As Vanessa expected, Adamus did not take the news of Davon’s death well.

  He spent a full day moping around the Pza dressed in bck and avoiding everyone he came across.

  Gelmidas was in a poor state as well, although it seemed to Vanessa that he had worked out his grief by midday.

  However, none of this concerned her.

  The main thing on Vanessa’s mind was Cassandra.

  Ever since the girl arrived in Rome, she had been sneaking out of the Division Pza every chance she got. It was obvious to everyone, even Adamus had caught on to it.

  Vanessa thought to interrogate Cassandra; if she was indeed plotting something, there was a slim possibility that it could interfere with Vanessa’s own pns.

  Surprisingly, it was Tendo who urged her to hold off for the time being.

  He told her that he had even looked into it himself and determined that his daughter was doing nothing that could harm what was already in motion.

  “And how do you know this?” Vanessa inquired of her husband.

  Tendo gave a wary smile. “Because I know Cassandra.”

  The answer was enough to satisfy her for the time being, but another threat would soon show itself the following day.

  Gelmidas had appointed Adamus the new messenger of the Division.

  Vanessa couldn’t object, but putting Adamus in such a high position of political authority showed that Gelmidas knew that Vanessa was at least plotting something involving him.

  As a matter of fact, it now appeared that both of the Atheneum’s were suspicious of her.

  Perhaps Cassandra’s plea to Adamus all those days ago had a greater impact than she thought.

  No matter.

  She still had her eyes and ears.

  Tendo told her everything that Adamus had so carelessly let slip from his mouth.

  She knew that Gelmidas would think that the heads, or at least the basement itself, would be her target.

  She tried to make it obvious, the trip to the basement, being the first thing she did upon arriving in Rome, was practically a burning red fg.

  She had also done her best to stress the importance of the marriage, but no one had discovered that it was merely a diversion and an easy way to keep the universe’s eyes on Rome when her true pn was put into motion.

  However, she did find it odd that Tendo suspected Cassandra of wanting what was in the basement.

  Vanessa knows that Tendo is loyal to her, but what is it that he was keeping from her that made him suspect that Cassandra wants the heads?

  Clearly, he knew something about what the girl was up to.

  Nonetheless, everything was still going according to pn, and the wedding was fast approaching.

  Vanessa would simply have to confront Cassandra and Tendo on the matter beforehand.

  A bottle of water fell from the balcony of a tower and spilled over one of Vanessa’s guards on the way to the coliseum.

  Vanessa gred up at the little girl with silver hair sitting on the balcony.

  Something was strange about the child, but Vanessa couldn’t quite tell what. The pair exchanged gnces of disdain before Vanessa told the man to go dry himself off.

  She then arrived at the Coliseum and made a rather dramatic entrance. Vanessa was fully prepared to scold her daughter when a ray of light shined in through the window, interrupting them.

  “Your friends, I assume?”

  The light made its way onto Vanessa’s cheeks as she spoke.

  Cassandra was speechless. Tendo spoke for her. “They are. It’s alright to tell her, kiddo, she already knows.”

  Cassandra stumbled back against the wall. “I swear I wasn’t going to hurt you. I’ll still marry Adamus.”

  Vanessa didn’t want to pressure Cassandra, but how else was she meant to get her message across? “How am I supposed to believe you?”

  Cassandra somehow scraped together something resembling confidence. “You aren’t, but the Atheneums have already caught onto you.”

  They hadn’t.

  “They know your pn.”

  They didn’t.

  “They’ll stop you!”

  They wouldn’t.

  Vanessa grinned as Cassandra shouted. “Thank you for telling me, Cassandra dear.”

  She stepped outside, being sure to look flustered as she met Adamus and Gelmidas’s gaze.

  After the confrontation, Cassandra whispered to the Atheneums. “Vanessa knows everything,” and Gelmidas ran off to alert his guards.

  Vanessa yet again had to stuff down her ughter.

  It wasn’t even ten minutes ter that Vanessa saw Adamus again.

  The person he was with matched the description of Nadeden’s traveling companion, but the fact that Cassandra covered for them and even knew their name suggested otherwise.

  Even after Vanessa got a good look at Smith, she found herself unsure if they were indeed Nadeden’s associate.

