Chapter 19: Cain Lucian
My middle finger tapped the cedar table rapidly. I had no idea I was doing it, until I earned a few nasty looks. It was nerves, I knew that much. It wasn't every day a woman appeared in your life who looked like the dead ringer of your dead wife.
All the events that have occurred of late were so massive that my brain had not conceptualized it yet. The emotions were not laced with the fact that my wife, or her spirit, was alive. I was living on pure action and realism at the moment. I bet if I gave it a few hours, all the emotions I shoved deep down into the abyss I call myself, would bubble right back up.
I just had to focus on one thing: making sure Olana stayed alive, which meant getting her the protection of the council.
All eleven members, including myself, were gathered in the circular meeting room of my house. The room was large enough to fit a table that curved like the letter "C" and could fit up to 14 people. At the center of the room, a book was positioned on a pedestal.
My house, or better described as a multifunctional plaza that houses over 400 ranking pack members, staff, and criminals, was nestled into the Alp Mountains. "Secluded" and "remote" just scratched the surface of possible descriptive words. My castle/mansion/palace or whatever you wanted to call it, acted as a beacon for all seventeen packs. Even though my house is cloistered in Switzerland, it still served as neutral ground for all packs. This meant that even though there might be feuds between rival packs, nothing violent can occur on this land. Even though I ruled all the packs, there were always disputes between them. Especially between the Raiders (a pack in Iowa) and Wolverine (pack in Michigan). Yet, I always intervened right before bloodshed and total annihilation.
This land also served as a home for wolves that did not want to choose a specific pack, but also did not want the designation of "rouge." There were probably only about a thousand neutral wolves on my land, scattered out over 5,000 acres. There was just enough to make a school and build a Trader Joe's, but not enough to have their own football team.
The council and myself agreed that it was best to conduct our investigation on Madeline at my place. The main reason was for her safety, as if word spreads that there might possibly be one last royal Spirit Seeker, danger could be descendant on her. I also wanted her here in hopes that it might jog some of her "old" memories. If she even is Olana.
But why would she have a protector, and John's old one at that?
I had so many questions swirling through my mind that I barely registered Loarn's words. I just kept tapping my index finger and staring at the drabby blue wallpaper.
"....don't you agree, Cain?" Loarn said, dragging me out of my thoughts. I liked Loarn. He also lost his wife a long time ago, and helped me process mine. I turned toward him. He was sitting in between Kateylnia, the Dragon Queen, and Jeremiah, the Hydro King. Jeremiah was a somewhat decent man, besides the frequent trists with women that were not his wife. Kateylnia was someone that only showed her face for the annual Balls and the quarterly Council Meetings. She lives in a different dimension she dubbed "Egardon." In the Medieval times, when the Dragons were prejudice against, she found access to this dimension, and herded the other Dragons in there for their safety. She had barely left since. Fae and Demons are the only other ones who lived in a different Dimension.
I debated just going along with whatever he said, but I decided against it, "Can you repeat that, Loarn?"
I knew he would get annoyed, and in all other circumstances I probably would just have nodded my head in agreeance, but when it came to "her" it's too important.
He let out a mostly silent sign and repeated what he said, "I would be ignorant to think that Miss. Constantine did not bear any resemblance to Olana. In actuality, they look exactly alike. Also, the fact that her name is "Constantine," which was the late middle name of Council Member Halder, is too much of a coincidence. And the security camara's do show her talking to seemingly thin air, and then a few seconds later attacking Head Protector Rhys in his one and only weak spot. And don't get me started on the fact that John Halder's supposedly dead protector is alive and well, and just happens to be watching over Miss. Constantine," He stated as he quickly glanced at Robert, "All these signs point to the fact that she is a spirit seeker, and the last royal one at that. Don't you agree, Cain?"
I nodded my head slowly. These were all signs pointing to the one thing I wanted more than anything the past two hundred years: my wife was alive. Yet, I couldn't let my guard down completely. Not until we had full fledged proof.
"As many signs as there are, there is still a chance that this could all be a coincidence, as slim as it sounds. We know she is a spirit seeker, that much is obvious due to her similarities to the Janin family," the Janin family was a royal line that Olana was derived from, "I am just not 100% sure that this girl is actually the daughter of John. She could be an orphan Spirit Seeker that John cared for, and passed his protector to after his death."
All fellow members except Aspen and Donald nodded their head in agreeance. Aspen opened her mouth, "I believe, dear one, that you are just in denial. I understand suspicions, but there are just too many things in support of. I believe she is the last "Halder" and it's her birth right to take the empty council seat."
This caused the whole council to erupt. Everyone started to talk over each other, in evident disagreement or full support of what Princess Aspen just claimed. If Madeline did prove to be the last one in the Halder bloodline, it was her right to take her father's seat. Yet, many of the council members believed that the Spirit Seeker population was too small to have a representative. Not only that, but when it comes out that there was in fact a Halder alive and well, who knows what would happen. Spirit Seekers in hiding might come out of the shadows and seek revenge, the ultra religious might go on a rampage to hang the almost extinct species, etc.
