By the time they went inside the hall was already filled with people.
"Are you sure that we're twenty minutes early?", asked Cesar.
"Yes, I'm sure", said Marianne amused by his confused expression.
"Since when are people more than twenty minutes early for some meeting?", grumbled Cesar.
"They are here early, because they want to see if someone knows something about the new rules", answered Silas.
"New rules?"
"Yeah, as of lately the five main families have started to make new rules that everybody has to follow, because of that many people are nervous", meant Silas.
"Nervous?", asked Cesar now slightly anxious.
"They are wondering if another war will break out", answered Faden who had come up to them.
"That's ridiculous! There was never a war between the families!", said Cesar now somewhat agitated.
But before he could say anything else Marianne put her hand on his shoulder as a sign that he should shut his mouth.
~What on earth is going on? There is no way that there was a war that hasn't been put in the records and even if, how would he know?~, but the moment he looked at Marianne's face he knew that Faden wasn't lying.
"And who exactly is he?", asked Faden Marianne while looking at Cesar. And even though he tried to hide his hostility he couldn't fool the other two who were watching him.
"I am-", started Cesar before being interrupted.
"He is a part of Asterikas, is that a problem?", asked Silas with a voice as cold as ice and in his eyes a glint of red appeared.
This comment earned him an intruged look from Faden side and a strange expression from Cesar's side.
-What's with his expression?-
~Maybe he wants to express his gratitude.~
-Who on earth looks like he wants to murder someone while expressing gratitude?!-
~I don't know, maybe it's just his face?~
*Yeah, he has a strangely irritating face.*
-What?-
"I didn't mean to anger you, little one", said Faden trying to soothe him.
"Little one?", he repeated quietly.
With a smug look on his face Cesar wanted to join Faden, but then he saw Silas' expression. He was smiling the same way he did when Cesar stole him his dessert.
Seeing this he distanced himself from Silas and hid behind Marianne who was trying hard not to laugh out loud. But at the end a small giggle escaped her, being answered with a murderous glare from Silas' side, who then mouthed "You two are dead when we get home".
Now even Marianne had a scared expression on her face and hid behind Cesar.
"What on earth are you doing?!", whispered Cesar.
"What does it look like?"
"Not like something that I like!"
"Too bad, that sounds like a you problem."
"You little-"
Before he could finish his sentence Lance entered the room and everything went dead silent.
"So he's one of the 'big shots'?", asked Cesar quietly.
"Have you gone mad? He's a member of the lower council", said Faden.
"Why should I know him if he's only part of the lower council? Cl-"
"That's enough", said Marianne.
Only after hearing her words did he realise that he said something he shouldn't have.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Let's go, our seat is over there", said Marianne with a stoic expression.
---
After everybody found their seats Lance started the meeting with where they left off last time.
"As you all know Thalis made the offer to provide us with a more developed version of the drug we talked about last time and today is the day where you have to decide as to wether you're going to accept or decline his offer. We'll be starting with Solis."
They were already halfway through by the time it was Asterikas' turn to give their answer.
"So will you accept or decline Thalis' generous offer?", asked Lance while already marking that they accepted, after all nobody had declined up 'till now.
"We'll decline", answered Marianne.
"Alright, another one- What?"
After hearing her answer everybody in the room went quiet and looked at her, wondering if they heard right.
"We are going to decline", said Marianne again, but this time louder.
Hearing this everybody was shocked, this was the first time someone rejected Thalis. Even Faden who was also planning on declining was surprised by this turn of events.
"May I know why you chose to reject this offer?", asked Lance after regaining his calm.
"I don't see the necessity to use any drug to keep my people in check, especially not after seeing our newcomer's abilities", answered Marianne pointing at Cesar.
This time chaos broke out. Everybody wanted to see what made Asterikas confident enough to decline Thalis' offer.
"If this is everything you wanted to discuss we'll be taking our leave", said Marianne, who now stood up and made her way to the door through the chaos followed by Silas and Cesar.
Seeing her walk away Lance jumped down from his seat and ran after her grabbing her hand.
"Wait!"
"What do you think you're doing?", asked Marianne with a voice that made everyone near her tremble.
"I-", he wanted to answer, but he couldn't.
"So you stopped me for nothing?", said Marianne annoyed and shook of his hand.
"Let's go."
Only when they left the room did Lance realise what he had just done.
"I must be going mad", he muttered under his breath before reassuming the meeting.
---
"What was that?", asked Cesar.
"What was what?"
"Why did he grab you like that?"
"I don't know I can't read his mind", meant Marianne.
"Still-"
It wasn't that he was jealous or anything that he asked her something like this, it was because something felt off about him. Cesar was sure that Lance wouldn't be able to harm Marianne, but even then something was amiss. There wasn't a single person who could make him feel quiet as uncomfortable as him aside from Silas.
"You really do attract supernatural beings like a magnet", muttered Cesar just loud enough that she couldn't hear him, or so he thought.
Silas on the other hand was very quiet during the ride.
*Your presence is growing weaker again.*
-...-
~Why is it that you don't want to try and live your life on your own? Are you scared of something?~
-...-
*Do you really think he'll tell us?*
~Maybe, you never know.~
-... Have you ever thought about what happens with you when you die?-
~See!~
-If you don't want to answer nevermind.-
~No wait!~
*If I were to die I guess I'd just disappear.*
-And if you were to get killed would you want revenge on the person who killed you?-
*Of course, I'd haunt them for the rest of their life!*
-But how would you haunt them if you'd disappear?-
~Huh? Well I don't know, through magic?~
-Magic? I guess it would be nice if magic did exist.-
A.N.G.E.L. was a project in which a persons DNA was changed in a way that they would grant supernatural beings immortality. After countless research and experiments there was a succesfull case of the A.N.G.E.L. project. But soon both the scientist and the only succesful case of the experiment disappeared without leaving a trace.
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