1 | Borders (I)

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2412, Diori 03, Kindreth

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2412, Diori 03, Kindreth

Crossing borders had never been this hard. Xanthy huddled next to Marthiaq in the line, jostling the quiver by her leg. Sunlight bore down on her like an oppressive hand. Before, people could simply raltz into the territories and conduct their business. No one gave a damn about crossing borders. But now...

It's as if Xanthy had woken up to chaos.

As soon as she opened her eyes and realized she's back, it was nothing but a series of blunders. Suddenly, the island was divided into two, several territories were occupied, and the Heiress and the Sovereign were rampaging around with no one powerful enough to stop them. Now, Xanthy couldn't even cross borders without being stuck in lines or asked a ridiculous amount of versallis for travelling.

She couldn't blame anyone except herself, though. When the Virtakios disappeared from the face of the island, Xanthy thought the Sovereign and the Heiress would simply back down and try to live honest lives. How naive. If life was that simple, Xanthy would have been High Queen of Umazure by now.

No, the Sovereign and the Heiress even teamed up and bombed down the innocent ice sprites' dwelling just to get her. Even immobile and stuck in the chalice, her existence was bound to cause chaos.

Well, after taking a trip in a dark, endless expanse filled with howling voices, she had to face this head on. No more running or surrendering souls to the chalice. Besides, that throne couldn't cure souls anymore after Ravalee used it to get Xanthy back.

A knot formed in her stomach at the thought. It's high time to take initiative and stop letting others fight her battles. In a way, and as much as she didn't want it, she started this war. She didn't want to end up in the Realm of the Lost and be reduced into a sliver of her voice, crying out of regret for all eternity. Then again, Besides, it seemed like she and her friends were the only ones who could stop it. Or at least, the only ones willing to.

So that brought Xanthy to the main point of this expedition. She has a plan but wasn't sure if the others would agree. For one, it was dangerous. There was also a large chance she would fail and doom them more than they already were.

Xanthy blew a breath. At least, for now, she got the others to agree they need all the thrones and the heirs with them in Penleth.

It had been a long debate with one perspective claiming Xanthy was just giving the enemy more advantage by gathering everything they wanted in one place. Xanthy was no tactician but she reasoned the heirs weren't just objects that couldn't think for themselves. If they try to negotiate and win the heirs over to their side, not only would they get more men but they would have ultimately won a territory over.

Xanthy was well aware of how flawed that argument was. Not only was she dividing the cavalry by proposing two retrieval teams, she was also making it all hard for them to focus on one thing which was the battle at Penleth.

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