“Well I hate her.” Trinsi’s sleeve brushes up against Seis’s arm as she walks up beside her.

The Ester hadn’t sensed her presence and that is notable, but she had been lost in her own thoughts and perhaps that has something to do with it. Thoughts of pressing matters, and other not so great things. Trinsi’s appearance does improve her mood however, “You hate everyone Trin.”

“That’s not true,” the younger woman frowns.

“You hated me right?”

“Oh believe me, I tried very hard to.”

“And how is that working for you?” Seis asks cheekily.

“You make it increasingly easier for me to hate you, that's for sure.”

The Ester snorts, and the satisfaction of being able to make her laugh is great. Seis continues, “She was right about the encampment you know?”

This does not appear to ease Trinsi, “Of course, she has to do something to earn our trust before she can betray us.”

They walk in silence for a moment, it’s not a dead silence, as others walk and converse around them. The closer they get to the Syardom, the more relaxed everyone has grown. That’s because they don’t know about the Storm, Trinsi thinks.

“What she said about her children? Does that sound like the Storms to you?” she speaks up again.

Seis’s face is pensive, and she brushes her hair behind her ear. “It doesn’t sound unlike the Storms, but it also doesn’t sound unlike the Esters if you want my complete honesty. We were glorified in the aftermath, the legend is romanticized heavily nowadays. The Esters weren’t as severe as the Storms, but we had our quotas that we had to meet.”

“Oh.” Trinsi didn't intend to say that out loud, but it had escaped her. She isn’t exactly sure of what she means by ‘quotas’, but if it’s what she thinks it means she’s curious, “Did you?”

“No,” Seis shrugs, “I was fortunate enough to make Dux Bellorum my first year. The Dux Bellorum get a year off, it gives us incentive to aim high. Work hard enough and avoid the labors of childbirth.”

“Interesting incentive.” Another thought comes to her, “Wait, what if you were without a partner?”

“They would find one for you. To ‘borrow’ in a way.”

Trinsi makes a face of repulsion and Seis laughs again.

“Does this mean you will have to eventually? To continue the… lineage?” She asks now. After all, had that not been the purpose of Dux Bellorum Uno’s sacrifice?

Seis grins deviously, “Why? You know someone?” She shakes her head, marking her statement as a joke, and resumes, “I haven’t decided if that’s what I want. Ultimately it’s up to me, and I don’t know if I should bring life to the Esters again or let the story end with me. My fear is that it will only make us a target.”

“I didn’t realize that you had so much on your plate.” Trini’s mood darkens, “Seis I’m tired, when will all of this be over?”

“I don’t know, but I too am ready for it to be over.”

Trinsi stares at her, “And what will you do when it’s all over?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea.”

---

They make it home, and perhaps it’s the approaching colder weather, but it already feels as if it has lost a bit of what makes it a home. No, this feeling… it was here before. Since the incident, Lunetta tried hard to view it as a home… and now she can finally accept that she will never see it in that way again. This move was looking more and more inviting. Destined.

Not that it will be an easy thing to do, starting over from scratch. Thousands of eyes watching her, counting on her. At least she’s not alone.

“This move will happen in three stages. Ideally we would have five, but our calculations estimate that we won’t have the time for five trips.” Sir Errol informs the room.

They sit around a large table, among them are friends of the Syardom, many who had been taking care of trade and commerce during the last number of months.

“We evacuated all of the elderly to the Palydom at the arrival of your last letter. That is a little over 7,000 persons, and it includes families of the elders who wished to not be separated from their loved ones,” Jaunif, Head General of the Palvdom informs the room. “That leaves 38,000 persons, 37,000 not counting service members. Each group will have 12,000 civilians, 300 military personnel.”

The man is older- technically every representative here is older than Lunetta. But if that daunts her, she isn’t showing it.

“Jaunif, do you really believe the Storms will settle down once they get their hands on the Syardom?” Karta, a representative from the Orrdom speaks up. “We lent you our men to fight Lunetta, not to run this sham of an operation. You cannot move that large amount people in such a small amount of time. Your travel time will be thrice longer with civilians, nothing compared to your travel time with your military.”

“And what of the food and other necessities? Your kingdom is accustomed to a certain luxury they won’t have out there.” A spokesperson from the Wosidom adds.

