Elves were stubborn, so were Islee but that's besides the point, the last five continued to stand there for another 5 minutes. Then all at once two more left and the other three sat down. I wasn't sure what had decided them one way or the other. "That makes 9 then, the min. In most cases. The next question is how many of you will recognize me as the voice for our trees?"
The elf on the queen's left tapped the table in front of him. Apparently this was one of their rules of order because a few other people did the same thing. The queen nodded to the elf on her left. The elves weren't organized by their loyalty to the monarch clearly. There were still a lot of seats near the queen that had elves in them. Most of the empty seats seemed to be in the middle. "Tell me straight that you heard the crystal and you know it cannot be some trick the only other crystal key in this room is playing on you." It wasn't a question. I didn't really like the elf's tone either but the queen just smiled slightly at him for a moment.
"Master Desdemona doesn't know what she has, I would be amazed if she could duplicate one with all its powers without knowing what it is in the first place. I also know that it is not a trick. I am not unsure at all of what I hear."
"You are sure it has all the powers." Another elf down the table blurted out, from the looks that the other elders gave him, he was speaking out of turn. "You will be able to restore the hanging gardens?"
"They should be recovering. Remember the land doesn't punish people for not following blindly. They will all recover at the same rate, for now."
That started the room talking. The queen let it continue until it started to die out on its own. The queen nodded at the other elf that had tapped the table. "What does Desdemona have, exactly?"
The queen frowned, "I don't want to go back over what the crystal city joint council already decided. That also brushes against some information that is for elders only." The green eyes of the queen looked up at me. "If you want to show them your key you can. I won't let them try to take it from you, again."
"So the elders did consider taking my key."
I have no idea what the queen saw in my face because I didn't really know how I felt about that, but the queen looked like she felt a flicker of sadness. "Of course, but the council has only taken two keys. Neither of those were taken just after being issued. I wish I could say it wasn't a close vote in your case. I don't think it should have been. I didn't think it should have been at the time either for the same reasons."
I looked at the pouncing tiger that rested with its back against her throat. It wasn't a key to the shield. If the queen left the city she wouldn't be able to enter again without one of the army with her. The eyes of the tiger matched the eyes of the queen and her son. I pulled out my dragon and looked at it again. I heard the surprise of some of the people around the table. It did look about the same as the tiger. Except for the blood red eyes. My eyes were not red, they were an unusual purple color, well they were in this form, I had no idea what I looked like when I lost control. It only happened when I was hunting or in battle. Not many mirrors out in the wild. The coins that were what most of the army got as a key were all similar but not exactly the same. Wizards that joined the army normally had a dragon on their coin somewhere. I spun the dragon around the cord, like I sometimes did while bored waiting for another battle. It cut my thumb like it normally did when I did that. I felt the wound heal before the dragon stopped spinning. I let it fall against my shirt in the spot that normal warriors wore their coins.
"A master key! And a Dragon master key, she hasn't gone to the tower. Why the hell wasn't she enrolled as soon as the crystal issued her that?" An elf that demanded that was wearing a wizard robe. I noticed there was no yellow stripe that marks an elder wizard on his robe.
I had noticed that most of the people who clearly didn't know, were below the midway point on the table. The man that spoke up was exactly midway down the table and sat between two now empty chairs. The queen tisked, "The tower is not a prison. It is something you have to choose to learn. Desdemona proved she had control over her magical abilities and didn't take up the offer of continuing that form of training." The queen must have noticed something on my face because I could read the question in her eyes at what I was feeling.
The prince turned and looked at me. Another elder was going to reply but the prince held up his hand. He must have more power here because the elder shut his mouth. "Were you asked if you wanted to learn magic?"
I didn't answer, I hadn't been asked. I had been told a few times that it was a waste that I didn't want to learn at the tower. I had been told that if I wanted to learn magic it must be at the tower. I had been threatened by a few people who were afraid of what I might do. No one had actually asked what I wanted and I wasn't about to approach the tower to ask if they would teach me. I didn't want to get trapped in the tower and I wasn't sure I believed they were the best. My reaction to wizards is not very good, but I had never considered that they would ask, I was just afraid of being told I had to because my control alone wasn't enough.
An elder in the robes of a wizard snorted, "Of course she was asked, even you should be able to sense the potential. Any master would kill for a chance to get an apprentice with so much potential."
