Born of Flames

Chapter 1 ~ Over the Months

    It was a day full of meetings regarding the state of a world that Morana no longer recognized. So much had changed in the months that had passed since Astaroth's defeat, and the changes were happening almost faster than she could keep up with.

    Many times she found herself wishing time would slow again for more reasons than one. Today, it was because she was running late and the Elders would be sure to scold her for it.

    Morana rolled her eyes with a huff and hurried down the corridor of the small, cramped house that had become the meeting place for the Council of Elders, as their leadership committee had dubbed themselves. Once a month, the Council convened in Arcan to discuss the rebuilding efforts and future plans. This house was one of the first to be rebuilt in the city.

    Many more had risen up beside it and the city was no longer in the abandoned and miserable state of disrepair Morana had found it in. But there was still much work to be done before the city was fully restored, and before Tarion would even consider letting someone begin working on restoring the palace where he had grown up.

    The reconstruction program had been his idea to begin with so he'd faced very little protest when he took charge and set it in motion. It provided jobs to many Humans and Ash Fae in particular, and their payment came from the pilfered contents of Astaroth's coffers.

    A portion of that gold was also being directed to the Cahirim for the wages of all those who enlisted, and as the promise of their pension when the time came for them to retire. Only a very small amount of the money was reserved for the members of the Council of Elders.

    Tarion was saving his to go towards rebuilding the palace eventually while they used Morana's for the costs of daily living. So far, his plan had been working flawlessly and their people seemed to be prospering more than they had in the past nine hundred years.

    Morana paused to catch her breath when she reached the door to the meeting room. Voices already came from within, some sounding disgruntled and annoyed. She blew out a sigh and squared her shoulders, then pushed the door open.

    At once, all eyes were fixed on her. Morana met only one familiar garnet pair and a smile flickered across Tarion's lips as she took the vacant seat beside him.

    "Nice of you to finally join us," one of the oldest and frankly, rudest, males in the room grunted.

    "Apologies, Delmar," Morana replied. The male frowned while she crossed her arms and painted a fake smile onto her features. "I was delayed."

    "By what, may I ask?"

    "You may ask, but you're not entitled to an answer."

    "The two of you can bicker later," another Council member interrupted. "Let's read over our reports and be done with this."

    Delmar cleared his throat and rose, bringing a small stack of papers with him. Morana settled back in her chair as he began to read and ignored the pointed look Tarion threw her way. The Elder's report followed the standard layout they had followed over the past ten months, detailing every change that had taken place around his small area of jurisdiction.

    When he finished, the other Elders followed suit, giving their reports one by one. They were all relatively the same. The land was growing hearty and vibrant once more, and so were the people. There was little sickness and more children had been born. The Ash Fae were finally beginning to integrate with their fellow Asterrians and were being peacefully accepted.

    Even those who remained in Astaroth's former capital city, Ophir, were thriving, and the city had become a changed place under Gaelen's observation. The male wasn't present at the meeting today, but his report had arrived on time and it was Rehema who read it off. She then gave her own report from the Vidar Forest and the Library of Drenusha.