Robert chuckled as Alektor let out a frustrated groan, before placing the report on his desk, gently. Katrina and Lauren had both apparently found out about his ‘mission’ to rendezvous with Cato’s son, Pyxxis, something Robert was aware of. They had been missing for two days. Alektor knew they were with the expedition, but the report he had just received from them, confirmed it. His anger wasn’t with the two human girls however, but with the man he put in charge of the operation, Turak.

  “At every turn, I am ignored…” Alektor fumed, clenching his fists. “There will be real consequences this time, Reku. Turak has gone too far this time.”

  “He believes the mission needed their strength.” Robert shrugged, understanding why Alektor was mad, but disagreed with his decision in the first place. “He’s not wrong, you know.”

  “He is ‘wrong’ if I say he is.” Alektor rubbed his forehead, his irritation slowly waning. “Daniel is due back tomorrow… and this is a conversation I am not looking forward to.”

  “You’ll do fine.” Robert smiled, standing and turning to leave Alektor’s office. “Daniel can be rough around the edges, but he’s a reasonable enough guy. He’ll come around, you’ll see.”

  Alektor eyed him suspiciously, standing to follow him out of the door. Robert frowned in confusion, but proceeded to leave anyway.

  “I need you to be there for the reception.” Alektor added, moving to walk beside him.

  “What? when Dan gets home?”

  “Yes.” Alektor placed his left hand behind his back, and brought his right up to his chin. “I wanted to speak with you both about the military operations to come. Both with our now official enemy, Dominicia, as well as our inevitable one, Visoth.”

  “What would you need from me?” Robert asked, but part of him already knew the answer.

  Alektor turned his eyes to meet with Robert’s. “Our enemy is powerful and numerous, Reku. We will need your strength in the coming days.”

  Robert held the High-King’s gaze for several very long seconds, until he breathed slowly. “I know… they’re our enemy. Not the Dae who are being manipulated, but the demons behind it all.”

  “Unfortunately for them,” Alektor faced forward once again, resuming his walk. “Hundreds, if not thousands of those innocents, will die because of this evil.”

  Robert agreed, and began to bolster himself for the coming violence. It never got easier for him, the battles and fighting. There was no numbness that came over him at the thought of taking a life. Each time felt as terrible as the last, and that fact made him feel a little bit better. No matter what horrors and violence this world had thrown at him, he was still, in his heart, a decent person. At least that’s what he told himself.

  He made himself scarce until the next day. Spending his time in solitude, preparing himself mentally and spiritually for what was sure to come. Before long, the news came of Daniel’s arrival, along with this friend, Angelo, who Robert hadn’t really formed an opinion on yet. He, and several other people of note, found themselves waiting in the throne room, as they had done many times before at this point, waiting for him to arrive.

  Robert looked down at his prosthetic hand next to Avria and a dozen other nobles. He glanced again at the Dae princess’ belly, noting the loose clothing she was wearing and chuckled to himself. Way to go, Dan, he thought. As he glanced up, he noticed her fierce yellow eyes meeting his own, and he nearly choked on his laugh.

  “You aren’t the first to notice, Reku.” Avria started with narrowing eyes. “It is a strange thing to realize there is a life growing within you.” She placed her hand on her abdomen protectively. “You start to realize how vulnerable we really are. How fragile the things most precious to us… really are.”

  “You don’t need to remind me.” Robert nodded, giving her a pained smile. “I’m happy for you both though, truly.”

  Avria nodded, but her gaze turned toward the large doors of the throne room and her demeanor changed. “I appreciate your kind words, Reku. If there—”

  Her words were abruptly cut off by the massive doors of the throne room sliding open. As they did, the tall frame of Daniel came marching through them, his crimson cloak billowing behind him. Trailing slightly, was Angelo, Daniel’s friend, and nearly two dozen noble lords and ladies wearing foreign looking attire. Alektor stood from his throne in greeting, and Daniel strode toward him, bowing his head as he came to the base of the stairs that lead up to his platform.

