There was a moment, a heartbeat between the words. Anna staggered backward into Kristoff as her widened eyes glimmered with terror and betrayal along with disbelief.
"No way! Queen Runa would never do such a thing!" Iduna said, desperately. She knew her best friend would never attack her daughters unless…
"Queen Runa is d-dead!" Mari's voice cracked and her eyes filled up with tears even though she plowed on strongly.
Iduna felt a rock drop into her stomach.
"She was murdered in cold blood two days ago," Mari said. "The only reason you haven't heard of this before is because they've slid it under the rug."
Iduna couldn't speak. She couldn't breathe. The woman who had almost given up her royal position, just to let Iduna marry the man of her dreams, the woman who had fought her own father to give Arendelle the justice it deserved, the woman who had killed her own heart to see two others blossom together even when she did not need to do all those things was now gone. Over the years in their time of ruling Arendelle, Iduna and Runa had grown to be like sisters.
"No, Auntie Runa can't die! Not now! Not this…soon!" Anna whispered, devastated as Kristoff held her by her shoulders so that she didn't collapse. Queen Runa had been a guidepost for the two sisters since they were toddlers playing in Iduna's lap. She had been the one to initiate a trade with Arendelle after the great thaw and she was the one to guide Elsa's hand in securing trade while also defending her against other countries seeking to rob Arendelle with outrageous contracts.
"Why are they attacking us?" Kristoff asked Mari.
"They think you have the hand in the assassination," Mari spoke, trembling slightly.
"But we don't! We would never do…" Olaf began.
"I know, Olaf. I know that you'd never do that, but they don't!" Mari said, desperately.
"What proof do they have that we were the ones to do that?" Anna asked suddenly.
"I don't know. We could only get that much information from our spies stationed in the kingdom. They're covering up the losses," Mari told.
"What about Prince Radius?" Olaf asked.
"Darius," Mari corrected. "We don't know. He's gone completely silent. Our spies have a reason to believe that he is also dead, but they couldn't say for sure. He could be on the run from the council of that kingdom."
"The council is behind this?" Kristoff asked.
"It's just a theory. Vassar's rules are different. If all the royals are killed, a member from the council is elected to replace them, and once crowned, only he has the claim to the throne. Even if a royal is still alive, as long as he is not on the throne, the council reserves the right to crown anyone as their king." Gilberd said.
"Anna, we need to tell them that we aren't at fault here. I don't know if it'll work, but we need to at least try!" Kristoff said, trying his best to stay calm. Even if Arendelle had a more powerful military than almost all others, the kingdom was peaceful and its people had not faced a full-scale attack in a long time. Besides, no one wanted a pointless loss of lives.
"He's right, Anna," Iduna agreed and recovered quickly. She had learned one thing over the years if emotions and ethics get involved in politics, it could very well be the end for that person as well as the kingdom they lead.
Anna clenched her fists in anger. For the first time in her rule, she felt a strong urge to accept the war and expose the council's lies. Taking the peaceful path would certainly guarantee that the people who had planned this murder would go unharmed.
"Anna," Kristoff held her hand in his and looked deep into her eyes. He could clearly see her turmoil and anger at them. She fully expected him to say something like they needed to end the war before it began, but the words he said were different.
"You will get justice. I promise it, but please don't let lives be lost for this cause," he said. It hit hard enough that Anna's heart leapt with pain. What was she even thinking?
"I won't," she answered shaking her head and loosening her fist. The last thing she wanted was more lives to be ruined.
The one question that remained for both Iduna and Anna was how they were going to break the news to the other two. Elsa and Agnarr, the ones who had the most ties with Runa still didn't know. Truth be told, Anna wasn't even sure she was brave enough to face Elsa with this information.
"I'll write the letter to them," Olaf said quickly. He had just completed his training as the royal librarian and letter writer and had officially earned his post just a few days ago. "You just glance over it and sign it up okay?"
"Okay Olaf," Anna said, half absently. Alex had said something that just crossed her mind.
"Maybe our visitor has something more important to say," Anna whispered to Kristoff gazing at him to get the point. Kristoff looked back at her getting the clue. That was Alex's line just before he sent them to the courts. The only thing, perhaps more important than the discussion they were having was them learning what Mari had to say. Both of them came to the same conclusion. Alex knew something that they didn't. Either that, or he had only wildly guessed and it had been correct. With Alex, the latter almost seemed an impossibility. Only one way to find out.
