It's Incredible How Weak Magic Makes You, Isn't it?

First Council Meeting

When the Council called me, I was sure that I was in some deep trouble. Like everyone else, I was watching that Council meeting when Shade, er, Dante's identity was outed to the world. Moreover, his Mark, ourMark, was abruptly thrust into the limelight. Our classmates, almost in unison, turned to look at me and the mark that was on my hand. I guess that the illusion or whatever it was that Dante had used to disguise his Mark had slipped away in the midst of his fight with the other seven Council members.

Call it magic or magnetism or just sort of... knowing, but I had always felt like something had been pulling me towards Dante ever since the Monarchs had shown up. But we hadn't really ever spoken beforehand, and he almost seemed like he had been avoiding me. I guess he had been.

After that UN Meeting though, everything was different. My classmates were all over the place. Some of my oldest friends stopped talking to me altogether while others started to treat me like some sort of goddess. I hated it either way. When a Monarch sent by the Council came, a week after Shade's escape, I was almost happy to go.

But that happiness disappeared soon after we arrived at the place where I was to meet with them. Everything happened in a blur. So, when Valiance himself, the leader of the Council of Eight came strolling out to see me in his human form, with baggy sweatpants and a faded T-shirt, you can imagine how confused I was.

"Thanks, Hawk," he said to the Monarch who had escorted me. "I'll take it from here."

"As you command, My Lord," the Monarch said, dropping to one knee and then disappearing in a flash of light.

Valiance winced at this and then shook his head. He smiled apologetically at me and shrugged his shoulders. "He's a good guy, but he has it in his head that myself and the other Council members are some sort of royalty he must serve. It doesn't help that he is actually only fifteen."

My jaw was hanging open slightly and I quickly closed it. I'm not sure how I expected to meet Valiance, but this was certainly not it. He was always so poised and so controlled whenever we saw him on TV, the very essence of a knight. But now, he seemed so... normal.

I couldn't have been happier. It gave me hope that maybeI wasn't going to be in too much shit for Shade running amok. "Valiance, I would like to begin by-." I began the apology I had rehearsed in my head, but it was cut off when he raised a hand to forestall me.

"First, Valiance is what they call me in the news and when the UN wants to talk," he said, smiling at me with kind eyes. "My name is Kahua. At least, that's what my friends call me. I would much prefer if you would do the same, Sophia. Or have you grown partial to what the internet has started calling you: Beauty I believe it was?"

"No!" I said adamantly, scowling.

Kahua laughed and nodded. "I'm glad you don't, I wouldn't take you seriously if you did. The others are probably in the meeting room, shall we go meet them?"

"L-like this?" I asked, looking down at myself. Hawk had grabbed me when I was walking home from school and I was absolutely not looking like I was about to meet with the most powerful group of people in the world.

Kahua looked back, frowning slightly, and then a light of understanding flashed across his eyes. "You know you aren't in trouble, right? We aren't here to punish you, or anything like that for Shade's actions." He started to walk again and motioned me to follow him.

I quickly caught up, and asked; "You aren't?"

"Shade's actions were his own, and only his own." he said firmly. "You didn't even know you were his Tamer until after that meeting, right?"