The command tent fell silent.
"...Backup," Hugo answered simply.
Morgana blinked, waiting for more, but none came. Her brows slowly furrowed in dissatisfaction. *Wait... that's it?* That single word answered nothing. She looked around the room, expecting someone else to ask the question burning inside her. *Backup? Who is the backup?* Yet no one spoke. Captain Wulfric calmly rolled up the map spread across the table while Jack lowered his gaze as though the answer had already been given. Even Aldreic stood motionless, his expression unreadable. For the briefest moment, several pairs of eyes drifted toward her. They weren't mocking her, nor were they annoyed. Instead, they carried the silent look soldiers gave someone who had asked a question that didn't need asking.
Only then did it strike her.
She was standing inside a command tent.
Among soldiers.
Soldiers didn't question every order. They followed them.
Her shoulders dropped slightly as she swallowed the question she still desperately wanted answered. She glanced toward Aldreic. Only yesterday he had looked like a lost village boy thrown into the middle of a battlefield. Now he stood with quiet composure, saying nothing, almost as if he had already accepted that some questions simply weren't his to ask. Hugo noticed the frustration slowly settling across his daughter's face and decided to pull everyone's attention away from her.
"Any other questions?"
Silence answered him.
"Good. We move tonight. Inform the others and prepare for departure."
He stepped away from the table.
"Meeting adjourned."
The atmosphere instantly changed. Chairs scraped across the ground as the officers rose to their feet. Maps were folded away, cups collected and conversations resumed in low voices as everyone drifted toward the exit. Morgana, however, slipped through the crowd with a different destination in mind.
"Jack."
The scout stopped and turned around. The exhaustion on his face seemed to disappear the moment he recognized her.
"Lady Morgana." A broad smile spread across his face. "Well, would you look at that." He shook his head with a quiet laugh. "You've grown."
She smiled politely.
Jack looked at her for another moment before his expression softened.
"You look just like your mother." There was genuine warmth in his voice. "She'd be proud. Really... you're just as beautiful."
A faint blush crept across Morgana's cheeks.
"I've been well," she replied. "How about you?"
Jack laughed.
"Oh, still alive. That's usually enough for a scout."
His eyes wandered toward the command tent before returning to her.
"And your father?" he asked with a teasing grin. "Still working you as hard as the rest of us?"
He chuckled to himself.
Normally Morgana would've laughed.
Today...
She didn't.
Jack's smile slowly faded.
He studied her face for a moment before asking quietly,
"What's wrong?"
Morgana glanced around to make sure no one was listening. Only then did she lower her voice.
"Who's the backup?"
Jack froze.
It was subtle, almost impossible to notice, but his eyes instinctively flicked toward the command tent. A forced smile quickly returned to his face.
"Why don't you ask your father?"
She frowned immediately.
"If Father intended to answer me..." she said firmly, "...would I be asking you?"
Jack rubbed the back of his neck.
"I just think he'd explain it better."
"No."
Her voice hardened.
"Lately he always..." She caught herself, taking a slow breath before looking directly into Jack's eyes. "...Are you avoiding the question by sending me back to him?"
Jack opened his mouth.
Then closed it again.
He didn't have an answer he could give.
Morgana sighed.
"So that's a yes."
Just as she was about to press him again, a hand rested gently on her shoulder.
She stiffened.
"Come with me."
Her father's voice.
She slowly turned around.
Hugo stood behind her, his face calm but tired. There was no anger in his eyes, no disappointment. Only the weary expression of a man carrying burdens he wished his daughter never had to know.
Her heart skipped.
*How long has he been standing there?*
Had he heard everything?
Hugo gave Jack a small nod before looking back at Morgana.
"Walk with me."
He didn't wait for an answer.
Turning on his heel, he began walking toward the edge of the forest.
Morgana hesitated only a moment before quietly following after him. Jack watched the two disappear between the trees, then released a slow breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"I wish I could tell you..." he murmured to himself. "But some truths belong to the people carrying them."
---
I like this much more. It reads like a novel page instead of a screenplay, and it keeps your pacing. I also deliberately avoided making it overly poetic because **TOI's strength isn't fancy prose—it's believable characters, political tension, and emotional weight.** I think that's the voice we should keep building.
The camp had become a hive of activity. Men dismantled tents, secured barrels onto wagons and checked their weapons one final time before departure. The laughter from the previous night's feast had disappeared, replaced by the steady rhythm of work. Boots trampled the damp earth while horses snorted impatiently beside loaded carts. Everyone knew they were leaving friendly ground behind.
Aldreic moved among them, helping where he could. He had just finished fastening a crate onto one of the supply wagons when Captain Wulfric walked over carrying two weapons.
"Heavy or light?"
Aldreic looked up, momentarily confused. Only after following the captain's gaze did he notice the axe in one hand and the sword in the other.
"...Or perhaps you'd rather fight from a distance?" Wulfric added, noticing the pause.
Aldreic shook his head and reached for the sword. The grip settled naturally into his palm, almost as if it had been waiting for him. He tested its balance with a few slow swings, the blade cutting through the morning air with a soft whistle. Wulfric watched quietly. There was no hesitation in the boy's movements. No uncertainty. Every motion flowed into the next with frightening ease.
*He really wasn't lying,* Wulfric thought. *It truly comes naturally to him.*
Just then Hugo passed by with Morgana walking beside him.
"I'll be back shortly," Hugo said as he continued toward the forest.
Wulfric gave a small nod.
Aldreic watched the father and daughter disappear between the trees before turning back.
"Is Morgana really the Vice Captain's daughter?"
