Chapter 80: You

The door to the chambers swung open, and Giselle and Brandon entered, their faces a mix curiosity as they both wondered why they were summoned with such urgency.

"What's so urgent, your majesty?" Brandon asked, looking between Edgar and Elaine checking to see if either of them were hurt.

“Calm down Brandon, nothing is wrong with either of us, at least not obviously” Edgar said giving Elaine a look that made her understand what he meant.

"Giselle, we need your magical expertise. Meredith is not as formidable as she appears. She feeds on our fear, and if we can strip her of that advantage, we might just have a chance." Elaine sat up, exchanging a quick glance with Edgar and looking away.

"So, you want me to cast a spell on the soldiers to make them forget their fear temporarily?" She said as she took a chair as she thought of how to go about the spell.

"Yes” Edgar replied

“Wouldn’t this be a problem?” Brandon said with concern.

“We need them to fight with clear minds, without the looming dread of death. But it has to be temporary. We don't want them charging into battle recklessly that could cost us a lot of lives” Edgar replied trying to be careful with his words so he doesn’t pass the wrong impression.

“Is this possible Giselle? Do you think you can do this?” Elaine said in a soft spoken voice to make sure that Giselle wasn’t getting into something that she couldn’t handle.

Giselle was quiet for a while as she contemplated on what Elaine just said, it was a hard decision to make as the life of many were held in the balance, but she had to make it anyway or many lives will be lost too. This was the first time in her life she was making such an important decision and she needed to be sure she was okay with her choice.

“I can craft a spell that will last for a few hours, enough to get through the initial assault. After that, their natural instincts should kick in and they will be back to being their fearful selves" Giselle said as she took a bold step of confidence in her decision.

“How do we ensure Meredith doesn't catch wind of this? If she senses her weakness, she might strike even harder and that is not a good thing for us because she has an army of dead men fighting for her” Brandon said after being quiet all the while and just then everyone was sent into deep thinking.

"I think I have an idea, we can't announce it to the entire army” Elaine chimed in and they were all interested in what she had to say.

“Giselle, can you cast the spell on the soldiers without their consent?” Edgar said with furrowed brows as he knew where Elaine’s idea was headed. “We inform only the trusted squad leader and that way, the knowledge is contained, and if it leaks, we know who betrayed us” Brandon said.

“That’s if we live to come to this realization” Elaine replied and the room fell quiet for a short while.

"I can do that. I don’t need their consent to cast this spell. I’ll ned an hour to cook up the concoctions and another hour to complete the spell process" she said breaking the silence and they all listened.

"Once the spell is cast, we need to act swiftly, we cannot let them penetrate the citadel, we have to tighten our defenses and ensure that nothing allows them in here. Meredith might realize something is amiss, and we have to take advantage of the confusion." Edgar said as his battle instincts kicked in.

"We should organize a decoy plan, make Meredith believe we're vulnerable in one area while we strengthen our defense in another." Brandon, ever the strategist, thought for a moment.

"Let's set this plan in motion. Giselle and I work on the spell. Brandon, coordinate with the leaders and ensure that decoy plan is foolproof, Edgar knows what to do" Elaine said and they all dispersed to carry out their assigned tasks, a sense of unity and confidence in their minds that their plan will work out right. The battle against Meredith was approaching, and they were ready to face it head-on, armed with strategy and a touch of magic.

As the night drew closer, the atmosphere in the castle became tense. Giselle worked tirelessly on the spell, weaving the intricate threads of magic that would temporarily free the soldiers from the grip of fear and she had Elaine by her side helping her as much as she could.

Brandon, with a map spread before him, strategically placed squads and arranged the decoy to mislead Meredith's forces.

“It seems like a good plan” Edgar said as they both went over everything again but Brandon couldn’t shake a lingering feeling so he spoke up;

"We're playing a dangerous game, Ed. If Meredith catches wind of our plan, it could backfire and we’ll all be dead before we even start the fight

"We have to trust the plan, its our only shot at defeating Meredith. Giselle is a skilled witch besides your strategic mind is unmatched, what are you scared of?" Edgar said casually trying to make him feel less tensed and more focused of what they had to do.

“My mind, unmatched?” Brandon said surprised.

“Yes, I did say it” Edgar replied.

“I don’t think so” he said slightly chuckling.

“Okay then, I’ll not try to convince you” Edgar said and Brandon laughed loudly knowing exactly who his friend was, anytime he spoke like that he wanted to compliment but just didn’t have the right words to use or knew how to express himself and not sound cocky.

“The concoctions are ready, call the squad leaders and make them meet us in the basement” Elaine said as she walked in on both of them chuckling.

“It’s time” Edgar said patting him on his shoulder.

“I’ll go get them and meet you both there” Brandon said and walked away from the room.

“What’s wrong with him? It’s so not his thing to be the scared one” Elaine said softly immediately Brandon left the room.

“He’s scared Elaine, he’s scared of what will happen to us all if his soldiers that he’ve trained for so long are not good enough” Edgar replied her staring blankly at the door Brandon just walked out of.

“We all share that fear, he shouldn’t blame it in himself alone, It’s all our burden yo bear” Elaine replied.

“A burden that was brought upon us all by Edward Knight” Edgar said and Sapphire had no response for his statement that came out of the blue.

“You see I just thought for one moment, If my father had been a good man, a responsible king and a selfless Alpha to his people maybe all of this wouldn’t be happening now” he said again still staring blankly.

“Maybe, just maybe we can never know for sure” Elaine replied hoping to sway him off that line of thought to avoid him from remembering hurtful things but he didn’t, instead he continued.

“All of this are happening because of him, if he hadn’t taken Skylar away from his mother, maybe he would’ve had less hate for the werewolves and if he hadn’t gone to make a deal with Meredith, we wouldn’t be here right now and if he hadn’t asked for the other half of the stones, your parents would have been alive to help keep the peace” Edgar said bitterly as he relieved himself of what have being weighing down in his chest.

“But he decided to live in the opposite way, he decided to rewrite what have already been written by the gods. I just really hope that in the pages of history, he would be remembered for being the monster that he was and every generation to come dread him and the life he lived” Elaine said trying to calm him down.

“Edgar, you do not have to think about it like this, look into the bright side of things, these unfortunate events are what led us to each other and we are here now, we are what is in the present and that’s what matters most. I have you and you have me don’t you?” Elaine said holding onto him closely as she felt the pain he felt in his heart in hers too.

“I have you Elaine, you are the only thing in my life that still makes a lot of sense, every other thing seems so disorganized and too difficult to handle. I have always dreamt of having children of my own but when I think of the world we live in and how we would keep being on the run moving from one place to another, I realized that this wasn’t the life I wanted for them or their mother” Edgar said as a tiny tear flowed down his eyes.

“I’m sorry this hurts so bad for us both, both this is what the universe had planned for us, this is how the gods have written our pages to be and we have to accept it that way or we won’t be of any need to ourselves and the ones who depend on us” Elaine said holding his head and placing it on her bosom as tears flowed freely from her eyes that were filled with emotions that she had bo control over.

“A raven came yesterday from Lewis, the pack houses are rebuilt and in shape, they are still concealed with magic but we will he able to transport our pack members back there in no time, if we survive the dark night ahead of us” Edgar said in a low and sad tone.

“We will survive, I know the end and the beginning but not what comes in between” she replied as she wiped the tears from both her eyes and his, they were too strong to be travel.