Willow

"The plan of the gods, the fate of His people." Those were the first words written upon the dozens upon dozens of papers written by Lui-eya.

As Astrian read the words written inside his office, he notices that the "book" as he sees it, is all about not him, but his people. The people of Arcadia. Although he knows already most of what is contained upon the first few pages, seeing as he lived through it already.

But he cannot help peering into the end, knowing that the papers not only have blank pages, but an end is what intrigues him. Slowly he opens to the very end, unsure if he is ready to face the fate of his people. Should there be anything written on it.

As he peers into the paper, he sees the words, "Arcadia, winner as the king of Epirus was." Those were the only words written upon the otherwise blank paper. The words, located at the very end of the last piece of paper. Their fate, sealed, no matter what they did.

But Astrian, through his many knowledge of the past through his readings, do not know who the king of Epirus was. But that was not a problem in itself, rather that they have won the war. And that much was guaranteed.

But even so, he cannot afford to not seek the knowledge of the so-called "King of Epirus". He has a faint idea of who he is, or what he has done. But it seems the memory has slipped away, with that he made haste back home, and into the Arcadian Libraries. He knows that they are in a stalemate at the moment, and that much is viable breathing room.

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In the senate halls of Sicily, Sicilio and the senators are engaging in a heated debate. You see, the senate body of Sicily is separated into 3 factions. The People's order, a faction composed of the average man. They speak for the people and the common soldiery;

The nobelitas, the noble senators who are more worried about the needs of the state rather than the people;

and the third, the King's faction. Only the King and his advisors inhibit the King's faction, the advisor's duties when not in war is to maintain a stable bureaucracy in the empire.

The debate was begun when Lucius Lian, a senator from the People's order argued that there is no particular reason for the King, Sicilio, to be letting the Arcadians have free reign over attacking the islands. That despite having a decent garrison, it shouldn't have been able to warrant the deployment of his advisors.

The nobelitian senator, Gartious argued back that the deployment of his advisors have perfectly gauged how weak the Arcadians are in actuality. That even their full army could not do anything but merely attempt to scathe the advisors. Of course, all this boiled down to a common point between the two factions.

Why won't Sicilio make an aggressive move?

It was the elephant in the room, and Sicilio knew it. But only a few of the measly senators would actually stand up and tell it to him directly, one such was the Nobelitian senator and one of Sicilio's most trusted general, Tisus Magnus. Who raised his hands and stood up, and told directly to Sicilio, "My liege, might I ask why you are letting the Arcadians do their move?" Before sitting back down.

"Patience." That is his only word.

Tisus shrugs, "Well then, my liege," The young general then stands up, "If you do not want to march on the Arcadians, then I'll do it myself." He leaves the senate hall. The other senators peering over him silently.

Sicilio leans over to one of his advisors and says, "Go follow him, just tell me what he does." The advisor nodded and silently left the room. The debate then proceeded as Tisus headed for the barracks.

The barracks of the Sicilian kingdom is a vast multi-leveled complex of wood and stone outside the city's walls. Reserved in these barracks is the men of Tisus Magnus, training for their eventual march against an enemy.

Years of peace had finally landed them in a war, a total war, if they may add. And there is no one more excited for the war than his forces. Although some are recruits, they are all formidable under Sicilian leadership.

And his most elite units, a mere thousand out of his 80 thousand men, one of the strongest forces throughout all of Arcadia, aptly named the "Siclian Guard", they are without a doubt the second strongest magic-using squad next to Sicilio's Sylvias, perhaps third, if we are counting Lui-eya's elite squad.

He gathered all of his forces outside, and without a moment's hesitation, ordered his men out and marched away towards Arcadia. His route, devised, taking the northern route, circumnavigating the Arco-Sicilian bay, passing by the Freian Kingdom and hopefully, they're able to properly hit up an alliance and take Arcadia once and for all.