And she chooses fire for a carpet

In full battle gear, King Council Vardyr saw a river of intruders marching into his territory.

There is no other way to put King Vardyr's misery as he saw the Queen with his men not even in full suits standing still like they were waiting for him - he felt taunted. How dare they come to his land unannounced.

The Queen gets off of her saddle with such grace and prepares herself to face the King Council of Takèif.

Ryvna and Von's guard are up as the Queen fearlessly stomps forward.

At a distance, the full-geared warriors of Takèif stopped as they allowed their King to proceed alone closer to the Queen.

"What's this gutsy Queen who just randomly explodes people doing in my kingdom?" The king said walking gracefully and naively.

Not even an inkling does the King knows why Queen Vana is seen inside his kingdom.

He is even more perplexed how in the world an explosion occurred when he knows her sister so much that despite how cunny he thinks she is, she is not capable of such a thing.

But he is galled. This odd situation does not comfort him, even more, when he sees her here not even fit for battle - more like a war in his mind.

Before the King got even closer to the Queen, Von already has his sword pointed straight at the King.

The King stopped but did not even flinch at the sword pointed directly at his neck.

Without delay, the King's warrior rushed to guard their king and with only a few millimeters the warrior's sword is away from Von's gut. Ryvna raised her sword as well towards the warrior.

Such tension there is, but to the ruler of lands, they are unbothered. All that they could think of is to unravel this knot that they badly wanted to be cut, not untangled.

"Keep your swords where I can't see them." Queen Vana directed her words to her Knights and so they did.

"Shouldn't I be telling you that King Vardyr?" she answered the King with raging eyes and calm composure

"I was already so full of your little games brother! Did I do anything? No! But your games aren't little anymore. You crossed the line. Now you have to face what you have brought yourself into. You asked for this... I'm here to tell you that." A dubious remark coming from the Queen when to King Vardyr she is the one who brought about all these circumstances first thing in the peaceful morning of him.

What has he asked for himself? Such a random thing to say from her very sweet sister.

King Vardyr upon trying to discern the Queen, saw the light of her words.

She is barking in the wrong tree.

He cackled malevolently as he figured how her little sister, a Queen higher than him got it all wrong - finally a way to hurt her ego.

"Well, I think you've got the wrong end of the stick here Queen Vanameryth... Don't you get it?" The king said as he feels he got the upper hand today.

Queen Vana's bearing shifted from grump to baffle as she listen further to his mocking dictum.

"I didn't march my way here all geared preparing for what's to come for who knows you'd be already brushing off our lands for whatever reason. I mean you've managed to make an explosion, what more would I expect than war?" Indeed, a mistake of Queen Vana to set foot in his territory.

It wasn't from Takèif but from Xuediv, or is it?

"And that's what I thought. We both thought wrong," he added with an intent to insult her for not being aware she was being played by King Ackgu, the King of Xuediv, the smallest kingdom there is in Shaoghal.

Vexed by his talk, she did not utter any word and turns her back. She whispered to Von, "Find Philip" with so much pain and disappointment in her voice, she asked him to find Philip.

Philip, the knight of the Queen, completes her set of first knights. Not only she consoles herself knowing they will fight to the death just to save the kingdom but as well as assures herself her safety is secured.

The Queen gets into her horse, stared right into the soul of Vardyr, and said, "This is not over yet brother." In an instant, the Queen's horse along with her warriors gallops their way back to Acairè.

Only a second after, they heard the loudest bell ringing three times. This is not good.

There King Council Vardyr snickered as these heedless people are gone before his eyes.

"The fools. They fell for that." he cackled at his pleasure of fooling her very own sister.

*

Sir Philip on the other hand is on his way rushing back to the still and eerie open field out to the kingdom of Ackgu.

He just witnessed an array of people carrying torches engulfed by a rally of warriors in their spears and shields making their way to Acairè.

A deliberate scheme revealed at a time the kingdom of the Acairè would not ever astonish.

