A Ballad of Falling Light || Original Applyfic [CLOSED]

Chapter 1: To Touch is to Move

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In the Phaosian encampment, where the queen sat by the light of her own heart, Lieutenant-general Eunike watched every move she made. She listened to the sound of maps being unrolled, of pieces representing divisions of armies being moved around like chess pieces. She could see the end of the game fifty moves in advance: Phaos would lose their queen.

She was not a genius for figuring that out; anyone with a minor amount of tactical insight should be able to see it. Yet somehow all the other soldiers with fluorescent gems stitched to the shoulder pieces of their armor to signify their supposed rank - or rather, their noble-born status - looked like they wanted to applaud every move the queen made. They were proficient in kissing the ass of anyone wearing a crown; when the Phoinixians would burn their tents to the ground and oh so kindly ask them to kneel, they would do the same to them. The Lieutenant-general wasn't planning to let it come that far. Her Phaos had been ruled by gorgeous and muscular yet incompetent fools for far too long already.

The current queen, Her Royal Majesty Senara Azenor, ticked all those boxes. She was radiant, with crystal beads in her dreadlocks reflecting the light emanating from her eyes and heart, pale but bright like the Moon on the nights she was most powerful. Her armor, decorated with opals, platinum lilies and diamonds from the deepest part of the mountain that was their ancestral homeland, had been forged by blacksmiths who claimed their skill rivaled that of their Phoinixian colleagues. Rumors claimed that she had once wrestled two bears to save a young recruit, back when she was a captain. Such rumors always found their way around when a new monarch was chosen, so Eunike highly doubted their truthfulness, but if they were, the queen was even more stupid than she had proven to be, up to this point. No one who was wise would wage war with a creature of the goddess Wild to save a recruit stupid enough to die by anything other than enemy fire.

While the other Phaosian officers had yet to state anything remotely close to that opinion, Eunike knew at least one person would agree. To the Phoinixian centurion currently conquering their lands, having to battle this miserable excuse of a leader was likely almost insulting. The fact that Eunike found herself agreeing with one of their fiercest enemies, was a clear sign that Phaos, as it was now, was beyond hope. She stared at the pieces on the map, resisting the urge to tip one of the candles on the table and watch the queen's strategy go up in flames. It would be an accurate depiction of how things would work out.

"General Azenor!"

Eunike could feel the stench of smoke and burned flesh enter her nose before the soldier entered the tent and threw himself at the queen's feet. He had the look of a dying lion in his eyes, one that had been chased by hunters for hours. It seemed fierce at first glance, reckless, raging - but then it became apparent that he was trembling. Eunike looked down on him. It was a thin line between dominance and desperacy, and this man slipped and fell on it.