The Rise of Imani Firyali *NOW OFFICIALLY PUBLISHED!!*

TWENTY TWO

22.

revealed path.

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I grabbed the man's collar, his expression tightening with shock as I used my superior strength to lift him off his feet. He held onto my arm for dear life, but I threw him away, his body colliding with other men who were trying to stand up. As he collided with them, they fell like dominoes, all of them letting out an exclamation of surprise and pain as they fell to the floor.

I was breathing heavily, my muscles sore as I stood over them.

Today's training session was over.

The soldiers I had been fighting with stood, excusing themselves at the chime of the large clock in the palace gardens. It signaled the end of our training for the day, and I thanked them as they left, my mind only half into the fighting that day. After the training room became empty, I took a seat on the floor and laid down on the ground with my eyes trained to the ceiling. I realized as I resided there that I didn't have much else training to do. I'd come a long way from the last few months, and the only challenge I really had now was against the exhaustion I faced after using my High Magic. However, that wasn't something I could change, as it was a direct result of my energy being depleted, and no matter how much I worked on it, energy would always be taken away from me and eventually result in my collapse if I pushed too hard.

My thoughts had been bothering me for a few days now, the queen's orders for me to train for her always in my mind. I don't know why it wouldn't go away; the idea of the queen telling me what to do should have kept me satisfied as it had done previously. But the idea of taking my powers and using it as a weapon of sorts seemed to unnerve me, and I wondered why I hadn't previously thought of the idea that the queen could go on this route before. After reading the book Brother Ignus had given me, it definitely should have come to mind as a possibility of my fate. But perhaps I had forgotten that evil existed everywhere, as did the wish for control.

I wasn't sure. But I did know something―that I didn't want to be under the queen's thumb, no matter if she was kind to me. She represented a country, one against my people, and though she wished to help them, I knew that her peoples' safety came first. My heart was split in two, one side wishing to save my people and the other wishing to repay the great kindness I had gotten in Amia by fighting for them. What was I going to do? How was I going to keep my own freedom, yet still remain loyal to my duty as a soldier to the queen of Amia? And how could I do it while trying to help stop the war from beginning?

"How unprofessional."

I almost jumped out of my skin, quickly sitting up in surprise and turning to the door behind me. I hadn't heard anyone come in, which unnerved me, and when I saw who it was standing in the doorway, I realized why I hadn't.

It was Senator Chayton.

I quickly climbed to my feet, shame hot against my skin but gratefully hidden from the senator. He walked inside with a confidence and relaxed posture that made me tense, as I knew the senator as someone who never did anything without reason.

"Sir," I replied, saluting him despite how much I'd rather spit in his face.

Senator Chayton clasped his hands together, looking at me with deep scrutiny. "Laying on the floor, Imani Firyali?"

My anger prickled. "I just finished training for the day. I was resting."

"It is quite amusing to me," Valerie's father began, completely ignoring my response as he looked at all the things I used to train, "that you are training separately and living separately than the other soldiers. When, in reality, you will end up just like them. Under our control."