Third Person POV
The days after the wedding were a blur. Cassius would meet and discuss strategy with the elders, Ari, Alton, Valery, and Zamari in the mornings, train in the afternoon, and then spend the evenings with his new wife.
Finally, the date of the group's departure arrived. Cassius, Valery, and Zamari were each leading their own unit – Cassius and Ari would take out the generals in the middle of the camp, Valery would shut down the aviary, and Zamari would rally the soldiers from Abree. If everything went successfully, they would take back the fort before anyone knew what was happening.
While the troops gathered at the camp, Cassius and Safania sat alone on the cliffs overlooking the sea, watching the sunrise. The two held each other silently, Safania's head resting on Cassius's chest, and his arm thrown around her shoulders.
"I don't want you to go," Safania said softly, her voice barely able to be heard over the crashing waves below them.
"I have to," Cassius replied.
"I know," Safania agreed. "But that doesn't make it any easier. You really won't let me come with?"
Cassius kissed her forehead. "Saf, you know that's a bad idea for a number of reasons."
"It just seems like every time we're separated, something horrible happens."
"I know," Cassius acknowledged. "But it's not just your life you would be risking by coming with. Think of the baby."
Safania's hands moved to her growing bump. Their child had already been through so much, and they weren't even born yet.
"Promise me you'll be safe," she said, accepting that she would have to stay at the camp.
"I promise," Cassius told her, staring deeply into her concerned emerald eyes. "I love you more than anything."
Safania smiled and pulled him close. The two exchanged a long and loving kiss before heading back to the camp.
When they arrived, all of the volunteer army was organized and ready to leave. Cassius joined his unit at the front of the pack.
"Goodbye my love," he told Safania for a final time, giving her a kiss and then mounting his horse.
"I'll take good care of him Starfish," Zamari told Safania, approaching her from behind and giving her a hug. "I love you so much, my sweet baby girl."
"I love you too mom. I hate saying goodbye to you."
Zamari smiled. "Then we'll just say see you later."
Safania returned her mother's smile. "See you later mom. You be safe too."
"Of course. See you later Starfish."
Zamari mounted her horse as well, and she and Cassius began to ride off. This prompted the group to start moving forward, across the clearing and through the forest.
Safania watched as the group disappeared into the tree line. Once they were finally out of sight, she sunk to the ground, tears flowing freely from her eyes.
"Saffy, what's the matter?" Emalina asked, running over concerned.
"I'm just so worried Em."
"It's okay," Emalina answered reassuringly. "Prince Cassius has done this kind of thing before. He's been in plenty of battles. He'll be fine."
"But what if he's not Em? This is so dangerous. It feels completely different than all the other times we've been apart."
"You need to trust him. The same way he trusts you."
Safania nodded. Trust had never been easy for her. But Cassius had earned it so many times over. He's going to come back, she started repeating to herself over and over again. She would just keep telling herself that until he did.
**********
Third Person POV (Cassius)
After travelling for a couple days, the group reached the outskirts of the fort. It was a couple hours before daybreak, so the fort was silent. It also meant they had to get this right the first time – the elementalists wouldn't have the ability to recharge without the sun. But unfortunately they had to do this in the darkness – any other time the fort would be crawling with soldiers.
"Have everyone who isn't in one of the three invading units stay silent and hold tight until we open the gates," Cassius instructed Alton and Layla to pass on to the rest of the group. "This could take minutes, it could take hours. Be patient and be silent. Stay out of sight."
Alton and Layla nodded and went to spread the word.
"Alright, everyone knows how far they have to tunnel to get to where they need to be?" Cassius asked the three units.
"Yes," Zamari replied. "You're sure your directions are accurate?"
"Unless they completely reorganized the fort, which in a month I'm doubting they did," Cassius answered. "Just remember, take your time. Accuracy and silence is what we're going for, not speed."
The group nodded.
"Alright then, let's go," Cassius commanded.
Three elementalists began tunnelling underground. Cassius watched, still awed by the women's ability to do such incredible things. He was also surprised at the speed they could go while being pretty much silent. He wondered what they could do at full speed.
Cassius wished Zamari and Valery luck before he and Ari descended into their unit's tunnel. It took several minutes, but eventually their tunneller, Fazia, turned around.
"This is it, your highness. I'll resurface as quietly as I can, but it's going to draw attention if they have guards."
