The Feloix Felaii Council Chambers looked exactly how I remembered it. The chamber was still just as cavernous, it's ceiling disappearing in a cloud of floating lights, the gossamer chairs were still arranged in a circle to look down at the dais, and the light still illuminated the room in a soft white glow, but yet everything was different without all the seats filled. Only about twenty people were assembled, and they all sat close to the dais with their heads close together, their murmurs sounding like the rippling of a stream. To my slight disappointment, I saw that I didn't recognize any of them. When Apollo and I entered the chamber, they looked up in unison.
"Apollo Ambrosia." A silvery haired witch stood up to greet us as we climbed down the steps. I would have thought she was an elf if it weren't for the clawed talons that were her hands. Her smile was warm as she looked at us, but I thought her pale blue eyes looked tense. "I trust your journey here was comfortable?"
"Very." Apollo smiled back.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. We'd had to use some strange substance called sage salt to travel since no elves lived close by; it was a weird experience. To use it, someone had to throw it on the ground at your feet, so Myrnah offered to do it. Jannosh obviously didn't want to leave her, so it was just Apollo and I leaving again. I felt sad, looking at them just before the smoke rose up from the sand to engulf us; we were leaving them again, and unlike last time, I knew I wouldn't be seeing them for a while.
It was clear the witch was the tribune of the session. She sat down daintily in the chair the last tribune I'd seen, Apollo's sister Astera, had sat in last time. She was still smiling at Apollo and me.
"Please, take a seat." Her icy eyes met mine. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you, miss...?"
"Lilah Winters." I said softly as Apollo gently tugged me into a seat.
"Miss Winters." She tried my name out. The rest of the people present stared at me. "It's so lovely to meet you; I've heard many things. My name is Greta Blyme, and I'm the tribune here today."
"Hello." I said, but she had already turned back to Apollo.
"You know the proceedings." Greta nodded at him. "You may take the stage, Apollo."
He nodded graciously back to her before getting up and climbing onto the dais. I felt horribly alone in the chair without him. In front of me, a beady-eyed goblin glanced at me in unabashed curiousity. I wanted to sigh. They stared when I was a human because humans were non-existent in the city; now they stare at me because I used to be a human. I just can't win, can I?
"My name is Apollo Ambrosia." Apollo was saying, his words politely directed to an elf who was furiously writing things down on a piece of parchment. She must be the chamber scribe. "And I'm here today to report a strange occurrence that happened close to my home last night."
"What is the nature of this occurrence?" Greta asked, leaning back languidly in her chair. I wondered what her usual role in the chamber was; Apollo had told me last time we were here that tribunes were always different, but she seemed extremely comfortable in the tribune seat.
"A new sickness." Apollo said sombrely. He looked out of place in the crystal room with his favourite pair of jeans and a black tee shirt.
"I see." Greta glanced at the scribe. The girl was still furiously scribbling. "Tell us everything that happened."
Apollo nodded once before proceeding to tell them, starting from the moment Jannosh walked into the kitchen. I reached up nervously to play with a strand of my bright red hair as he told his story; Apollo had sent ahead a message to the Feloix Felaii Council Chambers telling them that he'd had an urgent report to relay, but it didn't look like people were taking him seriously at all. Last time I was here, the room was packed and the tension could have been cut with a knife. Now though, with so little people, the atmosphere in the room was completely different; the chamber members actually looked disinterested. Bored was probably the blunt way of saying it.
Greta was nodding at everything Apollo was saying, but her eyes looked glazed, as if she wasn't actually paying attention. Two faeries were whispering quietly to each other, and their eyes weren't even on the figure on the dais. The goblin in front of me had leaned his head back against the back of his chair, and I watched as his eyes drifted closed.
My hand clenched around a fistful of red hair. Why were they so unconcerned at what he was saying?
"And so I decided to come here with great haste to inform you all." Apollo finished. It was clear he hadn't missed how inattentive his audience was. His eyes were narrowed a fraction as he looked back at Greta.
"Mhmm." She plucked a hair off the front of her white robes. "I see."
When she didn't say anything else, Apollo cleared his throat. "What measures do you all believe need to be taken in this instance?" He raised his voice a little louder. The goblin opened his eyes.
"Well." Greta finally looked up at him. "I'm sorry to inform you, Apollo, but no measure needs to be taken in this instance."
I gaped at her, but Apollo was more composed. The smallest of frowns appeared on his face. "Oh?"
"We've had reports of other cases like yours in Ireland." Greta explained, crossing her legs casually as she looked up at him. Her taloned hands clacked against the crystal armrests of her chair. "A team from the Feloix Felaii Health Administration has been sent out there to investigate. Are there any klaae krens close to your home? Could that klaae man come from there?"
"Not that I know of." Apollo replied slowly. "Are you saying those cases are specific to klaae?"
Greta nodded, and I felt my heart thud in fear. Laen lived in the kren in Ireland. "No other magical party has reported symptoms of the same kind. Whatever it is, it targets klaae men and women."
