Distorted Affliction

Chapter Thirty Nine

The Council of Rowan Tree consisted of five witches from distinct bloodlines, and their purpose was to keep the balance and maintain order in our world. Witches didn't have many rules, though fraternizing with Mouri on a personal level was certainly one of the cardinal sins. We represented the purity of nature and existence, our morals were naturally righteous and virtuous, and we had been granted the gift of upholding the balance between good and evil. Occasionally, though, our society produced lost souls, witches that lost sight of our purpose and broke the rules for selfish reasons. It was the Council's job to handle those witches and decide suitable punishments for their crimes.

Their name, if it hadn't become obvious, came from the Realm of Rowan Tree, which was where the souls of our ancestors went when witches died. Rowan Tree was the foundation of the spirit realm, a grand oak that contained magic rumored to have come about during creation, and it was essentially the glue that held the realm together. We had all learned that in the beginning, it was the only source of magic for witches, though with each passing the magic grew stronger and stronger as our souls became one with the tree.

There were stories of witches being summoned to the Realm of Rowan Tree, though it was few and far between, and had only become a legend for covens to tell their offspring. It was considered an honor to visit the spirits in their realm, one granted to souls with a deep connection to their ancestors. My experience was not common, and even the Council had only heard stories of what that world was like, though they were considered the connection between our world and the spirit realm.

The Council stood as a doorway, a gateway of sorts that allowed witches to access the magic from our ancestors. Since all of our magic flowed through them anytime it was accessed, they were much more powerful than the rest of our community. This position meant that the spirits didn't decide which spells to grant them access to, they weren't capable of putting limits on what they could or couldn't do, only the natural order to maintain the balance could do that. Essentially, they used their divine morals to keep themselves in check, which seemed pretty fallacious to me. It seemed much too easy to allow their egos to become unchecked, and the rest of our community had to accept it, though they had done a decent job thus far.

The Council of Rowan Tree took up a base of operation outside of Missoula, their grand establishment set inside of the mountains and surrounded by forest. It was a large castle, something I felt personally was outdated, though it was customary for the five families to live in unity together as a sign of our solidarity as a community. This wasn't their only place of residence, and each generation rotated between a grand total of thirty two different castle options.

I hadn't come here alone, though. The Council had specified that I would show up with Silas, and that Ophelia would accompany us. I had already disobeyed them enough times lately that I didn't want to risk making my coven sister's punishment any worse than it needed to be, despite the reassurance that she understood that there would be consequences to our actions. So, we stood before the Council in their polatial assembly hall as they looked down upon us from their lofty chairs that formed a semicircle around the room.

Onlookers were seated behind us, their seats not nearly as elevated as a means to show that they were above the accused, though certainly not surpassing the Council themselves. These spectators were usually local witches, or those of our community that had suffered at the hands of the inculpated, but also included a select coven to oversee the outcome. This coven was chosen at random from around the world, and more importantly, they were official witnesses.

My trial, it seemed, had drawn in quite the spectacle, and every seat in the room had been filled and then some. Ophelia and I had taken our spaces at the podium in the center of the hall, standing with Silas as the Council called out the ancient chant that our onlookers repeated back to signal unity once again as the tribunal began.