Actions and Consequences || l.s. au ✔

3. CALCULATIONS

The continent of Alamain was huge. But it was divided into two segments by the kingdom of Carnelia. North of it, were multiple independent kingdoms like his Valium. South of it was vast High Garium Empire, almost ten times the size of Valium, which was the largest kingdom in the northern Alamain. Carnelia, which was only slightly smaller than Valium, was the wall separating the two regions. Carnelia also had huge naval borders to its east and west. Basically, Carnelia was both blessed and cursed. Brilliant for trade but a security nightmare.

But since Carnelia maintained very good ties with practically all the kingdoms, both north and south, there had not been any problems for more than three centuries. But things had started to change rapidly in the past few decades as the High Garium rulers became more and more aggressive. And now, they had declared war. They wanted the North.

Carnelia alone had no chance at victory. But neither did anyone else in the northern kingdoms. And no one was under the illusion that High Garium would happily stop after gaining the prosperous Carnelia. In fact, Valium was right next in the line of conquest. In other words, they all were toast. And not the crisp kind. The sour burned kind. High Garium had a reputation of burning down cities it didn't like. And Louis was sure they would love to barbeque Lysandra. So the only option was the northerners united and fought back together.

But the problem was, even though the Styles had kept good ties throughout the continent, the same could not be said for everyone else present in the war room.

Out of the remaining eight northern kingdoms, Louis only spotted 4 other High kings and queens. And. They. Were. Pissed.

The Queen of Vaishali was visibly planning the murder of the king of Mashask. While the king of Adresse and the king of Torrenheim were literally inches away from gutting each other out, but formed a temporary alliance against Louis when he entered. There was a lot of bad blood over here and only a miracle could truly ever unite them. The very fact that they were still alive was no small feat and Louis' respect for Leanna increased manifolds, for this had to be because of her presence. Her and...

"What in the living hell is that!!!" Liam exclaimed, all filters abandoned as both of them took in the person standing next to Leanna.

He or she was a shadow, shrouded in darkness. A heavy black cloak with a hood drawn up, concealing the hair and face. And what little was visible, was covered by a predatory looking wolf mask. If appearance had a name, the person was the god of darkness. So Louis agreed with Liam on this one. What the Hell was that!!!

Leanna didn't 'seemed fazed in the least. "This is Wolf. The smartest war strategist in Carnelia. Probably in Alamain too. Wolf, say hi."

Wolf looked up and gave a nod of acknowledgement. The only visible feature in that void of darkness, behind the face mask, were his burning carnelian like eyes. As a habit, Louis immediately started expertly assessing the man and realized, he was being returned the favor.

Louis stilled.

Carnelian eyes. Alert posture. Heavy cloaks..... An old memory covered in dust. From a land far away. There was something familiar, about Wolf. But Louis just couldn't remember what.

"What's with the mask though?" Liam's voice was slightly higher. The alpha was rattled, an event which Louis had never witnessed before. From the spike of agitation in the room, Louis guessed Liam wasn't the only one who wanted to ask that.

"Do you have a problem, boy?" The man on the other side of Wolf inquired in a slightly sharp tone. He looked like a strong experienced warrior. Alpha definitely. Everyone in the room was most probably an alpha except for two or three betas. There was always a hierarchy when it came to the second gender. Though Louis couldn't guess Wolf's second gender. Probably an alpha too because he was standing between two at the head of the table.