It surprised me to see the number of leaders who had managed to make it to this sudden meeting. Gael had just finished bringing in Marcus, the commander who had overtaken one of our meetings to insist that I take over as leader.

I looked to Chief Kaid, hoping that she would agree with what I was doing, and forgive me for taking so long. Wren and Leif took their seats on either side of her.

"We are facing a new kind of threat that is much graver than our neighbors attacking us and taking advantage of the fragility of our current state." I stood as I spoke to them, making sure to meet the eyes of each of the dozens gathered today. "It occurred to me that we have an incredible power that we don't yet know how to wield. We have a valley of leaders, warriors, and families who are committed to protecting our land."

My chief smiled, holding my gaze.

"We all know that we need a leader. We've spent a year searching for one. Calling on people to step up." I clenched my teeth, knowing that if I continued I couldn't turn back. "We've spent a year with you crying out for me to lead you and I refused."

Nash entered the room and closed the door, blood splattered over his chest. My stomach turned with nausea. Never again could I fail to take the action that needed to be taken to protect my valley or to wait so long to remedy it. We were fighting for our lives and I'd wasted precious resources on trying to keep alive the enemies would see us dead. We had taken a few for questioning, but ever since I realized my mistake in releasing demons to the cabin, I simply hadn't wanted to kill every demon who warred against us. Trying to avoid the inevitable had made the awful deed that much worse and I would never repeat that mistake.

"We can't afford to wander lost in the darkness any longer. I might be able to fight a war for the valley, but I can't win one. We need to do this together. So today we'll make a decision together." I found Piercey at the far end of the table and breathed in deeply. Looked to Nash, to his confident gaze, the unshakeable calmness despite the blood covering his shirt. "Today we decide to become a kingdom. One people, united together."

Marcus pounded his fist against the table so loudly that I thought it would crack. "Yes." He rose to his feet and thrust his fists in the air. "Rise, everyone. We will be a mighty kingdom."

A village chief stood. A demon who had proven vital in battle. A commander. All around the table, people shoved their chairs away and joined in the battle cry.

Chief Kaid stood and raised her forearm to me.

I thought most would join but that some would need time. Soon, every single person stood, including Piercey.

He might sit back down if he knew what Nash and I had just done. I didn't like our kingdom beginning in a blood bath. Had there ever been another possible way? I hoped that one day someone would find it and do better than I'd managed to do.

"Everyone will write down their vote for leader. We'll collect–"

"Eclipse." A chief's voice boomed from beside me.

"Eclipse," Marcus called out and beat his fist against his chest. "The Prophet Eclipse."

Eclipse. Eclipse. Eclipse.

The name echoed and swelled and spun around me.

The leaders of the valley chanted it together as loud as any war cry I'd ever heard.

Nash leaned against the wall, eyes on me, that half smirk filling one side of his face. "Max." I couldn't hear him above everyone. Just saw his lips mouth the name.

My heart pounded in sync with the cry of the name I never wanted but that all of Skia Hellig had learned to fear.

"Our kingdom is under attack." I used my power to amplify my voice above their shouts. "Gather your warriors."

----------------------------------------

The show of faith had overwhelmed me, but before long, the valley leaders had returned to business as we discussed the logistics of uniting our kingdom.

"I want to hear from the chief of every single village within a month," I said. "Everyone gets their say. If they don't want to join, they don't have to, and I personally guarantee that they will still be protected. But I need word from each."

Marcus tugged on the end of his short beard. "You're giving away one of the motivations for joining the kingdom for free. In the future, there will be disagreements, and you'll need factors like protection to convince people to stay. Kingdoms don't hold themselves together."

"I could never let any village in this valley fall."

"Once they join, they join," Piercey said. "It's binding."

Marcus gave one more tug and then lowered his hand to the table. "Very well."

"All of you, tell the chief's that they need to talk with their people," I said. "There should be a consensus. When we need next, I need your preliminary ideas on laws and systems for our kingdom. Please make it a top priority." I stepped back away from the table. "Go on, everyone. We're done."

It should have felt surreal to give orders and see everyone jump to following them, except I'd unofficially done that for the past year. The valley had relied on me so heavily that with each passing week, I naturally had more authority when I gave orders. We all wanted to survive and they'd quickly learned I was their best chance at that.

