The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 99: The One

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Valerius, Damien, and Kenric entered the study located at the end of the west wing of the Shadow Palace where the Dark Fae Queen was already waiting for them.

"Mother." All three Dark Fae Princes greeted their mother with deep bows.

The queen silently observed her sons before her eyes finally stopped at Damien and she spoke, "You should be with your mate right now. What’s so important that you three have to meet me this urgently?" Her voice was devoid of any emotion and so was her expression.

Damien bowed once again before he answered, "We have found the one - it’s her." He noticed the sudden change in his mother’s eyes even though it disappeared in even less than a second.

"Are you sure, Damien? You know exactly how serious this matter is." The queen stared at him with her powerful gaze that could easily make anyone kneel because of the pressure of her powers. She owned three out of the five elements - water, air, and earth.

"Trust me, mother, I won’t dare to make any mistakes in this case. Completing the soulmate bond between us allowed me to access her power source and I found the presence of exactly what we have been searching for for so many centuries. Let me show you something." Damien stretched out his left hand towards the Queen before a string of energy left his Moon Thread and went to the queen.

The Dark Fae Queen caught the string of energy and allowed herself to consume it. Her eyes shone brightly for a moment before they were back to normal. "Indeed... she’s the one but..."

"Completely unaware of her destiny." Valerius finished what their mother didn’t. He had always known that their little wife was more than what she seemed or believed, that her powers weren’t just as simple as other fae descendants, however, nothing would have prepared him for such a shocking revelation.

The queen nodded her head in agreement as she let out a small breath before speaking, "Who would have thought that fate would make you guys meet like this? It seems like the four of you are indeed destined. First, the last prophecy of Divine Oracle selected the three of you as the guardians of ’The One’, and now destiny has made you all meet her as your fated soulmate."

The three Princes, or the Dark Lords, couldn’t agree more with their mother’s words. Even they were surprised to see how things worked out in the end.

"But you all are aware that finding her isn’t the end of the journey you all started five hundred years ago, it’s actually the beginning of your new journey. Right?" The queen asked as she looked at her sons and noticed how all three of them immediately nodded their heads. They were well aware of just how serious their lives were going to turn from that point onward.

"She’s completely unaware of her worth and her destiny. So it’s your duty now to enlighten her and prepare her... which will need time but time is what we don’t have." The Queen appeared a little lost by the end of the sentence.

The evil was moving rapidly and there wasn’t much time left in their hands. If the Princes didn’t succeed in their assigned mission on time, the three realms would be in grave danger.

"We have a plan, it can give us a little bit more time," Kenric spoke as he shared a look with his brothers who too nodded their heads in agreement with his statement. The plan that he just mentioned was initially for gaining more time for their search for ’The One’. However, since they had already found her, now they needed this plan to stall for some time so that they could prepare her for what was coming.

"I heard that the four of you were heading to Lakeshire town. Is it related to your plan?" The Queen questioned as her eyes sparked with curiosity about what strategy her sons had in mind.

"The King of the Seelie Empire has requested our help for the murder and kidnapping case that has been going on in the empire for over the past year. Since we already knew what was happening and why, we decided to ask for help from the Mer Court. The Spirit Mer Coral won’t only have helped us in gaining some time to search for her but would also have helped in slowing down the spread of dark energy in the Seelie Empire." Valerius revealed the initial plan they had in mind.

The Queen nodded her head as she understood exactly what the three Princes were planning to do with the Spirit Mer Coral - an ancient and divine treasure of the Mer Court. "But don’t you think that the Mer Court won’t give you the Spirit Coral just because you want it to strengthen the wards of the Seelie Realm? It’s their treasure, after all."

The three men shared a look among themselves, the expressions on their faces clearly portraying that they already had a solution for that. It seemed like they had a full-proof plan from the very beginning, the only thing that went against their strategy was Annalise getting contaminated by the dark energy and them finding out about her identity as ’The One’.

Valerius stretched his right arm out and produced a huge globe of energy on his palm. A small white fish with golden fins and a reddish-brown tail was swimming around in that magical globe.

"The lost line of Mer royals." The Queen spoke in a surprised tone as she hurriedly stood up from her seat and moved towards Valerius to take a closer look at the treasure that he was holding in his palm.

"Right," Kenric spoke as he too looked at the fish. "We found it when we went to search the destroyed Water Realm. We didn’t find anything there... except for an egg of the supposedly lost lineage of the Mermaid Queen’s maiden family. Thankfully, we didn’t make any hurry to give it to the Mer Queen back then and now it’s our biggest bargaining chip."