14 Chapter 14

Kapha opened his mouth to say something in reply, to try and defend himself, but was stopped halfway when suddenly Tarisi narrowed his eyes and glared at him. Cold sweat broke out on his back and despite the cool droplets of rain that fell on his back he couldn't help but sweat.

//"Well enough about that,"// Tarisi said with a wave of his hand, //"We can deal with it later, for now we have more important matters to attend to. Elders Yume and Chanis have arrived and since you're already here, you might as well join us."// Shocked dumb, Kapha could only close his mouth and nod silently.

With a quick side step, Kapha moved out of the way and allowed Tarisi to move passed him and meet with the new yemerey that just arrived. Both Yume and Chanis came with their own attendant. Yume arrived with a yemephu that burned with fire and surrounded by a slight mist almost constantly, while Chanis had come with a yemeru that came with a flying machine.

Elder Yume moved with slow and slightly unstable steps closer towards Tarisi. His white fur caught the light thrown by the flaming yemephu that flew beside his head. The downpour was heavy, yet despite this his hair remained as dry as ever. //"Tarisi!"// he cried out with much joy apparent in his voice, //"I wonder for what reason you would call out Chanis and an old, retired elder as myself."// His turned and looked at Kapha, with a slightly mischievous smile on his face. //"And you also brought out some young blood, isn't that nice.//"

//"Elder Yume,"// Tarisi and Kapha greeted with a bow and their hands placed over their hearts. Yume looked at both of them for a short moment, but he studied Kapha for a while longer.

//"Kapha was it?"// He asked to the still bowing Kapha.

//"Yes Elder, that is what I am called."// Kapha replied studiously.

//"Don't do the thing you have in your heart,"// Yume said seriously, //"It will only bring you much trouble. You may get up.//"

Kapha faltered for a moment, scared at the thought that he might have been found out, but he quickly put the thought out of his mind. After all the only reason Elder Yume had known was because he was an aged yemerey, with fully developed powers and a proper grasp of it. Also, if Elder Yume had wanted to expose him, he would have done so, instead of speaking so cryptically to him.

Kapha stood straight and nodded at the Elder Yume, who only smiled and shook his head slightly before turning to face the other Elder that had arrived. //"Ah! Chanis! You're still as young as ever. If I only looked double of your age I would not have been as lonely as I am today.//"

//"Elder Yume,"// Chanis greeted with a bow and a hand placed over his heart, //"You know very well that should you wish to look younger it won't cost you much to do so."// Chanis' fur was black with patches of white sprinkled all over, he was much more robust than Yume, and although they were almost the same height, he was still shorter than Yume. He walked and came to a stop before them, with fur just as dry as Yume's.

//"Bah!"// Yume exclaimed. //"Why should I give up my benefits as a highly respected older elder, just so that I can find it easier to spend time with the young women, is my wife not enough?"// Chanis coughed and turned his head slightly away and Yume noticing this slight movement smiled and turned his attention to the yemeru on the flying machine. //"So, who is this that you came here with, eh? He must be someone good for you to want to show him off here.//"

Chanis shook silently when he heard Yume. He coughed a bit before he began an introduction. //"This is, uh, Sharik, a bright young yemeru, I found in my territory. I have been training him for a while and just brought him out to show him somethings of the world, and since Tarisi just happened to call on me, I brought him along.//"

Yume chuckled. //"That's good,"// he commented before turning to face Tarisi, who had been watching, alongside Kapha, the two older yemerey converse mentally between themselves. //"Speaking of which, we haven't even found out the reason we were called here. I think it's about time we find out, don't you?"// Chanis tapped his chest twice in agreement.

//"So, Tarisi,"// Chanis said, //"Why have you called Elder Yume and I to the prisons?//"

Tarisi bowed without holding his hand over his chest, showing the closeness between the two. //"Elder Chanis, Elder Yume, I called you two here because there has been a problem with the prisoner that has been kept in the prisons below us.//"

//"I assume you're referring to the yemephu named Jean, that appeared before the council. The one that we assaulted based on the assumption that he had been taken over by some demon. The one that managed to reflect this young one's attack."// Elder Chanis said, pointing his finger at Kapha, causing him to turn his head slightly away. Tarisi tapped his chest twice. //"What happened to him?"// Elder Chanis asked.

//"The yemeru that was supposed to bring him up for execution earlier today, found him dead in the cell,"// Tarisi told them without beating round the bush. //"And what's more. His body seemed to have some kind of energy that allowed him to deflect the assault of a ganie and leave unscathed."// As soon as they heard the last part of Tarisi's statement, Chanis' face turned ugly as he frowned, while Yume merely smiled. //"While I suspect that the death of the yemephu is related to the demon,"// Tarisi continued, //"I still find no harm in bringing in more experienced individuals such as yourselves to investigate the root cause of the matter."//

Chanis thought for a while before he answered. //"Since you have asked for it, I'll certainly do my best to see what I can find, though I cannot say the same for Elder Yume."// Chanis turned to look at Yume who seemed to be scrutinising something about one of the two yemerey before them.

Chanis was about to begin discussions on how the investigations were going to go when Yume spoke to him mentally. //"What's this talk about a yemephu named Jean?"// he asked still seeming like he was studying one of the two yemerey before him.

//"Oh, it's a case that the council recently handled. I don't know too much about it, as I wasn't present at the time, but the interim I set in my stead told me about it."//

//"And what did he say it was about? My interest is quite piqued."//

//"He told me that the council had to judge a young yemephu named Jean,"// Chanis began, //"Who claimed to have been named by the rock on his chest. While I'm not really sure what they were trying him for, I was told that during the trial they discovered a demon attached to the yemephu. They believed that the demon had connections to the rock on his chest but the yemephu adamantly refused the idea that the thing on his chest was an evil entity.

//"The yemerey beside Tarisi, in an attempt to quickly handle the situation, or at least so I was told, attacked the stone only to have his attack get thrown back in his face, after which he then proceeded to convince the other yemerey's that attacking the demon was the only way to escape its fury, and so under a joint attack of the yemerey present in the council, they managed to apprehend the yemerey, although they found him unconscious.

//"While I don't agree with the methods they used to achieve their goals, as a member of the council myself I have to stand behind them and support the decision like it was made by me."//

Yume nodded almost imperceptibly before sending back, //"This Kapha sure has a way with words."//

After their mental conversation ended Yume finally spoke up. //"Since the council has decided it, I will do my best to investigate into the matter, but for now let us go back and plan on how we are going to investigate it. The body is not running away and neither is the evidence, so there's no need to worry."//