It was still awkward for Mark to do the conferences in phoenix form, but if they wanted Jordan to participate, they had to. The day before yesterday had been the last day the old king had been able to keep the seemliness of a human form. Now an old-looking grey phoenix was all that remained of the once handsome man.

‘You are doing it again… pondering about my changes and what they mean to you. It’s futile unless you were to change sides, which you are not considering, are you? In case you are not, this is futile. And as you can see, I don’t have time to do futile things.’ Jordan reminded his son-in-law and successor. ‘As my successor, you, too, should refrain from doing futile things. It’s a ridiculous thing for a king to do. You have to become more decisive in your actions. John would have…’

‘If you had wanted your son to be your heir you would have named him, not me. I haven’t asked for any of this. My choice would have always been a human life over becoming a bestie. And end up being stuck in such a body at one point, losing my humanity completely.’ Mark interrupted the old bird with an irritated clack of his beak and ruffling his feathers involuntarily. He hated how being in this form for longer periods of time changed his mannerism.

Seeing the younger phoenix acting completely in accordance to his true form, he was sporting now, Jordan Teine laughed. A sound that would have sounded funny in the ears of any human. He only produced bird sounds. Phoenixes were not able to learn how to speak in their true form. That was the only reason Mark was using his phoenix form to this extant. But it did awaken his instincts much further than he would have wished for. Even in human form Mark had caught himself tilting his head and looking for some high place to watch his surroundings.

When in lecture hall he nowadays preferred the uppermost rows whilst he always kept to the front rows earlier.

‘Are you watching your prey from your perch, Mark-of-prey?’, Morgan had jokingly asked when he took his seat beside him this morning. Late, as usual.

‘Very funny, lizard.’ Mark said and rolled his eyes that now even in human form were golden. If it had been anybody else the dragon-prince would have never tolerated being called lizard. Mark knew that, he saw the gleam of anger appearing and disappearing in his friend’s eyes. A dragon would always be a dragon. Just as much as he would always be a fire-bird. He knew his friend would give it back to him somehow.

But before the dragon could get his revenge in this friendly banter, professor Higgins entered and both of them followed his every move with their eyes. It would have been an unsettling sight for anyone to look at them now, but no one did.

They went over the moral issues of defending criminals. It was interesting to see how their fellow students went crazy in debates. Both Morgan and Mark did not interfere, though.

‘You cannot defend murderers. It is not ethical.’ a blond girly-looking woman argued.

‘but one cannot know whether they are murderers or not until they are proven guilty. That’s why there is the principle of the presumption of innocence… you know how many people are found innocent after years in prison. That’s why I don’t like the death sentence. It’s final and archaic.’ A brown-haired man in a green t-shirt answered.

‘That’s different. I don’t want innocents to suffer, it’s all those lazy coppers jumping to conclusions without proper investigations. I mean the real criminals. Those paedophiles and serial killers. I couldn’t stand defend such wastes of space.’ The blonde stated her opinion and Mark felt his pride as a cop being triggered. But he held himself back, telling himself she wasn’t worth it. He was undercover and didn’t intend to blow it prematurely just because of some teenage scum.

As he drew his breath slowly through his teeth to calm down his enraged phoenix side, he looked sideways only to see a mischievous twinkle in his friend’s eyes. His smirk made Mark’s stomach churn. The young phoenix knew he really should refrain from calling Morgan a lizard.

Meanwhile the discussion in between the blonde and the boy in the green shirt continued.

‘Why do you always have to talk back. It really feely like you like those incompetent coppers. They are sloppy in their gathering of evidences and keep on damning the lawyers of using any opening they leave.’ The blonde argued just now and added ‘They would have already found the bastard that killed those poor students.’ A notion that made Mark role his eyes and Morgan smirk at him seeing his unease. Then the dragon whispered under his voice ‘Game on.’

Morgan looked intently at the professor. Mark knew this kind of gaze; his friend was manipulating poor professor Higgins into doing something. The young phoenix gritted his teeth, he hated the casual use of such powers.

‘Please…refrain from insulting our police forces. I am sure they do their very best to keep us safe especially in this precarious situation… But why don’t we ask one of them about his view on the topic of our little discourse. Mark Teine. As a former police detective, I am sure you’ve got an opinion on this topic.’ Higgins smiled and rendered Mark unable to stay silent. ‘That’s a game two we both know to play.’ The heir to the phoenix-clan thought as he shot Morgan, who was contently smiling a sour look.

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‘I am happy to oblige.’ Mark answered smilingly and stood up to get up on the stage. ‘But I think if we want to pursue this approach, it would be interesting to have the military’s view, too. For there is a fine officer beside me who is studying non-military law before doing the same with military law. He went to military academy and has absolved a military deployment abroad. Morgan Long-Drake, please join me, my friend.’ He added and looked at Morgan, who first looked like he had bitten on a lemon, but then answered ‘You order, I comply.’ and saluted mockingly.

