They had been walking for nearly fifty hours straight, having only taken a rest for a few hours to eat and sleep. It was evident that the toll of this march was starting to wear on the soldiers, as the once tight line was getting longer and longer with many having fallen behind or outright collapsed.

However, at the very front of the line were Kali and Stanford, having created quite the gap between them and the worn out soldiers.

“Hey, Kali,” Stanford suddenly spoke, pointing behind them. “The gap's gotten pretty wide, even the old man can't keep up.”

Kali turned to look and saw that indeed, her men were a good fifty yards away from them, Mackrell included. Sighing to herself, she turned to look at the raven haired boy beside her.

“Shall we take another break then?”

Stanford rolled his eyes in annoyance, but nodded his head and took a seat on a nearby boulder.

Seeing that both the princess and the boy were currently sitting down alerted the troop that this was indeed a break, and at that moment the men collectively collapsed onto the ground, the sound of ragged breathing filling the forest air.

Stanford looked toward the men with a disgusted expression on his face. “You guys are pathetic,” he spat. “At this pace, Kali will never reclaim her kingdom and I'm not gonna get to be a knight.”

Immediately all the soldiers began yelling at the young boy, which did nothing but agitate him even more. He quickly stood atop the boulder and shouted back “Excuses! You're all seasoned soldiers and you're getting embarrassed by two kids!”

As they continued shouting at one another back and forth, Mackrell made his way to Kali's side and sat down in front of her. “Your majesty,” he began. “I checked our numbers, it seems quite a few of us have lagged too far behind to catch up.”

“I see,” Kali sighed. “I wish I could say we should tend to them, but we've wasted enough time already, we have to reach Kaytram soon or else we won't make it to the deadline.”

“Please, do not worry,” Mackrell said encouragingly. “Those men will understand why you made this decision. They themselves would tell you to abandon them without a second thought.”

“Hang on!” Stanford, who was done shouting at the soldiers, suddenly appeared next to Mackrell. “What's this about a deadline? When did we get onto some sort of timetable?”

Kali and Mackrell looked at Stanford in annoyance, but Kali responded to his question saying “There's always been a timetable you dunce, do you think the kingdom is going to continue to stay in a state of limbo indefinitely?”

“Well, I mean I thought that Talpha-guy you mentioned had already taken the throne and we were just gonna steal it back.”

“He's merely taken up the role of acting king,” Mackrell explained. “Because he was the second born child, he has a claim to the throne, however, our system isn't the same as you humans. Since elves live very long lives, changing rulers doesn't happen all that often.” The older elf rubbed his chin. “The previous king ruled for several centuries, and it would have been longer had he not met an untimely end.”

“And normally, with his death I would be the first candidate to take his place,” Kali continued. “Despite the fact that I am female, I was firstborn and to queen. Talphagoron was born second but his mother was a human woman. And Idrill, my younger brother, was born third as the second child to my mother.” Kali bit down on her lip. “When the king has multiple children, several things must be considered for the next chosen heir. Gender, birth order, birth mother and magical aptitude are some the biggest factors.”

“That sounds complicated."

“It is, the fact that we live so long means that we want to make sure that the person ruling is the most qualified,” the princess explained. “My gender is considered a negative, but I am firstborn, pureblood and I have the highest aptitude for magic.” She smiled bitterly. “Talphagoron, while born male, is a half-blood. And because of that, his magical aptitude is the lowest among us siblings.”

“Which is why he became so resentful,” Mackrell spat. “And begun plotting to overthrow the entire kingdom, starting with killing the previous king.”

“And me,” Kali stated. “Luckily, thanks to Mackrell, I escaped with my life. But that hasn't stopped him from trying to find me for these last three years, and he's becoming more and more desperate because the summit is approaching.”

“Summit?”

“A large gathering of the kingdom's most prominent people,” the princess said. “It's an event where all three factions come together and it will be where the next king will be crowned. Talphagoron plans to use this day to officially become the next king, which would be disastrous.”

“He's that bad huh?”

