.・゜゜・☼・゜゜・．

After tearful welcomes, Deyanira did not waste more time in getting all the people back into the room to discuss the upcoming war.

"Your maps are all wrong, well you have been frozen for some hundred years" the blonde tried to joke but nobody seemed to get it, she sighed and took her own map from her coat. "Ravka has extended way more and Shu-Han is not as large as it once was" she out the maps side by side to compare. "Obviously the fold, and, Gaeliar is no longer in the maps, the Darkling made sure of that"

Everyone furrowed their brows at the name of the monster that had doomed them all and tension grew in the room.

"The war is going to take place here" she pointed at a place named Balakirev. "Or at least that's where I last was"

"You expect us to fight for a world that forgot about us" a dark skinned man said from some place at the end of the table.

"That's true, I cannot force you, you can stay here with your families, and flourish this Kingdom to what it once was, or you can come with me, help all this people, and be called saviors instead of cowards"

The Queen smiled at her, proud of her daughter's words.

"I'll follow you, my daughter" her mother put a gentle hand on her shoulder, and one by one the council nodded in acceptance.

"Thank you, we don't have much time, now, let's plan this war"

.・゜゜・☼・゜゜・．

"Saints help us" Nikolai muttered as he watched the fold expand towards them.  He hoped that Deyanira had gotten somewhere safe, it was no matter that she was a sun summoner it could still kill her.

He heart broke when they had informed her she had left without telling anyone. But he couldn't really blame her, the way that Alina had spoken to her, must have cut her deep and the last days before she left she was already suffering.

He prayed to the gods that wherever she had gone, she was safe.

He then notice that the fold had covered half of the building. The building where Alina still was.

"Alina..." he muttered and started running towards the building with everyone else behind him. When they were almost to the walls, the Grisha army of Kirigan was there waiting for them, they had to deviate their way to loose them, his lungs and legs burn as they followed them.

He heard as an inferni summoned fire and then a squaller air and his eyes widened at what they were going to do.

"Down!" He shouted at his friends as they all jumped and got down to avoid the hot flames of the Etherealki.

However, the scorching hot he expected to feel never arrived. He looked up and saw a golden force field like the ones Alina had done.

He stood up and went to look over the border of the dirt pit he had hid in. The Grisha were as confused as he was, until a dagger flew into the air and hit hit one of the inferni in the head. He narrowed his eyes to see the dagger better. It had a sun on the point of the handle.

Deyanira?

He turned to the direction where the dagger was sent from, there was one person in the top of the hill. It was her, he had noticed because of the shiny blonde locks around her, but she didn't look like a pirate anymore, she wore a golden chest plate and a sword on her hip.

All of the Grisha turned their attention to her too, angry for killing one of their own, as they were ready to attack her, they all felt a rumble in the ground.

An army covered the entire horizon, they stood waiting behind her, waiting for her signal.

He was frozen, where had she obtained an army. Unless... she had gotten to Gaeliar. The Prince figured he'll asked her to explain later when his life was not threatened.

She firmly rose her sword and the entire army ran towards them. His eyes widen once more beciase if they didn't moved they would get in the crossfire.

"Run!" He shouted to his friends as they all stood up and kept running through the maze of this building.

"We're nearly there. The entrance sis just around the bend" Dominik informed them all as they kept running.

"There's no time to reload, we're outnumbered here" one of the men with them said.

"Let's even the odds a bit" Dominik stopped and turned to the Grisha that weren't fighting in the front and blowed his whistle. Even if most of them had stayed to fight of Deyanira's army, they were still outnumbered.

They finally arrived to the barricades and Nikolai stood in the front and center before his friend pulled him to the side.

"We need you whole for dear ol'Princess" his friend patted him on his shoulder before they heard the screams of the incoming Grisha.

The Grisha were getting closer, as they started to protect themselves with a bubble of air and shoot flames at them, making their group smaller than it already was.

