As the night turns into day and the sun rises off of the eastern shore, news breaks early about the war that Lupresia has been forced into. This news spreads like wildfire via paper routes all across the isles, the primary island and the tertiary ones as well, and as it does, people of all social classes and occupations start to enlist. To entice enlistment, as the military does not want to do a draft since the isles don't have that large of a population and numbers are needed to produce supplies for their armies, they have sent out representative heralds to speak to the public and issue offerings of wages, which have only been offered once before long ago. With fighting a larger and militarily superior nation, they know numbers may affect battle outcomes.

Amongst all of this hubbub, panicky and anxious as it is, one man is ready to take action. Standing in the basement sword training room of his manor, Elias Homing slashes at one of the dummies with a sword. It tears a gash in the gut of the fabric, and he stands up straight whilst withdrawing his sword and holding it down at his side. Unlike the last time, he is wearing full clothing, shoes included. Deep in thought, he thinks on what to do. His bad feeling he has had as of late, a feeling as though they were all witnessing the calm before the storm, becomes more and more reaffirmed.

This thought is interrupted, however, when the door can be heard opening to his right. Looking over, he sees that the person coming downstairs to him is Amelia, who has one hand behind her back. "Master Elias, I have something that I must say." She says as she walks in and closes the door behind herself. "For you see, I wish for you to have-" She stops speaking whilst she approaches as she notices Elias looking at her with a glazed expression. It's clear to her that he's been in some thought. "Sir, are you... Are you alright?" She asks. getting close to him and stopping. The height difference isn't too severe, but evident, Elias standing at least two inches taller.

"Hm? I... I'm fine." Elias tells her, brushing off his previous thoughts. Though in doing so, he notices her face turning to one of worry and concern with eyebrows slanted upwards towards the glabella. Seeing this, he feels like he should maybe tell her. She has always been there for him and been the closest thing to a mother that he has ever had. "Look-" Rubbing the side of his neck uncomfortably while still wielding his sword in the other. "I've been thinking. I... I'm going to enlist in the military." He tells Amelia, who is shocked to hear this.

Her jaw dropping as he tells her of such a decision, she quite obviously doesn't like it too much. She tries to not panic, as she already worried about him going to face Haden down prior and now, he is going to war, but it is understandably very hard. "A-Are you sure?" She asks him, concerned beyond belief. "Why?" She asks, taking a singular step closer with her hand still behind her back.

Not wanting to worry her too bad and understanding why she has and would, Elias glances off as he answers. "I... I want to serve my nation. It's just that I don't feel like I have done enough yet. And I'm intuitive, so I might be able to help the war effort." Looking back towards Amelia, he can see that it hasn't quite eased her mind much at all. "I promise I'll make it back, okay? You managed to trust me before, so please trust me here, too." He tells her, clearly dead set on going through with this deadly and seemingly drastic decision.

Seeing his determination on going through with this decision, and although it worries her, she knows one thing. She can't stop him in the end as he is grown now and is no longer a child in need of protecting. Even if it feels like yesterday that he was. "Okay..." She takes a step back, looking at the floor as she reluctantly accepts his decision. "Here, I... I want you to have this." Reaching her hand that was behind her back out, it has a letter in it. "I've been meaning to give it to you. Your father didn't want you to know, but I can't rest easy with that." She says, handing him this letter.

Looking at the letter, which is now in his hands, Elias doesn't know what is in it, but he can tell it must be important from Amelia's uncertain, almost emotional demeanor. "Okay. I won't read it now, as I want to focus on enlisting. But once I am in training, the first night I will read it. Thank you, Amelia. For everything." He doesn't mean it to sound so bittersweet, but it does and Amelia can hardly contain her tears. This woman, a servant who helped to raise Elias while his father never really tried and he didn't have a mother, can't help but feel such a way.

Walking over to a sword rack and placing his sword on it, he turns to look at Amelia and not knowing how else to say bye, he simply nods. Turning away and walking to the door, he exits. Although being able to understand her worry and concern with their rather unique relationship, especially when it comes to a servant and employer type of relationship, he feels that he is doing what's right. To him, whose father had also served in the military as a major, and whose grandfather was a general, it's expected of him to do so. He wanted to help with the investigation, but not being able to get directly involved has led him to this. This is his form of recompense.

A bit of time passes, and Elias arrives at the enlistment office. Dressed in pretty nice clothes, he is shocked to find that it is crammed full of people, mostly male but some female, who are lined up outside of the building going inside. Even if there being so many means he'll have to wait quite a while, he is relieved to see that some people are already enlisting. The more people mean more of a chance to fight off potential invasion. There is only the Avanpresian channel between the two nations, so the chances of a soon to occur invasion are high. And Lupresia's navy is not as large as Avantasia's, so it would be difficult to stop an invasion before landing on the shores.

