Miri’s POV

Emotions run high as we make our way to the throne room of the shadow castle, the words aeren had said ringing repeatedly in my ears, combined with the frantic in and out movement of staff,

But just as I move to enter the throne room I am familiar with aeren shakes his head and leads me to an adjacent door I have never been to

We walked slowly into this room, to see that the room had maps and pictures of No Man’s Land grafted out and a huge center table with a visual aid of all the empires. Around this table were my father, brothers, general Rehn and three other strong looking shadow soldiers.

“What is this room” I quietly whisper to aeren

“This is the war throne room of our shadow castle, father and the generals are currently talking about which emergency protocols to take and trying to assemble the necessary guards needed to safely get past this crisis” he tells me,

“Oh so this is where we are going to work on our military tactics” I ask him genuinely curious

“Well not really, more detailed military tactics will be discussed between us later in our own private throne room” he explains

“the men beside general Rehn are the three other generals of the empire, try not to make too much noise unless you have something to add” he reminds me once more before leading us to the large center table,

The conversation quiets down to acknowledge our presence before getting lively once more,

My father decided to give a quick brief on everything so far “we just got a war letter from the hollow alliance which our spies has determined is just the hollow thorn and their army of mind controlled empiricals, so this war is the shadow empire against the world” he tells me looking grim before straightening out and continuing,

“We have decided on this policies for now and so far everyone has agreed, firstly all the gates and borders of the shadow empire are closed to all non shadows, to minimize the risk and we have increased the guards by tenfold, secondly general Rehn and the other commanders have been told to assemble the army, once assembled i and the princes shall set off for No Man’s Land leaving behind tarin, aeren, Miri and alira….”

“What?!!!” Me and alira yell in unison

“Who agreed to that” Alira asks frantically

“Father the empire is going to war and you expect us to just sit down doing nothing, right now the shadow empire needs all the help it can get but you rather let us sit on the sidelines, how does that make sense?” I back her up

“Alright generals please go and work on enforcing the empire entrance ban empire and also be on guard in case any possible spies want to sneak in and girls let’s move elsewhere for this conversation”

Father leaves first and heads to the usual throne room and so did my brothers but before leaving I decide to ask general Rehn for a favor,

“General could you please do me a favor”

“Of course princess, whatever do you need, just give me the orders”

“Please send one of your private guards to the closed gates to pick up prince ryden for me”

He looks at me confused

“What do you mean princess, how are you so sure prince ryden will come to the gate, he might have already been controlled by the hollow thorn for all we know”

“He will come I know him well and I know he will be there and as for the mind control, I had taken precautions earlier so you don’t have to be afraid and just let him in and lead him back to the castle”

“Princess forgive me for my boldness but if he truly can’t be controlled then he might be dead”

“General, do you think the man whom I recognize will be that easy to kill?!” I ask fixing him a fierce glare already feeling upset

“Just do as I have told you, prince ryden will come, I know it”

And with that I walk away and join my family in the private throne room and shut the door behind me

But as soon as the door closes Alira jumps into a long speech

“Father I refuse to stay in the castle while you all fight, let tarin stay Miri and I are going”

“I am also going, I haven’t being training hard just to sit in the castle in the crucial time where it matters most, so when you give in to alira and Miri, which I know you will, I am also going to go” aeren adds immediately after alira

My father ask grimly “Alira you are human without any power, if not to die what exactly would you do at the battle field”

Alira looks at him with hurt and bewilderment and he looks regretful but his resolve was hardening

“Father I taught alira how to use the energy twin blades and we would give them full body power armor” Malric speaks which stuns everyone

“You gave her energia twin blades?” Renn asks in a kind of whisper

Alira just looks around confused not understanding why our reactions are so strong

Fenn finally fills her in “energia twin blades are formed with core energy, so in short if the swords are destroyed Malric would die instantly”

“Alira can handle it and I don’t mind giving her my life, father don’t underestimate her”

“Absorb it”

“What?!”

“I said absorb it back, since you have taught her, I would give her twin blades, don’t worry about it” I tell him

“Why would I allow you do that, I put my life in the hands of the girl I love, what is wrong with that”

Silence

No one says a word in response to malric’s earlier confession not even alira

“What did you say?” My father is the first to recover

Malric doesn’t pay him any mind and walks to alira and takes her hands in his

“I really really like you Ali, and I want to make you my princess and I want to show you just how beautiful love can be, will you let me?”

