Gonna need the map. No need to memorize anything. Its just for reference. The storyline is self explanatory.
PRESENT
RAVERIA, CARNELIA
POV: LOUIS
"Remind me once more, why on Earth did we agree to this?" Louis asked his chief general as both of them navigated through the passages towards the war room.
"I believe it's out of the goodness of our heart, somehow blended with personal gain, your majesty." Liam Payne replied softly, so as not to be overheard by the Carnelian guard leading them on.
"The survival of the very heart in question depends on this war. Thus, this is a cause of personal gain. Personal gain being, the goodness of our hearts." Louis repeated what Zayn had said when they had parted ways a week ago. "He really does have a way with words, doesn't he?"
Liam smiled. "Yes your highness. The royal advisor's place is well deserved by him. His presence here would have been of great assistance."
"He is an omega. I would not have risked his safety by bringing him here." Louis replied sternly.
Liam sighed. "You underestimate him, Lou."
"A fact he himself reminds me off quite frequently without your help Liam! I know what I am doing. You don't know these royals like I do. The Styles' are just as much as a threat to us as the Garium army. He is better off at Lysandra." Louis responded curtly, bringing their short discussion to an end.
They followed the guards to the heavy engraved doors and entered when they were announced., the doors closing behind them.
"High Alpha king Tomlinson. We are extremely grateful for your presence here among us under such dire situation."
Louis immediately recognized the speaker. Leanna Styles was not an alpha to be messed with. With her fierce green eyes and regal beauty, she resembled a lioness about to devour her prey. Thankfully, they were political allies. Louis was not on the menu today.
"A pleasure, you're highness." Louis gave a curt nod. Since both of them were of the same status, propriety was a delicate issue. You couldn't overdo it or underdo it. Sometimes, Louis really wanted to kill those old hags who came up with all these stuff.
Apparently, Leanna also shared the same view as a thin smile appeared on her face. "And now that we are done with that hopscotch, let's get down to the real business."
Louis Tomlinson was not an idiot. If he had been one, he would have been six feet under by now. His ascent to the throne of Valium had been anything but smooth. The previous Tomlinson rulers had done quite a number on Valium. Continues useless battles with neighbors had nearly ran the coffers to the ground. Thankfully, Louis took after his mother, the late High Queen. His country had come a long way since then under his rule, but it was still healing. And Louis would not have joined forces with Carnelia had the situation truly not been this dire.
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.
"No... I... uhm I did not mean any offence." Liam stammered, caught off-guard. "It's just we don't know who he is and he knows who we are. I am sure you understand our concerns! The most important people of the north are in this room right now! He could murder us all for all we know."
Yeah but...some were more important than others though. Louis smiled internally.
"It's quite all right uncle." Leanna soothed the grumpy old warrior who looked more likely to murder them than Wolf, and then turned to us. "You all do not need to worry. He poses no danger to our allies. You are all safe and you have my word."
And just to make things weirder, Wolf gave us all a thumbs-up gesture and turned his attention back to the war map.
If anyone else was as confused as Louis was, they hid it well.
The meeting went on till late afternoon. Different strategies and plans being thrown left and right. Techniques of old being analyzed and possible responses from the enemy being considered. Even by joining forces, their army was half the size of the Gariums. They were lucky in a way that they were not actually facing the entire bulk of the south, but it was still a sizable chunk. The north were vastly outnumbered and it was clear, they would not be winning by force.
"Use the poisoning technique." Queen Yameen insisted for the hundredth time. "They can't fight us if they are all dead! Our spies can contaminate their water supply and poof- dead overnight."
"We can't!" Liam responded. "It would not be a display of strength and they would retaliate back with more power for our treachery. And it won't be pretty."
"Then we'll poison them again!" Yameen insisted. No one was surprised. Vaishali was known for its poison arts. And she was a professional.
"They'll be careful for a second attack." Louis muttered. "They would be expecting it."
Everyone was getting tired and tensed as plan after plan got discarded. But Louis was surprised at how calm they all were still. Normally, that many Alphas in a closed room with tensions soaring high was a recipe for disaster. Yet the atmosphere was somehow... not peaceful exactly, but bearable. Strange.
