Elizabeth was astounded at the lack of effort that was needed to place Frances on her bedroll. It was like guiding a stiff puppet. The slender brunette didn’t even react when Elizabeth slipped outside, grabbed a cup of Hearthsange and stuffed it into her hands.

“Frances? What happened?”

“I don’t know. I just…” Frances’s voice trailed off and she took a sip of the Hearthsange. The warmth of the drink was something to focus on, but it did little to soothe the turmoil in her heart.

Elizabeth sat down beside her friend, searching her brain for what to say. She had seen Frances’s features going distant as they talked more about Earth, about home. At first, she thought it was because Frances was bored, as she wanted to stay in Durannon after all.

However, when Jim had asked Frances what she’d do when she got back to Earth, Elizabeth’s dark eyes had caught a flurry of emotions twist her lean friend’s features. She’d grimaced, her brow had furrowed, and suddenly, she shut moistening eyes and winced.

“What did you feel?” Elizabeth whispered.

Frances shut her eyes and shook her head. “You don’t want to know.”

“But I do. Please, I won’t judge you for what you feel.” Elizabeth hesitated, then she put her hand on Frances’s shoulder. “Are you angry that we talked about Earth because it reminds you of your family?”

“No, I mean, in a way, but it’s not that.” Putting her cup aside and curling her knees under her arms, Frances glanced at Elizabeth. She wondered if she could trust her. And yet, all the brown-haired girl could see, were open eyes and lips pressed together in concern. “Elizabeth, I…I just realized that I miss Earth.”

The black-haired girl took a few seconds to piece it together, before suddenly gasping, “Oh—Oh Frances. I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, not that that is going to change anything—” Frances flinched and uncurled her legs “—sorry, I didn’t mean that. It’s just… I am so angry, and sad at… all of this.” She waved her hand in a circle.

Not skipping a beat, Elizabeth replied, “At who, or what?”

“Angry that you all can go back and not have to worry about getting somewhere safe.” Frances turned to Elizabeth again, a dismayed look on her face. “I don’t mean I am angry at you I mean. It’s a good thing you have a family that cares for you. It just… I…”

Elizabeth exhaled, slowly, and clasped her friend’s hand. “You can tell me, Frances. I know you aren’t angry at me. You’re not that kind of person.”

The relief that Frances felt compelled her to squeeze her friend’s hand for reassurance. It allayed the voice in her mind that kept whispering her she was a worthless, waste of space.

“It doesn’t feel fair, Elizabeth. I… I love Durannon, I really do, but I miss Earth’s cities, the parks, the conveniences, and just… living there. But I can’t, not with my mother and my stepfather. If they weren’t such assholes I wouldn’t be afraid of going back. If they didn’t hate me, I probably wouldn’t have been bullied by Jessica and Leila because I could tell my parents they were bullying me.” Pausing to wipe the tears from her eyes, Frances groaned. “Because of them, I don’t have a choice to make.”

Elizabeth’s eyes widened. The weight of that statement hit her like a punch to the gut. “The choice was made for you… Oh God that… that’s terrible.”

Frances snorted. “Yeah, right? And there’s nothing I can do to change that.”

Nodding, Elizabeth suddenly straightened and winced. “That’s… is that why you’re also sad? You miss Earth, but you know you can never see it again?”

Blinking, Frances gave her friend a simple nod. “Yeah. I… I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but with everybody sharing their stories… it just clicked.”

Elizabeth squeezed Frances’s hands. “If you ever feel uncomfortable, just leave, alright? We can explain, or cover for you.”

Frances smiled gratefully, “Thank you, Elizabeth, for talking to me. I don’t deserve…” She stopped herself from finishing that sentence and exhaled. “You’re a good friend.”

Glad that Frances seemed to be better, Elizabeth smiled too, though, more out of relief. “You’re welcome. Do you need anything else?”

Frances pursed her lips. She did feel better, if more tired, but she could still, despite her best efforts, feel the melancholy and anger cling to her skin like a barrel of oil spilled across her shoulders.

Still, she shook her head.

Elizabeth nodded and grinned. “Alright, do you mind waiting? I think I ought to stay the night. It looks like you need company. We can make it a sleepover!”

Frances blinked and smiled shyly. It sounded like a great idea. Until she remembered that she still, even now, had nightmares of her time back on Earth. She did have nightmares when she was still living with her parents, but they’d increased ever since she’d started living in Durannon.

