"Interesting. Why do you think your father so intent on bringing you home?"
"Because I know too much about his business."
"So?" Anya said teasingly, tired of the conversation and trying to get a rise out of Alannah. "Let's organize a revolt, like they did in Ireland. We'll could chop off their heads, and that will be the end of the problem."
"Ha-ha!" Alannah said, not taking the bait. Then, suddently an angry look appeared on her face, she said, "The last time I heard my father speak, he and his men were talking about the next war."
"What next war?" Anya asked with alarm.
"Oh my how could I have forgotten?" Alannah voice was bitter and cold, "their talk used to bother me, I used to go to bed at night and have nightmares. He is planning to attack another country, which in turn will start a major war, one that . . . as the guy talking with my father put it - would kill off more than half of the world's population. They even laughed about it saying that it would give those living plenty of room once more.
Anya was prepared to laugh at the silliness of it, when she noticed that Alannah was serious. Then it dawned on her that there was more at stake here, "wait Alannah, what guy? Who said this? They can't know what they were talking about! The Great War ended and they all signed a peace agreement.."
"I'm so sorry I said anything!" Alannah said, seeing that Anya was genuinely upset. "Let's talk about something else …."
"NO!" Anya said firmly. "please tell me that this was just talk, and it isn't real."
Alannah looked away from her friend with a sick and pale expression. "We really need to talk about something else…"
"NO! And stop trying to change the subject Alannah," Anya demanded with more force. "You started down this road, scaring me half to death, now you need to finish it!"
Alannah swallowed. "Anya, the leader signed an armistice at the end of the Great War. Armistice is derived from the Latin arma, meaning 'arms' as in weapons and -stitium, meaning 'a stopping.' An arnustice is not the same thing as a peace agreement. It's an agreement to stop the fighting - for now.
"So basically the world is sitting on a time bomb without realizing it. There are so many revolutions that they have become a habit of the people these days, and those very same people will rush into that revolution under a false banner of hope which is replaced with blood and years of tyranny. Nothing ever changes, the fighting never truly stops."