Who would ever attack Acairè? When it was deemed powerless against the two kingdoms combined.

What a bold move. Where could have they gone their confidence?

With all Sir Philip's might, with all the wounds and ruptured rib, he managed to run his way to the top of the steepest hill there is.

He is breathing heavily, running out of breath, running out of strength.

He run to the hill not to find an escape but to reach and uncover a magnanimous bell, 'Bell of Chasleis' (named after One King's wife) hidden beneath a running vine patterned to the hill and slammed its tongue thrice, signaling a fast approaching conflict.

To success, he delivered his message before faintly rolling down the hill.

It has not been long since the bell last rang.

It rang the first time in the enthronement of the first ruler of Acairè (Queen Council Vanameryth) and was not heard ever again until now.

Indeed those who heard the sound of the huge bell caused another chaos in the towns. The people are already troubled as it is. There is more trouble to come.

Even the wounded who have not even recovered the slightest were dragged out as quickly as they can so that they can desert their post.

An unimaginable sight to see and the unmanageable fear of the people in Acairè.

But to the warriors and the summoned training warriors, it means the time they have invested in expertise is to be put to use.

An organized scattered array of well-distributed warriors flew the palace and are prepared to protect the kingdom just as they oath with their lives.

They even dragged giant catapults loaded with mixtures of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal (gunpowder) held in place in a wooden handcrafted ball.

They mobilize themselves even without orders from the Queen as they rummaged through every town they passed to tell the people to go straight towards the palace and then even further to the west from there.

Not a single living soul they left.

But even the swiftest team of warriors could not compare to the distance between the few of the towns of Acairè as there was already fire ever so quickly burning towns.

The warriors who were led by the second in command next to Dreeyan were confusingly outraged by what was happening.

"What is happening?!" screamed the warrior from afar and unsure what to do.

"I don't know." the second in command, Heim, whispered to himself.

Heim felt numbing in his arms and his sword fell from his hands.

He can hear the ringing in his ears and the warriors' helpless agony.

If he could describe in a word what he is seeing right now, it's hell.

He looked at once more the town ahead of them. It's already swallowed by fire and they can't do anything about it.

Even if there's a lake near this town, the fire would hardly go down. And it's not just one town they had to save.

"Fall back!" Heim shouted with all his might. There is no way any of this can be stopped. He picked up his sword and ran for his life.

"Fall back!" echoed the warrior by his side.

A few catapults were already seen flying off the air making touchdown to the ground of fire exploding even more drastically and already doing even more damage to the towns.

A rain of arrows hit a few more warriors that couldn't avoid it despite the full-plated armor and metal helmet.

This should be enough to eradicate them halfway or make them retreat before even reaching the midpoint of the palace.

But little did the warriors of Acairè know that all this is only to attract attention towards someone who has longed to see Shaoghal crumble.

Someone who badly wanted to have an impression.

Someone who wished to have a distinguishable entrance and wanted a red carpet to pave the way.

And she chooses fire for a carpet.

After all, the closest thing to red is fire, isn't it?

When Heim and his warriors at his disposal saw the catapults they bought from the palace lining miles away from him, he screamed "To the catapult!"

"Those who have bows and swords ready them, we will fight!" He said to his warriors although he was unsure all of them heard him.

"Throw!" Heim commanded.

"Throw!" echoed a warrior.

The lever was pulled and exploded at a distance when the enemy carrying only lighted torches was. Then the lighted stones and arrows soared to the sky.

"If they want fire, let's give them fire. Throw!" He commanded once more as he himself pulled the heavy lever.

Suddenly, the arm of the catapult stopped swinging. The loaded and lighted gunpowder fell off the payload rolling into the lever and exploding itself.

The raining arrows stopped in the air and went back their way at full speed. Even swords and spears were torn in half like glass - so fragile.

The horror in the faces of these warriors is insignificant now that to what seemingly sorcery, they have killed themselves with their own weapons.

All these because of just a slight sway of the hands of this unknown intruder who seemed nowhere born in Shaoghal.