  “Welcome back, Hego Daniel. It is good to see you in one piece after such a ferocious battle. Thank you for your diligent protection of these fine lords and ladies from Dominicia.” Alektor brought his attention to them, and they all knelt, bowing their heads as they did. “We welcome you, the true heirs of your kingdom. To the warm embrace of Eleutheros, and the protection of its sons and daughters.”

  Lord Bre’kon, one of the three Dominician lords rover recognized, stood, placing his hand on Angelo’s shoulder, again bowing toward the High King. “Your Majesty, we are humbled by not only your generosity and hospitality. But by your powerful display of power against our enemies. We are the noble heads of each of the twelve houses who fled our tainted homeland. We, and all our resources, are at your disposal. To help cleanse the evil that now infects our people.”

  Alektor’s gaze scanned over the nobles, something that Robert had seen a million times it felt like. He’s always so dramatic, he thought, sighing internally.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Your words move me, Lord Bre’kon.” Alektor continued, “you will see your homeland again, and when you do, you will find it purified… and whole.”

  Almost immediately, all of the attending nobles, Eleutheron and Dominician alike, were brought out of the throne room, and into the adjacent ballroom, where refreshments and music were there to greet them. Robert followed Avria, who stalked toward Daniel at a very fast pace. He managed to arrive just as the vestiges of Daniel’s response erupted.

  “What!?” The man’s voice bellowed, as Avria, Delmos, and Alektor all attempted to calm him down.

  Here we go, Robert thought as he approached, preparing himself for what needed to be said. Daniel was a reasonable and calculative man, he would not be difficult to talk down.

  “You sanctioned this, then?” Daniel growled, turning to face each of the Dae.

  “It is for the good of the Kingdom.” Alektor responded.

  “Will you get your temper under control?” Avria’s voice rang harshly

  “Trust us, brother. There is a far deal more to worry about. They can take care of themselves.” Delmos insisted.

  Robert approached slowly, but caught Daniel’s eye as he did. The man turned to meet his gaze, and Robert shook his head in disappointment. “Stop complaining about it.” He grunted, then pointed at each of the Dae. They were all people who Daniel loved and trusted. “We’ve got work to do, Dan. Have a little faith in Kat and the others. They’ll get it done. Alektor didn’t want you to go because you’re needed here, with me, fighting the enemy head on. Not sneaking around trying to hide your obvious ass powers from people. Get a grip, and come with us to a study or something, without making a damn scene in front of everyone.”

  Daniel stared at him for several moments, his objections caught in his throat. Alektor and the others looked on silently, with expressions of confusion and appreciation on their faces.

  Finally, Daniel recovered enough to speak. “I… yeah, we can go somewhere else. Lead the way.”

  Robert turned on his heels and marched out of the throne room and into their favorite secluded study. A place where they, at this point, had endured hundreds of secretive meetings in the dim, but comforting, atmosphere. Robert sat, then the rest of them followed, taking seats around him.

  “As Reku so adequately stated,” Alektor began. “We need you here, Daniel. Your presence, whether you know it or not, is a great boon to our people. I intended for all of you to stay, Katrina and Lauren included. But, due to the clear lack of obedience and respect… my wishes were ignored.”

  Daniel shook his head but seemed to steady himself. “I understand what you mean, I just… my friend.” He looked over at Angelo, who sat next to him. “Henry has been out there, you know? I wanted to be the one to go get him.”

  “I understand.” Alektor nodded, his expression reassuring. “But we really do need all the help we can get. Visoth and Dominicia are both supported by the unclean. Their ferocity and strength will only grow. Your victory in the South has postponed things a bit, but there is still a major threat that will not just go away on its own.”

  Daniel sighed, “I wouldn’t call what happened down there a ‘victory’ really. It was pure damn luck that we made it out of there.”