  But, after overhearing Cassandra’s conversation with them as she walked away, Vanessa had determined that Smith was indeed who she thought they were.

  A smile briefly touched her lips.

  Nadeden had made it to Rome.

  She soon saw so herself.

  Nadeden must have thought that she was safe just because Vanessa hadn’t gnced at her directly.

  A sloppy mistake.

  When Vanessa had the opportunity, she dispatched Loeb to go kill her.

  She knew that Loeb didn’t stand a chance of surviving a fight with Nadeden, but it was a necessary gamble.

  She had to learn if her suspicions were correct, and when Loeb returned, and Gelmidas was in tears, Vanessa put it all together.

  Nadeden was Adamus’s Mother.

  The boy would never inherit the crown with that information out in the open. But Vanessa still wanted to confirm it.

  She gripped Gelmidas’s arm after Nadeden fired the arrow, and Adamus ran off. “You haven’t told him?”

  Gelmidas grunted back, “Only Davon and the other Warbound knew.”

  Vanessa’s eyes widened.

  She was right.

  A smirk slowly crawled along her face. “I see…”

  Before she was evacuated from the coliseum, Vanessa was sure to snatch Nadeden’s arrow off the ground.

  It would prove useful ter.

  She spins that arrow in her hands now as she speaks with the woman who fired it.

  “You know what happened next. Gelmidas announced to the entire city that Adamus is your son. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. His reputation is in ruins, and very soon, Rome will be as well.”

  Nadeden chuckles. “The city is locked down. Word hasn’t gotten out yet.”

  Vanessa tosses the arrow into the air, catches it, and smiles. “It will. I was counting on Gelmidas locking down the city. I wanted to keep the destruction contained. Rome has the rgest human popution of any city in the known universe. It’s the capital of the Division. And now everyone is watching it. I’m sending a message, Nadeden.”

  “Alright.” Nadeden unfolds her legs and sits upright, staring straight at Vanessa.

  “But how will you win over Adamus? No one knows where he is, and he clearly hates you.”

  Vanessa ughs, “He does hate me, but he thinks that my husband is on his side, remember?”

  Tendo takes a seat on Seno’s bed.

  He pys up his panic as best he can.

  He was even able to cry in front of the boy. That alone should have sold the performance, but he can’t be sure. He speeds up his breathing and wipes his dark eyes.

  Adamus pces a hand on him. “Try to rex,” He urges Tendo. “Tell me what’s happened.”

  Tendo hides a smile with more tears. “He… He’s going to die if you don’t stop them!”

  “Stop who? Vanessa?” Tendo pushes Adamus away.

  “No! No! It’s worse than that…”

  Seno now questions him, curiosity taking hold of her. “How bad is it?”

  Tendo says what Vanessa told him to, “The Scorched Archer wasn’t the only one who came to Rome to kill your Father. There are five others: a Squideel, a Martian, a Lungoza, a Fluoredon, and the same Elf who killed Davon Yemer!”

  Adamus’s face goes pale before turning red with rage. “I thought that the Elf was being guarded for trial.”

  Tendo quickly manifests a lie. “She escaped! They’re all at the Pza now, you have to hurry!”

  Adamus grips Tendo’s shoulders. “I’ll deal with it. Stay here.”

  He then turns away to reassure Seno that he’ll be alright and rips off his bracer before rushing out the door.

  “What about-”

  “The Giant?” Vanessa finishes the sentence, “I already sent my personal guard up to deal with them. It was a difficult decision.” She turns the blunt head of the arrow toward Nadeden.

  “A few men can’t kill them. You would have to destroy every single stone.”

  Vanessa can’t help but ugh. “I know, that’s why I gave them a pnet ripper!”

  It was a Pnet-ripper that had destroyed Granix’s home pnet, Quandroiz.

  A Pnet-ripper is a highly votile sentient explosive made of three organisms that dig into a pnet’s surface before joining together to detonate.

  Use of Pnet-rippers by any species was deemed a war crime by the Martian Council after the destruction of the Martian colony pnet Tethmaulous at the hands of a Fluoredon extremist group.

  The Division and the Republic both protested the decision; their war was one of attrition after all, but the whole of humanity quickly succumbed to the pressure of the other species and resumed their war with the enforcement in pce.

