Lotus awakened. She was lying on a small wooden bed, covered by a thick blanket. She got up from the bed, she was still wearing the same clothes only she was wearing a T-shirt now as well. She looked out a small window and saw she wasn't in the city anymore; there was only a large, seemingly endless forest. Looking down, she noticed a moat below.

"I see you're finally up and running again." she suddenly heard a man say.

When she turned around, she saw an man of about fifty, who was wearing a gray uniform. "Where…..where am I?" she faltered.

"Come, I will take you to my lord; he will explain everything to you."

Lotus followed the man through a wide corridor with doors on each side. "Do you have a cigarette?" she asked him.

"No, I don't smoke. It's bad for your health."

"So is life."

The man started laughing, though Lotus didn't think it was funny at all.

At the end of the corridor was a small door. The man opened it and pointed at the opening. "Here you will find his lordship."

"Thanks." Lotus said as she entered the room. The man closed the door behind her.

"Ah, finally." She heard someone say.

Lotus turned to look, and to her surprise, she saw it was the big man from the party. "You!" she shouted.

"Yes," The man replied, starting to laugh. "Me!"

He walked up to her and offered her his hand. "Lord Arkham," he said.

"Lotus." she replied, shaking his hand.

" Let's get down to business." Lord Arkham said, pointing at two armchairs with a small table between them. Lotus sat down and noticed a pack of cigarettes on the table. She picked up the packet and lit one of the cigarettes. She felt the nicotine calm her down and she adjusted to a more comfortable position in the chair. Arkham made her a drink, then walked up to her and gave it to her. "You're probably wondering why I haven't killed you, or at least handed you over to the empress."

"I have some ideas about that."

"Such as?"

"Well, since you called me a whore, I…."

He interrupted. "I want to apologize again for calling you that, I had no…"

"Let it go, will you?" Lotus interrupted in return. "It's forgiven and forgotten. Now, back to business; I think you want to overthrow the empire."

"Well, yes and no." Arkham was quick to reply. "I just want that bitch off the throne. You can't run a country like she does. Do you know what she once did? She.."

"I don't even want to hear it." Lotus interrupted again. "Do you want her off the throne so you can sit on it?"

"Of course." he answered.

"I thought so. Were those armed men yours?"

"No, but I know who they were."

"Who were they then?"

"Members of a militia who want a democracy or something. Most of them are around my age; people who remember the world as a happy place until everything happened."

"And you don't, from what I hear."

"No, I don't; I was a poor laborer then. Now look at me; a castle, dozens of servants and hundreds of soldiers. No, I'm glad it happened."

Lotus thought for a moment and lit another cigarette. She signaled one of the servants in the room and asked her to make her another drink, and to bring the bottle. When she asked for the bottle, Arkham started laughing. "You don't mind, do you?" Lotus asked him.

"No, my child, go right ahead." he replied.

The servant brought Lotus what she had asked for. "Let me get right to the point." Arkham said. "Do you want to join me on my side?"

"As your what?"

Arkham started laughing again, slapping his thighs with delight. When he had stopped laughing, he said in a serious tone, "I still need a commander for my female platoon, and I think you're the one I'm looking for."

"I'm honored," Lotus replied, a bit shocked by the serious offer. "but I don't….."

"Don't answer me yet." he interrupted. "You'll be the commander of over fifty well-trained commandos, your salary will be generous and you'll get a big room, right here in the castle. The servants will satisfy your every need. When we have overthrown the bitch, you'll get your own province."

"I simply couldn't…."

"And you'll liberate your friend." Arkham interrupted.

The thought of Brianna suddenly saddened Lotus. She walked over to a corner of the room, turned her face away from Arkham and softly started crying. After a few moments, she felt Arkham's arm around her shoulder. "So will you do it?" he whispered.

Lotus nodded.

"Good, I'll make it so." Arkham said. "I'll leave alone now to get your head straight, OK?"

She nodded again. Arkham let her go; a few seconds later, Lotus heard him close the door behind him as he left. She walked up to her armchair and made herself another drink. She drank sobbing, she drank hatefully, she drank until she passed out.

Lotus awakened. She was now in a big room, lying on a soft, comfortable bed. The room was beautifully decorated with brown antique furniture and elegant medieval paintings. She saw a bundle of clothes lying on a chair near her bed. She got up from the bed and walked up to the chair. Noticing a small card on the pile of clothes, she picked it up.

