Editing Eldramin (section)

== Chapter 14 ==
''Fannara''

The aftermath of the attack had the entire country reeling. Within hours of the incident, Deraal Jana officially declared war on not only Palendine, but on Illitani, Bryathor, Melerfy, and any other countries allied with Palendine. The remaining countries claimed neutrality, largely because no one knew yet what Jana was capable of. 

Because of the circumstances, the people in Training changed quickly. Mara dropped out as soon as she could, and an Illitani girl named Verelia filled her spot. She and Ari couldn’t get along worse if they tried. 

Verelia had what you would call a superiority complex. She had been the main leader of her squad before all her partners dropped out of Training. Ari had been the closest thing to a leader that our squad had. Thus, there was an obnoxious amount of passive aggression in every Training session. 

Training itself became more intense if that was possible. We went from an hour and a half of Training every other day to three hours every day. Our new Training schedule involved many drills, emergency plans, and larger group practice. One on one Training had been moved to the first half-hour, and it was miserable. 

Just when I thought Moren was finally, ''finally'' warming up to me, to the extent that he wasn’t treating me like trash, he was right back at it. No eye contact, no talking to me. It was like I didn’t even exist. The weird thing was that he had stopped ignoring Ari. 

Every time we went into Training I would catch him trying to talk to her. I never heard what he was saying, but it seemed like he thought it was important and Ari couldn’t care less. 

On the fourth day after the attack, while Arienna and I were walking into Training, Moren ran over to her again.

Without acknowledging I was there, he began with, “Ari, we really need to talk abo-” 

“-would you leave me alone?” She stopped walking and turned to glare at him. “You seemed to do that pretty well for the last 13 years.” She rolled her eyes and kept walking. I kept in stride with her as she speed-walked. 

“But-” 

“Nah ah.” Ari held a hand in the air to stop him. “I don’t want to hear anything from you.” I furrowed my brow and turned to her. 

“What’s up with him?” 

Ari groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “One thing you should know about Moren Keleth is that he is really bad at accepting coincidences exist. He’s ''convinced'' that there was some hidden meaning in the timing of the attack or some other ridiculous theory.” 

“Huh.” I looked back at my partner to see him glaring into midair. “There does seem to be something off with him…” 

Ari snorted. “That’s one way to put it.” We got to the corner of the gymnasium where Verelia and Mel were talking. Arienna and Verelia greeted each other with a judgemental glare. 

“Hey, Ari, hi, Fannara.” Mel gave us both a small smile. 

I gave an awkward smile back. “Hi, Mel. Verelia.” Verelia gave me a smile, completely ignoring Ari as she did, which, naturally, made my friend huff indignantly. I personally found their rivalry amusing. It was unnecessary, yes, and slightly childish, but it gave me other things to think about. I knew I would have to go home soon. Alithos would have no part in another world’s war. 

Valraea gathered our group together and gave us a good stare-down. “You all need to start taking this more seriously. This is a ''war,'' people, we don’t have time for pettiness.” She glared at Ari and Verelia, then at Moren. I couldn’t help but feel a little smug that he was finally being called out. 

“Anyways,” Valraea continued, “We’ll be starting patrols next week, nothing that would put you guys in too much danger, but jobs that need to get done.” She pulled out her telecom and extended it to roughly the size of a clipboard. “The areas we’ve been assigned arrrrrre…” She glared at the telecom and whacked the side of it. Something popped and the screen grew brighter. 

“''Ahem,'' your group has been assigned to Burning Waters and the Quinta Telren forest preserve.” She glanced at Moren, who had stiffened. “Your request to not patrol the preserve was passed, Keleth, you’ll be at the Waters.” He seemed to relax when she said that. 

Confused, I turned to Ari questioningly. She gave me a look that told me she’d tell me later. I guess that would have to suffice. 

Valraea cleared her throat again to get our attention. “That’s all I needed from you guys. You’re free to go.” She stopped and thought it over for a second before adding, “Fannara, a word?” 

I waited as the rest of my group dispersed to their different training areas. I knew what was coming. 