Louis looked up at the lord of darkness. The guy hadn't uttered a word the entire time. Nor had he moved. Was the guy even breathing? It was a genuine concern.
Wolf just stood there, listening to everyone with his gaze fixed at the map.
That's why, when he suddenly raised his hand towards displaying his wickedly sharp clawed fingers, Louis' heart almost jumped out of his body. Most of the people swiftly raised weapon in reflex and drew back in alarm. A couple of glass vials dropped from the folds of Yameen's robes and shattered into pieces.
"HOLY SHIT! IT'S ALIVE!!" Someone exclaimed.
Louis appreciated the fact that Leanna held back her laughter. While Wolf just shrugged at the response and continued, as If he hadn't just caused at least a dozen heart attacks.
"We trap them and light them up!" A deep unnatural voice came out from beneath the shadows. Louis looked down and saw what he was insinuating. He also realized, the said claws were just black metal finger extensions. Zayn would have approved. It complimented the look he was aiming for. Chill yet deadly.
Deadly chilled? His brain supplied.
Shut up! Louis replied.
"A portion of our army faces the enemy and slowly retreats towards the woods, drawing them in. When the enemies are inside the forest, our people light it on fire and escape to one side. Meanwhile, another portion of our forces makes its way to the opposite side of the woods, completely surrounding the woods and cutting their way out. Their only way out of the fire is to lay arms down to our men and surrender. We win. Problem solved."
Absolute silence greeted him. Only the crackling of the burning torches to be heard. The plan was brilliant. But Louis wasn't sure if the silence was because of the plan, or the fact Wolf spoke. Though one thing was certain... the Wolf knew his stuff.
Later that night, Louis was finally returning back to his quarters, tired as hell. After the war council, everyone had got busy with the preparations. Addressing their generals and arranging the phalanxes for tomorrow. Then he had dinner with all the other rulers which had been...an experience. But no one got poisoned, so that was good. And now, he was tired and just wanted to have a good sleep before the battle tomorrow.
Louis was still thinking about Wolf. He had not seen him since the meeting. And that weird feeling in his guts just won't go away. A memory which refused to surface.
He sighed and looked out of the balcony he was passing and came to a sudden halt.
There, on the bank of the river Kaili, or the artificial channel of the river which flowed through the fortress, stood a lone figure. His back was turned towards Louis, but the scene was still bewitching.
Mahogany curls as soft as silk danced in the wind so did the simple white robes. An intricately carved halo shaped crown softly rested on his hair, and jewelry adorned his arms and waist. Any doubts as to who he was vanished as the moonlight reflected on his hair and some of the shimmery strands of gold became visible. All royal born of direct lineage had that special physical feature. The golden glitter of the pupils and the shimmery strands of hair, as if they had been washed by the stars themselves.
Louis had It too. His blue eyes and brown hair had never lost their glint, even when he was banished for 2 years. Actually, presumed dead, not banished. But those were just technicalities. Most alpha royalties were basically murderers beneath their shiny armors.
That figure had to be the prince of Carnelia. Royal omega Harry Styles. Only the Carnelian dynasties had crowns like that. And judging by the flowers and scented candles and his robes, he was engaged in some form of prayer. A sensible activity considering what they were facing tomorrow.
Louis was not aware Leanna had brought her little brother to the war front. In fact, he couldn't believe it. It was not safe for omegas. Especially for someone like Harry. Omegas of high status, especially the royal born, were rare for a particular reason. A sickening reason but still. Bringing Harry here was like dangling steak in front of starved wolves. Louis had not brought Zayn for the same exact reason.
But a small part of Louis was actually glad. He had no idea why, but he was glad. Looking at him was peaceful and calming for some reason. And if he stood there for a few more minutes, tranced by Harry's beauty, no one needed to know.
So what do you think?
Forth and last update for today. Hope you are finding it interesting. Do Vote and spread word through suggestion. I would really appreciate it.😊
Also, this is what a Halo crown looks like. Leanna's and Harry's are slightly different than this...but the structure is similar.
Love
- Lani💙