Myra's Point of View

Ruby was insane. Ruby was completely insane. A human, on the War Council? A former captain of the Kallian Army to boot. Oh, when she next saw Ruby, in her lioness form or her valkyrie one she would get her back in line. Along with this...Jasper Merson.

A traitor. On her War Council. Not just human, but a traitor. Twice.

Though she supposed it might work to her advantage. He sounded like he had a weak enough spine to do whatever she told him, including vote with Diaz and in doing so, ensure nobody else would dare to agree with the arrogant, thick-skulled general.

She went to meet him in the war room, toying with the idea of throwing a dagger at his head. It didn't have to actually hit him, but she'd like to see him flinch as it whirled past and embedded itself in the wall. She might even decide to nick his ear.

This particular war room was old and crumbling, mostly abandoned since it came from the era where only the heir and queen would discuss war and training. It had certainly been a more efficient method.

"Merson?" She said, her voice filled with boredom. The aforementioned captain sat on the stone chair, clearly uncomfortable. She blinked when she first saw him. Humans did have pupils after all. How strange.

"I've been told my eyes are creepy," he said. "But honestly, I think yours are the creepy ones."

"I thought it was just the Crimsons who had black spots in their eyes." She mused. "Unless you are one."

"No," he said quickly. "I'm not a Crimson."

"That's good," she smiled. "Unless you can't tell, we don't really like Crimsons around her."

"The colours scheme is all green and blue," Jasper replied. "It's abundantly clear." She smirked.

"For the sea."

"I suppose you want to know what the Empress hid in my mind."

"I suppose I do. Were you informed of the Kallian Armada?"

"Yes."

"Do you need any more motivation than that or can we do this the easy way?" Myra gave a predatory angle of her head, stalking slowly towards him. Fear-such easy, mortal fear-flashed in his eyes. He still didn't respond.

"The hard way, then," she smiled. "How fun."

"They've discovered alchemy." Jasper blurted. She snorted.

"The elves have been trying to do that for centuries. We valkyries gave up on it before they even started. I'm going to assume that's a joke and not an attempt at deception, so I'll ask again: what. Did. She. Block. Out?"

"Just listen to me, okay?" Jasper pleaded. "They have the Immortality Elixir, and they can turn lead into gold. Prince Aaron discovered it."

"Oh really?" She laughed. "He's what? Eighteen."

"That's why he's so important." Jasper continued, desperation leaking into his voice. "For the past two years, the Empress isn't letting him out of her sight, even though he's the seventh of her seven children. Not even Markus, her eldest, is so vital to her.

" And how can you explain the Armada? You must have seen some of it, or gained reports. How can you explain the quality of the ships, when we're a desert nation, impoverished and until the Empress, divided?" She bit her lip, considering.

"Tell me more about the alchemy. How is it done?" She asked hungrily. If they could steal the secret from the Empress, the whole war would be worthwhile. They just had to make sure the elves didn't get to it first.

"We don't know how it's done, only that two years ago, the royal coffers were suddenly filled and the Empress ordered all the lead in the kingdom. We don't have anything left for pencils now, but they still manage to mine more. A year after that, they stopped aging."

"If this was a joke," she said slowly. "Now would be the time to tell me, before I inform the whole of Miras that the Kallians have alchemy."

"It's not a joke."

"Anything else to share?"

"They have a shield to stop the elves."

"What?"

"They block the elfin magic with witchairian."

Myra froze. Her heart pounded.

"What?" She lashed, turning to face him. "They can stop elfin magic. Completely?"

"Not the ice." He corrected.

"How do you know?"

"Because if she could have broken through that, then she already would have laid waste to your coast."

Myra turned and left the room, summoning the rest: Selene and Talia, Cisi, Ruby, Calais and of course, Viktoria. They listened to Jasper's story at first with disdain or amusement but soon with real fear that drained their faces until they were pale.

————————

Three hours later, Myra stood on the top of the mountain, listening to the waves crash against the rock. Viktoria came up behind her.

"We will still win this war." Her queen reassured her.

"Will we?" Myra asked. "I've talked to Jasper about the conditions of the Empire. Twenty-five year conscription for sixteen-year-olds. Enslavement." She spat out each word like it tasted sour. "They're watched every day. Every crime is punished with death-not just for you, but your entire family. Village, even. Sometimes, when that isn't enough people are just dragged onto the street and killed, chosen by lottery. Poverty is everywhere and she does not try to stop it. She helps it fester, actually, with high taxes that suffocate everyone. And it would be far worse for the valkyries. Kestra certainly wouldn't be left alive."

