10: The Council's Prisoners

A kilometer away from the West Gate, Gabriel stopped the knight and Cleo. He paused for a second, trying to put the right words together in his head, but gave up after a short amount of time. "We're going to tie you up!" He blurted out.

The knight, prepared for him to say this, put up his arms. Cleo, on the other hand, was appalled. "What? Why tie us up now, this makes no sense."

"But it does," Gabriel replied in a serious manner. "If I waltz into the tower with two unrestrained prisoners, one of them which isn't even expected to be there, the archmagi have reason to suspect I'm plotting against them and throw me in their dungeon."

Gabriel gave her a short glare as she opened her mouth to deliberate this choice. She closed it again after realizing her situation. This didn't change the fact that Cleo still wanted to argue with Gabriel about the decision, after all, she doesn't have any good memories of being arrested, or even being tied up for that matter.

As their hands were tied, both of them felt a draining sensation coming from the rope. Cleo felt incredibly weak and began stumbling around. It had been so long since she had been restrained with mana draining equipment. She looked at the knight, hoping she could see him struggling as well. However, her confidence was crushed as the knight was visibly unaffected by the restraints.

"You know I am capable of destroying these, right? It's unconvincing if you use something this low quality, Gabriel."

Gabriel took a long, skeptical look at the knight before retorting. "Oh, do try. I'd love to see you break out of these."

The knight paused, wondering if it was a trap. He decided it wasn't and began to try to summon his mana and break the ropes. There was no mana. He couldn't feel it no matter how hard he tried. The knight wondered if Gabriel had done something special to the rope, but quickly realized the one thing he had been denying since the fight with Cerberus. He wasn't Augustus anymore. There was no way for him to break the ropes if he couldn't use magic. He sighed and gave up. He saw no merit in trying any longer.

Gabriel looked at the knight, and subtly nodded his head. Knowing his suspicions were now somewhat affirmed, he turned back towards the gate and shouted in his usual manner. "Welp, now that we're done with cuffing you guys, let's all head to the tower!"

Both Cleo and the knight groaned in unison. Cleo was already sick with Gabriel's attitude, and the knight wondering how Gabriel hadn't been killed by the first archmage by now.

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By the time the party had entered the tower, they had been stripped of their armed escort. The kingdom's knights weren't allowed to enter the tower under any circumstances. Once the armed escort had left them at the foot of the tower, Gabriel stripped himself of his armor in a blinding light, once again dawning his formal robe. Cleo still couldn't help but be amazed at the detailing of the constellations and galaxies on his robe.

Noticing Cleo staring at him, he fluffed his robe a bit. "I hope you aren't thinking of trying to overpower poor me when I'm so defenseless. If so, you're dead wrong. You would be dead ten times over by not only me but the tower defenses if you even had a hint of bloodlust in you."

Hearing this, Cleo jumped back a bit and the knight shuddered. Cleo knew the tower would have defenses but didn't know they could be so powerful. The knight, on the other hand, remembered his grueling training to conceal his emotions when fighting.

Once they had recovered, Gabriel took them inside of the tower and up the stairs. After about twenty minutes of walking up the spiral staircase, they went through a large set of double doors, made entirely of black marble.

On the other side of the doorway was a spectacular room. The obsidian floor was so smooth and polished that one would be able to see their reflection in it. The walls curved up from the floor and meeting together at the center of this large, oval shaped room. The walls seemed to be made of silk dyed with a pattern of the cosmos, but if one looked closely, the stars and galaxies were shifting around ever so slightly. The room was about twenty meters at its width, and thirty-five meters long. About halfway to the center of the room, there were eight large thrones congruent to the elliptical shape of the walls. The thrones were all made of polished obsidian, but with their sharp edges and flat backs, they looked extremely uncomfortable. The backs of these chairs tapered off into a point about a half a meter above where the head would be. The last ten centimeters of each back were made of amber, with some kind of burning flame encased within the amber. Each throne had a different color flame inside of it, which was so bright it even changed the color of the amber to the flame's sheen. The only exception was the throne to the right-middle. There was no flame encased in the amber point. In the center of the room was a hologram of an entire galaxy, constantly moving on its own, as if time was sped up on the model.

