"For everyone's safety today sir, we have to scan you and I need you to sign this contract that you will not reveal anything or anyone that is here today. Otherwise, I can't let you enter the meeting."
I was holding up a contract that was very clear and to the point that way it was clearly understood. I was getting impatient because this person was already late arriving and was nit picking over a few lines on the page.
"Sir, you have to sign or you will not be allowed to enter, we must protect ourselves as well. Now, it's very clear that is all that is being asked of you. Will you sign or not? The meeting will start within an hour." I looked at him trying to contain my annoyance with him.
"Fine, I'll sign." He started to pull out a pen and I stopped him.
"No sir, use this." I hand him a diabetic pen and give him a fresh pin cartridge.
"WHAT?!" He exclaims, obviously insulted.
"Like I said earlier sir, this is for our protection as well as the others that will be present. You just will not be able to talk about the proceedings that take place and people present. Please sign or be at the mercy of the Erl-king." I added that last part to emphasize the importance.
This guy was from Uganda and wasn't exactly happy about meeting with us or the Erl-king to begin with. He felt like him and his country weren't involved in this from the get go. While I could sympathize with the thought, I couldn't with his attitude.
"Damn... FINE." He snatched the pen and put in the new cartridge, stuck his finger and squeezed a drop onto the paper.
I handed him a cute little band-aid with a white dog and yellow bird on it for his finger.
He looked up at me seeing it was a child's band- aid and gave me a puzzled look but took it and put it on anyways.
"Ready Sir?" I asked.
He nodded about to head for the doors when I snapped us to the real meeting place.
"What the fuck?!" He exclaimed looking around seeing it was just me and him.
"Don't worry. Your men have been given a note to remain there until you go back. Like I said this is for our protection and yours now. Please come this way." I motion to the doors as another person arrives in the same manner as we did.
I lead the way taking him into the large conference room at the training compound. The table is getting filled with people still.
"Please find a seat, there's water, coffee and tea to drink, plus some snacks over there. Dinner will be served if the meeting goes on longer than expected."I gesture to the wall opposite of us.
I leave and snap to my next meeting site behind a locked door. I unlock the door and step out with a new pen and cartridge with another contract. There's people dressed in suits, as expected, waiting looking out the windows or glancing at their watches.
I take a breath and quickly try to be diplomatic and apologize about the situation.
"So sorry about the wait." I say as the people turn around.
"Mary... I'm so glad to finally meet you. I'm sorry you prefer to go by Sin though, right?"
The sound of this persons voice makes my heart quicken its pace and I feel my body start to sweat. The atmosphere feels tense and weary suddenly.
One person hasn't turned around yet. The one who spoke. The voice seems familiar but I can't place it. My instincts are telling me to leave now.
I go to snap and can't.
My eyes widen as I recall this feeling.
Terror starts to fill me as the person turns around....
"Fuck me." Slips from my lips, as I see a smiling Bavarthos looking directly at me.
"Sin, such language from a lady, I'm shocked."
He clicks his tongue and adds, "Also does your husband know you give out offers like that?" He gave a chuckle as my face twisted in disgust.
All I knew was I could move, but I couldn't snap.
I didn't know what he was capable of and I only had a few weapons on me.
I looked subtly to the door that led outside and how many people were in the way.
I needed to form a plan.
My heart was pounding like crazy, pumping adrenaline through my system.
"Why are you here? Your father got you under his thumb?" I ask quickly disdain evident in my face and tone.
His face contorts into annoyed anger but relaxes quickly. "Why in the world would you think that thing could actually control me? That I would ever offer to help him?" He grinned a little mischievously.
"He's evil... You're... you." I gesture to him, preparing my body for a fight and hopefully flight. I know if I get far enough away, I'll be able to snap to safety.
"Oh.. you mean the dark magic abilities..." He nods his head in mock realization before giving me a one sided grin.
"So that WAS you and Turk that I smelled at the house in Turkey." He chuckles.
"Turk will forever smell of blood, cedar, and cypress but you, you were a new scent..... I knew something smelled quite sweet, like whiskey and jasmine blossoms."
He took a deep breath through his nose closing his eyes to emphasize his breathing in my scent.
