ELIZABETH

The boy took the chunk of bread from Teryn's hand suspiciously. Elli marveled at just how round his belly was compared to his skinny arms. These people were starving here, on the Lillycove city limits.

She turned and looked in the distance at the large stone lighthouses around the keep where her family lived- in a part of town she had never left until she took the voyage to Sootopolis to be a part of the First Generation. Now, as she looked around at the crowd of starving kids pushing and shoving their way up to the cart where Teryn was handing out but meager portions of bread, her heart broke.

"I just don't understand," said Elli. "Every night when I was a child, I watched cartloads of food leave our palace. Surely those rations were enough to feed the children." She mentally tried to recall just how full the carts were when they wound down the Lillycove hills by the shore and down into the city.

"That's not surprising," grumbled Teryn. The Draconid girl had not taken kindly to being Elli's watchdog on the way into the city. In the last few days, however, they learned how to get along slightly better. "The first people that get to the carts as they leave the Chiefs and Lords' homes are her majesty's soldiers- the royal army. They take their fill, as much as they want, and leave the scraps for the smallfolk."

Elli felt that her whole world view was shattering before her eyes. This wasn't what she had learned during her schooling in Sootopolis under the Empress's guidance. Her majesty protects the people of Hoenn from those that would exploit them, she remembered it said. Now, however, she began to consider what if it was those that promised protection that were those exploiting the smallfolk?

She was taught the virtues of equality, of everyone receiving their fair share, of how the Empress and her wise council in Sootopolis oversaw the production of food and sustenance, and distributed them in such a way that no child was left hungrier than any other. That much is true, she thought. For the most part, all these children are equally starving.

The Draconids had made camp that night on the outskirts of the cities, in the slums. They were far away from any Imperial quarters or patrols. Occasionally, Elli tried to remind herself that she was a captive. Sometimes she wanted to run into the city, shouting for help, and that her father or a guard would recognize her and bring her back to her castle amongst the lighthouses. She wanted a proper bed, and her mother, and Luvdisc, and Jessi...

"There's no more," Teryn had to say to a little boy who had come back for seconds. Elli saw his eyes in the torchlight, he was still hungry. She wanted to reach back down into a basket in the cart and toss him another slice. Teryn must have caught her eye and understood. The Draconid girl spoke to the boy, but Elli knew the words were for her. "We must save some for tomorrow night."

Teryn lightly slapped her Doduo on the side, and it began to pull the cart. Elli followed behind as they made their way back through the slums and tents to find their way back to the Draconid camp. The torchlight was faint, and the lights of other fires in the slums of Lillycove looked like a night sky on a cloudy day. Still, Teryn confidently knew which alleyways to pass through, which to avoid, and caught Elli off guard as they changed direction again and again.

"Do try to keep up," she said, lightly unnerved at Elli's pace. Elli tried to walk as she was taught, ladylike with proper posture, but the clothes she was given and the muddy soil made it difficult. "I'd hate to have to feel like I've lost you and alert our friends in the city to your presence. They're less forgiving than I am, and don't share our Commander's grace and wisdom. They may not bring you back in one piece."

Elli hastened her footsteps.

It wasn't long before they ended up at rotting wooden establishment that could only be a pub. The air stunk of alcohol and smoke and a sickly sweet smell of some burned meat. Teryn snapped her fingers and Elli pulled up her hood as she had been instructed. They entered the establishment.

Elli didn't make eye contact with any of the silent patrons. She had seen them before, and was caught staring when the Draconids first arrived into town. They were mostly old, frail, greybeards who had seen better days and with their eyes and whispered the Empress's name in curses. Teryn flicked a golden speck towards the bartender and the shrill sound of metal filled the air. The bartender nodded and Teryn made a quick right turn.

Again, Elli quickly followed and descended some steps into the basement where Commander Solomon sat alone at a desk, reading some papers by the flickering of a single candlelight.

"Did you feed them?" he asked quietly, not looking up from his letters.

"Aye, sir," Teryn said. "The little Wurmple are still as hungry as ever."

"How many?"

"Fourty-three," Teryn said as she looked down at her feet.

"We've lost six more to the famine," Solomon put his letters down and placed his head in their hands.

Elli pondered the remaining bread the Draconids had brought with them to feed the children. How many faces did she see tonight that wouldn't be there in a week, or even tomorrow? She began to see how the Draconids, despite their violent attacks on Imperial officials and their families, were welcomed in secret by many of the country's citizens. The "terrorists," the "political enemies" of all that was good in the world made sure the children were fed, while even Elli's own family was guilty of seeing the shipments of food pass through their gates, not caring to see where it went, and receiving congratulations from Her Majesty about how caring and progressive they were.

"Any news from our friends in the Tiddall household?" Teryn asked. Elli's heart skipped a beat when she heard her family's name.

The Commander of the Draconids wiped his eyes. "We've been here a week, and it's taken longer than usual to get word to them. It seems there's been a recent spike in crime. We've got spies in the family guard, and they've been busy tracking down some very rowdy and uncivilized murderers, thieves, and the like." He shuffled through the papers until he found what he was looking for. "But we do have this: the meeting will take place tomorrow."

Meeting? Elli wondered. She tended to remain silent at these gatherings.

"So it's done then?" Came a voice on the stairway. There stood Jason, the eye-patched Draconid captain. "I'll see my son again?"

"Yes, Jason, if all goes well," Solomon nodded.

"I don't think you should do it," said Teryn. She quickly looked down at her feet. Teryn was fierce and opinionated... Elli wished she was like that.

"Well, speak, girl," Solomon beckoned to her and gave her permission.