My demon growled and I was pretty sure I had lost control by how the people nearest the prince slid away from me. Except the prince and the queen, neither one of them seemed all that afraid of me. "Really, magic training starts at 13 for most people. The academy started me in control when I was 9. I passed control by 10 but because I didn't react strongly enough to the testing I was held until 12 or so I was told at the time. As an elder you should know that I didn't figure out what was wrong with me until I was 18. Since I had control and the elders won't have wanted to risk my health I was not offered a chance to train at the tower but instead spent my time afraid that the tower would pull me out of the classes I did want to do because they had made some mistake. After 18 I was already a master of one weapon and trying to get assigned to a unit. Much as that has worked out, the wizard in my unit was probably the most qualified after myself. I am sure he barely passed. Just like I know if it wasn't for me this unit coming out the academy would never see the outside of the shield. So no, I have never been asked what I want when it comes to magic. Just accused of practicing magic without training. Which is very true because you sir are very wrong about the masters beating down my door. You don't have to be an elder to know that the elders are avoiding me." I took a breath and let it out slowly. Exploding was never a good option for me, normally it just got me in trouble. The man I had exploded at opened his mouth to snap back at me but the prince had turned back around to face him and clearly something in his expression made the man stop and think about what I had said.
The other men in robes leaned back in their chairs. The prince turned and opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off. He didn't look annoyed or hurt by the interruption. "Did you know there are at least two different types of magic? They have two different sources I mean, not the element breakdown you learn when you learn control but actually different."
"You learned that, on your own?" The robed wizard two seats down from the prince said. He looked pale even for an elf. He had the yellow of an elder and a red stripe, but not the black of a hunter.
"Not hard when your demon half won't touch the magic you learned before." I clicked my teeth. What was wrong with me? This place was making me angry. I looked back at the queen.
I had expected the frown but not for it to be directed at the wizards. "That is disappointing. Besides if you look, that isn't "the dragon". It is not the one that marks the wizards."
"I did notice that earlier. Des' is a lizard with wings but the tower's is more a serpent with wings." I had noticed the same thing back when I first got it. It seemed a silly distinction to me, they were both dragons, what did it matter?
"We don't know how the crystal makes keys, it could just be her idea of a dragon."
The queen cleared her throat as more people started just yelling across the table. "Either way the issue was as closed as it is going to be after, master Desdemona got her key. The wizards will have to work out what they plan to do next. I want to say that I won't support any elf threatening master Desdemona." I noticed she said that she wants to say that not that she actually won't. She probably already knows what it will take for me to turn into her enemy.
"You keep calling her master, but we have no way of knowing if her key is a master key."
The queen smiled, "That is right, we don't, but I have more faith in the bonds our ancestors made for us."
"So your son bonded the demon." The elf sounded angry and my demon did not like the tone. It took me a moment to realize I was gripping the handles of my weapons. I released them like they were on fire. The prince noticed the jerky movement, I didn't pick up on any of the others noticing.
"Yes he is bonded to master Desdemona, a half breed. The palace has recognized the bond, which I found interesting. Like I said she can interact with the palace better than I can. Probably because she is closer to the brother's half of the magic that made the shield."
The queen smiled at me, I was gripping the back of the prince's chair so that I didn't grip the weapons tucked into my belt. I have real trust issues when it comes to people and these people all knew what I was. They could decide that made me shadow spawn and not really alive. The shield showed me how it would react to a threat no matter what the oath would have allowed. It was odd, it had classified me as family, but I wasn't closely related to anyone in this room. There seemed to be more to this shield spell but it didn't share anything but the rankings of the people around me as it saw them.
One of the men at the end of the table stood up and leaned over the table. "How could you let -"
The queen stood up, and her chair scraped against the floor bringing an end to all the side conversations about what the prince had done. "We don't have control over who is picked for our bond. That is why we hide in our woods, and you know it. I think there are currently two bonded elves at this table. 10 generations ago there might have been two that weren't bonded. Time changes a people like it can change a person, unless you have a bond I don't want to hear about it being Theon's fault or that Desdemona somehow trapped him. It wasn't Desdemona. You aren't going to be able to use me to reassure yourself that you can control master Desdemona. Theon also won't control her for you. You will have to get past your fear of what she is or you should change your mind on how you voted. You are still more than welcome to leave."
