Episode Six, Part 2:
The Boy from the Bunker 

Sol chewed on her gums; her arms folded over her chest, and she huffed out a deep breath of frustration. "What are you-" 

"Don't try and play dumb, Sovereign," Reegan said. "Commander... Sorry. Which one should I call you?"

Instincts told Sol to keep up her clueless act for as long as possible - potentially try and trick Reegan into believing that she was wrong about her suspicions, but there was no use. The way she was looking at Sol told her everything she needed to know; the hate in her eyes, the quivering of Reegan's lower lip as fury poked through her seams, the steadfast belief that Sol was one of them... The City of Targo.

"You know what? You're right," Sol confessed. "I was a part of The City of Targo-"

"You weren't just a part of them."

"No," Sol shook her head, suddenly rather subdued. She wasn't one to show her vulnerabilities often - much less to her enemies - but there was nothing else she had left to hide. "I was their Commander."

"And you came here to punish us all for leaving. You killed Tobias for initiating everything - for being the leader of us - and you probably did the same to Ivy. No doubt, as another way of sinking your claws into Tobias. Everything you've done is to hurt us."

"You're wrong," Sol's heart twinged at her words, unsure why Reegan's beliefs about her mattered so deeply, but they did. She was desperate to prove her otherwise; to prove that she wasn't some cold-hearted, evil killer, but nothing was getting through to Reegan. "We were stranded on this island after fighting for our lives, only to find ourselves caught up in a war between your people, and Terra Firma Tribe. We already had a withstanding alliance with them, but guess what?" She asked. "We chose to help you. Your people. Exile Allegiance."

"You're very convincing," Reegan said. "And your experience in leadership may make you a better one than me, but better doesn't mean you'll win."

"This isn't a game, Reegan. This is our lives; Basilisk and Exile Allegiance. All any of us want is to live. If we leave each other alone, we can both let that happen."

The younger girl folded her arms across her chest, annoyed at Sol's calm attempts to reason with her. Although she wasn't entirely sure what her own plan was, Reegan knew she wanted to make Sol more riled up than she was; earn some satisfaction out of their continuous dispute.

"Look, it's not what you think. I had to become the Commander of The City to save my people; to save Basilisk! And to do it, Rhea wiped all of my memories and almost convinced me to kill my friends when they came to save me. I left The City because I was never one of them, no matter what I had to do. I saved my people because nothing could ever take the Noble out of me, no matter what stood in my way: that's who I am."

Reegan's nose scrunched up and she let out a sharp breath, her eyes glaring faultlessly at Sol. "Do you-"

"She's lying," one of Reegan's guards interrupted from behind her, her voice angry and wavering with emotion. She took a step forward as she spoke, gripping a little lighter onto her blade as she shifted it into view, wanting to make her threat known to Sol.

"What do you mean?" Reegan asked, not having expected one of her people to interrupt. Across from her, Sol looked on with just as much confusion, wondering why the hell someone was trying to challenge her once again.

"Yeah, she was our Commander," the guard confirmed, "but she wasn't much of one. Did she tell you about when she abandoned us?"

It hadn't ever been a decision Sol had regretted but all of a sudden, Sol's chest felt tight with worry and as everyone's eyes narrowed on her, her stomach turned in unease.

"No, she conveniently left that part out," Reegan said.

"Why does the circumstances in which I left, matter? You left The City long before I got there," Sol pointed out. "Your problem is with them, not me, and as your friend just pointed out, I was never really much of a Commander to them."

"You destroyed The City when your people came to rescue you, and then you left everyone behind in your mess!" The guard continued. "A lot of us hated that place, but we weren't all lucky enough to up and leave whenever we wanted. My family and I suffered for months in the chaos after you left, and we had no choice but to flee and come here as a way to survive. Our family, friends - the people we had known our entire lives are still there, and we had to leave them behind all because of you, not knowing if we'll ever see them again."

"The City was unkind to everyone, including me," Sol said, briefly glancing over her shoulder to see if she could locate Dreea and Kodiak. Thankfully, they were easy to see - hovering a hundred-or-so yards away, waiting at the ready to jump to Sol's protection the first sign of danger. And, just like she knew they would, they immediately began approaching following the intense look on her face. "I might have been the Commander, but behind closed doors, Rhea tortured me and the people I loved. It doesn't make me a bad person for wanting to leave that place behind; not when the only thing those people, that City, had ever taught me was what immense loneliness felt like."

