"Where will the journey begin?" Princess Samahita asked as she finished packing her bags.
The war-tiger, Tivnir, set his bag down and gave his opinion. "I say we start with Ashhorn Village. That’s where the gate leading into the Western Skyrift is located."
Nytherael paused mid-bite and looked up. "Western Skyrift? Where is that?"
Everyone’s mouths dropped open. They stared at Nytherael as if he were an alien from another world, and at this point, Nytherael truly was an alien to everything within the Lu Dynasty.
His life had been paused while the world continued moving without him. It made sense that he didn’t know what the Western Skyrift was, since it had co into existence while he was trapped in the ice.
Yiwa stepped closer and explained, "The Western Skyrift Independent State was ford within the borders of the Lu Dynasty. It offers shelter and relief to beastfolk suffering from all kinds of problems who flee or forsake Lu dynasty. They don’t answer to the Emperor of the Lu Dynasty, and even their laws are separate, independent and belonging only to them."
"Why are we going there?"
"Because the people living in the Western Skyrift answer to no one except their sovereign."
Nytherael found himself curious about the beast powerful enough to establish his own nation within their empire. "And who is this sovereign?"
"Sovereign Aeltharion Zhen, the Nine-Horned Dragon of Drakheiron," Princess Sheana answered gently, twirling her hair in a flirtatious manner.
Nytherael froze. His husband? Aeltharion Zhen had separated himself from the Lu Dynasty? Despite the fact that Aeltharion had once held one of the highest positions in the dynasty.
He had been the High Marshal of Dominion. The supre authority over war and enforcent of laws, commander of all Beast Court military forces. The power in his hands had been limitless.
’Why would he separate himself from the Lu Dynasty?’ Nytherael couldn’t understand what had happened. Why had his lovers changed so much within only a year and a half?
"The Western Skyrift belongs to your husband," Sheana added. "As his beloved... doesn’t that an he could give the entire Western Skyrift to you as a bridal gift?" she teased playfully.
Nytherael rolled his eyes and showed Princess Sheana his middle finger. He had no respect for her at all, and her status as a phoenix princess didn’t intimidate him in the slightest.
Plus, he didn’t appreciate how provocative she was. Like she wanted conflict and sought chaos with her every word.
"Why so emotional? I was only asking," Princess Sheana replied, entirely unbothered by his arrogance.
"You, cunning seductress, why are you talking so much today?"
Princess Sheana turned and looked at Theren with fiery, enchanting eyes. "You’re jealous. Don’t worry, Theren... even if I talk to a thousand n, you’ll still be number one in my heart," she said, blowing him a kiss and winking at him.
Theren ignored her antics and returned the conversation to the mission. "It would’ve been better to start with Ashhorn Village on another day. But this is the beginning of the second month. And as everyone is aware, at the start of every month, Sovereign Aeltharion visits Sseraphis in the Abyssal Coil, in the capital of Noxseris. It’ll be easier if we go to Vessharn and take the array to Noxseris instead."
"Yes, that’s a better idea," Tivnir agreed. "I’d forgotten about that fact. We’ll have to start with Noxseris."
Nytherael remained silent, listening carefully to everything being said. Theren spoke as though Aeltharion’s visit to Noxseris was common knowledge but he was unaware.
It hurt him deeply to realize everyone in the room seed to know more about his lovers than he did.
Through the bond connecting them, he could feel that Aeltharion and Sseraphis were together, but he hadn’t known eting at the start of every month had beco a habit for them.
He desperately wanted to know why they only t at the beginning of each month, and why they t in the Abyss.
As far as he rembered, Aeltharion, being a sky beastman, he had once hated going underground because of his phobia of the underworld spaces. So why was he now willingly descending beneath the earth every month to visit Sseraphis? What existed there that had made him overco such fear?
"But," Princess Samahita spoke, drawing everyone’s attention to her. Unlike her twin Sheana, she carried a natural composure and grace that made people listen without effort. "Everyone here understands Sseraphis’s pride. He will never allow us near either him or Aeltharion."
"That’s why the Beast Court sent Aenyra Zhen with us, isn’t it?" Princess Sheana said, her gaze falling upon the four-horned princess Aenyra, Aeltharion’s younger sister.
Aenyra lifted her head at the ntion of her na. She sat slightly apart from everyone else with an air of indifference, as though nothing being discussed concerned her in the slightest.
She had molten amber-gold eyes like her brother, long hair, and soft skin patterned faintly with scales. She wore a velvet gown woven from Drakheiron cotton.
