The Prodigies: The Return of Equinox

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Unity

The High Council had made it to the courts before all the Prodigies had gathered there. Aath made an effort to keep track of who arrived first and in what order. He felt he might get a better understanding of who they are by their punctuality. He pretended to muse on the written reports handed to him and the rest of the council while his cohort babbled on about other matters he deemed unimportant.

To his surprise, the first one to arrive to the court was a ranger boy with unruly blonde hair. He scanned the room while walked, it seemed that his eyes wandered near aimlessly until Aath noticed his glances slowed down near windows and exits. The next two that arrived also seemed to be rangers: the Huven queen that Aegon had mentioned before, and a spindly tree of some kind with various flowers and buds that resembled human features like eyes such.

Next were all three of the ones directly tied to the military. His favorite, Garvhoz walked at the front of the group while the other two followed behind him side by side. Clearly he was responsible for them in someway or another, but their dynamic still needs witnessing.

The Magi queen and her Prodigy body guard were next, but the Zorfec wasn't too far behind. Celesta, whom he only dealt with in passing, walked through the court to her seat in a dignified, and near ritualistic, manner while her body guard stiffly followed her at a set distance. While this was definitely official business, Aath thought it was too grand of a gesture. The Zorfec however seemed to glide along the floor in a slow, and sluggish manner to his seat, not taking care for formalities of any kind.

The last, and maybe the least in his eyes, where the ragtag looking generalist category of Prodigies, the Jacks. He had never seen such a mismatched group before. A young man dressed in all grey much like the magi boy, but not in any way as formal as him. A young woman who looked like she had come straight off of a farm with her simple attire and dirt stains. A mysteriously garbed boy covered in head to toe. They all arrived together, but not in any recognizable order.

"The group who took care of The Six, stand up." Ellondra, Celesta, Seilan, and Voleria all stood up and faced Aegon, the Central Councilor. "I have your written report here, but I'd like to hear from you directly. There are certain things that written words cannot convey." The group looked towards each other, deciding who'd speak. The nonverbal agreement led Celesta to speak.

"We had been led to a precarious situation with minimal information on the task ahead of us, and resulted in some rather unseen consequences."

"As in? These consequences hadn't been written down." Adun tried his best to use his Councilor voice, but it still cracked under the pressure of his fear towards the queen.

"I and Seilan had lost our limbs, Voleria and Seilan had been gifted blessings by a god, and Ellondra has earned a favor that she has yet to call for. We've killed something that paraded with the powers of a Druid when we could have far easily been erased from existence. We are lucky that fate smiled upon us and we had a weapon that this half-god couldn't recognize."

"Oh" Adun couldn't quite get out any other words. Allyn had tried to butt into to save face for Adun's sake but Celesta wasn't allowing it.

"If this is what you send us to take care of before our main mission, then I can only imagine that certain death awaits us when Equinox arrives since we have the same amount of information if not less! Thank you for listening to my oral report!" Celesta barely held it together to sit down in the same manner she entered the room. Dignified and somewhat ritualistic.

"The group that took care of The Demoness." Tora, Nano, Svetra, and Jasper stood up. "Anything to report?" Allyn's voice was sturdy. unaffected by Celesta's outburst earlier.

"We had one casualty in our-"

"We know that already, and the hero will be sorely missed. Anything else?" Jasper finally let his face speak for him. He didn't want any part of dealing with such uppity bureaucrats.

"We had two injuries that-"

"Clearly you understand English because you speak it, but now I'm wondering if you are in fact mentally dull. Do you have anything to report that isn't written down for any reason." Jasper had his hands stiffly by his side until he had just put them behind his back. He dug his nails into each hand.

"The Demoness seems to have been made of all the people that-"

"Sounds like the conclusion that we had come to-" A knife whizzed past the Southern Councilor's ear and bit into the wall behind him.

"Thank you for listening to my report." There were no guards in the room, and even if there had been they would only be throwing their lives' away. Allyn went white.

"The group that took care of The Quillian." Garvhoz, Noromac, Core, and Alegna stood up. "Anything to report?" Archus spoke sternly. Unwavering in the face of the threat that Jasper had delivered.

"The Quillian is Quil Everstrong, and he's been cursed by Vera to fight and gain strength until he can defeat Garvhoz in battle."

"Quite useful information. I'm sure this could move a few things forward that we've had in mind."

"And you've all lied to us."

"Excuse me?" Aath couldn't accept what he just heard.

"You all chose the curriculum that we were taught. The books we were allowed to read, the things we were allowed to write about. All to be indoctrinated."

"Choose your words carefully boy!" Aath spoke through gritted teeth.

"I've learned that the man I've modeled my life after is just a figment of my imagination. I had only been given an over-glorified false idol to worship. If you've fed us lies about some demigod that isn't even prominent in the public anymore then what else have you lied to us about?"

"Do you all turn against us?" Aegon spoke slow, taking care not to sound aggressive.

"We expect some changes to be made. We will still fight Equinox, but do not think you have us on such a tight leash." Celesta stood proud with the rest of her year-groups' feelings. 

"You will regret this."

"We've killed demons and gods. Try us." The Prodigies left the court soon after that. They knew not what they did.