Anna took a deep breath and wiped her eyes and cheeks clean. "Mari, Sorenson come with me," she said, in a slightly more commanding tone than she had intended, and started walking to the council room, giving Kristoff a 'Handle them and get back to the council room ASAP' kind of look.
Gilberd looked concerned about Mari's safety as Anna paired her up with the man who had allegedly tried to kill her, but one look at Anna told him that he'd rather lose all his limbs first than cross her command.
Elsa couldn't believe it when the clock chimed ten in the night. So much had happened in the past few days that it was all still a blur to her. A single moment of rest hadn't come by since Anna's wedding. Somehow as if magic, enemies stronger than the whole Arendellian federation had cropped up in one night and now they were at war with perhaps the strongest of foes in more than three thousand years! She didn't even have a moment to think about how things had spiraled out of control so much, but now that she did, she could already feel the pressure about the severe necessities of the right decisions. One wrong step and they'd tumble right off the tightrope. She knew that Alex had already thought this one through, but she couldn't stop feeling queasy. He was right. They had little to absolutely no information on their enemies. If they were to consider that their enemies knew everything about them, Rapunzel's fears weren't founded on a wobbly structure at all. The only thing probably keeping Narsilla at bay from causing mass destruction was the Shadowjade's presence and the fact that only Elsa could reach it. So unless she were to get to the Shadowjade or Elsa, there was no way for her to move on the board without revealing something about themselves. That's it, if Elsa could play safe and stay out of Narsilla's range, she wouldn't be able to get a chance at launching a full-scale attack!
"You shouldn't forget. We need all the four stones," Alex said, coming back from the balcony with Agnarr and Varian in tow and seemingly reading her mind.
He was right. Rapunzel and Cassandra were still at the biggest risks with the stones embedded into their bodies with weaker forces surrounding them that could defend them against Narsilla than Elsa and Kristoff had. Elsa had the spirits and Kristoff had Alex watching over him. Each of them was strong enough to take on a whole army all alone.
Elsa sighed and looked down at the maps on the table. It had markups probably made by Alex at some point before their meeting. Strangely, kingdoms like Cintheria, Aislecia, Vassar, and Iliarmis with about fourteen other major ones were circled in red ink. "What is her plan?" She asked, not really expecting an answer.
"Divide and conquer," Alex answered without hesitation and smiled knowingly.
The confidence he spoke with caught her off guard. It was almost as if he was the one who made that plan.
"I hate the sound of that," Eugene said, looking unamused.
"You should," Mattias said. "This is bad enough as it is and now we need to worry about our allies turning on us as well."
"Do you know how she is going to go about doing it?" Elsa asked Alex, frowning at the map. She did not like the idea of Vassar being marked in red; the color that usually meant danger.
He smiled and turned towards the entrance to the council chamber.
"Yes. She is going to try and murder Queen Runa of Vassar," Alex said, looking at a shocked Anna standing at the door to the council room. She was in no way alone. Everyone just stopped talking among themselves and looked straight at Alex, some in confusion and some in horror. Why would Narsilla target someone who couldn't even be remotely related to that war in any way?
"Wait no, you're not saying that auntie Runa is in danger?" Rapunzel asked.
"She's currently in no danger," Alex confirmed.
"Wait, but," Mari piped in hesitantly. She knew that someone other than her should interrupt or break the news, but if that was a chance of misunderstanding, then she needed to fix it.
"The information you currently have has actually been forged. Queen Runa is still very much safe in the Southern Isles," Alex told Mari to her surprise.
"So she isn't dead?" Sorenson asked, devoid of any sensitivity to the situation.
Agnarr's jaw dropped open and Elsa's eyes widened at even the mention of death and Runa in the same sentence.
"As I said, she is alive and safe in the Southern Isles," Alex repeated.
"Why would Narsilla target her though?" Varian asked.