  Granix now floats just above the atmosphere, eagerly awaiting Smith and Nadeden’s call. They are blissfully unaware of the Bioship fast approaching them.

  Inside the spacecraft, Loeb hands off two pieces of the pnet ripper and keeps the st one for himself.

  He knows that he and his men are on a suicide mission.

  He doesn’t care.

  He’s doing this for the Republic. Humanity will be united under one fg again, even if it hangs over a pile of smoldering ashes.

  “You’re insane,” Nadeden states, tightening her hands into fists as she stands.

  “Why go this far? Why couldn’t you have just waited to stab Gelmidas in the back?”

  “That’s sad,” Vanessa snarls. “I thought that you, of all people, would understand.”

  “What is there to understand!” Nadeden readies a punch now. Her voice rises with her heartbeat. “You’re going to kill hundreds!”

  Vanessa rises from the dirty floor of the cell. She looks Nadeden dead in the eye. “You’ve killed hundreds, too. Like I said, Nadeden, I’m sending a message.”

  The attic above the storage tower violently shakes at the noise outside.

  Anvil is the first to look outside. “Mystic, come see this.”

  Mystic scrambles to the gss, pushing her face up against it. She gasps at the sight in the distance. “Cassandra, Smith,” She turns to both of them. “We need to leave, now.”

  Smith leaps to their feet. “Leave, where?”

  The building shakes again, and the city with it.

  “What’s happening?” Cassandra asks, ignorant of her Mother’s pn.

  Mystic grabs her things off the dusty table.

  Smith grows frustrated and steps over to the window, shoving Anvil aside before gazing out at the destruction.

  “What is that?” They ask in horror.

  “That, my Smith,” Mystic lets out a heavy sigh, “Is the Rusting.”

  “It isn’t enough to kill Gelmidas; I need to kill the Division. I need to ruin it. If their beloved Adamus does this. If he destroys Rome while trying to defend it, then what does that say about the Division?

  For decades, they called my people the weak, lowly Republic.

  We were indeed unprepared for the Rusting, but so was the entire universe. We were indeed pushed back by Magnus Ohavim’s forces for years, but Gelmidas could hardly lead an army.

  We are not the weak ones, Nadeden.

  My government is strong. My people are strong. My family is strong. I am strong.

  The half-century war never ended. The Division may have id down their weapons and lowered their guard under the impression that peace had been achieved, but my Republic was merely buying its time.

  Humanity was once whole. We were once a grand species. We could have conquered the stars, but the Division had to go and ruin everything. They had to split apart from us. They have to be taught this lesson. The Republic of Humanity will once again reign as the only human government by any means necessary.

  I don’t care if you call me a madwoman, Nadeden. You abandoned your people. The Republic saved you from death on that pyre. I know your story. My daughter idolizes you. You were born in blood and fire. The Republic handed you a bow and arrow the day you learned to walk. Yet you left it all behind for the Division.

  Was it because they would have killed you otherwise, or was it for the warmth of Gelmidas? Admit it. You could have hung up your quiver long ago. So why did you kill? For your survival? For your son? What sort of reason is that?”

  Vanessa raises the arrow before Nadeden’s burnt eye.

  “A selfish one.” Vanessa growls.

  “I may very well be evil, Nadeden, but I am the lesser evil, the necessary one.”

  Nadeden throws a punch at Vanessa. She sms her against the wall before the fist can strike skin.

  “I will bring justice and order to this universe! I will wave the fg of the Republic over the bloodied corpse of your son and your lover! I will make humanity great again!” The arrow slips from her fingers as she strangles, Nadeden.

  She cws at Vanessa’s hands and throat, gasping for air.

  “Look at yourself… Ha! The Scorched Archer! You're just an old woman.” She sneers before letting go of Nadeden.

  It is only now that she notices that the crowd gathered outside the walls of the Pza above has grown eerily silent.

  “Do you hear that?” Vanessa smirks as Nadeden trembles at her feet.

  Deep within Rome, the beast lets out a roar.

  Vanessa presses a finger to her pursed lips.

  The bck tassel of her beret rests over her brow as she mutters to herself.

  “I’ve won.”

  Exiled_From_Earth