“I see… interesting…” Van mused as he looked down on the chessboard, trying to figure out his next move. Giving it some thought, he placed a piece down before ending his turn.

“Checkmate!” Xenith said, landing on the board and moving a piece with her whole body.

“Gods damn it!” Van exclaimed, “this makes the fourth time!”

Xenith chuckled, “You're not as good as Lyn at this game, are you?” she asked with a smirk.

“It’s three-dimensional chess! What do you expect!” Van exclaimed.

Xenith chuckled again and began setting up the board once more.

Van watched, inspecting the strange yet lovely insect-kin. Just a few hours prior, he had been helping Venus settle herself and her followers in his soul realm when he decided to take a stroll around the area. Soon he found himself back in Lyn's domain and spotted a strange-looking zapper insect-kin being watched and escorted by several others.

Curious, he followed the group around, wondering what they were doing. But it turned out, the lead insect-kin, the strange-looking zapper kin, also didn’t look like she knew where she was going. A bored expression on her face.

He was just about to leave when the insect-kin in question took notice of him, introducing herself, her eyes alight, filled with hope that this new interesting person would cure her of her boredom. Feeling it would be rude to just leave after stalking her like he did, the two introduced themselves and he was surprised to find that she was actually a prisoner of Lyn.

After that, Xenith begged him to play a game of chess with her, while he felt he should have refused, he couldn’t help but let his own curiosity win him over. And so, agreed to her offer of a friendly game or two.

But he was taken for a ride when he lost four games in a row! At least he learned a few things about her during their playtime… or at least, that was what he consoled himself with.

This strange insect-kin was named Xenith, she was the daughter of the empress of the horde. And he could believe it, she had a lovely figure, large breasts, narrow waist, with an athletic build. She had long hair that was tied up in a ponytail, just the right amount of eyeliner, and wore a see-through blue silk dress with gold lace. She had a strange hard to place accent, that was strangely soothing to the ears, and an exotic body, different from other zapper-kin, with wings a little sharper with intricate designs. She carried herself with grace and confidence, a constant smile on her face like she always knew what was going to happen before it happened.

“So… just to get everything straight…” Van said as he watched her set up the pieces. “You tried to kill Lyn, got defeated, became her prisoner, and are now her best friend and chess playing partner…” a little incredulous of the whole story.

“Okay… maybe not her ‘best friend’. But we are friends… kinda…” Xenith said with a shrug. “Lyn promised to let me go once the war is over. But…” she chuckled a bit darkly. “I think it will be her that will be asking me to let her go after this.”

Van looked uncomfortable, a frown forming on his face. Xenith seemed a friendly enough person, but he couldn’t help but notice a dark undertone to some of the things she said, sometimes outright being blunt.

Xenith noticed his look and softened her expression. “Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean anything bad by it, sometimes it’s hard to go against one's nature,” she said good naturally. “I really do mean the best, I don’t want any harm to come to Lyn myself after all... It's… hard to find a person who can meet you on the same intellectual level like she can…” her eyes glazing over a bit as if remembering their time together. “Not to mention… seeing her growth, even I can’t help but feel a feeling of pride for her,” she said with a smile.

She then finished the last of the board up. “Play again?” she said with a smirk as if already foreessing her victory.

“...maybe next time.” Van said, “So you help her with strategy?” changing the conversation and wanting to know more.

Xenith pouted but answered his question. “It’s not so much as I help her with strategy, she just has a few questions for me that I answer to the best of my ability. And in exchange… we have small bouts of the mind and sometimes the body, a reward for my honesty if you will,” she said with a smile.

“Why… Why do you help her? Wouldn’t that mean by proxy you're killing your own people.” he asked, worried he may have overstepped himself.

Xenith frowned but didn’t seem to think his question was rude or undeserved. “True… it might seem that way… but.” she smiled. “I honestly don’t see my side losing… for me… it’s more of a game to see if I can give my opponents a better fighting chance against their… inevitable defeat…” her words dripped with confidence.

She then shrugged. “After all… the alliances' worst enemy… is the alliance itself…” her smile turned into a knowing one.