"Vassar is currently the closest trade partner of Arendelle, both figuratively and literally, and also one of the most trusted allies in the Arendellian federation. Not many know this since it has been a very recent development that Elsa did before stepping down. If Vassar is crippled, it wouldn't only leave us in a financial pickle, but it would also open up a large plane area that directly connects the cliffs above Arendelle in the northwest. Imagine the pure devastation a bunch of catapults perched on top of the cliffs overlooking the whole kingdom would bring. Tactically, no other kingdom offers a chance like that one," Alex explained.
Vassar was everything he had said. Although small in almost every aspect, it still packed a punch large enough to even give Cintheria a run for its money in economics. Vassar was a hard money trading market where only the strongest, most experienced traders looked to take those markets on. As a result, the kingdom was full of selfish noblemen and sly traders in the survival of the fittest mode. Although it had its own extremely volatile internal matters with high-horsed noblemen and overproud warriors, it also had a strong leadership to keep things in check.
"You, knew what Mari had to say? You could have told me that before!" Anna said. Even though she had hidden away her anger, Alex could clearly see it in her eyes.
"I needed you to put up a convincing act in front of general Gilberd. That man might not look it, but he's actually as eagle-eyed as they get. A hint of falsified emotion from you, and he'd have jumped on you with a drawn sword," Alex said.
It was a cruel thing to do, but Elsa could sympathize. She had been caught in a similar situation where Alex had warned her that a piece of bad news was actually fake and she only had to put on an act that it was real. The other party had caught on when her reactions weren't natural enough and it almost cost her a hefty penalty for breaking a deal.
"Did you do something?" Anna asked him, her fists still clenched in tension of the situation.
"Well, yes. The death of Queen Runa is just a ruse to throw Narsilla off temporarily. There are two paths she could take right now. One is to conquer Vassar and the second one is to lay off Vassar and find a different way to attack Arendelle. With Darius as the king now, Vassar is rather safe. However much cowardly he is, that cowardice is enough for him to take her extremely seriously and act safely. So Narsilla would most likely need to formulate another plan of attack," Alex explained. He understood that Narsilla didn't want to make a major move on the chessboard yet. She didn't yet want to draw out her bishop while the other side was playing around with pawns.
"No, no, no! Darius is missing from the kingdom. Vassar is currently going for a rule change in just five more days according to tradition!" Mari informed.
"What?" Alex asked.
"In just a week from now, they are going to attack Arendelle!" Mari exclaimed.
Alex just stared at her dumbfounded for a second and then did a weird face where he grimaced and laughed at the same time. He couldn't for the life of him have imagined that ever happening. The pawn in front of the queen had moved to create an opening for the enemy bishop to close in. The only reason Runa had given up the throne was because he was able to convince her that Darius was an expendable piece and she was not. Even that needed intense blackmailing and requesting even though Darius wasn't even her own son. He knew that Darius was actually a coward, but he hadn't counted on him to relinquish his royal position that soon and give way for the stupid council of noblemen who thought they were strong enough to take on one of the most powerful kingdoms head on! The sheer stupidity of their decision to attack Arendelle threw him off guard!
As he saw it they had four choices to go about fixing this.
"I'll go, sir," a voice from the shadows inside the room spoke, guessing his first move.
"Nah, not you, Reg," Alex said, without even moving his eyes off the map.
"What the hell! Who are you?" Eugene jumped.
"Where did you come from?" Anna asked, surprised as well.
"How did you even get in here?" Agnarr asked, looking at the closed doors and windows.
The collective outburst seemed to disorient the man a bit but he regained his composure.
"Sorry for barging in unannounced, your majesties," Reginald said with a crooked smile and bowed down low. "The name is Reginald of the Crimsonblood clan."
"Of the what clan, now?" Eugene asked.
There was a small click as Cassandra partially drew out her blade and glared at the man, sitting up tense on her chair.
"Relax, Cassandra. Not all the Crimsonbloods are siding with Narsilla. There are some who harbor deep hatred towards her as well," Alex told. Cassandra had been around in the underworld for quite some time by then to know about all the different major classes of division in it.
At that precise moment, Iduna, Kristoff, and Olaf entered the room, apparently talking about something, and Olaf carrying a parchment and ink. The bunch looked confused as to what was happening and who the stranger was in the room but they stayed quiet and listened in to piece together what they missed.