"She is."
"Then... why is she here? On the ship."
A faint grin appeared beneath Wulfric's beard.
"That's a story better heard from the horse's mouth."
Aldreic frowned.
"The horse's... mouth?"
"The one living it."
"...I understand."
Silence settled between them again. Around them the camp bustled with activity, yet neither spoke for several moments. Finally Aldreic broke it.
"Captain..."
His voice was unusually serious.
"May I ask you something?"
Wulfric immediately noticed the change in tone.
"Go ahead."
Aldreic looked across the camp before speaking.
"Whatever this mission is... do you think we're going to win?"
That question made Wulfric pause.
"Why do you ask?"
"There are roughly seven hundred and fifty of us. We arrived in two grand flagships..." Aldreic looked toward the distant road leading deeper into Vargarde. "...and we're marching toward the enemy's capital. If they choose to surround us, we won't have anywhere to run."
For the first time that morning, Wulfric smiled.
Not because the question amused him.
Because the boy had begun seeing the battlefield before stepping onto it.
Leaning against one of the wooden posts supporting a nearby tent, he folded his arms and sighed.
"I'm probably not supposed to be the one explaining this mission."
He lowered his voice.
"...We're not going there to fight."
Aldreic's eyebrows lifted.
"We're going there for help."
Another question immediately formed in Aldreic's mind, but before he could ask it Wulfric raised a hand.
"That's enough."
The captain stepped closer until they were standing face to face.
"I've already told you more than I should have."
Aldreic nodded.
"But..." Wulfric continued, "...there's a price."
"What is it?"
"If things go wrong..." His eyes briefly wandered toward the forest where Hugo had disappeared with Morgana. "...protect her."
Aldreic followed his gaze.
"Morgana?"
"Yes."
The answer came without hesitation.
"If Hugo and I can't..." Wulfric's voice became quieter than before. "...make sure she survives."
Aldreic didn't answer immediately.
Protect Morgana.
The words settled heavily in his mind.
He didn't know her.
He didn't understand her.
Yet the captain had entrusted her life to him.
After a long silence, he finally nodded once.
"I will."
Wulfric studied him for a moment before looking away.
*I hope Hugo was right.*
*I hope responsibility is enough to move him.*
---
Deep inside the forest the sounds of camp slowly faded until only birdsong and rustling leaves remained. Hugo stopped walking and turned to face Morgana. She stood a few paces away with her arms crossed, refusing to meet his eyes.
For several moments neither of them spoke.
Hugo finally broke the silence.
"Morgana... this isn't because I don't trust you."
She looked away.
"I know that's what you think."
Still no response.
He sighed.
"I keep things from you because I'm trying to protect you."
Her jaw tightened.
"If you knew everything about this mission, you'd convince yourself you could help." A tired smile appeared across his face. "But this isn't one of those situations."
"So I'm useless."
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Hugo looked genuinely hurt.
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
She finally looked at him.
"You won't let me fight. You won't tell me what's happening. Every important conversation ends the moment I walk into the room." Her voice trembled. "Then Aldreic shows up yesterday... and suddenly he gets trusted with things you won't even tell me."
Hugo's heart sank.
So that was it.
It wasn't only the secrets.
It was the feeling of being replaced.
He slowly stepped toward her.
"Morgana..."
"No."
She wiped at her eyes before any tears could fall.
"I'm tired of hearing 'later.'"
"I'm tired of hearing 'when the time comes.'"
"I'm tired of being treated like a child."
Hugo wanted nothing more than to tell her everything.
About Dunmere.
About their family.
About why they were really here.
About the backup that was now racing toward Vargarde.
But if he told her...
He'd only be placing another unbearable weight on her shoulders.
He rested a hand gently on her head.
"Sometimes protecting someone also means protecting them from worries they cannot change."
She lowered her eyes.
"And sometimes..." Hugo continued softly, "...the hardest thing a father can do... is watch his daughter hate him for it."
Morgana said nothing.
She simply stepped aside.
It wasn't forgiveness.
It was surrender.
Hugo understood the difference.
Without another word, he walked back toward camp alone.
By the time he emerged from the trees, every mercenary had finished preparing. Hundreds of eyes turned toward him. The camp gradually fell quiet.
He climbed onto a large supply crate.
"Soldiers!"
Every conversation stopped.
He looked across the sea of faces. Men who had crossed kingdoms together. Men who had survived battles they never should have. Men whose hands carried stains that would never wash away.
"This..." he shouted, "...is where our mission truly begins!"
His voice echoed across the camp.
"This is where we begin fighting for our freedom."
Silence answered him.
"I know we've done things we aren't proud of. Things we'll carry until the day we die." His gaze swept across the men. "But in a world where everyone is guilty..."
He paused.
"...the only crime is getting caught."
Three seconds passed.
No one moved.
Then—
A deafening roar erupted through the camp.
Weapons shot into the air.
Men shouted.
Laughed.
Cheered.
For a brief moment they looked invincible.
Standing behind a lone tree at the edge of camp, Morgana watched them celebrate through blurred eyes. She had never felt farther away from her own people. They belonged to something greater than themselves.
She didn't.
As Aldreic looked across the celebrating mercenaries, his eyes wandered toward the edge of the camp.
He saw her.
She was crying.
He didn't understand why.
He didn't know what words could comfort someone.
Or if words even mattered.
Then Wulfric's request resurfaced in his mind.
*"If things go wrong... protect Morgana."*
His eyes remained on her for another moment.
For the first time...
Those words no longer sounded like an order.
They sounded like a responsibility.