Chereads / Apex Predator / Part 1 / Chapter 18 - Meeting

Chapter 18 - Meeting

Nathan's POV:

"TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" The woman keeps screaming at Captain Zlodey. Her blonde hair matches all the gold present in the castle. Her eyes shine a vibrant blue, and her cheeks have a good amount of redness, like if she's blushing... A beautiful woman, except for all the screaming...

"SHUT UP!"

Captain Zlodey shouts to her and punches her in the face, making her fall on her back.

What am I witnessing...

"Get ready for an emergency meeting, I'll call all the Captains to the metings room. And stop drinking."

"Fine..." she says while getting up from the ground.

So she is the leader of the Warriors tribe, but it seems Captain Zlodey is the one letting out orders... And he's right.. there's so much smell of wine coming from her... I guess she's going through a rough time.

"Nathan, this is Faye, our tribe leader. Please don't mind the detestable state she's in.."

"Oh please, it's not like someone's gonna die because I get a bit drunk. Anyway, hello Nathan! Please make sure not to get killed soon, your Captian Zlodey here has a bad habit of not training his division properly and sending them to de-"

Captain Zlodey tries punch her again, but she dodges very swiftly.

"Wow calm down Zlodey! You're really bad with jokes."

"Go. Get. Ready." He seems really serious this time..

She drops her smile and says:

"I'll be there soon, go call the others then."

It seems she and Captain Lafina are very alike personality wise... At least regarding the drinking stuff.

"Let's go Nathan, there's something I need to show you."

We walked for a bit until reaching a room that seemed to be dedicated to communication purposes.

There's a huge window, and quite a lot of birds in cages. Near them, the same man that recruited me and my friends into the Warriors tribe, was sitting in a chair, resting.

He notices us entering and greets us:

"Captain Zlodey! Glad to see you again. And... Nathan was it? What brings you here?"

Captain Zlodey answers in a serious tone:

"Send a raven to all the Captains, it is urgent. No need for any content in the letters, just say it is a level six urgency meeting."

"Level six huh.. Right away Captain."

He writes something in a few pieces of paper and ties them to the ravens. He then opens the window and sends them off.

Each of the ravens go in different directions, so I assume they are all trained to go to a specific Captain.

"Be ready to send more ravens at any time, it is uncertain of what will happen when the meeting ends."

"Very well, will the meeting be about the visit of the Starfall tribe leader? Faye told me to put an announcement but I'm not sure if making this matter public was a good idea.."

"Yes, we must prepare for any possibility. And don't worry, everyone would eventually find out anyway, so there is no point in hiding this. I'll be going now, come Nathan."

We leave the room and start walking down the hallway, I think it will take some time to get used to all this shiny stuff..

"Nathan, do you believe in magic?" Captain Zlodey asks.

"Huh? I mean, mages stopped existing around a hundred years ago right? There's no one that can use magic nowadays."

"You're partially right. Mages did indeed perish in the last century, but that doesn't mean that magic is completely gone. In fact, I'm almost sure Jason can use magic."

What? Is he talking about the same Jason I'm thinking?

"You mean, he can control the elements and stuff? I never seen him do anything like that?"

"Magic isn't limited to the basic elements. The Endwalker's diary was sealed by some sort of magic, but if he wants you to read it, then he probably lifted whatever magic it was keeping the diary from being open. We're going to get it now."

I still don't understand why they call him Endwalker. I'll ask Captain Zlodey to explain everything when we're not in a rush..

We go down a staircase, leading to some kind of basement. The atmosphere here is completely different from the rest of the castle, it feels more.. sinister. No longer a shiny and clean environment, instead, it gives me vibes of some sort of dungeon, where everything is a bit dark and dangerous.

"Here is where we have all the secret stuff, if you tell anyone of what you see here you'll probably have your tongue cut off."

I guess I'll keep quiet... He says that, but I can only see stuff like armor and scrolls down here, perhaps there's something I shouldn't read.

After digging through some books and scrolls, Captain Zlodey finally finds what we came here for:

"Here it is. And just as I thought, the seal is no longer active."

The book looks very old, it was covered by lots of dust when Captain Zlodey picked it up, meaning it has been here for a couple years now.

He handles me the book and says:

"Don't start reading it now, who knows what will happen when you open it. Don't blame me if you die from a curse or something."

"Oh.. alright."

Don't tell me curses are real as well... I think I'm stepping into dangerous ground here.. I must be careful.

We leave the basement we were in and this time, took a right turn near the entrance gate, it seems we'll now go to the meetings room Captain Zlodey talked about. Speaking about Jason made Leader Faye get super upset.. I wonder if they knew each other. I guess it's alright if I ask:

"So mmm, what exactly was Jason to Faye? She seemed to not enjoy hearing about him at all." I asked curious.

"Her husband."

"Oh..."

I see now. She must hate him a lot for not protecting their son in the last war. Maybe that's why he left the Warriors and settled down in the village this last few years... I guess this is why Captain Zlodey wanted to bring Jason with us, it would be for the best if Leader Faye was in good terms with the Endwalker, she's probably always drinking because of losing her son. I still don't understand that name though. I wonder what he did to earn that title.

After walking a little further down the hall, we get to another room which door is almost as big as the one to the throne room, making it look very important.

Captain Zlodey opens it, and the inside is now visible to us. There is a huge round table with ten fancy chairs, all with some sort of gold accessory like the rest of the furniture around here... where do they get so much gold?

"Sit next to me." Captain Zlodey says while pulling a chair for him to sit. I do as he says and sit on the one to his right.

"So, what do you think of the castle? You and the rest of the division will soon have rooms in here as well."

"Really? I'm not sure if I can get used to this much shine everywhere..."

"Ha! I know how you feel, but don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine. After this is over you can go get your friends and bring them here, the rooms should be ready by then."

"I will, thank you."

Silence reigns while we wait for the rest of the Captains and Leader Faye to show up. Taking a closer look at the book in my hands, I notice a weird star shaped symbol on the cover. I wonder if it has anything to do with the Starfall tribe. Everything's happening so quickly...

The door opens and Captain Lafina enters along with someone else. A bald man using some sort of light leather armor, with two daggers hanging on his waist. He must prefer speed over power.

Leader Faye shows up right after. This time, she's looking more like a queen, wearing a white dress with pink ornaments.

"What do you think? I'll use this when when the Starfall leader visits us, do you think it is appropriate?"

"Yes, it looks great on you, don't worry." Lafina answers with her eyes sparkling at the dress.

Everyone sits down across each other, and Faye continues:

"It appears the captain of the first division won't be able to come... We'll have to leave him out of this for now. Let's focus on what we'll do from now on. Nathan was it? I'm not sure why, but it seems Jason has chosen you to read his diary. We are aware it is magical, so to make sure bad happens to anyone, only you will read its content."

"A-Alright."

I'm so nervous... Can I really be in a meeting of this caliber? I feel like I don't belong here.

"Let us now talk about the Starfall tribe."