Phoenix: Another day another battle

Fire, blood and screams surrounded her. She avoided a magical blast, cursing as she sent one her attacker's way. Finally, a scout arrived to tell her that the enemy had surrendered at last.

"Raise the Haleite flag." She ordered.

"Yes Lt.-general." Halite Lt.-general Miranda saluted the flag as it was raised. Oddly, she didn't feel the triumph she should have since she had defeated an enemy.

**Maybe that's because these are peasants who couldn't fight for their lives** She thought bitterly. She knew that the other generals would be pleased that she had crushed another uprising.

"General, we've captured the ringleader. Do you want her executed?"

"Her? No. I want to see her. Bring her here." A female leader? That was unusual. She and her mother Anniqua were the only female haleite leaders so the gender surprised her. Rebels had many female leaders though, so it shouldn't bother her. Still, there had been something about the fighting techniques and spells used that she recognized. Hoping beyond hope for one of her dead sisters, she went to meet the rebel girl.

She was disappointed, but the girl surprised her. She looked hauntingly familiar, yet Miranda knew that she had never seen her before. It wasn't one of her dead sisters either. She would've recognized them from her dreams.

"So this is the cause of our problems here," Miranda stated.

"So this is the famous general girl. Always listens to her orders, never to her own conscience," the girl taunted. The voice was also familiar. Miranda was taken aback by her rudeness and by the sudden realization of who the prisoner resembled. Her blonde hair and green eyes were the exact same shade as the general-commander and his son. The only thing that she lacked to pass as family was the pointed, snub nose most of the family possessed. Most of the family except the young Kurgen Polutonix. She couldn't belong to the family who ran the halite army, though, she would've known if Kurgen had a sister.

"Who are you?" She demanded. The girl gave her an angry glare, seeming hurt. Then she sighed, shaking her head

"I am Genhissa. Don't you remember me, Prinevya Phoenix?" She raised a golden eyebrow, looking annoyed.

"What do you mean? I've never seen you before," Miranda answered, trying to sound like a proper general and not like the chastised little girl she was beginning to feel like.

"Just remember that appearances can be deceiving. No one in your life tells the truth, yet no one lies." With that, the girl smiled. Then she burst into flames, still smiling. When the fire died down, there was neither ash nor anything to indicate that the girl had spontaneously combusted. Soldiers screamed right and left and a search party was organized to apprehend the girl to no avail.

"She just wanted to see me," Miranda mused. "She could've escaped all along, the little witch." She reassembled her people and headed home.

Back at the halite base, Miranda was intercepted before she could sneak off to her quarters to shower and sleep.

"Hello Miranda. Do you have anything to report?" Anniqua asked her daughter, looking a bit worried.

"No Mother. We stopped the uprising as you ordered." She wouldn't mention the girl. Oh, it'd show up in some report somewhere if her people were even half as competent as they seemed, but her mother didn't need to know just yet.

"Wonderful! I'm so proud of you," the woman gushed. "By the way, we have a meeting with General-Commander Polutonix in five minutes, so put on your dress uniform." She smirked at her daughter, waiting for the inevitable angry reaction

"Yes mother." Miranda's heart sank. There went her shower, rest and any hope of peace and quiet that she had for the evening. These meetings were always tense and affected the entire rest of her day. All the same, she went to her room and changed before going down to the meeting room. The girl had been right about one thing; Miranda obeyed orders.

When she arrived at the meeting room five minutes later, she saw her mother talking to Polutonix and his son, Sub-General Kurgen, more commonly known to her as Gen. The young man wasn't much older than she was, but had a somewhat jaded look in his eyes that he didn't go to great lengths to hide. She supposed that that's what came from having a father that sadistic.

"Ah, Miranda. You're late," Anniqua admonished. The young woman ignored her, shook hands with both men and took her seat at the table. She noticed that Gen was looking at her oddly. Not that he didn't most of the time. It was different from the other times, though. His gaze was somewhat gentler, a little more inviting. It gave her a glimpse of what he might've been if he had grown up elsewhere.

"General Anniqua, we have called this meeting in order to discus a very important matter which my son brought up yesterday." The meetings always started this way. Polutonix always addressed Anniqua and ignored Miranda. He also always used the same pompous tone of voice and slowed down his speech. Miranda wasn't sure if it was because he thought that they were stupid or if he realized that he often made no sense.

"He has expressed an interest in your daughter and wishes to marry her," the general-commander finished. Miranda glanced at Gen in shock. To her surprise, the young man also seemed confused, though he tried to hide it.

"Of course! Miranda will be delighted to--" Anniqua didn't have time to finish her sentence when her daughter leapt up.

