Flames illuminated the night sky above Axio. Fire engulfed the city around me. Thick clouds of smoke clung to the city walls.

The smell of charred flesh stung my nose.

Soaring towers of stone crumbled under pressure as their roofs caved in.

The sounds of steel clashing and the crackle of magick rang in my ears…

"Heads."

A dry voice hurtled me from my thoughts.

I was no longer in the streets of Axio. Rather, I was in a room above a tavern in the outskirts of patrolled territory, called the Commonlands. More precisely, I was slumped over in the sill of a small window, lost in thought, as the sun drifted towards the horizon. It had been quiet in the room for hours while I stared out past the hills and trees. The last rays of light glinted in the distance.

I turned around to respond to my companion, but all I could see was a darkened room.

Celestials above, it's pitch black in here!

I allowed my eyes to adjust enough to avoid fumbling around entirely, and found the table that was centered in the room.

I sparked a piece of flint against a steel striker over a pair of candles and shadows danced around the room in the soft glow.

"Ahh, that’s better." I sighed, "Julius, you haven't said a word to me all day and the first thing you want to do is bet on a coin toss?"

I shook my head.

"You can't possibly know that it's heads anyway."

"It's always heads."

Julius sat down at the table and looked at me expectantly. I grabbed my pack and dug out a small map and laid it out across the table, gently moving the candles to avoid spilling any wax. Julius kicked out the chair opposite of him, and I sat down.

"Well, it wasn't heads last time."

"Last time…" His turn to sigh, "Airis, the last time you flung that coin in the air, the day ended with Republic soldiers chasing us through the streets of Axio. So it doesn’t count."

"Yeah, I suppose. Oh!-there was that time at the bakery—and the time at the docks! It's been tails a bunch of times ya’ know."

Arms crossed, he leaned back in his chair, "It's definitely heads this time." The candlelight flickered and his face faded into the shadows on the wall. I sat in silence for awhile, looking over the map.

"I haven't even decided if I'm flipping the coin this time."

He lunged forward and pointed a finger at my face, "We both know that’s a load of shit. I’ve watched you rolling that coin through your fingers for the last hour."

I smacked his hand away from my face and gave him a soured look.

"Paaffh!" he let out a huff and sat back in the shadows, "I know you're flipping the coin, and you know it too. I called heads."

I let the coin slide back into my palm. He was right.

The idea of letting a coin toss make a decision was the embodiment of Fate to me.

Would fate side with my second-in-command or myself?

With that thought, I sent the coin spiraling into the air with a flick of my thumb. Candlelight sparkled off the polished faces.

A moment later and the flash of gold landed on the back of my hand, quickly covered from view by my other hand.

Slowly I lifted my palm up to peek at the outcome. On my hand sat the ornate engraving of a Phoenix. My eyes drifted from the coin to Julius.

His head hung down, letting out a sigh of defeat.

"Where are we going?"

He knew it wasn't heads.

"…"

I have got to work on my bluffing skills.

I hovered over the crudely drawn map. Tapping the coin against the table in my right hand, I fidgeted with the creases of the parchment with my left. My eyes darted across the rivers and mountains spanning the southern coast of Axio’s domain. I had decided our next move yesterday, but I hadn’t quite built up the confidence to tell Julius my plan.

"So… where in the Aether are we going?" He asked again, agitation in his voice.

"Tolin."

"Hah! Suicide."

"And why is it suicide?"

"There is nothing in Tolin. Maybe rebels, monsters—Oh, and bandits hiding in the mountains! This tavern is practically as far south as the Republic's guards patrol."

"We are rebels, Julius."

"I’m not a rebel."

"We were tried, and convicted."

"Bah! Guilty of…" he trailed off, "…uh, Celestials above, how did that condescending magistrate put it?"

"I believe his words were," I cleared my throat, and with a pompous accent continued, "Charged with conspiracy to commit treason against the Triumvirate Republics and their citizens."

"Yeah, that was it. Sounds just like him. Anyway, being guilty of ‘treason’ doesn't make us rebels. It makes us fugitives."

