One evening the young queen spent some time in her workshop, alone.
The wind howled outside the frosted windows as Eleanor stared pensively into the night sky. A fire crackled in the grate behind her when suddenly the flames turned emerald green and flared upwards. Prince Vincent emerged from the magical fire, an urgent look on his face.
"Your Majesty, my sources just reported sightings of the Shadow Wraiths crossing our border!" he warned.
Eleanor whirled around, alarmed. "Impossible! The Wraiths haven't been seen for centuries."
"Some dark power has awakened them," Vincent retorted. "We must ready our forces."
Just then Shane burst into the room in his leather apron, goggles pushed up on his forehead. "Eleanor! The watchtowers are under attack!"
The color drained from Eleanor's face. "No! We're not prepared..." She turned to Vincent. "Can your warriors reinforce the eastern battlements?"
Vincent's eyes glinted fiercely. "They can. But we fight this battle together, my queen."
Gripping her scepter, Eleanor gave a resolute nod. She raised her arms, magic swirling around her.
"Then let it be known that a new alliance is forged this night! We shall show these monsters the combined might of Eldoria and the North-East kingdom!"
Shane loaded mechanized crossbows with steel-tipped arrows. "I'll ready my air fleet. These fiends will regret the day they invaded our lands!"
The unlikely trio hurried to the balcony where winged beasts and war zeppelins awaited them under the crimson aurora skies. Together, they flew into the chaos with armies at their backs, destiny colliding with the fate of their world hanging in the balance. The true test had come.
***
The wind lashed Eleanor's hair wildly as she urged her winged steed onwards, Shane and Vincent flanking her in tight formation. Below, bursts of flame and screams rent the bitter night air as wraiths swarmed the outer ramparts of Eldoria's eastern border.
"We must turn back that vanguard before the bulk of their forces descend!" Eleanor shouted above the gale. With a roar, she unleashed razor-sharp shards of ice upon the dark invaders. Her magic felled dozens, but more continued flooding across the threshold.
Vincent wove spheres of purple energy which zigzagged with thunderous booms, rupturing the land itself to swallow dozens of wraiths.
"There are still too many!" he snarled. "Some black sorcery shields them from dissolution!"
Even Shane's brilliant modified cross bolts, which echoed the very ballistae once manned by Eldoria's founders, could not stem the shadowy onslaught. Wave after wave they came, relentless as the tide, threatening to drown Eldoria's defenders through attrition alone.
Then a piercing cry sounded high above as one of Shane's bomber zeppelins erupted into flames, broken creatures with membranous wings swarming its ginger hull.
"No!" Shane hurtled upwards, engaging the threats despite Eleanor's protests. But scores of the creatures soon engulfed him, their screeches deafening.
"Shane!" Eleanor wheeled her steed desperately, but an undulating river of wraiths cut off her pursuit. She could only glimpse his strife through the gloom.
Vincent's voice jarred her from helpless terror. "My queen, the eastern towers have nearly fallen! We must pull back and reinforce the city walls!" His words pierced the panicked fog enshrouding her mind. Shane was lost to sight, yet thousands of her people still waited, helpless behind the capitol gates. She was their shield, their salvation.
With a ravaged look at Vincent, Eleanor signaled the city ward retreat, bile rising in her throat.
"May the eternal snows preserve us this day," she whispered bitterly, magic bristling through her veins.
A queen's duty ever bound her, even with a friend's life hanging precariously in fate's remorseless hands.
Eleanor's heart clamored inside her chest as she and Vincent raced back toward the city gates with their remaining forces. The tearful, smoke-smudged faces of women and children greeted them as they retreated behind Eldoria's once impenetrable walls.
"Make haste! Seal the gates!" Eleanor commanded her guards. But no sooner had the gleaming ice covered gates swung shut than a resounding boom shook the towers. Cracks split enchanted ice art works as another blow landed.
"They've brought siege engines!" Vincent observed with alarm. "We must reinforce these walls without delay!"
Eleanor raised her scepter, pooling all her rage and desperation into an incantation. Glittering sheets of ice surged upward, sealing over the cracks even as the gates groaned under the ongoing assault.
"That will not hold forever," Vincent warned grimly, unsheathing his sword. The wraiths' shrieks and the crash of stone echoed just beyond the barrier.
