VARIED REACTIONS

In an unknown location, in a dark room, hidden from prying eyes and curious ears stood a table, made of fine wood and engraved with enchanted metal, polished to the point that it gleamed. A single glance would be enough to tell that it's cost was astronomical, far above what some Don's were likely to spend in a year. Only, it was a shame that that table was used for so little, it was cleaned regularly three time a day even but years could go without it ever being used, this table was merely a status symbol, a mark of pride for those who owned it yet rarely touched it, but today, if that table could talk, if it could think, if it could sing, it would do all that in quick succession rejoicing to high heaven as today it existence had finally been validated for surrounding this table sat a group of 9, men and women spread out in between them all different ages though the gap not being much, the only thing they had in common, each one was incredibly attractive. They were all sitting on chairs they had crafted themselves through the use of transfiguration, the chairs were quite varied, ranging from simple contructs to quite ornate and even gaudy, each one a visible representation of the owners personality a bold declaration to the world as if to say, 'this is me' and why wouldn't they, for each one held power comparable the 1st Don of any city on the continent, they were 9 of what should have been 12 and they had finally found a topic that was worth using this table for.

Kravis Dreis

'This is bullshit'

I said slamming my palm on the table. Although the room quaked like thunder had struck and the floor sunk in the table stood firm, good thing too after how much money I shelved out for it, it had been Argus's decision to have it made ever since the last one failed to withstand my wrath,

"calm yourself Kravis"

I looked to the owner of that voice with venom in my eyes. His hair blonde his face chiseled and masculine but his scarlet eyes focused intently on the stack of papers in his hands

'Never order me in. your. life'

at those words he turned to face me yet even with my tone his face was genial and filled with understanding, as he spoke

"it wasn't an order, it was simply advice"

(I hate you)

words I so desperately wanted to say yet kept in my mind, why?, there was no reason for them, this man was kind understanding and patient, as for why? he felt it necessary as the oldest to act as a sort of big brother to us, and that was exactly why I hated him, underneath his outward pretence of generosity was an obscene desire to feel needed

"why bother with the dolt Argus the best way to have him learn would be to simply pass him the bill whenever he rampages, once his account book gets in the red he'll learn that the world isn't his training realm"

said Daya, the petite woman to the left, with black and and eyes she looked like a porclaine doll yet her face held an expression so haughty you would think she was the queen of the world, she leaned forward brazenly towards Argus as if to display her chest, the one thing about her you couldn't call small.

"Come on Daya its not like being a little understanding of your brother would hurt now would it"

Argus said kindly and to that Daya simply smiled.

"I'm with Daya on this one, let the ginger learn"

'what did you call me'

I turned to Elipse, ash grey hair blue eyes tanned skin and a smile like a carnivorous beast, he seemed ready to take a bite out me right now, he faced my glare without flinching, clearly he was ready for a fight

"I called you a ginger dummy, or did you think you were blonde"

Mana gathered around my palm, we weren't allowed weapons in this room because of an incident I personally found unavoidable so I sought to use a trusted spell of mine, the 7th teir spell crimson flare wave. A few good burns would have set his head straight for that statement but before I could two mana signatures disrupted my spell dispelling it before it could cause any harm. One was Argus who looked Elipse with a disappointed expression and the other Kev who had eyes on both of us while looking incredulous.

Argus looked to Elipse and said

"Elipse, you should know that such statements are bound to anger Kravis, we didn't go easy on him as a child thanks to his hair colour"

"remember when you tried to shave it all off but Eron snuck up on you and smacked you on the back of the head"

chimed Daya

"Daya please"

said Argus

"I've always wondered what you'd look like bald"

"me too"

added Barlk and Baile, the two men on my right

"a sight to see I'm sure"

"maybe we should hold him down and shave him"

"yeah let's vote on it, all in favour"

"aye"

replied half the table

"1.2.3.4, seems like everyone to me, now Kravis the easy way or the fun way please choose"

said Barlk

"why ask, the only reason we agreed was because we knew this was going to be fun"

said Daya laughing

'You bastards'

"ALL OF YOU SHUT UP"

we all turned towards who we least expected to say those words, Kev looked like she was going to do more than burn us all

"you bloody brats, we all came here because for the first time in centuries an entire city has been destroyed, and to make things worse it was done by one of our number"

she was right, the recent events made no sense to us, Aegis was old, old and strong, and it was headed by Don Eron a man I could never beat and my brother, that man was dead now and he was killed by langris, another brother of mine who I saw my powers relative too.

