The Hidden World

“Wonderful!” Kilik smiled, sitting straight up in his crystal seat. “I’m glad that you see why we want you to have the seat.”

“Is there something I need to do for this?” Yuki asked.

“Of course. Becoming a member of this council isn’t something that is done with a simple agreement,” he said. “We must go through the proper protocol for this. It’s a simple one though.”

“What do you need me to do?” 

“Step up to the pedestal,” he instructed, gesturing towards the pedestal that rose up from the center of the room. 

Yuki followed his instructions, getting up from her seat and walking to the stone pedestal. 

“Place your hand onto it.” Yuki obeyed. “Now, what we are going to do next is another oath. Normally, it would not be me administering this. Sophie would have had the honor when she stepped down from her position. But since she is no longer with us, I am the only one that can do this. So, repeat after me.”

Kilik began to chant in the magic tongue, pausing every sentence to wait for Yuki to recite what he just said. As Yuki spoke, mana trickled out from her, entering the pedestal and lighting up the runes engraved in it. 

It flowed down the channels inlay into the stone and traveled a path towards the vacant seat. The more Yuki spoke, the more mana was taken and the further the lines went until it touched the seat when Yuki spoke the last words of the oath. The stone seat lit up with her mana before fading gently away.

“It is now your seat,” Kilik smiled. “Only you can sit on it. If someone else tried, they would suffer a punishment. What kind of punishment, I do not know as Sophie was the one who set it up. I’m not keen on trying to figure that out.”

“What do I do now?” Yuki asked.

“Well, you are a council member now. If you have any questions you want to ask, then feel free. We’ll be here one more day.”

“We are?” Veronica asked from her seat of ice.

“Yes. Let our new colleague get situated for a night and then maybe she has questions then if she has none now,” he explained. “Unless, you all have plans tonight?”

“I don’t. It was just a bit sudden,” Veronica replied.

“I’m fine with staying,” an older looking man said. It was the man playing with a bird from earlier. “I was planning to anyway. It is getting late.”

“Thank you Vernon. Does anyone have a complaint with this?”

The rest of the members voiced their agreement.

“Good. Ember, can you guide Yuki and her guests to the rooms?” Kilik asked. 

“Yeah, I can do that. By the way, why are you trying to throw a party for me?” she asked. “I already said you don’t need to do it.”

“Your survival should still be celebrated regardless,” he replied. “It won’t be a large thing, so don’t worry. Just a little announcement and some food. Might not happen for a bit though.”

“Fine,” Ember sighed. “As long as there aren’t that many people, then I’ll go with it.”

“It’ll just be your officers.”

“I guess that’ll be fine.” She walked up to where Yuki was standing. “Come on. I’ll show you where the rooms are.”

“Have a good rest,” Kilik said to them as they were led away.

There was another hallway at the back of the meeting room. In it were eight doors with 4 on each side. Ember went to the second one on the left and gestured at the handle.

“You’re the only one who can open the door,” she said. 

“What is this?” Yuki asked.

“It’s lodging for the council members in case they need to rest or we have a particularly long stretch of meetings,” she explained. 

“Will there be enough room for six?”

“There will be. And it’s five. I have my own room near the entrance,” Ember said. 

“You can stay here if you want,” Akira offered.

“I’m fine,” Ember smiled. “It’s my duty to protect this place as long as a council member stays. It’s what I signed up to do, so I’m going to do it.”

“I understand,” Yuki nodded. “Come drop by whenever you want.”

“I’ll be going. See you in the morning,” Ember said with a wave before walking away.

Yuki twisted the knob of the door in front of her and pushed it open. Inside was a brightly lit chamber that was much larger than it should have been based on the outside. A king sized bed with scarlet sheets and covers was off to the side with its head against the wall. Most of the rest of the walls were filled with bookshelves. A dummy for fighting practice was pushed into a corner of the room. A scarlet carpet covered the floor.

Looking around some more, Yuki a few Japanese futons folded up neatly underneath the bed. She went over to them and pulled them out. 

‘Three or four could fit on the bed and there’s four futons here. I wonder if Sophie put these here. She must have had a lot of guests come and go.’

“Where do you all want to sleep?” Yuki asked as she sat down on the king bed. It was quite soft to the touch. The sheets felt like silk.

“I will be taking one of those ground mattresses, my lady,” Mathali said. 

“That’s fine. Anyone else?”

“That’s a big bed,” Erica commented. 

“It is. Want to share it?” Yuki asked. “I think it could fit four if you all are fine with a little less personal space.”

“I’m fine with that,” Akira said. “Yuna? How about you?”

“If you guys are fine with it, then I don’t mind,” she said. “Um, what time is it? We don’t sleep for a while, right?”

“Yeah,” Yuki nodded. “We’ll need to find something to do to pass the time. Get something for you all to eat later as well. Did any of you bring food? Akira?”

“I have some, yes,” she replied. “Leftovers from the outpost and a few unopened meals. I brought extra since I didn’t know how we would be traveling.”

“Enough for all of us?”

“Should be. We could give some to Ember too if she’s hungry.”

“She’s fine,” Yuki said. “Well. Let’s find something to do until night. I’ll be doing some reading.”

Hours passed by as Yuki browsed the shelves of books Sophie had. Each bookcase was organized neatly with each one having a different subject. The ages of the books varied greatly with some being worn scrolls and others hardcovers with their pages still quite white. 

When the time for dinner came, Akira took out the food she had stored away. Yuki reheated it using her magic and ate a little. Then they went back to doing what they were doing before.

Normally, Yuki would have felt as if this was a waste of time. Sitting around doing nothing but reading felt unproductive. But since Kilik had said that they would be meeting the next day, Yuki felt that there was something important that he wanted to say. 

They went to bed later. Mathali set up near the door while Yuki went to the bed with Akira, Erica, and Yuna. They shifted around to make sure everyone was as comfortable as possible before drifting off to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Yuki snapped awake. She looked around trying to find what had awoken her before she felt the ground vibrate, the bed shaking with it. It felt like a small earthquake.

‘Where’s it coming from?’ she thought as she slipped out of bed. 

She put her shoes on and stepped out of the room, her ears open and her eyes scanning. The shaking was growing stronger as an angry voice reached her. It was coming from the main room.

Peeking into the meeting room from the shadows of the hallway, she saw Kilik standing up as he was confronted by a group of three. The shaking seemed to be coming from the one in the middle as he argued with Kilik. Yuki could feel the mana.

‘What’s going on?’ she thought.