"Woah Woah wait, what is this Crimsonblood clan?" Rapunzel asked at the rather strong reaction from her cousin.
"It's a terminology used in the underworld. It's similar to the silverblood clan that I belong to, but I think that learning of these terminologies can wait until a later time," Alex explained.
"Sir, I was the one who kidnapped queen Runa in the first place. I was the one who accidentally left evidence of Arendelle having a hand in this. I should own up," Reginald said, bravely.
"Kidnapped?" Iduna whispered, standing beside Anna with a look of confusion on her face. It quickly turned to relief and surprise at how far Alex had planned things when Anna quickly filled her in just a few words.
"What?" Mari whispered bewildered out of her wits. Not only had she learned that queen Runa was alive, but she was also kidnapped by Arendelle to keep her safe! It didn't make sense. At all! She was quick to realize that whatever was going on was far larger in scale than Vassar and Arendelle's feud as she quickly gave a curt bow to the golden-haired princess across the room.
"Reginald, you are not going to be the scapegoat in this," Elsa said sternly.
"We have five ways to fix this," Alex said. "One is to offer a scapegoat other than Reginald, two is to force Darius on the throne, three, let Runa fix this by coming out of hiding, four we negotiate for peace and obedience from them, and five is to take them head-on and conquer Vassar ourselves."
"We negotiate for peace of course!" Anna exclaimed desperately with widened eyes.
"You missed the second part of what he said in that, Anna. We might be able to negotiate for peace, but what after that? One small threat from Narsilla to the next royal will be all it takes for her to overthrow them! We need their complete cooperation, and I have a very strong feeling that they won't do that soon enough," Elsa explained.
Anna furrowed her brows.
"Queen Runa coming out of hiding is a big threat to her life, Darius is out for now, and negotiations will definitely not be easy," Mattias said, ruling out three options.
"What if we intimidate them into submitting their kingdom?" Varian asked, disgusted even as he laid the option. Desperate times call for desperate actions.
"Not an option," Kristoff firmly put his foot down. It went strongly against his ethics in every possible way. Intimidation only led to troubles down the line. There was no way he needed any more.
"Well, that way, all the options are out of reach," Sorenson said. "If you're not willing to take ethical risks then you'll probably never succeed as a great king."
"What are you talking about? All the great kings in the world fought with honor and ethics! That's why they are great! There has to be a different option!" Kristoff said, desperation leaking into his voice as he voiced Anna's thoughts as well. He looked at Elsa to back him up, but she was lost deep in thought as she ran all the various scenarios in her head. It wasn't looking good for them.
"Oh well, you're the one to do the thinking and negotiating. Just be assured that I have no interest in playing the scapegoat since that is the only option you have left," Sorenson said, rather coldly.
"No! No way! No one is going to be a scapegoat!" Anna exclaimed, now purely angry. "I, as the queen, do not give the authorization to sacrifice anyone, either from the kingdom or from the outside!"
"By all respects, your highness, I am already willing to correct the wrongdoing I committed," Reginald spoke rather calmly for a man who was asking for death to find him.
Anna glared at Reginald to shut him up. Alex wanted to do that too, but refrained. Reginald and his team had been ambushed outside of queen Runa's quarters the night they were taking her to a safer place by the Eight Kids. Alex knew the enemy well enough to know that it was a miracle that no one on Reginald's team was killed that time and queen Runa escaped with only a scratch to talk about. He was the surest he ever was that only Reginald could have pulled off a mission like that successfully.
"Then are you willing to fight Vassar and conquer it yourselves?" Agnarr asked quietly, leaning over the map. The question intended for both Kristoff and Anna stumped them. Conquests, while still happening, were nowhere near common. Arendelle had long since abandoned the cruel practice of acquiring lands. All it did was disturb the balance of the kingdoms and create more problems for the common people. Now, even launching a conquest is like declaring war on a large tree diagram of kingdoms. If one like Vassar was targeted in a conquest, the other smaller kingdoms would ally themselves with it, especially since Vassar was probably the only weak point Arendelle had in terms of terrain and also was a large trading hub for their merchants as well.
"Yes, if we do choose to conquer Vassar, the other kingdoms won't be very thrilled about it, but you don't have to worry about it. We have enough firepower on our side to take them on," Alex stated, the cogs in his brains whirring furiously.
