Chapter 8

The doors of the mansion opened and each person made their way to their respective quarters. It was a well fought battle which had gone on for a fortnight but in the end it yielded good results and now it was time to relax and celebrate.

Johnathan most especially was in a good mood as he kept commending everyone in his house who partook of the war. As much as he had a goofy attitude and overall meek nature, he had earned the respect of all his house members due to his willingness to push them forward to do better.

"Jo!" a couple of voices which sounded like young children yelled from above Johnathan as he walked through the passage that led to the main hall. It was the voices of the children of the house as they were happy to see him return. They all ran downstairs, six in number and at the same time they hugged him to which he laughed.

"I thought you'd all be asleep by now." Johnathan asked.

"We wouldn't sleep until you came back." Said one f the kids. He was a boy of African descent with short a short afro and brown eyes.

"I couldn't sleep until my knight in shining armor returned." Said another kid. She had a country accent and was ginger in complexion. Her red hair was tied into two pigtails at the sides of her head and were the same color as the freckles on her face. She lay the back of her palm on her forehead while she closed her eyes and the other was out for Johnathan to take as though she was a damsel whose favorite knight had returned. Johnathan got on one knee, smiled and then took her hand which he kissed.

"Every single time! Aren't you tired of being a walking cringe." Said another kid whom looked bigger than the rest of them. He didn't act like a fanboy the way the other kids did. He was Caucasian and had short hair. He wore glasses and had this vague expression on his face as though he couldn't care less about what was going on.

"How was the battle?" He looked straight at Johnathan who was still on his knees and asked.

"Well, there was fire and blood, loads of blood and in fact I think I still have some on me…" as he said so all the kids yelled 'Ew' in disgust to which Johnathan just laughed.

"And you kissed my hand?!" The ginger girl said as she ran away to wash her hands. The boy with the glasses had a smirk on his face as the whole scenario went on.

"Johnathan!" A baritone voice rang behind him. Johnathan rolled his eyes before he turned to look at who had called him. It was a tall muscular mountain of a man wearing battle gear and had blood on his body. He had ebony skin and short dreads which he parted to the side. His gold eyes reflected the torches which were around the hall. He had a cigar in his mouth while he stood as he blew the smoke out his nose and gnashed his teeth which showed on his jaw muscles.

"Guess who made it back in one piece." Johnathan said sarcastically. There was silence in the room as the two of them stair at each other from across the hall.

"You?" the man asked rhetorically. He began walking slowly toward Johnathan and Johnathan did same.

"Oh, so you think because you made it back from war you're a hero now? How many ghouls did you kill?" Johnathan asked with an air of seriousness. Everyone around them just watched on in silence.

"About twice as many as you though I'm surprised a weakling like you made it back too. I could've sworn the ghouls would carve your eyes out and made them into a pair of make shift balls." The man said as he puffed smoke again.

"Well, you could try to do that too seeing as you lack them also." Johnathan snapped back.

"Slimy scum." The man said as he got closer.

"Irking Idiot." Johnathan replied.

"Floundering fool."

"Stupid simpleton."

"Madman!" they both then said at the same time as they came face to face for a brief moment. And then they hugged to which everyone around them yelled in amusement.

"You cheeky bastard." The man said.

"Well, show me your friends…" Johnathan replied.

"How are you?" The man asked.

"Reggie, I am joyous." Johnathan said with smiles as he continued walking. They had gotten to the main hall and then the doors opened. It was a bright room that was lit with fancy torches and a burning chandelier in the middle. To the left of the room was a table filled with a buffet of food and drinks to satisfy everybody.

Johnathan made his was around the room toward the podium on which he would address the house. Everyone had eyes on him as his speeches were always one to look out for.

He stepped on the podium and was about to speak when a member of his house came running in and then whispered something in his ears. He then looked at his people and then at Reggie before heading back outside.

"What seems to be the problem?" Reggie asked as he and Johnathan walked quickly toward the portal doors.

"I've been summoned to the council, apparently something came up that requires the presence of the house heads." Johnathan explained.

"Well, I shall come with you. It has been a while since I've stepped foot in the council room." Reggie commented to which Johnathan gave a nod of approval.

"It seems like we aren't done yet." A feminine voice echoed throughout the council room. The council members had a grave look on their faces as they pondered the situation before them.

"One can only wonder the horrors that would ravage the ethereal realm if such chaos is brought to this world." The Voice said again. It was that of a beautiful lady with white hair covered with a white hat to match her long robe which was silk lined with silver on the edges and had the crest of a serpent on it.