"Kirigan is pinning us between Volcra in there and these arseholes here" Nikolai told them blood trickling down his face.

"We deal with the arsehole first" Dominik tried to shoot them but realized it was futile. "Checkpoint!"

They all ran to the end of the fortress. There was no way out, now. They either fight or died fighting.

The soldier went to fight the Grisha but soon they were all dead and the Grisha were still advancing on them.

"Cover me" Dominik told him as he ran to the snipers and Nikolai tried to shoot the Grisha as best as he could.

He breathed in heavy as I e of the Grisha shot sharp ice at him, he got behind a wooden panel but the woman kept shooting at him, the ice so sharp it made holes in the wood.

This is it, he was going to die.

"Get back!" He commanded everyone as he maintained his fear contained and dove behind another wooden panel where Dominik found him. "We can't let them get past us. Not if there's a chance Alina's in there"

The twins tried to attack the Grisha summoning air but a stronger squaller just blew them back.

Nikolai and Dominik ran as they saw the leader woman summon more ice and point them straightly at them. More at the crown prince.

Nikolai felt as time slowed waiting only for the sharp daggers to pierce his body when a blinding light filled the entire barricades.

Him and Dominik breathed heavily as they uncovered there eyes. Deyanira stood before them, she had a glow around her, that made her look like a saint that had come to save them all or an angel.

Both, Nikolai thought.

"Don't ever touch him again" she said fearlessly as she shot light bolt after light bolt at them. She only left the leader, as the other two writhed in pain on the floor, the inferni woman tried to attack her one last time before a bb landed besides her and exploded in her face, finally making her stop moving.

"Where did that come from?!" Nikolai questioned angry that someone threw a bomb so near Deyanira.

Three figures emerged from behind them, a boy with chestnut hair, a brown man with a top hat, and a man with a walking stick.

"My demolitions expert" the man with the cane said.

"Expert?" The chestnut haired boy asked. "I mean, yes, expert"

She got distracted by watching the trio appear that the tidemaker summoned water from the air and basically punched her with it, making her fly back to where all of her friends where barricaded.

Deyanira groaned in pain at the impact of her body hitting the ground harshly. The leader realized that one of her friends was the dead and the other was severely injured, making her look at the Princess with a glare as she slowly stood up.

Nikolai, and his bad timing, went running towards her in an attempt to help her up.

"Nikolai! Go back to barricade" she tried to push him back behind the wooden panel in vain, but as the Grisha was about to kill them both, the man with the top hat started shooting bullets at her as the twins got behind him, but the woman quickly froze the gun.

"If only you were born Grisha, you'd know what it means-" the woman started speaking but was interrupted by the man.

"To be blessed?" He took off his jacket buttons and threw them at her, apparently he was a Durast. The other man had apparently recovered from his wounds and tried to shot lighting at them only by the metal cane that was thrown in his direction to attract them all.

While all of that was happening Nikolai helped Deyanira up, before looking her over for wounds and kissing her forehead rapidly. He went to the front of the group as the dark haired woman realized her fingers had been cut off and shot her with his gun.

"It's done" Jesper muttered as the group started to disperse.

"I didn't realize you were patriots" Nikolai told Kaz as he handed him back his crow cane.

"Well, if you die, we don't get paid" the man shrugged.

Another man jumped from over a fence with a sword, and reunited with his sister and friends. Deyanira smiled at the heartwarming moment, but soon realized she needed to get where Alina was and quickly.

"The blade, did you find it?" Nikolai asked them.

"Inej has it. They've gone to find Alina and Mal" Kaz responded his question making Deyanira perk up.

"Do you know where they are? I need to get to them" the blonde asked and he only pointed at the fold behind them.

"In there"

.・゜゜・☼・゜゜・．
She speaks!
I'm sorry I said I was going to update yesterday, unfortunately I had some very bad news about my health and I had to absorbe it before writing. Anyways, I think there's like two or three chapters left before the epilogue.