Chapter Twenty Seven:

“Did you get taller?”

Navihm was talking to Hue, exchanging details about what had occurred during their time apart from each other, when he heard a familiar voice.

“Eamonn?” The two friends embraced.

“It’s good to see you still in one piece, Navihm!” Eamonn said in Nomad.

“You’ve been practicing, I see,” replied Navihm in kind. “I didn't expect you to be a part of the Ianterran group.”

“I figured you would be in the thick of the goings on up North, so I came to visit.” Eamonn grinned. A passing group of soldiers called a greeting to Navihm. “It seems I was right.”

“How have you been?” Navihm asked. “Is Millie well?” Eamonn flushed a violent red at the mention of the shy little healer.

“Millie is doing fine.” Eamonn coughed, embarrassed. Navihm smiled knowingly to himself. The two had been spending a lot of time together before Navihm had left for the North. “She stayed behind at the school.” Navihm was unsurprised. Lowland healing would not be much use in the North.

“What is this I hear about you running an army?” Eamonn changed the subject brusquely, still blushing furiously.

“Navihm has an army?” Hart asked as he approached his cousin talking with a stranger. It was odd, this newcomer looked like a Nomad and they were speaking the language, but, as far as Hart knew, no Nomads had joined the Genti army at the Tenth. They were all still at the Ninth, guarding against a possible follow up attack.

“Hart, this is Eamonn,” introduced Navihm. So he was a Nomad; Eamonn was definitely a Nomadic name. “He is a friend from Ianterra. We were at school together.”

“Interesting,” said Hart, eyeing Eamonn’s dark skin. Eamonn laughed.

“I suppose you can call it that,” said Eamonn, recognising Hart’s look of confusion for what it was. “Navihm and I share a skill for Lowland magic due to our mixed heritage.”

“That explains why you two are obviously such good friends.” Hart offered his hand. “Not many people have the patience to put up with my little cousin.”

“Oh, you’re that Hart.” Eamonn shook Hart’s hand enthusiastically. “Navihm has told me so much about you.”

“All good things, I hope.”

“Not really,” Navihm said dryly.

“Did you really stampede a whole herd of cattle when you were eight?” asked Eamonn, ignoring Navihm’s eye rolls.

“Yes!” The two men started walking, leaving Navihm behind. “And it wasn't even on purpose!”

Navihm shook his head. Eamonn’s propensity towards awe was not good for his cousin’s ego.

They would get on fantastically.

Navihm scanned the group of Ianterrans. He’d come to the south quarter of the city to find Rose. Most of the Ianterrans were either off helping prepare for the invasion or were socialising in the common rooms of their temporary homes.

Finding Rose was easy. Navihm picked her familiar aura from the hundreds of newcomers in a matter of minutes. After all, he’d taken dozens of imprints of her spirit making all those wards along their journey. When Navihm found her, she was talking with a group of her classmates.

“Lowlander magic was pretty important in that first battle,” Rose was saying. “Without Professor Ward and I, I think the battle would have ended up very different.” Rose’s audience was listening in wrapped attention.

“Rose?” Navihm interrupted.

“Yes, Navihm?” Rose’s tone was quite aloof.

“I have your assignment for the defensive line.” Navihm handed her a piece of paper. “Hue told me that you weren't at his briefing. I thought I would deliver it to you directly.”

Rose opened the paper and scanned it quickly. She felt a cold lump of anger in her throat when she read what was written. She pulled Navihm out of earshot of her friends.

“What is this?” she hissed, waving the paper at him.

“Most of the Ianterrans are going to be deployed throughout the city on roofs,” Navihm explained. Rose would be aware of this if she went to any of the briefings. “I thought it best that you joined them. You are assigned to the bakery roof, just behind barricade eight.” Navihm pointed to a point of the map Rose held as a part of her paperwork. “It is the next street over and-”

“I know where it is, Navihm!” she snapped. “I thought I would with the mages on the mines.” She was referring to the buildings out on the water, anchored to the sea floor. They had been utilized to mount as assault before the ships made it to land. “That’s where all the skilled mages are being deployed.”

“No, Rose,” Navihm said patiently. “The mages assigned to the mines are those adept at water and wind magics. You are more proficient with earth, or even fire. It was at my urging that you were assigned to a rooftop.”

Rose went bright red. How dare Navihm saddle her with a mediocre assignment. After all her hard work during their travels together, she was treated the same as all the other mages.

“Fine.” Rose sniffed and turned her back on Navihm.

“Rosaline,” Navihm called before she could walk away, “you will go to your assigned briefings.” Rose nodded, shocked to hear the tone of command from Navihm and flounced back to the students she had been talking to.

She was not happy with her assignment. She wanted to help, not be shunted to the back of the army. She knew she could do better than that and she especially wanted to she Kaia that she could be better than that. Their conversation on the Andromeda was still in the forefront of Rose’s mind.

“Where did you get assigned?” asked Jacinto, a student that had been in all of Rose’s classes since they’d started at the school together. Rose flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“To the front lines, actually,” she said flippantly.

