Damien watched as children ran around, playing on the specially grown grass in the park. He was one of a multitude of people sitting on wood-grown benches, which were placed around the park borders.
He watched as some children jumped a dozen feet into the air, not scared at all of falling, and watched as the enchantments placed under the park caught them in a cushion of wind, slowly bringing them down, making it seem as if they were flying. The children giggled and laughed, asking for more as they ran again towards a large circle where the gravity was reversed—done by enchantments—floating again and laughing as they were slowly brought down.
Other children swarm inside a very transparent pool, laughing as they were tickled by the hundreds of water spirits inside the pool, harmless spirits.
He watched as a little toddler, blue eyes and black hair—now that it wasn't so drenched in blood that the whole hair turned red— played with other toddlers his age. Tiny little nature spirits flew around their heads, playing catch with the toddlers as the little children raised their grabby little hands, trying to catch the spirits.
The park was alive with the sounds of joy and laughter as children ran around and had fun without a single care in the world.
Damien reminisced fondly when he and Keilan used to run around like this. They didn't jump around on gravity-defying enchantments or play with nature spirits, as far as he could recall, but they did have their own kind of fun. He smiled as he remembered both of them sneaking off into the nearby jungle when they'd been expressly warned not to. Making fun at Leila's expense and Keilan running around doing mischievous things when he thought no one was looking. They'd had lots of fun. But eventually, life had caught up to them earlier than expected.
Damien shook his head, dispelling the sadness that'd begun creeping onto him. He didn't like remembering the times after that.
"How'd you find me?" He said to the empty space around him, drawing strange looks from the people passing.
"You're in my city, remember, it isn't that hard to find you, especially when you're not trying to hide," a woman's voice answered, coming from a spot behind him, closer to the tree borders.
Queen Fenore appeared, seemingly out of nothing. Others would think that she'd just teleported in, but. Damien knew that she'd been standing there for the past half hour, fending off any attention with an aura trick. Those kinds of tricks only worked on people that were not him.
She was putting on a long black dress that trailed behind her in the grass. Multiple jewelries adorned her form, matching her emerald eyes.
"What do you want?" He asked brusquely, irritation creeping into his voice at the unwanted interruption.
"Is that the child you rescued? I was surprised when I was informed that you'd taking a ward, or wasn't that your intention when you directed them towards my palace?" She said, slowly walking towards him in so smooth a way that it seemed like she was gliding. I wonder if all these royalties have some special school for walking, he thought. People who didn't know him would think it foolish of her to show such disrespect by ignoring his question like that, but his emissaries knew him well, so they also knew when he was really not in a good mood, unlike the grumpiness he was feeling now.
"The boy has lost something so precious that he would never get It back, and at such a young age too," he replied, turning back to the playing child. "As nothing is more powerful than a mother's love, I've decided to at least give him something closer."
Fenore gave him a weird look. "I never took you for the caring type, especially not to strangers,"
He snorted, a little laughter escaping him. "I do care, not just for everyone, and me and the little one there have something in common, same as you. So I might as well make sure he doesn't lack the love we both got, even if it was for a brief while."
Fenore smiled ruefully. "And what's your brother's opinion on this?"
"As much as I'm doing it for the boy, I'm also doing it for Keilan. He needs a special kind of love only the little one can give, in order to bottle that seething rage he has bottled up inside of him."
Fenore looked at him in surprise. "What? Did you think I was the angry one? Ha! If you think me angry, you should see Keilan when he's truly pissed, It'd be a memory never to be forgotten," He said.
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"This," he gestured at the laughing children. "They shouldn't have to feel the same hate that's coursing through our veins. Their happiness should be something to be treasured."
"Then why are you so bent on this war? I mean, I'm up for any war with the empire—as far as we're gonna win—but you know that thousands of these children are going to lose their parents to this war."
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fighting for revenge. But I'm also fighting so that these children wouldn't grow up with the hate festering inside me, or the wrath burning inside my brother," he said. Shaking his head ruefully, he continued. "They might lose their parents, but it'll be them dying as heroes who defended their families and kingdom while they defeated the empire rather than them dying to the invasion of a power-hungry empire."
