(Author's Note: This is a weird idea I thought up while playing a video game. It's slow right now, but it'll be better as time progresses. I can't ever really write good beginnings. Anyways, read and review!)

Xhara felt her spirits drop as the messanger came to report to her the news of the day's previous battles.

"There are too many casualties... we aren't making any progress!" Her voice rang out in the small tent erected to be her headquarters in the small military camp.

The messanger was silent, but Xhara could tell what he was thinking. He was thinking she was unfit to lead the Empress' armies into battle. Glancing around, she snatched the mug she was drinking from and threw it at him.

The young man scampered out of the tent flaps to avoid the blow. She knew most of the men in her troops felt the same way, but she couldn't help it. The young Empress Kien had issued her a command, and she simply obeyed.

She knew the Empress did it mostly under pressure. "My father... damn him and all his meddling." For years, Xhara's father, Shen, had been on the royal dynasty's council, and the former Emperor, Kien's father, had been particularly close to him. Kien grew up with Shen around, and naturally, with her father's early demise, he was right there to pick up the pieces.

Xhara had never been much for sitting around, and was always working hard to show that she was the equal to all men, and even better than most. She struggled to prove herself, and had even learned to fight. Shen had thought that he would make things easier by getting Empress Kien to appoint Xhara as a general to lead the armies.

Naturally, Xhara thought the idea was alright, at first, but she quickly grew to realize she wasn't going to be too happy with this. The troops were underfed, undertrained, and overworked. They were outnumbered, and all Xhara could do was hope for a miracle.

Yesterday's attack was one of the worst, and she knew it. She winced as she went over the sheet the messanger had given her. There were hundreds lost. So many casualties, slowing down their progress.

Something had to be done, and had to be done soon. Her troops were not happy with her leading, and if she could not calm them, she would have no troops left to lead.

Her gaze fell upon the map of the landscape, with the small pieces of metal fashioned as markers to stand for the troops. Staring at the landscape and the numbers, she had an idea.

Yelling for the messanger to return, she gathered up several more markers for troops and placed them on her side. Yes, this plan would work perfectly... But only if she found the right person to pull it off.

"Lady Xhara?" The young man who had narrowly dodged the goblet entered, shinking back a bit as if expecting to be hit. Instead, he found that the female general seemed to be in a good mood.

"I have an important favor... Go tell my troops that anyone who steps forward with any magical abilties and proves them to me will get double rations." Xhara's voice was smooth, crisp and calm, which completely caught the soldier off guard.

"Double.. rations, you say?" His voice trembled with excitement, and confusion. The troops were already low on rations, and to offer double rations, that was almost unheard of. Even more unheard of was her request.

The Jharien people had long since outlawed magic. Anyone who was caught using magic was imprisioned, and magic was completely prohibited. No one used it, no one was to possess it, practice it, or learn it. To offer double rations for anyone with magic, now this was a ludicrious thing.

And it piqued the messanger's curiousity. Hurrying out, he almost tripped over his own feet to go tell his comrads-in-arms the news. Xhara smiled sadly. She knew that if this plan worked, that she could never let anyone find out how it happened. If they did, it could mean her head... as well as the magic user she would hunt down to complete her plan, whomever it would be.

Xhara leaned back in her chair and sighed. "I knew Father was getting me into a mess... I just wish I had been more prepared before this happened."