Azure followed Lira inside the council room. It was a rather large circular marble room with a large table where the entire council could meet and discuss important decisions.
The Elven Council consisted of the Spymaster, Chairman, Steward, Marshal, and Great Cleric, who was in charge of all divine communions.
Each of them was powerful, and their words held great weight.
However, as Azure and Lira entered the council room, she noticed the lack of those important people. Each chair was empty, and the magical lights were extinguished.
"Lady Lira, what are we doing in the council room?"
Lira sighed, "Many questions you have? Don't you, Great Champion, Azure Hallowshield?"
Azure's ears perked up. In an instant, her stance shifted, and her hands trembled; she had to be ready to fight this woman despite her being the Spymaster of her beloved kingdom.
Lira approached the Spymaster's seat, a chair made of solid oak and with dark cushioning with a webbed pattern to symbolize the darkness of shadows the spies had to navigate the webs of lies. On it was a golden embroidery of a snake.
She tapped the table twice before taking a seat.
She leaned forward and placed her hands on the table. "Azure Hallowshield, I have an important duty for you."
Lira seemed to scan Azure from top to bottom; she knew the girl was uneasy around her, yet she had a distinct lack of care in her demeanor.
"Duty?"
"Yes, something you are a … prime candidate for." Lira chuckled as her face darkened.
"A prime candidate?" Azure's eyes widened as she felt something extremely wrong behind Lira's gaze.
Lira placed her palms on the table and pushed herself up, "Why such unease? I am one of the people you are supposed to trust with your life, you know?"
"I would be a lousy champion if I trusted anyone with my whole life." Azure chuckled, despite doing that very thing with Aqua. Lira's grin widened as she continued speaking, which made Azure tremble in unease.
Something is wrong.
Lira was far too calm and spoke about something that worried her greatly. "What can I do for you, my Lady?"
"It's not what you can do to me, but what you can do to someone." Lira's smile faded as she kept her distance from Azure. Despite being a powerful mage, someone like Azure would have cut her down before she could blink.
She raised her brow as she attempted to step closer to Lira, yet she kept walking away from her.
Does she expect a fight?
It was natural to be worried, but not with someone who was supposed to be her ally. "Tell me."
Azure quit trying to close the distance and took the seat of the Grand Cleric.
A sweet smell invaded her senses.
"You will become a puppet of the Great Inquisitor and get rid of Soleah for me; she is far too smart for her own good. And after that, you will be a good girl and kill yourself." Her face twisted into a mad grin.
"Huh?! What are you saying?!" Azure frowned as she attempted to jump out of the seat, yet she found herself unable to move.
"You elves are so easy to guide and manipulate. Truly, the race without a wit of their own."
Some kind of gas filled the room, and Azure felt her mind get foggy.
"Azure Hallowshield, you, as the Champion, symbolize the power of this wretched kingdom. I had tried so hard to get rid of you, yet you get defended by the royals." She sighed as she approached Azure, who could only watch.
"In a way, you have Soleah to blame for this; if she had just ordered your execution, she would have lived, and this would have ended with your life." Lira shook her head.
No. No. You won't win over me! She gritted her teeth as she fought against the strange paralytic effect of the smoke. "You… snake!"
Lira laughed, the smoke apparently not affecting her. "But of course I am. After all, I am the one who sits in the seat of the Snake."
Azure stumbled out of the seat as she pushed herself to the absolute maximum; no matter what, she could not let Lira get away with this.
"Stop resisting, puppet. Just let the poison work its magic, and then I will take over your mind so you can at least be useful to the goals of the Great Inquisitor." Lira's laugh grated against her ears.
She did not have her weapon, but she would not fall without a fight. She channeled the Aether and formed a spike of earth above her.
"Magic?! [Counterspell]" A spectral powder swirled around Azure and attempted to consume the spell, yet it failed.
In a moment of shock, Azure launched the spike toward stunned Lira, which, despite her shock and being directly hit, only had her clothes torn.
She patted herself down. "I did not expect you to use magic, or more precisely, some kind of trick, as you have no catalyst or any means to cast, hah." Lira approached her as her consciousness faded.
Azure Hallowshield would become a puppet of the Inquisitor and finally be put to good use.
Sorry, Aqua, I really did not want to bother you with our issues, but please save us again. With a smile, she slipped into a blissful state of mindlessness.
***
Lira patted down her clothes; the spike she had been hit with was far too powerful to have been a mere trick; she winced slightly.
She had dealt with worse. The gas she released in the room knocked the champion down, which would allow her to fulfill her plan.
"If you only could have been executed like I asked, all of this could have been avoided."
She approached Azure and, with strength unbecoming of a mage, placed her at the seat of the Great Cleric. She had made sure the guard around the council room was lax, and thus she could take time rewriting Azure just enough to assassinate the queen.
If she were successful, Soleah, who was a thorn in her arse for years, would be dealt with, and the strongest warrior in the elven military would die. She placed her hand on Azure's forehead.
I will have to hide the trail. She had planned on this, so she had 'convinced' some young elves to come and collect the champion. As if on cue, two muscular elven males made their way inside the council room.
She had lacked the shards of time Red Dawn usually provided; however, they were not necessary for her mission.
"Boys, wait until I am done, then take her away. She will play a crucial role in due time." She reached under her dress and retrieved a small emerald wand.
It was reminiscent of a snake coiling around a hand that grasped a large emerald; however, what made it a perfect tool for someone like her was that it was small enough to fit in one hand and under the clothing, or even as a hair ornament.
She pressed it against Azure's forehead and closed her eyes.
"Become useful to us, what an honor a lesser being like you is getting, in a way, I am jealous." She giggled maniacally as she threaded mana through Azure's mind.
She had no plans to keep the champion under her spell for long; on the contrary, she only needed the puppet that she was about to create to kill Soleah and then herself. There was no point in wasting shards on someone like her, even if she had them on hand.
She had found a perfect cage for the puppet to be kept in before her time came.
The Inquisitor would surely be proud of her; she had worked hard to grasp the elven kingdom by the neck, and now it was time to get rid of two of the kingdom's most powerful assets in one fell swoop.
The tendril of her spell pierced her mind, yet it faced fierce resistance. She had not expected such an event.
"Huh, that's the so-called champion; even her mind is more resilient than others." She smiled as she poured even more mana into the spell. A feeble elven mind could try and resist, yet there was no way she would allow herself to fail.
It was one thing to fail against humans, but to fail against a lesser creature like an elf was a blemish on the great Inquisitor's honor.
The room crackled with power; it was almost suffocating, but Lira did not care. Azure was fully paralyzed, and thus, she could work on breaching the mind.
After a moment of struggle, she finally felt herself enter the mind of the champion. However, she felt two dangerous presences. One dark and twisted, and one as hot as the sun itself. Interesting.
Both entities seemed to take notice of her, so she had to work quickly.
Alas, it did not matter to her. She wrapped her spell around Azure's mind and retreated.
She nodded in satisfaction. "Boys, take her to the cage until my plan is ready." Instantly, the two goons approached and placed each arm around their shoulders. "Understood, mistress."
She clasped her hands together. Everything was perfect.
Now, I only need to get rid of that servant I saw around Soleah.