Cassius nodded. "They usually have at least four guarding the generals, and the first thing they're going to do when they see us is call for back-up. We can't give them that opportunity."
He assigned each member of his unit a direction to go: North, South, East, and West. He instructed them not to kill the guards, just to silence them. The generals were the real targets. Once he was convinced they were all ready, he turned back to Fazia.
"Let's go," he told her. She nodded.
The group resurfaced right next to the generals' quarters. Despite being as quiet as possible, the group emerged to a pack of startled guards pointing at the mysterious new opening in the ground with spears and swords drawn. But the elementalists and Ari were prepared; before the guards could even react, they were pinned to the ground and gagged. Cassius looked at the scene, impressed. Then he noticed none of the guards were even struggling.
"Help one of them up," he commanded Ari.
Ari picked one of the guards up, his eyes wide. The guard seemed young, barely old enough to be in the military. Ari undid his gag and pushed him towards Cassius.
"Your highness," he said quietly, immediately dropping to his knees. "We thought you were dead. It is...you have no idea how wonderful it is to see you alive. You have to understand, your brother was killing anyone who wouldn't swear loyalty to him. I didn't want to...I just...I didn't want to die." The boy was stuttering, terrified.
Cassius smiled. Predictably, his brother's ruthlessness and bloodlust had already turned his subjects against him. His brother may have Peria's army, but he didn't have the people. At least not the ones here.
"Stand soldier," Cassius ordered. The boy stood stick straight, his eyes extremely fearful. "I don't blame you or anyone for swearing loyalty to Alterius," Cassius told him. "You thought I was dead. But now that you know I'm alive, I need to know that you're loyal to me."
"Of course, your highness," he replied quickly. "We all are. I swear."
"Trust is earned. You can start by telling me if Alterius kept any of my generals, and which lives in each hut."
The boy nodded. "Yes, your highness. King Alterius killed most of them, but he kept the generals who were part of the great Perian families. So Generals Nicolaus, Caro, and Tanus. The new four are his own personal friends."
Cassius nodded. It was smart on his brother's part - killing a general from a major Perian family could potentially cause the family and their supporters to refuse to recognize him as king. Cassius knew he couldn't kill those generals either, for the same reason.
"Can you show me which houses the old generals live in?"
The boy pointed them out.
"Okay, you two tie up the guards to that tree," Cassius directed Ari and Fazia. "You've been extremely helpful, but it's safest for you to be there until this is over," he explained to the boy. The boy nodded obediently.
He turned to the rest of the elementalists as the guards obediently sat around the tree, waiting to be tied up. He assigned the rest of them each to a hut, directing them to spare Nicolaus, Caro, and Tanus, but to kill the others.
Silently, the women entered the huts. In a matter of moments, the women re-emerged from the huts, some covered in blood. Nicolaus, Caro, and Tanus were thrown at Cassius's feet, tied up and gagged. Their eyes all widened when they saw him, but unlike the guards they began to squirm and tried to talk.
"Silence," Cassius commanded. They immediately stopped.
Cassius looked to the members of his unit, extremely impressed. Then he realized one was missing.
"Your highness," the missing elementalist called out as she left the third hut and ran towards Cassius. "I looked everywhere. The general wasn't in there."
Cassius nodded and began to walk over to the guards tied to the tree.
"Your highness, what do we do with them?" a different elementalist asked, referring to the three generals on the ground.
"Let them think about their situation," Cassius replied. He bent down next to the boy, now tied to the tree. "That hut was empty. Do you know where that general would be."
"Probably the aviary," the boy replied. "He goes there every night to report back to the King."
Cassius exchanged a look with Ari. "Valery," Ari said to Cassius, concerned.
"She can handle it," Cassius assured him. "But just in case, take two of the other elementalists and head over to the aviary to help. We're fine here."
Ari nodded. He picked two of the women to join him and ran off in the direction of the aviary.
"What do we do now?" Fazia asked Cassius, sitting on the ground to rest.
"Hope that the rest of the plan goes smoothly," he replied, trying to stay calm.
**********
Third Person POV (Zamari)
Zamari emerged from her unit's tunnel right next to the Abreean forces. Fortunately, no one spotted them.
"You all remember the plan?" she said, checking in with her group one last time.
The women nodded. Satisfied, Zamari led the group straight into the encampment. As predicted, the Abreean soldiers were not asleep like the rest of the camp. They were dancing and singing. The women were spotted immediately.
