A Court Of Shadow and Blood

☆ A Tumultuous Time ☆

Cassian sighed, reading her face. He leaned back in his chair again, offering her a kind smile she blinked in surprise at. “If you were wondering, those attors from your first day here were very forthcoming about their task.” 

“Really?” She straightened. “I would’ve thought Her Majesty would’ve kept their lips tight.” 

“Oh, she did.” Cassian frowned at her, and added, “You don’t need to refer to her that way. She isn’t your Queen anymore.”

“Yes, of course.” She nodded for him to continue.

He sighed, wings rustling behind him. “They were forthcoming about their task but nothing else. The Queen very much wants you dead.” 

She flinched.

“That is why I’m here. The wraiths are good; but you saw how they handled faebane armor.” Eblis nodded even as Cassian continued to regard her. “I didn’t mean to take a week to come here, but I was busy with Nesta, Feyre’s sister.” 

“I know of her. But I haven’t met her,” Eblis admitted.

“You could meet her,” Cassian said, “if you trained with us.” 

She sighed, looking down at her hands in her lap. “I’m fine, Cassian. I don’t need training.”

“That’s what dear Nesta said as well and now she is stirring up a storm at the House of Wind.” Cassian grinned like a hellion, finally back to his old self.  “Well, anyways, I was also sent here to see what you knew about the Queen’s army.”

“Ah.” Eblis tilted her head, dark hair brushing the pointed tip of her ear delicately. Light caught in her violet eyes, and they seemed to glimmer with stars. “What do you want to know?” 

“Numbers. Formations. Skill. Anything you know at all,” Cassian said, watching that spark in her eyes. 

“I suppose you know that they are incredibly unguarded at the moment,” she began, and the General nodded. “It’s because a lot of people left after the previous war. The Queen was very purposely hidden for this exact moment; when the King was killed then the continent would be ruler-less. It was also why he hid the knowledge of his daughter from everyone except his closest advisors and Daemati Council.” 

Cassian’s eyes trained onto hers. “Daemati Council?” 

They didn’t know? Worry wormed in her gut. “Yes; the King keeps a council of sorts by his side made of daemati. They act as spies, assassins, guards, and leaders.”

“Have they ever been used in battle before?”

“Of course.” She chewed on the inside of her lip. “They mostly control the armies and keep any nay-sayers quiet instead of just killing them. I’m pretty sure the King’s Daemati Council were all killed in the war, but any who survived joined the Queen’s.”

Cassian shifted in his seat, leaning his strong forearms across the table. His siphons glinted. “How many are there?”

“In the Queen’s and plus any from the King’s...I believe ten? But don’t doubt them; they are incredibly strong. Stronger even than Rhysand or Feyre.” She looked up from beneath lowered brows, violet eyes serious. “Just ten are capable of controlling an army of hundreds of thousands. There’s even a rumor that their Spymaster is able to control the entire army without leaving Hybern soil.” 

The General’s face grew grim. “That is indeed...strong.” Then he frowned. “Would you know anything about the War Council disbanding?”

“I would know that the Queen would never do that.” She mirrored his expression of surprise. “You don’t really believe a Queen would get rid of them on the eve of starting another war?”