Kyla, Mater Tazmaine's wife, had helped Takal out of his bandages that first night so he could wash and later helped apply more of the green paste, insisting he'd go to the healers the next morning. Tired and with his throbbing arm relatively numbed he passed out on their couch and didn't wake up until well after sunrise the next morning.
He ate a big breakfast that someone had left for him and applied more of the green paste Nieka had left him and wrapped it back up best he could but without the restrictive sling. He had yet to go to Mater Robin because he planned to use it in his argument for Nieka later. His arm still hurt from deep within and he favored his good arm to avoid moving it, but he was stubborn and had a meeting to check up on.
An hour later Takal waited with Master Tazmaine as the council camber filled with the respected Masters. The council chamber was perfectly round with doors on either side. Four long tapestries were hanging on the walls one for each master group in their representative colors. Likewise, there were four decorative tables pushed together to form one large table. Six ordinate chairs sat on the outside of the long edge of each table.
A rather plain but comfortable black chair sat at one end and a small plain chair sat beside him at the other end. This was the chair pervaded to an informer not part of the council, and if one was being judged by the council you stood in that same spot but weren't given a chair. He had been in that position far more times than he had been given a chair.
The masters stood around chatting with one another in their black robes and colored scarves until all had arrived. The scarves wrapped around their necks in a symbol of servitude like a collar and leash and they draped over the shoulders as a representation of the weight they bared. The colors matched the banners and table runners for each group: yellow for masters of a trade, green for masters of survival, red for masters of weapons, and blue for masters of the people.
Master Tazmaine wore a scarf of white that stood out against his black robe. His only authority in council meetings was as a mediator, here he held no vote, and could not argue any side of any point. He was the master of the masters, and this meant his service was to all of them and he was forbidden to act biased against any of them.
When all had arrived Master Tazmaine cleared his throat and signaled for everyone to take their seats. He felt much smaller as he sat alone with all the masters between him and his father, but he sat up tall and looked at them all as they settled in. This was not his first time in front of the council, but he had a lot of important information to deliver and a person other than himself to fight for.
"This council meeting is being held in light of a great deal of new information that has been reviled in the last few days and Lt Col El'Takal is here to inform us all." With that he nodded his head to him, gesturing for him to begin.
"Most of you probably know that a few days ago while Major Tornjak and I were scouting we came across half a dozen demons only about 6 miles north east from here. What wasn't common knowledge was that they were chasing a human girl that had escaped from their demon layer" several of the masters exchanged surprised glances. "Another oddity you may have learned of from the search party we sent to scour the area was that some of the demon corpses had distinct deformities, like gray skin with no scales, no wings, and only one tail." Several masters nodded their heads.
"We learned from the girl that the demons have been kidnaping women and girls for at least twenty years or so, to build an army of hybrids. This changes a lot of what we know about demons and their motives." He paused to let that sink in but started talking again before they could start talking.
"Two days ago, we set out to return her to her home, to a town called Newport. It is in the same location as the town of Ocean Side City which was wiped out almost 20 years ago. The town was settled by a merchant from another land two years ago. It's small and undefended, not to mention most of the locals didn't even know that demons existed.
"When we arrived at the edge of town the demons were waiting for us. One demon swooped down and snagged the girl. When I charged after it, more demons came out from the woods in an ambush fashion. There were 23 of them total; I counted the bodies. This is the largest group of demons I've seen in my lifetime, and most of them were these strange hybrids." He paused a little too long and someone sneaked in a question
"Why send so many demons for one girl? I mean even if they are using them to make their hybrids, they could easily just snag another woman to take her place."
Anger and disgust burned through him at the careless comment, these were wives, mothers, and daughters he was talking about, and they didn't get to choose to 'make' anything. Taking a deep breath he focused on the question. "Because she's not just any girl, she has magic and that is the trait they want to be passed down to their spawn. Several I fought had my ability to move things with their minds and one could heal itself almost instantly. Also, they've kept their plans secret for over twenty years; I don't think they wanted her to share the information she'd learned. They are a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for."
"They're just dumb animals. You're getting too paranoid." A man complained.
That's what they want us to think; being underestimated gives them the advantage. The demon that grabbed the girl spoke to me. Probably because he thought I was about to die and therefore would never get to share this information."
There were more exchanges of shocked looks and someone said "Demons do not speak"
The master of history countered "There have been rumors and reports of this before especially in the old times from before the queen was killed."
"We can discuss this in more detail later, why don't we finish the report first." Master Tazmaine said redirecting the focus.
Takal took a moment to gather his thoughts again then continued "The demon said 'kill me and the girl dies'. Then the girl shouted to me to 'kill him'. This tells me she would rather die than let that thing live. I dropped my knife but levitated another behind him and while I worked at this the thing said 'I thought as much, too bad she'll never forgive you the rest of her long life' this means that the demons had no plan of killing her even to eat which reinforces her statement that they are keeping girls captive to make their hybrids." Horrified looks were exchanged with intense whispers to Neighbors.
Master Tazmaine cleared his throat and the talk died down as everyone looked at him. "This leads us to the first major decision that must be made by the council, what will we do with this new information, and do we share this terrifying news with the rest of the army, and if yes do we share it with the surrounding towns and cities we are sworn to protect so they can better protect their women or do we protect them from the panic and set up less obvious safeguards."
This became a two-hour debate that Takal barely listened to. After all, he had no say in the outcome and only spoke when asked to verify some details. They made the decisions based on his information, and he was bound to serve and support whatever their decision would be. He was leaning towards secrecy, though he normally preferred to have all the facts out in the open for everyone to see. But this would be too much for most people to handle rationally, especially those that had recently lost someone to the demons.
Mostly he sat in silence and thought about the last topic scheduled for the day if they had time, Nieka's request. Eventually, a decision was made to withhold the knowledge of what is happening to the kidnaped women but spread the news of the younger demons and the new attacks, change in size and complexity, insist upon their intelligence supporting the myth of speech but leaving out the fact that some of the young have mage abilities and to let people assume they have a new queen.
They decided to request curfews and warnings about traveling alone or in small groups be spread to each town. Then he was sworn to silence regarding the whole truth with those who didn't already know and they dismissed for lunch.
They would reconvene later to draft letters to the mayors of the towns and put together a plan of action to use this knowledge to better protect the townspeople. He however was not to attend that meeting as he was not needed. They discussed and planned for five days straight. The whole next week the masters would be devoted to putting the plan into action and getting caught up on their other duties.