"We will win." Viktoria declared, steel in her voice and a determination sparking in her deep brown eyes. "You're just digging yourself into a hole now."

"How many will it cost to win?" Myra asked. "The shield against the elves renders half of us use-less-"

"We will break it." Viktoria replied confidently. "Or find a loophole, or something." That was what they had discussed at the war council. Breaking the shield. Getting the rebellion to cut off army supplies. Training the elves to fight in some imitation of the way the valkyries did.

They would have to try, at least.

"You are the Dragon." Viktoria lashed. "You are Myra Isidore, and this is pathetic. You are better than this."

"What about Kestra?"

"Have you no shame? The Myra I know would not use her daughter as an excuse for weakness. Kestra is a reason to fight, not to cower." Viktoria left her there, staring out at the sea as the sun set.

Hours later, after the sun was long gone, Myra rose.

Her queen had been right, of course. Viktoria always knew her so well. Viktoria, her closest friend. Viktoria, who held her Name as she held hers.

She would fight. It did not matter if half her army was gone, and the empress they faced possessed unimaginable wealth.

She would fight, goddesses damn it all, and she would find a way out of this, just like she had when the world was burning, the elves were pushing them back against the mountains and Viktoria's survival was in question as she struggled with plague.

She would fight. She was the Dragon, after all.It was time to roar.

------------------

Myra stood in front of Jasper, watching him pen a letter to the rebellion, pacing madly.

"It's a little hard to work like this," he interrupted after about ten minutes.

"Oh, is it?" She growled at him. They spent the next five minutes in silence.

At last, he finished and handed his draft to her.

She blinked at him.

"It's coded," she said flatly.

"It's from four years ago. Hopefully they'll recognise it."

"Can I get a translation?" She asked, then turned to the guard by the wall, who was looking supremely bored. She was guarding a general. The general "Get Talia. I don't want to send a bunch of malarkey to the monkeys of Mt. Non-Existent."

"I thought she'd already checked my intentions."

"Never hurts to check again." She said, and watched Jasper with dark blue eyes. "If I ever discover you have deceived us, or knowingly harmed our efforts in this war..."

He nodded, fear flashing in his eyes. Humans were so easy to scare. When he finished with the translation, he handed the letter to her, and she was surprised to find his handwriting neat and precise.

My name is Jasper Merson. And until now, you would have thought me a spy and a traitor. I am both, but never to you.

Two years ago, my family and many others, in a rebel stronghold, were killed. Later, I became a Captain of the Kallian Army. You would have assumed I sold them out.

Here is the truth: I was taken prisoner by the soldiers who destroyed my home. I was brought to Crimsith to face trial but why I will never know. They could have killed me where I stood.

I managed to escape after we reached the capital and stowed away on a boat bound for Cobalt, and eventually, the Southern Desert, where I knew I could find the rebellion again. A storm took the ship into elfin waters, and when they discovered us they conjured another that left us shipwrecked on Miras land.

The valkyries saved my life in return for me going to the Kallian Army and acting as a spy.Now that the valkyries and elves are facing a war against our mutual enemy, the Empress of Kallias, we ask for your aid. You are deep within the Empire, but we are not. You are capable of inflicting harm from the inside, but we cannot do that either. We ask that you cut off the supply trains providing weapons and numerous other resources to the Empress' army.

In return, when the valkyries defeat the Empress Medea, we shall grant you the Deserted Lands, and hopefully move towards peace.

My loyalty is forever yours,

Jasper Merson.

A bit of timeline altering, a little truth-twisting, but otherwise true.

"Nice little ending there," she smiled at him. "I hope you remember who your loyalty truly belongs to."

"My people." Jasper answered defiantly.

"Me," she hissed back. "So if your precious rebellion tries to double-cross us, then I very much hope you would alert me." He nodded weakly. She doubted that he would choose them, but fear went a long way in humans. Who knows? He might do.

"So I'm still a prisoner." Jasper asked tiredly.

"To some extent," she agreed. "But right now let's call you an ambassador to the rebels."

"And if I try to leave?" He asked boldy.

"Then you're a prisoner."

-----------------

Dusk was coming, and they would leave by dawn. Viktoria would prepare the army for her. Tonight she would spend with Kestra.

"Little one," she murmured to her Kestrel.

"Myra?" She asked, turning around. Her Kestrel had been painting from sunrise to sunset, and her hands were covered with the marks that came with it.

"I know I said we weren't going for a week, but...I have to go, my sweet Kestrel."

