Lucan and Silent made their way to Queen Umbra's castle. Approaching the world tree in the center of the city, Lisel was waiting there for Lucan. A familiar face was there talking to her.

"Lucan it's good that you could make it. Let me introduce you, this is my husband, Earnest." She said.

"It's nice to meet you, I hope you enjoyed the auction today." Earnest Farwest said.

"Yes, I am quite satisfied with my purchases. This is my girlfriend, Silent Night." He excitedly replied, putting an arm around Silent's waist.

Lisel began to lead them up the roots of the tree. Carved into the trunk of the towering giant was the Shadow Queens castle. With Lisel being a direct Warlock of the Queen, the guards made way and allowed them in.

"Hellfire is already inside, let's hurry." Lisel said as they walked through a grand hall that was lined with massive paintings. Surprisingly, every painting was of the Queen of Shadows.

When Lucan encountered another figure at the end of the hall, he realized it wasn't too surprising.

"No, no, hang it higher, the light is hitting it all wrong where it is now. Ah yes, that is perfect. I want to be able to see my beautiful wife no matter where I look."

It was the King of the shadow elves, his wife was Queen Umbra. Lucan had met this man when he began selling off the Mana crystals that had been dug up outside of Shadowsweep.

Lisel sighed and shook her head at the king's antics. Earnest mumbled to himself. "Hmm, maybe I should do this with a room at our home."

Lucan wanted to tell him that it wasn't a bad idea, Brax had already changed his phones background to the picture he took with Jenna, but then he remember his young steward Oar making fun of him, saying he was going to end up exactly like the King of the Shadow elves, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Coming to a lounge in the back of the castle, Lisel opened the doors and the four newcomers entered.

Hellfire was sitting on a couch with his leveling partner, Calder, the man who sought a glorious death. Across from him was Queen Umbra. The last time Lucan had seen this woman was when she guarded the door on the first day Lucan met Raze. Just like then, the only clothes she wore were shadows draped over her pale skin.

"Lucan, you made it. It's been awhile." Hellfire said with a friendly nod. Calder gave a smile and a wave.

"Lord Quilldrake, we have been waiting for you." Queen Umbra said, seeming to be disinterested in his presence.

"Ma'am, he is at it again. He replaced all the painting in the main hall with your portraits." Lisel reported.

"Sigh, just let him be, it's not worth the argument." Umbra replied while tubbing her temples.

Lucan took a seat on an open couch while Silent sat beside him.

"So… Does this mean you now recognize me as a Hand of Raze?" Lucan asked the Queen while picking up a teacup the staff had just filled.

She pouted. "I recognize that you aren't useless, is that good enough?"

"Eh, good enough." Lucan said before taking a sip.

*Clap* *Clap*

Umbra clapped her hands together. "Non-essentials, please leave." She said. In response, the maids and butlers left the room and closed the doors behind them.

Umbra waved her hand and shadows sealed the room, cutting off any prying eyes or ears.

"Lucan, I have asked you here because Hellfire and I are already in agreement. In 2 months' time we will be moving against the other Hands. It can't be put off much longer. They are already growing bolder and beginning to stir up trouble. The longer we wait the more it will affect us."

"Are you up for this?" Hellfire asked.

"You don't have to worry about me. I will be promoted to a Baron any day now."

"Good, then you will have soldiers to help you." Hellfire said.

"We will leave the Plague Baron to you." Umbra said. "It is important that we go on the offensive at the same time so the other hands will be unable to work together. Even though I am strong, if all three were to combine their forces against me I would not be able to hold them off." She said.

"I plan to poke and manipulate in the meantime, but when you both lead your armies, I will do the same." Lucan said.

"Don't draw too much attention to yourself." Umbra warned. "If they decide to join together to deal with you and launch a surprise attack, we won't be able to respond in time."

"I know what I am doing." Lucan said.

"Do we need to notify Raze? If we are successful, he will lose three hands and a good portion of his income. I don't want to draw his wrath." Hellfire asked.

"That may not be a bad idea." Umbra said.

"Sure, but I wouldn't worried about him getting upset. He will probably be giddy and happy."

