stant travel became hours of retive silenbsp; Everyo mostly to themselves while keeping a brisk pabsp; Yumi always felt like she had to jog to keep up with the others. Fatigue tio creep up on Yumi until she colpsed to the ground. Her body shook. She tried to keep it from everyone as long as she could, but she could no longer hold herself together.

  Fumiko k down to Yumi quickly realizing the dition of Yumi. ‘We’ve only been walking…but she looks like she’s ran a marathon.’ She looked back at the others, who stopped fused by Yumi’s sudden colpse. “I think we should rest a little. None of us have slept in more than a day and all of this walking is just going to drain us.” Resting her hand on Yumi’s shoulder, she tried to give her a little fort while proteg her. ‘She’s been keeping it to herself trying not to slow us down, even though she’s been weakened…Yumi…’

  “Take her for a little while,” Chiharu ordered, as she dropped Nerine dowo Fumiko without waiting for an answer. “I’ll search out for a safe pp.” She ran off in a blur for Fumiko and Seiji, Yumi only saw her disappear from sight.

  Slowly rec her breath, Yumi pulled herself back up. Her legs shook too much to stand, but she mao sit at least. “It’s okay. We keep going.” Yumi straio ect her words together smoothly to remove any hint of her shortness of breath. It succeeded with only marginal results. “We o catch back up to Yuki and the others.”

  Lightly pressing her hand to Yumi’s shoulder, Fumiko kept Yumi from attempting to stand a sed time. “You don’t o force yourself on our at, Yumi.”

  “But!”

  “You don’t o try so hard. We’re all here together.” Fumiko gave her a little smile hoping to fort her.

  “…alright…” Yumi turned quiet afterward and her body rexed a little. Her eyes turned down towards the ground. A long expression drew across her as she buried herself in thought.

  Chapter 172 – Stirred Thoughts

  Chiharu found an area only a short walk from their location to hide them. A small forest with a dense growth covered much of the entrance, but broke deeper in. Thinning out to something manageable, Chiharu guided them to a loose clearing. “We’ll rest here. Shifting watches every two hours. When night hits we’ll start moving again.” She stepped out into the thick of the forest, but stopped for a moment. “I’ll take first watch.” After those words, Chiharu disappeared into the shadows.

  “Tch, brat,” snipped Seiji. He crossed his arms and smmed himself against a tree trunk. The force was enough to shake the tree, dropping a few leaves in the process. “Going the hell around people around like she’s in charge.”

  “A little decisiveness isn’t a bad thing,” Fumiko replied, walking past Seiji towards Yumi. She leaned down to Yumi, seeing her already w to bee fortable. “Yumi—“ Her words stopped short, realizing that Yumi already fell asleep. It made her smile a little.

  “You know that ability to read people isn’t always a good thing,” ented Seiji, with his eyes closed looking like he wao sleep.

  A surprised look came across Fumiko’s fabsp; She turned her head back as she stood up. “What are you talking about?” Some fusion ran through her still trying to process it all. ‘He’s ag oddly out of character…’

  Minor annoyance popped up on Seiji’s forehead. “I’m no more blind about the things arouhan you. I just don’t like thinking about them.”

  “Should you really be admitting that?” Fumiko couldn’t help but sweat a little hearing Seiji speak. “But oint are y to make?”

  “I’m saying your wish to fort Yumi may only be hurting her. You may be the oldest among us, but we aren’t in need of a mother.”

  The words tio shock Fumiko more. She walked over to Seiji, starting to feel bothered by him. “Is that what you think?”

  “It’s not that hard to think that. I’ve seen the way you are, that someone like me see it.”

  “You just insulted yourself.”

  “I’m just aware of myself.”