"We are going to have to send for the other house heads so they can mobilize their troops and center them on the locations which the ethereal energy levels are peaking." Said another one of the council members with a hazy voice, who was covered from head to toe in tape to only show his green eyes and on the tape was the crest of a turtle on it.

As they were discussing, Alexis came in and greeted the council members before proceeding to sit on her chair as a house head.

"What seems to be the problem?" She enquired.

"It seems as though the war isn't over; our scouts have picked up a break in the ethereal plane." explained the head of the serpent house.

"Well, then there isn't any time to waste; lets gather our troops and head there." Alexis said withy much enthusiasm.

"There is an issue though; the break occurred at the edge of the plane, almost as though something is syphoning the energy from a fixed point." The taped council member explained further.

"It's not something one house can handle alone." Reggie spoke to which everyone turned to look at him as he and Johnathan made their way in to the council hall toward Johnathan's seat.

"The none member of the council is refrained from speaking unless given the authority by the council itself." Stated another council member who was a bit elderly due to the gray locks on the sides of his brown hair. He wore a black leather sleeveless jacket which had the silver drawing of a leviathan on its back.

"It's ok, I give him the authority. Actually, Reggie does have an insight on what's going on." Johnathan said as he looked at Reggie.

"My small tracking group have been keeping an eye on this rift since it began a week ago, just barely when the war started." Reggie explained. The council members murmured a bit before the head of the leviathan house spoke.

"What do you then postulate and what are your findings?" he asked.

"Something isn't just breaking through space alone but also through the time space which is reality itself and thus it requires immense power to do so; hence its need to stay at the edge of the plane where it felt it couldn't be detected and where the ethereal powers are most concentrated." The council members marveled at the intelligence that a big man such as Reggie was able to produce.

"If what you say is true, does it mean that the war was never with the ghoul troops in the first place?" Asked the head of the Serpent house.

"Not only that, but the war was actually a distraction by the ghouls to take our mind off of what was really supposed to occur." Reggie concluded.

"Then it's settled, we will mobilize our troops from each house and head to the edge of the ethereal plane immediately." Said Alexis.

"But you do know it's the perpendicular border between the human world and the ethereal one." Said the head of the turtle house.

"We will focus on setting up and maintaining a perimeter around the edge so as to avoid a spill into the human side." Said the head of the robin house. She was a young lady who was of Latin descent, a feature which was obvious from the way she spoke. She had black hair which she packed to the back exposing the shave base of her head which bore the tattoo of a robin. She wore a white crop tank top to show off her tattoos and piercings which covered her from chest to belly and also cargo pants to the match the tank top.

"Very well, Reggie and I will make our way to the sight; we are going to need his scouts to track the part of the plane which the rift is greatest." Johnathan stated.

"Well, actually we are gonna need the help from the scouts here too, in fact, we're gonna need the help of everyone from house head to mage." Alexis said to which all the council members agreed.

"Then its settled. We move at in an hour." Said the taped council member which signified the end of the meeting. All the council members got up and made their way to their respective houses to prepare. Johnathan met up with Alexis before he left.

"So, what do you think are our chances?" She asked.

"I'll give us a nine outta ten." Johnathan replied with a smirk.

"You always give us a nine outta ten, when are you gonna give us a full score?" She asked as she grabbed his hand.

"Well, that depends." He said as he looked at Reggie who nodded.

"What's going on?" Alexis asked. Johnathan sighed then looked down before looking straight into her eyes.

"When all this is over, let's leave all this behind." Johnathan asked her. She then looked back at him and laughed as though he had told one of his jokes.

"I'm serious." He stated with a smile.

"Wow, you are…" before Alexis could finish, Johnathan brought out a small gold locket and opened it. Inside was the picture of an old woman and a ring.

"Alexis, will you marry me?" Johnathan said as he held her hands. She was shocked and then got teary eyed before she nodded in affirmation accompanied with a hug.

"Yes! Let's do it, let's leave all this behind and go start a normal life with normal kids." Alexis said with a shaky voice.

"Hey, what's wrong with magic kids." Johnathan laughed.

"We could also bring Alexander, give him the love he never had as a family." Johnathan suggested.

"I'll tell him when we get back." Alexis said as she and Johnathan stared deep into each other's eyes about to kiss.

"We don't have all day!" Reggie interrupted which made the couple laugh and then Alexis left leaving Johnathan with Reggie.

"That was a good choice, congrats." Reggie said.

"Hey, what about you? When are you gonna find true love." Asked Johnathan.

"No, No, you know I only love me, myself and I." Reggie stated with a smirk.

"And you wonder why your head is big." Johnathan quipped to which Reggie laughed.

"So, what's the plan?" Reggie asked.

"We win."