Noth-Wall was the last war they had participated in prior to Thanet. Its resistance had been one of the best funded and best equipped Mari had ever seen. Next to Noth-Wall was Arim, and its government had smuggled in soldiers and supplies to help slow the inevitable march of imperial conquest. The “enclave” was what they had called their headquarters hidden in a deep cave complex throughout the nearby mountains casting a shadow over the nation’s capital. Noth-Wall had made great strides toward independence, but then the full might of the Everlorn Empire had come crashing down. Thousands of soldiers flooded into the caves, and what tunnels they couldn’t explore, they collapsed.

“You’re scared to feel hope,” Stasia said. “Is that it?”

“Of course I am!” Mari gestured to the beautiful city before her. “Who’s to say that Thanet isn’t the next Noth-Wall? The victories we’ve had, and the rebellion growing in people’s hearts… is it even real? Will the story end any differently than all the others before? Or is it a passing dream that the empire will soon crush?”

Stasia pulled her knees to her chest and leaned her head and arms upon them.

“I hope it’s real,” she said. “What I have with Clarissa, it certainly feels real. You should know, I’ve made up my mind. Whatever happens in Thanet, whether we succeed or fail miserably, I’m staying here. I’m going to make this my home. With her. I hope you understand.”

But of course Mari understood. Stasia and Clarissa had been together for four years. Mari would have been more surprised if Stasia moved on to whatever new battleground their father chose should Thanet crumble like all the others.

“So will you keep fighting, even if we lose?”

“For my new home? I don’t suppose I’ll have a choice. I might try hanging up my axes, for Clarissa’s sake. Wouldn’t that be something?”

Her older sister giving up a warrior’s life was too far-fetched for Mari’s imagination, so much so that she chuckled at the thought. Yet when she turned the idea on herself, her blood ran cool. The first few wars she fought in, she had spent her quiet nights praying for peace. Even as she descended upon battlefields as Kasthan the Falcon Reaper, or stalked the Ibarah Jungles as the panther god Como-rah, she had never wanted a life of war. So many nights she’d sobbed away the images scarring her psyche. But lately?

Please, God, please, stop.

“The fights, the killing, all the bloodshed…” She slowly breathed in deep to gather the necessary resolve for her confession. “I’m afraid I’m starting to enjoy it.”

Stasia cocked an eyebrow in her direction.

“I’ve always enjoyed it. Are you sure you aren’t scared of becoming your big sister?”