“It's not him I'm worried about,” Kali's face darkened. “Our court contains three factions that basically govern the kingdom.” She held up three fingers. “There's the Royal Family, which is made up of the queen and any children sired by the king. Then there is the Harem Faction, a group of palace girls that serve the king but directly answer to the Madam. And finally the Council of Elders, a group of the oldest and wisest nobles in the kingdom.” Kali continued further. “Normally, they have different responsibilities but answer to the king. However, without a king they begin to run amok and take on their own agendas. And now with someone who has so little respect among the court about to take the throne, can you not see the chaos that would ensue?”

Stanford blinked at the princess, not fully understanding what she was getting at.

“If Talphagoron, an incompetent prince born from a human woman, takes the throne using the methods he has, the factions can declare him an immoral ruler and use this as an excuse to usurp the royal family from power,” Kali stated. “If that happens, then that is the end of the Elf kingdom as we know it.”

“Which is why we cannot waste anymore time,” Mackrell said, standing up. “We must reach Kaytram as soon as possible.”

“I was wondering when you'd stop sitting on your ass.”

Stanford, Kali and Mackrell were all caught off guard by the new voice speaking to them. It was then that they noticed someone was currently standing in between the three of them, as if he'd been there the entire time.

“Who the hell-”

“An assassin!” Mackrell shouted. “Everyone! Protect the princess!”

All of the soldiers quickly scrambled to their feet, however, they were all stopped in their tracks when suddenly several men clad in black appeared from the shadows and surrounded them.

“It's an ambush!”

“Calm yourselves, men." Kali stated. "If they wanted us dead, then we'd be dead. Clearly, this is not an attack.”

“Well it sure ain't a welcoming party either,” Stanford growled. “These guys are definitely killers, I can smell it on them.”

“Yes, it would seem Kaytram already knew we were coming,” Kali remarked. “And their queen decided to welcome us with the Black Guard.”

Stanford's eyes widened at that. Even someone has low of a status as he knew of the Black Guard. An elite group of fighters assigned to protect the queen and carry out her “dirty work”. From covert ops, to full on assassinations, this group was full of highly skilled people. And they were now surrounding a group of injury riddled, depleted soldiers from an enemy kingdom. 

The cloaked man standing between them didn't say anything, he merely turned toward Kali and began advancing toward her. Mackrell quickly jumped in front of him and unsheathed his sword.

“Do not take another step toward the princess.”

The cloaked man, who was slightly taller than Mackrell, stared him down silently. It seemed as if he were about to attack at any moment, however, in a split second he was already behind the retainer and standing directly in front of the princess.

“Eh?!” The older elf was completely dumbfounded that he was unable to see his movements. 

“Your retainer seems to have lost a few steps,” the man told Kali. “Such a shame, I suppose even you elves cannot defeat time.”

Mackrell was now seeing red, and charged at the man with the full intent to slaughter him. “How dare you?!” he shouted, but he was stopped when another cloaked person appeared in front of him. “Get out of my w-”

In an instant, Mackrell was effortlessly blown backwards by the cloaked person. No one saw the person move an inch, yet Mackrell was still sent flying into a tree in a matter of seconds.

“That was unnecessary,” the cloaked man told his subordinate.

“He tried to attack you,” the subordinate protested. “He should know his place.”

“Don't blame him, we're here to take their princess after all,” the man stated, returning his attention back to Kali. “Now, the queen is expecting you, Princess. We've come to escort you to her castle.”

“And my men?”

“They can remain here, outside the kingdom,” the man stated. “However, should they take a single step within Kaytram, we will not hesitate to kill every single one of them.”

Kali grit her teeth, kowing that she was basically going to be held hostage by an enemy kingdom. This was not ideal for her, as this would put her at an even bigger disadvantage for any type of negotiations.

“Are you insane?!” Mackrell suddenly shouted, standing back up. “There's no way we'll leave our princess without any protection!”

“You don't have a choice, our orders are to bring in the princess unharmed,” the man told him. “If you do not accept, you will die.”

To accentuate his point, all of the guard unsheathed their various weapons and got into battle stances, ready to begin slaughtering everyone at any moment. The elf soldiers drew their own weapons in turn to prepare for battle, but Kali held up a halting hand before anything could start.

“There's no reason for any bloodshed, put away your weapons. I will go with them.”

“Princess, no!”

“There is no other way,” Kali told her men. “We cannot escape them at this point, and we still need their help.”

The elf soldiers, Mackrell included, all hung their heads in shame as they stood down.

