Fall of the Spectrum

Chapter Twenty, Part One

"Don't worry," he said, silver eyes intent. "Whatever happened to Asclepius and the others, you have my word. We will find them."

There was a moment when Gwen thought Lonali might start crying, her aquamarine eyes misting over with tears, but the moment passed. Instead, she straightened her spine, took Forneus's hand in hers, and giving it a gentle squeeze, murmured "Thank you". Without another word, the three of them were making their way beyond the council door.

Even with the lighting being somewhat fainter at the bottom of the chamber, Gwen could still make out the flecks of tourmaline imbedded deep within the quartz, forming swirling patterns that reminded her of the black and white art gallery at her father's museum.

With this thought came memories of her father, brief glimpses of him sitting at his work table with a cup of coffee in one hand and a half-chewed pen in the other, poring over a notebook filled with his haphazard penmanship. Gwen remembered the way she used to sneak into the den just to sit and watch him work, the way the fading daylight coming through the narrow window would bring out the copper highlights in his light brown hair, the grey at his temples not quite as prominent back then. The way his eyes—the same shade of green as hers—always seemed to be somewhere between tired and amused when he finally noticed she was there. How she would settle in his lap while he explained to her what he was working on, the feel of his arms around her warm and reassuring.

Gwen swallowed against the lump in her throat, a dull ache starting in the centre of her chest. It had been so long since she had last seen him, since she'd last seen either of her parents. Her friends, the rest of her family...

Would they really remember her when all of this was over? How would she ever go back to the way her life had been beforehand? Was that even possible?

She was so preoccupied by her thoughts she almost tripped on the hem of Lonali's gown. Lonali seemed wholly unaware of this however, and made her way up the steps with an agile sort of grace, her robe whispering over the polished quartz, the assorted bangles and other jewels adorning her neck and ankles tinkling softly with each step. Gwen had always thought Lonali beautiful, but with the shimmering walls of moonstone glinting off of her sleek white hair, casting fractals of pale light over the exposed skin of her neck and shoulders from the coloured gemstones in her earrings, that beauty was amplified.

Gwen cast a critical eye at her own clothing. And then there's me.

As they stepped onto the dais, both the homesickness and self-consciousness began to ebb as Gwen took in her surroundings. No matter how many times she'd seen the council chamber before, however brief or chaotic the visits had been, she couldn't help marvelling at the sheer splendour of it. Lustrous, spherical walls of moonstone glinted back at her in all of its various shades; from a creamy brown, to an opalescent blue and white. Shimmering, violet hues accented it from the globular amethyst fixed at the ceiling's apex, a circular ring of sunstone framing it.

Her gaze strayed to the council seats—all separated into different platforms for each echelon—for only a second, before coming to rest on the strategy table a short distance away. It seemed every council member was present, each available Regulations Force commander and their top operatives standing in the spaces between them. The entire chamber echoed with the sound of their voices, each one overlapping the other in frantic discussion as they studied the ethereal image projected over the table's centre.

Apollo glanced up suddenly from his position along the left-hand side of the table, and he beckoned them over with a wave of his hand, everyone else falling silent as Lonali stood where Asclepius and Lyka normally would have, had they been present. Forneus led Gwen so that they stood to Lonali's left, next to the same short-haired woman Gwen had seen when the Spectrum had been under attack. The woman gave Gwen a curious glance, then snapped to attention when Zeus declared that Lonali had the floor.