Ash sat down in her designated seat, second to Akiye to Bree's right. everyone else sat down as they saw fit. Karn was in Akiye's spot and Akiye in Karn's spot. Dwera was at the end of the table and Vance was next to Bree, while Drew, surprisingly chose a seat next to her. It looked like Drew was avoiding eye contact with Vance and Vance stared at the table to Bree intently.
"So, what is this about?"
"The chancellor has given us a lifeline to survive. He wants us to organize the representative elections."
"That's like asking the cast away bird to help other group of birds with their leader." Arabella said, sitting on the sofa at the far end of the room by the wall. She had her eyes closed, in her half selkie, half human form. Her voice came out weak.
"Unique analogy. Thank you Arabella. It is indeed a difficult task but if we can pull it off, we can show the management that they need a student council to rely on."
Ash added, "the chancellor has been swapped with work. I am guessing, all the student file for their case directly to him. The college, as far as I know, never had a central management system on record. Which means internal matters were mostly handled by the student committee."
"You mean the chancellor wants us back?" Sven asked. Ash nodded, "he does. He is on our side but his hands are tied by the board."
Vance shook his head, "he cannot interfere with the matters of the students. Goes against the rules."
Ash felt at a loss of words. Somewhere deep down, she knew he was right and yet, right didn't always get the results. She threw back. "it does which is why he has not done anything so far. I am sure if he were to step in, things would get sorted much more quickly. And we all want Lady Bree's name to be cleared this year."
Vance finally looked at her, and his eyes slipped to Drew. Then he looked at Lady Bree, "B. He shouldn't interfere."
"And not clear B's name?" Karn spoke up. No one responded. Vance glared, "that's not what I meant."
"I know you think we can solve this on our own but even if we do, it doesn't matter if no one in the higher management will take our side and speak of our case to the board and having the chancellor favor us is a good thing. He is not interfering, he is letting us know that he is on our side."
Ash breathed deeply through her nose. Lady Bree said the words that sat at the tip of her tongue.
"But he is. By letting us handle the election, he is trying to tip the scales in our favor."
Ash asked, "and he shouldn't do that?"
Bree looked at her, blinked once, telling her to stop and turned to Vance. "If you think we should not take this election's responsibility, we will not."
Akiye and Sven asked, "we will not?"
Bree sighed, "if Vance can raise this query, surely someone else can too. If the chancellor is seen as favoring us, it weakens our defence and everything we are working towards. In the end, I don't want the results to be the result of someone's favor on us."
"When you put it like that..." Karn sighed. The meeting was over. Bree stood up, "I will wait for your decision here, tomorrow."
Vance looked at the people on the table, his eyes resting on her a little longer than usual. She could see the conflict in his eyes. Ash stood up with the rest, unable to look away from the deep red in his eyes. "Whatever you decide, we will get behind it. I still have other ways to get things done."
"It will be useless to bring you in if you didn't." Drew muttered and Vance looked to her. To Vance she said, "you can say no. I am with you, you know that."
It was not the words of a friend, her tone was dripping with sweetness. Ash looked at Drew and found the look on her face quiet familiar to that of Karlene. Something stuck her then. Drew and Vance were avoiding each other just now. Did something happen between them?
Unable to look at Vance anymore, she gathered her things and began moving. As she began to move out, the rest of them followed. Bree fell in step with her, "don't take him the wrong way. I know you are just doing you best for the council."
Anger and frustration rose in her heart. The urge to grit her teeth or throw something overcame her. Ash pressed her hands into her bag tightly and said as normally as she could muster, "please do not come to me defending him every time."
Each and every time, it was B or Akiye or Karn speaking up for him. While they were defending their friend, it was beginning to annoy her. It didn't matter to him what she thought so it was no matter to his friends to come defending him. Before Lady Bree could saything else. Sven joined them on the steps with Karlene behind them. The climb up was darker than usual.
"Don't mind him. He has always been like this. Give him some time to come around and he will see reason."
She could see Bree from the corner of her eyes shaking her head. Karlene snapped, "why do we have to accommodate your princess ass all the time? You should see his reason too."
Ash knew Karlene was right but none of what she was feeling was related to the matter of the council. However as soon as their small group turned up at the reception area, they came face to face with Mayra.
Mayra took one good look at her and looked around at her group and asked, "who do I need to put under?"
Ash smiled. Trust Mayra to know she was angry, not upset. She shook her head and put her turmoil down. "No one."
Mayra gave them each a death stare and Ash's smile widened. "Calm down Mayra. These are members of the council. This is Lady Bree, their leader and this is Sven BloodMooner and Karlene MoonBlessed."
Mayra's death stare turned to a huge smile. "Oh. I have heard about all of you. Nice to finally meet you. If you are done with the meeting, I will be taking my friend away. Thank you for having her."
Her siren friend locked their elbows together and turned her away, marching into the darkness, talking away as if the people she left behind were unimportant.
"It wasn't that cloudy when the night started but look now. The clouds are all over us. even the weather has been acting up lately."
Ash wasn't sure Mayra was talking about the weather. She patted her friend and said, "the night will go back to normal eventually."
Mayra smiled, "if you want to chat about it, I am here."
If Ash took Vance's name Mayra would be all over her. So she shook her head. "I don't need to chat. I need to vent. You don't happen to know where the local arena is. Do you?"
Mayra laughed, "unfortunately no. But I can find out."
However the arena reminded her of knights and knights reminded her of Vance again. With the way Vance and Drew had been today, bothered her far more than a difference in opinions. Before she could tell herself, she was running too far with a small crush, Bree Sven and Karlene had crowded her space.