“We exhausted a lot of resources moving the elderly Lunetta, a number of our wagons and carriages are still being serviced. We put a damper in the daily commute of the Palydom, and we are adding a lot of stress to our economy.” Jaunif adds to the other’s concerns. “Cloakwood has sent us extra rations, but they can’t afford more this season. Who knows what will happen once they surrender to the Storms.”

“We allocated most of our commerce in your direction Jaunif, you should have plenty of income to pay for the added bodies. We are taking a majority of the hit.” Lunetta stands her ground.

“That is exactly my point, you can’t afford this-” Karta tries to argue but is interrupted by Jaunif.

“We appreciate the commerce and while this did increase our income tenfold, we can’t feed our people currency. We will starve if there are no rations to buy.”

“You don’t see the real problem Jaunif,” Karta starts again, “The Storms will take the Syardom and then who will they come after next? The Palydom is the second largest region, the next biggest threat. You’re their next target.”

Lunetta shakes her head, “I don’t think so, we won’t know for sure until the Storms make it to Cloakwood. I have reason to believe that their vendetta is only against us. These are the lands of their ancestors, what they desire is to take what once was theirs.”

“You don’t know that, the Orrs have the best documented history on the Storms. Karta, the Orrdom survived their last reign, what do you make of it?” Cale, the spokesperson from the Wosidom chimes in again.

Karta puts it bluntly, “They were shitheads that bullied whatever they wanted out of the rest of us.”

“Then there is no reason to think that they would try to take our land.” Jaunif states composed.

“Wrong. Two hundred years ago the Palydom was barely a threat to the Stormdom, their numbers cannot be that great, they’re going to want to eliminate any threats to their throne.” Karta snaps.

“No one wants their bloody throne!That is the argument that Lunetta is trying to make.” Cale exclaims.

“From what we have seen so far, their numbers are not high, but their power is what we fear. Nothing we have- no medicine, no technology, is close to the power we have seen from them.” Lunetta admits.

“What of the Ester?” Jaunif draws everyone’s attention to the woman standing silently in the corner.

“Jaunif, she is one Ester. Two hundred years ago we lost their entire population to the Storms. What makes you think she can take them all on her own?” Lunetta says protectively.

“Oh right, why was that again?” Karta sneers, “because the Syardom slept in and missed their train?”

“Karta!” Usel warns, “You know very well what happened was out of the Syardom’s control. It was out of all of our control.”

Karta discards her comment, “Whatever, point is, I don’t see a version of this plan where we don’t have any casualties, so why not fight?”

“Lady Erika,” Lunetta summons the Orr woman who had brought her concerns about Seis to her attention.

The Orr steps up behind Lunetta, “Yes Daf Lunetta?”

“Do you want to answer your commandress’s question please?”

“Coma Karta, our fighting is like trying to put out a fire with paper,” she begins in her thick accent. “I saw many of our people die without them having the chance to draw their weapon. We cannot win a battle that they’ve already won. Yes, not many will survive this attempt at relocation, but there is absolutely no chance that anyone will survive a fight. As to your concerns of what will come after, I see it more likely that the Storms will not attack us if we assist in giving them what they originally wanted. As opposed to our attacking of their people.”

Lunetta draws the room’s attention again, avoiding eye contact with Yaril. A weight in her voice is there, a weight that says, ‘I’m trusting you, you better not disappoint.’

“I have good reason to believe that once the Storms take their land back that they will stand down, at least for a moment while they settle within themselves. This will give us time to figure out what our next course of action will be. I get the impression that tensions are high within their own numbers. Who knows what they will do once they’re here. This could very well be disastrous, but we have to make an effort to lessen the number of casualties.”

Yaril stands between Seis and Usel, she shifts as if wanting to speak up, but changes her mind.

“You clearly have no idea what you’re doing Daf Lunetta, but it’s clear to me now that no one here does.” Jaunif sighs in exasperation, “We know nothing about fighting, fighting to kill. Whatever you decide to do Daf Lunetta, the Palydom stands with you.”

“And the Wosidom,” Cale adds.

“I suppose we have no other alternative.” Karta settles back into her seat, crossing her arms over her chest.

Lunetta has a brief feeling of relief, she has won the room, but the rest of this will not be so easy. Now to create that plan of execution, and then put that plan into action.