Atkins Law

chapter seven

It was the hour of the bat, the fireplace lit with fresh logs thrown in. The Tall trees castle was quiet and busy all at once save the crackling timber at the round table, indeed it was a sad day for the Dryads.

"Kill count, thirteen my Queen, two unidentified corpses and one missing infant Dryad following the fire outbreak at the markets." Terra reads from the scroll with a scowl. "One injured wolf-"

"Following the two deceased workers at the site." Gunther continued for her.

The table had been the most quiet any of the species had seen in a while. The only time Rosalia could remember it being this eerie was after the Council banished the Fairies. She held her armrest so tightly her knuckles turned white, the air still had that ashen smell to it but her mother remained absolutely still. It was almost like today didn't happen with how calm she appeared and that in itself was scary.

William rubbed the lines on his forehead, lips pressed together in thought. Rosalia also sympathized with how the wind carried the smell of blood into his nostrils. "Let the Commander finish, Alpha."

"I'm just making sure she gets all the details."

"Alpha Gunther." Queen Celeste's voice was smooth and levelled but Rosalia knew it to be a subtle sneer.

"My Queen." Gunther calls sweetly with a mock bow.

Briar, the Siren seemed uninterested with the politics itself but rather amused by the suffocating tension between Gunther and the Queen. Her mischievous nature made her the hardest to reason with, the Siren loved to play games, a side effect of her youthful nature.

Rosalia shrinks into the Mage's seat, Alvis again absent from another meeting, he wasn't someone to get a hold of easily. Perhaps he'd be a better person than Brair who found humor in all of this. Nothing was funny about death or a civil war, then again, her species shared a territory with the wolves, she could sleep at night knowing if all were to burn, she'd be on the other side of the fire enjoying the warmth.

Briar's cheshire grin widens. "Crowns and breadcrumbs, who will kill who?"

"The realm is big enough for every single one of us despite our differences." William hisses shutting up the bird's song. "We all have customs that guide our territories respectfully. But we also have laws that govern the realm, Council Laws that are more important than our belief systems. And from the events of today, it appears that not everyone here understands that."

Boris was as still as a statue behind Gunther's seat, he hadn't moved or said a word ever since morning. Gunther folds his arms and relaxes into his seat, the temper of today that had shaken her had disappeared, he almost looked sober. "I wish you could feel the severed connection of a dead vampire." He looked at the Queen in a knowing way. "Following the extinction of the Elves and the Fairies banishment, this Council was allowed claim over the inhabited lands. It's William's goodwill that made it possible for you to have the Swamps and the Elven ruins west of the Outer Banks but you choose to build your cities at my backyard."

"I have no problem with this." Gunther continued. "Believing that demarcating where our land begins and yours end would ease the stress of having you so close to our territory. But even with my kindness and charity you act without regard to Council and Pack Laws."

"The Elven empire is why I could not give you workers to build your wall, how many times must I say it? And the Swamps, uninhabitable-"

Gunther tsks, "You lived there before the invasion."

"The place is overrun by rogue Fairies. If we are being truthful and fair, our species should be on the first wall." Celeste looks towards William, an intense staring contest between the two. "Vampires fell the minute they poured their acid on them, their skin burned- and that thing- a cross they called it had them running scared, 'the most powerful' species." She looks around the table, no one saying otherwise. "If the territories were given according to our contributions to the war, Dryads would have been put first."