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He broke the sigil carefully and the he immersed himself inside the very worded letter;

To Queen Aryan, Lady of Prophis and Protector of the Realm,

I am your humbly servant and spy whom you’ve never met nor had any pleasure of being introduced. I am writing to you as a way of paying back my gratitude for the good things your twin brother did for me before he passed.

Prince Ambrose has just passed through my small city and he is making way towards Prophis. He has one hundred thousand men consisting of trained knights, sell swords and slaves. I heard him saying he is planning an ambush to sack the city of Raven and take his brother’s crown.

My fear is my Queen that you must be licking your wounds now, we all heard what happened in Lawsend’s City but I would beseech you to wake and guard your gates well for the enemy is closer than you might think. Or better yet, meet him halfway before he gets inside your city.

I hope my letter gets to you before the enemy does.

I am your well-wisher.

.....

Thomas finished reading the letter and his eyes widened with amazement, he panicked clearly and couldn’t think straight. He took the letter and called out a small council right then and there, every member of council needed to hear this.

Hence Lord Howsley was summoned, so was Rush, and five wealthy Lords of Raven to discuss about the letter. Sir Thomas did this because he knew there was no way he would get to Aryan in time, no one knew where she was and the day they left Raven, neither Olivia nor Aryan were aware they would land in Sweetfish Retreat island.

Even if he was to find out where the Queen went, it would take weeks or even months while Prince Ambrose’s army was approaching and he was just few leagues away.

“She should have never left her kingdom in the first place, now look what’s going on” Rush spoke angrily, but she wasn’t really angry but rather she was jealous. Jealous of the fact that Aryan went on to do what she wanted to do, while they were connected for days.

During those days they laughed, fucked, ate together and even took care of the cubs like couples when Olivia was away. This felt like nothing to Aryan while it was everything to Rush, she hoped for the better life with Aryan but all that was splashed on her face when Aryan wedded Olivia and swept her away to the unknown.

Sir Thomas advised the council, “We can’t win this war now. There are less than fifty thousand men ready to fight in the whole kingdom, we’ve recruited men from Bellward, King’s City and Claydall but it isn’t enough. And we can’t recruit farmers from small villages we will only be sending them to their graves” he said trying to lock eyes with each person inside the room.

“So, what do you suggest we do Lord Hand? Shouldn’t the Queen be notified?” asked the Lord of Bellward.

“I am working on it my Lord, but I don’t know where she is. When she took off, she said she was leaving the kingdom under my care until she comes back, she didn’t reveal to me where she was going”

Lord Howsley quipped in, “Have you tried to ask the men at the harbor, they may know the ship she took and they will also know where the ship went. I’m pretty sure some of them are already back in Raven, I shall send my men to ask”

“That will be helpful, thank you my Lord” said Sir Thomas and he was clearly appreciating the help Lord Howsley just offered. “Let’s all go back to how we will defend our city” he quickly averted the situation of the meeting and he said this was more important matter since the prince was on his way.

So, how many men were exactly left in Raven after Wrath of Artodo? Well, let’s go back to the begging of it… Aryan took fifty thousand men to Lawsend’s City, special trained knights of Prophis. Ten thousand out of the fifty were archers and they hid behind mountains, surrounded the harbor and hid in towers, hence they escaped the Wrath of Artodo because they didn’t enter inside the city, they all survived.

The forty thousand knights were joined in by twenty thousand local men who volunteered because they wanted to avenge their King, Gandalf after they were informed that Cregan Lawsend was the one who poisoned Gandalf. Henceforth, Aryan had sixty thousand men who ambushed the city. Then there were twenty thousand men inside Cregan’s castle, ten thousand of them never made it out and they burned alongside with fifty thousand Aryan’s men, knight and volunteers.

With that regards, it means only the archers and the ten thousand men who escaped the fire survived that day. But those who survived, quarter of them couldn’t fight any longer because of serious burns. The Queen herself spent weeks trying to recover from the serious burns she barely escaped from the war, and with this it meant the army of Prophis was way more depleted than what everyone thought.

Sir Thomas said they had less than fifty thousand men but the truth was, only twenty-five thousand knights able to fight were the ones remained. The situation was way worse than they thought, and Sir Thomas was aware of this when he visited the army with Sir Tyriol, the Lord Commander of the Queensguards.

Sir Tyriol was never the one to speak, he preferred silence always but when he visited the men in the war camps, he couldn’t help himself from talking to Sir Thomas. “We will lose this war” he said, his voice husky and thick.

Sir Thomas was stunned, and he turned back to look at Tyriol, “You can talk?” he asked. “I thought your tongue was cut off”

“I have my tongue”

“Then how come you never talk? You just like standing along the corner looking like a statue?”

Sir Tyriol wasn’t so pleased, he warned Sir Thomas, “I’m not a statue” he said calmly. Then he removed his steel helmet and finally for the first time ever since he arrived in the capital, Sir Thomas saw Sir Tyriol’s face.

Like a true soldier that he was, Sir Tyriol’s face was full of scars and cuts. His skin was black as ebony, his face hard and cruel, standing at seven foot meant he towered everyone and this did make him look like a statue.

Sir Thomas respected Sir Tyriol’s confidence in taking off his helmet. “Your face symbolizes a true soldier Sir Tyriol, and for that I give you my respects” he said and nodded his head.

“It isn’t your respect that I want. How can we save our Queen? Do you have a plan?” asked Sir Tyriol.

Because of his exceptional skills and war experiences, it seemed everyone depended on Sir Thomas to come out with an idea on how to save the city, but in reality even he was bamboozled and stunned by this ambush because he never expected it.

He sadly turned to Sir Tyriol, “We must meet them halfway if we are to survive, that’s the only plan. And we need to start recruiting men. It’s winter and our coffers can’t handle buying men from the Liberty Cities, we are going to have to fight with what we have” he said in a somber tone while looking at the men they had.

“By other meaning Lord Hand, is you are saying we’ve lost?”

“Yes, Sir Tyriol… we’ve lost” admitted Sir Thomas and instead of feeling bad, he actually felt relieved. The truth was out and instead of lying, he could be his true self and place the cards on the table.

Twenty-five thousand men, against the acclaimed one hundred thousand now that even a five-year kid would know the battle was lost before it began. Sir Thomas wished for Aryan to be back unannounced, he felt as if she knew how to get out of tough situations than he did. That same day during the golden hour, he sent five riders to ride separately and they only had to spot Prince Ambrose’s army and return with detailed information.

During this time, Prince Ambrose’s army had just left the Mines where Lord Leoric offered him thirty thousand of his obedient slaves, he called them “Killers” and he said these slaves would even slit a child’s throat without thinking twice. They were the best fighters in Maldonia.