Ike, Mist, Soren, Lethe, Oscar, and Rhys were sitting at a table, simply enjoying a short chat in the meeting room with Queen Elincia. They were all royal guests, after all, so they found no reason to feel embarrassed or rude. "And so, my lord Ike, tell me. After having fought so many battles in the Great War and having your peace for these years, what more do you desire?"
"Your majesty... I feel honored that you would care. Personally, I have been feeling uneasy about the situation in Daein. If Begnion continues this battle, would it be truly wise for Crimea to not get involved? Begnion, having crushed this 'rebellion,' would be too powerful for us to engage it... It's only a matter of time before Begnion decides that we are rebels and attacks us as well."
"Speak of the devil! What just flew by the window?!" Soren shouted. Our heroes soon heard smashing noises on the roof.
"Everyone! Duck! Something's trying to get in!" Oscar shouted.
"Your majesty, please retreat to the throne room. I will take care of this!" Lucia called as she ran into the room.
Elincia quickly escaped as Bastian entered. "By the gods! What madness is this? Our palace so fair, under attack by unspeakable foes!" With a few more bangs, the ceiling collapsed and a large object descended into the room: a Pegasus!
"This is Colonel Luciana of the Begnion Pegasus Knights! We have heard that Queen Crimea of the Kingdom of Crimea has housed a certain Duchess Jill of Daein! Hand over the Duchess immediately, or you will all be slain!" The Falcoknight shouted at them.
"The Duchess you speak of is right here!" Jill cried, descending from the sky. As the two mounted ladies battled, more Pegasus Knights appeared.
"Where's Rolf or Shinon when you need them? Tornado!" Soren called. The knights of Begnion were caught in the tempest, but even so, they were still active and began besting Lucia and Lethe in combat.
"Disband, you wretched fools! Do you even know what you are doing?!" A loud voice called from a distance.
"Tanith?" Ike spoke.
General Tanith, riding her gallant Pegasus, came crashing into the room. She was quickly followed by Lieutenant Marcia and a retinue of Pegasus Knights. "Colonel Luciana, by disobeying my orders and attacking this palace, you have nearly caused a war between Begnion and Crimea. The Empress never asked us to harm anyone, only to fetch Jill." Tanith spoke.
Luciana smiled: "That is where you are wrong. The Crimeans are old traitors, who seceded from the Empire long ago. The Apostle desired them to be destroyed. I am only fulfilling the Apostle's desire. By stopping me, it is you who have defied the Empress. You aid these Crimeans solely because you consider yourself a friend of theirs. You are also a traitor, and the Empire shall be cleansed of vermin! All units, kill her!" Luciana shouted.
"What? This is madness!" Tanith cried.
"Crackers! Everyone, charge!" Marcia ordered.
"I guess we'd better help Marcia and Tanith. Engage!" General Ike shouted in the melee.
All Soren could see was a whirl of color and sound as armor clashed against armor and women's screams filled the air. At that moment, he heard the twang of a bow, and Luciana fell.
"Rolf!" Oscar cried. "What have you done?"
As the smoke cleared, Luciana was sprawled onto the table, rapidly losing blood. Rhys stepped forward, but was held back by Ike. "Explain to me why you have attacked us without provocation!" Ike spoke.
"General... Tanith... Traitor to Empire... Traitor to Begnion... I will... Never give information to a filthy Crimean!... I die... For the Apostle..." Luciana's eyes closed.
Ike glared at Tanith. "Why have you come here in such a manner? Speak!"
"Ike, all I know is that we Pegasus Knights were ordered to come here and take Jill for questioning. Colonel Luciana was part of my battalion. I did not anticipate that she would attack the Crimean royal palace in order to find Jill." Tanith spoke.
"Well, I'm right here. What? You would betray an old friend for the good of Begnion? Hah, I'll be taken for questioning. Do you take me for a fool? I doubt that it is that simple. They want to hold me as a hostage so that they can negotiate with the factions of Daein. That must be it... You don't care about us at all. You're just some loyal soldier, blindly following orders. I am sick of this. Tanith, there was a time that I thought quite highly of you. Now, I know that my faith in you was a mirage." Jill turned her head and urged her Wyvern to fly away.
At this moment, Luciana's remaining units raised their weapons. "General Tanith, you have aided in the murder of Colonel Luciana. You are hereby guilty of insurrection. The Empire must be cleansed. There shall be no refuge for a traitor. You shall now be executed." They spoke.
More Pegasus Knights appeared from a distance. "What? Marcia! Hold them off! This is laughable. What is happening here?" Tanith readied her Sonic Sword.
A Falcoknight of the reinforcing squadron of Pegasus Knights shouted: "All units! Retreat! General Tanith, this is Captain Kristie of the Begnion Pegasus Knights. You have slain an officer of rank in the Empire, which is an act of insurrection. You are no longer Deputy Commander of the Pegasus Knights, and your rank of General has been revoked. All units under the former Deputy Commander's command are ordered to join me immediately. We will return to headquarters and inform the Apostle of these matters. We shall seize the Duchess of Daein another day." She spoke.
