AM/VW: The King & The White Petal

IX: River Of Roses

Back at the monastery, although she knew she  made her friends in the alliance worried, Sarai was happy to see Judith again. "It's been three months since you left Leicester without telling me or anyone else, Sarai.", she told the rather young queen. "Sorry, Judith. But everyone else missed me, so I returned to the kingdom.", she replied. "We must return right to the kingdom before the people become worried about us.", Lambert said to Patricia, Dimitri, Sarai, Dedue, Savanna, Ingrid, Glenn and Rodrigue and they left to return straight to the kingdom. Although she trusted Claude deeply, Sarai knew just how secretive he was, so she kept her own secrets to herself in return. To be fair, she literally didn't even know his background. He also never told her just who his parents were. "How secretive can Claude even get?!", she thought to herself as she sat down on a chair reading a book at a table in the castle's library. "Have you thought about how we're going to be able to capture the Great Bridge of Myrddin?", Dimitri asked her as he walked into the library. "No, not yet. But how can I think about that when I'm focused on the book I'm holding?", she asked him and he sighed. "Good point.", he replied before she shut the book she was reading and got up from her seat. She then put the book back in its spot on the shelves before they walked right out of the library and headed to the council room to help the rest of the council plan out how they were going to capture the great bridge on the end of the month. Although she deeply hated not telling Claude her secrets, Sarai knew doing so was for the best until the war was fully over. "With things as they are in the imperial army, capturing the great bridge could prove difficult if they receive reinforcements.", Ingrid pointed out as she placed a small marble right on Castle Gloucester. "Especially if alliance soldiers show up to help out.", Glenn added. They turned and saw Sarai deep in thought. "Do you have a idea for how we're going to seize the great bridge?", Savanna asked her. "I'm not sure if it will work or not, but if we could take out the soldiers and then go for their commander, the great bridge would be captured by us without allowing more imperial soldiers to show up.", she said. "That's smart.", Dedue replied. "Indeed.", Patricia said. "Either way, capturing such a big bridge won't be easy.", Lambert said. "He's right.", Rodrigue agreed as he walked right into the council room to retrieve Glenn and Ingrid so they can return to Castle Fraldarius with him. After a while of more strategy planning, everyone else left to return to their territories. With a fierce battle ahead of them, there was a lot to get done for preparations for the upcoming battle. By the time the day of their mission came, Sarai had already put most of her allies through extensive training so they could survive the fight ahead of them. At the great bridge, they began to kill the imperial soldiers, but as they pushed forwards, Dimitri spotted six figures following Hilda and alerts Sarai, who turns around and recognizes them. "Ignatz!", she said and runs towards a young sniper who hugs her back when she hugs him. "Hello, Sarai.", Lorenz greets her. "Claude told all of you to come find me, didn't he?", she asked them. "Yes, he did.", Marianne replied. "Focus on the fight, Sarai!", Cyril called out to her as he killed a paladin trying to hurt Petra. "Sorry, Cyril!", she replied before she charged forward with them behind her. Once the other imperial soldiers were dead, she charged at the commander, who swung back at her until Ashe snipes her from on top of his horse, causing her to fall. In her final moments, the commander made her apology to the empress. With the bridge now under the kingdom army's control, they returned to the monastery.