"I've never cared for sob-stories, Commander," Reegan had fun using Sol's former title against her, especially given what she now knew about her past. If there wasn't any other way she could weaken Sol, at least she could still count on this. "We all have reasons to be angry. Some of those reasons make people run away, others - they make the decisions that need to be done. And on that note, Riverly, it's time for our alliance to come to an end-"

"Reegan, please. You don't fully understand what you're doing. Not only to yourself, but to your people-"

"Quit it, Riverly. This is done. And if it wasn't clear enough already, as leader of West of The City Exile Allegiance, I officially declare war on the people of Basilisk."

As Sol reached into her waistband to retrieve her blade, Kodiak and Dreea appeared at either side of her, standing slightly forward to protect her from any impending attacks from Reegan. She assumed they'd heard her declaration of war but even if they hadn't, Exile Allegiance's sudden turn on them and the threat of all their weapons now hoisted towards their Nobel Sovereign was all the confirmation they needed.

"Try anything stupid and you'll be dead in a second," Dreea growled, breaking away from Sol and Kodiak and creeping forward several paces, tilting her blade up towards Reegan.

The younger girl noticeably swallowed down a mouthful of fear and adjusted herself to continue standing tall, but Dreea knew she was scared.

"Back down," Reegan spoke over her shoulder, addressing all of her guards that had followed her out. "We didn't come here for a fight, though, the Sovereigns are the only ones who are outnumbered at the moment."

"Do you wanna try us!?" Dreea snapped, desperate to push Reegan to the edge and put her in her place once and for all.

"Don't worry, Sovereign, you'll get your shot," Reegan said. "I'll give you the courtesy of telling your people that you've failed them once again, and that they'll have to prepare for another war. After all, this is our island."

Dreea kept her vicious stare on Reegan until she was finally escorted out of sight, sheltered by a huddle of guards which kept her out of harm's way. Once the threat was eliminated, and any chance Dreea had at landing her weapon into one of them had passed, she turned back around to face the others.

"Please, if it comes down to it, let me be the one to kill her."

Sol let out a narrow breath, tucking her blade back into her belt. "You might have to. The way this is going, I'll be her first victim."

"She's an obstacle - just like the rest of Exile Allegiance - but she's no match for you, Riv," Kodiak said. "You know that."

"Unfortunately, I don't think our skills are necessarily going to give us the upper hand here. She's furious about what happened to Tobias, and what's more powerful than grief?"

"A whole lot of things," Kodiak said. "Trust me, I'd know... You're one of those things."

Sol managed the best smile she could and softly nudged her arm into Kodiak, but it wasn't very convincing.

"What do we tell them?" She asked, nodding to the onlooking crowd of their people who were secure at the far end of the beach having listened to Wynn's orders. It was obvious that a confrontation had occurred with the Sovereigns and to make things even worse, they'd have surely noticed Kodiak and Dreea's hurried attempts at pulling out their weapons and moving to Sol's side to defend her.

"Nothing yet," Dreea answered, not sounding entirely sure in herself. "Let's get back to Wynn and speak to him first. Who knows; maybe he'll have a better idea than us."

Sol let out a laugh as they began walking over towards him, surprised that she still had it in her. "Almost sounds like you've warmed up to him being a Sovereign."

"Ha," Dreea laughed along. "He wishes."

Deciding to meet them halfway, Wynn had moved on from the group of Basilisk and let them dispense along the shore, jogging forward to catch up to his fellow Sovereigns. He wore a puzzled expression, stuck between Dreea's and Kodiak's weapons which were still out, and the faint laughter he had seen from Sol as he walked over.

He threw his hands up, exaggerating his confusion. "What's going on?"

"Well, we don't have to worry about trying to maintain our slippery alliance with Exile Allegiance anymore," Kodiak said.

"They've agreed to keep it?"

Sol clicked her tongue, shaking her head slightly. "Think more the opposite," she said. "As in, we've lost it."

Wynn sighed, scratching at the back of his neck as he tried to process the news. "Bad news, in other words," he said. "So what now?"

