➳ Camille

"Dear mom and dad,

"I've decided to stay in Grand Olea for a longer period of time. It's very important that I stay. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm not sure how long I'll be here, but I'll miss you. Sorry if this is sudden.

"Love,

"Camille."

I folded up the letter and gave it to the nuntius. It clamped its beak down on the letter and flew away.

My body felt heavy and my eyes burned. Anemone and I had trained all day, but I still had to eat dinner. With a sigh, I walked back inside the grand house and trudged up the spiral stairs. Luckily, Anemone had been thoughtful enough to allow us to eat on the eighth floor, in one of the smaller rooms.

I opened the door to find Anemone, sitting down at the table, wearing a long-sleeved beige dress. There were book shelves on two sides of the room and a stained-glass window in the back. Anemone's hair had been washed and dried and she had applied a bit of makeup. I, on the other hand, was wearing my casual navy blue shirt with black pants and my leather jacket. I was still sweaty from training and my hair was a mess. I hoped that Anemone didn't mind my appearance.

After taking in the room and Anemone, my eyes drifted to the wooden table. On the table, there were two bowls of winter root soup and a basket of rolls. I quickly sat down, took my spoon, and began to eat the lukewarm soup.

"Sorry this isn't much," Anemone said. "I took forever getting ready so I barely had any time to make the food."

"It's fine." I was so hungry that I didn't mind how the food tasted.

"So, when can we help father and Will escape?"

I stirred my soup, pondering the plans I had come up with during training. "The council's office is on some mountain. Right?"

"Yes. It's bitter cold this time of year. It's always blanketed in snow."

"Okay then, um, we'll get our armour and climb up the mountain. We'll need to train a little bit more first though."

"We should be ready in a week, I think."

I could see that Anemone was still plagued by a deep sadness, but I tried to be indifferent about it. It was best for us all if Anemone wasn't sobbing twenty-four-seven.

The week of training passed by quickly. A pattern quickly formed. I would use my sword for half the day. Then, I climbed the rope up and down a few times. Afterwards, I drank some water and ate a quick snack. Finally, I trained with both my sword and dagger to end the day. We sometimes trained with weighted backpacks so, when the day came, we could easily carry ourselves and supplies up the secluded mountain. At the end of the day, Anemone always had a quick dinner ready and my sleep was blessedly dreamless.

On the seventh day, the day before we would leave for the council's office, a nuntius appeared outside with a letter addressed to me. I grabbed the letter and read through it quickly.

"Camille,

"Come home as soon as you can. I'm not sure what you are doing, but your schoolwork will bite you in the rear end if you don't come back soon. We understand the lavish lifestyle of elves is enticing, but you belong in Cerevaux.

"With love,

"Your mom."

I could do nothing more than sigh. I knew my mom was worried, but she would be even more scared if I told her I was fighting against an impending war. I decided to allow her to think I was simply attached to the "lavish lifestyle" as she put it. I would have to explain everything when I got home. If I ever got home.

"Camille? Is something wrong?" Anemone asked, holding the car door opened. "Is the letter upsetting?"

I sighed. "No, my mom is just a bit concerned. That's all."

"It's normal for parents to worry about their child, but you'll be safe as long as you keep a weapon on you."

"Yeah. I understand that." I climbed into the car. It had two seats with a large trunk. It was painted black and had soft swirls of gold. The windows were deeply tinted.

Anemone quickly turned out and away from the house. Once on the road, she turned on soft music as we waited in traffic. The farther we drove, the less traffic there was. The music seemed to also get more intense as we drove along the roads.

Soon, we were winding up a mountain with no other car on the road but us. To make the building more secure than it already is, the mountain that the council's office was on was surrounded by smaller mountains. Luckily, those mountains had roads.

At the top of the mountain, I saw a lone, tall crystal tower jutting out from an even taller mountain. Anemone kept driving, going toward the bottom of the mountain.

"That's the office. There isn't a road up there though," she said. "We'll have to hike and climb. We can park at the very bottom, but that's as far as we can go."

"Will they recognize your car? Someone is bound to see it and realize it belongs to your family," I pointed out.

"Clever thinking. I'll park the car away and hide it away."

After finding a good spot to park, we gathered our belongings in a backpack and started our ascend up the steep mountain. There were parts that we could walk, but the majority of the trip would be climbing.

After only a short time, my legs began to ache. My heavy chestplate pulled me down. However, I was glad we chose to wear armoured skirts instead of pants. I assumed my black body suit was much more flexible than stiff leg armour.

Anemone was right beside me the entire way. In training, we quickly learned that pacing was extremely important. We kept our pace steady and soon came to the midpoint of the mountain. By this point, I was out of breath.

"Anemone, I can't climb. I need a break," I huffed.

"Me too," she replied. "Where would we sit?"

"I'm not sure." My hands ached as I clutched the mountain stone. At this point I was upright and clinging to the mountain as I climbed with little footholds. "Do the council members have to climb this everyday?"

"No, they have mountain cars that can climb straight up a mountain. Unfortunately, there are only three in the world, reserved solely for the council members and their helpers. We really should have brought gloves... Oh, what are we going to do?"

"Anemone, calm down. The mountain is the easy part. The hardest part is not being seen when we enter the building."

"How is that supposed to help me? I'm going to die here. We need to find a place to rest! This mountain is nothing but a steep, uphill, wretched rock!"

"It's not that bad. At least we were able to drive for most of it. We could've been walking all day."

"That doesn't matter. We're trapped! We can't climb down, we can't climb up. We're going to slip and die!"

"We have to climb. Maybe there will be a small ledge we can sit on."

Anemone sighed, but nodded. We kept climbing up the mountain at a slow pace. My lungs burned and my eyes watered, but soon I found a short ledge. Quickly, I swung myself onto it.

"Anemone!" I shouted. She was a bit behind me. "There is a ledge! Come on!"

Anemone smiled and rushed up. She quickly swung herself up and sat beside me. We both took off our chest plates and let the breeze cool us down. I looked up at the sky and clouds.

After moments of peaceful silence, I put back on my chestplate and used the mountain to help me stand up again.

"Let's go," I said. Anemone sighed and put on her own chestplate.

About an hour later, the mountain stopped and met the sky. I felt like my insides were on fire, but I was done. I smiled triumphantly.

I swung myself up onto the flat ground where the tower was and landed on the soft, green grass. Even in the cold of winter, the council's mountain had green grass. I didn't know how and I honestly didn't care.

I lied there for a moment with my eyes closed. I only opened my eyes when Anemone began to speak.

"Camille," she hissed. "We've got a problem."