Alitia: Hellfire and Blizzard

VI: Spinning and Stopping

"Etruna was attacked last night."

Carys' shoulders went tight. She turned to look at Iris where the metal mage was sitting on the couch and looking at her phone. "You can't be serious," Carys said even though she already knew it had to be. Iris wasn't the type to joke around about things like this. Even if she had been, she wouldn't have said something teasing about such a serious matter. 

"Unfortunately, I am," Iris sighed. "It seems as if politics on Etruna have just gotten a lot more complicated to sort through. The rebels in the castle defended themselves from an attack launched by the Pyre army forces, and they gave it their all... But for a while, it seemed as if they would be outnumbered and overwhelmed enough to lose the castle. All of that changed when the other Etrunan forces--the members of the army that your mother once commanded--decided to attack Pyre from behind in a pincer attack. That was all it took, and the Pyre forces were captured, killed, or fled from the scene. Nobody knows what's going to happen next, but there hasn't been another attack since then."

"I hate this," Luce muttered. "How are we supposed to find a way to fight back against Pyre when we barely know what we're up against? They were in and out of Etruna before we knew they were there, and we couldn't have gone to help even if we wanted to. No one is going to let us leave."

"I stayed up late last night doing all the research I could," Tanith said. "Pyre's army has always been fond of dirty tactics. Most people join the army because they believe it to be the only way they can really move up the class and social hierarchy. It seems like they're right in assuming that too. Pyre is a planet of combat, and all of their secrets are closely guarded."

"In other words, I doubt any of them are going to make the same mistakes that Igni did," S.M. remarked. "At least my grandfather was enough of a fool to hire people who could be convinced to betray him. On Pyre, I can only assume that the queen runs a much tighter ship to make sure everything stays under her control."

"I wish I knew what we were supposed to do about it," Sophia murmured. "We've fought in so many battles before now, but we've never been up against an opponent like this. What can we do to end the war on Etruna when we can't even go out to fight the people who are responsible for it?"

"We're not supposed to," Sylvia pointed out. "The teachers at Alitia don't want us to go anywhere because they know it would be dangerous for us. I appreciate them looking out for us and all that, but... I wish there was something more we could do. How are we supposed to go about our regular routines when there's so much we can't do or fix from here?"

"It's about to get a whole lot worse too," Helena declared. "The break between semesters is fast approaching, and even if we can split up for the break, I don't think we'd want to. I'm sure the queen of Pyre is fully aware of the threat that we all pose, and she's not going to let us split up without a bit of preparation first."

"From what I've heard, the queen of Pyre is bloodthirsty. She wants to have complete control over as many planets as possible, and she's not afraid to step out of line in order to make it happen," S.M. said. "And if we split up, then she's probably going to take that as a sign that we're trying to gather help from other planets to fight back against her. She won't let us get away with that. If anything, she'll probably just use it as evidence and reasoning to attack our home worlds."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Carys asked. "I'm not going to just sit around here and let her ruin everything we've been fighting for. Etruna is too important to me for me to let her come in and take over just because she wants to. I don't give a damn about her. I want to see her stopped, and I'm going to give this battle my all to make sure she never does anything like this again."

"I think our best call right now is to wait for a little bit longer and see what we can find," Sylvia suggested. Carys cast her a glare at that, and Sylvia held her hands up defensively. "I'm not saying I like the idea of sitting around and waiting for another attack to happen. I just mean that rushing into this without enough information is only going to cause more problems."