Chapter Four

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Manna

It was the pounding on her door that woke Manna. As she opened her tired eyes, only the blackness of night shone through the windows. She was out of bed in an instant, wrapping a shawl around her shoulders, and hurrying to answer. None who called at such an hour could be the harbinger of good news. Fiona stood there in the doorway, breathing heavily, exhausted from the effort of her frantic knocking.

 Manna could see the skin on her knuckles was scratched and bloody from her overly enthusiastic attempt to wake her from slumber, pounding her fists against the rough wood of the door. Fiona's face was pale and drawn, the bags under her eyes noticeable and, despite her rounded stomach, she looked thinner than she had when Manna had seen her only one week before.

"My God," Manna said," what's wrong?" Fiona looked entirely unhinged. The moment she stepped in the house, she slammed the door shut, bolting the locks with the intensity of a mad woman.

"They're coming for me," she said.

Manna had never seen her student in such a state. When she attempted to place a hand on her shoulder Fiona shrank from her touch as if she had been burned.

"I haven't slept in days," she said, her voice quavering. "I see her. Every night when I close my eyes, she is there"

"Who?"

"Astar. I dream of her. Horrible visions. She comes to me laughing and I am consumed with flames. My child cries out and the Council slits her throat and the blood fuels the fire."

"Fiona, these are only dreams. You must calm yourself."

Fiona turned, her staff falling to the ground as she grabbed Manna's arms and squeezed them tight. Manna could feel the heat radiating from her skin, and see her glassy eyes. The woman was burning with fever.

"They have called an official meeting," Fiona breathed.

"Who has?"

"The Council of Cainell. The Seven! Avery and his friends. "

"I was not informed," Manna said, trying to temper her own rising fear. To see Fiona so upset was too uncharacteristic to not be taken seriously.

Fiona pushed her away, as she stalked across the room. "They didn't inform you because they wish to get me alone. They have been watching me constantly since the Assembly and know that I am weakened. They will strike before the child is born."

Manna felt herself fill with denial. The Seven were charged to lead the people alongside the General Council, in tandem with the Nita and the Initiate. They had no authority to take such action as Fiona was suggesting.

"This is paranoia," Manna said. "Avery wouldn't dare."

"You have no idea what they would dare!" Fiona raged. She walked to the window and stared out into the blackness. "We have to leave before it is too late."

Manna followed her, grabbing Fiona's shoulders firmly, forcing the woman to look her in the eye. "Fiona, you must hold yourself together. Panic will accomplish nothing. When did they call the meeting?"

"They sent a messenger last evening. An official meeting of the Cainell Council is called at dawn. I am to come alone to hear their decree on the child."

"They cannot make such a decision without the counsel of an Initiate representative," Manna said. "They cannot do so without full Council support!" 

She could feel the anger rising in her own voice. She had suspected that the Seven would attempt to circumvent the General Assembly by pulling rank over the other ruling bodies of the Senmin, but if they had called a secret meeting, it seemed they were willing to go farther than she had thought to deal with the situation at hand. Could they truly intend to erase the matter of the child before it ever came to a vote? It made horrifying sense of course. If the baby were dead there would have little need to convince the Initiate or the other councilmen that Fiona's child was too dangerous to exist. But such underhanded action would be entirely unforgivable.

"I cannot go!" Fiona cried out, her voice panicked. "I will not let them murder my baby. She has done nothing wrong. She is innocent!" Fiona suddenly doubled over in pain as if she had been kicked in the stomach. Manna caught her arm, doing her best to steady Fiona as the woman's body dropped towards the ground.

"You are unwell. Come lie down." Manna helped Fiona to her bedroom, laying her down, and bringing the blankets up to cover her shivering body though she knew the convulsions had nothing to do with cold.

"They will come for me here. We must get away!" Fiona said, trying, in a halfhearted attempt, to rise.

Manna pushed her gently back into the pillows. "Yes, they will come. I am counting on it. I have words to speak with the Council Leader and his men. It will take them little time to parse out where you are after you fail to appear before them, but when they do come here, we will be ready."

Staring into Fiona's terror, imagining the injustice in Avery's decision to use his power and that of The Seven as a way to mete out absolute judgment, Manna felt her frustration grow. He had no right. The General Assembly was created for a reason, and the Initiate had drawn pacts with the original Council long ago to mitigate the power of either ruling body. The Seven were never meant to act outside of the will of the people.

Fiona's face tightened into a compressed wrinkle of agony as she curled in on herself and let out a short whimper.

"I am not strong enough, Manna," she said with despair. "I do not believe I have even the strength to argue let alone fight back."

Manna squeezed Fiona's hand in reassurance and tried to force as convincing a smile as she could manage. Her student needed hope.

"You will not be alone, Fiona, " she said. "We will make our stand together." Manna smoothed the hair from the woman's hot brow, sticky with sweat, and stared into her feverish eyes. "The Council may forget, but the Nita is a powerful being," she said. "They should be more respectful. We will see to it that they are."

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