“Will you allow me show you, just how beautiful love can be” he tells her with so much conviction in his voice

“That depends on your own performance then, after this battle is over, I would give you a direct answer, so you better take care of yourself” she says hiding her blush

But just as everyone was about to make their dissatisfaction known which I could guess by their expressions I shot them a look that said don’t you dare, do they know how hard I have been supporting this love story if any of them dares ruin it I might just use them for target practice,

“Alright, alright!!” Father coughs out drawing in our attention

“you all can come it’s not as if you would listen if I said no anyway” he grumbles out the last part

But before anymore can be said ryden bursts into the hall, all heads turn and anything that wanted to be said died in our throats

At once all my brother went on guard looking ready to kill him if he showed the tiniest sign of being controlled

I simply shake my head and push them out of the way “I used my powers to protect Ryden’s head and core, he can’t be controlled by hollow thorn, no need to be so unguard”

I tell them as I shut the door before giving an appreciative nod to the shadow guard who had escorted him here

I take him to sit as tarin tells him about the current situation of things

“Well I have more news to tell, that would make this already bad situation seem worse” he tells us once tarin is done

My father permits him to speak knowing how valuable information is at a situation like this

He starts “Your initial plan was to gather as much troops as you can and lead them to No Man’s Land for the battle and knowing how protective you all are, you would have asked Miri and Alira to stay and knowing how stubborn they are they would have insisted on going, you would have ended up leaving one prince within the castle and head for No Man’s Land at the earliest convenience, am I right?”

We look between one another knowing just how right he is considering the events that actually just took place, but we know not to interrupt him as he continues to speak

“Well the whole dragonian empire has been conquered by the hollow thorn and I heard them say that, they have three goals to accomplish in this attack”

“Firstly they need to annihilate the shadow empire who they cannot control”

“Secondly, For reasons I do not know they want to take over the shadow castle and lastly they want to capture Miri alive” everyone tenses up at his final words, like why do they want me again

“I was unable to learn about their reasoning for the castle and I can vaguely guess why they want Miri” we all silently understand as well but Torven speaks up

“It must be the will of Dravin, he must want Miri, that demon is really up to nothing good” and everyone agrees with what he says

“We need to make a battle plan, we do have two wars to fight, don’t we?” Ryden remarks I guess to remind us that the situation at hand is more serious than our personal hate against Draven.

“So what should we do exactly” I ask

“I have a plan” Renn announces and everyone looks to him.

“Let’s create two teams the war at No Man’s Land will be lead by father and a few of us with an army and then another team by tarin and the other half of us to protect the castle”

“There are underground cities in the shadow empire, we can evacuate all the civilians there so we don’t have to worry about any civilian life if a fight does occur” fenn adds

“I can head over to No Man’s Land with the king, my powers give me an advantage with their elemental powers as well” ryden also speaks up

“Alright then so let’s say this is what we are going to do tarin and rian start evacuating the people to the underground cities, prepare enough supplies so they can stay worry free for quite a while” my father orders

“It will be me, prince ryden, prince torven, renn, fenn, lior and rian that will head out to No Man’s Land for the war while alongside tarin will be Miri, Alira, Malric and Aeren to defend the castle, any objections” father asks and no one objects

“Alright spend this days training, the war approaching is one that could wipe the shadow empire of the face of the earth or establish our empire as one of the strongest, we determine our faith” everyone nods in agreement and disperses with alira and malric leaving together

I will tease her later but for now I decide to go to ryden

“How did you know I would come back” he ask me

“Because I know you well, didn’t you say I matter more to you than your life? , I never gave permission so I knew you wouldn’t dare to die” I respond to him honestly,

At my words he grabs my waist and pulls me to him “so you trust me that much” he asks in a low almost seductive voice as he moves his face closer to mine

“You are a man of your word, why wouldn’t I trust you” I reply also taking on an equally seductive tone as I close my eyes for our lips to meet one another only for me to feel nothing

As I reopen my eyes, wondering why what I was expecting never came, I saw the glaring face of Renn

“You are free to continue,” he says looking between us two

“But I can only assure you that he would recover on time for the war” we instantly understood the underlying threat and let go of each other

“Miri go and meet alira and start your training”

“It’s the middle of the night” I tell Renn

“Really?! Then go to your bloody room!”

He yells behind me as I run, I do feel pity for ryden but I’m sure he will survive

As I arrive at my room I hesitate before deciding to go to alira’s room

“Oh no please don’t tell me, my future sister-in-law is already asleep” I say in a teasing tone

She throws a pillow at me “well I guess that should be a no” I add with a laugh

“Miri please don’t tease me, the situation is currently to serious for me to think about all that right now” she tells me hiding her face

“well let me give you your words right back to you, no need to rush yourself or force yourself when you’re ready even you would know it” I tell her with a slight pat on the head

Before I plop myself down on her bed to sleep

“Don’t you have a room, you little silver haired troublemaker” she yells at me

“ I do, but I choose to stay in yours, what?, are you going to kick me out” I ask trying to get a reaction out of her and true to her nature she jumps on me and struggles for a while before she snuggles with me side by side

“Miri let’s laugh and play like this with one another for many years to come, okay?”

“Of course, even when you marry malric I would still steal you from him”

“And when you eventually get with ryden I would do the same” we tease each other some more before going to bed after all we have long days to come.