"It's just... as long as we keep the girl, we have leverage over the Tiddalls. Why not use that to our advantage?"

The stairs creaked as Jason descended. "We did," he growled. "We turned your boyfriend's blunder into an advantage. They get the girl back. In exchange, your Lord Father has promised my son back, as well as a dozen of our captured agents."

Teryn turned and got into his face. "He's not my-"

"I'll not have what's left of my friends and family be at each other's throats. You're dismissed." Solomon's voice was soft yet stern. The girl and eye-patched commander ascended the steps. "You stay, Elli. Have a seat."

She walked in the dark room and sat on an old wooden chair. It was slightly damp to the touch. Solomon's tired, almond-shaped eyes flickered in the candlelight.

"This might be our last conversation together," he said. "I figured that you should know that a week ago, before Teryn rejoined us, she brought me grave news. Alexander Specter is dead."

Her heart sank. The young nobleman and guard that had stood up to Burningtree, who had comforted her as they were imprisoned together, who had kissed her and danced with her at the ball on Mt. Pyre... gone from this world. She felt her dirty cheek cleansed by a salty tear.

"What... happened?" she asked, her voice wavering.

"The mission that Carson sent him on went bad. He attempted the kill on Lord Specter, and was killed when his Spirit Pokemon, Banette's head was smashed by his Dusknoir." Silence ensued.

"How can you know? You weren't there..." Elli knew what he was saying was the truth. She didn't know why it saddened her so much.

"Teryn saw the body. She came straight to me when Carson brought his body back. I would have entrusted the meeting tomorrow with our liason from your family to Jason to go pay my respects to the boy... but it seems Carson has done something with it."

She wasn't going to be here much longer, she knew. For some reason, Solomon's eyes seemed trustoworthy. Like Teryn, she spoke her mind. "I hate him. I don't care what you call him. I hate Burningtree, he killed my friend, he kidnapped me, and he sent my... friend to his death." She sobbed and wiped her eyes. "I don't understand how even if you are just trying to help those the Empress doesn't... Sure, her tactics may fail sometimes, but... How can you let someone like that be a part of your team? You called him your family. How can you treat someone so dark as one of your own? He's a murderer, and a fiend. I hate him." She broke down.

She felt Solomon's warm hand touch hers.

"Everybody has their weaknesses... and Carson is no different. Sometimes those that we push away are those that we need to keep closest to us, to guide them through the dark times, to help quell their hate. That is Carson's weakness: his hate, his sadness, his fear."

"He has no fear, only hate," she couldn't let Solomon, despite his good intentions, humanize this man. This evil shadow that had terrorized her dreams since childhood. "He killed my friend-"

"And nothing hurt him more," Solomon finished her sentence. She looked up. "Did you know that the courage you have shown in the face of your captors is admirable, and you and he are not so different... Carson spent months not knowing if a Salamence was going to eat him today or tomorrow. He has lived nearly his entire life in darkness. And the power that he possesses is a dangerous thing to try and control. I found that I could not. I told him not to go, that it wouldn't bring his brother back.

" 'Her father, Eric Bell, took my brother from me,' he told me. 'And now I'll take his family.' He was younger than you when he killed the little girl.

"Only when he came back to me, crying, unable to rest peacefully and calling out her name in his sleep did he understand what I had tried to tell him. Punishing the daughter for the crimes of the father is not justice- its murder. He never apologized to me... but it destroyed him inside. The one act that gave him infamy and struck fear into the hearts of the Imperial officials was the same act that turned Carson into Burningtree.

"After that, I kept him close, to curb his hate and comfort him, to try and keep him in the light- or at least to keep him as a Hero in his darkness."

Elli considered that for a moment. Her hate... she wanted to give into it so badly, but Solomon's words soothed her. She thought of the starving boy as he stretched his hand out for one last loaf of bread... How would her hate save him? Hate breeds hate... she thought. But something still nagged at her. I don't want to be him.

"Why isn't he here, then?" she asked. "So you can watch him? You let him off your leash and he got Alex killed."

Did she see a tear in Solomon's eye? It was gone in an instant. As he pointed at one of his letters on the table.

"The foreign invaders bear the sigil of his family. There are whispers my spies have confirmed as truth: Brandon Brightflame has landed in Hoenn. I can't track him as I've trained him too well, but I can only assume Carson has sought him out. Every night I have prayed to whatever gods exist that the joy of his family returning will chase his darkness away."

"So that's it then," Elli said coldly. "You let him escape justice. His actions didn't just affect me or Alex... they got your sister killed, the Lady Caitlyn."

Solomon took a deep breath. "The man responsible for the deaths of both of my sisters is Grand Lord of Mt. Pyre. I was there when Caitlyn came into the world, screaming with a fire that could never be quenched as my mother gave her life to give my sister life... and then I watched as Specter cut her head from her shoulders." Silence ensued. Elli had never seen anyone die, much less a family member, or breathe in those last few moments.

"She saw me," the tears were unmistakable as they came down his cheeks. "She saw me, and she knew why I didn't act. Because there are greater things to accomplish in this world. We all have a bigger role to play, for the good of the people of Hoenn, than indulge in our own selfish thirst for revenge. All of us. This is what Carson failed to see... and why he became Burningtree. His failure is my failure." Another tear fell.

Elli grabbed Solomon's hand. "I... I understand you, and I won't forget your kindness. No matter what happens when I go back to my family, I will tell them that you only want to help the people. Perhaps the Empress could agree to a peace."

Solomon smiled and looked Elli deep in the eye as his words pierced through her. "You know as well as I do, as you have seen of the smallfolk, that peace through tyranny and fear is no true peace. As long as there is an Empress, there can be no peace."