A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
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Annabeth held down the fort at the Eldoris palaces while Percy and the troops were mired down at the borders fending off the combined troops of Kiran and Barinia. The two combined troops were highly coordinated, much to Percy's chagrin.
In his letter to Annabeth, Percy wrote that Sir Luke Castellan was the general of the Kiran troops while the prince of Barinia was heading his troops. He also included his suspicions that Princess Alana was using her power and influence to controls of both countries' armies with precise coordination. The Eldorisians were still trying to get into contact with the deposed crown princess of Barinia in hopes of combining her forces and destroying Barinia from the outside. Meanwhile, the prince of Tynan was blocked from joining his forces with Eldoris as a separate army from Barinia was fighting with Tynan.
Aside from the information of war, Percy asked whether Annabeth was doing well. Was she eating healthy foods? Was she staying late at night working? Having pegged Annabeth as a workaholic, Percy wrote that she took care of herself more and not work herself down to the bone.
"I will bring news of victory soon," said the letter. " I miss you dearest, my queen of Eldoris and queen of my heart. May we meet in our dreams on these weary nights when I wish I was by your side."
Annabeth carefully laid the letter in a mahogany box where other letters from Percy laid. It had been about three weeks since Percy and the troops had left.
Clarisse's novel had stated that the war between Eldoris and Kiran had lasted half a year. This time, Annabeth had ensured that Tynan had allied with Eldoris, but never had she expected Barinia to ally with Kiran.
The wizard Lord Christopher was still in Eldoris and had stayed behind in the palace, but Annabeth couldn't keep her suspicions that the wizard lord was only here to observe and not help fight out in the front lines. Was Lord Christopher a spy sent by Kiran? Percy had assured her that Lord Christopher was not with such confidence that Annabeth was a bit wary of where the king had gotten his confidence.
Either way, with Prince Jason and Lord Christopher tentatively on Eldoris' side, Percy should win easily, right? Unless Princess Alana had some bullshit plot armor as the story's main character. That was what Annabeth was worried about.
With Annabeth's survival and manipulation of story events, there was no way to predict which way the war would swing. She had survived, but for how long? She didn't just want to live. She wanted to live with Percy.
Annabeth sighed and declined a new cup of tea and some biscuits. She was safe here, heavily protected by the troops left behind. Part of her felt guilty for being snug in the palace while the summer began to turn to the chill of fall. What was Percy doing? Was he staying healthy? How were the troops doing?
She missed Percy very, very much. The bed sheets that were laundered on a regular basis had long lost his smell.
"Your Majesty." Lady Piper passed her another tray of missives.
Annabeth plucked the top one and began to read through the pile of reports that needed her attention. Because of Kiran's surprise invasion, the nearest border villages and towns were caught off guard. Those that weren't captured immediately had many people flee towards the center of Eldoris for protection. Many of the towns closer and safer at the center of Eldoris were experiencing a high influx of refugees. The Eldoris capital was slowly opening its doors to refugees as well. Annabeth approved the budget of expanding more relief towards the fleeing citizens.
Her eyebrow raised at the next paper. These were reports aside from what official war reports and the tidbits of information Percy had written in his letters. The room seemed to grow ten degrees colder.
"It seems some of these nobles needed to be retaught a lesson of what happened when the Eldoris dowager queen tried to rebel." Annabeth murmured.
A few of the nobles had bribed Eldoris soldiers to allow the nobles' daughters near the king at night. Since Percy was bound to use his magic and often in battle, he was just as bound to experience the backlash of using such magic in great amounts. Annabeth doubted that it was in Percy's nature to be a bloodthirsty war maniac unlike some of his ancestors, so a few nobles were trying to exploit the king's lust by sneaking their daughters into his tent at night to install them as concubines.
The royal palace was about to use the stress of war as an excuse for the miscarriage of Annabeth's pretend pregnancy, but perhaps they should postpone the news. Knowing Annabeth was not pregnant would make Eldoris more unstable if others were aware that there were no proper heirs except Prince Triton should the king fall in battle. Not to mention there would be even more women being thrust to the king's bed at night.
Annabeth trusted that Percy wouldn't betray their relationship, but she couldn't help but feel irked at these noblemen. Percy was off fighting for Eldoris while these nobles were concerned about gaining power.
She looked out the window in the direction of the borders where Percy had taken the troops. When had she started taking their marriage seriously? And right when Annabeth had sorted out what she had felt, they were separated. What a classic story trope it seemed that some higher power was playing with their lives.