Van didn’t like her attitude, but couldn’t deny what she said. It too painfully matched up with some of the complaints he heard Lyn make of her supposed allies. Now he couldn’t help but worry more for her safety, and wondered what he should do next…

---Lyn pov---

Lyn slammed her hands down on the table. “We can’t just let things continue like this! We already lost almost thirty percent of our territory!” she then motioned at the map. “We lost thorn grave, twinkle water, and hallowed tree! At this point, we might already consider this war lost!”

She then leaned forward. “Unless we do an all-out attack right now! Forget about maintaining battle lines! Let's rush to their capital and deal with the empress or everything we’ve fought for will be for not!”

General Saline rebutted her. “Are you insane!” slamming her own hands down on the table. “You want us all to go out in one blaze of glory!? If we do that, we will all die! And the war will be lost!”

“The war is already lost!” Lyn shouted back. “It’s only a matter of time before they press forward with everything they got, and when that happens, we won’t have the army or firepower to keep them back!”

The two then started shouting over each other.

“ORDER!” Gloria shouted over them, “I will have ORDER!” glaring at the both of them. Looking for all the world like she had the worst headache ever. “I want solutions on how to get out of this mess, not you two just shouting at each other!”

Lyn looked crossed while Saline did her best to reign in her anger. The two slowly stood up straight again after a while.

Gloria nodded at that but kept her eyes on the both of them anyway just in case. Slowly she turned to Lyn. “Lyn, why do you think our only option left is to rush their capital? Do you really think it will be possible to win?”

Lyn hesitated, “No…” she admitted. “Honestly… the chances of our victory are slim… BUT!” looking at Gloria and the surrounding generals with a pleading look in her eyes. “If we keep things as they are, we will lose! It’s inevitable! No matter how you slice it, the rate of attrition does not favor us. If this continues for another two months…” she went quiet, there was no real need to explain it out loud. Most already had that grim picture in their mind of what would happen…

Gloria slowly nodded and turned to Saline. “And you? What would you do to turn this around?”

Saline frowned, as she was deep in thought. “Perhaps a truce is in order?” she said. Making many of the generals look up at her in surprise. “If we can just buy ourselves some time… we can rebuild our forces… and let them deal with the many uncontrollable insects that they made.” she then smiled, as if she figured everything out. “While they are dealing with that, we will grow our forces to their full strength once more! And take out those filthy wasps once and for all!” sounding supremely confident in her ‘plan’.

Lyn looked at her as if was an absolute idiot. “We Can’t have a truce with them!” she exclaimed. Having a truce with them will only aid them! I can already picture it now!”

Then doing a very bad impression of the empress of the horde. “Oh? Did another horde of ravenous insects attack you during our truce? Well, what are you going to do? Their UNCONTROLLABLE!” throwing Saline’s words back at her.

“And what are you going to use as a bargaining chip to convince the empress to agree to a truce? In case you forgot, SHE’S WINNING!” Lyn finished, frustrated that she had to spell it out.

Saline glared at Lyn with barely restrained anger before a sneer took her face. “I know just what we can use…” her sneer turning somehow even uglier. “Why not that little friend of yours… you know the one… the one you claim is your captive? What was her name again? Senath?” knowing full well her name.

She then leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “It’s so strange that you would propose a suicidal charge against the horde while denouncing any form of truce with them. Are we sure that Senath? Is not actually a captive but more a guest?”

Lyn looked incensed, she may be no demon, but even if her eyes didn’t turn red, many who were looking at her wouldn’t be surprised if it did at that very moment. Soon killing intent could be felt on both sides of the table, and many of the generals and hangers ons slowly started to back away.

Gloria tried to regain control of the situation, yelling for the both of them to back down. But it was Amie who calmed Lyn down and brought her back to her senses. Slowly, Lyn forced her killing intent back down, like one would try forcing bile back down the throat, a hard task that she accomplished only because Amie was there.

After the two calmed down, Gloria called for an end of today's meeting and gave a warning to both Saline and Lyn that should they lose control of themselves again, they would be both barred from joining any future discussions and battle plans.