"Aren't we all power hungry? What's the difference between them and us?" She asked, her piercing emerald eyes seemingly studying him.
"You want an honest answer? No, there's no difference, we're all power-hungry maniacs. The only difference between us and the empire is that we have a different way of getting it, a slightly less painful way."
"The only reason we've turned the empire into the big bad villain is that they've just been the ones to cause us the most pain," he said, his eyes going blank as his mind went back to that day, that heart-wrenching day.
Chest tightening, he shook his head as he came back to the present, turning his attention towards the little children playing. A little boy ran, laughing shrilly as he was chased by two other children—a boy and a girl—holding dirt in their hands. Their faces were marked with brown dirt, probably the handwork of the boy they were now chasing.
Scattered around the field, dozens more were playing similar games, chasing each other, sometimes catching their quarry and the other times the quarry managed to escape.
"Adrian—I've decided to name him that—will live inside your castle. It doesn't matter who he stays with, as far as he's being taken good care of and protected, and hidden away from any suspicious eyes," he said, turning his eyes towards the tall woman. "I will come for him when the war's over."
Fenore nodded. "I'll post secret protectors to watch over him."
Damien watched her for a moment before he nodded, he didn't need to voice it out loud, they all knew what would happen if anything untoward happened to the boy.
"So, what actually brought you here?" He asked, changing the topic.
"I came to inform you about the battle plan being finalised. We want you to see it, just in case you want to add anything."
Damien sighed. Looked one last time towards little Adrian playing on the ground, and then he stood up. "Let's go," he said.
Together they teleported out of the park, startling some of the people who just happened to glance at them when they disappeared.
********
They appeared suddenly in the war room of the castle. None of the others were surprised. Other than giving him nods and muttered greetings, their full attention was on the large map on the large rectangular table.
On the map was the drawing of a continent—The Greensend continent. To the east was the Solaria empire, taking more than a quarter of the lands in the continent, with almost a hundred dots representing the cities in their territory. To the north of the empire was the Solarian northern jungle, and a line was drawn to the west of the jungle, indicating a river. Across from that river was a forest which housed a temple to another celestial—a nature one.
To the west of the continent were the maps of dozens of other kingdoms and close to a thousand cities. The kingdoms of Gandor and Camlen shared the border between the east and west, like a last defence against the ever-moving expansion of the empire. Behind them were the dozens of other kingdoms who were strong enough to help halt the expansion of the Solaria empire but were just too afraid, relying on the two border Kingdoms to save them. A few weren't like that tho.
"I think they'll attack from the sea or sky," swordlord Danor said, outside the castle, thunder rumbled in the distance. "Since they'll be looking for a quick overwhelming attack, the reasonable path would be either through the northern or southern sea."
"What's the use of attacking via sea, it just gives us ample forewarning of their approach," King Brunos argued. "My money's on the borderlands. Sure, we might see them, but not before they manage to cause destruction with their quick response battle groups," thunder rumbled again, closer this time.
The borderlands were a large expanse of land—hundreds of miles— that stood between the empire and the border Kingdoms. It encompassed a massive battlefield, a small desert and also a forest.
"What if they came from the sea, but instead of sea ships, they come with skyships," Danor's second in command spoke. Another sound of thunder rumbling in reply.
"Are we all forgetting that the forest that borders Gandor also acts as protection from any northern attacks," Helera said, when everyone turned to look at her, she clarified. "The northern forest houses the temple to the cult of the nature celestial. They won't help us in this war, but they also won't allow anything that's a danger to the forest to cross their territory—Whether through land or air."
They all nodded at that. "Which means their route of attack is either through the southern ocean or the borderlands, with the ocean the more plausible route to take," thunder rumbled. this time accompanied by lightning so loud and flashing that it startled the other occupants. They looked up.
"They're here," Damien said. He looked out the window, seeing the entire city plunged into semi-darkness as dark clouds covered the whole city.
A thick bolt of lightning, as thick as a small hut flashed in the distance, the light illuminating the Spirit lords flying with incredible speed towards the castle, with the emperor in his magnificent glory leading the attack.