Hearing the Erl-king call out to Bavarthos as the culprit of all this reminded me, I never told Thietian about the day of our meeting. We had been so swept up in everything going on, I never told him. I tapped on Thietian's shoulder and told him we needed a minute alone to discuss something.
Following me out of the room, we went into the office across the hall and I locked the door.
"Thietian, the day of our meeting remember how me and John needed to tell you something that happened?" I feel guilty and embarrassed that I forgot.
"No.. wait yes. What happened?" He gives me an analyzing stare making me feel small at the moment.
"Your brother Bavarthos was there instead of the Sultan of Brunei. He knew who I was, knows it was me and Turk at the house in Turkey, and tried to capture me. I asked why he was under his fathers thumb and he tried to deny it, asking me why he would ever work for him. I was able to run and get far enough away to snap and so that's what I did," I rush everything out to him quickly and his face was unreadable. He turned around and paced.
"My brother, this you already know, is by no means a saint, Sin." He pauses.
"However, I know he would never let himself be used by our father." He came to stop pacing and looked at me a blank expression as if lost in thought.
"How do you know that?" I ask skeptical.
He shakes his head and awe crosses his face as he tells me, "You see I know why he was banished. He helped my mom make the original compounds that my brothers and sisters are at. Also he helped me make the rest."
I'm speechless as I try to gather my thoughts. "What?!"
It's all I can muster out as I'm baffled trying to put this new bit of information together. I'm standing there like a buffoon making fish faces, still trying to make sense of what he just said.
I have to sit down but we are too busy with too much going on for us to be wasting time at the moment. The Erl-king has just declared war on all of us. I take a few breaths and pull myself together putting questions and thoughts going through my mind on the back burner for now.
"Let's get back to work. We have a lot to take care of and things will be moving quickly. I have one question though before we go back." I tell him.
"Go ahead."
"Why do you think he was trying to capture me?"
"That Sin.... I don't know. He's not our enemy, but we can't include him as our ally either."
I merely nod as we head back into the other office where things are beginning to get hectic.
Not knowing where he was going to start deploying troops, we had to be smart about our own. The majority of the Erl-kings troops would have to amass in the countries that were under his control and so we reinforced their neighbors borders. We started having a huge influx of recruits to not only the countries military but to our own as well.
The Fae fleeing the Faerie Realm and willing to join our numbers was enormous. Most had their own personal reasons for wanting to join and fight against the Erl-king but it all stemmed from his tyrannous rule and not caring for the people. The willingness to revolt against the king was there before, now they had a leader to push them forward.
It's been only a few days since the meeting with the Erlking and other than the influx of Fae fleeing from the Erlking's grasp and word of forced military service, we had seen no other actions from him. We knew this was merely the calm before the storm though.
Refugees fleeing from both the Fae and the countries that their leaders were under the control of the Erlking were already filling the plates of so many. While we helped getting supplies to the necessary areas, we were also telling them to have any refugees keep going farther away from the borders now. Arguments were breaking out over those instructions as they didn't want their cities over run with refugees either. Those particular headaches had to be reminded of the oath they signed.
Men and Fae alike were being sent out to train their soldiers on how to fight Fae, the weapons they would use and what they could expect to see. Thietian's family had sent a couple of platoons each of their men to strengthen the borders as most countries were still preparing their own military and getting them on the move or at least ready to.
Mine and Johns teams were recruiting into our numbers as quickly as possible, especially with the influx of Fae to ensure that every team had some members that could snap the team and extra people when necessary. When not going over the recruits and testing, we were busy with Thietian in the strategy room helping to put defenses in place. The days were beginning to melt together again, sleep was welcomed and always ended too soon.
It was exactly one week later that we could feel the tremors of the first wave coming through to our world. In order for a large number of Fae to cross over to our realm at once, a rift, or several would open up and let the soldiers march through to either cause destruction or to set up base. We were all going over who and where to send supplies to when we felt the tremors.
At first it was only a light vibration that I didn't think anything of, until I saw the pause of everyone else in the room as they continued to get stronger. Soon I was gripping the edge of the table afraid of losing my balance. Suddenly I felt Johns arms wrap around me and he asks Thietian.
"What is this? It doesn't feel like an earthquake."
"Because it's not!" Thietian grimaced as he held the table and the shaking grew. Now we were having trouble standing and things were beginning to fall off shelves and desks.
"I'll be back!" Thietian yelled and snapped himself away.
Turk hit a red button on the wall that was for everyone to take cover, much like an earthquake drill. We ducked under the table as the shaking got worse and could hear the earth groaning as we were rattled about. Pictures fell off the wall and the filing cabinets started moving away from the walls.
Then suddenly it stopped. I went to move out from under and Turk yelled at me to stay.
Then it felt like the floor dropped beneath us as we were thrown back from the wave of the earth.
Cabinets fell over, windows popped and cracked, all in a matter of a few seconds. Then it was still.
"Okay you can step out now." Turk said sliding up from his position against the wall.
"What the hell was that?!" Some of our people asked shakily climbing out from under their desks.
"That was the Erlking making an opening for his army to come through. Looks like it's time. Come on and everybody up! Find out where he came through with his army and who needs assistance. Tell the countries with large coastal areas, that people should head inland to higher ground. We might have some tsunamis from that. Now! Hurry people, every second is someones life!" Turk belted orders out and John and I immediately went to one of the desks to find out where a tsunami would be occurring.
"Turk! We got a tsunamis picking up but nothing too extreme, we are still sending out the alerts to be prepared though." One of our team members had already got the information we needed.
Thietian arrived a second later and immediately was asking for a status report. He was filled in and immediately started asking if anyone knew where he had come through at.
"We're working on it sir. We've deployed the drones to all of the countries that have an alliance with him, so far there's nothing."
"Nothing is showing up?" Thietian seems puzzled by this and suddenly an idea pops in my head.
"Thietian, what if they are showing up in a building or underground?" I throw out the idea.
"He could be, but ..." He looks at some of the team working hard on surveillance and walks over to them.
"I need you to start scanning large places for heat signatures, he might be hiding them to do a surprise attack. Check everywhere, even the ground, if anything seems out of the ordinary, notify me immediately."
He turns to John and me, nods his head as he orders us. "Notify your battalions to be ready for anything. We may be doing search and rescue with the tsunami or in the hot zones. Have your transmitter and radio chips on and ready."
We nod and snap to our compound where are battalions are and immediately turn our chips on by pressing them. We quickly get dressed into our gear and send out an alert to our platoon leaders to gear up and prepare for mission briefing in less than half an hour.