A misty rain drizzled down from high rolling clouds seeming to coat everything and everyone in a feeling of cold and damp that the light gusting winds did nothing to dispel. Foro stood on the walls despite the conditions, staring out at the army that surrounded Proelefsi and the sky beyond them.

“I figured this is where you’d be, sir.” A grizzled voice pierced through his concentration.

“Report,” Foro ordered the soldier.

“Ammo is running low, I’ve already started moving the rest of the population into the palace grounds, we won't be able to keep the rest of the city if they attack en masse again.”

The old soldier watched Foro’s reactions trying to determine what his leader would do, he was looking for any ray of hope that they would get out of this alive.

Foro stepped slowly around to look at the reporting soldier for the first time. He was surprised how much the man conveyed an appearance of wet rumpled feathers even in his human form. The two men locked eyes, each trying to read the thoughts and emotions of the other, the rumpled soldier trying to find something solid in the actions of a man he greatly respected to grasp his faith onto and Foro trying to judge how much longer he can rely on his soldiers faith in him during the siege.

“You shouldn't have too much trouble keeping them from finding out,” Foro said as he waved his arm to indicate the surrounding forces. “I’ve spotted them getting into four skirmishes this morning alone.”

“Yes, sir.”

The pall of silence returned over the two as a burst of wind swirled the misty rain around them. They shivered despite their nature as creatures of flame and shifted from foot to foot to try to relieve the discomfort of their soaked garments.

Foro could hear the sounds of heated arguing emanating from the camps outside the wall any time there was a break in the wind. He smiled a little thinking of how much solace he took in the sound. He knew they would not have lasted this long without the dysfunction of their enemy and he said a little prayer of thanks for it in his head.

“Sir…” The soldier started.

“It is never fun when you are working off faith, soldier, I understand,” Foro cut him off. “And waiting is the worst part of a battle, just hang in there and prepare the best you can.”

“She will come back?” asked the soldier, trying for any form of reassurance to re-motivate himself.

“She will,” Foro answered with words filled with conviction. “If there is anyone more duty-bound to this city and its denizens than me it is Lady Thea.”

Foro turned his attention back to the skies, his back straight, his hands clasped behind his back. He made a picturesque statue, seemingly alone amongst the activities of manning the wall. The soldier frowned and turned his eyes to follow Foro’s gaze one last time before going back to his duties.

“Isn’t that…” the soldier was unable to finish his words as he pointed to the horizon while shock spread over his face.

**

Thea crouched as low as she could on Zag’s shoulder bracing herself against the occasional beat of his wings. She peered down into the misty distance catching glances of the walls of her home and the forces that surrounded it.

“Zag, fly over the top of them and land on the other side of the city, stay out of ballista range just in case,” Thea ordered after giving his shoulder a slap to get his attention. “Tell Bron to circle back so he can land behind the force facing this wall.”

After a short wait, she could feel the rumble emanate from deep in his chest as he communicated with Bron. She frowned at the noise hoping it wouldn't carry far enough to reach the sharp ears of the phoenixes surrounding the city.

A hand slithered along the side of her neck and squeezed her shoulder, knocking her attention off the city that lay below.

“What’s going on?” Annu asked her

“The city is under siege,” Thea answered and swatted the hand away before it could make its way into her shirt.

“You’re no fun, should I go down there and just kill them all?”

“That would not be ideal, some of them might still remember where their loyalties should lie, I just have to remind them I am still here.”

“Did I mention you weren't any fun?” Annu asked in a voice that dripped with boredom and sarcasm.

“You did.”

Thea looked back to the city and the army surrounding it. She slowly began to count under her breath her eyes darting back and forth calculating the angles.

“This is about right,” she said and lept off the back of the dragon.

Thea gracefully twisted her body in a perfect arc to get her head pointed towards her target and her wings burst forth in scarlet-gold glory before she folded them back and went into a steep dive.

“That looks fun.” Annu’s words echoed in her ears as the distance grew and the wind whipped around her.

**

Zag panicked, he saw her form dive off out of the corner of his eye and it was all he could do to keep from diving after her with a roar. His form rocked in his indecision as his flight became unstable.

“You keep going and do what you are supposed to do, brother mine,” he heard Annu say. “I’ll take care of the precious little bird.”

Zag’s thoughts began to settle with her reassurance but he couldn't help but sigh as Annu made a near-exact duplication of Thea’s dive off of him.

**

More and more eyes made their way up to Thea’s diving form until she held both forces' attention on the eastern side of the wall. She could see some of the soldiers raise their crossbows and then lower them, their faces decorated with a gaping expression that echoed the movement of their bows.

Some few bolts arced their way towards her and she blew them away with an explosive burst of flame. She looked up as some of them flew by her head and saw Annu’s form diving rapidly after her.

Seeing the bolts harmlessly bounce off the hurtling dragoness Thea turned her attention back to the army surrounding her home. She flared her wings, slowing her descent to a crawl, and set her feet onto damp muddy soil. Thea stood there looking over the troops within her vision he wings spread and flames swirling around her vaporizing the misty raindrops into wispy sizzles of steam, some of the enemy troops kneeled in awe of the scene.

Annu thudded down next to her laughing as if it were the most fun she has ever had. Her aura spread out amongst the surrounding people, the fear and despair pervading through their minds made more than a few of them fall to the ground and try to curl into a ball.

“All of you are following men and women fighting over a crown that is not theirs to take, when an enemy is destroying us from both within our government and pitting outside forces against us, tell me, what are your priorities?” Thea’s admonishment echoed through the ranks. “Are you looking to ensure your families do not live through the year? Tell me, what amazing things bought your services away from maintaining the stability of this duchy? What amazing things could cause you to pit yourself against a mentor I know several of you admire and respect?

“I see by the banners you serve the same lords who immediately bent the knee to Photismos when he murdered my family. Tell me what price did they pay you to follow men who would follow a man who would inject the nefarious shadows or black mist powers, of which you must be aware, into my mother’s eggs, to turn my sisters into some puppet abomination? Well, tell me?”

“You should just kill them all,” Annu’s bored tone echoed through the pall of silence following Thea’s speech. The troops added a collective fearful shudder to their looks of shame.

Thea turned to her, tears of rage barely contained behind the regal exterior she was trying to maintain.

“Can you find the ones who have given themselves over to the enemy?”

“Hmmm,” Annu’s predatory gaze meandered its way over the faces of the fearful soldiers. “That one!”

Before Thea could respond Annu had bolted forward and grasped a lower-ranking officer by the throat.

The man released a burst of the black mist in a panic which knocked the dragoness back as it burned her arm up to the elbow. The officer, in so doing, blew himself in half and injured a handful of the soldiers nearby that did not already scamper for cover.

Thea walked over and watched as the dying embers of the officer's original golden flames futilely struggled against the blood loss.

“As I am now, I could probably save you,” she told the man as the light left his eyes. “However, the only mercy I am willing to show to those who have made the choice you have made is to burn away the corruption you carry and spread!”

Crimson fire swirled from her wings and reduced the two pieces of the man to ash, soon muddied in the drizzling rain.

“Do not tell my brother about this,” Annu emphatically pleaded from behind her as she grasped her regrowing limb.

“Are there any remaining here?”

“A couple in the distance, I think they are already fleeing, most of the ones that fled at the start of this have already encountered their fates.”

The roars of three dragons echoed from three different points surrounding the force besieging Proelefsi and with most of the officers and leaders of the army having been struck down trying to flee the very dragons they ran into the army’s soldiers weren't sure what course of action to take and sat paralyzed as the gates of the city opened and the city’s guardsmen poured out.