“Interplanetary law says that we have to send you home, I assume you know that, but there’s been a complication.” I cocked my head at her and waited for her to elaborate. “There has been a bomb threat at the portal stations, it wouldn’t be safe for us to send you back to Alithos from there right now. ''However,'' if you are willing to take the risk and go last minute, there is one more StarShip from Lathra II leaving tomorrow. From there we could find you a way back to Alithos but we wouldn’t recommend it because of how finicky the portals on Lathra II are.” 

I bit my lip and thought it over. “In all honesty, I don’t think I want to go home.” Valraea gave me a weird look. I shook my head and tried again. “What I mean is that I don’t feel like it would be worth the risk and complications of the other idea. I’m sure this threat about the portal station will be resolved.” She nodded. 

“Good idea. You can go run along to train now.” I tried not to let out an audible moan as I went to find where in the world Moren had gone. 

After an extensive search and asking who knows how many people where Moren was, I finally found him on the roof. It was blustering and freezing cold up there, and I dreaded being in the cold for long. 

Pushing open the heavy door that lead to the roof, I was surprised to find Moren just standing in the middle of the roof, not doing anything. It was so unlike him to not spend every minute he could training, but it was obvious that wasn’t why he was up here. 

I walked over to where he was standing and couldn’t help but gasp. The damage from the dragon was fully visible from up here, and it wasn’t pretty. Charred remnants of trees and other plants scattered blackness over the buildings, long scratches covered the ground and broke up the pavement. Caution tape was strung over the whole mess as cleaning crews and investigators buzzed around the area. 

“I hadn’t realized how much damage had been caused by the attack,” I said. I didn’t expect a response, I never did. That’s why I was so surprised when I got one. 

Moren took a deep breath. “The real damage hasn’t even begun yet.” I looked up at him, stunned that for the first time all week, he had said something to me. 

“What do you mean?” He pointed to the mountains beyond campus, never taking his eyes off of what he was looking at. I had no clue what that was. I squinted at the base of the mountains and saw…people. Hundreds, thousands of people swarming like tiny ants at the base of a fruit. “What are they doing?” 

“Preparing to die.” 

I looked back at him, even more, confused now. “What?” 

He sighed again and glanced down at me for a second before returning his eyes to the mountains. “Those soldiers are setting up their camp. They have no idea that this fight against Jana is hopeless.” Moren shifted his weight and crossed his arms against the wind. “Some delusion of justice is leading them to their own graves and ours with them.” 

“You don’t know that, they’re trained soldiers, they can take on a few dragons.” 

Moren scoffed. “You have no idea what Jana is capable of.”

“And you do?”

“Unfortunately.” I glared at the vagueness of his answer. 

“Either way, you’re being far too pessimistic about this whole thing.” 

He turned around and glared down at me. “This ‘whole thing’ is a war that has been going on for years right under our noses. You have no idea what you’re talking about and no right to be here anymore so you should leave while you can.” 

I looked back at him, disgusted shock overtaking any other emotion aside from anger. “Are you serious?”

“You have no part in this war. The Eldran are not your people, the Eldran will never ''be'' your people. The most helpful thing you can do is get out of the way before you become collateral damage.” 

It took me a moment to process how pigheaded this jerk was being. “You are so rude.”

“And you’re obnoxiously stubborn, congratulations.” I rolled my eyes and glared at him. 

“Look, Moren, I don’t really care what you think, so I don’t know why you keep trying to give me your opinion like it’s worth something.”

He glared back and gave me a mock bow. “Well, my apologies to you for being concerned about your safety.” 

I snorted and raised an unamused eyebrow. “The only thing you’ve ever been concerned about is yourself.”  

That seemed to strike a chord. Moren recoiled as if I had slapped him. He seemed to be starting to form a retort but gave up and slumped his shoulders. “This war isn’t going to leave anyone alive.” 

“And how would you know that?” 

“Because it’s my fault!” Another wave of anger was washed away by a look of shame on his face. “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t…” He turned away and seemed to fold in on himself. 

I stood there, once again too stunned to react. The war couldn’t…that wouldn’t make sense. Surely someone would have said something if that was true… But suspicion was growing in me. Everyone seemed to act strange around Moren and around the mention of the past leader of Palendine. 

I sighed as another headache emerged. 

''What is happening?''