A simple three-course dinner was served on the raised garden, and Athelei enjoyed the new flavours placed upon his tongue. Sir Xiu and Rex had been conversing for most of the meal, speaking of the responsibilities weighing on their shoulders.
Rex's wife and two children were also sitting at the circular table. The older child was about sixteen years old, while the younger one was about eight. Both were boys, and Athelei, who was acting as Aria, was introduced to the pair at one point during the meal.
After that, they did not really talk. The children simply listened to the adults as they conversed, and answered when they were called out to.
'Luckily, I was able to familiarise myself with Aria before all this,' Athelei admired the Arthime husband and wife's foresight. If he had not studied and accompanied Aria for most of the past week, he wouldn't have been able to get into her headspace and think the way she did.
Multiple times that night had questions that went along the lines of [What do you think about this?] had been thrown at him.
Aria was rather shy and soft-spoken when suddenly consulted, so Athelei was able to dodge the problem of not knowing exactly how Aria would answer. Those questions were rather special, after all. He could not simply guess someone's thought process or insights towards certain subjects... Which was why dodging questions as Aria went so well.
Of course, he could theoretically answer for her if he could somehow experience all that Aria had experienced and then develop a similar personality and breadth of knowledge.
'Could those real phantoms have some sort of ability to assimilate memories as well?' Athelei had been weighing that thought in his mind, multi-tasking with his meal, his acting, and paying attention to what the adults were talking about.
'It makes sense right? It's like Irene... if I hadn't given her the relevant memories, then she would have had difficulties flying. I highly doubt she could have gotten off of the ground properly without those memories... Should I give a few other humans my wings to use and see how they fair and double-check such an assumption?'
Ting!
Athelei had just swallowed the final portion of his dessert when an enhanced sound wave reverberated from the centre of the garden.
With inquisitive intent, Athelei glanced over to find that a tall, lean man had struck his wine glass with his spoon.
Pinned on the man's chest pocket was a silver lotus and a long white cloak was draped over his shoulders. The man's hair was pure white despite him not looking older than his thirties. Streaks of blue lined his white hair, accentuating the artificial colouring and making his devotion towards balance known.
"How was the food, my fellow guardians of Avina? I hope every serving was to your liking." The man took his time to glance at every table decorating the garden.
"Tonight's gathering had been requested by none other than I, Weizhe, under the orders of the Holy Queen." The man, who Athelei assumed to be Lotus Weizhe, announced. Weizhe then produced a sky blue and silver medallion as proof of his claims.
"The issue at hand is simple, but not quite—" Weizhe hid the medallion back in his pockets, "—We are tasked to investigate the origins of Undead Remnants."
A fuss was kicked up when Weizhe spoke of the Queen's intentions. Athelei watched as Sir Xiu's brows creased. He struck his own wine glass.
Two scores worth of eyes fell upon the elegant-looking man, but he did not flinch in the slightest.
"Did the Holy Queen say anything about the beast tide we are currently experiencing?" Sir Xiu asked. His tone was frosty, which Athelei was experiencing for the first time.
"None, Sir Xiu." Weizhe promptly answered before producing a black crystal the size of a wine cork. "The Holy Queen ordered that we put the issue of the Undead Remnants at the forefront of our minds. This is the reason why;"
CRACK!
Weizhe put force into the crystal and it shattered into smithereens. Sir Xiu had opened his mouth to speak, but the sight before him shoved those words back down his throat.
The black crystal had shattered way more than one would normally expect. As it fell to the ground, it broke into smaller and smaller pieces until it was a grey smoke, wafting on the grassy ground.
ROAAAR!
A deranged voice shook from the grey smoke. It swirled and condensed into a fog as the silhouette of a beast began to form. The grass it had landed on swiftly lost its colour, turning yellow, brown and then into ashes. Those ashes then turned into smoke and finally, fog, as it fed into the growing beast.
The mad growls grew ever-stronger as more of the grass was dried and absorbed.
RAAA—
Whatever monster was about to be born suddenly had its latest roar cut short. A long sword had sliced into something inside its grey body. It shot through with great accuracy, ending the monster in an instant.
"The Undead Remnants are evolving at a rapid rate." Weizhe coldly said. "This one had been captured from the remains of Mist Pine. It devours anything with life, turning it into a grey fog to add to its body. The forests around Mist Pine are now all dried up because of these monsters.
Mind you, the ones appearing outside our territories are of the weaker variety, walking around without any goal nor the ability to strengthen themselves."
Weizhe brought his long sword back into his sheath before saying, "It's only a matter of time before they somehow change and gain enough sentience to actively look for living beings to dine on. They would destroy more than what a beast tide could ever hope to destroy. We can rebuild our ships and harbours, but if our lands are sucked dry of life, then our hopes to rebuild would be squashed before we can even hope."
A few of the nobles present nodded, seeing the intent behind the Holy Queen's order. It made sense that the heads of a country were looking at what they knew as the big picture.
Though, someone was of a different opinion. Sir Xiu decided to speak out at this moment in time, "But this beast tide isn't like any other beast tide we have experienced before."
The man stood up from his seat and looked around. He eyed each household before settling his gaze on Lotus Weizhe, "A God's Altar had been destroyed. Do you know how many times such a thing happened in human history, Sir Weizhe? Thrice, and this is the third time."
Sir Xiu let his words sink in for a moment before icily continuing, "The waters are rising. They have been rising like every other time we experienced a beast tide. But after last night, do you know how much the waters have risen? An entire meter. The lower parts of the docks are completely submerged! At this rate, our city will be flooded in what, three or four days?"
"So what, Sir Xiu?" Weizhe answered a question with a question and spoke, "The waters will recede, the beasts will leave. But if the undead are allowed to take an inch, they would devour miles and leave nothing but dry, cracked earth. We can evacuate the people to higher grounds if you're so worried, but we cannot postpone the issue on the undead."
"That is also not the main point here, Sir Weizhe. It's the destruction of a God's Altar we're talking about. It is an issue on top of another issue. We are going to be dealing with two calamitous events, and not a simple flooding! And one of those calamities is likely due to heavenly wrath! What if the tide never recedes? What if we are all slain by the monstrosities that lay hidden beneath the waves? The undead would have nothing to eat if our bodies have all been devoured."
"Two calamities? We're also dealing with an order from the Holy Queen, Sir Xiu. We cannot simply ignore the foresight of Libra's closest followers. Or are you saying we rebel?"
Sir Xiu and Weizhe were both refusing to back down. Their stares were locked onto each other. The rest of the nobles could swear they could see the crackling of lightning between their cold gazes.
"Alright, alright," A youthful and flowery voice broke the tense atmosphere, "Compromise is the root of human relationships—that was what my mother told me."
A young lady who seemed to be in her twenties stood up to join Sir Xiu and Weizhe. She did so with a laidback warmth to her aura before opening her lips to speak,
"Uncle Xiu, Uncle Wei, please. If Master Karire were here, both of you would not get this riled up. Let's sort all this out slowly, shall we? We're a gathering of twelve, not one."
Now properly illuminated, everyone could properly see the owner of the voice who spoke up in the midst of a scuffle between two influential individuals. A head of crimson hair and eyes of crystalline blue would be what greeted those who gazed upon tonight's mediator.
"Christine," Both Sir Xiu and Weizhe nodded in sync, but it was Weizhe who spoke the next words, "What do those of Veritas have to say about our current predicament?