"But wait." I said abruptly. Everyone whipped around to look at me. Even the faeries stopped whispering. I frowned back at them. "He seemed so sure that Apollo, Jannosh and I could contract it as well, like he'd seen it happen before. He was worried about infecting us."
"Dear girl." Greta smiled at me, but it was condescending. "This illness is in its first stages; there's no way he could have known that it would spread. Besides, I think we all know how dramatic klaae people are when it comes to their health." The members around her laughed unpleasantly. "He was probably just kindly looking out for your welfare."
I opened my mouth indignantly to argue back - how dare she make fun of the klaae! - but Apollo silenced me with a serious look. I slumped back in my chair, pouting.
"I see." Apollo's voice was perfectly polite. "Well, I apologize profusely for wasting your time."
"Not at all!" Greta beamed at him. "You are always welcome in the council chambers, Apollo. It was very good to see you." Her face was downright flirtatious.
I shot the back of her head a dirty look.
"Yes, well." Apollo smiled back vaguely. "Lilah and I will be on our way now."
The other council chambers murmured goodbyes as he walked briskly passed them, but Apollo kept his eyes on me. I got up hastily and took his outstretched hand, and Apollo marched us form the room. He was practically dragging me; I had to run a little bit to keep up with him.
When we were out in the great front lobby of the council chambers building, I finally saw a hint of the anger he had been holding back in the grand chamber. The green in his eyes was so hard they looked like marbles, and his lips were pressed into an unhappy, thin line. One of the many council people milling in the lobby called out to him, but he ignored them and brushed past roughly. I gawked at him; I'd never seen him act anything but polite, but now, he was being gruff.
"I can't believe this." Apollo muttered to me as he walked us out the front door. "I cannot believe this!"
"They were being so rude." I offered up lamely.
"Not just that." He pulled me through the crowded streets; the lights shimmered and glowed in a rainbow of colours and someone was playing a lilting tune on a lyre, but Apollo's mind was still in the grand council chamber. "They were being so obtuse! Do they actually think those cases are isolated? Nothing is isolated in the magical world."
"So what do we do now?" I asked him worriedly, narrowly avoiding trampling on the tail of a mongool in front of me. Apollo was moving so fast.
He suddenly drew to an abrupt stop, and I almost bumped into him. Apollo turned to face me, his other hand taking my free one. His face looked frustrated and irritated, and to my sorrow, weary. He sighed and leaned his forehead against mine as he looked into my eyes; around us the crowd moved like a river would around a rock.
"Now." He sounded so tired. "Now, Lilah, we need to figure this out for ourselves."
---
Apollo kept a firm grip on my hand as we entered The Painted Lady, and I couldn't say I blamed him.
The pub had to be the sketchiest place I'd ever been to in my life. It's cavernous interior was jam packed with people of all magical entities, and the dim interior lit only by green and yellow torches gave the atmosphere a sickly kind of tinge. A black counter stretched the length of the wall opposite the door, and a couple of witches dressed scantily hurried back and forth to accommodate cat-calling patrons that crowded the bar. There was a dance floor to the left of the entrance where people swayed and jumped to something slow and sultry that a shifter band was performing, and the rest of the space was crammed with rickety tables and stools. With a single glance, I could tell that the table space was usually used for shady deals and under-the-table purchases. The place looked like it came straight out of a movie.
Apollo pulled me through the crowd determinedly until we reached the bar. I glanced at him in surprise; Apollo didn't usually drink. Was he so shaken by what we'd seen in the woods that he'd actually broken down?
He caught my worried look. "We need to blend in!" He shouted above the noise in my ear. "This is a pub. We'll attract more attention if we don't have something to drink in our hands."
I nodded dubiously as he turned away and somehow managed to politely elbow his way through the crowd at the bar, but I had a feeling we were already attracting attention. I could feel stares on the back of my head, and even more were trained on Apollo.
"This isn't the place for a young lady to be in alone." A grizzled voice said in my ear.
I jumped and turned to find a huge, hulking werewolf with dark, silvery eyes looking down at me skeptically. His face was pockmarked with dozens of scars, and I could see with a quick glance that he was missing a few fingers.
I gulped. "I'm not alone."
"Oh?" He rose an eyebrow and scrutinized me. I squirmed in terrible discomfort.
"She's not, Fang." Apollo materialized beside me, two tall glasses of something icy blue and shimmery in his hands, and I immediately relaxed before looking between them in confusion. He knew this guy??
"Apollo Ambrosia." To my amazement, a surprisingly warm and attractive smile stretched across the werewolf's face. "I should have known someone as pretty as this one was with you. What are you doing somewhere as seedy as the Lady? Don't you have some royal ball to attend?"
"Not currently." Apollo smiled dryly at the werewolf. "I was actually looking for you."
"That can't be good." Fang guffawed before his face suddenly became serious. "Can it?"
Apollo shook his head, and Fang sighed.
"Can you get us a table?" Apollo asked him quietly.