Even though he had seen this room a thousand times, the knight had never appreciated the look of it. After his long journey, he really could see the beauty of the room. Cleo was dumbstruck. She didn't know this level of decoration was possible.

Gabriel looked at the two of them while shaking his head in embarrassment. "You two can close your mouths anytime, you know." The two prisoners quickly complied, even more embarrassed than Gabriel.

Suddenly, people in robes filled most of the lit chairs. Gabriel was no longer beside them, insead sitting in the chair directly in front of the door. Cleo looked around for the knight, but he wasn't next to her anymore. The knight was struggling against his bonds in the middle of the room. When she blinked, opening her eyes, she realized that she was now next to the knight in the center of all the chairs. The constellation in the center of the room had been turned off, and they were kneeling where it once was.

A booming voice filled the room. "Augustus Draconis and Cleo Lucius. You are before the council of the archmagi." The source of the voice stood up, it was the one in the chair opposite of the door. "I am the archmage of brevity, otherwise known as the first archmage. You are both charged with crimes that will be dealt with by the council… tomorrow. As you can tell, the fifth is not present at the moment, so the trial will be moved to the next day he is available. Due to the silencing order, both of you will be spending the night in our dungeon."

Suddenly, Gabriel spoke up. "Excuse me, your wondrous amazing highness the first archmage of brevity, but we don't exactly have a dungeon, so can I make them a comfortable room? No offense, but based on this poor choice of council seating, I really doubt they would be very comfortable if you made their rooms."

The first heaved a large sigh, frustrated with Gabriel's heavy mocking of his title. After a moment, he complied. "Very well," he said. "Just don't let them escape. I trust you will make the room in a place accessible by the entirety of the council, so I'll leave you to that honor." The first put a slight emphasis on the word 'honor,' as if speaking the word was repulsive to him. "Council dismissed."

Suddenly, all of the chairs were once again empty, and the mages were nowhere to be seen. A voice echoed throughout the room, originating from the doorway. "Follow me!" It was Gabriel.

He took them up the stairs about one story and stopped. He then pulled out a staff and uttered a long incantation. Suddenly a door appeared before them. It was a modest wooden door with nothing special about it.

On the other side of the door was a very cozy cabin area. The walls were made of refined planks of wood. It wasn't polished but it still looked beautiful. On the opposite wall was a large stone fireplace with a small fire burning. Hanging off the mantle was an assortment of pots and pans, and to the side was a collection of cooking utensils and a stoker for the fire. On either side of the room was a twin sized bed with a long chest at the foot of it. The beds each had a soft blue top cover with cream colored sheets below it.

"How do you like it? It's cozy, right? I modeled it off of the cottages I saw when passing that village on the way to your location. I guessed it might have been your home, Cleo. The beds are much more comfortable than they look, trust me. I made the mattresses fluffy but supportive. You will feel like a million gold when you wake up."

Both the knight and Cleo noticed something odd about the room. Cleo was the first to vocalize her concerns. "There are… two… beds" she said, counting a few more times to make sure she wasn't seeing anything.

Gabriel, expecting her concern, was ready with a solution. "Oh, I see! Would you rather have a double bed then? I suspected you might have felt that way." he said, winking at her.

The knight spoke while Cleo was still studdering, appalled by the joke this grown man had made. "How about a separate room?"

Once the knight had suggested that, Gabriel's playful expression was wiped from his face as if hit by an ocean swell. "I can't do that, you are prisoners. We need to keep you together. It's much easier for us to watch over you two this way. Even if you two teamed up and escaped, you wouldn't make it past the city gates. Also, you two are pretty much partners in crime. If you two were complete strangers, I would be more worried about you two being together, but that isn't the case. Anyways, I also believe you owe cleo a long conversation, so this should help. I left some food in a cupboard to the left and you have everything you need for a conversation over a nice homey meal."

Gabriel untied the two and walked out of the room, closing the door on his way. They heard a loud click as it closed, signifying that Gabriel had locked it. The knight put his rucksack at the bed on the left and sat down. Gabriel was right, he did owe Cleo a very long explanation.