Chapter 102: Contents Of The Chest II

1 0 0
                                    

Sloane opened the last letter addressed to her. It was one from Mrs Laura and the very reason she had made it last, was because the older woman was the last member of the Connor family to pass away. Among other things, this same woman, had left Sloane with far more questions than the other three.
Opening up the letter, she took a quick glance and noticed it was just almost as short as Scott's

Princess, how are you? I'm sure the Southerners are treating you well since I saw Nathan and Rebecca at the scene yesterday. In that sense, I guess I was a horrible mother for you; suddenly up and leaving with Mackenzie, while asking Nathan to hand you such a devastating letter; despite all the pain you're going through.
I have no right to justify myself after that, however, it all happened according to fate. When I first looked into your future, your strings of fate, were tied up in a messy disaster. You had far too many possibilities and not many of them had good endings. With James' help, we were able to stop the possibilities were you had no future and that led us to your eighteenth birthday.
It was a devastating possibly for any mother to look into. I always knew Scott would die earlier that the rest of us because, male dragon keepers don't live past thirty. After seeing that future, at some point, I wished Scott hadn't been born as my son. If someone else had been his mother, maybe he could have still been standing by you and Mackenzie's side.
I specifically took Mackenzie out of town after Scott and Elias died, because of that. She suddenly started showing signs of being a dragon keeper and of course, she needed training. I knew I'd have to return her to you before the civil war begins again. This is the answer as to why I had Nathan give you that letter. You needed a push in order to take your crazy fate, into your own hands.
 Thanks to that camping trip, the last mages in Greenwood have been killed off; like those mages always wanted. Well, all of them except Rodik Ria's daughter, Priya. After the magic association and mages built this town, a mechanism was installed which would allow the entire town to either be wiped off the face of the Earth, or to be moved. This mechanism was installed just in case the demons living there, would like to return to their actual home in the Outworld, or to keep humans away from the truth. The key to the mechanism should have reached Priya by now; just like in my predictions.
 Lastly, Princess, look after your people and Mackenzie; especially those closest to you. In one of my predictions, you were betrayed by someone close to you and that had caused the simultaneous deaths of several others. Be careful, my child.

