The council - part 1

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Half an hour later, The Steward, Laius and I, were sitting in The Stewards office. "It's a good job I had Lorian with me." Said The Steward, matter-of-factly. "If he hadn't been there, you would have been dead." He said looking at Laius. "I didn't have much power left; I'd already had to regenerate my own body when we were attacked. And then I had to transport us to headquarters’." He finished.
"That's why I was rushing father; I knew that you were out training Lorian." He inclined his head in my acknowledgment. "But I was trying to warn you that the Society knew too. You know that I've been working undercover, in their camp. And I heard a group of them talking about an ambush. So I hastened to headquarters to warn you but I was attacked. Luckily I was able to transport myself to the medical room. Nearly killed me." He concluded. I had been sitting there for the past few minutes listening to the chatter of the two men, it was only now that I realize how important and dangerous this all is.
"Laius, could you excuse us for a minute?" Spoke The Steward, Softly.
Laius looked at both of us, strangely then left through the wall on his right.
The Steward lowered his glasses. "I want to thank you Lorian for what you did earlier. You do not realize how close to death Laius and I came to." He waited a moment.
"Now I believe there is a question you wished to ask me since you have been here. But I never seemed to get round to answering to its fullest extent, well, I now have the time to answer that question." He said, smiling.
I thought for a moment thinking what question he could be on about, considering the millions constantly floating around in my head, I’m surprised my head hasn't exploded already. I thought for a moment longer, until it was quite obvious what question he was thinking of.
"How do I know that my friend and my family are safe? Y'know from The Society. I mean couldn't they use them as a mean's to get at me?"
The Steward looked at me. Straight into the balls of my eyes.
"Your family is being protected at all times by many of our agent's. As well as that there is a rule whereby no being of the opposite side can set foot on the chosen one's residence. This mean's that no minion's of Pandora’s can come into your home and vice versa, you cannot step beyond the threshold of your opposite number's dwelling." The Steward took a breath. "Your friend's on the other hand are a bit trickier, so I have set up a number of spells of protection and defense around them. But unfortunately these can be broken. However it is unlikely that that will happen." He stopped and looked at me.
"Are they in any danger now?" I asked, tensely.
"No, they are perfectly safe." He replied. "Now if that is all then I need to explain to you what is going to happen. Because The Society now know that you have been brought forward and told the truth, this puts you life in danger, as was shown today. So I am going to take you to one of our safe houses. Is that agreeable with you?"
I nodded.
"Good, then I hope you enjoy your holiday." He finished, turning away.

When The Steward said a safe house I thought he meant some little semi detached house in Cornwall. Oh how wrong was I. What I didn't expect to see was not so much a safe house but more of a safe castle. I am at this moment riding in a 17th century stagecoach along a very steep and dangerous path. Ahead of me is The Castle. That's what they call it, nothing else, just, The Castle. A moment later the coach came to a halt and the passenger door opened. I stepped out.
"Here you are, sir." Said the driver. It felt very strange being called sir. The driver held out his hand in the direction of the entrance. A small door to the right of the entrance opened and out stepped a man I had only seen once before. I walked towards him.
"Hello Laius." I said to the man.
"I'm glad you recognized me sir. I didn't think you would what with all the important things you have to do." Replied Laius. "If you would follow me sir, I will take you to the great hall. Oh," he said, looking at my luggage. "Don't worry about that sir, leave it here and I will have one of the servants take it to your room." And with that he spun around and trooped through the mansion. After a few minutes of traipsing around we stopped outside yet another door.
"He's just inside, sir." A moment later, Laius vanished.
I opened the door and stepped inside.
"Hello again Lorian, I hope your journey was delightful." Said The Steward. "Now come over here and sit down, so I can explain all of the procedure's to you."
The next thing I know, I'm thrown across the room into an awaiting chair.
"Oh, yes. The Castle does sometimes act roughly sometimes. Now would you like a beverage or some food?"
"Err; I'll have some tea if that's all right." I replied, suddenly realizing that I could do with a strong cup of tea. A moment later a tray carrying a tea set waltzer's in front of me.
"Sorry about that, The Castle seems to have a mind of its own today." He paused and took a sip of tea from one of the cups provided. "Now security is very tight Lorian, so I think it's best if you don't ahh-go wandering off around The Castle. You'll probably end up stuck in a cupboard somewhere and never find your way out." He paused. "Secondly, we have some information. We now know that the chosen one for The Society is attending Trillion Falls High School. We-"
"SHE'S AT MY SCHOOL! WHAT ABOUT MY FRIENDS AND CLASSMATES, THERE IN DANGER!" I fumed.
"Calm down, Lorian! She isn't going to go round murdering anyone who does a good thing. The only targets that she has are people in relation to The Council. So as I was saying, as soon as your training is complete and you and your team are ready. Your mission will be to identify anyone, and specifically her from The Society. And one final point, there will be a meeting of The Council in a few days’ time, and you are to be present, there are many things’ that need to be sorted out."
"What will happen at this meeting?" I asked.
"Oh, just a run through of the rules make sure things are happening correctly and then we'll decide what the next move is. But don't forget, ultimately it's up to you."
"Up to me?" I repeated.
"Yes. We can't decide for you what to do, we can only advise." He explained. "Now off to sleep I think, you have a long day ahead of you tomorrow. Just grab that umbrella there in the corner and say 'Take me to sleep, but no where in the deep.' just repeat that and you'll be taken to the ideal sleeping quarters for you. Goodnight." He said, and vanished. I moved towards the umbrella and stopped. I hope it doesn't send me somewhere I don't want go, I thought. I grabbed the umbrella and repeated the words. The room around me slowly faded away.