"Who are you all?" a soldier asked in Ledish.
"We're here to speak to your leader," Zamari said politely. "General Arif."
"Whores?" another soldier asked in Abreean. "I don't remember the general saying he was bringing in whores."
Zamari couldn't understand what they were saying but continued to smile, trying to keep herself calm.
"If he did and we turn them away, he won't be happy," the first soldier replied in Abreean. "Besides, what are they going to do? There are ten of them and thousands of us. If they tried anything they would be dead in a minute."
The soldier turned back to her. "Follow us," he commanded in Ledish.
The first soldier led her to a tent where the high-ranking officials had gathered. When the women entered, the men cheered.
"You didn't say you had ordered whores General," one exclaimed.
"Because I didn't," the general replied, confused. He walked towards Zamari, his hand on his sword. "What do you want?"
"Your help overthrowing the King," she responded boldly.
The partying stopped, everyone now staring at Zamari and her group.
"General, Abree has always been a loyal ally to Prince Cassius...." Zamari tried to continue.
"The prince is dead," General Arif replied flatly.
"He's not."
The men inside the tent began whispering.
"Silence. Multiple people witnessed him die. How do you explain that?"
"Like this," Zamari replied, turning to the illusionist of their group. She created an identical version of Arif, then stabbed him. The crowd, including Arif, watched, as the image of Arif dying flashed before them.
The illusionist got rid of the image, leaving the men in shocked silence.
"You're all marked," Arif said, turning to the women.
Zamari nodded, confirming his suspicion.
"There were rumors that Prince Cassius's fiancé is too..."
"She is," Zamari answered. "She's my daughter."
"Is she okay?" another soldier asked, concerned. "We heard rumors about how she was when she escaped Peria..."
Zamari looked to the general, trying to respect the chain of command.
"Answer him," the general commanded.
Zamari took a deep breath. "She's...still healing. She has moments where she thinks she's back and panics..."
"What did he do to her?" the general asked.
"She still won't talk about it," Zamari replied. "But our medic who has been working with her worked with prisoners from the Irado-Eir war...she said Safania is one of, if not the worst, case she's ever seen."
Some of the men in the tent bowed their heads. General Arif shook his. "The things that he must have done to her..."
"I try not to think about it," Zamari replied.
"I met Safania when she and Cassius came to Abree," Arif told Zamari. "Truly a wonderful, kind-hearted young woman. The entire kingdom was very impressed, especially the king."
The other men nodded in agreement.
"What do you need from us?" he asked.
"Prince Cassius wants you to join him. He's taking out Alterius's generals in the middle of the fort. Then he's going to wake the rest of the fort to announce his return. He wants you there to handle any dissenters loyal to Alterius who try to cause trouble."
General Arif nodded. "We'll do whatever we can."
The two shook hands.
"Lead the way," Arif told her.
**********
Third Person POV (Valery)
Valery and her unit surfaced near the aviary.
"Did you hear something?" A guard asked another from the top of the aviary. Valery hushed the group and had them lie flat on the ground. Fortunately, the dark, cloudy night provided them with the perfect cover.
"Probably an animal. Nothing to worry about," another guard replied dismissively.
"You five enter from below. Ella, propel us on top. We'll meet in the middle," Valery whispered to her unit. Ella nodded and created a huge gust of wind that lifted four of them up to the top of the tower. Valery and the other three knocked out the two guards on top effortlessly.
"This is the best they've got?" Valery said mockingly. The four started down the tower, taking out a couple guards along the way. They eventually reached a floor with multiple rooms.
"Spread out and search. Make sure no one is hiding," Valery commanded.
The other three women nodded, quietly checking the rooms. Two of the women emerged. "They're clear," they told Valery.
"Head downstairs," she commanded. "I'll see what's taking Callista so long."
Valery entered the room Callista had gone into. A lone candle was burning at a desk, a pot of ink and quill nearby. Someone was in here, she thought. Then she noticed the hand peeking out from under the desk. Callista's hand.
"Callie!" Valery exclaimed, running to check on her. While she searched for a pulse, a sharp force knocked the wind out of her, sending her sprawling on the ground. Once she turned around, her eyes widened and her pulse quickened. A man stood over her, pointing a sword at her throat.
"Don't move," he snarled.