As people began to depart and Nash spoke with a few commanders, Piercey and Marcus both moved to sit closer to me. "Don't stress," Piercey said. "I can feel you freaking out about the governance. We're good at this part, okay? Let us work on this. We'll draft ideas and gather thoughts. Once you've dealt with the threats, we'll have plenty of long days of meetings to figure all of this out."

Marcus spoke in a softer tone than I heard him normally use. I realized that I'd only ever experienced his political persona, not who he was on a personal level. "You're a war-time leader. You need help with the political aspects. We all understand we signed up for."

"Okay," I said. "It feels weak to not be involved with all of this."

"You're busy," Piercey said. "Step back. Remember? Delegate. We'll come to you when it's time to make decisions."

"Speaking of decisions," I said. "The Sacred School cannot be so involved with this new kingdom forever. You need to choose whether you want to be a part of this government or the director of the Sacred School. I think after a transition period, the Sacred School needs to remove itself from the kingdom. It's important that the school continues to grow into a true place of education and training and that it is not tied politically in anyway."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Piercey focused intently while I spoke. "You made a difficult decision. I will too. Know this, I will be with you until this kingdom is stable. No matter what."

I nodded. "Thank you, Piercey. I couldn't do any of this without you. We also need to immediately start raising up an heir. I'm not doing this for the rest of my life. I recognize that I'm the leader the valley needs right now. One day we won't be at war and we won't be emerging from chaos. I want to hand the kingdom over someone eventually."

"We can talk about this later," Piercey said. "Deal with what you need to deal with now."

He was right. After months of feeling beat down and lost, I could see exactly what I had to do. Maybe it was from getting out of my world and away from my problems, or living in Ashton's life, seeing her world, but it seemed to clear to me now.

It wasn't that I'd never known we needed a leader–I did. I'd been begging for one for the past year. I just hadn't realized that what I actually didn't have time for was to refuse the role I'd already stumbled into. So before I left the valley again and confronted our threat in another world, I had to take a stand against the ones who had spent the last year attacking my people and I had to do it as the leader of the valley. I couldn't afford to wait one more minute.

I excused myself from Piercey and Marcus to move to Nash's side. He turned from his conversation, his hand on my lower back.

"You did incredible," he whispered close to my ear.

His closeness brought me back into my body and down from the shock of what I'd done. It might have seemed impulsive, but it had been building inside of me for the last year. "I just got too tired of running from the job everyone could see I needed to do."

"I'm with you." He kissed my temple. "We'll do this together."

I wanted to melt against him when he said it. I felt more terrified than I ever had stepping into battle and I knew that I hadn't even done the hard part of leading yet. "I have to take care of something. I'll explain when I'm back."

"Go. I'll take care of things here. I'll work with the others at our place on our plan."

"Thank you." I clung, not wanting to let go of him. I really couldn't wait, though. One last squeeze and I stepped away.

I teleported directly into the dining hall of the Flatlander Prophet. A massive table covered to the brim in beats, cheeses, vegetables, and multiple potato dishes sprawled out before the Flatlander and who I could only assume to be his family. A young boy stared up at me with chicken hanging from his mouth.

"Eclipse," one guard shouted.

Immediately, they ran for the Prophet.

"I've come to talk," I said. "That's why I'm alone. So you know I'm not a threat."

The Flatlander Prophet pushed himself up from the tower and yelled in a voice shaking with rage. "How dare you enter my home and come to my family's–"

"How dare you enter my Valley? Why don't we discuss this away from young ears."

"I could have you killed."

"You aren't going to attack me in front of your family and put them in danger. I really do just want to talk and my time is short."

He grumbled and slammed his fists against the table. "Everyone leave except for my guards."

His wife grabbed the hands of his children as everyone began to flee the room. I did feel bad for scaring his family. That wasn't my intention. How many families had he scared in my village though? He'd sent demons to attack innocent people in the middle of the night.

He needed to know that I could appear before him at any time.

"You have lost your mind," the Prophet said once we were alone with only his guards.

"I thought it was time we finally meet since you've been waging a silent war against me for a year."