In the uneasy quiet, Eleanor turned her focus inward, casting out with her mind for any trace of Shane through the filmy veil separating the living and spirit realms. But she sensed only howling darkness in the space where his bright flame once burned.
Vincent gripped her shoulder, his immortal eyes softening. "I am sorry, Eleanor. But the people need you now. We shall ensure the story of Shane's courage lives on."
Swallowing tears, Eleanor straightened with vengeful purpose. Eldoria still stood. And by all the faerie angels and vampire progenitors, she would see her homeland survive this nightmare.
"With me, Prince Vincent," she commanded, magic once more wreathing her form. "We shall show these monsters that the snows of Eldoria guard secrets beyond their comprehension."
Together they strode to the fortifications, preparing to unleash ancient powers kept dormant for millennia. Powers to shake mountains and cleave seas. For Shane's sake and Eldoria's, failure was not an option.
The wraith vanguard smashed through at last. And Eleanor roared a final spell of ending.
As the shadow wraiths flooded through the ruptured gates, Prince Vincent and Queen Eleanor stood resolute on top of the inner citadel walls. With weapon and scepter raised high, they channeled ageless magics that were not dared to invoke for a thousand years.
The very air screamed as raw power built within Eleanor's frost-rimed form. Her long flaxen curls lashed like a tempest's fury made flesh while her eyes became bottomless wells filled with the relentless patience of glaciers.
Vincent seemed wreathed in crimson fire, fangs bared as shrieking wraiths converged on them.
With a single thunderous command, Eleanor unleashed the avalanche force contained barely in check. Silver-blue torrents of liquid ice exploded outward, scything through stone and wraith flesh alike with indifferent ease to carve great furrows. Crushing waves drove the howling invaders back through the wrecked gates in moments.
"Again!" Eleanor roared, heedless of mortal limits. Her sculpted cheeks were marble pale from exertion yet still she drew more. And beside this vision of a winter's queen unleashed, Vincent slashed flaming runes that vomited pillars of melted stone to crush waves of enemies.
Not since her legendary namesake centuries prior had Eldoria beheld such elemental majesty coupled with vampiric ferocity. Bards would tell for ages how the very city grew sheets of lethal ice and spewed magma at their queen and her dark ally's command.
Yet still the enemy replenished from some poisoned wellspring. Until...a piercing clarion call echoed over the chaos. The wraith host drew up abruptly in hesitation. Then dozens were ripped apart by a barrage of dragon fire bolts from smoking airships rumbling into view.
At their head shone Shane, battered but alive astride his flagship. Reinforcements had arrived at last.
"To Eleanor and Victory!" Shane bellowed, rallying weary defenders.
Hope rekindled in Eleanor's breast. The tide was turning. Eldoria would stand.
As Shane's air fleet rained fiery ruin on top of the remaining wraith invaders, Eleanor allowed herself a ragged exhalation. The decisiveness of Shane's reinforcement had spared Eldoria from the brink this night.
Surveying the ice-slick carnage below, she reflected on how perfectly she and Shane had learned to anticipate each other after so many years together. He knew her mind, her moods - was a stalwart companion whether building mechanical wonders or governing a kingdom.
By contrast, her alliance with the unpredictable Prince Vincent still remained uncertain. Gifted he may be in the mystical arts, yet he moved behind a veil of secrecy she found troubling. His coven's frequent nocturnal 'gatherings' elicited rumors she tried ignoring. But distrust was taking root.
Shane met her eyes from across the crenelations, relief and camaraderie warming his expression. At his side she had stood on top of the precipice, called towering waves from the sea itself to defend their home. An intimacy of friendship few monarchs enjoyed.
Vincent materialized in a rush of smoke, breathless. "Eleanor! My southern border keeps the enemy at bay but only just." He paused, reading her pensive face. "We turned them back together this night. Does our alliance stand firm?"
Schooling her features, Eleanor nodded. "It does. You have upheld your oath admirably." She squeezed Shane's shoulder. "As did my dearest friend here. Eldoria owes you both much. We shall further discuss cooperation after caring for our people."
With a satisfied smile, Vincent vanished to oversee his forces while Shane guided Eleanor below. But her mind still churned with doubts. Shane represented warmth and trust forged by time's steady hammer. Her pact with Vincent clung to shared desperation.
Which ally would prove most steadfast should destiny's horizon darken further? Her kingdom's fate may well hang in that balance.