"Your new uniform." she read out loud. "Hope you don't have a hangover. Ha ha ha, Arkham."

This brought a smile to her face. She looked around the room for the bathroom. There were two doors in the room, a big one and a smaller one. She deduced from the sizes of the doors that the smaller one was probably the bathroom. She walked to the smaller door and opened it; her assumptions were correct. Lotus took off her clothes and turned on the shower. The water washed away the smell of cigarettes and liquor; more importantly, it washed away the stench of Sharon and her foul palace.

Lotus turned off the shower, dried herself and sat down on the toilet. She thought about how Brianna had betrayed her and started to cry again. How could she? Her one true friend...now she was all alone. Nobody for her to love, no one who would show her affection, no one to kiss or hold when she was unhappy, no one to….. She would get Brianna back and personally finish off Sharon. A quick wipe and Lotus flushed the toilet.

She was filled with anger and hatred towards Sharon. Breathing heavily, she picked up the first object she could find and hurled it to the other side of the room; many other objects followed. When Lotus was done, she sat down on the bed, panting like a dog; she could feel her heart throbbing at an enormous rate. When she was calmed down again, she slowly got up from the bed and put on her uniform. It consisted of sturdy black leather boots, green army trousers and a tight-fitting black leather top with long sleeves. Three red stripes on her shoulder indicated her rank. She lit a cigarette and left the room. Where the hell was she? She walked to the end of the corridor and opened the door. A servant was cleaning the floor on the other side. "Where can I find Lord Arkham?" Lotus asked.

The servant pointed to some doors further down the corridor.

"Thanks." Lotus walked up to the doors and opened them.

On the other side was the room where she and Arkham had talked. "Lord Arkham will be here shortly; you can wait for him here, if you want." said a servant who was standing by the door.

Lotus walked over to the armchair, picking up a glass and a bottle of whisky on the way. She sat down and poured herself a drink. She emptied the glass in one go and lit another cigarette. By this time, Arkham had entered the room. "Ah, you're awake." he said. "Like your uniform?"

"Sure, it's OK." she replied.

"Come, your troops are waiting for you outside."

They left the room through the door she had entered through, this time turning in the opposite direction. They walked through the front gate and crossed the draw-bridge, then walked through the forest for a few moments until they came to a large field. The field was covered with obstacles; probably the training field, Lotus thought. The field commander noticed them and ordered the troops to stand in a straight line. "Ready for your inspection, sir." he yelled to Arkham.

"Thank you." Arkham replied, then turned and said to Lotus, "These are your troops, treat them with respect and they'll obey your every order."

They walked up to the troops and slowly passed them, looking each one in the eyes. "This will be your new commander, Colonel……." Arkham stopped talking and looked at Lotus. "What the bloody hell is your last name?" he said, trying not to laugh. Some of the women started to laugh as well.

"Don't have one," Lotus replied, smiling. "I've forgotten it a long time ago."

Arkham focused his attention on the troops again. "Silence!" he shouted. "This is your new commander, Colonel Lotus."

Lotus stepped forwards and took control of the situation. "I intend to make this the best platoon in the whole fucking world." she shouted.

The women cheered in response. She went on. "I will respect each and every one of you, as long as you respect me. If one of you doesn't respect me, the whole platoon will suffer. Now are there any questions?"

"Are you wearing any underwear?" shouted one of the women.

The others started laughing. Lotus walked up to the dissident. "Drop and give me twenty!" she shouted.

The woman obeyed. Lotus looked at the rest of the platoon. "For your information, I am not." She ignored the few wolf-whistles that followed, then continued, "and I will not respond to any other questions of that nature. Any other questions?"

"Have you ever killed someone?" one woman yelled.

"Yes," she yelled in response. "I have killed three."

"What was it like?"

"It was necessary. It didn't feel good, but it did feel right. Now, enough chit-chat; hit the showers."

The women all started running to one of the buildings at the side of the training-field. "You handled them well." said Arkham.

"Thank you," she replied. "Didn't know I had it in me."

"Follow me." he said. "There's a briefing in the castle. It'll be a good opportunity for you to meet your fellow commanders."