She looked at Princess Sheana, and in that single mont of eye contact, Aenyra understood that Sheana wasn’t soone worth wasting energy talking to. Although she was a phoenix, she the slyness nature of a fox.
"Don’t pretend to understand my duties. Do what you ca here to do. I’ll handle mine," she said coldly. After speaking, she returned to her own world of silence.
"Uhm... alright," Princess Sheana smiled, her eyes gleaming mischievously. She looked around the room and inwardly delighted herself. ’I think I’m going to enjoy playing with all these toys,’ she thought, referring to everyone present as toys for her amusent.
She sat down again, continuing to toy with her hair while crossing her legs, every inch of her radiating irresistible charm.
"Even with Aenyra here, it still doesn’t an Sseraphis will open his gates and welco us," Princess Samahita argued.
"We’ll have to try, Samahita," Tivnir said.
Rhysandor added, "But many beastfolk have already tried since all these disasters began, and every single ti they failed. Sseraphis is determined to destroy the Lu Dynasty, and he won’t back down for anything or anyone."
After her husband spoke, Nerezza felt the need to add more. "And Sseraphis warned the Lu Dynasty that if beastfolk continued disturbing him and pester him, he’d make our problems even worse than they already are, and no one would be able to stop him."
"It doesn’t help that the Abyssal Coil stands behind him," Theren, the four-headed snake beastman in the task force, said. "All the serpents and abyssal beastfolk are loyal to him. They’re ready to fight the world for his sake."
Theren understood that loyalty better than anyone. For generations, surface beastfolk had looked down upon the creatures of the underworld, mistreating them and denying them respect as citizens of the Lu Dynasty.
Their hatred had sunk deep into their blood, and now they rejoiced at seeing the surface world suffer beneath Sseraphis’s poison spreading through land, water, and air.
"The beastfolk of the Western Skyrift stand with him too. Don’t forget that Aeltharion publicly declared that anyone seeking war against his wife would be considered an enemy of him and his beastfolk as well," Princess Samahita explained.
"And the Western Skyrift has nearly a half a million powerful beastfolk excluding counting the children," Tivnir said. "The Abyssal Coil has two million. They won’t be easy to deal with either."
Nytherael felt his headache returning. His mission already seed impossible before it had even begun.
"That leaves Lioris with three million beastfolk," Rhysandor calculated aloud. "But even with larger numbers than the Western Skyrift and the Abyssal Coil combined, they’re still losing to their power and poison."
War-tiger Tivnir also did his calculations. "Virethys has four million beastfolk, but the dominant bloodlines are few and cowards, afraid to anger a nine-horned dragon and a nine-headed snake since neither of them have reached that level of power. The rest are weak blooded beastfolk. Tje population is large but most of them wouldn’t stand a chance against the Western Skyrift or the Abyssal Coil."
Princess Sheana glanced toward Princess Aenyra again. She badly wanted to hear Aenyra’s thoughts and understand Drakheiron’s stance on the matter not to ntion stir up so trouble.
"Drakheiron has two million beastfolk, and their strength..." She deliberately paused to create tension, exactly as she intended. Aenyra looked up again but showed nothing on her face about her feelings. "They can et Western Skyrift and Abyssal Coil head on."
"Drakheiron does not seek war against Aeltharion or Sseraphis. Virethys and Lioris may forget themselves and where they stand all they want, but Aeltharion is a dragon of Drakheiron, and Sseraphis married into Drakheiron. That makes them both ours. And we do not wage war against family," she stated, emphasising the emotional connection that her people valued.
"But they’ve wedged a war against beastfolk of Lu dynasty, aren’t the rest of us family. Drakheiron is part of the dynasty, is it not?" Princess Sheana deliberately raised a provocative question.
"At this rare, we will keep debating here and never depart to start our mission," Princess Aenyra changed the subject, "I don’t know about the rest of you but I am setting off right now," she got up, got her bags and stared blankly at Nytherael. "Get up. Follow!" She ordered.
Nytherael t her gaze, his rebellion wanted to resist and argue but in the face of Aeltharion’s younger sister, he decided against it. Getting on Aenyra’s good books could help him get back in good graces with Aeltharion.
"Let’s go, Yiwa," he rose and followed obediently. Yiwa carried their luggage and trailed behind him.
The other beastfolk didn’t waste ti lagging behind and quickly caught up to them along with their luggage.
"Wait up, sis," Princess Sheana called out to Aenyra. "I want to walk with you."
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