“A wise decision,” the cloaked man remarked, reaching toward Kali. “Now, Princess, let us depart.”

“Yes,” Kali then smirked a bit. “However, as I have willingly agreed to come with you, I must make one demand.”

“Oh? And what is-”

Before the man could finish his sentence, he was forced to jump backwards as a huge slab of iron nearly chopped off his hands. As he landed on the ground, he heard a loud “thud” and felt the ground shake under his feet.

I barely escaped that. He thought to himself looking up.

There, he saw Stanford standing where he was, having just swung his large sword. He then took up a protective stance in front of Kali with a large, confident smile on his face.

“As you can see, I am her sword,” Stanford smiled broadly. “One must always bring their sword for protection, so where she goes, I go.”

The cloaked man was suddenly surrounded by several of his subordinates, all who looked ready to jump Stanford. However, the man held up a halting hand.

“Impressive,” the cloaked man stated. “I barely even sensed your presence, boy. However, this was not the deal I gave you.”

“It's the only deal I'll agree to,” Kali told him. “Feel free to take me by force, though I'm sure you know how your queen treats those that don't follow orders.”

The man silently stared at her, his green eyes peering through his hood, before letting out a defeated sigh. “You win,” he stated. “You may bring your sword.”

Both Kali and Stanford smiled at one another, and began following the cloaked man to their destination. Before they could leave, Mackrell grabbed Stanford by his arm, forcing him to look eye to eye with him.

“Boy,” he growled menacingly. “Protect the princess with your life! Do you understand?”

“Don't worry about her,” Stanford shrugged off his grip. “As long as I'm with her, she won't get a scratch.”

And with that, the duo left the rest of the men behind as they made their way toward the Kingdom of Kaytram.

Finral didn't like working in the castle.

Sure it was a pretty good job, in fact it was one of the best jobs someone from his meager background could hope for. All he had to do was report information to high ranking members of the court, easy stuff.

However, when he had to report to the queen, that was when his job was the absolute worst. Most people in the court just took the information he gave them and left it at that. Sometimes they would yell at him if it were bad news, as if that were somehow his fault, but that's the furthest it went.

With the queen, though, it was so much worse. Their queen was completely unpredictable. There were days where she was sweet, kind and completely benevolent. Then there were other days where she was tyrannical, cruel and bloodthirsty. Finral did his best to try and figure out which days were which, but she was just too unpredictable.

So, life as the castle messenger was not all it was cracked up to be. And now, here he was, standing in front of the door to the throne room where he was to let the queen know that the Black Guard had obtained Princess Kali. Hopefully she was in a good mood today.

“I have a message for the queen!”

“You may enter.”

And with that, the messenger opened the doors to the throne room and immediately followed his routine; take no more than ten steps forward and immediately prostrate yourself until the queen gives you permission to raise your head.

“Your majesty, the Black Guard have captured Princess Kali and are currently on their way to the castle as we speak.” Finral spoke quickly but eloquently, making sure he was completely understood and he didn't flub any of his lines.

“What was that?”

That didn't sound too good. Finral could feel his heart racing faster as sweat poured from his forehead to the floor.

“Um, I-I said the Black Guard have captured-”

“Raise your head, Finral.”

Finral did so without hesitation. “Yes my queen!” 

Above him sat a beautiful, slender woman with fair skin and long, blonde hair tied into one massive braid. She wore an extravagant, white dress and atop her head sat a silver crown. And though she had a big smile on her face, her bright blue eyes were currently narrow, which signaled to Finral that she was not in a good mood.

“Now, give me your report one more time.”

“Y-Yes! The Black Guard have c-captured-”

“Oh! There it is again!” Cainnech pretended to faint. She then shook her head. “Finral, you really should know better.” Her eyes then locked onto his once more. “Tell me, did I ever order the Black Guard to capture Kali?”

Finral's face went pale, as he felt his heart sink into his stomach. He realized he may have just made a deadly mistake.

“N-No, my queen.”

“Then why are you reporting that she was captured?” Cainnech asked, placing a finger on her chin. “Did you not pay attention to my order? Do my words not reach you?”

“M-My queen, it was a simple mistake....” Finral stated. 

Cainnech smiled once more, but to Finral it looked as if she were seething with anger. “I suppose there's no other choice for you but the death penalty.”