Chapter Track: Try Everything by Shakira

"Well, now that you have some sort of training, would you fight by yourself or would you gather your people to fight with you?" Pariah sat beside her queen in the throne room. Eliza seemed different; even the air around her was different.

"It's going to be hard for me to convince them that the council they all put their hope in is corrupt and doesn't care about them." Eliza sighed. It wasn't in any way going to be easy to convince a whole kingdom that something or some people they trusted with their lives are bad.

"If I shall offer some help to the queen." Jabarl spoke.

"You may speak Jabarl; you are an important part of this new kingdom we shall build; speak to me; advise this queen." Eliza smiled at Jabarl, looking into his milky, white eyes.

"Well, if you want, you give the people a choice: to fight by you or be deceived by this false god that the council has brought up. Life isn't life without the choices we make. The fact that we can make choices is what makes our actions carry weight. It gives them purpose. That, Queen Eliza, is what makes people fight for a cause-the ability to choose." Jabarl's voice echoed in the throne room, full of wisdom. The black man could have been king if wisdom was the only necessity.

Eliza looked at her adviser. Jabarl insisted that he would only wear his fine red linen on his waist, nothing more, leaving his upper body bare. Jabarl had the figure of a warrior, and his black dreads made him look like a lion!

"Very well, Jabarl; I have heard your advice, and I'm going to take it."

Jabarl's eyes stretched a little as he smiled. "I'm glad to see that the queen can make good decisions."

Eliza and Pariah spent the next weeks, sending notes to the people of The Sands. They wanted a secret meeting, without the knowledge of the council and there was no way the entire kingdom gathering in the palace wouldn't spike the attention of the council members so they were able to split the people into groups for Eliza to address them and in those few weeks, that's what they did and bit by bit, Eliza was gathering her army, the people that would stand by her in time of battle.

In an underground hall in the palace, Eliza stood, addressing the last batch of her people.

"So, would you stand with me, with my cause? This cause, given to me by God, to subdue the evil in our land and the fake gods that have held us in their claws of deceit. Would you fight by my side?" Eliza begged her people, openly, like a common person would, sincerely asking them for their help and cooperation.

A few elders stepped out from the crowd. They were family heads from various families in The Sands. And they spoke in unionism.

"We would fight by our queen and we would banish the evil that so desperately latches itself onto us and our land!"

"Thank you so much." Eliza smiled and that was the last of it.

Once Eliza had gathered an army, she started training and making weapons and armor. She had to have herself and the people prepared for war. Some didn't believe Eliza, they didn't want to fight with her but she didn't punish them, she didn't fight them, she let them be, giving them the choice of freedom.

And for the next seven months, that is what Eliza did, she trained every day with her soldiers, made them armor good enough to fight a demon and she readied their minds for battle, with patience and words from God.

On the eighth month, Eliza stood on the balcony of her palace and the skies rumbled, there was darkness right before the sky split and a figure emerged from the clouds.

He looked like a sun god, his aura was evil and soul-piercing.

"To be honest, I did hope you were real." Eliza said to the figure as he dropped to her eye level.

"I am Bedrieël, the sun god." The figure smiled, his dark skin glowing from the orbs of light that surrounded him.

"Bedrieël, I own that sun; it was given to me by God to aid me to rule and fight for my people and do it justly. How can you even have such power?" Eliza mocked the fake god before her.

"You believe in something hard enough, you give it power and life. I am Bedrieël and I have to take what your council has claimed as mine."

Eliza looked below her. She could see the council members and an army stood, ready to fight for The Sands.

"You would need to kill every single one of us before you rule The Sands." Eliza's army proceeded from the castle gates; it was time for war, and battle cries could be heard.