The Great War: Chapter 70
Troubles to solve, things to do
“SIEGE!” Cassie screeches, her voice hot nails running across a rough slab of stone. “You want me to bring in supplies while we’re UNDER SIEGE?! Do you know how hard that’s going to be?” She flops over onto the dining table. She almost reminds Devin of a toddler throwing a tantrum. “Think of all that extra money I’d be wasting…”
Static slowly begins to permeate the air as Samuel folds his arms, appearing rather annoyed by the sudden turn of events. The meeting had been going so well up until now.
Laid out on the dining table before them is a map of Astria. It’s rather incomplete, as most of the large world maps are, because of the sheer number of islands that dot the grand ocean, too small to really be worth marking down in the first place. This fact has sadly come back to bite them.
“The captains said it themselves,” Devin says. “Taking on even one Island Destroyer right now is suicide for any crew attempting it.”
Still, Cassie groans and pouts in her chair. “Why must you make this all so complicated for me?”
“Can you still maintain a steady flow of supplies?” Samuel inquires stiffly.
“Hmph! Of course I can,” Cassie retorts. “But I’m not happy about it.”
“We secure our borders and work within them,” Samuel adds, waving his hand dismissively at her comment. “There’s more for us to do in the meantime.” He turns to Ezra and gives him a curt nod. The librarian stiffens momentarily, clearly not expecting to be addressed, before fumbling around under his seat for something.
Eventually, he withdraws a sheet of paper, a quill, and a pot of ink, and sets them on the table before him.
“Add ‘Organize supply lines’,” Samuel informs him. Ezra promptly gets to scribbling on their ever-growing ‘To-do’ list.
Then his attention turns to Jae, if only for a moment, and so too does Devin. The poor Healer is slumped in her chair, her gaze as glassy as it had been the previous cycle. Whatever gift Korodon gave to her, clearly it’s been the most unwieldy of them all so far.
She’s not fit to seek any opinions from right now.
With a small sigh, Samuel looks down at the map again. Weariness weighs on him, making his eyes droop and his shoulders dip. There are dark rims forming around his eyes. Knowing him, Devin suspects he hasn’t been sleeping very well lately.
Mathew leans forward, his face scrunched up with concern. “Are we prepared for a siege?”
Devin is the one to reply, “Korodon is not so easily starved.”
Mathew narrows his eyes, not taking a liking to his answer. “Ye have no walls to speak of. What stops the Guardians from pelting us with their cannons?”
Devin shakes his head. “They wouldn’t do that unless they absolutely had to.”
Still, Mathew doesn’t appear convinced. He’s also thinking, though about what Devin can only guess. He’s obviously not a fan of how defenseless the island appears. Perhaps he forgets that they have magic at their disposal. Or even that walls would do nothing if the Guardians can simply shoot over them.
Samuel claps his hands together and rises from his chair, clearly wanting to move the topic of conversation forward. “Now that we’re all caught up, it’s time to begin our work.”
“Are we not waiting to find the last General?” Devin asks.
Samuel shakes his head. “We’ve stalled long enough. We’ll find them in time.
“Mathew, I’ll call upon the best cartographers we have. I want as many of those islands mapped as we can.”
“Aye!” Mathew nods firmly.
“Cassie, I want an inventory of everything we have at our disposal. Food, raw materials, goods, valuables, anything you can think of so we can start to work with what we already have.”
“Fine,” Cassie mutters with an eye roll.
“Ezra, you will be the first to begin teaching Creationists how to use their magic. I will show you the grounds that you will be using for that soon.”
“Um…” Ezra mutters back, sucking in a nervous breath, “are you sure? I don’t think I’d make for a great teacher-”
“Learn, then,” Samuel interrupts coolly. “Where we lack in numbers, we must make up for in our might.” He scans the room and asserts, “This is a responsibility I expect all of the Generals to take. We will rotate who gets to train those able to fight. We must make up for our lack of numbers with our might, and we must do it quickly. You all must learn so that they can learn from you.”
He looks around the table once, making sure that the others understand what he said. After a moment of silence, he announces, “This meeting is adjourned.”
Mathew lets out a long stretch and promptly stands, scooting out of the room as fast as he can. Ezra gets to work cleaning up the papers and map. Devin sits quietly, observing, keeping an eye on Cassie as she hums to herself, showing no sign of leaving. She picks at her nails in the quiet room, her nose curled upwards in disgust about… something.
Ezra scuttles away with papers in hand to return them to the castle’s library.
“Perhaps we should take her back to her room,” Samuel speaks, referring to Jae.
Devin nods. She had managed to come back to reality at first light, and was just barely lucid when the meeting first started. But perhaps they were pushing her too hard still. Whatever she’s dealing with, she needs far more time to work through it.
Funny, how a Healer he had only barely met a handful of times before became a General. There was a part of him that was expecting the Head Healer to have been proclaimed instead…
Cassie releases a curious hum, one that sends a chill down Devin’s spine as he turns his attention to her. The criminal has suddenly decided to scoot her way across the table towards Jae, lying on her stomach and propping her head up with her hands. She studies the poor Healer for a moment, feet kicking in the air behind her, before saying in a fake sugary voice, “Jae, darling, you realize you can’t just zone out of a meeting like that, right?”
Jae doesn’t reply, staring right through the red-dressed crime boss as she has been since the start of the meeting.
“And that staring! How inconsiderate!” Cassie cries. She lowers her hands from her chin and reaches out to her with one of her long fingernails. The closer it gets to the Healer, a small red flame begins to flicker from its tip.
“Cassie,” Devin speaks, warning in his voice. He stands from his chair, ready to put a stop to whatever she’s planning to do.
Cassie pauses to shoot him a glare. “Oh please, I’m not going to hurt her! What sort of monster would do that?”
Devin narrows his eyes skeptically.
Then, without warning, Jae jumps to life, jerking forward in her chair. She would have rammed her forehead into Cassie’s nail if Cassie herself didn’t reel back in surprise. But the Healer doesn’t even seem to be aware of the possible injury she could have sustained. She’s too focused on trying to collect herself, coughing and rasping as her eyes search for stability.
“Stars above!” Cassie cries out.
“Jae?” Samuel asks, quickly approaching the distressed Healer.
She places a hand on her chest, gulping down breaths of air. A haunted look is cast across her face. She turns to Devin, her mouth barely moving as she breathes, “A Healer just died.”
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