Alek walked around the room to calm herself. She was nervous and, sitting wasn't the best way to calm herself. "I'll be outside." She noticed that neither walking around the room didn't calm her.
"Okay. But don't go out of the hill. You need someone from our kind to help you." Minaki told the young future head and let her go out of the house.
Alek hastily went out of the house and breathed in as much air as she could. She was feeling hot but, it wasn't the weather's doing.
'Okay. You need to calm down, Alek. Why am I nervous? There is nothing to worry about. I wasn't a human from the beginning, so why am I scared now, huh? That's weird. Wait, I'm not a human? Why am I asking myself if I am human or not?! That's dumb, Alek!' She talked to herself inside her brain. She was having a press conference with her, herself and she, and for the audience, Alek, Alektrona, Seika, Nana and Al.
'You know you can do this. You don't need to think about it, you know. Just think about something else.' She began to walk around the house while thinking of what to think. 'Torak Donovan! There you go! Think about him. His features, his personality, his woof... The fa?! Woof?' She stopped and questioned. Torak IS a Lycan but woof? That sounds... stupid. 'Forget it. Think about Torak and nothing else, Alektrona! You can do it!'
"She has arrived." Yukari came to the back of the house where Alek was having a staff meeting.
At that moment, when Yukari said that, Alek's soul floated away from her. All her effort to think about her favourite character from a book just went down the drain. Her mind immediately came back to the reality that she had to embrace.
"Thank you." She told her.
Yukari nodded and walked away gracefully.
Alek wow-ed at her appearance but immediately followed Yukari to the house.
"Hey, Al!" Jun came up the stairs as she turned the corner.
"Hello." Alek smiled. "What brings you here?" Alek asked. She had heard from her mother that Jun and Izumi don't live with his parents.
"My father called me." Jun smiled and told her.
"Jun!" She then heard Izumi calling her husband from down the stairs she could not see.
"And also her. Do you know anything about it?" Jun asked as he took his wife's hand when she finally reached the top. As before, Izumi glared at her when she saw Alek.
"Umm, No." Alek felt awkward.
"Umm, babe, could you go inside? I want to have a little chat with Alektrona here." Izumi told her husband.
"Can't I stay here?" He questioned.
"Absolutely not. It's a girl talk." Izumi told her husband sternly.
"Okay, okay. But come in soon, my angel." Junto chuckled before he pecked her lips and went inside.
"So, Alektrona." Izumi began to talk when she saw her husband was no longer in their sight. "Don't even think about trying to steal my man. You will regret it." She told her coldly. Her cute face was scary and, Alek felt like running away.
"I'm not trying to steal... your man." Alek whispered.
"Really?" Izumi scoffed.
"Yes. Besides, I have mine." Alek told her. She was, of course, talking about Torak Donovan. He was already taken but, he was still hers.
"All right. But if you lay a finger on Jun, I will do something that will leave you in despair." Izumi told her with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Good chat." She tapped Alek's shoulder and walked to the house.
Alek didn't know how to convince Izumi that she was not trying to take Jun. So she just kept quiet and followed after her to the house.
When Alek entered the living room she was previously in, she found all eyes looking at her. She lowered her head and quickly sat on the spot she was sitting before. When she looked up, she found an unfamiliar face next to the former head couple. It was a woman with long black hair turning white halfway. Her skin was tanned beautifully and looked like she was in her thirties. She was wearing a white shirt with beige pants. Behind her, there was also a jacket of the same colour as her pants.
"Hello. Sorry for being late." Alek apologised.
"It's alright." Minaki told her with a smile. "This is Novah."
"Pleasure to meet you." Novah's voice was deep, it sounded nice to Alek's ears.
"Pleasure to meet you too. I am Alek." Alek smiled at the woman.
"Shall we start?" Novah looked at Minaki for approval. She moved to sit on the floor at the table on a cushion.
"Yes." Minaki told her. "Alek, are you ready?"
