A slave on the war council

"Lady Astrid?" James shakes her shoulder.

Astrid's eyes shoot open. Did she fall asleep? She feels like she just had a bad dream but she can't remember any of it.

"What happened?" She asks James, rubbing her eyes, trying to wake up and process what he's saying. "The meeting... Loras..."

"Yes. The king is still in the meeting. He required your presence, my lady."

Oh no... so he's going ahead with the plan. Not surprising since she did nothing to try and change his mind.

"How is the meeting going?" Astrid asks, trying to regain a drop of composure before she walks into a room with the most important people in the kingdom. Not even that, before she walks into a room with the people she's supposed to lead in a battle just a few hours away. She wants to feel anxious and scared, but the memory of the feeling that took over her when she flew Aine over the battle, burning and destroying everything that wanted to hurt what she holds dear...

She was never the one that lusted for power, she was