I took that moment and dashed for the door, judo flipping the guy who stepped in my way into the others who tried to surround me. I rushed out the door as they scrambled after me.
"Hurry! Idiots! Go get her!"
I hear Bavarthos yelling at them to capture me.
I'm running like it's the last thing I'll ever do, feeling the drain of attempting to snap and not being far enough away.
My breaths are quick and short from fear.
I try to slow my breathing down, to take deep breaths trying to ensure I get enough oxygen to run faster.
I stop trying and focus on getting distance between us.
Finally I'm able to snap farther ahead and running just a little farther I snap back to the meeting.
I drop to the floor panting, trying to catch my breath, knowing that the one person who could kill me was Bavarthos and I had escaped for a second time. The ones around me looked at me sweating and panting for breath. Some one must have alerted John because he was there next to me in a few seconds.
"Sin? Honey? What happened?" He looks at my wide eyed expression, concern filling his face.
I realize, I could have never seen his face again.
My John... I am about to burst into tears and breathless sobs are starting to come out as I am reaching for him like a child.
He scoops me up and takes me away from everyone and into a private room.
"Sin?! Baby. Please take a few breaths and tell me what in the..." He realizes he's getting impatient and takes a breath himself before calmly asking me, "Please Mary, tell me what happened?"
He cups my face in his hand making me look up into his calmer, concerned eyes.
I take a few breaths and wipe my face.
"Bavarthos was there instead of the Sultan of Brunei." I take a few more gulps of air and continue.
"I couldn't snap to get away. I had to run until I got far enough away. John, I...." I start to shake as my body starts to lose the adrenaline that was pumping through my system.
John wraps his arms around me and holds me closely.
"Shhh... Mary. It's alright you got away and you're alright now." John whispers into my hair.
I push him gently away. "I'm alright, I'm alright."
I stand on shaky legs, "We still have work to do. We need to finish it."
John starts to make a sound of protest but I cut him off, "Too many are counting on us to do our job. We can't let them lose out on a fighting chance because of me. I'm fine."
I take a few more breaths and steady my shaking limbs as best I can.
"How many do you have left to get?" John asks me.
"Two." I reply. "Malta and Madagascar."
"I'll get Madagascar, you get Malta." It was not a request from his tone and I merely nodded and snapped to finish my job.
When we come back and make sure the officials are taken care of in the meeting room, we head over to where Thietian is going over his notes.
"Thietian, we have a small problem. Brunei was not there, someone else was." John goes to tell him and he holds his hand up.
"Can it wait till after this meeting? I don't want to lose my train of thought if it is truly disheartening."
We look at each other and with raised brows before turning to him, "We will wait. Every one that is willing to come and be here is here. Would you like us to have everyone sit so you may come and present the situation at hand?" John asks.
"Yes, Please. I'll be there in a few minutes." He waves us off before saying, "Thank you." as we leave out the door.
"Sin, will you be in the meeting room while he's talking or did you want to take some time?" John asked before we went into the meeting room.
I shook my head after some thought, "No, I don't need to take time. Thietian may need an extra voice during the meeting and I'm the one who started collecting the information and I can give examples of my experiences if need be. I'm staying." I tell him firmly.
"Okay, lets get them to ready themselves."
He pushes the door open to the meeting room and the 82 countries government officials are all talking with one another, quietly enough that John doesn't have to try and grab their attention.
Going to the podium up front he uses the mic to address them.
"Hello, welcome everyone. If everyone could please take your seat with your countries name on it, we will be starting this meeting very shortly."
Everyone who was up and around the room took their seats and a few started to ask questions.
"Was it absolutely necessary to kidnap us to this location? Not to mention the forcing of taking an oath just to attend?" A woman asked who looked like the stereotypical offended Karen.
I motioned towards John for me to speak and John stepped back as I moved forward.
"Yes, as was stated before you signed of your own free will. No one one forced you to attend or sign. You were asked to sign if you wished to attend. Just like an app has a policy agreement to use their program, we had one for you to attend this meeting. As everyone else here was told before hand, it is merely a safety precaution for everyone who is present today." I took a breath keeping the polite smile on my face even though annoyance showed in my body language.
"Any other questions on matters that have already been covered?" I look around the room to see a few people snicker as the 'Karen's' face turns pale and scrunches up in anger at me.
