Today, it would begin. Today, the war would truly start. Today, they sent a message not even the Empress could cover up.

They landed on the cold grass, leaves whistling as the wyverns descended. She turned back to check on the others. Their army gathered behind her, hidden by the night and the forest that covered the plain before Topaz.

As Nala stared at the walled city, she was suddenly hit by the surreality of it all. How far the girl from the Midlands had come. She wouldn't have believed her eyes. Wouldn't recognise this person who queens spoke to like an equal and rode upon the backs of legends. How far she had come. How much she had changed. And how much she still had to do. Her job might never be finished. It might take a lifetime to build a future for her unshaped, wandering people. Of course, she now had several lifetimes, thanks to Lysandra. Not that any of that had sunk in yet,

Nala thought wistfully back to the little girl in the Midlands. The girl might have escaped death a thousand times, but in the end it had claimed her anyway. Only this new Nala, this stronger, harsher, numb Nala remained. What had she become? And did she like the person she was turning into? It had been an eternity since she had been a child. Lifetimes ago. A different person-several different people-ago. They said that every seven years or so, every cell in your body would be replaced. Nala felt like that had happened with her mind. Slowly, every piece of her had been replaced with something stronger, something different. She and the child she had been shared the same body, the same parents and a few of the same memories, but nothing else. War had made her into a different person.

The walls of Topaz were some of the highest and most impassable Nala Merson had ever seen. They reached high into the air, cold, hard stone that stood between them and the city inside.The walls were littered with defenders patrolling and perfect places to ambush and hinder any opposing forces.Which was why Nala and the rest of Tarua Teris had no plans to go through the walls.

Myra Isidore was a true military genius, Nala reflected. And she had spent almost six years planning how to take back her country from the Kallians.

"If we try to break through the walls, we die." Myra had said matter-of-factory during one of their many meetings. "We have the Aerial Legion and elves who can manipulate gravity. Let's use them."

And so they had begun the painstaking calculations and planning that had taken them months. Everything had to be planned for. Every single soldier accounted for. They had had months to devise the perfect, most efficient strategy for reclaiming the cities and the most brilliant general the world had ever seen to work with. Because in the end, that was what they were doing. Reclaiming the cities. Not destroying them. Not burning them to the ground. Taking them back from the Kallians and using them as weapons in the war ahead. If they had wanted to rain destruction upon Topaz, Citrine and Zerena, it would have been a simple matter. But they didn't. What they wanted was to take back every part of its military and liberate its people. Much trickier.

They arrived in Topaz in the middle of a moonless night. Yet another reason for the four month delay. If they had gone a couple of weeks ago, their arrival might have been heralded by a gibbous.

Those who could—their spies, mostly—had already entered the city. Only four thousand of their fighters remained outside, fifteen hundred of which were part of the Aerial Legion. Nala shakily mounted one of the wyverns herself, another two rebels already seated. Only one of them had received any training.

"Now," she said and they took suddenly to the air. Nala held on for dear life. Fifteen hundred wyverns and gryphons followed into the air after them, hidden by the night. There was a single elf with them, who's rare ability allowed him to manipulate sound vibrations. There had been a couple of valkyrie scientists who followed him around incessantly, trying to understand how his magic worked. Nala didn't particularly care, so long as he made sure their arrival remained quiet.

She cast a fleeting glance back at the sixty thousand Kallians hidden as well as they could manage, a small group of MindWeavers with them. They would stay there until everything was ready. Nala felt a strange and involuntary surge of pity for the soldiers. First, Medea had forced them to fight against their will. Now the rebels had, this time against their own comrades. It was necessary, she reminded herself. The suffering of thousands to save millions. How long until that reasoning, that calculation failed her?

They took to the air, made invisible by the night and inaudible by the work of elves. No one in the city would know they were coming. When they landed, they would come as a complete surprise. Exactly as Nala liked it.

Wind rushed in her face and she couldn't help but feel a thrill of exhilaration as they climbed higher and higher into the air. Was this how Myra felt when she flew on Cerulean? She had never understood it before, how the general-the queen, now-had faced death and enjoyed it so burning much, but now maybe she did. The feeling of flying was miraculous and terrifying.

