Chapter Ten: Dreams, Revisited
For once, the winds didn't howl. A gentle breeze wafted across the field, and the setting sun bathed it in a warm golden glow. A hand laid a bouquet of flowers down in front of a small plaque. Stuck into the ground was the SILVANNA's dedication plaque, and Sophia brushed the grass away from it before leaning back.
The battle with Delphine was over, the storms that formed the Grand Stream were dissolved, and Deusis and Anatoure were finally at peace. She could hear laughing from the village behind her. A child's laugh, something she hadn't heard in a long time, not since she had entered the Academy, not since the war with Deusis.
Norkia, once an Anatoure provincial town, then a Deusis military staging area, was back to its original purpose. After its destruction both at the hands of the Guild and the Deusis invasion force, it had been rebuilt. The Empress let her gaze wander across the plains that had been home to three of her comrade-in-arms, and of one of her loved ones.
If she hadn't been caught unaware by the Guild on the SILVANNA's flight deck...Alex might still be there. If he hadn't been so torn up by his hatred for Delphine he wouldn't have risked that foolish assault. Sophia sighed as she thought about what little she actually knew about him. The man had been cheery, lively – happy – until he volunteered to fly the peace proposal to Deusis.
Deusis. If they hadn't invaded Anatoure, none of them would have been forced to fight, there would have been no need for a peace treaty. If Deusis hadn't gone to war with them over and over, so many would have still been alive. That train of thought brought her to another bittersweet topic. Tom.
Like Alex, he had been a career officer, proud, honorable, loyal, good. Both of them had turned into what they were because the Guild had choosen to interfere. Both of them had turned and fled into cold, bitter personas because of actions taken by Maestro Delphine. Both had loved flying, Sophia added with a sad smile. Flying had been their dreams, flying had been their lives. Which Delphine had then proceeded to destroy.
In the end, it all came down to the Guild.
In the end, all that mattered was that it was over. Tom and Alex were dead, and so was the Guild.
In the end, all that really mattered was the future. Sophia threw one last look at the plaque and turned around. There was one more spot she had to visit. One last dream to finish.
