Lord Coutre's eyes went wide as he addressed the king, "We were supposed to have been discussing the wedding arrangements! Why would you do such a thing?"

"Because I'm not in love with your daughter!" King Zachary said gleefully as he let out a loud laugh.

"What?!" Everyone shouted in unison.

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth!"

"You can't seriously be claiming that you're not in love with my daughter!"

"I'm not in love with your daughter. I never have been."

"Then why did you sign the marriage proposal?"

"Because I wanted to placate you for the time being. I didn't want to start a war between the clans." Zachary said.

"You planned this the entire time!" Lord Coutre said, he was working to maintain his calm, but his anger was starting to get the better of him.

"Yes, I did. I wanted to marry your daughter to keep the peace and stop a potential all out war. Now I can finally admit that I have feelings for someone else."

The room became deathly quiet. Everyone was completely taken aback by what they just heard.

"Wh-what? You can't be y-you're a..." ,Lord Coutre sputtered.

"I'm what?" King Zachery repeated with a grin.

"You're lying." Lord Coutre spat out.

"Why would I lie about such a thing?"

"To take advantage of me!"

"No, I'm telling you. It's the truth. I do have feelings for someone else."

"Who? Who could you possibly love enough to risk starting a war?"

King Zachary turned to his friend Laren and said, "You know who I'm in love with, or at least you are beginning to suspect who it is."

At this Laren's face paled. Slowly she shook her head murmuring, "No, no, no! This can't be happening!" Than in a slightly louder voice she said to Zachary, "Don't tell them! You can't! You'll ruin everything!"

Ignoring her pleas, Zachary threw back his head and screamed, "I love Karigan!!"

Everyone could feel the hatred coming off of Lord Coutre. Laren seemed on the verge of tears. King Zachery grinned and shook his head smiling. The advisors in the room were simply shocked into silence.

Lord Coutre stood up, and he looked almost as if he's going to strike the king. He started shouting, "How could you? How could you do this to your kingdom? This is an outrage! As Lord of Coutre, I declare war on you and on all the clans!"

Before he could do anything else, several soldiers rushed into the room.

"Your Majesty, there's an army encamped outside the city! They have surrounded us!" One of the soldiers announced, fear evident in his voice.

"How long have they been there and how did they encircle us?" King Zachary demanded.

"We-we don't know Sire.", another soldier stammered, "One minute there was no one outside the walls and the next minute there's this army. Must've been some kind of magic."

"Your Majesty, we need to deploy our army immediately!" Lord Mirwell exclaimed rising to his feet.

"I agree Sire, it could be the Second Empire out there." Laren said.

Turning to the soldiers King Zachary asked, "Did you see their standard? Was it the Second Empire?"

"No Sire. It was not the Second Empire. They carried two standards that we've never seen before."

Zachary took immediate interest in what the soldiers were saying upon hearing this particular piece of information.

"What did the standards look like? Were they a white horse on a field of green and seven stars above a tree on a white field?" Zachary asked earnestly.

"Yes, Sire, that's exactly what their standards looked like." One of the soldiers said staring at Zachary in surprise. Laren and the rest of Zachary's advisers also stared at him in surprise.

"Sire", Laren said slowly, "How could you possibly know what that army's standards look like if we've never seen them before?"

Looking off into the distance and smiling, Zachary replied, "Just because no one in this room has never seen their standards before doesn't mean that I haven't."

"Wait! You've seen their standards!" Lord Coutre exclaimed. "You know them!"

Nodding, Zachary replied, "Of course I know them! They are our allies!" King Zachary turned to the soldiers, "Spread the word that in no way is anyone to attack of harm anyone in that army. If anyone does I will personally kill them myself. Now go! That's an order!"

Turning back to his advisors ,who were still frozen with shock, Zachary said, "Now, let's go out and meet that army and I will introduce you to some friends of mine."