LUNA: The Witching Hour

52: Tribute

At night, Arius flew into my chambers through an open window I purposely left open for him while I sat silently on an oversized chair in my own sitting room, sipping on my hot chocolate Feline had prepared for me, too focused on my ongoing thoughts about everything that was mentioned at the meeting earlier. 

I was only inactive for 2 weeks pero ang dami ng nangyare. 

Cayden was crowned the new king of Lapetus 10 days ago, giving him all the rights to make the decision for the kingdom and move as he liked. As soon as he had the power, mortal warriors were immediately deployed. Hindi lang 'yon, Cayden had been able to attack one of Ladon's villages: Ignis, a village located near the borders. 

It took them a week to put the village under siege. How Cayden did it shocked even Midnight. The dragons were a lot to handle, everything about them was deadly. Their sizes, their power, their animal instincts, and their own nature itself. Dragons were born fighters. Even if they weren't taught how to fight, they still know how to bite. 

Mortal humans were titled to be the weakest out of the 8 races but everyone was aware of how corrupted a human could get when pushed to the edge. It was a shame to think that I had questioned Cayden's strength during the meeting---- how could a mortal win against the dragons? And then I realized--- I had been blinded by Cayden's kindness to me that I had forgotten just how wicked he was to the public's eyes. 

Even before everything, Cayden was named the most vicious in humanity. His ways were as cruel as the demons that he even went as far as to make a deal with Midnight--- one of the deadliest demons in this empire--- and with Sage--- A soul eater and the former king of Amadeus and the older brother of the Emperor. 

Ladon made a wrong choice. They shouldn't have killed the king. If they wanted to win whatever they were trying to aim for, they should have killed Cayden first. They didn't have enough information about him. It was as though they were only told what to do and they had followed foolishly. 

Cayden was as powerful, and he gained the title of being the strongest magic wielder of the mortals but he was still going against the dragons. This was where Midnight said that power alone wouldn't win you a battle--- there was someone supporting Cayden. 

Only one person was capable of helping Cayden in a short amount of time without Cayden being skeptical of this person's intentions. The person who contradicted Cayden's own strong points. 

Caleb. 

Midnight's theory explained that Cayden wouldn't be able to pull it off even if he got what it takes to put a dragon down. This was a battle of kingdoms. Not a one-on-one fight. Cayden needed as many people to support him and Caleb had always been the one who reads a lot. Meaning, Caleb's the brains of Cayden's court. 

It made more sense because of it. 

Caleb might have locked himself in his chambers after his father died, but we wouldn't know what he was thinking at that very moment. He might have been weeping and scheming at the same time. Cursing the dragons for what they had done to his family. We wouldn't know. 

But one thing was sure: Cayden and Caleb were a dangerous pair.

When Midnight was asked how he knew about the siege and the army's deployment, he had simply stated that he had someone acting as a spy for him in Cayden's court. 

Hindi ko alam kung anong sasabihin ko sakanya sa mga oras na iyon. Of course, he'd do something like that. 

Next we discussed was the ongoing conflict between the Kingdom of the Sirens and the Kingdom of the White Witches. Sirenum and Quintia.