They were hovering over Topaz within minutes. Slowly, they drifted towards the centre of the city, where the leaders and soldiers gathered, passing the rim, which was filled with valkyries returned from the mines. Or, as the case may be, mourning those who had not.

The rider Nala had been paired with gently lowered the three of them to one of the higher towers. She clung to the rooftops and held out her hand to the other passenger to help him do the same. All across the centre of the city, one and a half thousand wyverns and gryphons hovered near the rooftops of the vast city, each dropping off one or two passengers before disappearing into the inky blackness of a starless, moonless sky with their riders.

They would not waste their blood on the walls of the fortified city. That was what everyone expected them to do, and they would gain nothing from it. Instead, hundreds of assassins dropped to the rooftops like a swarm of ants over food and prepared to deal death.

The centre of the city was compromised of several fortified, high towers that contained the offices for the people in charge of the city. People who were essential to its function. The captains, the governors, the officials. What light there was dim, provided only by glowing lights. The towers were adapted and renovated from the original structures in Topaz. A foolish move, given Myra Isidore knew those buildings well. 

Nala and her companion slid down from the rooftop and through the windows, silent as the grave. If anyone caught them the alarm might be raised, which would...complicate matters. She slid through the rooms of the official's home, not even remembering who it was. The only thing she remembered were windows and street numbers. They were all that mattered.

After she'd managed the first one, she slid into an easy routine. Jumping, climbing, tip-toeing through homes and cutting throats was the most common process, but other times she'd scale walls to prepare herself for the perfect shot. She had a sudden flashback to Kazimiar, where she had assassinated the mayor and some of his council. The only difference was the style of the rooftops. Miras' style of housing was decidedly more of a challenge than Kallias'. Knowing Myra and her predecessor, that had been on purpose. Nala let out a quiet laugh. Yes, she was certain that the Isidores had used the very homes of their cities as a weapon. It was exactly the sort of thing that valkyries would do.

There was only silence from the other buildings, but that was a good sign. It meant no alarms had been raised and it would be far harder to find the assassins. Nala suddenly realised how numb she was to it. The death, and the death-dealing. She didn't want to be numb to it. But it was so much easier to be, to pretend that the people she was fighting against were mere obstacles, mere objects, mere challenges on the way to her goal. They were real, though. This was all real.

She reached for the next tile but missed, cursing herself for being distracted and praying no one had heard the noise she had made. So many relied on not a single one of them being noticed. She could philosophise later. For now, she had a job to do.

It took them until an hour before dawn to eliminate all of their targets. All of the thousands had at least one, but most had more. The trickier the targets, the fewer they had. Nala had had seven reasonably simple missions. She felt a sudden burst of shame for not knowing their names and titles. It felt suddenly important that she should.

They meet on the highest rooftop, each nervously eyeing the ticking time bomb to the east-where the sun would rise. A few were missing. Given the alarm hadn't yet been raised—a true miracle—Nala gathered they had simply fallen, rather than been caught. A few of her comrades' eyes glistened in the flickering light of a few torches. Nala didn't so much as flinch. Death had been a longtime companion, more familiar than most of her friends' faces.

"Once the wyverns and gryphons come we lose the element of invisibility," Nala said, struggling to be heard yet not alert anymore. After so many hours devoted to silence, speaking felt sacrilegious somehow. Not that she took part in any religion.The gods didn't come to Kallias. 
"There will, however, be total chaos. This city may have been preparing for an assault like this, but no one is ready for all their highest-ranking officials and leaders to be slaughtered in their sleep. Now, the Legion is coming at dawn, so when they arrive we have to get out of the city centre. Immediately. Once we get outside and into the rim, we should be fine. Provided that everything goes well, of course." A nervous murmur spread through the ranks. It would be all to easy for things to go very, very wrong. "Move quickly," she said finally. "We may not have much time. Dodge death, and if you fail..."                                                            

" Die bravely," the group whispered together. A rather macabre motto, but it served its purpose. The Tarua Teris viewed themselves as the walking dead. Eventually, they would meet their end. Their only job was to do as much damage to the Empire as they could before the end came.            

"Die bravely," Nala whispered to herself, and disappeared into the starless, moonless night.