On the afternoon of the second day after leaving Raya Lucaria Academy, Annie returned safely to Stormveil Castle. The first thing she did was hear several supposedly important updates from the Witch, Sorceress Sellen, who was wholeheartedly set on making her the "Elden Lord."
It turned out that, while Annie had been away, a terrible rebellion had broken out in the southern part of the Weeping Peninsula, in a wretched place called Castle Morne. In her name, Witch Sellen had sent the Tree Sentinel and the two Crucible Knights to lead thousands of "Fire-Eyed Knights" there to put down the revolt. The idea was to bring the Weeping Peninsula, which had originally been under Stormveil Castle's rule, back into its territory and lay the groundwork for a future march on the capital.
Annie really wanted to say that she had no interest in going to the capital, and certainly didn't want to become Elden Lord. Otherwise, she wouldn't have come back from Raya Lucaria Academy.
But it was no use!
By her reckoning, the army that had set out in her name as Queen Annie had probably already reached the southern shore of Agheel Lake. They might even have crossed the Bridge of Sacrifice and begun putting down the revolt. There was no way to stop them now.
Everyone knew that the "Fire-Eyed" army was made up of beings Annie had summoned with souls, ashes, and magma, a bit like magical constructs. They needed little in the way of supplies and didn't even need to rest. They could march day and night without sleep. Even though most of them had no horses and traveled on foot, the knights were still nearly as fast as cavalry.
Fortunately, Annie wasn't particularly keen on stopping them anyway. She simply let things be after