"Calm down Kev"

said Argus as he tried to palicite our sister, he failed

"fuck your calm, I'm always calm except when I'm not supposed to be"

it was true Kev was usually the most calm and rational of us all and personally other than the deceased Anna she was my favorite sibling. Snow white hair and amethyst eyes that usually radiated wisdom seemed full of madness right now like she had seen a mother devour her own young, honestly if one looked at the situation carefully you would know that her reaction was quite apt, but she wasn't done

"and look at this, the Arcanum of their new Don"

"What"

we all exclaimed simultaneously, news about the death of their third Don had travelled far but the particulars of his existence was not well known, most especially his Arcanum

"this is a joke"

said Argus, typically I'd be happy to tell him nay, but right now I wish he was right

"the outrage this will spawn"

"the fear, people will go to war over this"

'we had enough trouble justifying the 2nd Don of Trident through his heritage, Royal black still exists, in this day and age'

Royal black darkness, the darkness that could only be wielded by the nobility of the fallen black empire,

"the Golendefa's will give us no rest"

"the association should know of this but they didn't say anything, Kev, how did you get this"

asked Argus barely holding onto his mask of calm.

Kev on the otherhand looked surprised as she asked

"you guys didn't know"

we all shook our heads, all but one at least.

Kev took a breath before explaining

"I found it on my bedside drawer"

gasps resounded around the room at the absurdity of the situation, someone snuck into the bedroom of an Arcanum user and placed a letter there without getting caught, no one would believe it but we were all forced to

"well that settles it"

"yep"

said Barlk and Baile as a single name resounded in our minds

(Langris)

"a monster"

"DAYA"

"WHAT"

said Daya as she replied to Argus's enraged shout

"what else would you call him"

"he's our brother"

"do you truly believe that"

"Eron loved him"

"Eron is dead because of him"

I couldn't tell if I was drunk or dreaming because I could swear I heard remorse in Daya's voice, Eron was a touchy subject for us all. While Argus play at being our older brother was contentious Eron's felt more sincere, he never acted in a doting manner but he did seem dependable every once in a while, and he was the only person who got along with Langris, except the deceased Anna. It was quite shocking when he left us

"Eron's kill order could have come any day and it would have likely been one of us who would have to end him, Langris saved us some trouble"

"that doesn't explain the rest of his actions, millions displaced livelihoods destroyed. Its a catastrophe"

said Beth calmly, her golden eyes showing no visible reaction, shoulder length blue hair fanned her face carelessly as she spoke

"handling it is our problem, an unnecessary problem if I might add"

she spoke with neither joy nor remorse, like a comment on the weather but after growing up with her I could easily tell that under her expressionless facade her emotions were the most turbulent.

I took a deep breath before exhaling in resignation, if this continued all we'd do is talk for a bit before flinging the next set of insults eventually failing to accomplish anything today. We needed order

'there will be a World powers summoning soon'

shocked faces and gasps covered the room, everyone here clearly understanding the severity of my words

"what's your source"

asked Daya with a dubious expression on her face, I looked to her indignantly before saying

'do I need one, with what has happened anyone with half a brain could tell that this situation would require both the presence of the continental coalition and the Don's association presence, this isn't the death of a Don, its the destruction of a city, whether or not to rebuild it and have new Don's assigned will need to be discussed, and with new Don's comes new umbrellas, the same ones the nations of the world will be looking to get under'