A gesture if done by any non-soldier would have been seen as inappropriate in this context. Professor Higgins gulped. As head of the law school, he knew, what Teine and Long-Drake meant, money and influence. Seeing the casual exchange between two of their heirs transferred to stage had the potential to become more than interesting. More than he had hoped for and when he looked at their faces, which showed something like the lust to fight, more than he had bargained for.

Blondie, Cathryn, as Mark now remembered and Paul, in the green shirt stood up to welcome them. Morgan smiled and gave a court nod to Paul, whilst ignoring Cathryn. A planned gesture as Mark knew his friend was already planning the discussion like a game of chess always three steps ahead.

Mark on the other hand knew he had to play nice, even if it meant to lie through his teeth and smiled open-heartedly at both Cathryn and Paul.

‘I guess I will talk a little about me and my view on the situation…’ Mark began to talk ‘I am Mark Teine, an orphan raised by a police detective and before I started studying here youngest detective to ever be part of the major crimes unit. One of the reasons I am standing here is that I don’t think our system to be perfect, it has flaws, as our fellow students have elaborated. But I can assure you, that every police officer working on this case will be doing his or her uttermost.’

‘Obviously that’s not enough… and if you are so convinced of the police’s work to be flawless, why didn’t you stay? Why are you changing sides?’ Cathryn asked aggressively.

Mark flinched, but took a deep breath and answered friendly ‘I never called the police’s work flawless, but that doesn’t mean it is not good, though. My reasons not to stay are of personal nature, nothing to be discussed on stage. I am not involved in the current case, so I can only guess, that there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and traces to be followed before they can catch and imprison the murderer. As for changing sides, in my opinion I didn’t. I am aiming for becoming prosecutor. Only changing from executive to judicative branch.’

‘Nicely said, Mark, I can call you Mark, can’t I?’, Paul answered and waited for Mark’s nod before he added ‘But don’t you have connections to all three branches afterwards? Your stepmother and brother-in-law being all high and mighty in our police forces, whilst your father-in-law has been our minister for internal affairs, until he abdicated lately, out of health issues, as they say? Isn’t that contradictory to the foundation our legal system, even our state is built on? The independence of the three branches? Check and control? And if I look at this friend of yours, who is a rising star in military, don’t you think that dangerous?’ Unrest arose in the auditorium, people whispering and silence only returned, when Mark began to speak.

‘If you put it that way, nearly every successful family is dangerous. If not specialized on medicine or something like this. Every bigger family that has a broader portfolio and connection could be seen as a threat. But they can also be seen as the kit that links our system and keeps it from falling apart. But that is naturally only possible if one sport a less paranoid world view.’ Mark smiled. Some people in audience even clapped at his statement.

‘You have a way with words, I give you that, but I will keep an eye on you. On you and those clans, those monsters in human guise.’ Paul spat and Mark felt as if someone emptied a bucket full of ice water over his head. He had been witnessing of such sayings, but if people were getting haughty enough to say such things openly on stage it was a completely different matter. Again, unrest arose, but this time it was divided in people in favour and against the picture he drew. Mark gulped, feeling the small feathers on his neck rise.

‘I think this is neither place nor time to spout such atrocities. What you are doing is breaking the very same principle you have defended half an hour ago. The principle of presumption of innocence. You are on the verge of being racist.’ Morgan stated in a serious, but calm tone, that did not betray, if he felt anything, hearing such mean words. His poker face of mildly amused disinterest stayed in place. ‘Admirable’, Mark thought.

‘Racism is only against humans. Otherwise, one could argue giving citizen rights to apes. Those creatures are nothing but variant animals, that create the seemliness of being human. Worse, they are monsters, maybe besides vampires and werewolves, who seem to be likely to hold at least some human intelligence. Unlike those overgrown lizards and birds, that claim to hold as much intelligence, as we hold. Laughable.’ Paul argued, completely unaware of arguing with one of those ‘lizards’ and one of those ‘birds’. He didn’t see the connection between the toothy smile Morgan flashed at him and his words. He felt he had spoken his mind and only told the truth.

Mark knew if they had been in a dark alley Paul would not have survived his words. But right now, none of them could do anything about him or his contenders. He knew the clans’ public image was not as good as they would have wished for, which led to several racist incidents in the last few weeks. Any clans beside the werewolves and vampires had to cope with those fears and prejudices.

Trouble was brewing and both Mark and Morgan felt it. They discussed until the bell sounded and they were released. It was interesting to see the fellow students’ reaction to some topics. Very informative, indeed. All those things made Mark worried.

And he had carried his worries to his king. But Jordan only said ‘Decide yourself, how to deal with the tension, cooperate with the other council members and look for solutions. I won’t be here for your plans to bear fruit. My life nigh over.’

And there he was. Feeling like a monster due to his feral instincts and memories of his ferocity during the merging, but in charge of defending his people from being called monster. What a mess.