"Is that even a question?" Fang grinned at him before beginning to lumber his way into the mess of tables and bodies. Apollo handed me a glass of the blue liquid before nudging me to go after him.
Fang stopped at a table in the middle where a group of nervous looking elves were sitting. He slammed a meaty fist onto the wooden table stop and glared around at the young men.
"Get out of here before I whollop your heads off and hang them on my wall." He growled with so much menace the young elves actually began to shake.
"Yes - yes, sir." One of them stammered before rocketing out of his seat and to the door. His companions scurried after him.
"Did they bother you somehow?" I asked Fang tentatively.
He surprised me by pulling out a seat for me and smiling in amusement. "Not at all. It's just easy to see the under age kids here, and I figured they'd be more willing to give up their table than those vampires over there."
I glanced in the direction he nodded to and saw a trio of dark, handsome and hooded vampires sitting in absolute silence a few tables away. They had fat cups full of something red, and their thin fingers wrapped around the stems tightly. One of them seemed to feel my gaze on them, and a pair of dark, terrible eyes turned and met mine.
"Yeah, you're right." I muttered, taking the offered seat. Fang chuckled to himself as Apollo sat beside me, his gorgeous face seemingly undisturbed by what Fang had just done.
The hulking werewolf sat roughly opposite of Apollo, and his stool creaked in protest beneath him. "So what can I help you with, Apollo." It wasn't even a question. I had a feeling that Fang the werewolf had sat down dozens of other people before Apollo.
"What else?" Apollo smiled, but his voice was low and strained. "I need information."
Fang paused as a curvy shifter barmaid sidled past us, a tray filled with goblets of something that sparked balanced on her hip. "Is this a delicate situation?" He asked, his voice just as low as Apollo's.
Apollo nodded.
Fang leaned forward and crossed his arms on the table top. The table creaked in protest as well. "Tell me what you need."
Apollo leaned forward too. "There's a new disease. Supposedly it only affects klaae, and the council chambers aren't concerned at all; they keep saying it only targets klaae. Something seems off. Do you know anything about it?"
Fang nodded slowly, opening his mouth, but Apollo stopped him with a hand on his forearm. A second later a large group of mongools walked past, their faces forward as they headed to the door, but I saw one of them glance casually at us before moving his gaze away.
"Would you like us to go somewhere more secluded?" Fang asked Apollo.
He shook his head. "They'll just get more curious if we leave."
So he hadn't missed all the interested stares. Of course he hadn't, I chastised myself. People were bound to be interested if someone as famous and high up as Apollo Ambrosia showed up in a place like this.
"So we speak with caution, then." Fang nodded in agreement, his shadowy eyes sweeping the room. "I've heard whispers, Apollo. Whatever hit the klaae, it hit them hard. They're dropping like flies."
"Did it originate there?" Apollo asked, taking a sip of his drink. Remembering mine, I took a sip and was pleasantly surprised. I could taste the faintest trace of alcohol, but the drink tasted mostly like mango juice. I took another happy sip.
Fang shook his head. "Sources don't think so. The kren in Ireland only started getting sick a few months ago; before that, hundreds of outsiders in the kren had been visiting."
"For what?"
"Information." Fang smiled wryly, shrugging his shoulders. "It's a high commodity these days, and the klaae are famous for having lots of it. People wanted to know what happened to loved ones lost in the Faerie Wars."
"And of course Laen let them in." Apollo sighed wearily.
"That man has too good of a heart." Fang agreed. I wondered how they all knew each other.
"Do you know..." I started before stopping abruptly. The two of them looked at me. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."
"No, go ahead, lovely lady." Fang smiled encouragingly at me. "I don't know what Apollo's told you about me, but my services are completely free."
"That's not entirely true." Apollo chuckled, but Fang flapped a hand at him to silence him.
"Alright." I nodded dubiously, looking between them. My thoughts returned to the strong but gentle hearted klaae man, with his bronze skin and violet eyes. Laen was very important to me. "Do you know if Laen's alright?"
Fang's face fell, and my heart plummeted. "I'm sorry to say that I have no idea." He said quietly. He glanced between me and Apollo. "Between the three of us, he was one of my sources. I lost contact with him shortly after he told me of the disease."
There was a loaded silence between us.
Fang sighed and leaned forward again. The table bowed under his weight. "You're trying to stop it, aren't you?" He asked Apollo.
"Yes." Apollo replied simply.
Fang smiled grimly and shook his head. "What is it with you, anyways? You're always running off trying to save the world."
Apollo shrugged. "It's my curse, I guess." His face was completely serious.
Fang didn't seem to know what to say to that. "Well, since I have no reason to stop you, let me tell you this then."
"Yes?"
"The council's wrong." Fang said quietly. "Something like this won't stay petty. It'll reach everyone, sooner or later. That was the last thing Laen told me, and I plan to take him completely seriously."
"You be careful, Apollo." Fang looked at him hard. "And good luck. You'll need it."
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