Chapter 2 – The Blood Banner
The warfront was colder than Eden remembered.
Her boots sank into red-stained mud as horns howled across the battlefield. Smoke rose from the west watchtower, signaling another failed siege. Men scrambled like rats, dragging broken carts, bodies, and shattered blades. Eden walked among them—silent, alert.
"You! With the red sleeve!" a gruff voice shouted.
Eden turned. A massive man with an iron jaw and blood on his cheek pointed at her. "Report to the front wall! Commander Ro sent for reinforcements!"
Without a word, she saluted and sprinted off. The front wall was suicide. Only the desperate—or the smart—volunteered.
She was both.
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At the trench line, bodies were stacked as high as shields. Arrows rained from the enemy's cliffs. The Crimson Eagles, an elite war clan, had surrounded them.
But Eden wasn't interested in surviving this battle.
She was watching for a signal — a red banner, stitched in secret by one of her allies inside the enemy camp.
A few more minutes...
Then she saw it. A torn flag, waved high on the opposite side — three slashes across it like claw marks.
It was time.
Eden pulled a hidden dagger from her sleeve and sliced her own arm.
Blood gushed out and she smeared it down her face, screaming:
"THE ENEMY HAS BREACHED OUR CENTER! FALL BACK!"
The panic was instant. Soldiers screamed. The wall collapsed. Chaos.
And in that chaos, Eden vanished behind the smoke and fire — slipping through the forest lines straight into enemy territory.