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Duke Grendel stood on the bridge of the Equinox. He had lost half of their fleet and only hadn't been annihilated because General Romo was using hit-and-run tactics at the Vvong armada battle ship convoy around Earth. Duke Grendel had their fleet hide in the moons circling Saturn. Duke Grendel was looking at General Romo on his front screen.
General Romo said, “Duke Grendel, we are waiting for your orders.”
“I wished I heard of Captain Marlena’s mission if it was successful or not,” he said.
“We hadn't had any communications from the Illuminati or Captain Marlena. The Vvong had to use some type of dampening field over Earth. We cannot get through,” General Romo said.
Duke Grendel said, “General Romo, when do you think the Vvong Queen will come to this Solar system?”
“We have detected several large Vvong battle ships coming out of warp and heading into this Solar System. Also, we have seen enemy ships moving toward the end of this system,” General Romo said.
“So, the Vvong Queen had finally showed. Where should we make our stand?” Duke Grendel said.
“With respect, we should talk in private,” General Romo said.
Duke Grendel was not surprised. They had been losing most the battles they have engaged in. He said, “Let’s go into my conference room.”
Duke Grendel walked into his ready room which was attached the bridge. He moved behind the desk and sat. General Romo appeared on his holo screen.
Duke Grendel said, “Go ahead and tell me. I want to hear the truth.”
“Sir, we have done the best we can,” General Romo said, “but we need to final contact the elf princess in Middle Earth.”
“Yes, you're right. It's time.”
General Romo, “We also need to contact Earth’s forces with the help of the Alpha Mages and Captain Marlena.”
“That sounds like a great idea but how do we get through.”
They were silent for a while. Duke Grendel wanted to go down there himself. But as a Duke he couldn't go down to earth.
He had responsibilities. Yet, the problem was still there. They needed allies, and they didn’t have anybody to turn too.
General Romo said, "Duke Grendel, you know we had been in tougher positions than this. But we had to think about the whole of the Magical Races. We are all here. Your wife and children and everybody. As a soldier, I want to go into battle, but to have everybody with us changes everything.”
“Yes,” he said, “you're right. If we make our last stand, the civilians on the other ships would not stand a chance. So, General, we should have thought about this before we entered the Solar system. Now, we're stuck here without anyway to leave.”
“We were thinking about getting here and defending our home world,” General Romo said.
“What do you think about contacting the other Magical Races?” he said.
General Romo said, "If we could contact the other Magical Races on Middle Earth, they couldn’t help us in space. They don’t have ships."
“They don't need ships. They just need to defend earth."
"Yes, I guess that will work. We need help from the Magical Conclave. I think they might have a powerful Wizard they can help us."
"We need a glimmer stone."
***
THE REPRESENTATIVE of the Magical Conclave was Master Mage Warren. He looked as old as Eastros. Duke Grendel nodded.
He said, "Thank you for your help, Master Warren."
"After, you told us what you wanted to do. I had to come. I might be the only person here besides Master Eastros that could complete this," Master Warren said.
They traversed the ships hallway toward the Royal section of the Flagship, Equinox. Master Mage Warren told him they needed a lot of space to perform this spell.
Duke Grendel said, "Master Warren, I'm sorry the only place we had was the Queen's old Royal chambers.”
Master Mage Warren said, "Thank you, Duke. It is fine.”
Duke Grendel led them into the Royal Suite. It has been closed since the Queen died. The door opened by two Royal guards. Duke Grendel nodded to the guards. They took a left down a hallway and went toward the Grand Royal Ball room where two other magical acolytes with a small stand in the middle of the room. A velvet covered an object on the stand. The acolytes came before the Master Warren; they had to set up the defensive sigils and the Royal ballroom for this spell.
Duke Grendel ushered Master Warren into the large chamber. The room looked different without the large royal Dias on the far end and the chairs spread out before them. The floors were in a checkered blue, black and gold pattern.
Master Warren said, “Do you have the Glimmer stone?”
He said this to the two acolytes who was busily moving around a table. One acolyte nodded to him and took off the cover from the stand. The glimmer stand was perched on a wood box. This glimmer stone looked different from the one he had seen a long time ago.
Master Warren said, “Duke Grendel, I will power this stone and we will try to contact the Elf Princess. I’m not sure if we will be successful. Afterwards, we will try to contact the Illuminati.”
Duke Grendel said, “Do you have enough power to do two conjurings? We can wait between communications.”
Master Warren nodded to him.