"The other kingdoms won't stay quiet either way. If the news about her majesty of Vassar passing away and it being our fault leaks out, there will be a big uprising against us," Mattias said.
"So then we have no choice but to act fast and get clear of this tragedy," Alex said. "The options are all laid out and we need to pick one."
"None of these options are feasible, Alex! " Anna said, her eyes glaring at his back in defiance.
Through those words and eyes alone, everyone could very much grasp the fact that she cared for all lives equally. Enemy or not. It was a surprise in no possible way, but also a bit tedious in Alex's eyes. Sometimes, it was better to kill an enemy than to see your allies suffer due to your incompetent hands. He had lost count of the times he had done that, said that, and obeyed that.
"Anna, if we don't make a choice soon, we will be attacked, and then we won't have time or options left other than fighting back. If we do that, I can guarantee you a higher number of fallen soldiers than the past decade of Arendellian martyrs combined," Alex said.
"We don't have to fight, or conquer them! I don't want to fight! Elsa has escaped from similar situations countless times by just talking to people who wanted to fight us! Why can't I do the same?" Anna asked, her voice rising.
Alex had the urge to tell her the real reasons why Arendelle was spared war after the great thaw but suppressed himself as he saw Elsa bite her lip. It wasn't easy to admit for both Alex and Elsa that they had intimidated the kingdoms out of war instead of pleading and praying to them. Seeing Elsa's immense powers and listening to Alex's sharp-tongued threats was enough reason to leave Arendelle alone for time enough to prove that they were no threat to the other kingdoms.
"It was not easy to do that and the situation here is different," Alex said. "This time, we need them to act just as we want them to."
"No, it's what YOU WANT THEM TO DO!" Anna accented angrily.
That was uncalled for.
"Calm down Anna," Alex said. He knew she had a tendency to lose sight of the point when she got angry. "It's not a matter of whether you can or can't do it, Anna, it's a matter of whether it's even possible!"
"We need to think this through! People's lives are at stake here, and I'M NOT WILLING TO LET A SINGLE ONE BE LOST!" Anna finally shouted. She wasn't angry with him, but she didn't want to lose a battle that could be won if she fought hard enough. If she didn't, she knew she'd regret it. The loss of people was always the one thing that hit her the hardest.
There was complete silence as every eye looked between Alex and Anna. It was extremely rare to see Anna so serious about something and lose her cool over it with Alex like that.
Alex on the other hand, couldn't contain a smile and gave a small chuckle as he turned toward her and Kristoff.
"Take all the time you need, but let me just say one thing," Alex said, recalling what he had said to her in the forest that same morning. "Welcome to the horrors of ruling a kingdom!"
That hit home, hard. She realized one thing at that moment as her eyes met with Elsa's evasive ones. Behind all the apparent fluff of handling a kingdom and trades along with treaties and negotiations, these were the monsters that Alex had been handling for Elsa or with her for the past three years. Elsa had repeatedly told her that ruling a kingdom was not easy and that it was full of horrible experiences, yet in the past six months Anna had felt good and even sometimes proud that she was being able to handle the kingdom without getting eye bags and all sorts of sleep deprivation symptoms like Elsa used to have. She never realized up until that point that all the work she had been doing was petting rabbits and hamsters while Alex and Elsa had been hunting wolves in the background. The realization struck like lightning, scorching and fast.
He wasn't kidding around, Mari realized as she looked at his calm face. She had been introduced to Alex a while back and she knew just from one look at him that Vassar was nothing but a pin in the rain of swords. A minor inconvenience, probably not even on the scale where he would bother to deal with it. She was quite sure that the only reason he was even addressing the issue was that the others believed it was a threat.
"Now that that is out of the way, and we now know of history between Narsilla and the past, we can concentrate on one thing solely," Alex said. "Narsilla's next move and the Underworld's stand in all this."
The line was met with a small delay where people were still processing Anna's words.
"The underworld is taking a part in this war?" Iduna asked, surprised. The underworld mostly stayed out of the way of the wars between kingdoms.
"It does look like it. There had been rumors of a new power arising in the time I spent there," Cassandra confirmed. "Do you think this new power might have been Narsilla?"
