The Legends of Kartas | Ongoing

46. A GAME OF CHANCE

Two couldn't open her eyes.

People were talking, and for a second, her mind wandered to the conventions at the Dark Lotus, the Royal Council, until the present caught up, and she remembered how she was as good as dead, stuck in the middle of nowhere during Umbra's winter.

But it wasn't cold. In fact, it was warm. Wood snapped, and it sounded like flames were sparking nearby. Perhaps Yoongi had lit a fire. Or she had awoken from a nightmare and was still prisoner to Meskit and Darius. She didn't know which one was more plausible.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you Luxians!" Hoseok grumbled. Feet paced, and Two felt the ground vibrate with every step. "Look where we are. We're stuck in a forest without food, shelter, or water. Even if we pray to the Gods, our fates are sealed."

Someone clicked their tongue, and another yelped, drowning out the sound of crumbling earth. "As if your plan was any better," Taehyung said. "What did you want us to do? Get ambushed on our way to our kingdoms and die? Wait three months for us to prepare and tell everyone that the Demon Days are approaching? Call all the demons out of hiding?"

The pacing stopped. Venom laced Hoseok's every word. "What would a Tenebran boy who spent his entire life behind a wall know?"

"More than a prince acting like a god in the skies. I know enough to tell you that war is not pretty and that mass panic is the last thing we need."

"What we need is unity," Namjoon said, breathless as if he was exerting force. "If we had readied our armies and attacked the demons together—"

Chains rattled. A stone hit the ground with a dull thud. "There was never a together in this," Taehyung said, his voice nearing Two. "There was never a we. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume that the Gods took pity on us, and we managed to reach our kingdoms alive. We have seven armies in seven different kingdoms that are geographically split. Instead of one war, we would be fighting three: one in the north, one in the center, and one in the south. Mountains and barren lands separate each kingdom, Namjoon. Your plan was folly."

"As if Jungkook's plan was any better." Hoseok scoffed. "Look where we are now." Two imagined him waving his arms around with a scowl. "We are going to die of starvation."

"If we had killed the bandits as I told you to, this wouldn't have happened," Jin said, grunting.

"You would have lost either way," Jimin said. More wood was thrown into the fire, and the flames crackled. "The metal elemental was too powerful."

"We would have had Yoongi's fire in our arsenal." Jin must have been collecting something—perhaps sticks—because his voice circled Two. "We would have had a higher chance of victory."

"I wasn't going to use my fire whether or not I was unconscious," Yoongi mumbled. "I don't burn people alive."

"From what I can tell, that is a lie," Two said, slowly rising to a crouch, pointing a shaky finger at the charred corpses near the edge of the camp. The chains around her wrists were broken. All that remained were the manacles.

"Two," Jungkook said, rushing towards her. She swatted his hand away, but he remained by her side. "You're awake. We have many questions—"

"That I will answer," Two interrupted, rubbing just below her manacles. Her wounds were somewhat healed, but the bruises on her stomach ached with every sliver of movement. More than half of the princes were smacking earth away with rocks, and as she had expected, Jin was picking arrows off the dead bodies and the ground. Everyone looked haggard. If Two didn't know who they were, she would have mistaken them for vagrants. "I awoke in an open field of snow near the forest. I assume the rope they tied me to snapped because it was burnt." She turned to Yoongi. "If that was you, I thank you for that. But I am in a foul mood and an even more foul state, so I would advise everyone to leave me be."