Inside the meeting room, Reed stood before the window, a gentle smile on his face as he looked out.
Light spilled through the now-open curtains, shining onto the long table and the twenty-four empty chairs.
The grand doors opened slowly. Nyx walked in and paused. It was unlike his father to be gazing idly outside before a meeting.
Father?
Nyx paused and glanced back into the corridor, only seeing twenty-one people slowly making their way towards the meeting room.
Seeing it he walked up to his father who was intensely watching the garden off the second floor of the Palace.
"Father? Is something wrong?" Nyx asked as he kept looking at his father's face, only a gentle smile persisted.
"Father?" He looked outside, understanding Reed's intense look. It was Luna who was running laps around the garden. Her exhausted arms slowly swung past her hips as her legs lazily dragged. From afar, only a glimpse of her was seen, but it was clear she was exhausted.
"...You really did get her to train, Son. Good," Reed said as his eyes relaxed at his words.
With a smile Nyx said "Of course father, I did everything in my power to not have to work that triple of my shift."
"Really?" Reed glanced at Nyx. "Is that all why you made her train?"
Nyx swiftly looked at Reed. "Oh, no, that's not the main reason," he said.
Chuckling Reed added, "I know, I know son."
"Even if, this training will benefit her health," Taking in a deep breath he continued, "It has been years since I last saw her train."
"That incident really did extensive damage to our family," as he said that gentle smile on Reed's face faded, the lines around his eyes deepening with a weight Nyx knew all too well..
Sighing he added while keeping his eyes on Luna, "I'm happy that she's overcoming it."
As Reed said that, the twenty-one representatives walked in the room chatting amidst themself and sitting in their respective chairs.
"With time Nyx, with time." Reed turned back towards the table, his wide smile remaining as he walked away from Nyx to his chair, readying himself for the meeting.
"Don't rush it Son, remember," He added.
Nyx followed His father's movement as he sat down, his expression settled and relaxed, as a smile tucked by his lips saying, "I understand, Thank you."
…
Theo grabbed both doors and slowly shut them until they clicked. With that, he walked up to his seat past Nyx and ten representatives and sat on Reed's right side.
"Then, we will begin our brief meeting. Is anyone against it?" Reed asked. Only meeting with silence.
"The meeting has begun. Today's on our agenda is the incident that occurred on the academy grounds. Surely you have read the report that Nyx has provided for you all?"
The representatives who wore black coats stitched with silver swords covering their whole body nodded. Reed cleared his throat, taking his paper stack that was laying in front of each representative and flipped through the pages.
"The kidnapping of Luna Lockheart, roughly twenty day's operation of rescue. No memory, No witnesses. How did that happen?" As he said he looked straight at them awaiting reason.
A representative with sword scar across his face raised his hand and said with a horse voice, "I have something, Your grace."
"Speak," Reed said with a monotone voice.
"Yes." The man picked four pages out of the top stack and laid across his table in front of him, reading its content with a firm and confident voice. "I have gathered a rather interesting discovery. I have not found anything on why there were no witnesses, nor how they got in, but I have found an interesting connection between the kidnappers, which we know are the cultists."
Reed leaned in his chair, head high, he patiently listened to his reasons.
"I have noticed that in the ruins of the Ravine, specifically in the prison center, there is a massive amount of bodies lying around, and in different rooms bones stacked on a pile."
He pushed out aside the three pages and picked the forth up as he cleared his throat reading it.
The other people in the meeting room intensely listened to his words. Nyx sat in tense as he looked at his father whose face exuded a strange energy as he intensely listened for reasons; he had seen it somewhere, but can't recall where.
"Our medics counted the remains. They estimated approximately two thousand bodies were stockpiled within the ruins. This fact, specifically, caught my attention"
"This incident looks eerily similar to what happened twenty years ago, in the capital's old slums, where the potential massacre could exceed dozens of thousands of fatalities only of adults and two thousands fatalities of children."
Theo, who was listening peacefully at the fact of it, his whole body tensed as he recalled the haunting memories he kept deeply hidden inside him.
"The same artefacts recorded in that incident were found on the site of this incident, concluding that the same people who caused that massacre, have made this as well. We can be sure that those are the same people of the cult that have done this."
"There is one cultist known back then and now which was…" He putted away the sheet of paper and picked one he pushed to the side.
"...Eyril. Only a name is known, which could be linked to The Silvered of Scientia, who forty years ago supposedly disappeared."
"The church worked miraculously to cover up the reason he disappeared, which is why I could link only this much to him. Due to the information Master Theo provided, his attire that he wears belongs only to The Veiled Oracles."
He picked up all the paper he had and handed it to Reed through other representatives, saying, "That's all I have gathered, Your grace."
Reed, picking up the papers that Nyx handed him through other representatives, reading it he looked up at him. "And the artefact's linking both are?" Reed said calmly.
"Ah, forgive me, your grace, here this is the artifact that would link both incident's." As he said he picked up a sheet of paper out of the stance and walked around the table handing it to Reed.
With a simple glance on the paper reed eyebrows and his eyes widened as his interest picked in. "This is interesting…"