Solar Reign

L I

WAR PLANNING was not on Andorra's resume. She strained to remember what little memory she had of high school history class, and what they had been talking about when it came to defending against war. She could remember a little bit of the facts from certain wars. She could remember some of the commonly used terms. High ground. Breach. Blockade. But Andorra wasn't sure how to even begin to command people to fight.

She knew she could always ask Nohx. Knew that she could even ask Puck. She was pretty positive that both of them would provide the help she needed, especially due to the fact that Puck had been around for the last war. The Great War. The war that pushed her parents into rule.

But she wanted to do this for herself. Andorra needed to do this for herself, no matter how embarrassing it might be that she was holed in the library, stacks of textbooks surrounding her like a wall.

In high school, Andorra had always been a notes kind of student. She'd always take out her trusty notebook, her favorite pen, and jot down everything and anything she needed to know. She was good at it. But this was different in an entirely different way; this wasn't AP history where she could mess up, fail, and retake the test.

Her notebook page was nearly full with vocabulary words by the time her stomach was rumbling in hunger. She jotted down another word from the textbook, and then sat back to look at her work. It wasn't quite gibberish anymore, but it still wasn't adding up in her head. Next to her was an old map of Anlithamy, drawn centuries ago by some mapmaker. Andorra itched for human tools to help her mark it up, like sticky notes. Or even a photocopied version she could write on.

She flipped the page of her notebook. Wrote out the name of the areas she'd assigned on the map. Summer Court North: A1. Summer Court Mid: A2. Summer Court South: A3. She already knew she would be assigning all of Summer Court to the three areas on the map. Now it was just about who she wanted working where. She put the Spring Court in A1, then put the Autumn Court in A2 and finally put the Winter Court in A3.

But that left the entire Royal Court open. She had a floating idea of maybe putting the entire Royal Guard there, but worried it wouldn't be enough. She chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to decide the next course of action.

"Your stomach is growling so loud, I can hear it in the hall." Andorra's head snapped up to find Callum leaning in the doorway, his ever present scowl covering his face. His arms were crossed tightly; he was upset about something.

"I want to finish this first." Andorra tapped her pencil to her page. "We meet as a council tomorrow, and I can't let anyone down. It won't be much longer." Andorra didn't want to feel the sting of disappointment tomorrow from her friends or Puck.

"You can finish it after dinner." Callum's voice was no nonsense. "It's not going anywhere. Why are you doing this alone? Where's Nohx?"

Andorra's eyes caught Callum's in surprise. A quick smile flashed across her features. "Oh, so now you're asking about him? I thought you hated Noah."

Callum's eyes narrowed. "He's not so bad."

Andorra couldn't let this go. She leaned back in her chair, grin widening. "Not so bad? You like him! I knew it!" Nohx and Callum were far too similar for their own good.

"Okay, so he's fine. Stop looking at me like that. Andorra, I said stop-"

Andorra burst out into laughter. "He's fine," she mocked him in a low, manly voice. "Not my friend or anything," she continued, crossing her arms, mirroring Callum. "It's not a big deal, Andorra." She cleared her throat as she finished her impression of him.