The elves had no aerial legion, no wyverns. As a result they had had to improvise. They couldn't fly through the air, so instead they had formed a thousand crisscrossing bridges of solid air and been shielded from sight by the illusions of several MindWeavers. It had been rather enjoyable, Talia had to admit, to simply walk to their targets.

Now she watched their latest improvisation: several FireBreathers creating an inferno to pick off the ones they had missed. Talia felt a sudden stab of longing for Orion. He could have done all of this without breaking a sweat. Selene could have controlled it better than these bumbling fools of WaterWeavers. Their memories hurt the worst, partly because they were freshest, and partly because their last conversations had been strained. Angry. Talia had left things on a bad note, and then they had died. The other people she had lost-she had never gotten to say goodbye but they at least hadn't died after an argument. But with her brother...Talia regretted so many things she had said, all the distance they had kept. There was no turning back time. She knew that more than anyone. But regardless she had wondered what she would do or say differently if she knew how things would turn out.

"Talia," Zara nudged her. "They're opening up the gates."                  

"Let's go in," Talia sighed. "Make sure Layla comes, will you?" Her niece-she still though of her as her niece-certainly wouldn't accept her help.  "Of course," Zara agreed, and they lapsed into easy silence as they led the elves hurriedly into the city. The Kallians would stay outside and hidden for now.

Citrine was nothing like Talia had ever heard it described. Not at all like the drawings of a malevolent, evil place as the elves had made out during the God-Born War or like the valkyries' reverent recollections. It was ringed by slums and crumbling homes. The centre was ash and destruction, though mere hours ago it had been composed of tall towers and harsh, military buildings.     

It was, however, exactly as Talia had imagined it would be. If not for the pupil-less eyes that followed her wherever she went and the lack of Draining facilities, she would have been unable to distinguish it from one of the elfin towns.

Looks of suspicion followed them everywhere. They were elves, after all. Although they had been allied in the last war, they were still the enemy. It had taken a barrage of secret codes and a couple of valkyries accompanying them to stop the people from fleeing or fighting. Several still looked inclined to do just that. At least once Myra and Kestra had visited, the suspicion would fade.

"The Kallians are coming to investigate," Zara told her, appearing from nowhere. "Their scouts are moving-and fast." Talia cursed.                    

"I was hoping we would have more time," she said, shaking her head. "Time to prepare, to asses the walls, to come up with a plan of action. I hope Myra and Nala are having better luck than this."                  

"What should I do, my Lady?" Zara asked. Talia wasn't anything of the sort-Zara was not from Silvera and Layla was certainly never going to give her the title over Veron—but she appreciated the gesture.              

"Get everyone to the walls," Talia sighed. "We'll decide on the plan on-site."

They gathered on the walls within the hour.                                        

"The elves can hold back any attackers just fine," Zara argued. "From the walls, it will be child's play to pick them off one by one. Why do we need to involve the Kallian soldiers at all?"                                  

"Because our numbers are few enough as it is and no one is expendable. No one. We should go along with Myra's plan. Have the elves face them at the walls while our Kallians come from behind and crush them against the wall. No lives wasted. No needless death. Simple, quick and clean."   

"Why do we always go by Myra's plans?" Zara grumbled. "Maybe we're capable of coming up with our own."                                       

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Zara," Talia groaned.            

"Troy obeyed that rule. Look at what happened to them."                   

"Since when were you familiar with valkyrie legends? Also, I trust Myra. So does Layla. So does everyone if they want to win this war." Talia gave Zara a hard look. "Myra is on our side. She has proved that a thousand times." Zara grumbled something like agreement.                                    

"I want FireBreathers, LightningSifters and WaterWeavers on the front lines." Talia declared. "Have the defensive abilities and StoneWardens placed throughout to minimise death and damage to the walls. Healers can set up in nearby, defended areas. Medea's Kallians will arrive in a few hours. We need to be ready quickly."

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When their enemies arrived they were hidden behind the walls. But it only took a single look at the charred and forgotten remains of the city's centre for them to realise that something was very, very wrong.

" Open the gates!" One of their leaders cried. Their command went unanswered. As the soldiers gathered at the gate, trying to force it open the hidden elves were revealed at last. They ambushed the waiting army, sending fire and lightning crackling down to destroy those closest to the gate. Talia contributed as well, sending illusions rushing through the soldiers' minds and turning them against each other. She reached into their captain's mind and with a smile of triumph, shattered it entirely. Chaos ensued. The Kallians were ready for an attack on Citrine at the very worst, but most expected nothing but a false alarm. Not one of them expected the city to already be in the hands of the elves already. She quietly thanked Myra Isidore for her brilliance.

