Page 196 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“Not exactly,” I said. “I have other plans for her.”

He followed us inside the main tent where the whole lot was waiting, circling the massive map laying on the round table. I’d planned much in my short lifetime. Schemed. Plotted. But never war of this scale. My plans of war were more of a one-man sort of strategy.

Magnus, Alaric and Moriko stood side by side. The three had once fought and planned war side by side, too. They were our advantage. But none had planned against my father. This was why Eren and I were the back up. We knew him best.

“The beasts,” Elias said, leaning on the table and pointing all around the Hanaian border. “Stationed there mostly. From what other captains gathered, they are mainly being held on the main ground camps. Too difficult to move them on ships, most got sick the further they left from land.”

“The gates of Celesteel,” Macaria said from the corner she had sat. “The essence is still the strongest in Dardanes. Easier for the magic to draw fuel.”

“Can confirm,” Magnus agreed. “We haven’t sighted many in Whitebridge and most have stayed within the island’s waters.”

“Isn’t that perfect,” I said.

“How?”

My fingers lit up with lightning. “Have you seen how easily human flesh melts? It is the mainland that bothers me. Moregan said that Silas has turned all those that had backed out after my visit into beasts. We might have to supply most of our anima accissor to the soldiers here.”

Alaric let out a long breath. “Fighting ‘em will be bloody, kid. We’ve fought beasts before. Once our artillery has been used, what then? Do we just wait for the people we’ve sent out there to be killed one after the other?”

“My potion worked,” Nia said. “We could prepare big batches of it.”

Oryn shook his head. “Much work and not enough time to make this the first and only solution. A remedy for thereafter, yes but during, I doubt we will be given grace in battle let alone time.”

Kilian rested a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll prepare some to have as a reserve, just in case.”

“Our best option still remains killing Melanthe,” Cai sighed. “Her shields, her creatures, everything would disappear.”

“We can get inside the Tenebrose castle,” Tristin said, pointing at Elias. “He can find her.”

“Doubt she will be at the castle,” Macaria replied. “Crane bones do not see her in Isjord no matter how many times I toss them. I’d not think she would remain there either. A Delcour is always stronger in her soil.”

“A goose chase,” Moriko said, shaking her head. “Your land is a deep hole, the further in you get, the more it confuses you. We’ll never be able to find her.”

“What about the Empaths?” Nia asked. “They have to be connected to one another and close to the battlefield to properly control the beasts so they don’t slay one another or their own soldiers. We find the Empaths and they will lead us to her.”

“It could work,” Visha finally said, though she was not paying attention to anything other than her thick grimoire. Determined to find a cure for what I didn’t wish to cure. The future.

Nia stepped forward, her chest rose and fell fast. “I’ll find the Empaths. I'll find where she hides and kill her.”

Kilian’s eyes immediately landed on me from across the room. He knew I wanted to scream the word no. But there was another reason why Nia wanted to do this, and for the sake of that, I did not. Maybe I wished someone else would scream it for me. But her wife remained unforgivingly phlegmatic.

“You can’t just simply kill her,” Visha spoke again. “Even though the strings controlling the beasts will snap, her magic will linger. Beasts will not aim just for us, but anyone they see, uncontrollably. Whoever can still shift into their human form will not be able to do so anymore, not without her command. Melanthe has to be stripped of it entirely, every trace of her magic needs to return where it belonged when she first died.”

“How?”

“Daughter. Sister. Mother. Three of Delcour blood will need to perform a craft called. D’mora.”

My, my. The little witch had finally picked up a thing or two from our…friendship? Only a few knew what that craft was.

The violet witch shot up, eyes wide on her. Well, she knew. “Child, you cannot—”

Visha did not blink once. “Save your pity for the dead, Macaria. They will need it if she isn’t stripped of the very essence she feeds on.”

“You said three. Where do we find three of you?” Cai asked.

My witch glanced over her shoulder where Penelope shyly sat down. “There will be three of us. Aradia, Melanthe’s sister, has agreed to join us.”

Nia nodded. “It is set. I find her. You three kill her.”