When worlds collide

17

Olena walked to the other side of the house for the meeting that her Father had told her to attend. The house was huge, her entire village could squash in here at least twice. She had a sort of crutches for her leg, she had a lot of swelling, so, rather than walking with a spring in her step, she walked with a slight hobble. She had begun to doubt herself and that this was all just a very nice dream; when she woke up she would find herself back in her Aunt and Uncles house with Ren and Mina smiling down at her, but now she knew that this all was actually meant to be.
She reached some doors which she presumed was the place she was meant to be so leaning on one crutch she swung open the doors and in front of her was a large table with a group of people sat around it. Her Father was at one end with his assistant, Alaina, whom had run the castle for him whilst he was gone. Across were a few people she did not recognise and at the other end sat Alistair and Delaney, dressed in smart military uniforms. "Olena!" Delaney exclaimed, jumping from his seat, suddenly Olena became very aware of the two crutches she was walking with and the fact that she was wearing a pair of fluffy trousers and an oversized jumper as she had forgotten to change, "what on Earth happened?"
Olena gave a small curtsey to the two princes, "Oh it's nothing," she looked over at her Father who gave her a very confused glance, "where do I sit?"
"Come and sit here!" Delaney indicated to an empty seat on his left so using her crutches Olena went and sat down.
"Right, so let's continue," her Father shuffled some papers on the table
"The law campaign was a hard loss," a Man in the corner said, "but that does not mean that the campaign is lost completely. We organise large protests, anarchy, they'll have to give in."
"Isn't that blackmail, Robert?" Alaina said, calmly.
"In a way but we need to go to extreme lengths if we want this to work and if you're not willing to do this then maybe-"
"Shut up!" Her Father shouted, "Robert, that will not work, it will just cause a nuisance to the King and he won't be grateful, we will need to come up with a long term plan, something that we can carry out subtly until we can redo the campaign, so for now, this meeting is closed,"
There were hushed murmurings throughout the room as Atticus Gerou followed by Alaina left the room. Then they all started to get up. "Nice trousers by the way," Delaney said, laughingly as he followed the crowd through the double doors, the only person who remained was Alistair, staring across the fields through a large window at the back of the room. "I thought I'd seen it all," he chuckled, indicating to the trousers and oversized jumper
"Well, clearly you haven't," Olena fired back, her face flushing, "why are you even here, you were against it?"
"We've been over this. I was not against it, just outvoted and I'm trying to make amends for that,"
"How long are you staying?" Olena surprised herself, she wanted him to stay?
"Only passing through on our way to SouthDen to meet Samaras. We leave this evening."
"Oh," Olena said and the conversation slowly died.
"So, how is your power coming along?" Alistair asked casually
"Well that's the exact reason I look like this," Olena laughed to herself, "I turned invisible without even realising it!"
"Wow! That's amazing!" Alistair gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder, "Can you show me?"
"I'll try," Olena focused again, the light from the window, the small lamp in the corner...
"Where are you?"
Olena took her focused off of the lights and blinked back into view.
"That's so cool! I wish that was my power! I'm so happy for you!" Alistair smiled at her
"Thanks," Olena replied, "how about a tour around HighSpring? Have you been before?"
"No. It's a very nice place," Alistair answered falling back into formal protocol, "Can we walk around the gardens?"
"I'll try," Olena waved one of her crutches in the air.
"Right, lets go then," Alistair held open the two double doors as Olena hobbled out of the room.
But what no one realised was that Delaney was stood just outside those doors and had and would continue to listen to their conversations.