Lucius Daybright had been irritable after his battle with the Blue Tower Master. He was tempted to seek the Oracle in the Far South to find her again, but he knew the price to be paid wasn't worth the information. It seemed as though the only news he had been getting lately; was bad news.

Lome barely held on by a thread, somehow getting weapons and support from the Dil Republic without being spotted. While the said Republic had stonewalled Argon's advance into their own lands.

As annoying as the Dil Republic was, Elion wasn't much better. Elion was as much a thorn in Argon's side as the Dil Republic.

The Emperor was tempted to conquer Lome or Ayes himself, but the moment he moved, he knew Argon would be vulnerable to attack. Said attack could come from the Blue Tower Master or possibly someone else, but the Emperor was under no illusions that an attack wouldn't come. Argon was in constant skirmishes and battles with the Beastlands, and if he was gone for too long they might take advantage of his absence to go on a rampage.

He got a headache just thinking about it, "Those fucking beasts. They are next on my agenda." Lucius frowned before looking at the map on his desk. His eyes burned a hole in the map looking for some solution he hadn't been aware of. "I moved too fast. If I want to conquer any of the remaining powers I'll need to make sacrifices.

Bang, Bang, Bang! A messenger broke him out of his reverie. "Imperial Majesty! I bring news!" Lucius turned around in his chair and said, "You may enter." Bowing down to the point of placing his head on the floor the messenger gave his news, "The first report is from Ayes! Princess Emily Ayer has escaped. Master Cole believes she's made it to Elion." The messenger made it to the second part of the parchment and hesitated. "You should know my dislike of hesitation." Gulping down the saliva pooling in his throat the messenger continued, "The Red Tower Master destroyed half of the Silver Order along with the Ayer Castle. It says the Castle is gone."

Lucius kneaded his temples as he said, "The Castle is gone? What do you mean the Castle is gone?"

He pressed his head further into the ground and responded, "That's what it says, Imperial Majesty! It says the Castle is gone!" The messenger cast away his anxiousness as he gave the rest of the news, "The second part of the message from Ayes comes from Lord Zephaias. He said Aye's nobles have begun to act suspiciously; Lord Zephaias and Master Cole think they are close to rebellion."

Lucius gave a deep sigh, "More headaches. Is there anything else?" The messenger hesitated, "There's a second report from Master Caelus. The message states, Lome has activated their golems. They only have four of them up and running, but they are practically unstoppable. Tower Master Caelus fought against one and was unable to destroy it. He estimates they have the strength of a 4th Circle Mage but are made with anti-magic minerals. 5th Circle magic seemed to only roughly damage them. Tower Master Caelus concludes that without another Tower Master, it'll be impossible to destroy them in the short term."

The Emperor smiled, "This is good news. We were expecting the war golems to be annoying to deal with, but four... four is far less than what we anticipated. Lome is desperate."

Beaming, Lucius looked back at the map on the table and said, "Activating the golems so early is an act of desperation, not a strategy. We are getting close. Messenger, pass this message on to Caelus."

"Yes, Imperial Majesty!"

"Slow and steady wins the race. Lome is desperate. Focus on keeping the golems at bay. An enormous amount of mana crystals or some other energy source has to be used to power something like war golems so just deter them. Focus on limiting damage on our side and draining them of their resources. Lome will crumble under steady pressure as their resources fade away."

Lucius motioned for the messenger to stop writing, "That's enough. As for Ayes, let's change strategies. To Cole, write, give up on the Princess for now and focus your attention on the nobles. Try and figure out their plans, and crush them. If we can rout the nobles then the end result will be the same. Without a military force behind them, Ayes will have nothing but farmers with hoes. That's enough. Relay the messages quickly and without delay." The messenger nodded his head at the Emperor before shouting, "Yes, Imperial Majesty!" Lucious covered his ears as the messenger ran off.

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He thought to himself, "When it's time for me to move, I'll take the consequences into account and crush whoever is most annoying. I'll deal a fatal blow. I can't expect zero damage from this war it's time I change my point of view and humble myself."

Emperor Lucius Daybright looked at a framed picture on his wall and said, "Only the foolish find themselves truly prideful, isn't that right, father."

Meanwhile, in Elion, Jamie and his group had reached the Capital city, Avia. Choosing humility Jamie bowed and said, "Miss Ann, I will follow behind you, and the Princess, please lead the way."