"Guys, we're not leaving. Tanith, we're sticking with you all the way." Marcia spoke.
"Lieutenant, join this formation! That's an order!" The Captain shouted.
"I'm afraid I'll have to defy that silly request. Chao!" Marcia smirked.
"You will regret your decision. The Empire shall hunt you down! You are both formally outlaws, and are revoked of your citizenship in the Begnion Empire. We shall be enemies from now on. All units, retreat!" She cried. The entire squadron flew away.
"I'm, I'm confused. Tanith, you've just been branded as a traitor? Does that mean Crimea and Begnion are now at war?" Mist spoke.
"Mist, be quiet." Ike scolded her.
"Tanith, Marcia, Pegasus riders, we will be glad to provide you all with a lodging. We will do our best to accommodate you. Bastian, get Geoffrey and Kieran here to fix this roof!" Lucia shouted. Our heroes could only stand in stunned silence as a shocked Tanith and skeptical Marcia left the room.
"So let me get this straight. You came under orders to get Jill to go to Begnion to speak to the Apostle. All of a sudden, this Colonel under your command gets different orders, and the two of you, along with some random Captain as a reinforcement battalion, sneak through Crimean airspace and arrive near the Capital. The Colonel descends and attacks the palace, and by the time you finally realize what is going on, you descend to stop her. At that moment, Rolf here kills the Colonel (being the great shot that he is), and you've been branded as a traitor. Marcia chooses to defy orders and join you, along with all of the Pegasus Knights that serve in your personal squadron." Kieran spoke to Tanith in the meeting room.
Tanith merely drooped her head and nodded. "Golly! This is bad news... Glad to see you, Tanith, but not like this!" Boyd blurted out.
"Everyone, we have to let the Queen speak!" Geoffrey shouted over them.
"My good Tanith. I heard of the unfortunate circumstances of your arrival. But still, no matter the circumstances, it is a blessing to have you here. Because of the attack on the palace, Begnion has declared war on Crimea. You are branded as a traitor, and have started to live here, which would make Crimea guilty of housing a Begnion renegade. But, General, I can never forget the courageous battle in which you fought Ashgard for the good of Crimea. Though you originally did so under the banner of Begnion, you did so at the risk of your own life. Because you fought with General Ike and all his companions, we consider you as a sister of sorts, a member of our family. I guess this means that we're undergoing a family reunion, no matter how tearful. Sister, we will make certain that the Apostle will never be able to take you away!" Elincia spoke. All present rose and cheered.
Tanith humbly bowed. "I do not deserve such a treatment. I betrayed both the Apostle, and you. I knew exactly what the Empress would do to Jill, yet, following orders, I accepted the mission. You call me a sister, but I don't deserve to be your sister. I don't deserve to be so readily accepted by any of you. Jill was right. I betrayed her, and if you consider all of us to be family, then I've betrayed this family. I disowned myself the moment I left the Apostle's side to go on this mission. No, it is best if you kill me before I become a meaningless liability for you."
Ike stepped forward. "Don't say that! Everyone is a fool at times. You were merely being a good soldier, like you've been trained to be. You must have miscalculated the outcome of this. You should have known that Jill would never have agreed to going with you, but it's over now. It's better that you came than any other Begnion Pegasus Rider, or that Rider wouldn't be alive right now. Tanith, you are our sister. Whatever you do can easily be forgiven. Family can never stay hateful at each other for long! What we need to do now is to get you a home, some food, and some rest. As long as one is alive, there is a way. I hope you don't mind being a Crimean General and dealing with Boyd, but we are overjoyed to have you with us." He comforted her.
"Ike..." Tanith looked at him.
"With that said, Marcia, if you went with Tanith, then where's Makalov?" Soren spoke.
"Oh, no! Makalov! Crackers, he'll get hurt for this." Marcia gasped.
"What have I done? Makalov! Oh, I am truly pathetic..." Tanith moaned.
"Soren, you big mouth!" Lethe scolded.
"It's too late to think now, let us reconvene in the morning." Ike spoke.
The next morning, Tanith, Marcia, Soren, Ike, Elincia, Jill, Rolf, Mist, Oscar, Boyd, Rhys, Kieran, Bastian, Lucia, Nephenee, Brom, Gatrie, Ilyana, and Titania sat in the meeting room. "Makalov... Is lost... There is no way we can save him now. With him as a hostage, this means war between Crimea and Begnion." Soren spoke.
"Because of this, wouldn't the most logical thing to do be saving Daein? We'd better get our troops ready." Titania spoke.
"Saving Daein! Oh, Lethe, we can finally fulfill my dream! Lethe?" Jill looked around.
"That reminds me, Lethe isn't here. I thought she'd be one of the first to come." Ike muttered.
"Speaking of Lethe, where's Ranulf?" Rhys asked.
"And funny, Geoffrey's missing. That's not like him." Lucia spoke.
"Yeah, weird, and Shinon's gone." Gatrie added.
Our heroes began to look about the palace, searching for their missing friends...
What happened to Lethe? The answer may lie in the previous night.
The plot thickens...
As always, read and review!