  “I see.” Fumiko k down, folding up her legs, but kept only her feet on the ground. She stared at Seiji, seeing someone she hadn’t seen before. It still surprised her even after having their chat to hear the things ing from him. She never expected to have such a deep exge with him. Curiosity mounted inside her. ‘He’s not smart in an intellectual way, but he still have a talk like this. He’s not as blind about those around as I thought. Maybe I’m not as good at reading people as I thought if I missed this…or maybe I just assumed like everyohere was nothing deeper.’

  Seiji’s eyes opened suddenly, knog Fumiko baot ready for him to be staring at her. A ft expressioed on his face with a little annoyance buzzing around him. “You know if you think about too muothing’ll happen.”

  His words mao stabilize the situation for Fumiko. She used her only hand to keep her bance while leaning back as she rested on the ground. “This ing from the man that only acts.”

  Shrugging his shoulders, Seiji tilted his head back toward Yumi. Their winding track met the start once more. He looked a little more serious than before. “Just like fort hurt.”

  ‘Ba that…’ Leaning forward, she accepted the new mood. It was the reason they began talking. “You think I’m hurting Yumi because I’m tellio take it easy?”

  “She has her pride. f her is only going to make her focus on how she has ged rather than on breaking the seal.”

  “But she’s pushing herself too hard. She’s only going to crash, like earlier.”

  “Pushing yourself to your limits isn’t a bad thing.”

  The response was enough to get Fumiko off her butt and stand. She leaned forward with her body tensing up from the emotions flowing through her body. “You only think that because of the type of person you are. Yumi’s just a girl!”

  Seiji leaned forward resting his arm on his knee. He looked up at Fumiko unfling with a deep pierg look within his eyes. “You say that, but it’s just a reflex for you, isn’t it? Sure, I enjoy fighting, but the fights I got into back then were hardly more than childish bouts. But you’ve felt it since you came here.” The words from Seiji wound around him making his appearance sharpen and turn severe.

  “What do you mean?” Staring at Seiji, Fumiko felt as though he was swallowing her. There was something uling a familiar about his words. It almost made her scared.

  Throwing back a hand, his thumb pointed ba the dire of the camp. “I saw the way it looked. I’m not dumb enough to ignore what that means. You say Yumi’s a girl or yourself, but none of us are children anymore. We didn’t truly uand what we were getting ourselves into when we decided to help Yuki. This is the adult world we’re in where what we do has real sequences.” Images of Nerine and as fshed through Seiji’s mind. He narrowed his eyes trying to push it away.

  Fumiko felt the weight of his words sm down on her shoulders. It broke her legs and dropped her to the forest floor. The screams of the soldiers injured from her fighting echoed in her ears. She thought she had moved past it. It was something unavoidable. ‘So he noticed too. I didn’t want to say anything, no I couldn’t say anything… I hought it would be like this.’ Fumiko touched her hand to her cut arm feeling the roughness of her skin. “Real sequences… Yeah, we’ve all gotten our taste.”

  “This is simply a warning,” Seiji replied, holding up his bandaged arm. He stared for a moment at papers that held everything together and sealed the blood inside his body. His eyes focused through his fingers ba Fumiko.

  She gnced back at him. Her body still felt heavy. “These are all heavy prices for just a warning. What do you think’ll happen the ime it’s not a warning?”

  Seiji’s face froze still as though it became stone. His eyes still fixed ohrough his fingers. “Death.”

  A gasp escaped Fumiko’s lip by act, to her surprise. Her eyes already drew open wider than before. The word alone was forough to stop her, but it felt like the dark look in his face was worse. However, a sed ter she lost all of the warmth from her body. It happened because she agreed with him. She already khe answer and only hoped for a different one. She accepted it already.

  “You want to run away from it?” He saw the aghast expression on Fumiko’s fabsp; It was the look of wanting to deny what one already knew, a childish response. Yet he k was normal. It was familiar. “You aren’t the only one.” The admission turned his face even darker with shadows cast over his face harshening his features.

  “…Seiji…”

  “We just have to bear it and remain strong. The future will tio test us to see what we’re made of.” His mi back to his fight with as. It tightened his body. He remembered the emotions still so clearly.

