Chapter Thirty Nine

*** Adrian McGlothin ***

I looked around as the most powerful men of the Bulbarian Empire were gathered around a single circular table, its center was filled with the engraved map of the empire. At the moment there was a map of what is known of the world hosting the mother continent, the new continent, and the shape and form of the landmass known as Boraia. The map was not perfect, getting a good map of that country was a rather...extremely difficult task.

I looked towards my brother Douglas, the king, who was still waiting like everyone else for the last of the pieces representing troops and strategic points to be placed on the map. To one side sat his oldest son David and second prince and to the other sat Dane, our brother and fourth prince. His loss was still felt in court, but there was nothing we could do, Boraia was simply too strong and it had acted swiftly to secure peace.

There were a host of generals and admirals standing behind us. Nigel, my most trusted friend, was standing behind me.

“Boraia poses too great a threat for us to simply ignore it,” I stated.

“Then why did you not do anything about them after my Becket was killed?” Dane asked his eyes accusing me. “Back then they were not the threat they are now.”

“I had no means to bring down their one flying vessel,” I replied the same way as I had done a thousand times before.

“Their monstrosity is now First Prince you know,” he changed the subjected. My brow raised in genuine surprise though there was no other telltale sign on my face and features to betray how truly...horrified I was.

They are skipping the current First Prince Bastion? The man was a good man, intelligent and a very able leader, unfortunately what he spawned was distances too far ahead to calculate.

“What is this meeting for brother?” I asked looking towards my king.

“We must respond soon brothers,” he replied solemnly. Douglas was a laxed man, for him to be solemn…

“What do you mean?” I asked. There was currently no form by which we could retaliate.

“The boy,” he explained. “The now First Prince of Boraia, has claimed the daughter of the amazon queen. It is not the First Princess, but nonetheless, they may decide to leave the coalition and side with Boraia. Should they leave the coalition we will cease to be a world power. At the moment we are still at our primal height due to the distances between both empires, but I have a...feeling that our distance apart will soon cease to be an issue for their invasion forces.”

“Why must there be war?” I asked. I wanted as much as them to face off against the Boraians but there was no current viable form for us to present them a challenge. Their weapons, their magic, their technology, and even their basic transportation was leaps and bounds beyond ours. What could we hope to achieve against such a force? “Peace is a better option, we must pour what we can into research and development otherwise we will never be a match for them.”

“And in the meantime?” Dane asked. “As they conquer the new continent? What if we are never able to match their military might?”

“They have retreated from the academy,” I explained. “That is a resource that we can exploit, at this point it is a coalition only city state. With more teachers, more students, and what funds we can spare the academy can become the tool for our victories.”

“Yes brother,” Douglas looked towards me. “Your mind has always been a thing of magnificence, but let us leave those plans for a later date. We must secure the southern half of Roya for now.”

*** Convocation of the Ordained ***

Fate ~ “The final thread untangled.”

Life ~ “Is this your final rebellion?”

Fate ~ “You will not allow it?”

Life ~ “I will not. The Judge has spoken.”

Fate ~ “What will be will be.”

Life ~ “Life will not leave him this night.”

They looked on as the shattered pieces of light and darkness began their journey home.

*** Leo Cazador ***

There was always so much to do. In a way my being so busy that sometimes I found myself sleeping only out of exhaustion had become a good thing. Since the events of the academy Sophia had started spending less and less time around me and had grown independent enough that she slept in her own room though she did tend to wander into Eleanor’s room every once in awhile.

Before the political leaders of Boraia were killed at my command plans had been set out for selecting proper governors to take the place of the eliminated chiefs and nobles. The transition was rather difficult in some places while in others the transition had been swift and without problems.

As soon as I had ordered the executions a waiting fleet, a combination of Illuminated airpower and Boraian airpower, descended on the most troublesome of the islands. The Boraian armies were dropped in to secure the islands too keep them from forming any real resistance. The standing armies and defensive forces of each island were forced to surrender and turn in their weapons. They would provide much of the necessary labor for the projects to come.

It was already sundown and I was still looking through the papers on my desk, though officially I now had the power and responsibility my father once had he was still doing what he had been doing before. What the new title allowed me to do was commission projects without the need of acquiring permission from my grandfather.

So far none of the projects were being started, for the moment I needed to work out the logistics. Food, workers, materials, transportation, general planning, it was driving me insane. There was always something else to get done and only I could do it.

“I should probably call in a few scholars from the Illuminated,” I mused reading over a town report that was finely detailed. It was one of the towns that would have a station for the new trains I was commissioning.

*Knock*

*knock*

“My lord,” a lady entered. She was carrying a tray with my tea.

“Ah,” I looked up eagerly anticipating the tea. They made some delicious tea here, my fixation with the drink led me to unintentionally blooming the tea culture to a very refined point.

“Thank you,” I said grabbing the mug as she handed it to me.

“Is there anything else my lord?” She asked.

“No,” I replied dismissing her. “You may leave.”

“As you WISH!” She said suddenly launching herself at me. She caught me by surprise, I did not know what the purpose of her action was so I did not react in time as she plunged the concealed knife in her hand into my ribcage.

“Grah!” I roared as the blade penetrated my flesh probably digging into my lungs.

I twisted and struck her temple with an open palm strike, she did not release the knife in her hand, instead she used my movement to slice forward between my ribs. My left lung was definitely done for.

She was suddenly pulled off me and thrown across the room. Three men were standing inside the room now, one of the was between me and the woman, another was plunging a blade into the screaming woman, as the third looked over me.

“We need a healer!” They were all clad in black and masked, but the one nearest me appeared to be female.

“We have no healer,” the man who had been standing between me and my attacker moved towards me. “Go find one, and hurry, I will keep him alive. Go to the mother, she is a clerical healer.”

The other two rushed out of the room.

My body had grown extremely weak as far too much blood was leaving me.

“You will survive this my lord,” the man assured me as he placed his hand on my ribcage. The blood ceased to flow as readily as it had before and somehow he was managing to keep the blood out of my one good lung so that I would not suffocate as he drained the blood filled one.

He was young, far too young to have mastered the skills he was using, even as he stayed death’s hand I could feel it drawing near.

I closed my eyes, my eyelids felt like they weighed a ton each.

“My lord,” the shadow warrior called out to me. Already his voice was starting to feel far away.

I did not expect my life to end like this.

“My gaunt...let,...” I pointed towards a chest with my right hand. “Hurry…”

“But you will bleed to death if I leave you my lord!” He cried out.

“Do it!” I gritted my teeth.

The young man rushed over to the chest and extracted the gauntlet from within, he ran back to me hastily strapping the gauntlet on my arm.

“I cannot…*gurgle*...keep blood....out...lung…,” the young man returned to his task of keeping the blood out of my lungs.

Far too much blood was pooled around and on me, the light was already fading from my eyes, I could feel my lips move, but I could not tell if I made a sound.

The last thing I heard as my consciousness faded to black was the faraway scream of my mother’s despair.