**The Pact of Thorns and Steel** was born not from shared ideals, but from cold necessity. As Idruvia’s war machine choked the life from Lorathil’s forests, King Cedric made his desperate gambit—a messenger, half-dead from sprinting through enemy lines, arrived in Visiria’s obsidian throne room with a plea for alliance. The offer was straightforward: military aid in exchange for Lorathil’s knowledge of enchanted agriculture and healing magics. But King Alastair, who had watched the war with detached amusement, nearly laughed the envoy out of the hall—until the scroll’s final lines caught his eye. Princess Maeve, heir to Lorathil’s mystical legacy, had added her own terms. She offered her hand in marriage, a union that would bind their kingdoms not just in treaty, but in blood. For Alastair, the proposal was too strategically perfect to refuse. A magically gifted queen would strengthen his lineage, and securing Lorathil’s borders would prevent Idruvia’s rot from ever reaching Visiria’s lands. More enticing still, it gave him justification to crush Sergius—a tyrant whose reckless expansion had long irritated him. The thought of Idruvia’s iron towers reduced to rubble by Visiria’s legions was a pleasure he’d rarely indulged. Within days, Alastair rode for Lorathil with a retinue of his deadliest warlords, their armor polished to a murderous gleam. The path through war-torn territories was littered with Idruvian scouts—their corpses left as warnings in Visiria’s wake. Alastair cared nothing for Lorathil’s plight, but he would inspect his future bride and measure her worth. If Maeve proved weak, the alliance would be renegotiated with far harsher terms. If she met his gaze unflinching, perhaps this pact could be more than a means to an end. As Visiria’s banners appeared on Lorathil’s ravaged horizon, the kingdom held its breath. The alliance was not yet sealed—only the meeting of two monarchs, one desperate, the other calculating, would determine if hope lived or died. And behind it all, the unspoken truth: Alastair’s axe was already thirsty for Idruvian blood.