Element

Epilogue Part 1

So, I decided to publish the plot overview of Shadow along with various parts that supplement the emotional character of some moments. If you didn't guess, Shadow is all about the war between the Elements and the Shadows after the attack on Dimicel.

Army officers, namely General Forge and the Queen, see the attack as an act of war and call troops to arms during Ramaya's summer break (this continues throughout Ramaya's fifth year). Everyone who has completed their education (finished their eighth year) to the age of thirty is required to enlist. Volunteers under the age of forty are welcome. Mid-summer, the age limit is dropped to everyone older than sixteen, meaning that many of Ramaya's classmates are taken to fight throughout the year. As the winter solstice ends, only half of the fifth year class remains in school. Therefore, the army enlists the rest of the fifth years, effectively emptying half the school.

Each enlisted soldier is given a seventy-two hour grace period to travel to their homes and say goodbye. When Ramaya returns to her home, she only finds her mother. Her father is creating weapons for the front lines in Central City and is unable to travel home to see his daughter. Horrified, Ramaya realizes she never gave her sister a proper goodbye either, but it is far too late. She travels to the outskirts of the Air sector to receive her station assignments.

Emergency camps for combat-inexperienced soldiers are set up, but Ramaya's role in Battle Team accelerates her past that point and towards open combat. Though her school friends are left in training camps, she is ecstatic to find herself in the same station as Payson and Brooke.

Ramaya's first year in the war saw little action, as the station was mostly used to supplement relief forces. However, her drill sergeant has a particular disdain for her, creating enough conflict to see her through a year. In her second year, they experience real battle. At this point, Payson, Brooke, and Ramaya are thick as thieves. Late into their second summer, they are sent as expeditionaries to scout new terrain. Miles away from their encampment, they find remnants of an ambushed traveling squadron (squadrons typically consist of 500 men in Elemental war strategy). They manage to rescue some fifty elemental soldiers, each receiving medals and becoming sergeants.

Due to their heroic actions, Brooke and Ramaya join the female Sergeant's tent while Payson joins the male. Throughout their next years, they continue to impress their presiding officers with quick wit and value for life. However, five years after the start of the war, Payson, Ramaya, and Brooke brush dangerously close to death, the bullet of a Shadow soldier grazing Brooke's leg. The battle continues for three more days until the Shadows finally retreat. The next morning, Brooke is found dead in her cot by Ramaya.

After her death, Ramaya and Payson quickly fall into spiraling depression, even endangering the privates they preside over due to a lack of attention. In order to cope with the loss of a sister and a best friend, Ramaya and Payson turn to each other.

Months after their devastating loss, Ramaya witnesses Parisa saving the life of a fellow soldier after her commanding sergeant sent the man in as a sacrifice. Shocked by the impact of poor leadership, Payson and Ramaya flee the war, fearful that their grief will result in unnecessary deaths. They venture towards the mountains, barely surviving.

Along the way, the encounter Atticus Algathy, who's war experience has transformed him into an admirable and noble man. Convinced that a girl who went missing on the same day as the shadow attack at the school might hold some answers, he and an animal element Ramaya vaguely remembers from school are keen to find her. Ramaya and Payson accompany them, journeying for months until they reach a small village outside of the borders of Dimicel.

The village is home to Shadows, who swore allegiance to the Elements during the Fifty Years War, and were thus allowed to remain in their homes. The four learn that the village has been discovered by Shadow troops, camped a mile away. They plan to use the village as a base to launch attacks on civilians in Dimicel and slaughter the villagers if they do not comply.