  “They had an ascended with them…” Angelo elaborated. “Dan’s right, if that ancient spirit hadn’t shown up, who knows what would have happened.”

  “We would have died.” Daniel’s voice was low and grim. “He was so powerful…”

  Alektor turned a tentative gaze at Avria, who returned it. Robert noticed a sort of unspoken conversation between the two, before she responded to Daniel’s statement. “This is further proof that the spirits are working with us, in this time of great strife.

  Daniel scoffed, looking at her with a smirk. “You really think the spirits are behind everything here? They’ve chosen to remain on the sidelines in this fight. Chosen indifference rather than assistance. They aren’t what you think they are, Avria. That ancient spirit might have saved us from the ascended, but they did nothing against the hordes of demons that streamed out of their fucking forest. Traxon is their sworn enemy, that’s why that thing helped out; anything beyond that, and they’re useless.”

  “Lets… keep the religious debate out of this, for now.” Alektor interrupted, holding a steadying hand out. “The ascended are enemies of the spirits, and we harbor some of our own. Though, they are content to watch empires rise and fall most of the time. They have intervened on our behalf, twice, against the enemy.” Robert’s jaw clenched at the words; remembering the ascended Malak, who saved Athica and Diana from being murdered. “It is no surprise that the enemy would have at least one as well.”

  “It still proves a problem.” Delmos chimed in, “ours are happy to sit and watch, while theirs seems to be fighting on the front lines. How would we even hope to kill one of them? The spirits have all but abandoned the forest, and Eleutheros for that matter. Where did they go? With this not embolden the ascended who wish to see us dead, more?”

  Daniel cleared his throat, bringing the attention back to him. “Delmos is right. Traxon said as much during the fight. The spirits are subdued, and they can act more freely now.”

  “Then, wouldn’t our own be emboldened as well?” Avria asked. “If our enemy says as much, the same should apply to all of them.”

  Alektor rubbed at the sides of his head. “At the end of it all, it is their discretion that determines their participation. We can only hope and pray that things change. As far as how to kill them? I do not know if we have the power to kill them.”

  “Dan was able to hurt Traxon.” Angelo spoke up again, looking at Daniel apologetically.

  “That could barely be called ‘hurting’ Ange.” Daniel chuckled.

  “It was enough to piss him off, alright? He got knocked on his ass, and that was when he got serious. Then the ancient spirit stepped in… and we didn’t get to see what he was capable of.”

  “Either way,” Avria cut in. “We must make a decision about the Visoth, and their potential involvement.”

  “That is for the council, sister.” Delmos shook his head, a hint of irritation in his voice. “Why waste time talking about it here?”

  “Because it needs to be discussed here, Delmos.” Avria’s eyes honed in on Delmos, who just scoffed in response. “You think any of the council members will go against what we decide here? They are an inevitable threat, and are waiting for us to make a mistake.”

  “I agree.” Alektor leaned back in his chair, his eyes glancing around the study, most likely in the search for wine. “Which is why I am appointing, Prince Daniel, and King Reku as my chief military advisors for this campaign. I intend to invade Visoth… preemptively. And stop any potential threat before it has a chance to bear its fangs at us.”

  Avria reeled at the appointment, looking between Robert and Daniel. Robert shrugged, having already been informed of this decision. “With all due respect to Daniel, and Reku. Myself, and my father are far more experienced in this field.”

  “You are with child.” Alektor leaned forward, his tone carrying little room for argument. “And your father is a king. I hardly expect either of you to participate heavily on the frontlines. Your expertise and experience will do well to help Daniel and Reku with their strategy here at home, but once the campaign starts. You will be unable to assist them.”

  Daniel turned a prickly glare at Avria, who didn’t meet his eyes. “I accept, and I’ll have you know I have a decent amount of experience when it comes to military tactics and planning, thank YOU very much.” Daniel shifted his attention to Robert, who smiled in response. “What do you think?”

  “I’m in.” Robert agreed. “You and me, Dan.”