Ash noticed they were turning around the forest and heading for the siren building. She asked, "where are we going?"
"The high priestess wanted to see you. We are going to her office."
"You don't have to inform everyone ahead of me about schedules and arrivals. We are not in Kalai anymore."
"But you are still the princess and I am here to take care of you. That reminds me, you didn't come to the siren class today. Are you dropping it?"
Ash smiled slightly. "Everything there is to learn about sirens or witches or cyclopes. I already know. I'd rather take the time to figure out what I want to do here."
"Are you trying out other things then?"
"Yes. I will go see the chancellor tomorrow and get details on other subjects they teach here."
"Alright. Let me know what you decide." Mayra dropped her off at the office and turned back, "I will see you after this."
Ash entered the office and found the high priestess looking at her, "come in and take a seat. We will start immediately."
Ash tried not to frown, keeping her composure, pushing away everything else she left behind in that meeting room. "Aren't I supposed to start with the other priestess and priests in training?"
The high priestess motioned towards the seat and Ash sat down. "Most of the witches and warlocks start with a basic understanding of what they can do. Once you can do that, we will move you to the first years training. There are only three other in that class beside you and they study basic things that I know must have covered in your training. While the others study witch history, and the basics of elemental magic, you and I will work together to figure what your abilities are and the extent of them."
Before Ash could formulate a response as small as a yes, the high priestess continued, "I couldn't save myself from noticing that you felt pretty upset when you came in. Did you notice the cooresponding thick clouds outside?"
"Are you saying the clouds are here because of me?"
"Not really. It is not the clouds that you command, but we will get to that later. Did you notice they were hiding the moon too much but its light."
Ash remembered seeing the moon's fain glow behind a nighcloud. "what of it? Apologies if I don't understand where this conversation is going."
The high priestess smiled. "then I will ask you a more direct question."
Ash prepared herself for more vague ideas but the high priestess' question was more direct than she anticipated.
"What was the seer doing when her magic, the ability she has superior control over backfired and leaked out of her?"
Ash's color drained at the implication in the question. For a moment she was rendered speechless. It was not the lack of answer but what the answer meant that stopped her.
"Did I... Was I the reason..." Ash couldn't find the right words to comprehend the horror.
"Are you saying I caused the old Madame to become like this?"
The high prietess gave her a somber look, as if she sympathised with the turmoil in her heart. How could she? "How can this be? How can I be the reason for the old Madame's condition? Was my magic related to causing darkness, like with the cloud or the weather outside?"
The high priestess joined her hands together. "I can understand why you might think that but that is not the case. the weather or the clouds are a response to your heavy emotional state. Right now, with your age and your lack of control over your ability causes certain things, things that can be easily influenced by magic, to react to your emotional state or strong desires."
"Like the blessing ceremony."
Ash knew that whatever the old Seer usually saw in her future intensified whenever she was around, which is why she did not want the old Seer to look into her future at all, specially in the presence of other people. When she had first met the chancellor, she had been reluctant to speak of her precarious situation on the island or her insecure future. The old Madame had given in to her then but she had poked into her future later.
"I wasn't around when old Madame tried to look into my future. I wasn't even in the room, or the mansion. I was heading out to look at the university."
"You were outside the front door to be precise. Even if you didn't know, she was still within the range of your influence."
"I clearly have no control over it but the range of influence seem to be quiet large."
"You are calmer now. Should we check the clouds outside?" The high priestess stood up and moved the draped from behind her chair. The night was more lively. There were no people on this side of the building but the moonlight was brighter than before, as if happy to have the clouds gone.
"Have you come to terms with it yet?" the high priestess asked as she let the drape fall heavily.
"Far from it but having an explanation is better than not knowing anything about it. If it is magic, even dark magic, then I can learn to control it, wield it. Right?"
The high priestess came around the table and took the chair next to her. "Yes. And now I want you to summon some darkness."
Ash frowned, "how?"
"Just like I told you. Use the strongest desire in your heart and think about the darkness. How does it look, feel, why do you want it. Want it with all your heart to be around you."
Ash closed her eyes and thought about the darkness. The darkness that was behind her eyelids to spread around her. The darkness that was outside to come in to fill the room and wrap her. If the darkness could be her blanket, she could be alone with her thoughts for a moment, she could take the time to process what she just heard. The desire to be sitting in the dark got stronger the more she thought about being alone.
"Very good."
Ash opened her eyes and blinked. She could barely see the lines of the high priestess's face in front of her, thanks to the little light flickering in the corner of the room. The entire room was dark. All the lights had gone out and the one remaining flickered in and out, struggling.
Surprise and evidence stared her in the face.
"I can summon darkness?"
"you can. How does it feel? Is it causing any strains in your body? Make you feel tired?"
Ash shook her head, then remembered to speak. "No. I feel normal."
"Then, next time we will do this in a bigger room. That's it for today. When you do back, don't try to experiment with it. We will first check the extent of your ability before you can start doing it on your own."
"Of course."
When Ash left, she could still see the darkness covering the room from under the door. She did wonder why the high priestess did not remove it quickly. Little did she know that the high priestess was putting inking a pattern on her table, in the darkness. The little light in the room had flickered out already and she couldn't see anything.
Once the circle was complete, she pricked her finger and let in a drop of blood. Light streamed out of the circle and pushed the darkness away, dispersing it back where it came from. The lights came on and on their glow the high priestess sat, sweating through the front of her dress, hair matted to the side of her face, eyes gaunt and red. Once the light was back on, she stood up from her spot and staggered to the wall. There, she sat down on a large chair and curled up, breathing heavily. And just like that she went to sleep.