The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 373: Last Minute Plans

Chapter 373: Last Minute Plans

Cursed Castle ~

-

Kenric and Pristine walked out of the castle before heading toward the main gate of the castle. Once they were outside, Kenric took out the vial that Annalise handed over to him and another one to Valerius right before they all headed their respective destinations.

*

Flashback (After Midnight of Previous Night)

-

Annalise’s suddenly flew open and she moved to a sitting position with a start, causing the blanket to slip past her shoulders and down her very much naked torso.

"Is everything alright, Princess?" Damien asked as he too was pulled out of his deep slumber because of her sudden movement that jerked her out of his arms.

"What’s going on?" Kenric questioned as he too moved into a sitting position next to his wife who was conjuring a night gown to dress herself.

Without answering her husbands’ questions, Annalise climbed down the bed and hurriedly got dressed to the best of her ability in the shortest time possible. Once she had pulled on a warm cloak over her night gown, she pulled her hair in a loose messy bun. "Can you call Valerius here for a moment? It won’t take too much time but I need him here as soon as possible."

"Little Bird, what’s going on?" The worry was clear in Kenric’voice and it finally made Annalise stop in her movements and focus on her husbands. Realizing that her unexplained actions were causing them anxiety, she finally provided them with some information. "I suddenly have thought of a way to strengthen our security and assure the safety of the common citizens of all the realms and empires. But I need all three of you to be here."

The expression of worry finally left their faces and both Kenric and Damien climbed down the bed to get dressed. "Alright. I will inform Valerius. You can focus on whatever you want to do."

Annalise nodded her head with a grateful smile. "Meet me in the potion room once you are reday." Then she headed out of the room, leaving behind the two Princes who were halfway in the process of getting dressed.

-

Pristine and the Light Guardians were busy helping Annalise set up the items she needed for whatever she was going to make. While Annalise herself was busy skimming through the spell book she got from the Dark Witch during her trip to their secluded hideout.

"Annalise..."

The Winter Prince entered the room that had been renovated solely to design it for performing all the experiments Annalise and Pristine had been doing for the past few months. Following him were the Autumn and Shadown Princes, and all three of them headed straight toward their wife while taking glances toward the preparation that was going on at the other side of the room.

"You are here." Annalise felt relieved to see that Valerius was eventually able to find enough free time to come, despite how busy he was in the Midnight Realm.

"Damien said that you have come up with some sort of new strategy... "

Before he could have finished whatever he was going to say, Annalise nodded her head and signaled everyone to gather around her while casting a spell to seal the room to keep their talk private. At this point, she was confident enough with her powers to not ask her husbands’ help for putting up stronger spells.

"As we all know that our biggest concern right now is the safety of the common people in all the kingdoms, those who can’t fight in the war and are easier to target by our enemy. I have a way to ensure their safety to the best of our capability. If my plan succeeded, they will be safe as longer as our armies won’t go down."

The Princes shared glanced with the Light Guardians and Pristine before they all settled down surrounding Annalise to hear what she had planned.

Annalise took in a deep breath before she started speaking - "No matter how many wards we set around the realms and kingdoms, the enemies will take them down in a matter of time. And soldiers aren’t enough to keep them from attacking cities and villages. That’s why, I want us to relocate all the common citizens to safe places."

"Safe places? There’s no safe place in our current situation." Silas pointed out and the nods from others confirmed their agreement with his statement.

"There is." Annalise replied much to their surprise. "The Secret Realm in our castle and the underground elemental zone in the Midnight Realm."

The next couple of seconds were filled with silence as everyone processed her idea.

"How come you know about the Elemental Zone?" Shadow asked curiously with no hint of judgement or suspicion in his tone.

A small smile lifted the corners of Annalise’s lips as she answered, "We’ll, someone has been kind of talkative as he wanted to tell me all his childhood adventures."

No one required her to voice out the name of that person as all their eyes immediately turned toward Kenric who just gave them a sheepish smile in return.

"Then you must also know that place isn’t normal. The abundance of elemental powers there makes it hard for anyone to survive there even for minutes, let alone hours or days." Damien pointed out the biggest obstacle of using the secret Elemental Zone located in the depths of the Midnight Realm.

"Besides, even if these places are hidden and unknown except for a selected few, they are still not safe from the dark energy. Even if the enemy failed to find them or break through them, the dark energy would not." Elder Elaron added and once again several others nodded their heads in agreement.

"You just answered your doubt, Elder Elaron. These places are indeed not that much safe from the dark energy, but at least they are safe from the dark army that will surely aim for the villages and cities once they will brake through the wards that have been set up to protect the kingdoms. This is still better than just leaving those innocent people out there in the open." Annalise almost sounded anxious as she tried to make everyone understand her point.

She then turned her attention toward her husbands before continuing - "As for the imbalance in the Elemental Zone, that’s because that place is lacking the other two elemental magic. If Esmeray and I can add our elements there, I’m sure that place will turn out as a safe place. Once that’s done, we can divide the citizens of all the empires into two groups and relocate them."

Once again there was a long silence following her words but the expressions on everyone’s faces told Annalise that they all were, at least, considering her theory.

"Alright." Valerius was the first one to speak out his agreement and it gave Annalise the support and relief she was wishing for. Her gaze immediately shifted toward Damien and Kenric and found both of them giving her the exact answer she wanted from them.

"I agree as well." Sir Niles added with an encouraging smile. "Your idea is actually good. And just like you said - it’s much better to provide them with this extra layer of safety instead of leaving them in the open to suffer the casualties of this war."

A sigh of relief left Annalise’s lips before she continued - "What I have proposed is nowhere an easy task to accomplish. We are just hours away from the war and it will take a lot of trusted people to relocate the citizens. Also, a quick meeting with all the councils is needed to be conducted to discuss this plan."

"Even though we don’t have much time in our hands, this is also an advantage for us. Since we are so close to the wartime, our enemies are busy with the preparations just like us, they would not be watching us as closely as before. This will allow us to finish the relocation in secrecy without the worry of our enemies getting winding of it."

Everyone agreed with her and it didn’t take long before the Princes had called for a meeting of the Grand Council in the Midnight Realm under the supervision of Midnight Queen.

Instead of leaving for the Midnight Realm to join the meeting, Valerius conveyed the entire plan to his mother and left the task of communicating it to the other rulers. He stayed behind along with his brothers as there was one more thing that Annalise had planned.

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