Lisa stood on the White Spear's Lookout Balcony, staring down at Tower Four below. An orange glimmer on the horizon told her that dawn wasn't far away. She could see smoke rising from several gaping holes in the tower walls where the Kamari Walkers had delivered a heavy bombardment of missiles after the shields had failed. The holes felt like open wounds to Lisa. She found it hard to look at them without feeling the fire burning inside them. She was still too young to be exposing herself to the cruelty of war. She didn't like war. She didn't like anything to do with fighting, but she could see that the Kamari had very different ideas about the future of the towers.
She had come to the Lookout Balcony almost an hour ago, not knowing what had drawn her there until she felt her father's presence somewhere below. She knew he was dead. Her mother had told her that much, and yet when she closed her eyes she could feel his presence nearby. Her mother knew he was here too, even though she denied her own feelings, as always.
Lisa hadn't seen her father since her mother had been injured at the Mekinet News building. Her mother never wanted to talk about him, but she had eventually admitted that her father wasn't ever coming home. Lisa missed him so much. She didn't want to hide her feelings, like her mother, she wanted to release them and let them run wild.
Her father wasn't dead. She was sure of that now. She could feel his presence in the tower below, and it filled her heart with joy. He had promised to bring her a wooden carving of a flower for her birthday. She had waited so long for him to come home, and now he was here to bring her flower at last.
She ignored the wrongness that she felt within him. It wasn't her father. It was something else that she couldn't identify. She loved him and she knew how much he loved her too. He would never join the Kamari to fight against her mother, and yet, that was what he was doing, tearing the towers apart below.
She could sense his internal torment as he unleashed death upon all the soldiers around him. He was burning up inside like a fireball, heading towards something terrible that he hated more than anything else. For the first time in her short life Lisa felt truly afraid.
A shiver ran down her spine and goose bumps appeared along the length of her thin, bare arms. At first she thought it might just be the chill wind that blew around the Lookout Balcony in unpredictable swirls, but then she felt it coming again, like before.
The quickening seized her with an iron grip, ripping her apart from the inside. Her bones vibrated as they extended, stretching her muscles and tendons into new configurations, and her body transformed into that of a grown woman rather than the teenage girl that she was just starting to know. Her hips grew wider. Her shirt became tight across her chest. Even her cheek bones extended, giving her face a fuller shape.
She lifted her head high, screaming as white light blazed from her staring eyes into the clear sky above. The light struck the Dome Shield, fanning out in ever more complex patterns that resonated outwards, growing stronger with every passing moment. The Lasrecon flowed through the light, racing towards her and pouring through her body in a torrent that caught her breath and brought tears to her eyes.
When the shaking of her shoulders had subsided, she sang into the wild wind in a voice that was much louder and clearer than she had ever sang before. Her words carried on the wind, travelling far and wide across the Orange Zone.
Lord against lord! Fless against fless!
We will not fear the darkest night.
When friends become foes,
and enemies come to our aid,
the truth will reveal itself to every one of us.
Wrongness walks the land with the sick one by its side.
The lords may fall,
but new blood will rise in their place.
Strength against strength. Fear against fear. Rise up and be counted!
Strength against strength. Fear against fear. Many become one!