The Incident at Blackgrove

Chapter 6: The Incident, Pt.1 (Finding Derik)

The Incident Part 1: Finding Derik

Willa looked at me, conflicted, wary, cautious. 

"Well," I said to her, "I think we need to talk to Derik, but we should probably start by talking to one of the Council members.  I was thinking we could talk to Milos."

"Okay, I can introduce you.  Why him, though?"

"I was looking at him and I just got the vibe that he's different.  I feel like he would be more approachable about this.  The others seem..."

"A bit scary?" she said.  I nodded.  Seems I wasn't alone in that assessment. She responded, "they can be a bit overbearing, I'll admit. Come on, let's see if we can find him."

At this point, we had lost track of where Milos or the other Council members had gone to. No doubt they had gone to mingle amongst the crowd. "Look," I said to Willa, "that's one of the Council members, right?" I pointed towards the gentleman with the clean haircut, who was speaking with some people near one of the food booths.

Willa confirmed this; "yeah, that's Councilman Marcus. He's been on the Council for many years, but not as much as some of the others, like...oh, like her for example." She pointed toward the older lady that was standing next to Marcus earlier, who was greeting some young children by one of the game booths. Willa went on, "that's Councilwoman Thomasin. She's been on the Council a bit longer than Marcus, but Councilman Milos and Councilman Sephtis have been here even longer, Sephtis perhaps longer than all of the rest."

"I'm guessing that Councilman Sephtis is the scary-looking old man with the long grey hair?"

"Exactly. I have to say, he is pretty scary actually. I think his family came from Iran a long time ago. The rest of his family is quite nice, but he really is a grumpy old man. Milos comes from Greece actually. Some of his family stayed here, but his parents moved to Greece when he was young. He was the only child of his generation, so when the Council member from his family passed away, he was called back here to take his place."

"It doesn't really seem like he likes it here."

"I was told by someone once, I don't remember who, that he had a pretty good life back in Greece. He was a fisherman, lived humbly and whatnot. It does sound like a wonderful life, but I think he has something pretty similar here, and besides he's got a whole town of people here that loves him!"

"Mhm."

"Anyway, he's not the only Council member from abroad. Councilwoman Nemain is from Ireland. She actually came here for kind of the same reason as Milos. A lot of her family moved back to Ireland before she was born, but when her great-grandmother, Councilwoman Morrigan, passed away a few years ago, she was called back here. She's actually kind of mysterious. We still don't know a lot about her and she sort of keeps to herself."

"She must be the girl with all of the purple jewelry."

"Yep. Her eyes are actually purple too, which is so cool. I've never met anyone with purple eyes before, but she says they're natural. Then there's Councilwoman Elva. She just recently joined the Council after her grandfather, Councilman Tyee, passed away, but her family has been here longer than pretty much anyone else. Her roots trace back to some of the first Native Americans to settle here. She and Nemain are pretty inseparable. And you already know Mayor Thad. This is actually his first year on the Council. Mayor Holly was his grandmother. She actually committed suicide last year, but didn't leave a note, so we're not sure why she did it. Everyone really loved her, but I feel especially bad for Thad. Poor thing hasn't even had time to process everything, I'm sure, but he's been doing such a wonderful job so far. Sorry. I'm sure you weren't looking for the entire history of the Council."