“Wait, Elizabeth, I might have a nightmare.” She swallowed, trying to keep herself from sounding too desperate by keeping her voice level. “It… it’s not certain I’ll have a nightmare, but I just want you to know.”

Elizabeth hesitated. Sleeping over with her friend? A great idea. Witnessing a nightmare, however, wasn’t something she was sure she was prepared for.

But the desperate tone in Frances’s voice swayed her, as well as how her friend tried to swallow down her fear, despite how fragile she suddenly seemed.

Taking a breath, Elizabeth muttered a quick prayer to God, before nodding. “I’m game. Just let me get my stuff.”

Frances did have a nightmare, but it wasn’t severe. Elizabeth was woken by her friend’s whimpers and quickly shook the smaller girl awake.

She didn’t even remember the entirety of the nightmare, just that it involved her parents saying things to her, Timur somehow being involved in the nightmare, and Edana hugging her? She was sure she gibbered something nonsensical to Elizabeth. And yet, all her friend did was listen to her and hold her, until sleep had dragged their eyebrows to sleep.

The next morning the pair had staggered out of the tent and brushed their teeth. Erisdale didn’t have toothpaste per se, but they did have strange medicinal herbs that you could chew into a paste and toothbrushes to spread that around your mouth and over your teeth.

As they were rinsing their faces, Martin arrived. He didn’t ask what they talked about, he simply came to check if Frances was feeling better.

Frances’s smile came easily at Martin’s concern. “I am. Thank you. Both of you. Let’s get some breakfast, and check how Jessica and Leila did with their punishment yesterday.”

The cautiously optimistic mood that Frances had woken up with soon faded as she listened to the muscular mess chef recount what had occurred yesterday.

Martin groaned and shook his head. “So they did such the bare minimum job it could barely be called participating?”

Fists clenched around her wooden spoon, Frances shoved a mouthful of porridge into her mouth. “I should have known that they would do that. I’m sorry, chef.”

The chef shrugged. “Eh, it’s all good milady. Some people are just bitchy and nothing’s going to change them.” She left then, leaving the three friends with their porridge.

“Frances, what are you going to do then?” Elizabeth asked in a quiet voice, her eyes focused on Frances’s gritted teeth.

“I don’t know. But I can’t let them disrespect me.” She swallowed and turned to Elizabeth. “Earl Forowena—my tactics teacher—she taught me that discipline is key to a plan’s execution. We’re going to need that if we want our plan to go well.”

“They’re our classmates, though. We can’t force them to go along with the plan. We can only convince them.”

Martin coughed softly, making Frances and Elizabeth turn to him. “I think you are both right, but before we assume we are executing the plan of attack we have discussed, perhaps we should get final approval from Baroness Igraine first?”

The girls looked rather sheepish and agreed that this was probably a better idea.

Baroness Igraine had suggested several changes to their plan but agreed with the general concept. However, that wasn’t all she had to say.

It turned out that Erisdalian intelligence had found out the identity of the enemy commander. Igraine had informed the trio that their enemy was a previously unknown young orc war chief by the name of Helias and that because of this they should expect significant orc troops.

That left the trio to explain their plan to their classmates.

This was how Frances, Martin and Elizabeth found themselves outside, with a map of Freeburg fortress drawn on the ground and marked with their group of classmates gathered around it.

Although she felt no more confident than she did yesterday, Frances did find it easier to clear her throat and say, “Morning everybody. We have thought up of a way to assault Freeburg after talking to everybody and assessing all of your skills.”

She gestured to the southern walls of the fortress. “We’ll be dividing into four groups. Two mage groups and two assault groups. The first mage group is going to pin down any archers or arquebusiers on the walls by throwing up smoke or mist. If the enemy turns out to have mages, simply blast them at range. The assault groups will use pre-built trenches and the cover provided by the mages to storm the castle. The second mage group, which will come with the assault groups, will blast the gate down and provide support to the assault groups as we storm the fortress.”

Martin took over, pointing to the northern half of the fortress. “As we conduct our assault on the southern wall, Baroness Igraine is going to attack the northern portion of the fortress from the cliffs above with the rangers and the other Otherworlders. That will cut the fortress in two and allow us to occupy it all at once. Any questions for the plan so far?”