He started walking back to the castle and she joined him. They were silent; Lotus was thinking of her newly developed situation, Arkham about the imminent assault on the empress' palace. They walked across the drawbridge and through the gate, then turned left and entered a large room with a table surrounded by chairs, all but one filled by the other commanders. Arkham sat down at the head of the table, Lotus sat down in the one remaining empty chair. "I've assembled you all here to discuss the operation." Arkham began.

"You mean the assault on the palace?" said one of the commanders.

"Naturally, but first, I want you to meet the new commander of the 3rd female platoon; Colonel Lotus."

Lotus nodded to all of the other commanders. There were 12 of them, including herself. She calculated that if all of the commanders had fifty soldiers, like she did, Arkham's army would have six hundred soldiers. Arkham himself would probably be commanding some troops as well. She looked around the table and noticed four other female commanders, which meant there were probably four other female platoons.

"Now, about the operation." Arkham continued. "Intelligence tells me that in exactly one week, Empress Sharon the First will be celebrating her 25th birthday in a grand way. I intend to strike at the moment the festivities are at its peak, so we'll be able to spread the most confusion. Since we're outnumbered three to one, we'll have to take full advantage of it. Any questions so far?"

Said a male commander, "I presume that at the height of the festivities it will dark?"

"Yes, you're quite right." answered Arkham. "Therefore it's also necessary that you spend more time training in the dark. This is all the information I have gathered up until now; more detailed briefings will follow on a later date. Dismissed."

Everybody got up and started to go their own way. Arkham walked up to Lotus. "Here," he said, handing her a sheet of paper. "I had almost forgotten to give you your training schedule."

Lotus unfolded the paper and saw a list of times with different locations behind them. "As you can see," Arkham went on. "your first training session with the girls is tomorrow morning at the training grounds we have just visited. I have to go do some business now, but I'll see you again this evening at the officers' dining table."

"Thank you." Lotus replied. She lit a cigarette and walked out of the room.

One of the other female commanders had apparently been waiting for her, because she was leaning against the wall of the corridor and immediately walked up to Lotus with an outstretched hand when she saw her. "Hi!" she said, shaking Lotus' hand. "So you're Colonel Lotus; I'm Colonel Black; nice to meet you."

"What do you want?" Lotus replied harshly, not in the mood for conversation.

"I…I'm sorry," stammered Black, clearly taken aback by the response. "I…"

"No," Lotus interrupted. "I'm the one who should be sorry, I had no right to be so unfriendly. It's just that I've been under a lot of stress lately and I've………lost someone who was very close to me."

"I know, Arkham told me...I just wanted to know if you were OK."

"That's really nice of you." said Lotus. "Maybe we can go get a drink somewhere?"

"Yeah, sure." replied Black, now smiling. "There's a bar at the other side of the castle."

She started walking and Lotus joined her. After a minute or so, they walked into a small, dark barroom about 40 feet long and 20 feet wide. Black sat down on a barstool and Lotus sat down next to her. "Two double whiskies." she said to the barman.

"I normally don't drink this early." said Black, as the barman handed them their drinks.

"I do." She replied, emptying her drink in one go and immediately signaling the barman to fix her another.

"So tell me about him." said Black.

"What are you talking about?" she replied with a puzzled look on her face.

"You said you lost someone and I thought you might like to talk to me about him. You'll feel better afterwards, you know."

"I know," Lotus replied. "but it's not a him I lost."

Slowly she started telling Black the entire story, getting into more and more details after she'd had a couple of drinks. She never told her they were in love though, thinking that might offend or even shock her. Black was disgusted when Lotus told her about the Empress' practices and angered by Brianna's betrayal. "How can you still call her your friend!" she exclaimed.

When Lotus explained about how they had escaped and what had happened at the caves, (omitting how Brianna had gone berserk), Black said could understand that she still referred to her as a friend. "I think Sharon has cast some sort of spell on Brianna," she analyzed when Lotus had finally stopped talking. "and I think that once we have freed her from the foul clutches of Sharon, she'll revert back to her normal ways."

"I hope so, I'm just afraid I'll never be able to look in her eyes again and see the same woman I've been friends with for so long. Maybe she'll be changed, scarred for life by Sharon's immoral obscenities."

Lotus was quite drunk now, and it was already getting dark. Black was a bit wobbly too. "Let's go to the dining room." she said to Lotus. "You'll feel better once you have eaten something."

