Breathe

Chapter 31 - Discoveries and Plans

 Soon, the tour came to an end; however, that wasn't the end of the night. As we came to our last location, the tour guide began to take us further down the hall—further than any of the other places he had taken us.

He led us to the room at the very end of the hall. "Sorry for the late notice, but the Commander requested for your attendance at the meeting tonight."

Opening the door, he revealed an entire room filled with people sitting around a table. Hearing the door open, they all looked at us. Near them, there were eight seats open—eight seats near the entrance.

He saluted to them and then gestured for us to go in. Not wanting to rebel against them—mainly due to the formal-looking men and women inside—we walked in. Once the last person walked in, the door was hastily shut. There was no escaping this.

We took our seats. I took the seat closest to the door, the one furthest from the solemn officials. Looking at the others, I noticed that they either looked calm or worried or anxious. The ones who used to be high-ranking officials were, as expected, perfectly calm. However, the others—like Dani, Mae, and Chris—were fidgeting in their seats. Mae was fiddling with her fingers, Dani wasn't maintaining a steady eye, and Chris...what Chris was doing was unexplainable. Axel was a mix of the two. Though he wasn't showing signs of being unnerved, he didn't seem calm, either—maybe more so casual than anything else?

Corporal cleared her voice, drawing everyone's attention back to her. With her hands folded, she stated in an authoritarian voice, "I apologize for the late notice, but after much consideration, we decided that inviting all of you would be appropriate."

One of the men scoffed. Under his breath, he murmured, "You were the only one who decided on that."

Ignoring his remark, she said, "Let's cut to the chase: we have decided to raid the castle. More specifically, Ainsworth Castle—the castle where the King lives."

"Ainsworth Castle?" Luckas repeated, voice raising. His face was scrunched up in disbelief. He bit his life. In a softer voice, he asked, "Cor— Commander, are you certain that is a good idea? Do we have enough manpower to complete such an operation?"

She sighed. "Vail, we don't have any other option at this point. The civil war has been going on for almost two decades now. People are dying—Lower Libentina is crumbling. If we don't act fast soon, there won't be a Lower Libentina to come home to." Looking up at him, she asked, "You wouldn't want that, would you?"

"But there still has to be another way," he retorted, "people might be dying and the country might be crumbling, but we must still have time before we have to move."

"If we wait that long, it'll be too late," someone in the room remarked, "Vail, we understand that you think that we are acting rashly, but we have been considering this for the past three months—we know what's best for the country."

What's best for the country?

Dani scoffed. Next to her, Mae held her down. "What makes you think that that's what's best for the country? This small table can't make decisions for more than four thousand people."

"True, but that number's getting smaller by the hundreds every day," another said. "We're trying to make the best choice before there is no choice."

"How do you even know if that's the best choice? You don't know what this country needs!" she spat.

She burst into laughter. Wiping away a single tear, she remarked, "And you're telling me that some nobody teen who knows nothing about this country or war does?"