  Fumiko saw a flicker in Seiji of more than his words. She remembered the struggle she had with her power and the realization it brought her. ‘I mao find trol even after seeing how terrifying a power it was. But I still caused so mubsp; I think he might be right about this testing us. I don’t feel like I’m passing…’ Tilting back up to the sky, the blue open expanse made Fumiko feel a little disected from her s. It eased back her memories. She id dowing the sparse grass cushion her babsp; “What have you found?”

  “Something,” Seiji answered, with a pause in his voice that lingered o sylble. His thoughts strayed from trol. He snapped his head to the side letting the bones pop. It cleared away the pieces he preferred not to think about. “A part of me I didn’t ked. One I don’t know how to trol if I see it again.”

  Listening to Seiji didn’t give her any more relief. She hardly expected it to do anything for her. It told her he had simir problems with the situation as her, but nothiher of them could do to help each other. ‘Something…I guess that’s one way of putting it.’ Fumiko turned her head to look out into the forest. ‘I wonder what sort of things Chiharu’s dealing with? She’s the you amongst us, it must be even harder for her…’

  Early afternoon showed a lot ress in the camp. The additional help of the MPs ed up the area quickly. Rebuilding everythi smoothly with nearly all of the camp already back to normal. The outward appearance of everything improved the soldier’s morale, but the sting of defeat left a sour taste behind.

  Simonides finished looking out the tent fps of the unicatio. He leased with the state of the camp and the soldiers. They recovered quickly physically. He khe rest would take time, but he needed his men babsp; Their situation already grew worse with each passing hour. However, he feared something worse was ing.

  A message came in for him, while he worked in the camp. It only retly made it to him. The message ordered him to speak with General Demosthenes Alexander, again. He waited in the unicatio for the General’s arrival oher end. ‘This is the sed time. The General’s taken an odd i in an intrusion, even if it is getting worse. They’re still tained ier nds, nothing for the army to worry about.’ Simonides doubted his failure would risk his position, rather he feared the General might want to take matters into his own hands. He thought about what it might mean to the try if the army marched from the capital.

  Unfortunately, the waiting forced upon him didn’t help his wandering thoughts. He kept gng back at the fountain expeg to see the man waiting on him. ‘Was he in a meeting? The capital’s still in m, but the time for the Rite of Succession is soon. They could be preparing for it…’

  “Captain Simonides,” said Demosthenes, from the fountain of particles.

  The echo ient turned Simonides back toward the table. He forced down his brow to cover up his moment of surprise, caught in thought. “General Alexander, sir. Pardon my earlier absence.” Simonides sat down in the chair meeting eye level with the image of the General.

  “That’s fine. These things happen.” Demosthenes’ voice deepened a little with the mood turning grave quickly. “I came to vey a decree passed down by the cil.”

  ‘A decree? There’s been s to the cil about what happened here. What could this be about?’ The curious part of him made him lean forward wanting to know what the General had to tell him.

  “Due to ret circumstances, new orders are being passed down to all Captains on the border as well as high ranking officers of the army. The cil has determined Captain of the Guard Eudokia Ismene is a threat to the pead security of Atntis.”

  “Captain of the Guard?!” Simonides couldn’t help his shobsp; He remembered her from her time in servider him. “A traitor?” It felt hard to believe. He thought he knew her. ‘She was absolutely devoted to the King and Atntis, why would someone like that turn traitor?’ More of the words sank in for Simonides realizing the deeper meaning of what the General meant by the cil’s decree. “That means…”

  Demosthenes o firm Simonides suspis. A slightly pained expressiohrough the cracks in his face from the weight of the words he delivered. “It is the same for any traitor of Atntis. You’ve been grahe permission to execute her along with all of her sympathizers.”

  ‘Execution orders!? What’s happening in the capital?’

  “This is no longer about capture. Kill everyone ected to Captain of the Guard Eudokia Ismene. No exceptions, Captain.”