Elsa saw Alex's eyes dart away from the question for a split second. She wondered why.
"Certainly, kind miss," Reginald spoke respectably, making Eugene cough strongly. "Also, I have found ties between the Legion and Narsilla."
"Is that a new development?" Alex asked. He had expected them to be connected, but there was always a chance that they might not have been.
"Yes, sir. The Legion spy I just killed a few minutes ago just confirmed that, although, I think you guys missed it? You were just below us at the time he spoke after all," Reginald said.
"You can't expect me to hear a guy you stabbed in the throat! He barely even made a sound!" Alex laughed.
"Stabbed in the throat!" Anna asked, wide-eyed.
"You killed a spy just now and we were under you guys?" Varian asked, looking at Agnarr and then the balcony horrified.
"What's the Legion?" Cassandra asked, but the question got a bit ignored.
"Don't you think killing them is a bit too extreme?" Elsa asked Alex warily. She was used to the way he handled stuff by then, but still...
"Considering that they don't offer worthwhile information and have no other purpose in their life apart from terrorism, I really don't think I'm being extreme in this," Alex said. "If you want, I could take back my orders though."
"I won't obey your orders in the latter case, sir," Reginald said, smiling rather cheekily. "You can fire me if you want to."
"I didn't know you had it in you to try to blackmail me," Alex grinned.
"Trust me, Elsa. These Legion spies are from the underworld and they are way past the redemption point," Alex said, making a disgusted face.
"Ahem. What is the Legion?" Cassandra asked again.
"It's the ancient legendary Forsaken Legion from Cintheria we're talking about here. They're working in the Blackblood clan now apparently," Alex said.
People just blinked in confusion at that.
"So what is Narsilla's next move?" Iduna asked.
"She's going to play around with pawns first. Clearing a path directly to us will be her top priority at the moment. If she can take out the strongest forces first through a surprise attack, she'll have an easier time dealing with the smaller forces later. This of course translates to her attacking Arendelle first since it currently has the strongest forces," Alex said.
"Would a surprise attack even work? I mean, half the underworld has been siding with her since the last time I checked, so it's not exactly a secret for us, is it?" Elsa asked.
"True, but that surprise attack won't really be directed to the walls. It would rather be assassination attempts like the one Reginald just spoke of, on the higher positions in the royal council," Alex said.
"Assassinate us?" Kristoff asked, horrified.
"Like the one?" Anna quoted him. "How many Legion assassins have you stopped until now?" She inquired, bewildered.
"In total, this one was the ninth attempt," Alex said, causing a jaw drop.
"Why would she send so many?" Cassandra asked. "Isn't she getting a hint that their plans are clearly not working?"
"Probably not. The Legion as you might not know is listed under the Blackblood clan in the Underworld. Thus, they report to the clan leader instead of Narsilla. The clan leader, I imagine, is under pressure from her, thus making rash decisions like not informing her of the recent failures so that he could keep trying to kill you. This does benefit us, but not for long. It's not gonna be too far before Narsilla finds out about that and takes…precautionary measures to prevent it from happening again."
"Benefit sounds like a strong word to describe the situation where assassins are constantly trying to target us," Anna mumbled unhappily, making Alex chuckle.
Anna closed her eyes and Kristoff let his lungs loose.
'Finally!' Alex thought to himself. 'He'd die with that much-bated breath!'
"Okay. I think I understand. To sum stuff up, Narsilla has recruited a lot of people into her army and is trying to conquer Arendelle and the other kingdoms. She's currently doing it by trying to weaken the kingdoms by assassinating their leaders and taking them over. Right now, we need to wait for the best chance?"
"Right now, Narsilla is indeed powerful enough to defeat us, but not yet powerful enough to take on the full force of the Arendellian federation coupled with our allies in the underworld. To organize such a powerful force against her is no easy feat, especially since she has thrown the entire region into chaos. It will need time, and time is bound to make both sides far more powerful than they are right now. If we rush, we'll be granting her an easy win, but if we wait, we might have a chance to survive," Alex explained.
