Jezrell insisted on that when she first took the throne.
East meant the island.
Every morning she woke facing the people she ruled.
The Philos book opened beside her.
Its pages turned slowly in the morning air, glowing symbols drifting across the light. Sometimes it reacted to her thoughts before she even touched it.
She lifted one hand toward the city.
Warmth spread outward from her chest.
Not power.
Not control.
Just something gentle she released into the morning air.
It drifted over the rooftops of Shibuya. Over the markets and school halls and apartments where people were waking up, making tea, trying to settle their nerves after a week of parasite sirens.
Good will.
That was the closest word she had for it.
Thirty years of scholars studying her Philos and none had found a better one.
The book closed softly.
Jezrell leaned on the balcony railing and looked across the island.
"I've sent my good will to the people again," she said quietly.
"Nobody knows what this week will bring."
Behind her, Commander Marza stood at attention near the balcony doors, Conda Blitz armor catching the sunlight.
"It's the last week before the Black Ops deploy," Jezrell continued.
She still didn't turn around.
"May the gods bless you, Amazon."
Marza was quiet for a moment.
"I don't think there are any gods where I'm going," she said.
Then she shrugged slightly.
"But I took this job so I could retire this year."
A beat.
"No way I'm letting those kids die on my watch."
Jezrell smiled toward the horizon.
It was the kind of smile that didn't need to be seen.
The briefing room sat three floors below the balcony.
It was a practical space, long table, wall maps, soldiers standing along the perimeter. Jezrell had stripped all decoration from the room years ago. Portraits of rulers didn't belong in rooms where people were trying to think.
Marza stood at the head of the table.
The soldiers present were the ones staying behind on Dragon Hive while the honor students deployed. The ones responsible for protecting the Empress when the island's strongest fighters left the walls.
"The honor students deploy in one week," Marza said.
Her voice carried easily across the room.
"During that window Dragon Hive's operational strength drops. The Empress does not leave the castle. No public appearances. No private walks through the market because she thinks nobody will recognize her."
A few soldiers shifted slightly. Someone near the left side of the table clearly had experience with that exact situation.
"She is not to be out of your sight," Marza continued.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"Any of you."
Murmurs of agreement moved around the table.
"Questions."
Ferris, one of the senior flank soldiers, raised a hand.
"What's the protocol if we get another parasite breach during deployment week? We're already down five hundred soldiers."
"Same protocol. Better coordination," Marza replied calmly. "Flank Three has been reorganized since Ataki's incident. They're no longer the liability they were."
Another soldier spoke.
"What about the Empress's Philos broadcasts? Does she continue those during lockdown?"
"That decision belongs to her," Marza said. "Our job is making sure she's alive to make it."
The door opened.
Yusuke stepped inside without knocking.
Several heads turned.
He wore the Dragon Hive College uniform, which meant he had come straight from the academy.
"I heard the briefing was this morning," Yusuke said calmly.
Marza studied him.
"You're late."
Yusuke "I apologize, cat fish tends to sell out quickly."
Marza raises her eyebrows in confusion.
Marza "Starting next week you'll be charge of protecting the Empress while I am gone."
He pulled out an empty chair and sat without waiting to be invited.
"The military roster is documented. The Iron wall is secure, The Hammerian wealth families have agreed to assist in the protection of the island. We should be fine."
Yusuke "I don't know if we could trust Hammerians, they don't exactly have an inclusive culture."
Marza "I don't think they're much of a threat , as long as they have their mansions they shouldn't be a problem."
The room went quiet.
Marza watched him for a moment, thinking.
"You understand this isn't a field assignment," she said. "You stay in the castle. You only engage if the threat reaches her directly."
"Understood." Yusuke said
Marza "If she tries to leave to go to the market..."
Yusuke "I'll stop her."
Marza "She's persuasive."
Yusuke "So am I."
Another brief silence.
Then Marza nodded once.
"Fine. Then it's settled."
She turned back to the map.
"The Empress does not leave the castle. She is never alone. And none of you—"
Her eyes swept the room, pausing briefly on Yusuke.
"...none of you let her out of your sight."
"I'll guard her with my life," Yusuke said.
He said it quietly.
So calmly that the weight of it landed a second later.
Marza held his gaze for a moment longer.
Then the meeting moved on.
Else where at the base of the Iron Wall, Mira and Ulice leaned against the massive stone, taking a break from their watch above.
They leaned against the wall side by side.
Ulice had his helmet tucked under his arm. Mira stood with her eyes half-closed, a small sphere of electricity rotating slowly between her fingers.
Blue light flickered across the walls.
She smiled slightly.
"Are you sure we're allowed to be down here?" Ulice asked. He had been asking variations of that question for ten minutes.
"You're talking to your captain," Mira said pleasantly. "We're allowed breaks."
"I don't think this corridor counts as a break room."
"It has walls and a floor. That's close enough."
The electric sphere pulsed. She flattened it into a disc, then turned it back into a sphere.
Ulice watched carefully.
"Can I ask something?" he said.
"You're going to regardless."
"The honor students."
He shifted against the wall.
"When they deploy... if they don't come back... doesn't that leave Dragon Hive exposed?"
He paused.
"We already lost five hundred soldiers. The honor students are the strongest people on the island. If they go beyond the wall and something happens.."
"Yes," Mira said.
The sphere hummed quietly.
"But there will always be someone to fight."
Ulice studied her "I'm just worried."
Mari "Don't be I'm a visionary now.'
"Haha, You really changed," he said slowly.
"Did the Empress actually give you an art?"
Mira considered the question.
"Not exactly," she said. "She awakened it."
The electric sphere spun slowly.
"The Philos didn't create anything new. It just showed me what I already was."
She closed her hand.
The sphere compressed, smaller, brighter, denser.
Then she opened her fingers again and it expanded smoothly.
"And now I can see electricity everywhere," she continued. "In people. In the ground. In the pipes above us."
She glanced toward the ceiling.
"There are six mice in the walls."
Ulice looked at the wall.
"That's unsettling."
"The other thing," Mira said, smiling slightly, "is that I finally learned how to turn it off."
She closed her hand.
The electricity vanished.
Silence filled the corridor.
"For the first three days I couldn't sleep," she said. "I saw electricity everywhere."
"That sounds horrible."
"It was."
She opened her hand again.
The sphere returned, steady and perfectly shaped.
Ulice stared.
"Wow," he said.
Then after a moment...
"That's actually really cool."
Mira looked at the sphere.
It spun quietly between her fingers, lighting the corridor with blue-white glow.
"Yeah," she said softly.
Above them the castle hummed with movement.
Soldiers took their posts.
Yusuke waited somewhere in the Empress's wing.
And Jezrell stood on her balcony facing east.
One week.
The electric sphere kept spinning.