Annabeth muttered a silent prayer that they wouldn't be a pair of star-crossed lovers.
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"Louisa, take two soldiers and head towards the left. Make sure to be as quiet as possible"
"Yes, Sir Rachel."
Rachel and her troop of knights carefully scouted the woods as three members of the party slinked through the brush stealthily. The air was muggy and insects buzzed all around the knights. In order to be as quiet as possible, no one had worn metal armor, opting for slimmer, leather material.
Spies from Kiran had infiltrated Eldoris, and even into the ranks of the Eldoris army. Thankfully, most of the spies were caught before they could do too much trouble for the king had a strange knack for picking out spies. One spy had infiltrated so far as to be one of the recruits that Rachel had just handpicked to be one of her captains.
From the confessions tortured out of the spies, they were supposed to send word to their comrades about the positioning of the Eldoris army. Unfortunately, the spies themselves did not know where exactly the Kiran and Barinian armies were stationed or what their battle plans were. The flow of information went one-way apparently.
This vexed Rachel, who prided herself on being one of the best knights in Eldoris. These were her soldiers, the people she trained and taught and treated like her own comrades. For the recruit to betray her trust pained her deeply.
She had thought that after the dowager queen was overthrown, perhaps Rachel could finally get some peace. Find some time for her heart and soul to heal. Before she could even acknowledge her wounds, they had been thrown into war.
Something rustled through the dense bushes. Everyone tightened their grip on their weapons.
Rachel silently signaled for her knights to fan out in a semicircle. The rustling got louder and closer.
An animal, perhaps? Well-trained soldiers weren't this loud. They waited for the being to emerge.
"Halt!" Rachel cried out in time.
The tips of spears and swords were pointed right at a woman's throat. Rachel narrowed her eyes as she took in the sight of the strange woman who collapsed to the ground.
The golden haired woman didn't look too well, her face gaunt with exhaustion. Her simple clothes were torn.
"You...who are you?" Rachel asked. This woman didn't look like a spy, but neither did she look like a normal villager fleeing from the invading Kiran army.
Suddenly, the woman looked up, her eyes full of determination. "Take me to your king. Now."
Rachel shuddered as strong magic flooded her mind.
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Percy, Sir Grover, and a few other commanders were gathered around in the main battle tent. A large map of Eldoris and a few wooden ornaments symbolizing troops were placed on a table before them.
With the combination of Barinian armies, the Kiran armies had not changed up most of their battle strategy from the past. Percy supposed this made sense. The force controlling the troops was Princess Alana, and her thinking was the same as that in his past life.
Percy used whatever he could remember from his past life to eliminate the spies from his troops before they could do much damage, or intentionally let a few spies go free so Eldoris could have the Kiran spies send false information back to Kiran without the spies knowing they had long been discovered.
With the uncovering of the spies, Percy had gained a strong amount of respect from his soldiers. The troops thought that their general and king had been blessed by the gods and were guaranteed a victory for Eldoris against the injustice of Kiran. Due to this, morale in the Eldoris troops was quite high.
Percy felt a sense of irony wash over him. If he had been so powerful in the first place, then he wouldn't have died out in the battlefields, his body discarded like a dead dog.
The sachet that Annabeth had made with the coin seemed to grow a little heavier in the pocket sewn into his shirt beneath his armor. It was his lucky charm. Percy had been protected last time, and now he thought that perhaps it would lend him some fortune once more. Now he had this lifetime to protect, with a love that was sincere and gave him heart.
"Your Majesty, it seems part of the Kiran army is trying to breach into Eldoris through these woods." Sir Grover pointed out where several large red X's marked the positioning of troops spotted or captured.
Percy frowned as he studied the map. That part of Eldoris was heavily wooded and uphill. The enemy troops sent into those Eldoris' wooded areas and captured were small in number, just in groups of three or four soldiers.
"It seems like they were looking for something." One of the commanders said. She had been in charge of extracting information from the Kiran troops that had been captured in the woods.
"Were you able to find exactly what they were looking for?" Percy asked.
The commander, Sir Meg, shook her head. "I apologize, Your Majesty. Some have died and the others are tight-lipped for now, but we will get the information as fast as we can."
"An easy route in the woods, perhaps?" Sir Grover suggested. "They may want to see if they can sneak some troops and surprise us from the side or the back."
