Ruthless

↠ Athrah ↞

❝Always be courteous, smart, polite and diplomatic but also always have a plan to kill everyone in the room.❞

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THE sovereign's hands gripped the edge of the window sill – the polished wood providing a soothing feeling against her scarred palms – in her room as she gazed at the sun slowly going down the horizon. The pinks and oranges streaks blended together as the stars twinkled weakly. It felt surreal to see so much peace in the midst of such a politically intoxicating situation.

Akira had just finished practicing sword-fighting and had just come up to rest for a while before dinner was served. The armor on her body weighed nothing more than a piece of paper as she let out a sigh and ran her fingers through her hair, pushing back the strands that had fallen out of her braid behind her ears. She felt a slight pain in her muscles – courtesy of the amount of training she had been doing the past few days.

It had been almost a week since the queen had recruited women and their practice and training was going as great as it could have. Over the course of the week, Aziza, Shree and Akira had helped the new-comers learn basic moves which can make all the difference during a life threatening situation and much to their surprise, almost all the recruits were picking up pretty quickly. While some of them were learning the basics of sword-fighting, the others were learning archery and other forms of fighting they felt comfortable with. Some of them even had the novel idea to use normal products like chilli powder and other spices to create a diversion and escape. It was an abnormal idea, alright, but any means to win the war was welcome. 

The three girls had completely immersed themselves in the process of teaching the new arrivals because even though none of them actually admitted it, it was a great way to avoid thinking about what was going in their lives. The tension had persisted between them and neither of them knew how to turn it back to normal. 

It was better to hide behind armors and swords and fight in real life rather than confront the demons lurking inside their own heads and hearts.

The gate of her room creaked open and hurried steps came from behind her. Akira turned around in time to see a tensed Aziza. Beads of sweat were travelling down her face which was understandable as she had been training for the past hour or so and ragged small puffs of breath left her mouth as she looked at the sovereign in a vague sense of panic.

"Akira, we're under attack."

The queen inhaled sharply, nodding rapidly and started walking along with Aziza out of her room. She took out her sword from the sheath - which was fastened against her waist - and her palm fastened against the embellished hilt, finding comfort in the way the jagged gem sat against her skin familiarly. Her eyes darted from place to place and corridor to corridor for any enemy as they proceeded to walk down to the throne room, hoping that the war would come to them.

Akira held her sword harder in anger, causing the gold and emerald hilt to leave red markings on her palms, "How many people?"

The commander didn't meet the sovereign's eyes, way too focused on her surroundings, "Enough to make this a tough fight to win. It's like they already knew about the recruits."

"I expected them to find out about it somehow. How did they get in?" They kept walking, looking out for any ambush in the hallways as the queen raised her doubts, "The security has been doubled and I have eyes everywhere."

Aziza shrugged and answered uncertainly, "From what I heard, they came in from the back door. I was coming back from the training when a handmaiden ran towards me and informed me."