The man at the end of the table sat back down and crossed his arms in front of his chest. It looked like he was pouting. The conversation then moved away from what was going on with me and the prince and onto more domestic concerns. I had very little idea what they were talking about and it went on for quite some time. I could tell the prince was annoyed, it was almost midnight. I didn't mind standing, this was less boring than some of the things I had done for the army. I filed away everything that was said into a spot in my mind. I might not understand what was going on right now but it might be useful if I was going to choose to spend more time around the prince. I already knew I wanted to spend more time around the prince and not just because he had won a fight that mattered to me. The demon seemed to care more that the prince had won though. It was an interesting response.
Another elder was droning on about his concerns when the queen looked over at her son. "I am sorry to interrupt you. It is getting late. How about we pick this up in the morning after breakfast? I don't think the prince or master Desdemona needs to join us. They do have other more pressing responsibilities. Which reminds me." The queen opened a drawer that was under the desk. There were papers and pens inside. I wasn't at a good angle to have seen the drawer before. I wondered if all the seats had one or only the queen. She scratched out two notes at record speed. Considering that she was royalty and probably had to write a lot it probably wasn't too odd but it seemed fast to me. "Excuses for both of you for missing the graduation. You will still need to report to your units on time." She signed the two notes and handed them both to her son. "Good night. You are released." She looked at the rest of the table. "As are you, until the morning."
The men all mumbled something under their breath as they started to stand. The ones nearest the door were already opening it when the first one noticed that the queen was closing the doors to the crystal chamber with her inside. The prince pulled on my sleeve and nodded for me to follow him. He didn't push past any of the elders but he still managed to leave before most of them.
It was easy for me to stay on his heels. The palace guards frowned as he moved past the desk again. The prince didn't go the direction I expected him too, he turned away from the apartments. He went down a couple more halls and I was sure we had moved out of the public parts of the palace. The decorations were still over the top but it wasn't quite so bad. The prince opened an extra wide door. Beyond it were rows and rows of tables. It looked a lot like the academy dining hall. The place was still brightly lit even at this late hour. There were magic globes of lights floating along the ceiling. The elves had always been better at practical magic than the Islees; you would never see this much wasted energy in the tents. The Islee produced more battle wizards. The elves claimed more Healers and Scholars but the Islee actually had more Builders. You wouldn't think so because the Islee don't have buildings in the area under their control but their magic was better at it.
The female elf was near the end of one of the rows of tables. She was sitting on the table with her feet on the bench. Surrounding her were a group of other elves. They all had on the elven uniform of the army. I had never given it much thought at the time but it was a little odd that it had only been men in the meeting chamber. The light didn't discriminate on anything but your ability to do the task asked of you. There were a few less woman in the army than men but that was because more women wanted something else out of life then the men.
Women weren't treated any better by shadow spawn and they weren't ignored by them just because they were female. It was foolish not to learn to defend yourself in such a world. The humans didn't teach their women to fight and they often paid for that mistake when a group of the shadow raided a village. I filed away to ask the prince about it later, I didn't think asking in front of his unit was a good idea.
The female looked over her shoulder as three or four of the group stood when they noticed the prince. I saw her smile at him, before she frowned at me. They had been speaking in elvish. It was considered rude to use it around anyone who didn't know the language, which is why the whole meeting I had just listened to had been conducted in common. The Islee had an offshoot of elven that they spoke in private. Both groups liked to argue over which one was the offshoot. I had angered a few of my teachers at the academy when they found out that it didn't matter to me what they spoke, I could follow just fine. It wasn't until years later that I had figured out they were worried I was reading their minds when I did that. I am still pretty sure I am not reading anyones mind when I did the trick but I wasn't sure how I knew. It was a nice trick to have when I was outside the city. The human language changes quickly and being able to sound like I am from a place after just hearing a few short lines helped to hide what I was from the grey humans.
The commander that had died a week after I was assigned to my first unit didn't like the trick, but he had been determined not to like anything I could do. It was my fault he had such a bad team after all, because it certainly couldn't have been his fault. "You missed graduation. I would think your new bunny would do a better job keeping you in line." She hadn't switched to common and the rest of the group started looking like they were trying to find a reason to leave. I didn't blame them as she swayed a bit as she sat on the table.