Fading Peace III

Outside the walls of Silverfield, the Otanian army set up camp, getting ready to siege the city the next day. On one of the hills stands Jenabas, the princess of the Otanian empire. She was well known for her skills in fighting and leading. She also held a sense of virtue and was honest. Those traits are what made her the most favored candidate out of the rest of her siblings to take over the throne.

Looking at the lush green fields that were filled with flowers, the princess was regretful. "It's a shame that we have to destroy such a nice place," she whispered wistfully to herself. Compared to Otane, Silverfield was a paradise. Otane's lands were barren and dry and just barely suitable for life.

Jenabas heard the sound of footsteps running up the hill from behind her and turned around.

"Princess Jenabas, the siege weapons will be here by tonight," the soldier reported to her.

"We will attack the city tomorrow at the break of dawn. Tell the soldiers to rest well in preparation." Jenabas told the soldier to relay the message to everyone.

"As you order." The soldier saluted and then ran back down the hill.

***

A group of demons observed the Otanian army outside Silverfield from a safe distance. There were a total of five demons including Ammine and they were all impatient. They were waiting for the fight to start so that they could carry out their mission. Their mission was to wipe out Silverfield and cripple Otone's military power while they were at it.

"Ammine, when are we striking?" One of the demons asked her. He was restless and very eager to fly out and start killing already.

"When the fight starts," Ammine responded coldly. She had already answered that question multiple times now and was starting to lose her temper.

"When will that be?" Another demon asked.

Ammine saw some large siege weapons slowly moving in the distance. "From what I can see, it should be either tonight or tomorrow morning."

"Sheesh, can't they be any quicker? I want to start ripping them apart already," a third demon said.

"Don't forget about our other mission," Ammine reminded them.

"You mean to capture that boy?" the second demon asked.

The fourth demon who was just listening in took interest and asked, "What's special about that boy that he would attract even the lord's attention?"

"You don't have to worry about that. Just follow the king's instructions," Ammine told him.

The fourth demon shrugged his arms and said, "Whatever, as long as we get to kill those humans."

The last demon having kept quiet this entire time noticed something strange and brought it up to the rest of the group. "I sense a bunch of spirits in that direction." She pointed her finger in the direction of where she felt them.

The demons looked in the direction that she was pointing in and saw nothing. "Spirits? What kind?" the first demon asked.

"I can't tell, but I could sense over hundreds of them. It's strange for there to be that many gathering in one spot."

The second demon squinted his eyes in that direction and said, "That's a forest you're pointing at. It's probably some kind of nature spirit. I guess even they have parties."

The fifth demon was concerned and said, "I'm going to check it out."

But Ammine stopped her. "No, we can't afford to be distracted. Chances are that they are nature spirits. As for why there are so many, we don't know, but they shouldn't affect our mission. We need to focus on what we are told to do." she reminded them.

"If you say so," the fifth demon replied.

***

The wind spirits hid in the Soft Mist Forest, waiting for the fight to begin. The trees shook nonstop, branches breaking, and the leaves were flying everywhere. The spirits were restless. Even more restless than the demons in fact. They shared the same aim with the demons and that was to retrieve Kies, by any means possible. They were ready to brew up a storm if necessary.

***

Later that afternoon, the king passed an order to have all able men join the army and to have the women and children trained to produce and maintain weapons along with other equipment for the war. The people were naturally unhappy about the decision, but everyone that publicly opposed the idea was executed.

Kies was behind the mansion training when Nina came running to him after hearing the news.

"Kies, let's run away," she said in a panicked voice.

Kies continued to practice his magic. He had already expected this to happen. After seeing the state of the soldiers and how many there were left this morning, it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to be enough.

"It's pointless," he told Nina.

"What do you mean? You're being sent to die. One of the soldiers had a breakdown and before he was taken away. He yelled out that the enemy heavily outnumbered us and had much better equipment."

"Even if we do run away, where will we run to?" Kies asked. "Also, doesn't the enemy have us surrounded? We can't get past them even if we wanted to.

"That's..." Nina knew it was hopeless to run, but she didn't know what else to do. Kies was going to be sent to the war and there was nothing they could do about it. Nina tried to figure out what to do and then something popped in her head. "Then I'll join the war with you."

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