"First and foremost, we need to figure out a defence strategy," Kodiak answered. "Reegan implied there'd be a fight coming our way, so we need to make sure the majority of our people are sheltered, and the rest are armed."

"How are we going to do that?" Wynn asked. "We're out in the open here. Literally."

"Dreea and I brought back a stash of abandoned weapons from Terra Firma Tribe; that's a start. Our strongest fighters will be given the best weapons, everyone else stays together; our families in the hideout, maybe."

"That's it!" Dreea muttered under her breath, interrupting before anyone else could respond to Kodiak's suggestion.

"What?" Sol frowned. "That's the plan?"

Dreea shook her head. "Terra Firma Tribe," she said. "We can station ourselves there to defend against Exile Allegiance's attacks because of the high fences Calvin built up. At the very least, it'll buy us some time to figure out either a war strategy or a way off of this damned island, whichever comes first."

Dreea expected her idea to be the perfect solution to their troubles: a shielded campsite, a vast collection of weapons, somewhere to hide and wait out all of Reegan's attacks until they made their escape, but the hesitant look from Sol told her otherwise.

"What is it?" She asked. "You don't think it'll work?"

Sol exhaled, wrapping an arm around herself as she wrestled with the truth. "It's not just as simple as walking up there and settling into Terra Firma's old campsite."

"Why not?" Wynn asked.

"Because of Chessca," she answered. "I don't want to keep moving her around - not if we suddenly get the chance to leave this island any day now, and have to do so quickly. I'm terrified of her getting hurt again."

"Hey, in comparison, she's recovering much faster than Elara is," Kodiak pointed out. "Chessca's getting her strength back already, whereas Elara is still struggling to be even halfway there. She's had a few bursts of energy when she's needed to save Izzy, but other than that, Chessca's way ahead. She can take it."

"She can also do a remarkable job at hiding how she really feels to spare my feelings," Sol sighed. "Trust me, she did it a lot of times in The City, and I already have my suspicions that she's doing it now so Dreea, Atlantis, and I don't freak out anytime she moves too fast. Besides, how do you think Izzy would take the news of us heading there after what she went through? She's not too fond of new places, or places where something bad has happened..."

"I... I didn't think that far ahead," Kodiak admitted, dropping his head as the realisation caught up to him. How could he break the news to Elara and Izzy that he'd have to lead them to the same place that brought Izzy once of her most traumatic experiences?

"I hate to tell you both, but I don't think we have much of a choice," Dreea pointed out. "It's the only way we can guarantee protection from our people, unless we were to take possession of the shelter, but I don't think that would pan out too well. As Wynn said, we're completely exposed out here and if we don't do something about that, we're going to take a substantial hit from Reegan and her people."

Sol chewed on her lip, waiting until the last second to see if another idea would burst into Dreea's mind, but nothing came. She sighed, turning to look at Kodiak who shared in her worries, and caved. "Okay," she said. "What's adding one more thing that could go wrong to our ever-growing list of troubles?" 

Six // Part Two
It doesn't make me a bad person for wanting to leave that place behind; not when the only thing those people, and that City, had ever taught me was what immense loneliness felt like.

It's been a busy week! I only had 1 day off last week and I was too tried to write or do anything creative, which sucked a lot more for me than it did you guys.

I have started daily journaling, though, which I have found so therapeutic! I thought I wouldn't be any good at sticking to it or writing much (as I do it by hand), but man, I sit there at midnight and pull out my little journal, and write pages effortlessly (why I can't say the same for this book, I don't know). It's so calming and something I've always wanted to do as I know it'll be so meaningful for me to read back in years to come, and I only wish I had started sooner!

I've got a couple more artwork commissioned for Quill and Dreea - by the same amazing artist who has done the drawings of Sol, Wynn, Elara, Kodiak, and Izzy!  I'm hoping to get Ares and Chessca done as well after these two, and then hopefully some of Atlantis, Fenn, Aeryn, Bas, Harlow and Liam (literally gonna have to put all my work tips into this, haha). I just love them so much and it's so exciting to have official artwork for this series. ♡ You can find my posts on my instagram at ( @ callxnd ) !!!

I had dedicated my entire day off to writing this book and although I have been sat in front of the work document literally all day, I have only managed a few sentences here and there throughout the day, and finally found my rhythm at about 11PM, lol. Typical.

08/10/21.

God bless ya!