears. “They almost killed us there.”

“I wouldn’t have allowed that to happen,” Florena replied. Moritz, on the other hand, just awkwardly smiled at the Latian soldiers, unable to understand their language.

“Where should we go?” one of the soldiers asked. Florena’s expression darkened as she replied.

“If you can, try making your way out of the city. But I don’t know any safe routes out. Maybe you can hide it…but I wouldn’t recommend it…”

“Why?”

“...”

The last of the trio pulled the soldier who was asking the questions to Florena. He chuckled awkwardly.

“Actually, thank you miss,” he turned to his fellow soldier. “Let’s just go. They seem to have an important mission. We’ll try to find a good route. Maybe regroup with our platoon.”

“Yeah…that’s a good idea,” the other soldier replied, before looking back at Florena. “Good luck with whatever mission you’re on, miss.”

“Thanks,” Florena replied, before turning back to Moritz. “All right, let’s go.”

“Right.”

The two immediately continued, as the Latian soldiers resorted to looting the dead militants of their weapons.

+++

West Orland

Duchy of Rimwurz

November Palace

“Queen of Orland. You must negotiate a peace deal with the CFN immediately. If not, consequences will be clear, starting with Corinthia.”

“And why would you want to do such a thing to your capital city,” Amelie asked. The voice talking to her was empty. Neutral. Unrecognizable. All she could decipher was the person’s words. “You know…I’ve had reports that your people have…a bomb, in the Latian capital. The capital of the same nation you claim to represent.”

“We represent the spirit of the Latian people, and of humanity. A city can be rebuilt. The soul of a nation cannot. This rot, and endless wars…it has gone far enough,” the audio glitched for a second. “There must be extreme measures.”

“And that extreme measure entails wiping out a city inhabited by millions?” Amelie took a deep breath, as she tried to let her emotions flow. “Mister…are you a guy?”

“My gender does not matter—”

“But you are a guy, aren’t you?”

“I said, my gender does not matter. I represent only the Latian people and humanity. I can be whoever you want to see me as. Because my interest is for all people.”

“And you do not believe the promises of the MN, or of the CFN to liberate your brothers…worldwide?” Amelie innocently asked. “You feel the need, then, to thus…do this. Horrify the world. Push it to the brink. Just so you’ll see a chance to break this unending, crushing, world order…isn’t that right?”

“My ideological goals are only to end this Second Great War with the means available to me,” the man responded. “Revolutionaries, reformists—they are blurred to me. They use their own people, of both genders, to be sacrificed into the bloody altar of their visions for the world.”

“And aren’t you going to be the same? Do you really want to do this? To sacrifice all of Corinthia, the people inside of that city, just to prove a point?”

“This is the only means available to bring about even just a ceasefire. The world must know. It must face the true consequences of what we are doing to each other. We have detached ourselves and deluded ourselves to believe that we can just murder for land. When all sides have weapons that can glass this world we call home. There must be no winners. And that must be clear…when the world stops believing in the illusion of victory, and sees the truth of eventual annihilation instead. Peace. At last.”

Amelie laughed, in a bit of a pained manner.

“What’s so funny, Queen of Orland?”

“Nothing. It’s just…you remind me of myself,” Amelie replied. “I really wonder who you are. You know, if only idealists didn’t fall into cynical beliefs when their perfect world refuses to exist…we could have worked together to build that world instead. But what you’re doing is succumbing to the worst of human tendencies. Calling it quits, and burning down everything because you didn’t get what you want.”

“Then do you accept my deal or what?!”

“I will do my best, Mister or Miss Nobody. I will do my best. But please…understand. This isn’t the right path for you to choose. I know the path I chose for the world I envision isn’t the most correct one…”

She took a deep breath.

“But know, that I wouldn’t be the one who’ll push the button for human extinction, even if it leads to the defeat of my ideals.”

There was only silence on the other line.