Passing down the arch entrance of the building, Tomoe and Amelia enter the town hall. Being surrounded by Beheaders, almost everyone taller than them, Tomoe tries to look over everyone, managing to catch Bran, Titania and Lacus at one side of the room. At the sight of Lacus, a strong feeling of frustration surged within her mixed with a feeling of relief. In the face of this confusion, Tomoe bites her tongue, then tugs Amelia, and both walk towards them, passing behind all the Beheaders that are already gathered there. Getting to the place where the others are, Tomoe gives a hug to Titania and Lacus, then sees that Lorelei and Oscar are at the other side, and by the end of the room, surrounded by Daisy, William, Ray and Olga, there is Lady Aquamarine. At the sight of her, Tomoe’s heart lost almost all weight she was carrying, something that she notices, and starts taking deep breaths, trying to stop the tears from coming. As Lady Aquamarine raises her sight, she catches Tomoe being present, taking a hand to her mouth, partly to cover her smile, partly to cover her also taking deep breaths. Tomoe snorts at the sight, noticing that she maybe took more than what she expected from her mother. Ray and Olga also catch Tomoe on their sights and take a breath of relief, smiling.

“I believe that all Beheaders are present” Ray speaks “At least those that made it. My Lady, we can start.”

Lady Aquamarine nods and then stands “Many of you have been in my presence before. Still, you may have not known my appearance, only know me by my voice. Let me first present myself, formerly, to all of you: I’m Lady Aquamarine, last Lord of the dishonored Aquamarine house, ruler of the Aquamarine state and the Link to the Aquamarine Lord tree, from which all of you have inherited the skill commonly known as Water taming. For reasons that are too long even in its simplified version, I was tied to the Aquamarine mansion back at the city, unable to leave its premises, unable to even reveal my face to all but a select group of individuals… but said reasons no longer apply. This is why I now stand in front of you, as I personally think it should have been since the beginning. My pleasure to get to know, and see you all, finally, face to face.”

The large group of Beheaders all start talking to each other. Tomoe sinks between her shoulders, with a little anxiety growing inside her, thinking about what could happen with this sudden development.

Ray steps forward and says “I’ve been one of the few individuals who were granted the right to meet with our Lord face to face. For those who harbor doubts, I can assure you, this has been, and is, our very Lord that I have known, and has directed the Aquamarine Port City… for a long time now.”

Daisy stops forward too and adds “I’ve known our very Lord since she was a little girl. There’s no need to doubt, I can give everyone my word that she is the Lord of this land” putting a hand to Lady Aquamarine’s shoulder, she finishes “And you all know how much I hold the value of my words.”

The chatty ambiance faded a bit, but it was still on the air. Tomoe could hear low whispers between some Beheaders present, saying words that ranged from still the doubtful, to the ones that just praised the curvy slim body of Lady Aquamarine. Nevertheless, no one came forward.

“Thank you.” Says Lady Aquamarine, as she stands up “Well, we surely have… a fiery situation between our hands.”

“You bet!” could be heard said from somewhere between the Beheaders. Some chuckles followed.

“I have… gathered information about the enemy army, and I would like to share it with all of you here, adding to that information the one I hold too, so everyone can be on the same page.”

“You heard our Lady, so, shut up!” yells Ray, sending the room into silence.

“Thank you, Ray. So, first, some basic information, information that you can find if you picked a history book back in the library or the copy in the state records. Please, hear what I’m about to say all the way until the end. About three hundred years ago, a war was going on, between almost all the states, to take the position of King over our beloved country of Aeris. This came up right after the heads of the eleven houses plotted to overthrow the late King Lionheart, which they succeeded… but then they were unable to come into an agreement on who would take the throne in his place. The war that came from this is known these days, at least in our books, as the War for the Lion’s Den. Years later, seeing how the war ravaged the land, each house signed an armistice and went back to their respective state. Having not finished the previous war, we entered into another one, what we know now as a Cold War between the states.”

“How is it a Cold War? I don’t understand, what we faced just now was far from cold.” A voice can be heard asking the question.

“We know it as a Cold War because the war itself hasn’t been finished. It just came into a stalemate.” Lady Aquamarine answered, “This stalemate has been going for about three hundred years, and, at least in my mind, until two days ago, I never thought the war would just come back, just like that.”

“So, what you mean is, we are facing one of the enemy states right now?” Lacus was the one asking this time.

“Not exactly, I’m afraid. With the invasion of the enemy army, we have seen many taming abilities that here, in this state, haven’t seen in these warring times. According to the information that was given to me by Ray and Olga, we have seen two taming abilities, fire taming and electric taming.”

“Basically, two houses joined forces.” Ray completed.

“That is the conclusion we came up with, but still, something didn’t add up. The numbers of their army. We were outnumbered ten to one since the beginning, like two ant colonies clashing, one far outnumbering the other.”

Raising her hand this time, Tomoe asked “Ehmm… Why that would be so strange?”

“Well, getting into it would be another large tale, but short of it is that, even if their respective states were doing as well as us, using our own policies, they shouldn’t have been able to amass such a large army. Even if both houses applied some sort of racial-slavery system. It is not enough, there’s is not enough people. And if this isn’t possible, and seeing how some fire tamers were… used, to put it lightly, it is in my guess that at least, these two houses have already conquered about four states around us, putting the conquered soldiers and families into slavery and pushing to fight for them today.”

