A Dance Of Crowns & Thrones | Book I

Chapter 13 | "We Only Just got Back!"

"Go through it again. I want to hear it again," Cid ordered, having stared impassively out of the tall floor-to-ceiling windows that expanded the entire office. The view blared in the lights of the academy from below them, and the warm glow was like a mini sea of nightlife that early evening.

Calming as it was, their world was far from it.

Matthew had been sitting in the Headmaster's chair for the past hour. He had been typing away at the computers with the latest influx of reports from surrounding academies and teams on the ground from the refuge sites. All hands were on deck since the palace's destruction on the moon, yet his thoughts were anywhere but on what Cid had wanted.

Tablets in hand and positively quiet, Toni, Richie and Jesse had been sitting on the other side of the desk. Like Cid, the four of them appeared like train wrecks to anyone that saw them at that moment, having been on site until only a few hours ago.

Their Headmaster had been watching over their survivors very closely, one in particular that had remained unconscious. He had been hoping that her account of events would give them any insight into the whereabouts of the Princess and the events that managed to wipe out the court.

The other survivors from the moon didn't anticipate what had happened, nor could they provide an account of what happened. Their concurrent story had been that the reapers tore through the moon, and the next thing they knew, hellfire was raining down from above them.

"Twenty-five million dead," Toni looked up from the tablet, first to Matthew typing away profusely and then to Cid, who turned to him from the glass windows.

"Thirty-one hundred of the court are officially confirmed deceased. We also lost a further sixty-four civilians last night from injuries alone," Toni flicked the tablet off, finishing a report.

"Ryder confirmed that he located another thirteen emergency shuttles that are sprawled across the northern districts and southern, as far as the ice poles. The statements of those they could communicate with all recount the same thing. It was a blindside attack in the dead of night."

"The official autopsy for the Queen," Jesse was next, "concluded that her body suffered internal bleeding, which is suspected due to the explosion at the palace. We do not have any report or body sighting on the Princess.

The court's high and middle advisors were killed when the first three shuttles took off in the attacks. The Artes team only cleared 13% of the palace at this stage. The foundations are making it harder to recover survivors without the cause of collapse while they are inside."

"Richie," Cid shifted his attention over his shoulder.

"We just ran through this. I don't get why I need to repeat it."

"Can you humour him before he has a heart attack," Matthew peered up from the computer, nodding to Richie towards Cid.

"Fucken pointless."

"Language! I have warned the lot of you about my tolerance for your foul mouths!"

Jesse, Toni and Richie smirked at Matthew, that tried to suppress his smirk; even at their age, the Headmaster still scolded them.

"Fine, as I stated, if not five minutes ago. We have whispers from the resistance teams on Isadora's ground that they are planning a counterstrike again, Ezra. Our soldiers have tried to contact the local mercenaries, but they are unwilling to compromise in their stands.

The ground civilians are trying to take this war into their own hands, and no matter the interference we run with them, they have slipped past Treller's Academy and into the forest, last seen heading into the Eastern Border."