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nTrinity

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nIt took the troops less than forty-eight hours to make it here. Less than two full days from the time that I summoned them all to when they were all here and ready to be addressed. They were all gathered in the amphitheater, waiting for me and Aunt Glory.

nIn total, there were about seven hundred and fifty thousand warriors that showed up. That was not a large number compared to the grand total of supernatural beings in the world, but it was significant enough for what we needed. I hoped so at least.

nI had also relented and let the leaders of the packs, clans, and covens keep some fighters behind just in case Solanum managed to get some of her dark Fae out of the compound and into the land of the humans. We needed them there to protect everyone. They were on guard and lookout duty.

nStill, between my people, the vampires and the Fae there were nearly a million people and that meant something to me. This was a group of people that were here to fight for us and to protect the world. How could I not be proud of them?

nAunt Glory and I climbed to the top of a platform that had been prepared for us and looked out at the gathered crowd. I saw many people that were in among the gathered crowd that I recognized. There, close to the front, was Artem and his pack from California. Him and Star were family to me now, but when I went to visit them all those years ago, we hadn't known that at the time. And there was Eldrige, the warlock that I have worked with so much over the years.

nThere were others as well. Riley was there with a stern look on his face. Over there was Bryce and his son. Some of the people I had only ever met in passing or once, but I still recognized familiar faces. These were my people, and it was my duty to protect them.

nWhen the gathered crowd saw me and Aunt Glory, they all went silent. They hadn't been all that loud to begin with, in truth for a crowd this large they were actually quite calm and quiet.

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"Thank you all for coming.

" I opened the speech as I looked out at them all.

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"We gather that you have all been told a little about the reason that you are here.

" Aunt Glory continued after me.

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"Yeah, we've been summoned to help clean up a Fae mess.

" A man near the middle of the gathered crowd yelled in response to Aunt Glory's words.

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"Silence.

" I yelled at him, assuming he was one of my men and not one of Dietrich's. The fact that he didn't say anything else meant that I had been right.

"You were not summoned here to clean up a Fae mess. You were summoned here to stop a raging lunatic from taking over the world. And her declaration of war was issued to me and not Queen Gloriana. I would like for you all to understand that this is an issue that we all have to face and not just the Fae.

"

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"I..I'm sorry, Queen Trinity.

" The man sounded as if he had been shamed before he spoke.

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"You should be sorry. You all need to understand that if we fail here, this army of dark Fae will ravish the earth. This is not just a problem for those in the Fae realm, this is a problem for all of us. We need to work together and take care of this threat.

"

nAunt Glory and I started to explain to them all what it was that we needed to do, where we were going, and what they were likely to face.

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"The battle will take place here, inside the realm of the Fae. You will all be split into regimens, equally dividing among them. There is only one regimen that will not have some of each type of shifter and magic user and that will be Prince Valerian's squad of soldiers. Everyone that can fight in the water or shift into a creature of the water will be joining him.

" I was explaining this specific part of the divisions to them.

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"Why will he be the one to command the water fighters?

" Someone asked, they didn't sound angry, just curious.

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"Prince Valerian is an Undine. He was born from the sea and that is where his magic is the strongest. He will be the one to command them because when he is in the water, he becomes the water.

" I answered him despite the fact that he interrupted me.

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"Cool, we will be swimming inside a prince.

" When the man heard my answer, he cracked a joke that made several of the others laugh in response. It was kind of funny, I even saw Athair mòr grinning at his comment.

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"Now, as for the other squads,

" I did my best to move the conversation on and direct the others,

"you will be divided between eleven other squads. One will be led by Queen Gloriana, one by myself, and the other nine will be by members of my council.

"

nThere were whispers at that. Did they not expect the two queens to be part of this battle? Did they think that we were going to send them off to war and not join them? That was probably exactly what they had thought.

nThe direction for them went on for a little while longer. As I told them what to do, there were twelve groups forming among the crowd. The first to form had been Athair mòr's. He needed to gather his squadron of water fighters before the other groups were made to be as even as possible.

nIf there were any among the crowd that were particularly good at fighting with a specific group of people, they were kept together to not weaken the fighters that we had. We needed to let them have every advantage possible. This meant that I saw my guards all join the ranks of my squad so that they could be there with me. Even Shawn, who most likely wanted to be by his husband's side during the battle, went to my squad because he was used to fighting in a group with Shane, David, and Vincent. They would not divide themselves and weaken the powerhouse that they created when together.

nOnce the twelve squads were prepared, it was almost time to set out. They were all given armor and weapons to fight with. Every bit of that equipment had been made by Alloy and Sterling. The two of them weren't fighters but they refused to leave the city. They still wanted to be useful to us. They had pushed themselves past the point of exhaustion and to the brink of illness to make sure that there was enough equipment to go around.

nAfter they were all outfitted with equipment, it was time to address them once more.

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"We will all be teleporting to where we are going. This battle is inside the Fae realm, but it is not particularly close to where we are now. I wish you all luck and pray that you all return safely.

" Those were my final words to the troops before they set out.

nIt was time for the war to begin.. It was time for us all to go to battle and hope that we had enough troops, enough preparations, and enough strength and wisdom to win this.

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