"Allowing that usurper king to live only dooms the future of our children," Cassius argued. He couldn't stop, not now. It wasn't that he didn't understand the risks of inciting rebellion within Odara. Cassius knew it risked his life, yours, and your children's.

And yet he could not roll over like a dog.

He reached out to grasp your hands. "When Roan is of age, they will send him to war," he said in a gentler tone. He hated arguing with you, but he needed you to understand. "A war we need not fight in. The previous king made peace with the elves for a reason."

Because war brought nothing but death. He had seen it. He had lived it over seventeen years ago. Elves would never allow humans to simply take their land, and thus bloodshed. The same never-ending cycle of death. The usurper king, Aurelius, would repeat what the previous king, Xior, had put an end to.

Aurelius had staged a coup the day Xior's son, Lonan, was meant to be crowned. Lonan, his sister, and his mother had all been killed. The royal family that had ruled Odara for centuries, gone in a single night. Xior's older sibling still lived, but being married to the Elven king, Aiwin, far off in Vesta meant there was none left in Odara.

Now Aurelius had begun to send soldiers back towards Vesta in order to claim more land. There were too many humans and not enough land. They needed to expand, and, like nearly every other ruler, Aurelius wished to expand into Vesta. War was brewing, every soul in Odara sensed it.

Cassius knew you did, too. How could you not? You had three children to worry about. Devoria, the second oldest, was soon to be eighteen alongside her twin. She would not be sent off to fight like her younger brother, but she wished to follow Cassius' footsteps. He hadn't let her. Rebelling against the king put them at enough risk, he would not have any of his children fight. They were already in hiding with Xior's cousin, Abelia.

"I will return," he said, kissing your knuckles. "Not even death could stop me from returning to you."