The waiting is agonizing, and Elias feels like he is inching along like a worm as the line moves up one after the other. Before he can care to even notice, an hour passes by, and he has FINALLY made it inside the building. Several times he has thought about giving up and trying tomorrow, but now he's inside of the fairly small building, and the line is wearing down slowly. He sees the endzone, a recruiter behind the desk, a man with glasses and a fuzzy mustache.

Finally, after a bit more waiting, it's Elias' turn to walk up to the desk. There are even more people behind him, so he can only wonder how they are feeling. As the recruiter looks at him, he can tell he's the no-nonsense type of guy. "Ah, I recognize you, good sir." The recruiter says, "You have stirred quite a buzz around town in the last month, Mr. Homings." Maybe he is wrong about the recruiter being no-nonsense, but he sure is saying this as strait-laced as humanly possible. No smiles whatsoever.

Elias can't tell if he is meaning that as a positive thing or negative thing, as his blank expression leaves much to be imagined. "Uhm, yes. I am sure that... You know why I am here, right?" He asks the recruiter, who seems to get why completely. And of course he would, given the very nature of this building and his job. "Good. Well, I wish to enlist like my father did and his father did before him. I want to serve my nation and do good by my legacy." He lays his intentions out in the open very clearly.

Nodding as Elias says this, the recruiter takes a paper from the side. "Very well. Here, sign this." He hands Elias the paper, as well as a writing utensil, and Elias starts to sign it. Things such as name, address, and date of birth are asked and are necessary to sign, amongst other questions. It takes a moment, but Elias is a fairly quick writer, so he finishes shortly after starting and hands the paper back to the recruiter, writing utensil with it. "There we go. It will take a few days, but if you are allowed to serve, we'll send mail to you to inform you of it. Thank you for enlisting." He tells Elias, though it's simply a formality since his job requires him to say that.

As Elias is told this, he nods and simply turns around, walking out of the front of the line and to the door, leaving the building. Outside, the line is not so long anymore, with only a couple waiting outside of the building now. Even if the line is coming to an end soon, it is still good that so many had come to enlist, as numbers are much needed. Walking down the street to go back to his manor, Elias now knows it's only a waiting game now, as he didn't write the paper wrongly, nor does he have any illnesses that would affect his eligibility. He must wait a bit longer, but he is confident he'll get accepting into the military's fold.

Around this time, Captain Sheena acts out a plan she has organized with her most loyal royal guards to find the traitor that stands amongst them. She has had the genders separated and lined up separately to be given their scheduled arms inspection to ensure that their weapons are fit to fulfill their duties. Having done so for the men first, it makes the change in how the inspection has never been separated by gender before more believable for the women and less suspicious.

Standing in front of the line of women that is about halfway the size of the men's line was, Sheena scans all of them, remembering what the traitor supposedly looks like according to the guy they captured. "Hmmm... There are a few blondes here..." She thinks as she looks at the women, amongst which are a few blondes. They hold their weapons out as the weapon inspector, an older man, walks down the line to check each one. It's sharpness, weight, etc.

The guy they captured also said she was thin, but a few of the blondes are thin. Steadily though, it's wearing down and she is getting closer to finding the traitor. And she remembers the last thing that can find her, the parting bangs that he described. Looking at each of the thin blondes, only one has parting bangs with a ponytail in the back. Bingo, she has found the traitor. As the inspector finishes, having not found a weapon that is not fit, he approaches Sheena. "Ma'am, I have finished the inspection. All of the weapons are suited to be used in service of the queen. You may dismiss the female guard." He tells her, but she shakes her head.

"Not yet." Sheena promptly answers, looking towards him with her hands behind her back. "I have something I need to say." As she says this, the inspector nods and moves aside so that she can address the women unabatedly. She steps forward and looks directly at the traitor before looking from one end of the line to the other in a panning head motion. "Before you are dismissed, I must tell you... There is a traitor amongst you. Our plan to capture an entire group of conspirators in the attempted assassination of Queen River failed thanks to her involvement." Saying this, it creates discord amongst the women, who look at one another in skepticism of one another. "And I already know who it is." She looks at the traitor, who can tell she has been discovered. "You are wanted for treason against her highness the queen." She tells her.

Although it may be hopeless, the traitor starts to run, getting of the line and trying to escape. Most of the other women are shocked and do not know how to react as many of them were cadets with her in training, finally one jumps out from the line and tackles her to the floor. Sheena had started to give chase, but with one having stopped the traitor, saves Sheena the energy she would have expended otherwise. As the traitor is pulled from the floor and taken to the dungeons against her will, she struggles but it is useless. With a war having started, efforts to take down the organized efforts to overthrow the crown shall be stalled somewhat, but Sheena will try to continue this search whenever possible.

To Be Continued...