16 Haven IV

Lui-eya gently glided down the burning ship as she encountered the four people wearing black. Their faces are covered and it's hard to discern their identity. They held with them bombs of various colors, befitting that of the average bomber equipment.

Astrian fell down faster than expected, landing too hardly that he almost broke the floorings. But nevertheless, he made it himself.

"Tsk." Lui-eya begins the engagement by blasting them with ice as the entire front structure gets consumed by the white cold. The fire is gone but the saboteurs managed to evade the ice and threw another firebomb towards Lui-eya.

Astrian casted a wind spell, deflecting the firebomb away from impact as it hit one of the saboteours, burning them alive. The other three never used their bombs as they flee the scene, but not before Lui-eya casts another spell, pointing her index finger towards one of them, she shot a bolt of lightning towards them, one of them narrowly evading it but not their buddy as they fell down the water.

Exhausted, she yelled out, "HAUL THEM IN!" As a dozen workers took some rope and tried to haul in the saboteour

Astrian then stood up and said, "Someone treat her," He walked towards one of the guards of the dockyard, "I want you to add more people in the security. We can't let them find any more of our stuff."

"Yes sir!" He saluted and walked out towards the guard barracks.

Astrian went back to the workers and told them to begin the repairs as soon as possible. He then walked over to the exhausted Lui-eya and sat in front of her, "Can you stand up?" He asks.

"Yeah, yeah I could." Her voice was hoarse, "Astrian." She glared at him.

"Y-yes?" He nervously replied, she had never seen her this disturbed before.

She coughs a bit before forcing herself to stand up, "Call your generals." She walks away towards the castle. Astrian scrambled to look for Zoroan and Lixus who were helping the workers fix up the ship following the scene.

As they reach the castle into the war-room, they see Lui-eya there, writing up various letters in quick succession. The papers quickly piled up beside her as her unparalleled focus surprised the trio. They looked intently at her actions. The flowing movement of the pen across the parchment and then, done. As if smoke came out of the pen, she dropped it down and looked at them. "I got it." She said.

"Huh... got what?" Astrian asks, sitting down infront of her. Though remembering how she was a former logistics commander, might just be notes on supplies needed for the war.

"They're... supplies needed, mostly." She said, followed by a sigh from Astrian, she continued, "They're also my calculations for the best possible route we can take with the ships if we are to embark later tonight."

"I see." Astrian looked at the large stack of papers, "Then could you tell us about it?"

"Okay." Lui-eya stood up, taking one piece of paper, "Ah, this is for the supplies needed, I think this is on you." She pushed that stack of papers over to Lixus, he sees there countless notes regarding the amount of food the soldiers need, as well as others.

Lui-eya took another piece of paper, "Ah this is it." She clears her throat, "As of the moment, we have five ships in total, right. And one other repair?" She looked over to Lixus who just nodded, "Good. If that ship could be repaired by tonight, then we can use two of them to blockade the entrance of the gulf down south. Preventing the outer islands from sending their ships."

"Mmhm. I get it." Astrian then points out, "Do you think we could blitz through the is-"

"I'll get to that, but I'm not done." She says, "But yes, we can safely blitz from the southern isles to the far north. So we do that."

Zoroan raised his hand,

"Yes?"

"How can you be so sure that we would have enough time to blitz from south to north. Won't those ports be guarded themselves?"

"Yes. That is certainly a factor, which is why this is a two-part attack. The blitz is the second part."

"Then.. what's the first?" Lixus asked.

"Well..."

-3 hours later-

After much argument regarding Lui-eya's attack plan, and with a bit of fiddling on Astrian's side, they finally reached an agreement. The time is 21:00, the sun has already set. Lui-eya has already began the first part of the two-part attack, and if her calculations are correct, at 4 hours they would start the second part of the attack.

As Astrian walked through the hallways of the castle, he was approached by Zoroan who appears to have a subject regarding him. "Sir." He saluted.

"Zoroan." Astrian saluted back, "what do you need?"

"Well, sir. Lui-eya's spies have found something, and she wants me to relay it to you directly."

"What!? Then what's this report!?"

"Well, sir. The spies have told me that the madame is currently wounded. It seems that the Sicilians have managed to create their own weapon with magic. Although the extent of their abilities is still unknown."

"Fuck. Where's she now?" He asks, walking back towards the war-room.

"She's resting at the castle's clinic sir." Zoroan replies as Astrian changes his path and went to the clinic.

There, in the sterile white environment, Lui-eya is sitting up, bandages all over her arms and fingers, she turns her head and looks over to Astrian, he sees that even most of her face has bandages, portions of her eyes, nose, and mouth weren't and he could clearly see the burns all over them.

"What happened?" He asks, carefully taking a seat beside her bed.

"Surprise attack, I didn't have the time to do my magic. But," beneath the bandages, she glared straight into his eyes. "Their leylines are far superior to ours. It will be difficult to attack them on their land."

"Tsk, If only I-"

"Don't digress, it's not your fault they found out. But they have now. And they'll be on alert in their land." She looks back down, It's almost time."

"We'll proceed on the attack then." He says.

"Good, but exercise caution, I don't know the full extent of their power."

"Sure." He stands up and starts making his way out.

"Astrian, wait." She called out to him as he was about to leave. Astrian faces her.

"Yes?"

"Do not attack the mountain."

"Why?"

"Just... don't."

"O-okay then. I'll tell them that."

Astrian leaves.