Love Through War

C h a p t e r N i n e t e e n

Marella's POV.

"Okay," Marella whispered to herself as she walked down the halls of the Villa. "This is your first war meeting, do not mess this up."

After Keefe had left for Exillium, Marella's dad had come to her with some exciting information.

In Keefe's absence, she would be attending the war meetings.
Usually, if you weren't directly related to Lord and Lady Sencen, you had to wait to until you reached aged of nineteen to attend a war meeting.

Marella has always dreamed of one day becoming a war general and leading an army, so she had to make a good impression at her first war meeting with the leaders of her clan.
Even if the leaders were almost as snotty as a little swan.

Marella laughed as she thought about the swans of her enemy clan, it was obvious Keefe had met someone at that ball.
She knew he was smart enough not to hook up with some dead brained girl with nothing but a pretty face, so she didn't worry to much about it.

When she reached the war room, the first thing she noticed was that she was the third person there.

Lord Cassius and Lady Gisela were both seated on two of the large floor pillows around the low table, looking over maps of Blackswan's grounds.

Marella awkwardly took a seat across from them.

They looked up when they heard the door open, and Lady Gisela's eye brows rose.

"Thank you for arriving early," Lady Gisela said to her. "Your father has always been rather tarty, I'm glad you didn't inherit that trait." She let out a sharp, humorless laugh.

Marella managed a tight smile.

The rest of the meeting's members arrived soon after, consisting of Gethen, Trix, the clan's adviser, who Marella knew as Vespera, Marella's weaponry instructor who went Fintan, and a few others Marella didn't know as well.

Trix sat down next to Marella and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.

"Well then," Lord Cassius began once the room had settled down. "I would like to announce a proposal of war strategy against the Blackswan."

He stopped, as if waiting for the room's permission, but Marella knew he'd continue anyway.

He did.
"I present the idea of a surprise attack of the Blackswan," Lord Cassius said. "A surprise attack while their new First Lady is still adjusting to the position and while their occupied with training her."

A murmur arose through the room, quietly discussing the pros and cons of surprise attack.

Marella didn't know what to think.
It was good idea to attack while their enemy clan's leaders were distracted with their new Princess Swan, but on the other hand would that distraction be enough? The Blackswan had been anticipating their moves lately, were they being set up?

Vespera was the first person to speak up.
"I think the arrival of their First Lady is the perfect time to attack," she said in her cold voice that made shivers go up Marella's spine, not much could shake her, but she alway found the adviser creepy.

Lady Gisela smiled. "I'm glad you think so. Now moving on to which time of day would be best for our approach—"

A knock came from door, cutting Gisela off.

The knock came again, Marella knew Lady Gisela must have been infuriated to've been interrupted, even if she didn't show it on her face.

"Come it!" Lady Gisela barked. "If this isn't important, you better have a good explanation for interrupting this meeting!"

Marella bit back a smile. Whoever had knocked now had her full respect.

The door creaked open to revel Kimia Bray, a girl with a raven pixie cut and big gray-blue eyes.

Kimia was the Neverseen's messenger and was carrying a parchment scroll in her hands.

Marella perked up when she saw the messenger.
Kimia was Marella's only friend, besides Keefe, in the clan.

"Forgive the intrusion," Kimia said, forever polite. "But a scroll has just arrived for you. It's from the Blackswan."

Lady Gisela's eyes narrowed before she stalked over to Kimia and took the scroll.

Kimia's excited eyes met Marella's for a moment, before she walked out of the room.

Lady Gisela read through the scroll, her eyes growing narrower and narrower, before she spoke.

"It appears the Blackswan has a proposal," she said curtly, before reading from the scroll aloud. "To the leaders of the Neverseen Clan, this message comes with a proposal of peace and unity. Please consider this offer of a peace treaty to end this war that is taking lives. If we stand together, lives could be saved. You are welcome to our land to discuss this in person, or if your prefer and allow, we could come to yours. Thank you for hearing us out. Humbly, the Blackswan Collective."

The room immediately erupted into chaos, everyone yelling their opinion on the matter at once.

"This is an outrage!"
"They expect us sign a peace treaty?!"
"Cowards!"
"Tell the Blackswan they can stick their little treaty up their—!"

"Everyone calm down!" Lord Cassius interrupted, and the room went silent immediately. "We do not if the Blackswan has ulterior motives or if they truly want peace. The only thing we can do right now is write back for further information, I can assure, no impetuous decisions are being made at this time."

That seemed to calm the clan down a little bit, but Marella still heard some creative swearing muttered by Gethen and Vespera.

"In the mean time," Lady Gisela added and stood from her pillow. "We thank you for coming and I announced this meeting adjourned."

Marella never expected her first war meeting to be this lively, and she thought about the Blackswan proposal as she filed out of the room with her father.

She had no idea if Lord Cassius and Lady Gisela would accept a peace treaty, and she didn't even know how she felt about either.

Swans were sneaky, all of this could easy be a trap, but she didn't know if they would have the guts for a trap like this.

Peace would be great, it always was, most of the time at least.

If only Keefe were here, Marella thought, he'd know exactly what was going on.

But there was still a suspicion in the back of her mind that made Marella think she knew exactly what her clan's leaders would do.

~

Hello everyone!
What did you think of having this chapter in Marella's pov? How did you like Kimia?
Thanks for reading!
Bye!
~T