John woke up on the couch, a blanket pulled over him. Leon was in the kitchen making breakfast and John moved over to the stools by the island.
"Morning sunshine, you ready for your hearing?" Leon said in a far too excited tone. John had the feeling that this might be how he shows nervousness. John shrugged and then thanked Leon as he set a plate of eggs and bacon in front of him. He dug in and then started waking up.
Trying to think about what Leon had said gave him a headache so he just pulled out his laptop and got to work. He checked in with his team and helped them find their file on regulations regarding roof heights. He put each of them in contact with the person that they needed most and then let them know that he was going to be out with a client for the day, but would do his best to stay in touch.
As he was finishing up, Leon set a pile of his clothes on the island. "I grabbed these from your house when I dropped off your car." John didn't know whether to thank him or berate him for breaking into his house. He decided on a shower instead of either one and washed off and got ready for the hearing. He didn't know that there was much he could really do at the hearing. It's not like he could try to say he wasn't a named one, and he didn't have a clue what they planned to do with him, so he decided to just go with the flow and hope for the best. Hopefully Leon would stand up for him.
Half an hour later, they were pulling into the now familiar military base. When they entered the Council building, John was told to have a seat in a chair in front of the Council. Looking around, he saw that the room was full of people in the seats on the outside of the room. There must have been hundreds of what he assumed were all immortals. He sat down with a gulp.
"Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming on such short notice. I wouldn't have summoned you all if it wasn't important." This drew a few mutters, but John couldn't tell if it was because the old man was known for summoning them for unimportant things or if they were wondering what was so important that he had summoned them all. "Sitting before you is one of the named." A gasp filled the room and one person was about to yell something at the Council when the old man held up his hand. "We did not create him, and we don't know who did, but that is not what this hearing is about. You were called here today to decide what we should do about the named one." There was more muttering and then a different member of the Council stood. "The named ones were a danger to all of us and we got rid of all of them for good reason. I propose a vote that we get rid of him." John looked a little panicked. He had an idea that this was a possibility, but he was hoping there would be a lot of other, nicer, options on the table.
The leader of the Council spoke again. "Thank you Charles, we will hold all votes until the end of the hearing when we have heard everyone's ideas on the subject.
Another stood up. "I vote that we train him as an emergency preparation, we have been vulnerable for a long time." "And have we died?!" Someone from the audience shouted in rebuke. John guessed they were probably one of the half-mortals that had been a target in the Great Purge.
Someone else from the Council stood up. "I think we should test if he is a named one at all." He said in a very grim voice. Everyone was silent. "We heard that his name is not one of a human, but it is not a name that any one of us has recognized." There was a nodding murmur of agreement.
The leader rose. "Because this action is not final, I will allow the vote now." He looked up at everyone in the stands. "All those in favor of verifying the named ones... named oneness... raise your hands." It was unanimous.
A few of the Council members looked at the leader worryingly. "I suppose it is time for the end of secrets. They tore us apart in the Great Purge and we cannot let them tear us apart again."
The leader stepped away from the Council and went into another room. The door was covered in locks, and John hadn't even seen it until his attention was brought to it. The leader came back out with a book. It was covered in a strange watery ink that looked like a dark green. He set the book on the table and opened it.
The words floated off the page and formed a circle of runes floating in the air. "Oh Elder Ones, please guide us. Please verify that this man is a named one." The letters floated over to John and started circling him. He sat very still, taking shallow breaths. The runes just faded. The crowd was just as confused as John, but the Council gasped. "But... you... your name!" One spoke, the words escaping him.
The leader flipped to another page. Once again the runes floated up in a spinning circle. "Oh Elder Ones, please guide us. If this man is not a named one, what is he?"
The runes floated into the room. Some saw Jason or Jones or Jeremy or Jack, but John saw the name John floating up there. Then the letters arranged themselves differently. John just saw John again. What was everyone freaking out about? Maybe this was like with his normal name. Mortals couldn't understand it, even when he told them. Maybe now it revealed another name, but he still couldn't comprehend it and instead just saw it as John, like an optical illusion.
With that figured out he relaxed a bit and looked around. His relaxation vanished. Everyone looked at the name in complete horror. "The... The God of Yekub?! What do you mean? How?" The leader lost his composure. The letters vanished and as they started to fade, so did John.
He passed out in his seat, floating in a sea of black. Then he heard everyone. "How is this possible?" "What kind of game is the Council playing?" "I should just get out of here now, this is only going to get messier when they start trying to problem solve, the Council couldn't tie their own shoes with an instruction manual."
That's odd. Those don't seem like things someone would say out loud. Before John could put the pieces together, however, his voice spoke out to them. It wasn't his voice, but he wasn't really talking either. It wasn't his thoughts, and yet he is the one thinking them. "I have created a vessel for myself to put a tiny drop of my power into. You could not fathom my reasoning, so do not try. I am beyond you. Stop wasting all of the pages in that oh so precious book of yours and move on."
John opened his eyes. He had just been asleep and yet his head had not been resting on the desk or the back of the seat. Now that he thought about it, had he even really opened his eyes or had he been sleeping with his eyes open?
Everyone looked at him with the same horror that they looked at the floating letters with. Leon was the first to speak up. "So much for the hearing. I will look after him and keep you all updated." He took John and hurried out of the building before the guards snapped out of it and tried to stop them. They drove back to Leon's house. "It looks like it's your turn to do some explaining.
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