The Fall of Dewan

Chapter 12 A Plan?

 Genevieve got little sleep that night, despite how tired she was. Her brain simply would not rest. In her mind she would replay all six of the stories she had just heard, trying desperately to find any signs of deceit in them. She knew it was impossible for them to lie to her though, the blood oath prevented that. Belief in those stories had a heavy cost though. To believe them she would have to question the morality and fairness of her parent's reign. She had always viewed them in such a positive light, she knew how much they loved their people- until then it never crossed her mind that love alone couldn't guarantee a fair and just regime.

When she had first heard about those that had been released from prison to serve all those years ago, she had (and so had the bulk of the Dewanian people) thought them to be monsters- criminals that were lucky to be receiving a second chance at freedom, no matter the risk that it would cost. Nearly one hundred had been released, but only ten had formed the team that directly served her parents. That number had dwindled to six because that risk had a price, four had lost their lives in the war. The six that were left were far from the monsters she had imagined. They were just six individuals, all doing everything they could to fulfill the blood oath that they had taken, so that they could return to the lives that they had been taken from (some taken from seemingly unjustly).

As she tossed and turned during the sleepless night, her brain would drift from the six's tales, to her parents, to her family, and then to all their deaths. The realization that their governance had not been as perfect as she once thought did not ease the pain of their loss, in fact it only complicated it further.

A few hours before sunrise sleep finally claimed her, but it was not a pleasant sleep. She was plagued by horrifying images of war and death, haunted by Artemis's face as he fought a solider dressed in silver armor. She woke before she could see the conclusion of the fight, covered in sweat.

She did her best to wipe the tiredness from her eyes as she climbed out of her tent. The rest of the camp seemed to already be awake and moving about. Ohamed appeared to be preparing some type of meal over the fire pit, Alice once again mending an article of clothing, Leona, Bartholomew and Archibald all leaning over a large map that they had laid on the ground, and Agnes seemed to be attending to the horses.

When Alice spotted, she rose and loudly said, "Aye look whose finally woken up!"

The other chimed in "Good mornings" from their respective spots around camp.

"What time is it?" Genevieve asked as she approached Alice, wondering if she had actually got more sleep than she'd thought.

"Oh its still pretty early in the morning. I was only joking. We are all just early risers, an unfortunate habit from the battle front. Oh how I miss the days when I could sleep till noon." Alice said with a smile on her face.

"Till noon? Don't let her fool you, she could have slept the entire day away when we were children if our mother allowed it. If given the chance she would sleep till evening!" Leona chimed in from her spot by the map, clearly having been listening in on what they'd been saying.

Genevieve couldn't prevent a small smile from appearing when Alice made a betrayed face in Leona's direction. Genevieve wiped the smile away quickly and then began to head in Leona's direction. "What are you guys doing?" She asked nodding towards the map.

"Oy we are just trying to gather our bearings. We're markin' which towns we know have already fallen on the map, so that maybe we can figure out a direction to head in next." said Archibald.

"Well based on the last messages we received at the castle, it seemed as though almost all northern elven villages had fallen, all that was left was what lay south of the castle and the Obsidian Reach."