"Zephiel sent out several search parties, but your mother was gone without a trace," Perceval was wrapping up his story, "Ultimately, we learned she had joined the military with your father as scientists, but by then, your great-grandmother had passed. Furthermore, when your aunt became Supreme Witch, she forbade anyone to go after her sister."
"It sounds like I do take after her after all," Emory held back her tears, "In my memories, I can only remember how sweet, kind, and gentle she was. Thank you for telling me."
Shanna added, "In truth, your mother was probably more gifted than Lady Cassandra, but she was just so young. Perhaps, this is our chance to make a better choice. Anyway, it's time to get you and your friends ready." She clapped her hands and slowly rose for the chair before taking Emory's hand and leading her back to her room. Emory hated the idea of dressing up, but seeing there wasn't a choice in the matter, she begrudgingly followed along.
Before trying on clothes, she got into the bath first. She had to admit that it was the most relaxing bath she had ever taken between the luxurious faucet settings and the lavish smelling soaps. Once she was out, she barely had time to throw on a towel before Shanna bolted in to start working on her hair. After forty-five minutes, her long luscious curls had been tamed, right as Gwen and Sam entered the room to check on Emory.
"Good, now I don't have to wake you two up as well," Shanna smiled as she finished the last of the curls, "Wait on the bed. I'll go get some more hands." She stuck her head out of the door and called for some servants to help. After two Ide Clan women popped into the room, all three older women quickly began sprucing everyone up. Due to the importance of the day, just a nice robe wasn't going to cut it. Shanna found undergarments and corsets for the three young women to wear under the robes. One of the helpers left for a few minutes and returned with three square, flat boxes and separated them on the floor.
"I think this will work best with your accessories. Try it on and tell me what you think," Shanna prodded Emory as she handed her a pearl robe all folded up. Emory, with help, put on the robe and twirled in a circle for a moment. When she spun, the robe sparkled like a diamond with glittering magik dropping from the end. She walked over to her bed, put on her gauntlets, and turned to the large mirror. Her bright red curls ran past her shoulders but seemed to shine extra brightly while her gold and silver gloves matched perfectly with her silvery pendant and pearl robe. As she turned back, she saw that her friends had the same-colored robes with one slight difference: a crimson trim outlined Gwen's robe while a forest green outlined Sam's.
"Emory, you look stunning," Sam squealed, "Like royalty!"
Gwen agreed, "You look the part. Every Supreme Witch and Warlock I've seen pictures of from the Aurelias Clan looks like you do. You're regal and dignified." Emory, being how she was about dressing up, gave an angry look to her friends before smiling and nodding as she returned to face Shanna.
"It suits you very well, Lady Aurelias," Shanna bowed slightly as she encouraged Emory, "I imagine it is almost time for people to start arriving. Gwen and Sam, you two should wait in the sunroom for now; Emory, you can wait in the meeting room. You can ask Franz to show you to your seat as I must get ready myself." Shanna excused herself and left the room with the other servants while the three girls stood anxiously for a minute.
"What do you two think about all this? I feel completely overwhelmed, but I think this is the right move to make," Emory squeaked out.
"No one can deny your right to sit on the Council, that much is guaranteed," Sam assured her, "And you're probably the strongest member of the Council, so while there may be resistance, you should still be fine. I think it's the right call if you're okay with it."
Gwen nodded, "Don't let my father get you all riled up, but if he challenges you to a duel, don't hold back. He's a level five in Blood and close to that in Storm as well, so he can take a punch and give it back too. And don't forget about all your friends behind you; we've got your back, no matter what."
"Thank you both," Emory smiled as her eyes got watery, "You two are my closest friends and I couldn't do this without you." Gwen and Sam lightly patted Emory on the back before all three girls headed out. All the servants stared at the girls' beauty as they moved through the house. Emory dropped the pair off in the sunroom before returning to the Council room. She didn't want to ask Franz for help at first because she assumed the chairs must be specific to the Clan. Sure enough, after she investigated the chairs, she found what she guessed to be the different Clans' insignia pressed into the back with an iron. Just as she found her chair, Lilina walked through the door in a forest green robe and black leather boots with her hair up in a green bob.
"Did you find your chair? I wanted to get here a little bit early in case you couldn't," Lilina grinned.
"How do these meetings normally go?" Emory asked as she sat down, "Is there a lot of business to go over?"
Lilina paused before sitting as well, "Generally, Perceval runs these meetings. He prefers to keep things brief and civilized, but we'll see if that changes with your arrival. Since it's a quarterly meeting, we'll probably deal with your situation first before going into the latest discussion: the Mantoan."
"Maybe I should have brought Athos or Bramimond along," Emory mumbled, "Hopefully it won't be too difficult to convince others of the real threat."
"If nothing else, take solace in the fact that you won't have to convince others of your heritage," Lilina giggled.
"Why not?" Emory questioned with a puzzled look on her face, "I thought I'd have to show my spellbook at least."