"That is possible, Sir Grover. Sir Rachel is currently patrolling the woods right now to see if there are further enemy scouts and possibly such a route cutting through the woods."
Percy frowned. "If they were looking for such a route, then they would have no luck. The whole of the woods is dense with trees and mired with bogs and swamps."
Scouts were usually limited to one soldier in order to avoid detection. But if Kiran was trying to invade through the woods area and circumvent the barriers and Eldoris troops placed outside the woods, then why send so few soldiers? This one battle strategy was unlike those used in his past life.
"I do agree that their actions seem like they're searching for something." Percy decided.
"Your Majesty!" A soldier ran into the tent. "The enemy troops are approaching again."
"I'll be right there. Have the First and Third Battalions be ready to fight. Second Battalion will stay behind on guard here in case enemy troops do find a way to fight us at the side or back. Sir Meg, continue to see if you can extract any further information."
Percy grabbed his helmet as Sir Grover quickly folded the map.
Within an hour, Percy was on his horse, leading the charge against the coming enemies, surprising them at a riverbank. He charged into the first few rows of enemies, summoning twenty feet high waves that tore through the battlefield. Enemy soldiers found their feet ripped from solid ground while rank river water smothered their noses and mouths. After the flood of water barreled through the enemies, the soldiers were left crawling on the muddy ground. Before they could get up, Eldoris soldiers rode horses equipped with special horseshoes enchanted by the wizard lord that galloped easily through the mud and took care of the still floundering enemies.
"Keep fighting!" A shrill voice pierced the air, just audible over the screams and shouts.
Percy spotted Prince Octavian yelling at his troops and directed his horse towards the Barinian prince. A troop of enemy soldiers quickly set themselves before Percy, blocking Percy's advance towards the prince. By the time Percy was done dealing with these enemy knights, Prince Octavian was no longer in sight.
When Percy felt drained from using his magic, he used his sword instead, slashing through any soldier who dared to come close. A spear flew over his head. Sir Grover smashed the spear's owner with a club. Again and again, Percy's sword connected with steel swords and armor, pushing each enemy back.
One soldier managed to have his sword slash against Percy's side when Percy was fighting off an enemy commander with some talent in swordsmanship. Percy's armor held as he returned the blow, ignoring the pain from the blow and killing both the soldier and the enemy commander in a few more sword feints and strikes.
Within an hour the enemy troops were in disarray and retreating with Prince Octavian at the forefront. Percy's gut twisted as the backlash from using his powers crept up. He tamped down the urge filled with bloodlust to chase after the enemy and slaughter them all until the river turned scarlet from blood.
But something still felt wrong even with the Eldoris troops gaining so much ground.
"Fall back!" Percy ordered. The Eldoris troops began marching back, leaving the defeated enemy soldiers to fall back towards the Kiran borders.
Although the Eldorisians cheered, Percy found no joy. He wasn't sure if this battle was a win or a draw. In fact, it was almost as if the enemy was deliberately drawing them closer to the border and away from the center of Eldoris.
Today's fight featured mostly Barinian soldiers and only about one third of the troops were Kiran. Prince Octavian had been in battle, but not a single whiff of Princess Alana nor Luke Castellan had been seen. In his past life, almost all his battles had featured the princess fighting in the front lines. But in these weeks, the last sighting of Princess Alana had been five days ago. Three major battles had taken place in the five days since.
So just where was Princess Alana?
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She was dressed as a fleeing village, taking Luke as her husband and a random Kiran child taken from a border village to pretend to be her daughter. Small families like the one they were pretending to be never got more than a brief second look by Eldoris soldiers who were wary of solo travelers disguised as spies.
Alana took off her hood and looked up at the Eldoris palaces with a sneer. The last time she had been here, she had felt humiliated. Now, she was ready to tear down the palace brick by brick, starting with the thrones.
"It's been so long since I've talked to my sister. I do believe it's time for a family reunion."
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A/N: Didn't realize how long it's been since I've updated this story. I sure hope I can finish this story before 2023. *Laughs in procrastination*
I'm still rereading the first set of PJO books and just realized that Clarisse was described with stringy brown hair in The Lightning Thief and then dirty blonde hair in another later book. I love finding inconsistencies in the original series, but it just makes me aware that I probably have so much plotholes and inconsistencies to fix in my own stories. Shhh, no one go looking for them before I can fix them.
Anyways, hope you've all been doing well. Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next chapter!