"Yes," Lotus replied. "it's almost dinner time."

With these words, she jumped of her barstool, but couldn't take the landing in her drunken state and fell on her hands and knees. Black immediately started to laugh out loud, shaking on her barstool. Unfortunately for her, she was shaking too hard and she stumbled from her barstool and landed on her back. Both women were laughing now. Lotus looked up and saw the barman shaking his head; this only made her laugh even louder. Slowly, the two women got on their feet again, supporting each other as not to fall down again, and staggered towards the dining room, still laughing and giggling.

When they got to the door of the dining room, they quickly got their act together. "Do you think they'll notice?" giggled Black.

"Just keep your attention focused on walking straight and everything will be alright." Lotus replied. She opened the door and went through it first, slowly walking to the dining table. She noticed Arkham was already present; on his left side was the only place where there were still two empty chairs next to each other and she marched up to one of them in a slightly diagonal line. She sat down and knocked over her wooden beer mug; thank God it was empty. As Lotus knocked over the mug, Black produced a small giggle but managed not to let it turn into a wave of laughter. Black sat down next to Lotus and nodded to Arkham, Lotus did the same. "I'm glad to see you two girls getting along so well." Said Arkham casually.

"Yes, we have a lot in common." Lotus replied, which immediately extracted another giggle from Black. Arkham, who probably had a suspicion what was going on, let the two women be and devoted his attention to another commander who was sitting on his other side. After some time, Arkham beckoned to one of the servants and told him to bring on the meal. The servant quickly walked to the kitchen; moments later, a whole line of servants came from the kitchen carrying large pots which seemed to be filled with some sort of meat and potato stew. Arkham wished everybody a pleasant meal.

Lotus filled her plate with the stew. It looked rather appalling, but to her surprise, it tasted quite nice. Once her belly was filled with the stuff, the effects of the alcohol mellowed. She now thought it safe to fill her mug with beer and wash away the final bits of food. The beer tasted nice; when she had finished drinking, she felt her veins craving for nicotine and quickly lit a cigarette. Inhaling the smoke deeply, she looked at Black, who was still eating. "Are you OK again?" she said softly, so as not to be overheard.

"Yeah, I'm OK now." Black replied. "Man, when Arkham addressed you, I thought for sure he would notice."

"I think he had his suspicions, though." Lotus replied.

"Yes, but he's an OK kind of guy, as long as he doesn't lose his temper." Black said, wiping her mouth and putting down her spoon.

Lotus said, "I think he knows what has happened and he understands."

"I hope so," answered Black, who was now washing down the remainder of her meal with beer, just like Lotus had done. "Do you have a cigarette for me?"

"I didn't know you smoked," Lotus said, handing her a cigarette.

"I don't; I just all-of-a-sudden feel like smoking a cigarette." She put the cigarette in her mouth and Lotus held her lighter underneath it.

"I see you're already picking up her bad habits." Arkham suddenly said.

"No….no," faltered Black. "It's just that….."

"You don't have to explain it." he interrupted. "You're a grown woman, you can do whatever you please."

Lotus found the remark funny and the situation rather quaint and started laughing. Arkham and Black soon joined her. "You should have seen the look on your face!" laughed Arkham.

"Yes, well how would you expect her to look after a remark like that?" said Lotus, who was still laughing.

Slowly their laughter died out and Arkham focused his attention on the man on his other side again, who was informing him about all the commotion. "You handled that rather nicely." said Black, making sure no one else heard her.

"Yes," Lotus replied. "I think I did. It wasn't intentional though, but the whole situation was so odd, I couldn't help it."

"You're really a special girl you know." said Black, smiling at her. "You make me feel like we have been friends for years."

Lotus just smiled back at her. Soon, they were talking about normal things again, such as the weather and how it would be during the attack. Arkham joined them in this conversation; they all hoped it wasn't too cloudy so the clouds would block the moonlight, yet the sky shouldn't be cloudless either because then the moonlight might expose them prematurely, which would endanger the whole operation.

After two more hours of more general conversations Lotus started to feel drowsy and announced her retirement to Arkham and Black. They excused her and wished her goodnight and she walked to her room. She opened the door, closed it behind her and fell down on her bed. For the first time in ages, she thought as she drifted off to sleep, she felt truly happy.

To Be Continued...