'Survive'. Not 'Win'. That was not what Elsa was looking for. Even the losing side might survive, but the cost of simply 'surviving' a war was too great. Too terrible. Alex's words were glaring at her, but the same thought didn't seem to cross anyone else's mind. Their minds seemed to have replaced the 'survive' with 'win' subconsciously. Nevertheless, it was a ray of hope.
She looked at Alex and saw the turmoil in his eyes. She was sure that he was keeping far more from them than all that he had revealed. There seemed to be things far more troublesome than he was letting on to the others.
"I suppose you have a plan then?" Mattias inquired.
"Agnarr, Iduna, Anna, and Kristoff should handle negotiations with Vassar and other kingdoms that might cause trouble." Alex laid out the idea in his mind. "Mattias, you are our frontline commander. Rapunzel, you both are very likely the next target for Narsilla right after Vassar, so I'm afraid that you would need some other…special arrangements done with Eugene," he said with a twinkle in his eye, astonishing Rapunzel. Exactly how much did he know about her? It both scared her and comforted her to know that he had been closely paying attention to them.
"I am aware that I'm in no position to even suggest organizing the affairs of other kingdoms, but I would also like for Varian and Sorenson to work together to study the powers that these small stones possess and learn more about Narsilla from any past records you might stumble upon. Cassandra, I trust you can take care of yourself in the underworld?" Alex asked.
"You don't even have to ask," Cassandra grinned and nodded.
"Wait, but isn't the underworld where Narsilla is?" Eugene asked, confused.
"Worried about me, Rider?" Cassandra asked, smirking.
"You wish," Eugene said snarkily and turned away.
"Yes, but she will be undercover so don't worry. I've already made the necessary arrangements," Alex comforted.
Elsa was surprised at how long he had been planning and plotting to have already arranged that. How many steps ahead of them was he? She wondered.
"Mari, I know that you have accidentally just stumbled across this discussion and I have absolutely no intention of including you or your kingdom in the upcoming slaughter. I strongly suggest you stay out of this at all costs," Alex said and quickly moved on, not even giving her a chance to speak.
Another harsh word just to indicate the level of escalation the war could go up to.
"Reginald, you already know your assignment, and Elsa, you too," Alex said.
"Yes sir!" Reginald said, puffing out his chest in pride.
"Got it," Elsa said, trying her best not to laugh. Alex was definitely the dramatic type to have left discussing his own role for the last moment, although she agreed as well. It was going to need a bit of another long explanation.
"And what will you be doing?" Olaf asked, raising his eyebrow.
"You guys might not know, but the underworld is in quite the chaos currently. As the high commander of the Silverblood clan, I do need to use some of my resources to keep as much of the war currently going on in the underworld inside the underworld," Alex said.
"Wait, WHAT!" Cassandra almost yelled in shock and stared at him wide-eyed, making Rapunzel yelp in surprise. Not many times had she seen Cassandra get so shocked.
"No way!" Mattias whispered in awe. "There's just no way you're a leader in the leagues, especially the Silverblood clan! You need to be a Silverbird for that!"
"He did say something about him being a Silverbird. I'm still not sure what it means though?" Anna said, looking between Mattias, Cassandra, and Alex.
"A war in the underworld? And what's all this about the Silverblood clan?" Agnarr asked curiously.
Mattias's jaw dropped and Cassandra just stared at Alex as if he just said that he was actually dead and just revealed that he was a ghost talking to them.
Alex chuckled. "Okay, let's simplify this stuff. There are many divisions the underworld is divided into. You can think of them as kingdoms or castes but on a very informal level. While there are many such kingdoms, there are five that currently stand out as the most powerful ones. The names are the Blackblood clan, Crimsonblood clan, Goldenblood clan, Pureblood clan, and Silverblood clan. We have been following this system since the ancient days when the underworld was first thrown into disorder by the laws and rules set by kingdoms. To quell this disorder, various influential people within came together and decided to work to unify the underworld against the kingdoms and overthrow their rules. Somewhere along the lines, they forgot the original purpose of bringing the people together and settled for peace instead. This happened maybe two thousand years ago. Since then, the underworld is in a state of self-sufficiency and peace. The five clans I mentioned have been at the top. The clan's strength is determined by how many people there are to support the cause the clan fights for. As for current affairs, the Crimsonblood clan, which has always wanted to gain more people under itself has allied itself with Narsilla except for a few people," Alex said, gesturing to Reginald. "The purebloods have remained neutral thus far but I already count them on assisting Narsilla when it comes straight down to it. They aim to have peace in the world and to achieve that, they will side with the strongest side they think is so that any future conflict will stop once the more powerful side wins. The Goldenbloods is a clan of warriors and half of them have already enrolled themselves in the Legion. The other half who have aimed to keep the other clans in check and make sure that they don't step out of line are barely holding on to themselves so we have no hope of any assistance from those guys. Then there are the Blackbloods who will work for those who pay most. It's occasionally called the mercenary clan as well and we all know who they're gonna work for when Narsilla has parched Cintheria's money reserves dry. Then there's the Silverblood clan who have all completely sided with Arendelle in this war," Alex said. "That's one happy news since right at this moment."