“Really?” Jacinto was not the least bit skeptical of Rose’s blatant lie. “I’m stuck up on some roof a few streets over.”

“Yes, well, I’ve been here a lot longer than you. Enfeitar Conan knows he can trust my skills.”

At the soonest possible moment, Rose slipped away from Jacinto and his pestering questions. The invasion was due any day now, and Rose had to figure out how she was going to make it to the front lines without Hue or Navihm or any of the others stopping her.

The streets of the Tenth were packed with people. Conan had ordered the entire army to form up and report to their assigned battle stations. They’d done this several times a week but with the addition of the Ianterran mages, the plans for most of the soldier’s positions had changed. The result was chaos. Rose made her way through the crowed to the command center, ignoring the fact that she was supposed to be reporting to her position on the bakery roof.

She told the guard at the door that she had an important message for Regina Kaia. Kaia had been spending most of her time at the command center in the weeks leading up to the battle. She had been helping with communication or something. Rose wasn't really sure what she was doing, but she knew she was here.

It didn't take long for Rose to find Kaia. She’d asked some soldiers and they’d directed her to the top floor. Kaia was standing on a balcony surrounded by birds and taking with a dark skinned soldier.

“No, Navihm’s group will be based at the mouth of the river on the East bank,” she was telling the soldier. “From there they can sweep around to the south and carve a wedge out of the center of the attacking force.”

Rose cleared her throat. Both Kaia and the stranger looked up from where they were pouring over a map.

“Rose?” Kaia said with some surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Rose glanced meaningfully at the dark man.

“I will leave you to your private conversation, Regina,” he said and walked out of the room, nodding politely to Rose as he walked past her.

“I wanted to talk to you about something important, Kaia.” The birds squawked and fluttered about on their perch. “I'm going to join one of the assault teams and I wanted to know if you would join me.”

Kaia could only blink, stunned.

“I’ve been practicing my magical attacks and I know you can fight,” Rose continued, oblivious to Kaia’s growing horror. Kaia was coming to the realisation the Rose was completely serious. “After that attack by those assassins back at the First, Hart told me that you having been learning to fight since you were a child. I thought that you would want to be fighting with the others, rather than being cooped up here doing whatever you’re doing.”

“What I am doing, is handling all communications between the Impraefectus and his field commanders.” Kaia was furious. Rose was being completely irresponsible and reckless. “What you are suggesting is suicide.”

“Kaia, don't be so dramatic, I-”

“Rose. You are not good enough.” Kaia interrupted bluntly. “You are going to get yourself killed. Or worse, you are going to get someone else killed trying to protect you. At the very least, you will be a distraction we cannot afford. This is war, Rose.”

“I understand that, Kaia-”

“I don't think you do.” Kaia stepped closer and put her hands on Rose’s shoulders. “You are a woman. Any man is going to be twice the size as you and probably twice as strong. You have no experience in battle, no training and you are, apparently, mentally impaired.” Rose flushed angrily. “You are insane if you think I will encourage you to go through with this harebrained plan. Navihm or Hart or Hue or half a dozen others would put themselves in extreme danger to protect you if you insist on charging into battle unprepared. I will not allow that.”

“I am capable of defending myself, Kaia. I'm not completely helpless.” Kaia rolled her eyes and pushed on Rose’s shoulders. The girl went sprawling onto the floor, barely even putting up any resistance, proving Kaia’s point.

“I know you want to help, Rose,” Kaia said understandingly. “But this isn’t the way.” She could see Rose’s emotions. The Ianterran girl truly wanted to aid their resistance in a meaningful way. The problem was that Rose couldn’t see her role as meaningful.

“You are just a coward, Kaia.” Rose said from her position on the floor. “All you want to do is hide in this room while others are out there risking their lives.”

“You are naive to think that your contribution to this war is not a valuable as those who fight on the front line.” Kaia turned back to the balcony, tieing a waiting message to the leg of a bird. “We can't all be the same, that doesn't mean that your job or mine isn't important. If that makes me a coward, so be it.”

Kaia turned to glare at the girl still laying in a heap on the floor.

“Now go and do your job, or get out of the way of everyone else doing theirs.” She waved her hand, dismissing her as a princess would a servant.

Rose slammed the door open and stormed out of the room.

“Send a guard to follow her,” Kaia called through the open door at the soldier she knew would be standing there. “I want to make sure she stays with her assigned group.”

“Yes, Praefectus Kaia.”

Bonus:

Exiled Gentis get their braids shaved and their ribbons burned. It requires the consent of at least three Reis to exile a Genti.

Bonus #2:

Hart is a better swordsmen than Navihm. He has much more natural talent (though Navihm is more diligent in his studies and practice). How did Navihm loose the tournament you ask? You may remember me mentioning this way back in chapter nine when you first meet Hart.

You also may have noticed that Navihm uses a sword and one of his daggers to fight most often. During the tournament, Hart thought the best counter weapons for this would be two swords. He wasn't a practiced at using two swords and more than a little cocky. This lead to his downfall. Navihm won the final fight (just barely).

Hart was not happy =)

Two more chapters to go. Ill be updating my beauty later today as well =)