When Men Meet Monsters

Esca ~ 16 The Esteemed Council Who Wants Me Dead

 "Do I know who I am?" I asked incredulously. At Vulius' insistence, I answered, "As much as anyone knows themself, I guess." Queen Hine-ak smiled, which was odd to see on her dog-like face.

"Let me rephrase; do you know why the Protector God attacked your family out of everyone?" I felt a pang in my gut.

"What, you do?"

"Little Illa helped to show you the past; did you not recognize the woman with scars on her head?" I tried to remember the woman's face that Illa's tree had shown me. "You did not recognize her, your ancestor, the namesake of your home?" Oh... oh. It clicked. I did know who she was, or rather, who she had been. Thaedia Authier, the first queen of Thaedia and my great, great, great (I was not sure how many greats) grandmother. She was the first to lock the Protector away.

"It came after us for what... revenge?" Everything I had gone through, the reason my parents were dead, was all revenge against an ancestor who had been worm food for hundreds of years?

"More than that," Ramsay said.

"Then, what?!" I looked at Vulius; he seemed as confused as me and Illa looked worried, but Ramsay... Ramsay had his arms crossed and calm, like he already knew all of this.

"Thaedia Authier had a unique ability that as her blood you share." Queen Hine-ak walked around the table to us. A unique ability? What; she could juggle? "She was not entirely human. Her father was an aeonian, one of my kind. The magic imbued by birth allowed her to contain the Protector within herself, and only that way could she take the Protector into its cage." Vulius' eyes widened. "Simply put, only you, Esca, alone with your two siblings, have the ability to stop the Protector."

"I- what?" Wait. Wait one long minute. I was descended from an aeonian? These shapeshifting, magical, priest creatures with sparkling eyes? Ease someone into that, maybe? My distant grandmother locked a god, a god, inside herself.

I remembered what the tree had shown me. Thaedia had caused the separation between the magical world and the human one. She had asked for there to be separation. Geez. I looked up. Everyone was looking at me. "What do you want me to do about it?" Vulius laughed under his breath.

"You are an impossibility, Princess." He gave a small smile. "A child of two worlds, like me." Then, he stood a little taller and he got his annoying, know-it-all smile. "You have to be the one to convince the Council to help."

"Me?!" He wanted me to convince the council not to let mankind be exterminated. Me?

"Her? Miss Sass Princess?" Ramsay suddenly had the need to voice his opinion. "Sure, that will end well for everyone." I both fully agreed and was offended by his sarcasm. Illa and Vulius both started to speak, but Hine-ak spoke over them. The power in her voice instantly shushed everyone else.

"Why are you amongst this strange company, Ramsay?" She studied him intensely. "Nearly all of your kind are opposed to humans; what gives you such a fondness for them?" He scoffed.

"Fondness?" He squinted down at me and Vulius. "No. None at all." Well thanks. "But I have no more distaste for them than anyone else." That was fair. Ramsay hated everyone about equally.

"Do you stand with them?" Her question definitely seemed to be some kind of test for him. I wondered for a second what he was going to answer.

"Yes, for better or worse." His tone made it seem like it was going to be for the worse, but Illa grinned like it was the sweetest thing he had ever said. Which, to be fair, it kind of was. Vulius's eyebrows were scrunched together, but I could not tell if he was confused, surprised, doubtful, or all of the above.