She looks like she wants to say something but at that moment Thietian comes in to the room.
"Sorry to keep everyone waiting, I had received some recent information that I felt was important to work into this meeting today." He stepped up to the podium and I relinquished it.
He grabbed the remote for the screen on the wall and turned it on. Turning to everyone, he took a deep breath as he scanned the faces in the room.
"Thank you all for coming today. My name is Thietian and I'm am the youngest son of the Erl-king and also a victim of his cruelty. We're gathered today because my team and I do not wish for any one else to be victims or slaves to his whim. With the information already released on the underhanded schemes he was trying to manipulate through hidden means, via pharmaceuticals, I hope that you could discern that he's not to be trusted."
"What about you? How can we trust you? You're his son after all." The Karen opened her mouth again.
"I am his son, biologically speaking. However, we have no care for each others existence. He banished me to a prison I can not escape and am forced to share my existence with another. Possibly for the rest of our lives. Is that how you would punish a child for merely existing and being who they are?" Thietian asked her.
"You don't look like you're suffering in prison to me." She gave him a disdainful and skeptical expression as she crossed her arms across her chest.
Thietian looked at her and cocked his head at me, giving me a annoyed smile as his eyes gestured at this woman. I shrugged in response to him and he nods stepping out from behind the podium.
"Here's my prison." He says raising his arms up and slowly morphing into Cass.
"Me and Thietian have been stuck together since I was eight years old. At first I thought I was crazy or that a ghost was haunting me. Then I realized when one time he was pulled from me that there really was someone else living inside of me. I wasn't sure if he was gone at first until he was pushed back into me. It took a lot of years before I could come to terms with sharing my body with Thietian. We hope to one day be free of each other so we can have our own separate lives but so far we have been unsuccessful."
Cass looks at the 'Karen' and asks her. "So does that satisfy you? Or would you think it's a vacation to have another person trapped with in your body with you?"
She zipped her lips and Thietian replaced Cass.
"Now moving on, who else here needs more proof of the Erl-kings plan to dominate the human race?" He looked around and a few hands went up in the air.
"Alright then. Lights please. I would like everyone to pay attention to what comes up on the screen."
The lights are turned off and everyone looks to the screen.
"Here are my fathers armies preparing to invade and overtake your people."
On the screen pictures started appearing with time stamps and each picture shown was with in the last month. It showed them preparing tools, supplies, weapons, cages, chains, all being gathered for use.
"Now I must prepare you for some graphic photos next. These will show you what the Erl-king likes to do to his human 'slaves' for fun."
The next few slides had everyone shocked and it only got worse and more gruesome. Some made even my stomach turn a few times making me turn to look away.
"Okay that's enough! " One of the officials stood up looking pale and green tinged. Waving his hands to say no more.
"Yes, I think he's done more than enough!" Thietian bangs his fist upon the podium showing his anger.
"That's why I was put into this body to share a life with Caspian! I spoke up and then I started talking to other Fae who felt the same as I did. Sickened by his actions and wanting to do something to help. He found out and decided to punish me."
He paused as he gazed at everyone making sure he had their attention.
"My original body, he beat me, whipped me, tortured me nearly to death before he came and told me what my final punishment would be. His exact words were, 'Since you love those weak, disgusting humans so much, you can live with them, as one.' He stuck me, his son, a century old Fae, into an eight year old's body! Then he had drug cartel working for him indirectly break into the house of Caspian's family and had them murdered in front of him! They took Caspian and me to a human mule operation, to smuggle drugs. I got lucky though... someone ended up rescuing me and Caspian." He spared a glance at me and John, gratefulness shining in his eyes before they hardened again to continue.
"Others are not as lucky. Those pictures you just saw are recent pictures of his human slaves he's abducted and were GIVEN to him by some of the corrupt officials on the lists you received about the pharmaceuticals! What more does anyone need to know to realize we are not your enemy, but my father is."
Some quiet conversations started to pick up as Thietian paused here and took a drink of water.
"So what are you asking of us?"
"What can we do to fight the Erl-king?"
"How big is his fighting force?"
"Do we even have a chance really?"
Questions started to get thrown out left and right, seemed like this might work out after all.