Sneaking into the castle Lilly lead Navir up a large spiral staircase towards a corridor filled with doors "The heroes are in here, I checked earlier claiming I was a new maid assigned to them." Navir nodded "Ok so where should we have them all meet so we can try to convince them?" Lilly thought for a minute "there's a music room just a few doors down that should be large enough for everyone to fit In, you wait in there and I'll convince them to come, we'll call you Arachne again to gain trust."

Navir nodded and moved in the direction Lilly had pointed in before Lilly used her lock picks to quickly gain access to her former classmates rooms. Opening each of their doors she quickly and quietly told all of them to "come to the music room down the corridor if they wanted to learn the truth regarding the country that summoned them."

Gathering the last of the heroes into the music room, Lilly closed the door and walked to the front of the room to stand next to Navir "Welcome heroes, I apologise for taking you away from your sleep, but it is not without good reason. First things first I would like to inform you incase you didn't already know but your classmates have already escaped the castle."

At this a lot of muttering arose from the group "What do you mean escape, they've been kidnapped haven't they?" Navir laughed "Wow they must want to cover it up badly!" the group looked at Navir in confusion as his face grew serious "Ok in all truth i uncovered a conspiracy theory that the king planned to sacrifice the second group of heroes with the least talent to gain more magical power."

This drew a lot of gasps from the group though some nodded as if this just confirmed what they already knew "I told the heroes about this and helped them escape, I won't tell you where they are for now in case the king uses magic to question you." the group nodded however Lilly noticed a couple of hesitant or irritant looks.

"Anyway they're safe for now, but that's not what I came here to talk about. My name is Navir," Navir lowered his hood "and I am a demon." rather than the former heroes who backed away the current heroes fell into fighting stances "relax I'm not here to hurt you I'm here to ask a favour." the heroes still looked weary but at least looked willing to listen.

"Thank you, in truth my codename is Arachne." this drew some more gasps, all of the heroes had heard of the notorious thief who stole away half the treasury. "In truth i am using the funds I stole to try and stop the war and so I will ask of you what I asked the other heroes. When the final battle comes please represent a neutral force between the two groups. Most of the demons have been forced into this war, they want peace as much as we do!"

After saying this Navir went silent and bowed his head "we won't ask you to make the choice now, all I ask is that you consider it when the time comes." the heroes nodded silently and left the room one by one until only Lilly and Navir were left. "Let's head back home." said Lilly smiling "we have some scheming to do."

Arriving back at the house in twenty minutes Lilly and Navir sat on opposite ends of a small table staring at each other "so now we've got the heroes to consider our proposal what's next?" asked Navir, Lilly paused for a minute "I have an idea but first let me ask a question, does the demon king have anymore children apart from the son?"

Navir nodded "Yes there's a girl as well, one year younger than the brother." Lilly nodded "is she smart?" Navir nodded again "perfect why don't we let the demon kings son be a figure head and leave the buissness to the sister or better yet just put the sister on the throne." Navir smiled "That's not a bad idea but..." he trailed off "What is it?" Navir sighed "the demons have no problem with a girl being in charge as long as she's stronger, unfortunately the sister has a weaker body despite the higher intellect."

Lilly sighed "back to square one then, wait a second," Navir looked at her in interest "What if we set up the demon kings son and the princess, if they enter an alliance through marriage then neither side could object and the princess's brains can be reinforced with the Prince's brawn, it's perfect!"

Navir smiled "That's a great idea, our next stop should be the princess anyway, I heard she was a good friend with the sister before the war started anyway so she shouldn't have to many prejudices towards demons." Lilly smiled "That's great, well go see her tomorrow."

The next morning Lilly and Navir once again donned their disguises to enter the castle, this time however as soon as Lilly and Navir had entered an empty corridor Lilly stopped "finally addressing the person following us, are we?" Lilly laughed "I wondered if you'd pick up on that but don't worry he's a friend."

Lilly turned to face the direction they came from "Shadow man, save us some time and come out." Noir emerged out of the shadows grumbling "you know my name now why are you still calling me shadow man?" Lilly laughed "cause it's fun, anyway we need to see the princess."

Noir stared at her for a bit then sighed "I'll take you there, its not like you wouldn't just defeat me and go even if I tried to stop you." Lilly grinned "glad to see you know me well." After saying this Lilly and Navir silently followed Noir through corridors and stairways until finally they reached a lavish mahogany door with gold inlay.

"This's her room, I'll wait outside to make sure your not heard." Lilly flashed Noir a grateful smile which gave Navir a small scowl as he walked past Noir into the room. Sitting in the room was the same beautiful girl Lilly had seen back in the courtyard all those days ago "Who are you?" asked the girl quickly standing up with wary eyes.

"relax," smiled Lilly "We're friends of Noir's, he let us in because we said we needed to talk to you." The princess visually relaxed and sat back down on the seat she had previously been on "What do you need of me?" Lilly smiled glad she was willing to hear them out "We want to end the war, but to do that we want to form an alliance between the younger generation of rulers."

The princess suddenly looked downcast "I'm sorry I know what you want but I can't." Lilly looked at the princess in surprise "What do you mean?" the princess took a deep breath "I love someone else so I cannot marry Alexis." Lilly looked at Navir confused until he whispered "demon kings son."

Lilly sighed "It's fine, we can think of other plans I figured we should check just to make sure." the princess bowed her head "I am truly sorry but I L..love Lunar." suddenly a rosy blush spread to the princess's cheeks while Navir raised one eyebrow in surprise "didn't see that coming." he Murmed under his breath "What is it?" asked Lilly still confused "Who's Lunar?"

Navir laughed "the current demon kings daughter." Lilly looked at him in surprise then turned to the princess "you mean....oh..." the princess gave a nod in conformation still blushing deeply. "Well this just got complicated." sighed Lilly as she thought of what was to come.

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Authors note

Sorry for the late chapter I've been swamped with exams, unfortunately I won't be able to do another chapter till the weekend but I'll try to get two out by then. Hope you enjoyed