Nilsa wore a full suit of armor twenty minutes later, an array of daggers sheathed against her belt. The golden armor was thin enough for Nilsa to move around without the extra weight dragging her down, but enough to stop a blade from piercing her heart. The same couldn't be said for the rest of the gods whose armor looked to be a hundred pounds in all, but they had the superhuman strength to make up for it. Color had returned to their faces and so were their powers, but Nilsa was still afraid to send them off into battle again.

Shadow trailed the nine of them while rambling off new information as it came in. It appeared that even at his weakest, Ronan had eyes everywhere.

"Queen Corvina and Captain Kielle are spotted just a mile away from the palace with an entire army in their midst. We have our own men ready to fight, but we need approval," Shadow rambled as they quickly walked through the halls and towards the palace entrance.

"You have it," Alaeca replied. "I assume Corvina will separate from the group quickly. She never fights with her own people. Keep an eye out for her."

"What about the witches on the training ground?" Czarin asked.

"Rieka's scholars are holding their grounds nicely. They're quite skilled in spells." Fight magic with magic. The scholars were the closest thing the gods had to witches.

"Prince Arran and Lady Giselle are traveling alongside Captain Kielle and Queen Corvina."

Nilsa nearly choked. Of course he was a prince.

Alaeca not-so-slyly glanced over at Nilsa. "Take Lady Giselle alive. We don't have a use for the prince."
Nilsa shook her head. "Don't keep her for me. She made her choice."

"Then we keep her for her mother," Gideon answered. "Her daughter may be a traitor to the throne, and while she will be condemned to face life-long consequences, we shall not take a daughter away from her mother."

Nilsa unwillingly let out a sigh of relief. Giselle was a mystery, someone Nilsa wanted to punish for treachery, and someone she still wanted to understand. Nilsa held a certain amount of hatred towards Giselle, but she'd still mourn the girl.

"I say five minutes until Queen Corvina's army makes contact with ours. What are your orders, Aleaca?" Shadow questions, and the ten of them stop before the palace exit.

Alaeca took a deep breath and looked over her siblings and Nilsa. "Rieka is going to keep up the barricades around the palace and oversee the wounded. Czarin is to be in the forest preparing her archers against the witches. Thorin, how much of the lake can you still control?"
Thorin paused in thought. "I can drown some troops, if that's what you're asking."

"It is," Alaeca clarified. "I need troops with Thorin around the lake. Caspian is to be leading our army against Corvina, and I want Chryseis and Ronan with him. Ronan is to keep his shadows around all parts of the palace to exchange information. Gideon will be overseeing the barricades. I will be holding ground by the capital, and will be sending orders through Ronan's shadows."

Nilsa chuckled as the goddess stopped there. "I didn't get dressed up to sit around, Alaeca."

The goddess grinned. "Of course not. I want you to run around and kill anything with Velpavanian colors. Stay away from the witches and wherever that damn queen and her red-headed pet is."

"Deal," Nilsa replied.

Gideon took a deep breath before he started to speak. "What we said to each other yesterday still counts. I cannot tell what the outcome of this war may be, or how many of us are walking out of it."

He kept talking, but Nilsa found herself slipping into thought. No, they couldn't see what could happen, but you could. You could help them. You can see.

She turned to Ronan beside her. "Give me your hands," she ordered, and Gideon halted his speech.

Ronan's brows pursed. "What?"

"Give me your hands," she repeated and she took two steps toward him. "You can't see what's to come but I can."

Ronan's eyes went from her to his siblings. "Are you sure? What if you find something you don't want to see."

Nilsa offered her hands out. "Then we know what to change. I'm sure."

Rieka stepped forward. "It could be the difference between winning and losing."

He hesitated, but gave her his hands nonetheless.

Nilsa closed her eyes in concentration, focused on him and the images that lay beyond.

Blurs of color came, the start of a vision, before they were cut to black. Sounds of distant blades filled Nilsa's ears before they were cut off too. She pushed harder, but with every new vision was a following black wall.

"This isn't right," she murmured, moving her hand from his to rest it on his cheek, searching for something that would serve as an explanation.

"What do you mean?" Rieka asked.

"Something is there, but I can't see it. There's an interruption."

She pushed, latched onto whatever blurs she could find but was met with the same result each time- pure darkness.