At these words, the Beheaders in the room started to murmur to each other, in a murmur that could deaf the ears of the people not speaking themselves. To Tomoe’s side, Bran had fallen to his knees, covering his mouth. Tomoe was about to crouch in order to help him, but Lacus crouched first, and with a hand gesture, let Tomoe know that he would take care of him. Grabbing him by the armpits, Lacus takes Bran outside of the room.

“Silence!” Ray yelled, startling Tomoe and Titania, and sending the room back into silence.

“Thank you, Ray. Everyone, please, there’s more information still that needs to be discussed. No matter how horrible the acts we have witnessed today may be, being only disgusted will not help us survive. So, continuing, I believe that the two houses that have invaded us today are House Ruby and House Lapis. Both are states that in the map of Aeris, they are pretty far from us, but they are the ones that hold the Ruby and Lapis Lord Trees, respectively. The Ruby Lord Tree’s fruit grants the ability of fire taming, while the Lapis Lord Tree’s fruit grants electrical taming. So far in this invasion, we don’t have witnesses to confirm if other taming abilities have been seen. After thinking about this, I have no reason to not believe these accounts, especially since House Lapis is one of the two houses invading us.”

“Why that would be, My Lady?” this time Lorelei raised her hand.

“House Lapis, as far as I remember, is a House that has always prided itself in its race. In the times of the late King Lionheart… it was the House of the Elves.” At this, Tomoe flinches, focusing her sight on Lady Aquamarine. Lady Aquamarine put one finger to her mouth, a gesture directed to Tomoe, then continued “Elves prided themselves as superior to all the other races, claiming, between other things, that their Lord Tree had the strongest and most useful taming ability. They have many other claims, from useless trifle to grandeur statements, but these are of no matter to us right now. If they conquered some states, it is surer that they would have destroyed the other Lord Trees present in said states. Why are they then working together with House Ruby is beyond me though.” Lady Aquamarine then makes a pause in which she looks at Ray, then at Olga, finally at Daisy, and taking a deep breath, then continues “There is something that everyone must know, and pay close attention to this: in House Lapis, there is a male elf that has a white Aura.”

Murmurs abound, echoing strongly within the room.

“Silence! Silence!” yells Ray, two, three, four times.

Oscar came forward, raising his hand to about his chest, and asked “What should we do now, My Lady?”

“Have some things in mind. Everything depends on how things end up tomorrow. Let us discuss said plans now, especially a countermeasure against the enemy White Aura” Lady Aquamarine answered.

The reunion went on for the next three hours. At the end of it, Tomoe went out, with her legs being numb for all the time she was standing. Everyone else was already out of the room, with Amelia, Lacus, Bran, Titania, Lorelei and Oscar present. Tomoe turns to the town hall, but Daisy catches her by the shoulders.

“Tomoe, dear, can ask your help with a little something?”

Still being taken a bit by surprise, Tomoe answers “Sure. What do you need help with?”

“Some chanting. Sadly, in today’s battle, some priests met their untimely end, and… I need someone with experience, to accompany.”

“Eh? Tomoe chanting? Why would she know how to do that?” Titania said, wondering, a question that Amelia echoed too.

“Ah, yes, well, I guess you wouldn’t know, but before becoming a Beheader, I personally taught this little sunshine the ways of priesthood.” Daisy says, giving a warm smile in the process that could be seen even under the robe.

Bran snorted. Titania and Amelia raised her eyebrows in unison, looking straight to Tomoe’s face. Turning red, Tomoe turned away, saying “It was a long time ago.” Lacus is the one that didn’t make any particular expression, instead, he only put a hand to his chin, rubbing it.

“So, dear, come, follow me. Everyone interested to see is welcomed too.” Daisy says as she starts going down the road back into the city. The group followed, crossing the city streets, between Beheader, Priests and normal Civilians, helping each other. Passing the elevated bridge, they all exited through the other side, the side that has the roads that lead to the Starlight forest.

Deviating from the road, they went up the hill, through tall grass and some small crevasses “Don’t worry,” says Daisy “for some reason, there aren’t any insects around the Starlight forest.” Continuing going up, they get to a place that oversees the city, a small plain terrain, with some ruins, something really strange to see in the otherwise upward terrain of the acropolis. There are people here already, and a hole has been made into the ground. Coming closer, Tomoe can see that the hole is surrounded by priests, and ash trees have been planted around it.

A grave.

Daisy then grabs her by the wrist, and signals her to a space between priests, a gap that was large, out of place, in the formation “Please little sunshine, let us help them... rest for a while longer.”

Tomoe nods, and turning to the group, she says “This shouldn’t take long. Sit and enjoy the chant.”

Taking her position, and Daisy hers, the chanting starts, singing a song, without instruments, purely on vocals, with few lyrics. While the priests and Tomoe chant, they open their arms, palms upward, uniting every priest and Tomoe, and inside the formation, little blue flames appear, blue flames that start moving into the hole in the ground. Looking into it, she can confirm what moments before she thought: Many, many bodies, laid at the bottom of the hole. The blue flames entered into the bodies, and the chanting went on. While chanting, looking upward, Tomoe could see the blood moon on the sky, that signal that says to the Aquamarines that the styx sea is on their shores. Strangely so, before, this blood moon always unsettled her since she can remember, but right now, for the first time in her life, the blood moon didn’t.

Strange, I wonder why.

After the rite is finished, Tomoe walks towards her friends. A smile she can’t contain appears on her face, and from her heart, a desire is born, like a blooming flower, that this night continues forever, to never ever face strife again, as only the waves of the ocean hitting the Citadel can be heard.