The kids had been utterly outraged.
They had privately wept, shouted, and begged their elders to pull their weapons and fight to bring her back.
But the old men they had respected and looked up to for their entire lives did… absolutely nothing.
They stood there with slumped shoulders and hollow eyes, nodding their heads to the Zharun demands and repeating empty lines about the "greater good," the "sanctity of the pact," and how the Veynar were too weak and needed their help.
The elders were completely useless, helpless cowards who willingly traded a young girl's life just to buy themselves some peace.
That was the exact day the illusion broke for these three hundred kids.
They realized that their elders couldn't protect them, this time it's Lumi and who knows next time it will be them or their sisters and mothers being traded for peace.
They finally realized that weakness was a disease.
A disease that would eventually cost them everything they loved.