She nodded and said, "Follow me." They entered the city and went straight toward the Avia family Castle. Kingsguard and soldiers moved quickly as they saw them. Several knights and Kingsguard ran to the Castle, while some walked up to the small group. "Lord Jamie, Princess Emily, please come with us." Both of the Kingsguard lowered their heads in respect as they asked for Jamie's group to join them.

Jamie walked forward and said, "I am honored. Pleased to make your acquaintance, the names Jamie Vallas." Ann Winbeary stood in front of the Princess and said, "I must insist I follow. The Princess's safety is still my priority."

"Lady Ann, they are waiting for you inside the castle as well." Ann grabbed the Princess's hand and quickly followed behind the guards.

They soon reached the Castle and were guided through several brightly lit halls. There was enough room for three men to walk shoulder to shoulder down the halls leaving plenty of space for travel.

Ann was nervous. She had never met the King even though she met with Duke Mayweather on a near-daily basis. For some reason, she had never spoken to him. Ann had only seen him at gatherings and speeches but never face to face. Her heart pounded as she looked to her side at Jamie. He had a massive crooked smile, and for some reason the first thing she thought of when she saw his face was that he looked like a smiling cat.

His grin broke away a little too much to the corners, and his eyes squinted ever so slightly more than they should. He looked a little too happy. However, after blinking the face she saw had a neutral grin as if the face she had just seen never existed, to begin with.

Ann thought maybe she hallucinated or caught his expression at the wrong time and filed off his smile to the back of her mind. She thought it wasn't important as she tried to calm herself before she met the King.

The group entered the throne room and were led to a certain set distance from the king. Jamie automatically bowed his head, "It is an honor to meet Elion's Lion! King James Aviary the Wise Lion."

Ann got on one knee and lowered her head choosing to stay silent until she was asked otherwise.

Princess Ann was the only one who remained standing, only bowing her head with a noble gesture. One of the guards shouted at her, "Lower yourself!" King James raised his hand and quickly intervened, "All of you may rise. Please forgive some of my guards they can sometimes be rude to guests." The King glared at the guard before continuing, "It is an honor to meet Queen Emily Ayer the kind patron of Ayes, and Jamie Vallas the Hope of the Dil Republic. I pray our accommodations can please the both of you."

Princess Emily lowered her head, "I'm not yet a Queen. As I am now, I'm only a Princess."

"Very well. Princess Emily, and Jamie, we have many things to discuss; please feel free to rest well. We will start our discussion tomorrow afternoon. Jamie glanced around the room before saying, "I believe the sooner we have our negotiations, the better. The longer we wait, the more disadvantaged we will be. Your Majesty, I believe time is of the essence."

King James smiled before responding, "You are not wrong Sir Jamie. The sooner we make a plan and act on it, the better off we will be, but coming to hurried decisions is just as dangerous as coming too late ones. My advisor is coming from the Red Tower as we speak. He will direct tomorrow's negotiations in hopes of coming to the best possible decision."

Jamie frowned for only a split second before breaking into a smile, "Of course, Your Majesty is correct. Coming to our negotiations and plans unhurried and well-prepared is the right thing to do. I apologize if I was out of line."

"There's no reason to apologize, Sir Jamie. Please get some rest. I'm sure you all have gone through; all kinds of hardships to get here. Princess Emily, if there is anything you need; do not hesitate to ask."

"I'd like Miss Ann to be my chaperone if it's at all possible."

"It is possible. Lady Ann is a mage working for one of our Dukes. I will grant permission for now, and will ask him later on if it's ok with him."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

The group was led to different rooms by servants. King James couldn't help but smile at the results.

Darien managed to find the escaped prisoners after only a few hours of searching. If Darien could find them that quickly with little to no mana, then Argon would find them just as easily. Darien sped up to the group and said, "I'll follow behind you. If anyone follows us. I'll take care of it."

Sir Vin was in the front of the group of escaped prisoners with Caspian tightly tied to his back, he shouted, "Yes! Tower Master! Everyone keeps moving! The sooner we make it to Elion, the sooner we'll be in our own beds. Let's go!"

The men shouted as they carried their injured and exhausted bodies forward. Darien ran up to one of the stronger-looking knights with a bulky frame and asked, "Can you carry me? I need to restore my mana, and it's difficult to do so while running."

Despite already being sweaty, the man didn't even flinch as he pointed to his back and said, "Hop on!"

"I'm Darien. It's nice to meet you." "

You can call me Mitch! Mitch Rockhand!"

Keeping his head on a swivel, Darien looked around while sitting on Mitch's shoulder. It wouldn't be long before Darien made it home.