Chapter 70: The start of the war!

“Your majesty, the Vanhuesan army has almost reached the entrance of our forts.”, one of the royal guards shouted in a panic, while entering the throne room. Selena immediately shot up from her throne, appalled by the news they had managed to reach them so quick. Everyone else in the throne room was thrown in to the frenzy as well, surprised that the Vanhuesan army had gained such a lot of ground in such short time. This was both surprising as well as a disturbing piece of information. Selena’s former suspicions turned out to be true, they did indeed seem to have mapped the territory of Valyria quite well to know all the shortcuts and diversions.

She had been the midst of discussing strategy in the presence of the General, the council members and the Queen dowager when the guard had rushed in to the throne room unannounced and conveyed the disturbing piece of information.
Selena felt a chill pass through her body as she realized this was her first war ever.
The General without another word rushed out, then paused abruptly on his way back, a thought suddenly entering his mind which forced him to stop on the tracks, then he turned back and looked at Selena, “Your majesty, I am kind of caught in between a situation. You are our biggest asset. You are the most powerful vampire in all of Valyria but you are also our empress which makes it quite difficult to even take a risk with your life. So, I beg of you to not get involved directly and let us handle them. Please just handle stopping the men from attacking from our back as well by closing the entrance through the river as we had discussed just yesterday. I implore you to not to step inside the main battlefield as if anything were to happen to you, then there would be no reason at all for us to keep fighting. Please do keep that in mind, if you fall, Valyria falls with you.”

Selena fixed the General firmly with a stern stare and replied in a formal tone, “Thank you for your advice, General and I do understand the logic behind your words, but I will not be the type of ruler who hide behind her soldiers at the time of battle and just watch everything from above when countless of my citizen get slayed. I will do by your instruction and prevent men form entering and cornering us through the back and will drown them in the river, but after that I am not heading back to the palace for safety, I will join the war. What is the point of having an asset if you are afraid of using it?”

The General bowed his head warily, knowing that once his foster daughter had made up her mind, it was no different than trying to convince a stubborn bull.
He turned his head to the soldier who had just come in to inform them and said, “Ring the bell. Let all of Valyria know that it is in war right now”
He nodded and took into a run with the General right at his heels, though the General was headed in a different direction than he was. Selena expected to have the General march the entire army of Valyria except the troop that had planned to leave with her.

Selena without hesitation dismissed the council and went on back to her room to get dressed suitably for the battle for the clothes she was wearing right now were hardly battle ready. She would trip and fall on her own face if she ran into the battle in the current gown, she was dressed in.

Even when she was changing and gearing up for the upcoming battle, she found herself becoming distracted by Demetri’s sudden disappearance as well. There was no word from Demetri either who had gone after in search of Dominic. And she prayed to all the gods that she was familiar with that she doesn’t come across Dominic in the battle, for she, herself didn’t know how she would react if she were to see him there.
When she came out of the room, all prepared and ready for diving into battle, she found her mother waiting patiently outside for her.

On her hands, she held the Blood sword and Selena shot a look of surprise at her mother, unexpected to see her mother personally hand her the weapon. She had been expecting her to come up with arguments for her not to go into battle.

Selena furrowed her brow in pleasant surprise at her mother and asked her in an astonished tone, “You are not going to stop me?”

She shook her head vividly and outreached her arm holding the Blood sword towards me and I grinned at her while I took it from her.

“I raised a valiant lion, how can I expect a lion to stay and watch from the sideline like a mere sheep?”, she stated in a matter of fact tone and Selena overcome by emotion for her mother, hugged her tightly.

Now, it was the Queen’s turn to be surprised. Never in her lifetime had Selena hugged her like this so warmly. She found rogue, content tears escaping through her cheeks. The mother daughter relationship had changed a lot after Selena’s reappearance and Selena was a lot more warmer to her mother, seemingly having grown over her being abandoned by her mother at a tender age.

She Queen dowager patted her daughter’s shoulder’s affectionately and Selena let go of her mother slowly.
“I am proud to be your mother. You have never once let me down, not once and have always lived up to my expectations, if not exceeded it. And this time too, I would expect nothing less of you. Come back to me alive.”, she said softly, her frail voice breaking in between as she choked in tears.

Selena’s eyes softened at her mother and she nodded at her, jumping to reassure her and stated in a calm tone, “I promise and an empress always keeps her promise.”
With that she turned her back on to her mother and stepped outside the palace. She could hear her mother murmur from behind her.
“May the Valyrian flag always fly freely in the sky, unrestrained”