“Virgil…?” Kera pushed her way through the Dromos lodge’s back door. “Was that–”

  But she cut herself short, seeing her precinct captain mid-sentence with others.

  “No… I understand all of this as much as you do,” said Virgil to Reglus and Decia. “But that was the Captain of the Imperial Guard. And he was nothing if not forthright. We’re to ride to his rendezvous.”

  He looked to the western horizon.

  “But in case there is some deception at play, here” said Reglus, “should we really leave our jurisdiction completely undefended? Wouldn’t a skeleton crew–”

  “No. If there’s some fearsome enemy in Hilomnos, just down the coast, then leaving anyone behind would be nothing more than a pointless sacrifice. We’ll protect our jurisdiction by taking with us any civilians who wish to evacuate. We can’t force them, stubborn as they are. But at least then it will have been their own choice.”

  “But–”

  “If matters are as grave as was indicated, then now is not the time to dither,” Virgil insisted. “Call in both pickets. Decia, start informing the townsfolk immediately. We’ll need to set out as soon as possible.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “What about Sekhem and Iumatar?” said Reglus. He lowered his voice, but not enough that Kera couldn’t hear. “If there’s a real threat, anyone without vis relevant in combat will be a burden, more likely than not. And protecting the actual civilians will be enough of a burden already.”

  Virgil cast a glance back at Kera, where she stood by the door.

  She couldn’t speak, not while all three of the officers were looking at her.

  But she managed to hold Virgil’s gaze. She mustered every last ounce of courage, hoping her silent plea reached him.

  “They hold rifles, like any of us,” said Virgil. “They won’t be a burden. If it comes to it, they’ll know their duty. Civilians will always be the priority.”

  Reglus said nothing more, but his disapproval was manifest. Kera hated the heat she felt burning her cheeks, but her feet were bolted to the ground. After a moment, Virgil leaned in and whispered something to Reglus, and the first lieutenant shrugged. He and Decia climbed into the saddles of their riding bird, and rode off out of the gate in the compound’s wall.

  Virgil offered her an apologetic acknowledgement as he trudged back toward the office.

  “...Thank you,” she whispered.

  But her relief didn’t last.

  “Wait, Virgil. Is it… the message from the Guard captain, I mean…”

  “Real?”

  “Yes… could the city really be…?”

  “...The message certainly had a valid verification code, at least,” said Virgil. “That’s all I know for sure. As for the capital…”

  He shook his head.

  “...I suppose we’ll find out.”

  "In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.

  The term is closely associated with the work of the mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz. He noted that the butterfly effect is derived from the example of the details of a tornado (the exact time of formation, the exact path taken) being influenced by minor perturbations such as a distant butterfly flapping its wings several weeks earlier."

  Wikipedia