"When?" Kestra asked her, her face drained.

"Dawn," she murmured.

"But-but-" Silence fell over the room. A tear slipped down her cheek. "Mother, do you think...do you think you will come back?" She took a deep, shaky breath. No, tonight was not the night for truths.

"If I were dead and buried a world away, I would find a way to you, Kestra. I would pierce through the gates of the Afterworld and find you. I would find you, should all the wrath of goddesses and witches and Death herself bar the way.

"And if they left my ghost in splinters, I'd hold it together with my will alone. So would Viktoria. There is no mortal, or immortal force that could tear me away from you.If they tried to strike my heart with their steel it would be strong enough, with my love for you, to keep out the blade.

"And if even if we couldn't find you, even if we couldn't come back to you, you are strong and you will be okay. You are from a line that started with Evelyn and Rhiannon. You were chosen to lead us from thousands. I chose you, from thousands." Myra reached out to Kestra, holding her close.

"Do you really think some mortal queen could bring me down, my little StarSoul?" She asked her.

"Never, Myra-Kat." She smiled. Myra knelt down, and took a dagger that she had blunted days before for this very purpose. She passed it to Kestra, holding the dragon-carved hilt with loving care.

"I wielded this dagger, from my first day as an intimate to my first battle when I was eighteen years old, to the sparring I did a mere four days ago, my love. Hold it close, and never lose it." Kestra held it with reverent care. "Whatever you do, Kestrel, do not impale yourself."

The girl laughed, stroking the blade cautiously."Thank you. I know...I know how much this means to you." She croaked. Myra felt the pain twist

deeper as she looked into Kestra's blue eyes.

Death could not be undone. Death was permanent and forever and irreversible.

Myra Isidore wished the war had never come. This was not thirty years ago, when she was a newly crowned general with Viktoria and Vera to protect and glory to be won.

This was now, and now she had a twelve-year-old daughter who meant everything to her. Somebody who needed her, and that need was not to march into battle but to stay alive, and come home for her. Myra had always known that people relied on her: she was a general, who's mistakes could cost lives and kingdoms. Kestra was just another weight to shoulder. But Kestra...she had more of a right to Myra than anybody else. Even more than her people. She closed her eyes.

She could not turn back now. She could not turn her back on her people, her warriors.

But these past twelve years...they had been so happy. At last their army was rebuilt, at last they had an heir, the bonds between them had only deepened. Viktoria, her best friend, Vera, who would always understand and Kestra...her little Kestrel meant so much. Myra Isidore did not want war to knock on her door again, but she would have to greet it.

For the Keeper cities she loved with all her heart, and for the people there who needed protecting, for the art and knowledge and beauty within, for the millions of soldiers like her who had devoted their lives to Miras, who had died so the valkyrie queendom could thrive.

Duty called, and so the High General of the Valkyries would answer. It did no longer sounded like legends and glory as it had when she was young and knew nothing. Instead, it sounded like the songs of birds and the sweet lapping of waves on the shore. It sounded like peace and life, what she might protect for a price. And what she might lose.

She did not know what the toll would be; only what it could be: pain and grief and death.

Myra leaned in and whispered her Name in her daughter's ear. Kestra blushed.

"Really?"

"Yes," she said resolutely. "I want you to have it."

"I've never given my name to anyone before," Kestra said shakily.

"You don't have to give it to me," Myra said hurriedly. "That's not how it works."

"I want to,"

"Okay, then." Kestra leaned and whispered her Name in her mother's ear.
A single hot tear ran down Myra's cheek.

"I have to see someone quickly my sweet." Myra told her, blinking away the tears. "I will be back soon." Hurrying down the mountain path, she caught up to Viktoria and Vera.

"What is it, my friend?" The former asked her. "If-if I die, promise me you will look after her. Promise me that even if this kingdom falls, you will get her out as our cities burn." It was tradition for the Keeper Queen and Heir to fight and die with their people, but she didn't care.

"Of course," Viktoria vowed.

"Promise me that even if we fail, you will take her somewhere far away from all this. That she..she will not face the death any royal does when a kingdom is conquered. Swear it. And swear that...you will help her through whatever grief she might face if she loses me."

"I swear," Vera replied. "I will be with her, and this battle rages on. I will make sure these months do not come too hard on her." Viktoria only nodded.

"I know you would never stay behind," she told Myra. "But...but know it is no shameful thing to choose either Kestra or your kingdom." The general nodded, tears in her eyes.

She walked the road back to her daughter, and they fell asleep in each other's arms, each cursing the light of the dawn.