Both Hellfire and Umbra gave him questioning looks.

Lucan explained. "How many people want to be a Hand of Raze? That old fart will probably use the chance to extort three new people. Making them pay an arm and a leg to take up the position. When we destroy the other Hands, he just needs to put new figureheads in place. If done right, his income will only slow a day or two while he gets showered in treasure."

"He, he." Umbra chuckled while nodding after picturing the scene. "Since you are so close with the Supreme Ruler, you can tell him."

"Yes, you should do it." Hellfire quickly agreed.

It seemed that both Hellfire and Umbra were afraid of Raze. Maybe it was because Lucan had never seen him in action, or crossed the old man's bottom line, but he didn't see what the fuss was about. Whenever Lucan interacted with Raze, he was either acting out his humble old man routine or openly scamming somebody.

"Sure, that's fine."

After that, Lucan, Hellfire, and Umbra began discussing things in more detail for the next hour.

"Alright, I think we have the main issues settled." Queen Umbra said. "When we draw closer to the date of our attack, we will meet again to make sure everything is in order."

"Sounds good."

"Sure."

"If there is nothing else, I have a husband that needs to be dealt with. Feel free to spend the night if you wish." Said Queen Umbra as she rose from the couch and left the room.

"We have some business in town tomorrow. We will stay here." Hellfire said to Lisel.

"Then see you next time." Lucan said as he and Silent left. They had no intention of staying the night. It wasn't even dinner time and they still had so much to do.

"We really have so much to do now." Silent said. "The plague Baron, your race change, upgrading Shadowsweep and we need to level on top of that. There is never enough time."

There was also destroying the Winged Tiger's influence inside of Evolution, but Lucan did not bring that up. Speaking of in-game time, Mr. Beneil's birthday wasn't for three and a half months. That issued could be pushed slightly back, but it was also the one Brax wanted to deal with the soonest. How dare another man claim his girlfriend as their fiancé.

"Let's go deal with your race change quest." Silent suggest. "Since it's an instance, it adjusts to our levels and we can gain some experience while we are at it."

"Are you sure? You don't have to help me if you have something else you want to do."

"Stupid warlock. You helped me so much with my race change. How could I ignore yours?"

"Alright. Mt. Troy is in Baramore. We can go from Shadowsweep to Avalon. From Grand Magister Faylen's reaction of me opening the shadow tunnel, I don't think it would be a good idea to connect the transporter to there without at least talking to them first."

"Let's do that then. Didn't you buy slaves in Avalon before. Can you do that again to increase your population? That way we can make our trip that much more efficient."

"Umm, sure. We can do that again. I should probably bring some of the other raw materials we dug out to appease Faylen since I haven't been back in a while."

Lucan stopped by the fortress and had some supplies delivered to Shadowsweep. With the help of his acolytes, the shadow tunnel to Avalon had been greatly developed. Enough so that carriages and wagons could pass side-by-side. It made transporting the goods a bit easier.

Unfortunately, the other end of the shadow tunnel was still blocked by a narrow cave, Lucan decided to bring a few Elite shadow elves to watch the goods while they went and made a deal.

Now traveling like a true Lord, Lucan and Silent entered a comfortable carriage and had an Elite drive them into the shadow gate while a wagon followed.

Lucan pulled out a bottle of wine and a pair of wine glasses and started to pour.

"I shouldn't drink anymore today. I think I have already embarrassed myself enough." Silent said, thinking about before and after she fell asleep at the auction.

"I thought you were rather cute today. Besides, it is just you and me in here and it will take us a few hours to arrive. We won't be drink hard liquor, only a bottle of wine." He said while scooting closer to her.

"Umm… Alright." She said, taking the glass.

***

The bottle of wine had long been emptied when there was a knock on the carriage door.

"Lord Quilldrake, we have arrived in Avalon." The driver reported.

Lucan pulled back from Silent, both of their lips were raw and tender, but after kissing and teasing for most of the journey they both felt extremely comfortable in the presence of the other.

Silent grumbled about the pervy warlock but she could not hide her enjoyment from him as she fixed up her messy hair before Lucan opened the door.