Hard to argue with that logic. The subtle difference didn’t change the situation we were in.

Julius stood and walked over to the window. The rhythmic thumping of him tapping his thumb against the sill interrupted the brief silence. He wasn’t one to fidget idly with his hands.

Was he nervous?

Celestials above, I knew I was… I wanted to break the tension but didn’t know what the right thing was to say.

"Well, it’s not suicide if we had an army with us."

"And what army are we? Some noblewoman and her bodyguard?"

"I’m more than some noblewoman. And you’re more than just a bodyguard—though you do make a good one." I snickered. "And for ‘what army’, the Fourth Division has a supply regiment stationed at a checkpoint five miles south of us, before the mountain pass."

Without any orders coming from Axio, that convoy should still be posted at the checkpoint. I was betting on them still being there.

"…"

Julius didn’t have a snarky response for that. He continued staring out the window, likely mulling over the idea of a rendezvous with the scattered Divisional Army. Ten minutes had passed before he finally asked another question.

"Why Tolin?"

I took a moment to think over a proper response to his question. It wasn’t much anymore, but many years ago Tolin was one of the most profitable trading ports in the Empire.

It was a fortress city built on a peninsula along the coast of the Southern Plains. Positioned so that the only way to get to it from Axio was either by sea, or through a precarious mountain pass.

"Airis," Julius snapped me from my thoughts once again. He was looking at me with a frown. "Hey! What is in Tolin?"

"Well, nothing I suppose. But, the plan is anyway, I'm going to take the regiment stationed at the pass and we’ll march our way to Tolin, storm the city gates, and reclaim the city as our own."

I stood there in a heroic pose. My left hand rested on the back of the chair, my right was high in the air holding an invisible sword. A big smile stretched across my face.

"Oh, okay. That’s all then. We take command of an outpost of divisionals and march them through some dangerous mountains. Then storm a city filled with horrors even the Celestials themselves don’t want to deal with. All to lay claim to the largest port the Empire ever created?"

Julius was trying to hide the biggest smile I’ve seen on his face in days.

"It’s the craziest plan I’ve ever heard. When are we leaving?”

My focus was back to the map. I traced my fingers across a river-way that defined the border of the Commonlands to the Southern Plains. I needed to remember where the route south branched out. I wanted to spend the night planning out our route and inspecting our gear. This tavern would be the last hospitable stop for the next few days. Without looking up I responded to him.

"Early morning. Tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan then. Good, because this place was starting to feel a little too… comfortable."

His more than dramatic pause before, and emphasis on, the word ‘comfortable’ garnered my attention. I stopped obsessing over my map.

This was his way of insinuating something.

"Uh-huh, we’ve only been here two days—my back is already starting to act up. How are you ‘too comfortable’?"

He sat in silence, knowing that I had caught him in the act.

"The innkeeper is too… nice. And… uh, the servers at the bar keep trying to get me drunk."

I stared at him dumbfounded. He got me. I fell right into his trap. By the Celestials above, there was no way I could breeze past that statement.

"The innkeeper is too nice!? And that is what bar staff are supposed to do." I shook my head and sighed. I pointed at him, "And, that doesn’t answer my question. I know what you’re doing. Stop deflecting."

He crossed his arms, "I wasn’t going to say anything but—the idea of staying in the same place for any longer seemed like poor judgment. You’ve been holed up in this room the entire time we’ve been here!"

"Ohhhh, I was getting too comfortable you meant."

"You didn’t seem like you had a plan to leave any time soon, is all."

I was enjoying the time to rest.

I wasn’t about to lie to myself or Julius and pretend otherwise. We had been traveling at breakneck speed for over a week straight. But I was also planning. I didn’t have time to leave the room.

That, and I didn’t want to deal with any nosey people.

"Well, we’re leaving tomorrow. So, no need to worry."

Julius turned back to stare out the window. The game was over. I wasn’t sure if I won or not, but it mattered little in the grand scheme of his torments.

EQUIPMENT

With a double-tap of the runic symbol with my finger the projection faded and the mists dissipated.