The Hidden World

The next meeting took place at site five. It was hidden underneath a swamp that had no path into it. To get into it, Yuki dropped down a particular section of the water that was nothing more than an illusion. 

She got the location from that receptionist in Dyrin. Ember had explained the codes to her along the way so that she wouldn’t need Ember there to interpret. There were five words that were used, each one indicating one particular site. They were all descriptor words like fantastic and excellent.

‘Quite simple,’ Yuki thought as she sat in her seat of stone. 

The only other person in the meeting chamber was Kilik as they waited for the rest of the council to come in. Yuki’s group was standing at the corner of the chamber. Yuki brought them in with the intent of introducing them to the council for their approval. 

‘If I can get them to act faster, then having their approval would mean I can get right to work,’ she thought.

With that, her thoughts shifted to what she planned to show to the council members. She considered what she should say and how she would say it. She already planned out everything the day before, but now was as good as a time to review over the plan. 

‘I need to prepare for that worst case scenario,’ she sighed inwardly. ‘The council might rule to wait and see if the speech goes through since it’s not official yet.'

She could see why they would do that even if that decision would be completely insane to her. There was always that off chance that the speech was scrapped or the contents within it were changed. 

But with the analysis of the speech she made the night before with the help of Akira and Uriel, she was cautiously confident in her chances of swaying the council. 

‘I could be surprised though. I do believe that my theory is rock solid though. I’m almost one hundred percent certain I know the plan that the Shikaku are laying out. I just hope the others can see it as well.’

A few minutes later, the first members began to enter the chamber. The first were Veronica and Garen. Yuki greeted them and they responded in kind. Kilik gave them a brief look of acknowledgement before going back to whatever it was he was thinking about. As Yuki looked at him, she hoped that he would keep the promise he made and support whatever she said. 

The rest of the council came within five minutes. They were greeted with varying degrees of warmth as they took their seats. When they all gathered, Kilik sat up straighter in his seat and looked around.

“We are all here,” he said. “Let the meeting commence. Today’s agenda is a discussion on our proposed plans to strike the Shikaku. We’ll begin with an introduction and explanation to each person’s plan then we shall move to the debate. Vernon will lead off the introductions.”

“There’s really no need for me to do that,” Vernon replied with a laugh. “You already know my side. I want to strike immediately. Slam them so that they never knew what hit them.”

“Noted,” Kilik sighed. “Moving then. Jared.”

The seat of lightning straightened up and began to explain the plan he had created. It seemed to be an adapted version of one of the plans Yuki had offered in the files she gave to them all. It involved creating a strike force that would target the leadership of the Shikaku rather than going for the base.

Next came Veronica who offered up a wide scale operation to root out the Shikaku. Kilik was next in line, but he declined to offer a plan, saying that he would follow whatever the council voted on. 

“I will give my remarks after this,” Yuki said when it was her time to introduce her own plan. “I do want to say that I brought the members of the team I am offering to be the strike force. You can question them after as well.”

Kilik accepted that and the line moved on to Vermilion and then to Garen. While listening to all of their plans and explanations, Yuki noticed a distinct similarity between all of them.

‘These all will take too much time,’ she thought.

Assassination would require reconnaissance and delicate planning. Attacking the base through covert means would also require planning which the ones who offered that idea didn’t seem to have. It sounded like they were planning to delegate that to the strike force that they haven’t selected. 

‘Besides Vernon’s, these aren’t feasible at all.’

Then came Halie’s plan. Her’s started off much like how Yuki expected it to be based on what she had said in the previous meeting. She wanted a strike force as well that would then target the base of the Shikaku. But something had changed. Her tone.

“I spent most of my days between this and the last meeting reading,” she said. “The information you have gathered, Yuki, is exemplary. It added much needed context to what we had and gave us new information that we previously didn’t have. I thank you for that.”

“It was thanks to my team,” Yuki replied with a smile. 

“Then I extend my thanks to them,” she said. “Upon reading, I realised that the Shikaku aren’t a normal dark guild. Their reach is far and their resources are alarming. But what worries me the most is that they aren’t, if I put it bluntly, stupid. I reckon they know of the oath we took. So that begs the question, why are they invoking it?”

‘She’s sharp,’ Yuki thought, her interest renewed as she saw Halie through a new lens. 

“They are planning something—I can feel it,” Halie muttered. “So I will revise my position from before. I do believe it will be in our best interests to strike as soon as possible. We should work directly with the strike force selected for this task so that we can simultaneously create and approve a course of action.”

She gestured at Yuki.

“If the group of people Yuki here has gathered passes our inspection and is large enough, then I believe we should stop our own searches and use them. That is my plan.”

‘This changes things a tad bit.’ Yuki smiled to herself. ‘Positively though.’

“Thank you, Halie,” Kilik said. “We go back to Yuki now, I believe. You requested to speak after everyone else, correct?”

“I did,” Yuki nodded. She took a breath. “Let me start this off by saying thank you to Halie for looking at the information I gave to you all in its entirety. I’m glad that you were able to see what I saw. Now, I will do what you thank me for and will provide context and new information to your conclusion.”

She tapped her watch and summoned the file of the speech that she had obtained. She projected it for everyone to see.

“This is a draft of a speech my people obtained a day ago,” she said. “I do believe it will change the narrative of this meeting and its purpose completely. Why might you ask? It is because the contents of this speech are alarming.”

With a few gestures, she sectioned off parts that she highlighted and made them bigger so that they were easy to read.

“The topic of the draft is the national security of Libra. A fairly common topic that is quite normal for a government to give a speech on. However, the sections I am displaying contain subtopics that you all should find worrying at the very least. 

“Demons a central focus in this speech. Nearly a third of it is dedicated to the topic of demons and not in a good way. It describes us as threats to the national security of their country. Absurd, I know. And they know that as well. It is merely fear mongering that feeds off of present bias against us. Then it gets worse.”

She made some of the quotes disappear.

“These quotes are the main source of my concern,” Yuki said. “They accuse us of planting agents into their society that are waiting for the time where we give them a signal that lets them strike. To curb the obvious questions, they provide ‘evidence’. They say that they have already found some of these agents and plan to show video evidence of this. Let me tell you where this evidence comes from.”

Yuki leaned forward in her seat.

“They will show those prisoners they have kidnapped and starved,” she hissed. “They will show them as they resist their impending death and call it evidence of those demons wanting to destroy their country. Everyone will eat it up. The Shikaku will make sure of that. They have people in entertainment and the media who will undoubtedly use their influence to sway popular opinion. 

“So where are they going with this? It says so right there.” She pointed at one of the quotes. “They will announce a purge of demons in the cities of Libra. Doesn’t that sound familiar?”

“They want a second Demon War?” Jared said incredulously. “No one in their right mind would want another one.”

“But here before you is a document that hints otherwise,” Yuki said. “So the question, like Halie said, is why? Why do they want this? They probably do know about the oath. So why are they goading us? The answer is simple.”

She erased all the screens in the room and the chamber dimmed.

“They want us to strike,” she said. “They want us to attack after they begin to purge our people. Then they can point at us and say that we have proven their fears right. Then they will take over. This is their coup de grace.”

“Sorry, their what?” Veronica asked.

“This is the culmination of all that they worked for,” Yuki replied. “Every move they made was to set up this. They want power. They want control. If we delay our actions, then we play right into their hands. In four days, this speech will be delivered and the purges will begin. We must move before that begins.”