THE COUNCIL ROOM, STARFALL CASTLE

King Hector sat on his seat placed in the middle of the crescent table, there were four other seats at the table, two on both sides of himself.

At the far end from his right sat King Taichen of House Luo-Xian, Ruler of the Kingdom of Yunhai, the third nation in the Supremacy, he appeared to be in his late fifties and had his short gray hair tied at the back, his beards were the same colour and he wore a very disgruntled look on his face

Next to him sat Lord Shiro of house Kamitsuki, the ruling family of the Kingdom of Tsukihama, the fourth nation of the Supremacy, he was a short man with a huge belly, was in his early sixties, his older twin brother was the current king of Tsukihama while he was their representative at the council

To the left of King Hector Vernon, King Gupta Devantri, King of Burmah, the second nation of the Supremacy, sat comfortably, he had a red dot on his forehead and brown skin which made his balding white hair and beards very conspicuous, he wore a loose tunic robe with multiple beaded necklaces

And on the last seat on the far left of the table, sat... nobody, the four men waited silently for it's occupant to arrive, and their patience was running thin

"Where's Lady Alora?" King Gupta asked calmly

"I told her about the council meeting a few hours ago, and I could have sworn she heard me..."

"Damn woman!!, I don't know when we began to let them sit on the council, and you're the one who let this disrespectful behavior occur KING Hector!!!, you're too soft on the wench..."

"Watch your tongue Taichen!" Hector shut him down harshly

"Piss off" Taichen cursed under his breath, inaudible to the others in the room

The doors of the council room opened up and the four men watched in anticipation, but Lady Alora wasn't the one who came in

Gerald Vernon, King Hector's cousin walked into the council room with two of the Red cloaked knights behind himself, he looked a lot like Hector, just younger and more handsome, and many in the realm thought they were brothers

"Your Grace..." he greeted his cousin with a bow, and so did the knights behind him, Hector sighed and laid back in his chair;

"Well, our administrator is already here, we can't keep on waiting for Lady Alora"

The other men nodded in agreement, Gerald Vernon walked up to the crescent table and shared a bunch of papers to the four men, he also placed papers in front of Alora's seat, even though she wasn't present, just in case she showed up during the meeting

"What's the first issue to discuss?" Hector asked as he flipped through the papers and picked one out

"I believe this one is for me" King Gupta said, he cleared his throat to speak

"Our leading technicians at my Kingdom's institute of Magical Studies have been working on new technology to create barriers that can now span and protect entire city ranges, and they've submitted these proposals to the crown in other to appeal for funding as well as permission to make use of military grade spirit orbs for their experiments"

The other councillors took a look at the blueprints and designs of the machines which the technicians were working on, King Hector rubbed his chin as he admired the drawings

"Impressive, but I'm a little confused, how expensive could these experiments possibly be to require funding from the sovereign?, shouldn't your house be able to provide that, King Gupta?"

Lord Shiro and King Taichen stared at him, he cleared his throat again

"Yes, your grace, I have made plans for that, however the use of the spirit orbs is still something only you can legally approve of, especially in this scenario"

"I see..." Hector dropped the paper and picked up the next one, he waved his hand towards King Gupta "Done, tell them it's done, they can go ahead as long as you ensure that proper safety protocols and security are put in place"

"As you wish, your grace" King Gupta replied

The next piece of paper the councillors raised out of the set had the map of an island printed on it

"What is this?" Hector asked looking very confused

"That is the Island of Ronain, your grace, currently inhabited by the Islanders under the rule of house Skolgard, it originally belonged to my Kingdom Yunhai and was taken from us seventy years ago when house Royalé of Helia still ruled the Supremacy, and now I want it back" King Taichen stated his claim very sternly

King Hector looked even more confused "I've been the sovereign of the Supremacy for fifteen years now, and not once have you brought up this topic, why do you want it back all of a sudden?"

"I brought it up twelve years ago your Grace, I do not fault you for not remembering, it's been a very long time, I and house Skolgard agreed a peace treaty after several decades of fighting over the island, they took it from us because of the diamond mine that was discovered in it, I was able to let that one go, but recently six more diamond mines have been discovered, and I'm afraid the island is now worth fighting for your Grace"

King Hector stared at Taichen, who stared at him back, Lord Shiro breathed deeply, trying to make the room less tense

"Well, Lady Alora is the representative of the Skolgard Islands, and this is a matter that concerns her kingdom as well, so we cannot make any definite decisions until she arrives, and I do not intend to speak on this matter again, if both of you cannot agree on terms by yourselves then the Island will come under the authority of the Sovereign and belong to neither your kingdoms, this case is dismissed

The councilors picked up the next paper

"I will address this one your grace, as it concerns our very own kingdom Tremore" Gerald Vernon requested;

"It's the demons your grace, we've received new Intel about their ever growing threat, after the fall of House Royalé and Helia we have hunted almost every major demon group in the Supremacy, but now they hide themselves within highly populated communities which makes it difficult to invade, as doing so will mean taking a lot more human lives than the demons we mean to kill"

"Where is this going on exactly?"

"It's far worse than you think you grace" Lord Shiro joined in "It's not just in Tremore, it's all over the Supremacy, they're planting themselves in human communities and rapidly reproducing with the local populace, increasing their numbers every day, and to make matters worse, there are several houses within our kingdoms who are sponsoring their operations, some of them are still loyal to Helia and are hoping to aid their return, while others are using the demons to carry out their dirty underground crime operations

"Hoping to aid their return ehh..." Hector remarked "So there are still those in the Supremacy who call me a Usurper?"

"Apparently your grace" Shiro replied

King Hector read the papers closely, it contained names and sigils of houses across the Supremacy that were suspected to be allied with demons, he took particular interest in a house with no actual family name,

"House of the wren" he thought

"We need to act and we need to act quickly" Gerald Vernon stated "We've gotten more information that Helian ships have been sending a number of demons to Tremorian shores in the last few months, we've destroyed every one we came across, we can't tell for sure if there's any more we didn't find, it's obvious your grace, Helia is up to something, they want the supremacy back and they'll do anything to take it, we need to make a strong statement to them, as soon as possible"

King Hector leaned forward on his table, his fingers locked and his head resting on his hands, his eyes narrowed as he was deep in thought, he sighed and shook his head

"You know, I promised my daughter Valkori that she'd go on a world tour when she turned fifteen, I wanted her to go around the kingdoms and get acquainted with them, to give her a good idea of what she was getting into...as my heir"

The other councillors felt pity for the king, Gerald gnashed his teeth and looked visibly annoyed for some reason

"I don't want her to get caught up in any conflicts while she is on her journey, that's why I wanted the realm to be as stable as possible until she was back home safely, but this matter seems too crucial to let my personal issues triumph, so I'll see what I can do about it... personally"

The other councilmen nodded in agreement, the Sovereign had spoken and everyone seemed to have their issues resolved, but King Hector was still deep in thought, he began to have flashbacks of that night he found Valkori as a baby in the burning castle, and his brows lowered in fury

"I won't let them take you away from me, never..." he thought to himself.