"Sheesh don't you get overworked keeping tabs on all these things?" Olaf asked with a groan and shook his head as if it was hurting.
Alex laughed. "I know it's a lot to take in, especially in just a few hours, but the reality of the situation is far more complicated than a simple conflict of ethical ideas. If Narsilla was able to recruit about a third of the Underworld, she definitely told them that she won't be destroying the world. For now, we don't have any idea of what her endgame is. She might want to rule the world in peace and prosperity or get rid of us pesky humans through a mass extinction. In either case, she wants to shatter the balance that this world is rested on, which would just wipe us out anyway. You could say that this is more of a war of survival or the victory of the strongest side.
This seemed to clear the doubts everyone had, or at least make them forget the previous ones they had with the onslaught of information.
"Alex, how long has this war been going on before it reached us?" Elsa asked.
One question, but crucial enough to declare which side was winning.
"It's been a year and a half today since Narsilla first entered the news channels inside the underworld," Alex said. "It's since then that the war started. Initially, the five major clans didn't participate, but as the intensity and chaos grew, we had no choice but to interfere. Currently, all the clans have turned on each other and things are getting out of hand. If this situation gets out of hand, it will result in a complete and a massive fallout the scale where it could destroy several kingdoms with twice the might of Corona in one fell swoop."
"What?" Rapunzel croaked.
"Don't worry, the Trinity isn't in danger of being directly affected by the fallout, but the kingdoms marked in these red circles," Alex pointed out to the map on the table which Elsa recalled seeing earlier, "will be utterly destroyed."
Elsa after hearing that Vassar had turned on them had initially thought that these other kingdoms weren't exactly trustable or weak like Cintheria to be easily controlled by Narsilla. It was a relief to know that these kingdoms were not on the blacklist of backstabbers, but that didn't make it any better. On the contrary, it made Elsa's heart ache that these other kingdoms might be destroyed because they probably won't turn on Arendelle.
"Why would a fallout destroy those kingdoms?" Agnarr asked.
"There are things you don't know yet and will make sense in the future," Alex said. "Explaining them right now will only confuse you all more than all these things already have and there will also be nothing you'll be able to do about them, thus they are redundant for you right now. When the time comes you will know why things are the way they are right now."
That was a lock that Alex was not willing to break. They knew what they needed to know to successfully defend the fortress from Narsilla. Any more and they'd start to worry about unnecessary things. He already had a plan laid out in his mind and he didn't need any interference in it, even if it was constructive.
Alex could read everyone's faces as they wondered about their next steps.
"Right now, the best thing you all can do is to get a good night's rest and think over this for the time you stay awake," Alex said, making everyone around him just look at him oddly.
"What?" He asked, confused.
"You expect us to go to sleep after you terrorize us with all this information!" Anna exclaimed, laughing.
"Heh, you're terrified of that?" Alex chuckled. He felt thankful that he didn't reveal that there had been a full sixteen other thwarted attempts on all of their lives and Narsilla was living in Arendelle and the invisible beasts had already killed a rather high-ranking retired official, alerting Alex of their presence. The mysterious death right before the grand wedding wasn't even missed since the person who died was a fifty-eight-year-old pedophile who had once assaulted the queen and misused his position as a commander and a councilman in the military. By targeting the insignificant target, possibly to get information, Narsilla had once again demonstrated her unwillingness to make a bigger move on the chessboard.