"As if! There's no way in bloody hell that I'll marry that moron!" she yelled, furious. "I wouldn't do it if I were paid!" She rounded on Gen. "You can take your proposal and throw it in the fire because I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man in the universe!" The two men, who were use to defenseless women who would love to marry them, were shocked speechless. Miranda stormed out of the room. Striding down the corridor, she wondered what had brought this about. Gen had never expressed interest in her before.

"Miranda!" Her mother had followed her.

"Yes? If it's about the Sub-General, there's no way I'm marrying him and you can't convince me to." Miranda was past the point of staying polite. Her mother had no right to assume her daughter's actions.

"The alliance will be even stronger if you marry him! Just think about it!" Anniqua actually sounded serious. Her daughter turned to stare at her in shocked amazement. She had never thought that the General would sell her last daughter away to a man like an object just to make a political alliance stronger.

"Just think of how miserable I'd be! Are you really that heartless? If you really want to strengthen the alliance, why don't you marry Polutonix and keep me out of this?" Anniqua was very taken aback by her daughter's statement and looked hurt.

"Miranda, honey, Kurgen is a very nice young man, if you would just give him a chance…"

"Mama, that's beside the point. I don't love him and he doesn't love me. If he even really wanted to marry me, he'd come ask me himself instead of having his father bring it up at a meeting like some other unimportant subject. This is my future that we're talking about, not some new invasion. I don't want to marry him. I hardly know him and what I do know, I don't like. Now I just got back from a battle, I'm dead tired and I just want to sleep. Is that too much to ask?" Anniqua sighed.

"Just think about it, honey," she ordered before letting her daughter leave.

Alone in her room, she took off the hot, uncomfortable dress uniform. She rubbed the inside of her arm where her strange birthmark was, a nervous habit she had developed over the years.

"Hello?" Gen had just come in the room without knocking. Thanking whatever deity had made her wear a camisole under her shirt, she whirled to face him. He raised an eyebrow at her state of undress and she wondered inconsequentially if he had ever seen a woman without a shirt before. She wasn't exactly naked and he still seemed curious. She didn't like men looking at her like that.

"What do you want you pathetic little pervert?" She demanded while grabbing the first shirt that she saw, angry at his reaction.

"Now, now, Miranda, don't be so rude." His voice was cool, calm and pleasant. "I came to apologize, actually. My father… misinterpreted my intentions. I simply told him that you were a lovely young lady and that I found you attractive." The Lt.-General blinked in surprise giving him a suspicious look.

"That's nice. I accept your apology." He sighed a bit, looking at the ground nervously, almost as if afraid.

"However, I have been ordered to ask you to reconsider," he continued.

"The day I reconsider will be the day that hell freezes over, Arinians and Haleites stop warring and pigs fly!" she informed him in a scathing tone "Now, as I told my mother, I'm exhausted and I want to actually rest. Please leave me alone." Gen nodded, complying with her demand.

"I will see to it that you are not disturbed," he told her on his way out.

She walked to the small private bathroom, commander's privilege, and leaned in the doorframe. She remembered the screams; her sisters being carried away by the men hired to strip their mother of magic. Her mother sobbing, yelling, frustrated when she found out that they had disappeared. Neither girl's body was ever found and Anniqua never fully recovered her powers. The enemy encampment had been found, but every man and woman in it was dead and that, for no apparent reason. Miranda often wondered what her mother missed more. Caring for triplets wasn't easy. The remaining daughter gave her enough problems. Miranda stepped into the shower, mentally conjuring the images from her dreams. She had fought many battles since then, but none compared to her sisters' kidnapping. She supposed that it was the trauma of having two people who were so close to her die… Well, she wasn't sure of that. Somehow, she knew that it'd be different if they were dead. Anniqua assured her that there was no way that they could've survived, but the… holes that their deaths would've left in Miranda's mind weren't there.

Recently, the dreams had changed. Now she saw a young, orange haired woman wreathed in flames crying fiery jewels as she watched the remains of a village destroyed by Halites. Another dream showed a shorter young woman, also a redhead, though her hair was crimson, fighting unseen opponents with unequaled fury. Miranda knew them: her sisters still lived.

The first dream worried the young Lt. General the most. Her crying sister was watching a village on Arin, the planet that the Halites were battling. They had been fighting for generations, but no one really knew why anymore. It was said that once the two planets, Hale and Arin, had been one, Arinhale, but had split for long forgotten reasons. Now the Halites, having made extreme progress in technology, wanted to rule both planets. Gentle Arin, the world of magic defended itself and the battle had ended in a stalemate for centuries. Miranda didn't see the point. She just wanted it to end. She wanted her sisters safe and at her side.

Sighing, she shed the rest of her clothes and stepped into the warm shower. Letting the water wash over her, she cleared her mind, preferring not to think for the moment. Her sisters could care for themselves; right now she had to protect herself. Sabotaging Polutonix would be easy, she just had to set her mind to it. Closing her eyes, she began to plot.