They all were placed in the room across from the War Room. Where, at least partially through the wall, they could hear the sound of orders being shouted, radio transmissions breaking, and the shuffling of booted feet.

Empty say for a total of three chairs arranged around the room, the siblings all brought them together in some misshapen half triangle shape. Natan and Naomi both stand, while Beatrice, Alice, and Sophia arrange themselves in quiet contemplation.

Something was happening, something awful.

Nobody dares exchange any words, instead preparing themselves for an audience with their liege. Naomi taps her foot against the floor, Natan fiddles with his fingers, Beatrice sits in quiet contemplation, and Alice holds Sophia’s hand.

She was, out of all of them, closest to her.

It must’ve been eighty minutes, almost an hour before the woman could even excuse herself for a moment. Great oak doors pushed just ajar for her to slip past, with the siblings grabbing just a glimpse of the interior thrown into chaos. Admirals, Generals, with Sophia even catching the full silver-ceramic armor of the current sitting Imperacutta Primus.

“Goddess preserve us…” Naomi whispers under her breath, her sharp gaze catching it too.

The Empress wears no emotions on her face, a cold facade brought over a skull and skin speaking words that should not be spoken. For a moment she pauses in front of her children, wondering if she even had the strength to face them with this singular point of news.

Would it have been easier to have some faceless, forgettable Imperacutta deliver this? Spare her and them the pain, the fear, the unknown…

“Your father…” No, she needs to keep it together as she says the worlds in the coldest methodology imaginable. “Two hours ago the Prophecy of Deliverance, while on airfield in the Amorai Republic, was bombed.”

Silence.

Beatrice gasps, Naomi and Natan stare, while Alice digs her fingernails into Sophia’s completely frozen form.

“Father…” Sophia lets out quietly.

“How many have been…” Naomi begins to take leadership.

“Casualties are…” They can see that beneath the facade she’s almost about to break, but as her duties call she could never. “... are at an expected level. Your father is… one of the unaccounted for. We must prepare contingencies.”

Contingencies.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

That sterile word had such implication, leaving all of them reeling from its terrible possibilities.

If the Republic, once of the Axial Powers, had done this, then this would only mean one thing.

She must speak to the most important one first, all of the siblings turning to Naomi. The Commandant of the First Legion, in this time of war the Imperium shall need her. So she stands perfectly still, at attention. News of her father still breaking to her, yet unable to truly break her now. She just stares at her mother, at her Empress as she awaits the calling of her name. “Sophia.”

The unexpected answer, a sudden snap brought into the room. The Empress, in her military long coat, kneels towards her, taking her hand with harsh gentleness. “My dear Sophia, I thought you… we’d have more time. I thought that I could give you the luxury that should’ve been yours; to be able to follow your heart and its callings. But if the Imperium is to go to war then we will need allies. Not created through our false signatures or empty words, but through a matter of blood.”

This isn’t a request, this… this is an order.

“Sophia Elise, you are to be married to Zai Tianci in three days.”

For a moment the world stands still, everything, everyone turning to face the young woman.

Three days…

“Bring him in!” The Empress barks the order.

They see the resemblance from this stranger, the structure of his face: his sunken cheekbones and the nose, in his long hair and unkempt stubble, and in those dead brown eyes was a broken, destroyed man.

The Tianci Dominion’s crown ruler, suddenly here without any flair or recognition.

Sophia could see Zai through his father, like some warped mirror; it was as if he was aged an entire half century and thrust into a coat that was far too large for him. He walks like some sort of shadow, casted onto the flesh and body of someone and masquerading as a living, breathing human.

For a moment he stops to stare at the rabble of siblings, who all, instinctively, move to stand between him and his intended target; Naomi even going so far as to put a hand on one of her ceremonial cavalry blades.

A soft wave of their mother dismisses them, allowing for this singular moment to develop.

His raspy voice speaks towards her as he draws in close. “Sophia Elise the Eighth, Daughter of Her Majesty.”

For a moment they all watch as he slowly, carefully kneels towards a Princess of a foreign kingdom. A haunting silence as this sovereign, Lord of the once mighty Dominion, completely prostrates himself at the foot of some Central Ensolian girl.

Goddess, he’s been crying.

“I beg of you, please take care of Zai. I beg, that if there is even a flicker of humanity within you, that you will not befall any harm to my son. Please, Princess Sophia Elise, have mercy upon him. Please.”

Sophia gives him a strange look with an equally logical conclusion. What sorta cruel narcissist do you think I am?

But Naomi, Natan, Beatrice, and even little Alice catch the implication, finding the meaning behind that pathetic, desperate plea from that Lord of the Tianci Dominion.

Zai, his only child from his only love, the last of Tianci, is the only thing he has in this world. If he dies, then it will not only be the end of the Dominion; but the end of him.

This is a man who has nothing left to love except his son.

And he just sold him in a deal with a demon.

Sophia just sits there, still trying to process the events; still attempting to fold timeframes together with a confused, cold, and empty glare.

Three days.