"Yes." Alek told him. Thankfully her voice wasn't shaking.
"Could you come in front of me?" Novah asked Alek. She did as she was told and sat on the floor like she was doing. There was also a cushion for her there. "Hmph, weird." Novah mumbled.
"What's wrong?" Alek asked.
"Usually, when someone I'm trying to read is in the room, I can read. But from you, I couldn't read you when you entered. So I thought maybe you were too far away. But even yet, when you are close to me now, I still can't read you?" Novah told her.
"Does that mean I don't have powers?" Alek asked her hesitantly.
"I'm not sure. Here, give me your hand." Novah held Alek's hand in hers and closed her eyes in concentration. "I don't think you don't have powers."
"Huh?" Alek asked. She didn't understand what Novah was trying to say.
Novah didn't reply to it, but instead, she asked for another hand. She grasped them tightly in her hands and concentrated harder.
"Novah?" Alek asked when she stayed in the position for five minutes. Everyone was quiet behind Alek for what was happening.
"There is something different about you from other shifters." Novah finally opened her eyes after five more minutes. "When I read, from ordinary shifters, I hear one voice. When I read from members of leading clans, I hear two voices. One is always louder and, it is the ancient one." She then looked straight into Alek's eyes and released her hands. " When I read you, I heard two voices. When I tried to know which one was louder but I couldn't. They are both the same. There was no difference in the voices. They didn't have a louder one or the softer one."
"What does that mean?" Panacea asked from behind Alek.
"I can't tell you the exact thing but, I think she is not an ordinary shifter nor an ordinary member of leading clans." Novah told her with a serious face.
"Can you dig more deeper into it?" Minaki asked.
"May I?" Novah asked for Alek's hand and, Alek gave them back.
Novah concentrated for a longer time than the last time. This time, it was thirty minutes. All the while, no one stood up or went out of the room.
She opened her eyes and looked at people in the room except for Alek.
"So?" Panacea asked eagerly. She was gripping on her husband's hands and was white with all the strength she was putting.
"I dug deeper. I realised that the voices... they were both loud as ancient ones." Novah told them firmly in a silent room.
"How is that possible?" Robin gasped.
"I don't know. But I am ninety-nine per cent sure that it is the voices of ancient ones." She replied.
"How?" Astraea asked. She did not see this coming as everyone else in the room.
"When I was reading, I wanted to confirm my theory so, I stopped listening to her and, listened to all of yours. Because all of you are families of the leading clans, you all have modern and ancient forms. I compared the voices of yours with hers. One by one. I repeated it thrice. The voices in her are two ancient forms."
Pin-drop silence was in the room. They have never heard of anyone with two ancient forms.
"When I read people with two forms, I usually compare the voices to know which one is ancient. But with her, there was no difference." Novah told them for confirmation.
"Can you know what kind of animal they are?" Bia asked.
"Yes." Novah told her. "But, I can't tell you."
"Why?" Bia asked back.
"Because I don't exactly know what they are." Novah told them truthfully. Bia cocked her head to one side. "For you, I can read that you are a green mamba and a Titanoboa. I can hear them and make out them."
"Then why can't you make out hers?" Bia asked with furrowed brows.
"I have never heard anything like them. The voices usually try to tell what they are but, hers doesn't. Both of them. They keep telling me that they are there but not revealing."
Once again, a pin-drop silence occurred.
"I head that you are capable of shifting someone against will. Can you do that?" Alek ended the silence with her firm voice.
"Yes." Novah replied.
"Would you do that on me?" Alek asked.
"Alek, no!" Bia shouted.
"Why?" Alek asked back.
"Shifting someone against will is a dangerous thing, child. It could take away your human soul with you." Novah answered the question for Alek.
"I still want you to do it." Alek told her. She knew how much people wanted her power to activate and protect her people.
Alek looked at her sister with determination in her eyes. The look that told everybody that no one could change her mind now.
"Are you sure?" Novah asked.
"Positive." Alek answered.