(Edit: the end of this story is here: <a href="https://achast.deviantart.com/art/All-is-Quiet-2-195228139">[link]</a>)<br />(<a href="https://shabazik.deviantart.com/"><img class="avatar" src="https://a.deviantart.net/avatars/s/h/shabazik.jpg?1" alt=":iconshabazik:" title="Shabazik"/></a> drew this picture based off the story: <a href="https://shabazik.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=/&amp;offset=24#/d37l3yp">[link]</a> )<br />I was planning to post this after I'd finished "Nicole and Rachel 4" but due to some writers block, I figured I might play up the cliffhanger ending of part 8 for all it's worth and make you wait a little longer to find out what happens next. <br /><img src="https://e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/boo2.gif" width="30" height="19" alt=":boo:" title="BOO!"/> <br /><br />Anyway, some more information about the world this story is taking place in: there are four main world powers, the Republic of Moldoon, the Vornan Confederacy, and the other two I haven't really fleshed out much becuase they play no role in this story. <br />None of them are really democratic, despite the first two nations names. The "Republic" of Moldoon is a democracy the same way England in the eighteenth century was a democracy, voting is restricted to the upper class, landowners, industrialists, etc. <br />The Confederacy of Vornan is a confederation of small, autonomous kingdoms and city states, who form a council called the electors, who elect an emperor. <br />Moldoon lies on the western coast of the main continent of this world, Vornan is centrally located. There is a third empire located towards the eastern steppes. The fourth world power is located on a second smaller, more arid continent to the south. <br />Nestled uncomfortably between these larger states are smaller independant nations who have, for one reason or another, maintained their independance, mainly by allying themselves with one of the four great empires. <br />The two minor powers concerned with in the story are Aeth and Toran. Aeth is an ally of Moldoon. It is a narrow kingdom running along the mountainous northern part of the western coast, mainly consisting of poor fishing villages and farming communities scratching a living as best they can. <br />Toran, an ally of Vornan, is more or less the same. It's to the south of Vornan, sitting on the tail end of a mountain range running along Vornan's border with Moldoon. It's a fairly rural nation as well, most of it's people living in the foothills of the mountain, managing small farms isolated from each other by vast swaths of forest.