[Even now, after having lived through all this, Sylvain isn't sure he'd trade this ordeal for Allura's. They paralleled each other closely enough that it barely matters - an empire sweeping across the lands, conquering everything in its path - but the distance of an intergalactic war would have been... strange. In some ways, the closeness, the intimacy with death kept him grounded, reminded him on a daily basis what they were fighting for.

Kept him going, when he felt like it would be so much easier to give up, throw himself on the sword of an enemy.]

The war's been going on for six years, more or less, for me. Our professor and Dimitri both returned to us after five, and the tides didn't start turning in our favor until then.

[But that only partially answers her question. So while it's upsetting looking back, she deserves to hear the reality of the situation, if she wants to know.]

Where we are, right now, is only a few months into it. They gathered a force capable of sweeping the continent without anyone knowing, so... we had our backs pushed to the wall almost immediately.

[But it isn't... all... bad... at least not anymore. Hopefully.]

If all goes according to plan, whenever I'm sent home, we'll be a few days off from putting an end to it. There'll still be uprisings, I'm sure, but... we're at the gates of the empire's capital.