The classmates mulled around, looking at the rough map, murmuring and whispering to themselves.

“Do we have any reinforcements?” Jim asked Frances.

She nodded. “The second mage group outside will be assisting the Conthwaite militia to secure the first courtyard. To clarify, those attacking won’t be in charge of securing the first courtyard because once inside, the first and second assault groups will be using the walls to get to the second courtyard.” Frances pointed to the huge circular tower at the bottom left corner of the second courtyard. “Freeburg’s Great Tower, the main administrative building, will be taken by the first assault group. The second and the mage group will be taking control of the bridge.”

“Remember, speed is of the essence. In fact, your speed, which is greater than any normal human’s is the only reason why this assault can work. We can’t close the distance to the walls safely without that speed, and only you, with your great strength and agility, can clear the castle walls of the orcs. Any questions?” Martin snapped, not unkindly, but in a stern tone.

Frances watched her classmates mutter amongst themselves, but nobody raised their hand. It seemed like they were going to go along with the plan.

“We will now divide the groups so we can familiarize ourselves with how we fight.” Frances pulled out her notebook with the list of people. “First assault group—”

An all too familiar voice cut in. “Holdup Frances. Isn’t this plan a bit too complicated?”

Frances looked up, already frowning at Jessica, whose arms were crossed, nose turned up. “The question period is over. If you have any more, please wait until I finished assigning everybody’s groups.”

“But that’s the thing.” Walking over to the map, Jessica pointed to the gate with her staff. “Instead of assigning people into separate groups, why don’t we just have one assault group and one mage group? Then we can simply hit the gate together and move to the Great Tower and into the second courtyard.”

There were more murmurs and to Frances’s growing consternation a few were of agreement. Scowling, she realized that she could see Leila’s point in a sense.

However, she also recalled the arguments for her plan when she discussed it with her friends, as well as Jim the previous day and with Lady Igraine. Both had been in favour of dividing the assault and mage groups.

“Two groups allows us better coverage. Moreover, concentrating every single Otherworlder into one big force might open us to ambush and gives us fewer options if things go wrong. What if the attack fails? We might need to get out and having a separate backup mage group will facilitate our escape.”

Jessica blinked and to Frances’s surprise, her former bully nodded as if agreeing with her, but that couldn’t be possible.

“Well, who are you putting in command of the second mage group?” Leila asked, an impish look on her face.

Sucking in a deep breath, Frances wrestled down the urge to snap out something she might regret at her former bullies. Still, she made sure to fix Leila with a furious glare.

Martin crossed his arms, and hissed through gritted teeth, “No more questions until Frances is finished explaining the groups.”

“She’s already answered my questions, why not Leila’s?” Jessica asked in a far-too-innocent tone.

Frances wanted to slap the smile off of her former bully’s face. Only squeezing her fists so tight that her knuckles were turning white, prevented her from doing so.

Then again, what else could she expect from these two? They were Jessica and Leila, bullies, untrustworthy trash who would never respect her or listen to her instructions.

But before Frances could decide what to say, Martin stomped up to Jessica and Leila. Although he was shorter than the tall blonde, his wide eyes, and the way he marched over the painstakingly drawn diagram of Freeburg made everybody, including his two targets, back away from him.

“What the hell is your problem? No seriously, what the burning pits of hell is your problem? You don’t like Frances, fine! I don’t get why but maybe she pisses you off somehow. But if you two have a problem with her, shove it somewhere else because the land you stand on his my home and you are doing your level best to sabotage its defence!”

To her surprise, Frances saw that Jessica and Leila—the Otherworld mages, who could blast the short knight in front of them off his feet—were trembling.

Jessica swallowed and averted her gaze. “Sorry, we didn’t think—”

“I don’t care what you think.” Martin spun around, eyes meeting Frances’s. “What do we do with them?”

Although slightly surprised, Frances had long decided what to assign the pair this morning ever since she found out that they shirked mess duty. “Latrine emptying and digging duty after training. No magic.”

Jessica and Leila gawked and made to protest, but everybody was looking at them with disapproving glares. Many were actually smirking with glee or satisfaction.

Shrinking at the narrowed eyes focused on them, the cowed former bullies nodded and fell silent.

Smoothing her dress, Frances opened her notebook again. “Right. Assault group one. Elizabeth…”