Episode 3:The Council
928 Words
The Council
The man in dark formal clothes didn’t introduce himself. I noticed the way Zack’s hand tightened around mine in terror.
“Councilman Draeus,” he said finally, “Alpha Voss is waiting.”
Zack didn’t let go of my hand until we reached the top of the cellar stairs, and even then it felt less like releasing me and more like running out of time to hold on.
The study was full when we walked in. Voss stood near the window, arms folded, with a frown as always.
Two more council members flanked Draeus. An older woman with silver hair took notes without looking up. She looked pretty for a woman her age though. A younger man watched me like he was planning stuff in his head to pounce on me like he just won a lottery.
Nobody offered me a chair.
“State your name,” Draeus said.
“Anna.” Just that... I’d never had another one worth giving.
“Full name.”
I looked at Voss, expecting him to answer for me the way he answered for everything else in that house. He didn’t but just watched the whole process go down like a hawk.
Why didn’t he say anything? Am I that bad??
“I don’t have one,” I said. They started staring at each other in shock.
“What do you mean you don’t have another name? Everyone is expected to have at least two or three names.” The old lady spoke.
“You shifted today,” Draeus said. “Involuntarily. In front of witnesses right?.”
“Was that..”
“It wasn’t on purpose. Milo was..”
“I didn’t ask you about him. The question was directed to you alone. I’m aware of the circumstances regardless.” He didn’t raise his voice but it sounded really firm. “What I need to understand is why a girl with no shift, no training, and no recorded lineage produced enough force to break a child’s arm on her first transformation.”
They all nodded except Voss.
I didn’t have an answer for that statement. I never have an answer for anything relating to me, and hearing it stated so plainly, in front of strangers deciding what to do about it, made the gap in my own history feel like a wound instead of a fact I’d simply learned to live inside.
“She’s been raised in my household for six years,” Voss said, finally speaking. “Under my protection.”
I stared at him with a glimpse of anger in my eyes. I could feel my fists curling together out of the blues.
“Under your management,” Draeus corrected, and something about the word made Voss’s mouth open up a bit. “There’s a difference, and the Council would like clarity on which one this has actually been.”
I looked at Voss' face for relief I’d seen in the training yard but it didn’t come back. Instead, he chose to frown.
“She stays under my roof,” he said. “That hasn’t changed.”
“That may not be your decision to make anymore.” The silver-haired woman spoke for the second time, still writing, not looking up. “Uncontrolled shifts of this magnitude fall under Council jurisdiction. Surely you’re aware of the statute.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then you’re aware what happens next isn’t up to you.”
I stared at both parties in panic. “What are you guys going..”
“Silence.” Darius interrupted me.
The room became quiet in a way that made my skin prickle and have goosebumps. Zack’s grip on my hand tightened again.
Oh boy.
“What happens next,” I said stubbornly, before I could stop myself, “to me?”
Draeus finally looked at me directly with a warning stare. Shivers went through my spine and I kept quiet.
“That depends,” he said, “on what you actually are. Which is a question, I’m beginning to suspect, this household has been avoiding for quite some time.”
Voss didn’t argue, neither did he defend himself. He just stood there in a calm manner and for a man who always had an answer ready to fire whoever, his silence said more than anything he could have told the Council out loud.
I wonder what’s going on in his mind to be honest.
“We’ll need her assessed,” Draeus continued, already turning towards the door. “Formally, but at the Council seat, not here.”
“When??” Voss demanded.
“Tonight.” Draeus didn’t look back. “Have her ready within the hour.”
Zack was on his feet before the door fully closed behind them. “You can’t just send her off with people she’s never..”
“Zack.” Voss’s voice interrupted his statement. “This isn’t yours to decide. The decision is final.”
“She’s not an object you get to hand off easily..”
“ENOUGH!!.” Voss yelled at the top of his voice before he looked at me then at Zac.
“Get her things,” he told Delphine, who’d appeared silently in the doorway. “Before they change their minds and take her as she is.”
“Huh?” I whispered within me.
I didn’t understand what he meant by that..
I only understood, an hour later, standing at the front doors with a bag I never for once in my life packed and a Council escort waiting in a car.
- Writer