With that, everyone was dismissed and Lyn and Amie went back to their rooms.

“AAAH!” Lyn yelled, slamming a fist into the wall once they got inside the room. Forming a crack in said wall that would be difficult to just paste over. Her body was seething with pent-up energy that needed release with nowhere for it to go.

“Sweety, it’s going to be okay…” Amie said, trying to calm Lyn down.

“IT’S NOT GOING TO BE OKAY!” Lyn exclaimed and suddenly took a deep breath, already regretting letting her anger go out of control, and tried again. “It’s… not going to be okay…” in a softer voice, looking apologetic, she then turned away, feeling shameful for exploding on her lover like that.

“It is going to be okay…” Amie said, already forgiving Lyn and hugging her from behind. “I know it is because you are here.” giving her lover a gentle squeeze.

Lyn became emotional and had a hard time suppressing the tears that wanted to run down her cheeks. “What am I going to do Amie… I failed… and I can’t help but feel like this is all my fault… If I hadn’t convinced everyone to fight… then maybe we wouldn’t have lost so many lives…”

“Shshsh… it’s not your fault…” Amie said, “if only people listened to you sooner… if only they took your advice into account… your… not wrong…” doing her best to give Lyn the support she needs.

Lyn shook her head. “I can’t think like that Amie… they're just… trying to protect their own interests and those that they care about in their own way…” she then gave a snort. “General Saline though… she makes me wonder if ‘she’ isn’t the one conspiring with the horde.”

Amie chuckled at that. “I would believe it too if it weren’t for the fact she’s so damn racist. No way in hells she would ever consider partnering up with a bunch of ‘filthy wasps’. Over her dead body and all that.” finishing sarcastically.

Lyn also chuckled a little at that, but the mirth quickly faded away and her sad expression returned. “What am I going to do Amie? No matter what plan we come up with, all I see is it ending in disaster…”

“Perhaps… Perhaps Saline is right in one regard.” mulling it over a bit, surprising Amie who looked up at her lover in interest.

Lyn looked over her shoulder at Amie. “Perhaps we do need a truce… a permanent one…”

Amie locked eyes on Lyn, wondering what she was going to say next.

Lyn slowly turned around to look directly into those eyes and worked up the courage to say what was on her mind. “Amie… what if… we… surrendered…”

Amie gasped, wide-eyed, she was honestly taken by surprise by what Lyn said, yet, strangely at the same time, feeling like it was inevitable that she would hear such words from her cherished lover who had worked day and night to the point of breaking fighting an enemy that seemed to have no end...”

“Amie…” Lyn began once more. “I’m not completely sure why the empress wants to control the whole forest… or why she’s willing to go as far as almost destroying it to accomplish her goals… but… from what I heard from Xenith… and I don’t think she would lie. The empress might be ruthless… but she’s no worse than… let’s say… your mother.” earning a reproachful look from Amie.

“And if this war continues on, even if by some miracle we win… there will be nothing left for us… this forest is at the breaking point… any more damage… and it may never be able to recover. it could take decades, if not centuries, for some semblance of healing to come back to the forest. It… honestly might be better off we just end this now…” Lyn said, unshed tears of having to admit that she was simply not up to the task of beating the horde. Or being able to help the forest recover from the devastation that this war took on it.

Not to mention the feeling that this was partially all her fault weighed heavily on her mind. The deaths of so many friends… allies… people who were like family to her… all of them… gone… and for what? They may have been alive, hell, maybe better off under the horde than this… broken system under the fairies…

“Lyn…” Amie wanted to say something. To say it would be all alright, that they will somehow win and everything will be better… but she knew if she were to tell such a lie right now, it would only hurt her lover even more.

So with that, all she did was hug Lyn tighter to her, trying her best to convey the love she had for her lover with all her might through that hug. As she did, memories played back of how they first met. Their first date, their first kiss, their time in bed together, their first fight, the first time-fighting side by side, the joys they shared and so much more… she was afraid… afraid it could all go away…

With Lyn’s and Amie’s worries mingling in the silences of each other's minds… they held each other well into the night…