The Conquest of Mytheyr

“Yes, Ser?” Morgan said, turning to the new arrivals. They were two Dragonkin Elves, and both of them would be considered young among their kind. Internally, Morgan rolled her eyes, as they seemed to be having an ‘omigawd the Queen just called you Ser’ moment. “What is it?” she prompted them.

“It’s just…” one of them started, “I’ve never been on a force with you before. I was on one with your brother, I mean Prince Rhys, and it was just so awesome…”

“Well, Rhys’ missions are usually fun.” Morgan said lightly. “That’s why we call him Slash-and-Burn.”

“I know, right?” the elf went on excitedly. “I just want to say, I’m so honored-”

“Ahem.” His friend interrupted, nudging him. “We had a message to deliver. Ser Raven, remember?”

“Oh! Ser Raven wants to see you. We’re having a meeting with the town chiefs.”

Morgan sighed, and turned to Vath.

“Sorry, I have to go. I’ll see you later…”

“Yeah, later.” Vath responded.

“Show the way, boys.” Morgan leapt off the rock, landing lightly on her feet.

Walking into the tent, Morgan thought she was quite a sight for the chiefs of Mytheyr. Dirt stained clothes from when Marine pushed her down, bare feet and a silver choker that they had no way of knowing was actually an ultimate weapon.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Raven announced, “May I introduce Queen Morgan of the Dragonkin of Irideth.” There were fewer leaders than Morgan had expected, only seven including Teren and Asa. They were outnumbered by all the Dragonkin in the tent, twelve including Raven and Morgan. The other ten lowered their heads a slight bit in acknowledgement of their queen, and Morgan responded with a nod.

“Now we can begin.” Raven said as Morgan stood next to her.

The tent itself was very plain, just grey canvas; a large round table that everyone was standing around was the only thing of note. Raven tapped the surface of the table, and a three dimensional, translucent white image of the castle of Mytheyr arose out of the table.

“You all insist on a full assault on the castle itself, aye?” Raven asked the leaders.

“Yes!” said a tall elf impatiently, “We already told you, we want to kill the usurper now!”

“Then I’ll turn it over to you, my Queen.” Raven nodded.

“A frontal assault will be dangerous to you and to your kin.” Morgan told the tall elf, “But we might be able to pull it off, if we are fortunate. We know that the enemy has your own people as his soldiers, but they are what we call thralls, reanimated corpses under his command. We also know that he has stone golems that are invulnerable to all magicks. He has been seen using a sand snake as a thrall, but only once. Is there any thing I am forgetting?” Her question was met with silence. “He may or may not have something else. We will prepare you to deal with what we know, and my elves will deal with any surprises.”

She knocked on the table and the map seemed to zoom out, the palace getting smaller and white translucent trees appearing. It continued zooming out until parts of the nearest cities and the ruined fortress they were currently in was visible.

“We are not far from the palace. This is good and bad. Good, because we can get there quickly, bad because we could easily be discovered. Speed is of the essence.”

“We know that most of Semele’s thralls aren’t at the palace.” Raven cut in, feeding Morgan the information under the guise of a recap. “They’re in the cities trying to bring them under Semele’s control. When he came and took over, he didn’t seem to have any kind of clear plan. If he didn’t have a plan then, he won’t have one now.”

Morgan nodded. Then a front assault was really a good idea. Though Morgan seemed collected, she was extremely frustrated. She didn’t have any idea what Raven had been doing these weeks, and this was supposed to be Raven’s operation. Sometimes Morgan loved being a Queen, other times she hated that she always had to appear to always be in control. What she really hated was pretending she knew everything.

“Alright then.” Morgan said. “We want anyone with spears in the front, swordsmen behind them. Archers should be in the back, covering them. Any advice on the horses?” she asked, turning to Raven.

“I’d say in the very front, since the palace is mostly in flat territory. That way, the riders can clear the way for everyone else.”

“We’ll need the dragons in the air, in case there are any golems. If anything can defeat an invincible golem, it’s dragonfire. We may have to fight within the palace, so we’d better be prepared for that.”

The rest of the day was spent in that tent, calculating their numbers with the chiefs and determining where they should attack from. Tactics were discussed for fighting outside and inside the palace, and a strategy for retaking it was created. Morgan insisted that the plans be made with the assumption that there were thousands of thralls, even though her insistence annoyed several of the chiefs. Most decided they didn’t like the Silver Queen.

When the meeting was finally ended, the sun had almost set, and the twilight was Raven’s domain.