Chapter51: The World Turns Upside Down

*Seraphira* Thick smoke coils through the air, darkening the skies with its power. It burns my nostrils and lungs as I breathe in, leaving behind the unpleasant feeling of choking. My people are suffocating under its weight, and I am the only one left with the power to save them. I look across the fields where the ground is littered with the dead, both ours and our enemy’s. Blood slicks the soil in muddy rivers, soaking into the roots of this land I’ve inherited to lead. We are now a nation that will be built on blood and bone, if we even survive this war. It’s gone on for too long.  Enough is enough. I walk to the center of the battlefield, where soldiers have become too weak and sick to really put their hearts into the fight. My people are exhausted, starving, likely days away from death. If I do not put an end to this war, all will be lost. Altinna will have no future beyond me, and that is not a weight I am willing to bear. Behind me, my Four wait in silence, ready to protect or at