I remembered hearing once that the Flatlander Prophet was on the short side, but I hadn't realized he was barely taller than I was. And I was certainly short.

"I don't appreciate having my meal interrupted by an uninvited guest."

"Then I'll be quick so you can get back to your important task. The valley leadership has made a decision today. We're uniting as one kingdom. I'm the new Prophet of the Valley."

His lips curled. "It's pathetic that it took you this long to make such an obvious decision. You don't have what it takes to rule."

"Maybe I don't, but I can lead, and I have been for a while now. I didn't come here to debate with you, though. We are about to be invaded by an enemy that is far stronger than any of us."

The Prophet said nothing for several seconds. Suspicion and worry both clouded his look. "Who?"

"You know that I've had dealings with the gods?"

His nostrils twitched. "I know you've been up to plenty of wickedness, Eclipse. You killed Flare."

I had to control myself. "The gods commanded my silence on the matter. I cannot tell you who this enemy is, only that when he arrives with his comrades, it will change our entire world if we don't stop him."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because if you don't, you're going to probably die. We don't have very much time to prepare. If the enemy comes, we all need to fight him. I'm trying to stop him, but if I can't–"

"You want us to fight alongside you? Eskel the Ruthless stole our land twenty years ago and you have kept it for yourself."

"The villages you claim as your own chose for themselves. They did not want to be under your rule. I'll honor their choice."

He breathed out hard. "Listen, Eclipse. I'm not a brute like Eskel and I'm not a fool either. I realize that you very well could be telling the truth. What you must understand about our land is that we had to fight to keep what we have. You have the natural protection of the valley and the mountain and coastal regions have better geography as well. We're caught in the middle of you all, trying to keep ourselves together."

"You've attacked us for a year while we reeled from the Prophet's death. I've run myself ragged trying to protect my people." The innocent lives that this man was responsible for began to crowd my mind and made it hard for me to keep my temper in check. "You didn't have to do that. You could have talked to us."

"What good are words? Skia Hellig runs on blood."

My power churned inside of me, heating my palms. "Children died because of your attacks."

He looked down, grimacing. "You'll soon learn the hardship of being a leader. War is inevitable and you never know who will die."

"We don't need to be at war. I don't want your lands. Just let go of the valley villages and we can start over."

"We aren't going to fix the relationship between our lands while we talk. You came here to discuss this common enemy. Now that you've accepted leadership of the valley, we will arrange to meet as fellow Prophets and have formal discussions."

I swallowed down a bitter taste in my mouth. "We will talk at the same exact time that our people fight and kill each other."

"You're in a new world, Eclipse. You should get used to it now."

"Well, I've learned a few things recently, and one is that sometimes you have to fight with your enemies. And if you can fight with your enemy, maybe they can become something other than that."

"I'm not sure whether you're naive or resilient."

"Does it matter when you know I'm deadly? I know you're the one who has coordinated the attacks on the valley all year while you've also been attacking us outright. You're bouncing off of the coastal warriors who've come after us as well. We're going to be even harder to kill now that we've become a kingdom."

He studied me. "You're right. You are deadly and I've never made the mistake of overlooking that. Why do you think I've gone to such lengths to wear you down? You killed a man I have tried to kill for years."

"I'm not going to kill you for no reason."

"How am I supposed to know what you'll do?"

I stepped closer. "I suppose that's a matter for these formal discussions we'll have. Can I count on you to fight with us if this enemy shows up?"

"Give me time to consider."

"We may not have time."

"I suppose that if the enemy comes, you will look to your side, and either I'll be there or I won't."

"You know." I really wanted to punch this guy. "Some of my people didn't want me to tell you because they worried you would see it as an opportunity to join with this threat or to attack while we deal with it. You should not toy with the unknown, though. This is not someone who will ever let you keep your land."

He said nothing, but only stared.

"Oh, one last thing. We don't need negotiations for you to understand this. I will never allow you to enter into my kingdom's territory and hurt my people. So consider yourself warned that any unauthorized movement in my kingdom will be an act of war."

The Prophet shifted his eyes to the door. "I think we're done."

"I killed Eskel because he hurt my people. You should remember that, Prophet."

"Leave," he said in a booming voice.

I sneered and teleported away.