The Kingdom was built over a few pillars that the royal family swore to safeguard. Among them tradition was the one Aisha believed the least.

When she was a kid grandpa would place her on his knees and talk about Gaia. The serpent goddess that roamed the universe breathing the fire of creation, until the flame inside her was extinguished and she went to rest by the warmth of the sun. Her curled body was the foundation of this very world.

The full story, that she only learned years later, was a little gorier: her entrails formed rich soil, tears flooded the land and made oceans, fallen scales gave birth to mountains, and so on. But the late king would omit some of it and describe a picture ever so miraculous. The tale painted by his voice was beautiful. A shame that reality contradicted it shattering the little girl’s naive faith.

However destiny is nothing if not ironic. After years of assuming grandfather had been humoring her with talks of ancient gods and their children, she was now standing by a living legend. And all thanks to a theft of its heart by someone she deemed worthless.

“So, bottom line is no one but the imperials themselves know why they attacked?” Kai questions. The impertinence on the robber’s voice makes the princess grip the hilt of her sword; she mentally counts to ten and sighs. The summoner elbows his ally’s ribs and makes a disapproving face.

While traveling they have been sharing what little information was known among each other. Aisha explained that the invasion started at dawn, dozens of ships docked by the coast easily overthrowing the Capital. Within a couple of hours they closed all escape routes and secured important hostages such as the princess’ mother, father and younger siblings. Solanus and Omega shared the details of their encounter with the trespassers. And the pest contributed the most by concluding that if the Kingdom’s freedom depended on them, who appeared to be the available opponents for the Empire, they were “screwed like a house cat”.

It pained Aisha to admit, but she was right. The dragon was powerful, but would it be enough to face an entire army?

“Worrying now will get us nowhere. Let’s focus on one step at the time.” The summoner proposes. And they continue the journey through the road.

The cleric asks an occasional question to the ancient being who seems pleased with his eagerness to learn. As the hours pass and they grow familiar, both are happily telling one another about things of the past and the present. The girls chime in a few times, when the two are not engrossed in a world of their own.

Now the sun is a half circle on the horizon. Orange slowly dissolves on the night sky. People take refuge on their houses. Taking an alternative route avoided patrols, but took time.

They waltz into town. And all the princess can think is that even a pile of hay would make for a nice bed. Then the rogue pulls her to the intersection of two houses, covers her mouth with one hand and points at something with the other.

Got to give it to the Empire, they are fast workers to have wanted posters of all of them on the message board by the entrance within the day.