This is a nice little short story, in which we experience the ethical transformation of the ruthless general Daynja Édo who is employed by the Boorhian Empire.
I felt like my reading of this was too scattered around in time to fully appreciate it. Please do read this in one sitting, for the sake of your own enjoyment.
L.D. Lewis shows us how to quickly and efficiently worldbuild enough in this short story for it to feel believably fantastical; really well done.
Though, and this is more my personal shortcoming, I think I did not have enough time to truly get into the story and the world, which is something I experience more often with short stories and flash fiction. In a way, this might also be a non-goal of such shorter pieces. Instead, they often focus on ideas, concepts, parts of a world, or a short character exploration. Sometimes with a message, othertimes to hit one emotional snare really powerfully. This diversity in goals and the focus the medium lends the pursuement of them is what gives short fiction its powerful potential, and, sometimes, delivers masterful gems.
This book isn't one of the gems, but it sure is a good nugget of well-crafted imaginative practice.