"Kravis's reasoning is solid"

"yeah"

"I concur"

"it doesn't happen often but he can come up with a decent train of thought all you have to do is be lucky enough to catch it"

'what did you say'

"both of you please"

said Argus clearly Exasperated

"I'm just stating facts"

'I'll put that on your grave stone'

"that'd be hilarious, :Here lies Elipse he was just stating facts"

Elipse turned to Barlk who had cracked that joke with a dangerous smile before facing me saying

"Truce until we kill this fucker"

'gladly'

"ENOUGH"

screamed Kev turning towards me with an angry pout, I replied by shrugging before turning away, Kev took it as a sign to fire

"the fact is that Kravis is smart, he just refuses to think"

"do you believe you made the situation better"

said Argus

"the situation was already a lost cause"

"she's right you know, order isn't really our speciality"

said Daya

"we can fight brilliantly together but conversations are just so you know....."

"catastrophic?"

asked Baile

"no its worse than that, I mean we have a durandal table for swords sake"

as she said the last part she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, I ignored her and said

'then how about we take action, each one of us has a specific territory where we've managed to gain influence in, we head back and make contact with our friends and acquaintances getting a more informed view of the situation, those with longer reaches see if you can manipulate what the people here, don't take a side leave who was at fault ambiguous just do your best to imply that the wrongdoers will be brought to justice"

they all wanted to protest, afterall I shouldn't have been giving orders but there was little to nothing wrong with what I had said so what to protest about was very scarce

"but honestly this will all mean very little if we can't get a grasp on what Langris is thinking"

said Argus

"so one of us has to go keep an eye on..."

before Daya could finish the table resounded with screams of

"NOT IT"

I myself joined in with Daya half a second late

"sorry Daya"

said Argus who had been the third to yell but Daya replied to his sorrowful expression with a confident smile

"I'm not going"

"thats a funny joke"

said Beth without a hint of a smile on her face

"I'm serious"

'you can't just...'

before I could finish Argus gestured at me to stop as Daya continued

"I wasn't the last person to say :not it"

she then pointed at a man who hadn't joined in the conversation so far, shaggy locks of white on his head that was all that could be seen of him. The reason why he hadn't joined in on the conversation was simple, he had his head on the table and his hands crossed under it, he was sleeping

'JACOB'

I yelled but he didn't answer, before I could yell again Daya hushed me

"there's no point on trying he didn't wake up when we first started shouting and he won't wake up now, be also didn't say :not it"

"this job is important, likely more important than this meeting"

said Beth

"you mean this screaming match, that Kravis is currently winning"

said Liead who had remained mostly silent throughout, Beth sent him a glare and he shrunk back before Daya continued

"no excuses, besides don't you think it makes the most sense for the strongest amongst us to take this job"

we all wanted to argue, especially me but no matter how I saw it, I wasn't beating this bastard, even Eron wasn't, and neither was Langris

"he's perfect"

Beth wanted to wake him up gently but Liead who was closer and not as gentle slammed his palm into Jacob's back causing a dreadful sound to ring out. Despite his undoubtedly stinging back Jacob roused slowly his eyes closed he stretched with a might yawn, after wiping his face for a bit he looked to the table and asked

"so can we go now"

naturally he had no knowledge of our discussion and was simply waiting to exit the room, even though he had just woken up and had undoubtedly slept last night he had dark bags under his eyes, where they were from only he knew yet his tousled hair and less than stellar clothes gave off the impression of laziness and lack of proper hygiene, yet he still looked handsome, extremely so perfect features and amber eyes with a lean yest muscular body if he switched his perpetually bored look for a smile he be easier to get along with

"Jacob, you have a mission, we need you to go to Trident and monitor Langris, and if the situation calls for it you may need to restrain him, and even the other Dons"

he turned his eyes to Argus who had spoken with eyes that seemed clouded, his gaze instantly sharpened ad if finally recognising who had spoken before saying

"Whatever"

END OF VOLUME 1