Chaos immediately ensued as fire, lightning and ice rained down in an apocalypse-like attack. Their small group-a mere few hundred men to scout out the danger-fled as quickly as they could. Only a dozen remained, rushing out of range of the elfin attacks in order to warn the rest. Talia smiled grimly. It was only a fleeting victory. Soon those scouts would be back with tens of thousands of enemy soldiers to attack the gates. But at least it was a good beginning.

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When the Kallians returned, they came in force. The forty thousand that remained surrounded the walls and began the onslaught.

The endless chaos of the attack was a symphony, a constant beat to which her life ran to.A hailstorm of flame, lightning, water, ice and wind lashed down on the Kallian army, picking off the soldiers one by one as they scaled the walls. Talia was suddenly grateful that the shield was long gone. It would have destroyed them in the battles to come.                     

She and her fellow long-range attackers were concealed in towers and other shielded spots. From there, they worked their magics. Talia rushed from mind to mind, shattering a few but mostly turning them against each other. The battle blurred as she landed in a thousand different mind-scapes, the dim of war her only link to the real world. Cannonballs launched from both sides of the field. Whenever a human managed to climb up the walls, the screech of metal on metal filled the air. But mostly Talia heard the whoosh of water, the howling of wind, the crackle of fire and the screams of dying men. The fields beyond the walls were an eerie match to the ruined Isthmus, painted as red as the strip of land had been during the invasion. Time passed in a blur. It could have been an hour or a century since it begun.

Her thoughts turned to Layla and Maia. What had happened to them? Were they still alive? Layla had to be. They had kept her out of battle. Maia, though...she was in the thick of it, her extremely powerful Lightning Sifter abilities vital to the battle.

But she would know. She would feel it if Layla or Maia, the last people she loved, left this world. It would echo through her bones. She would hear the snap of their life forces or maybe fall to her knees in grief or feel as though a great hole had been ripped and was left gaping open inside her. She would know.

"Should we send our Kallians in?" Zara asked, snapping Talia out of her trance. In an instant, she was ripped out of the mind she resided in and plunged out of the mind-scape. She shot her Second a dirty look.  "Yes," Talia replied. "They're all at the walls now. None will be able to escape."                                                                                                        "Can you alert the MindWeavers?" Zara asked. "There's no way for a messenger to get through?" Talia nodded and re-concentrated on telepathy.

Bring them in now, she sent to the waiting MindWeaver. All the Kallians. We're ready. A telepathic assent. Talia turned back to the minds of Medea's soldiers and settled back into her dark work as she waited for reinforcements to arrive.

The moment their enemy sighted the coming soldiers, panic spread through the ranks. There would be no evading the army. They would be pressed to the gates and picked off, one by one, until all forty thousand were dead or imprisoned, their secrets in the hands of MindWeavers. A few shouted orders boomed through the panicking masses, seemingly to no effect. Talia breathed a sigh of relief. Soon. Soon it would be over. Medea's men would never last against an onslaught on two sides, one from the elves and the other from a force twice their size.

Talia felt sick at the thought of the slaughter ahead, but it did not stop her emerging from the tower to wreck hell on the Kallians.

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Lysandra

Her mother refused to calm down, despite all her efforts.                                

"Three cities, Lysandra! Three cities taken out in one clean sweep! Thirty thousand escaped out of five times that number! Not to mention, Talia's betrayal is now completely exposed and the loss of two hundred thousand troops is now known to everyone. We can only hope they assume half of those are merely MindWeaving, otherwise Jasper's betrayal is also known to the entire Empire! And you ask me to calm down?"

"We need to be ready for the next attack," she replied soothingly. "Where will they strike next?" Honestly, she wouldr have rather her mother remain utterly mad and panicking, but she had to appear the supportive, loyal daughter or else all of this would be for nothing.                                  

"Azul," her mother said confidently. "Myra would be mad to leave the capital in our hands. Oh, why did I ever think I could control her?" Medea was moaning now. "I was such a fool! A fool!"                    

"We had no idea that she could ever escape her bonds," Lysandra said gently. "I bet half of this is someone else's ideas anyway. Myra cannot be that good. Besides, none of this truly matters. The rebellion is weak. It has no resources, no allies and still possesses far less soldiers than we do. A good move in Azul will completely destroy them. Afterwards, taking back the other three cities will be child's play." Her mother nodded slowly.    

"I have a few ideas," she said, then began to laugh maniacally. "Oh yes, I have quite a few ideas that even Myra Isidore won't be able to handle." Her mother began to cackle. Definitely mad, Lysandra thought. But no less dangerous for it.