Stop looking, Citali's voice echoed in her head.

"I can't," Nilsa breathed out, her eyes opening to reveal a bright white glow, the mark of an Archai. "I need to see it."

I may have given you my abilities, Citali said, but I am still in you. I'm not gone yet, and while I continue the slim remainder of my life, I will not let you ponder over an inevitable future.

"It's never inevitable. You know that."

There are certain points in time that cannot be changed no matter how hard you try. This is one of them.

"Then why can't I see it? Why won't you let me?"

Shadow spoke from behind her, but his voice seemed so distant compared to Nilsa's own. "The battle has begun."
I owe it to you to keep you away. Forgive me, Citali said before her voice vanished and the glow in Nilsa's eyes disappeared. Now, she gazed into confused blue eyes.

"Citali is keeping it from me. She won't let me see it."

Ronan frowned. "It's okay," he said slowly. "Maybe that's for the better."

Nilsa placed her other hand on his other cheek and tugged him closer. Panic filled her mind, pure terror. "You don't understand. If she won't let me see it, it means something happens that she doesn't want me to see."

Ronan took a deep breath. "I understand."

"Something is going to happen," she repeated. "What if you get hurt? What if this is the end?"

"Then we have to face it, Nilsa." He was much calmer considering how this news was ripping Nilsa from the inside out. "Then we fight."

Alaeca cleared her throat. "We must go. Ronan, send off your shadows."
Ronan nodded but didn't spare his sister a glance as she disappeared in a red puff of smoke, and the rest of his siblings followed. "I need to tell you something."

Nilsa shook her head, tears returning to her eyes. "No. You're going to tell me after all of this is over, because you are going to come back to me."

Ronan smiled, possibly because he knew the chances of that were dimming by the minute. "Nilsa, I love-"

"No," she repeated, pulling her face closer to his. "You're going to tell me when all of this is over, and I'm going to say the same thing back to you. Promise me that."

Ronan chuckled. "I promise."

The tears fell faster when Nilsa nodded. "Yes. And I'm coming back to you. I promise, Ronan. I'm coming back."

Ronan kissed her for what may be the very last time. He pulled her close against his body and held her there for much too little time. And then, he disappeared from her arms.

The next four hours went by faster than Nilsa could have ever imagined.

She was constantly moving, constantly switching places, constantly fighting a new opponent. One minute she was fighting off soldiers while Thorin drowned them with the water running in their own bodies. Sometimes she was dragging the wounded into the palace for Rieka's healers to tend to. Sometimes she helped barricade the doors with Gideon. With each change of location, she awaited a messenger that would tell her that one of the gods had fallen and would never get up, and thrived off of the fact that no messenger ever came.

When night approached, Nilsa found herself sprinting through the darkness and towards the biggest battle of the night.

She saw Caspian first, his hammer flying overhead while lightning struck down to the grass, electrocuting twenty Velpavanian men with each bolt. Chryseis' daggers met three chests before she swept low to the ground and took them back, sending them flying towards their next targets within the same swift movement. Then, she found Ronan in the middle of it all, his shadows being his own everlasting armory.

Nilsa ran headfirst into the danger, five men immediately meeting their demise at the end of her sword. Some saw glowing white eyes and ran the other direction, only to be met with one of Chryseis' blades.

Nilsa's breath came in heavy huffs, but she persevered for thirty minutes until a head of red hair distracted her. Just seeing Kielle in the mess of the battle made Nilsa fall still, and her throat nearly suffered at the end of a Velpavanian blade by doing so.

Alaeca only gave her three specific tasks: Stay away from witches, stay away from Corvina, and stay away from Kielle. It should have been simple enough, and Nilsa was prepared to start running the other direction, right up until she saw the captain's course of direction.

Nilsa was fast but Kielle was faster.

Seven men surrounding Ronan fell dead without Ronan laying a finger on them. He turned around, whipping through four more with the simple swipes of his daggers, but not even him could move fast enough to move fast enough to avoid Kielle's arms from coming up behind him.

Nilsa's sword cut through flesh and bone at the same moment Kielle pushed a long, dripping blade through the thick armor and into the chest beyond.

Not even Kielle's head rolling across the blood-stained grass could compare to the horror Nilsa felt when Ronan's body fell lifelessly to the ground.