Everyone was yelling at each other. Aspen looked like she was about to attack Zach, the king Zephyr, who in turn was about to make a tornado in the center of the room. Joarn was about to take out Jeremiah's jugular, and Donald was about to throw his toupee at Katelynia. This needed to stop, and apperently I wasn't the only one who thought that.
Robert, who was two seats down on my left, started chanting latin. If I did not have wolf hearing, I probably would not had catched what he was saying at all. Just like that, everyone was frozen in whatever position they were in. A freezing spell. Nice.
"You all need to stop. This is all immature. We are grown men and women who represent the people of the world, yet you all are acting like my seven year old niece. The facts are that if Madeline is in fact the last Halder, she will take the council seat if we like it or not. It is in the bylaws," He claimed as he pointed to a book that was positioned in the center of their room: The Bylaws of the Council.
With a wave of his hand, the book opened and the pages started flipping rapidly. Finally the flipping of the pages stopped, and was left open to the page that Robert must have been looking for. The page that outlined laws and regulations for taking a council seat
Robert stood up from his seat, walked around the table, and over to the Bylaw. When he stood right in front of it, he dropped his index finger to the page and skimmed over the words until he found what he wanted, "Ah, right here. It says that 'If a monarchial species' seat is left unoccupied due to no furtherance of their bloodline, it may stay unoccupied. Yet, if a person is presented to be from that bloodline within one hundred years since last occupancy, they are required to take that seat. If they are presented after one hundred years, it is in the council's hand to decide if they want the seat to be occupied or not.' And then it keeps going on and on about if the seat is left unoccupied you can elect someone, and yada yada yada. Basically, John died around twenty years ago, leaving his seat empty for less than one hundred years. So, we do not have a choice. It is mandated that if Madeline is a Halder, she must take the spot."
Everyone was quiet. No one dared to speak. People made awkward eye contact with each other, until one person opened their mouth. That person would be me, "Okay, we can not go against laws, but how would you propose we figure out if she is a Halder?"
Robert, who was still standing by the book, looked at me, "There are paternity tests that can be conducted to ensure if she is in fact from that bloodline. I can conduct it, but it is a harder test and requires um," he stopped, "The blood of demon."
Orion, the prince of the Demon's, stood up frantically, "I will not use my blood to participate in these shenanigans. There must be another way."
Robert looked at the ceiling as if cursing at God, but continued, "There is another way, sadly. Madeline's protector just happens to not only be a witch, but a demon as well. As you all remeber, John Halder's protector was a hybrid."
"Oh, yes, I do remember. What a controversy that was," proclaimed Zach, "The first hybrid in history to become a protector. That was a large step for Hybrid rights," he proclaimed loudly. Most species were prejudiced against hybrids, but it was known knowledge that the Zephyrs took a huge stand in fighting for their rights, as Zach adopted a hybrid zephyr pyro thirty years ago.
Robert did not acknowledge Zach's comment, which was ironic because he knew better than anyone what it was like to be a Hybrid sympathizer. I personally thought Hybrids should have more rights, but I did not advidally share my views. Robert continued, "Calliope Fearo can conduct the spell and use her blood. But, there is one drawback to this spell..."
"Another one?" Loarn exhaled.
"Yes, if Madeline is not the child of John and the spell is conducted, she can fall seriously ill, and possibly die."
"What type of spell is this?" I proclaimed from my seat. What type of jacked up spell is figures out if the person is from that paternity, yet if they are not, they die, "We should just get a paternity test from the hospital!"
"We would if we had more time! We would have to excavate John's bones, which can take days, and we don't have days! Yet, there are things we can try before we use the spell to be more sure about her parentage. As we saw in the security feed, it looked like she was talking to a ghost. The ability to communicate is hard, and is usually a skill only royals have."
"Don't all Spirit Seekers talk to ghosts?" Donald Trump asked.
"No, they all can see ghosts, make contact with them, and even bring them back from the dead, but actual communication is very difficult," Robert said shaking his head at Donald, "If she can communicate, that we would be almost 100% sure she was a royal, and the chances that the paternity test would come back negative would be slim."
The council slowly nodded in approval, even if I was not 100% sure I supported the idea. I most likely just got Olana back, and did not want to lose her again.
"Yet, there are still potential risks. She needs to have the ability to choose if she wants to go through with these tests or not. She is an American and those are her rights," I precedent. If she chose not to go through with it, then she could return to her normal life pretending to be a human.
"That is fair," Robert nodded, "Are we all in agreeance?" he asked the council. Even though some were hesitant, all ended up nodding their heads. Robert turned to two protectors standing at the door, "Go retrieve Madeline, and bring her here."
The shorter protector drew his eyebrows together, "Don't you want us to retrieve Miss. Calliope as well?"
"Calliope will come if we want her to or not. Just get Madeline. This will be a test on Calliope's skills as a protector to see if she is able to stay near her charge. If Madeline is in fact the last royal Seeker, we want to make sure that her Protector is the best."