"Is this a curse?" Sloane asked as she stared at the paper in hand
"Betray. Beware. These letters are all warnings" Nathan said "Once you ignore the part about me and you, again. There's the problem with Josey, who exactly is in Leon Michelle's body, how to tell Kenzie what her family did just so the both of you could have a happy future, and then, figuring out who will betray you. When you add the fact that we are heading into war with such few numbers, your earlier statement of this being a curse, really hits the nail on the head"
"The amount of sarcasm that comes out of your mouth these days is really impressive" Sloane said while leaning against one hand and staring at the letter
"I simply talk this way. It has nothing to do with sarcasm"
"Sure" she said, before packing up the letters and stacking them to the side "Either ways, I already have a plan" she reached into the chest and took out the neatly folded map before standing up
"And that is?" Nathan asked, as he watched her walk around the table and spread the map on the center table before sitting down on the sofa
"Come here and see for yourself" Sloane said while patting on the space beside her. He stared at her for a while before letting out a sigh and getting off from his seat, to sit with her on the sofa.
"Can I hear this plan, now?" Nathan asked after he sat with her and leaned forward
"Take a look at this map and tell me what you notice" Sloane said while tapping on the map and Nathan also stared at it
"This isn't just a map of Greenwood" Nathan said with narrowed eyes "This map goes all the way to the other boarders connecting the other towns. If this whole area we live in is connected to this map, then it means, the entirety of Greenwood Springs was created by magic" he said while pointing at the egdes of the maps
"Mrs Laura was trying to tell us the same thing in her letter. I only came to realize this a while after reading it. If you consider that, there must have been hidden tombs built around that only the magic association and mages knew about" Sloane said before pointing at an area which was marked in red "Each of the places with this marking, are where the last remaining demon generals are kept. A decision was probably made when I was younger, whereas, only a few demon generals were needed to be moving about...so as to not attract attention to me who was being protected, and prevent them from being hunted. Which makes the hidden tombs their last choice"
Nathan's eyes widened at her words but when he though about it, "Bound by servitude, the demon generals are but loyal dogs. They can't be too far away from their masters. But during the civil war, everyone thought they were all dead" he said "Our kind is really terrifying" he chuckled, as she stood up and headed back to her desk before coming back with another map and spreading it beside the first one
"As for this, this is a map of the north I asked Tim for. [She points are one, of several blue circles] According to Tim, captives are kept in large numbers at these areas marked in blue. To top it all off, these are the areas that are heavily guarded and are the source of their military power"
"That would make sense. When you take into consideration the number of people who were controlled and those who had signs of being experimented on" Nathan said
"I plan to attack these blue areas and weaken Leon's forces exceptionally. Saving the captives and also acquiring reasources" she said "We'll use their own method of divide and conquer against them. Right now, thanks to my bloodline magic, their army have been cornered in the North and can't step foot passed there. After today, I plan on sending all of our frontier soldiers and medical soldiers through the spirit world gate to spend some years there. And when my preparations are complete, I'll bring them back"
"Who'll be going with them?"
"Josey, Christian, Mary, Jerald and Fernanda. Since Jerald will be picking volunteers thanks to your intervention, his presence will be needed during the volunteers' training. They all have knowledge in combat and two out of the five of them, are medical soldiers"
"The hospital will be short on staff" he smiled
"Kenzie, Giselle, Kathy and your mum are qualified enough to handle it. Plus, Priya, Tim and Clark are still there" Sloane said "The hospital will only be looking after those in intensive care a day from now. A lot of people are being discharged today, because they have made a full recovery"
"When did you receive the report from Priya?"
"While we were talking"
"Figures" Nathan let out
"My plan is to completely isolate the North while using the East and West, to begin our counterattack. While that is happening, small groups will be sent out to recover the remaining demon generals" Sloane said "However, if I want everything to go according to plan, the settlement will need to stabilize and the headcount is a definite"
"You really don't like leaving any loose ends" he sighed as he leaned back while she turned to look at him
"Says the man who was bored enough to send Jerald and a decree I wrote, to Alexa" she said "You even told me he has 'an eye for talent'"
"Trust me. This will turn out well for you" Nathan said "Far better than you might even be expecting"
"I know" Sloane said before looking away from him "I've always trusted your judgement on things" she stood up from the sofa and began to head back to her desk
'She's definitely doing this intentionally' Nathan thought as he stood up and hastened his steps towards Sloane before grabbing her by her waist and lowering his lips to her ear "You know, sometimes, I truly wonder if you're doing this intentionally" he said and she blushed
"W-what are you-"
"I seem to forget that you're still innocent whenever I think like that" he continued before asking "The first part about me and you in James Connor's letter, do you know what it means?"
"I should avoid too many interactions between you and me"
"No, you're wrong. It's a topic you've never thought of in your life" he said and her eyes widened as he took his lips away from her ear "How innocent" he mocked, as he moved from behind her and went to a nearby shelf before picking out a book and returning to the sofa. He had an overly satisfied smile; like that of a winner.
******
In the Evening
Alexa burst through the doors with register in hand and the others working at the hall, following behind with their own registers
"That was a rather rude entry" Sloane said calmly as she reached under the desk "Rosco already submitted his. So, are you done with what I asked?"
Alexa slammed the register on the desk and sat on the seat next to Nathan "Every name has been recorded in the damn register" she crossed her legs and impatiently tapped her hands on the dessk
"You always get like this when it has something to do with Scott" Sloane said
"This is a bit different" Alexa said "A letter from a dead guy at this point in time is the sign of a bad omen"
"What a surprise. You already know you're just about to be cursed like Sloane" Nathan said while leaning against one arm
"Curse?" Alexa repeated
"I received some letters from the dead Connor family with some rather disturbing things inside" Sloane said before looking at Nathan "Though, one of the stuff there, was rather pleasant to read about. [She smiled] I'm still too innocent for it but, I'll grown into it...with Kathy's help" Nathan lost the feeling in his arm, and almost slammed his head on the desk when he heard her
"Wait, what?" Nathan asked "Could you repeat that?"
"Did I say anything wrong, Nathan?" Sloane asked, as she handed Scott's letter to Alexa over to the recipient, but he dare not say a word while the others were there.
Alexa stared at the letter with a complicated expression while Sloane picked up the register and flipped through it
"As expected, I really could leave such a task to you" Sloane said before shutting it "Can you tell me what he wrote to you, later?" she asked and Alexa nodded before standing up and heading out of the office
"Here" Jerald said as he handed his own register to Sloane "You can't imagine how hard it is to sit and test these people's capabilities with a single glance"
Sloane reluctantly took the register from him before opening it. Her eyes widened after going through it and she stared at Jerald almost alienated.
"I almost can't believe my eyes" Sloane said
"When he was working so hard, almost couldn't believe my eyes" Allen said as he dropped his register on the table "Worst of all, none of this was easy, as we also had to go to the hospital. However, this goofball was surprisingly active"
"Just because I'm mischievous and lazy, doesn't mean I'm stupid" Jerald said "I can be a really dependable guy when you need me" he gestured to himself with a smug smile
"You just have a kid's brain. That's your only shortcoming" Natasha said, while shaking her head, as she and Cassandra dropped their registers on Sloane's desk
After recovering from the earlier shock, Sloane had regained a rather composed face and she smiled, "You guys are really something" she said as she placed her hand on one of the registers and poured her magic into it "Two thousand, seven hundred and twenty five people volunteered for the frontier soldiers while nine hundred and sixteen people volunteered for the medical soldiers. And their abilities aren't anything to joke about"
"Really? I wasn't keeping track of their numbers" Jerald said while Cassandra stared at him "I just thought I saw someone fun and put their names down"
"The total number of people in the settlement, when you minus the volunteering soldiers and the current trained soldiers, is one million, six hundred and ninety four thousand, eight hundred and thirty nine. That is, when you also count us who live in the castle, too" Sloane said "Plus, the current total number of trained soldiers, which is three hundred and thirty three thousand, four hundred and twenty eight. Our total number of soldiers becomes three hundred and thirty seven thousand, and sixty nine. While everyone currently living in the settlement becomes two million and thirty one thousand, nine hundred and eight"
"I can tell for a fact that the numbers you just called are all accurate" Allen said
"If so, what was the point of all of that?"
"Although I can pinpoint an accurate number of people in my zone, I don't know the extent of their abilities" Sloane said "In order for them to be useful to me, I need to know more about the people and know the best place on the chessboard to put them" she sighed "It's too much stress to explain right now. [She waved her right hand. As though, to chase them away] I'll inform you guys during the meeting tomorrow, so make sure to tell everyone"
"You've really become one dangerous woman" Allen said
"I appreciate the compliment" Sloane said "And here I thought I was still weak"
"Not at all. Nathan's personality is rubbing off on you" Jerald said with a shiver while Nathan frowned
"Get-" before Sloane could finish her sentence, the door opened and Mackenzie walked in with Josey

The Fallen AlphaWhere stories live. Discover now