Lilina pointed behind Emory, "You might have if your chair didn't recognize you. Look at it since you've sat down." Emory looked down at the sides without getting up and immediately saw the strands of magik lighting up the outline of the chair. She smiled and blushed a little; even if she didn't feel like she belonged here, sign after sign indicated that she was indeed meant to be here. While they waited for more people to arrive, Emory traced the magik arrays on the chair with her fingertips as more and more lit up while Lilina continued to watch the ginger beauty and smile at her childlike antics. The elder witch had to remind herself that, despite all the power this young woman had, she was barely eighteen years old and had grown up away from mass use of enchantments. In Emory's mind, this wasn't the level Athos described the Fae home world but much more impressive than anything she had ever seen. Without a doubt, if the rest of humanity lived like this, they would skyrocket into the future.
After waiting for about fifteen minutes, two men and a woman, all appearing to be in their mid-thirties, entered the room but froze as soon as they laid eyes on Emory, giving her time to study them. Both men were slightly above average height, had thin, fit bodies, wore their rather long hair the same way. However, the man wearing an orange robe had dark blue hair while the one wearing a sick yellow hair had matching light blonde hair. Surprisingly, the woman, though, looked somewhat similar to Emory herself. She had shoulder length orange-red hair but straight; she was slightly below average height with a smaller frame which made grey robe drag on the floor. Her voice cracked as she asked, "So it's true? There's a new Lady Aurelias?"
"Hello, my name is Emory," she said as she stood up and walked towards them, "It's nice to meet you."
"My name is Cath Knoll. I didn't believe my own senses when you got here yesterday, but to see you in person and so young, I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around it," the woman squeaked as she extended her hand to Emory who shook it right away.
"I'm Galle Ewan," the man in the orange robe added, "It's a real pleasure to meet an Aurelias in person."
Finally, the man in the pale-yellow robe introduced himself, "And I'm Elffin Riev. May I ask how old you are, Lady Emory?"
"I'm nearly eighteen and a half," Emory replied sheepishly, "You three are all close to my age too, right?"
"Oh, that's so sweet! Well, we are three of the youngest Witches and Warlocks in the Council," Cath giggled. Then the three newcomers waved to Lilina before grabbing their chairs and dragging them close to Emory's, much to Lilina's amusement.
Once they all sat down, Galle spoke first, "So, is it true you grew up in the outside world, away from the Council?"
"Yep, that's true," Emory smiled, "Actually, this is my first time on Earth; I grew up on Mars. Have you all ever been off Earth before?"
"Mars? That's incredible. Unfortunately, none of us have ever been off Earth before. What's it like out there?" Elffin questioned.
"Mars is nice. The habitats are supposed to mimic real life on Earth, but it's not the same. There's no natural wildlife or geography; everything is carefully designed for specific purposes," Emory admitted, "I've been to other places besides Mars though, beyond the Sol System. Actually, I just came from Wolf 1061 which is fourteen light years away, but I was staying on a planet named Yuzuno in the Ross 128 system."
Cath gasped, "You've been outside the Sol System! That's insane. Have you met other life on those planets, besides the Mantoan I mean?"
"Believe it or not, the worlds we've explored are teeming with life, though I suppose you mean intelligent life," Emory answered with excitement, "Well, I'll explain more later, but the short answer is yes. In fact, the intelligent life I found on my planet was none other than the Fae!"
"Hold up. You mean you found the Fae, like the people who taught us magik?" Galle's jaw dropped.
Emory nodded, "On my family's name, I swear. That's my main reason for coming here." Cath, Elffin, and Galle were so dumbfounded that drool began to seep out of the corner of their mouths. "Enough about me," Emory grinned, "Why don't you tell me about yourselves?"
"I'm leader of one of the newest Clans which practices the Lava sphere. Not quite Flame and not quite Earth, it's the only Primal sphere kept by the Council after the rest of humanity learned of magik," Galle explained.
"We of the Knoll Clan also practice a newer sphere called the Death sphere. It's a Dark sphere with a more natural feel than the rest of the corrosive similar spheres," Cath added, "Many in our Clan also practice the Frost sphere."
Elffin finished, "And we practice the Entropy sphere. Though it's technically a Dark sphere, it's much more of a debuff sphere opposite of the Creation sphere without the added effects."
"Cath and Galle, you said you were from newer clans," Emory paused, "What do you mean by that? As I said, I don't know very much about the Council."
"Well, one hundred fifty years ago, our clans broke off from the Romanovs. There's a lot more to it than that, but for now, you just need to understand that our clans weren't part of the Original Nine," Cath elaborated.
"The Original Nine? I'm sorry, I haven't heard that term before," Emory apologized, "Could you give me a quick explanation of that?"
Galle chimed in, "The Original Nine were the nine clans that first learned magik from the Fae. They are the Aurelias, Grado, Grey, Ide, Orson, Rice, Riev, Romanovs, and Violet Clans, each one of which has a clan-specific sphere and then allows their witches to practice one of the free spheres. Most of the time, clan witches learn their specific sphere before others, but those that join the clan through marriage or bond are usually the opposite. Of course, I'm sure you understand that some families may switch between clans due to marriage or, in your case, Contract and Seal. It's generally frowned upon for those witches and warlocks that know a different clan's specific sphere to teach others that sphere, but as long as they don't do that, it's mostly okay."
"I suppose that makes sense to a degree," Emory shrugged, "It's definitely different than in the rest of the world, but I can see why clans would be protective over their particular spheres." The three younger councilors continued to barrage Emory with questions about the worlds she had visited, and Emory continued to indulge their curiosity by describing the travel, the landscapes, and the wildlife she and her friends had encountered.