DINNER THAT night went pretty smoothly.
Grey, Serena, and Koa were all happy to have me here and welcomed me with open arms. Evander Glared at me most of the time, but at times I caught his just gazing at me. No hateful message or annoyance in his eyes. He was just looking at me.
The next morning I got ready to meet the whole army outside of the west wing. I pulled on my uniform. Tight grey pants, a white dress shirt with a dark blue vest that had a small chain, and dark blue calf boots. When I got there, hundreds of men stood. Their chatter was loud and frankly obnoxious. I spotted August out of all the men and called him over to me.
"Is this everyone?"
He nodded, "Yes, this is everyone."
"Okay. Now, where is Leland?" I asked.
"Um?" August stood up on his toes and searched for him, "Oh! There he is!"
I looked where August was pointing and saw the top of Leland's white hair. I immediately started to walk towards him, elbowing my way through all the men. Their voices began to hush with each man I passed. They got out of the way sooner rather than later, so I didn't have to elbow my way through.
When I reached Leland, the men's voices around us were mere whispers.
"Is that her?"
"I thought she was just a myth?"
"I thought they were just playing a joke on us!"
Leland looked at me with a bored expression, "Do you need something?"
I smiled, "Nice to see you too," He simply rolled his eyes. "We have work to do, and I need your help."
"Oh so now you want my help." He sassed crossing his arms.
"I never said that I didn't need your help," I explained, "You are still the Commander of this army and you know them better than I do, but you needed a reality check. You are not the strongest or smartest person in the room all the time. I need you to realize that there are going to be people, male and female, that are going to be in a higher rank than you and have authority over you, and your haughty, sexist and prideful attitude is going to get you in a lot of trouble."
Leland simply looked at me as I continued, "You have earned the title of Commander with the rest of these men, but not me. The respect you think you deserve, I will give you when you have earned it. Just because you acquired a title doesn't mean you deserve it. That goes for anyone. King, Queen, Knight, or even Warrior. These names were given to us because we earned them. I need you to show me that you are worthy of the title you have and that you want it. I mean want it. Okay?"
For a moment Leland didn't react, he just looked at me. He clenched his jaw and nodded, looking away, "Okay."
"Okay. Now I need your help, are you ready to help?" I questioned.
He nodded again, "Yep."
"That's what I want to hear!" I shouted. I turned around to the army, "Hello everyone! From now on you will be going under extreme training. You are going to be sore, bruised, and famished. All I ask from you is that you listen and you never give up. I am going to turn all of you into warriors."
Mixed expressions were littered on the faces of these men, but I saw determination.
Perfect.
The first thing I did was have Leland separate them due to their weaknesses. They made three groups. The first group was Endurance, the second group was Hand-eye coordination and Reflexes, and the third was Combat. We spent all day working on their weaknesses but more is going to need to be done. Leland was quiet but he listened to me and didn't complain about the instructions I gave him. I have real hope for him.
Even though he's a jerk.
The Queen requested my presents a few hours later so she may share the information they have acquired on her husband's kidnapping. So that's where I am heading now. The clicking on the boots echoed through the marble hallways till I reached the King and Queens office.
I knocked against the dark oak door. I heard footsteps come close to the door. Queen Aria opened the door and at the sight of me, she smiled widely, "Aislin darling! You made it here in the nick of time! Please please, come in!" I entered the room and Queen Aria shut the doors behind me.
When I turned around the Queen was staring at me. "What?" I asked.
She smiled, "The uniform, it suits you."
I smiled slightly, "Thank you Aria."
She nodded, "Of course. Now thank you for coming at such short notice, I know you were with the army but I needed you to look over the information as soon as possible."
I shrugged, "That's okay, Leland can cover for me, and finding the King needs to be my top priority right now."
She smiled, "Great! Now if you follow me," The Queen leads me to her desk. A large map was laid out on the top, being held down by daggers. Papers were littered across the map and floor, "This is a map of the area between these two towns close to the Kingdom of Ecrin, which is where my King Kole was taken."
Aria, using her pointer fingers, pointed to two towns on the map. Black Hollows and Monmouth. These towns neighbored the Kingdom of Ecrin, which is ruled by King Derry and Queen Marianne. Together they have 14 children. Their eldest, Prince Zakariah's coronation is coming up within the upcoming months.
"What was King Kole doing in the Kingdom of Erin?" I asked Queen Aria.
"With the kingdom of Ecrin, we have a signed agreement, so we can keep peace within our kingdoms. Trade agreements and access to the natural resources they acquire, which we don't, come with this signed contract. So Kole went there to have a trade deal discussed. Their salt for our slate." she explained.
"What's this signed agreement?" I inquired.
"King Derry and Queen Marianne's son, Prince Oisin, is to take Senara as his wife," she explained.
"Does she know of this agreement?"
She nodded, "Yes, she does. She's the one who proposed it."
"Smart girl." I complimented.
"That she is." Aria reached into her desk and pulled out an envelope, "This is the note I was telling you about, the one that was written in a language I do not know." I took the envelope from her hands and opened it. I immediately recognized the language used.
"Do you know the language?" She asked.
I nodded, "I do. It's Greek."
×××××××××××××
Author Note!
Hi everyone, Mickey here!
Chapter sixxxxxxxxxxxxxxx babyyy!
Thoughts >
Feelings >
Random >
How is your day today? Was it bad? Good? In between?
QOTD: tell me something that you like that everyone else thinks is weird>
So I mentioned Aislin outfit in the beginning, and credit to the artist who made this outfit because I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. It's the one on the right but imagine it on our girl Aislin, because she would look fire, just sayin'.