Ten hours after chasing Dhaligir on the rooftops, Kylara found herself standing outside the Council door. It was a scheduled meeting, although it nearly twice the length as usual. They had a lot to discuss.

The memory of the last time she had stepped in the room was still fresh in her mind. Last Council meeting… had not been good. She had gotten into a fight with Malyun and it had ended badly. She hoped this meeting would go better, although she had preemptively set her expectations on the floor. It wasn’t like it could be any worse, could it?

She sighed. It wasn’t starting off well. She could hear low voices coming from inside the room. It sounded like they had started without her. Her stomach twisted.

Don’t be ridiculous, Kylara.

There was no reason to get so nervous. She didn’t used to be like this. It was just a Council meeting. She needed to get over herself. Just because she didn’t have the standing she used to have…

Kylara rolled her shoulders and pushed the door open. Best way to get over yourself she found–just do it.

The room fell silent as she walked in.

The Council members all sat on a square table, with Pemulabee at the head. Kylara always sat to his right, and Bevan, and Taligree next to her. Malyun sat to his left, with Roy (Kylara’s grandad), Leger, and Joe next to him.

Kylara came to a halt as she walked in, because another person was there. Multhamurra stood besides Pemulabee, looking like a giant compared to the small man. That was unusual. She didn't think she could remember the last time a non-council member had attended.

“Shut the door, girl,” Malyun said. “Don’t just stand there staring.”

“Right,” Kylara said. She nodded and closed the door.

“Well, everyone’s here now,” Pemulabee said. “We can begin.”

Really? Kylara thought. Because it seemed like you started without me.

“This is Multhamurra,” Pemulabee said. “I introduced him formally at the Wrestday festival yesterday, but I am not sure if you’ve met individually yet.”

“I was just introducing myself,” Multhamurra said. “And yes, I’ve met Kylara. She seems like a lovely young lady if I do say so.”

“Hmm. You can leave now,” Malyun said.

Multhamurra looked surprised by that. “Now?” he asked. “Are you sure?”

“We’ll call for you if we need you again.”

The magsman nodded slowly. His eyes drifted to Kylara, as if he could sense the tension in the room. “Yes,” he said. “Do tell me if you need anything.” Kylara wasn’t sure who he meant to be addressing, but she suspected there were two meanings to his words.

As Multhamurra walked out the door, Pemulabee cleared his throat. “On to our first topic of the day…” he said, looking down at his book. The table, as usual, was filled with papers. He began to thumb through them.

Pemulabee was officially the leader of Kookaburra Creek. All business went through him. He wore a possum fur and feather cloak, the only official garment of the council. Everyone else just had a feathered headband to indicate their right to sit at the table.

Kylara fidgeted in her seat as they waited for the meeting to officially start. She brushed a strand of black hair away from her eyes. Malyun had been staring at her since she arrived, but she was trying to not let her uncomfortableness show.

“We’ll start with the matter of Dhaligir,” Pemulabee said. “Everyone is aware he attacked Kylara with a knife?”

There were a few nods around the table.

“He ran from Imla’s care last night,” Pemulabee finished.

“He ran?” Bevan repeated. “Didn’t he break his leg? How was he running?”

“Badly,” Kylara said.

“I talked to Imla earlier today, he’s made it worse,” Roy said.

Joe put his head in his hands. “That boy has no common sense, does he? What was he thinking?”

Leger laughed. “Was he even running in the right direction?” he said. “What did he think he was going to do, go live with the sheep?”

Kylara frowned. Actually, now that she thought about it, no he wasn’t. The only way out of town was west. Everything else was Desert. Dhaligir had been running north.

“The important point,” Pemulabee raised his voice, “is that he did not come back when requested. I told him multiple times we needed him back for a trial and he refused.”

“He also attacked me,” Kylara said. “Again. Or tried to, at least.”

There were some shocked looks from further down the table. Kylara was surprised. She had assumed they had been talking about the events of last night before she had walked in, but it seemed like they had been discussing something else without her.

And with Multhamurra, for some reason. She would have to ask her grandad about it.

“He attacked you?” Malyun repeated. “Twice?”

“He’s confessed to both,” Wawiriya said. Her small form barely looked over the table, but her voice was strong.

“Why were you there?” Malyun sneered.

“It doesn’t matter,” Kylara said. “He tried to use that entad on me.” What she didn’t say was that it had likely been aa attempt on her life. She had been jumping off the roof of a building. That was dangerous in itself, but when you couldn’t see straight and had no sense of direction? It could be fatal. Maybe Dhaligir hadn’t know how strong the effects were (had he tested it out on himself?) but if the same thing had happened as the first time, there was a chance she could’ve broken her neck in the fall. Kylara wasn’t sure how, or if warders could heal from that.

“Why didn’t someone confiscate it from him?” Taligree asked. “It’s a hairclip, right? It’s not tried to his being.”

“We did,” Wawiriya. “Imla took it when she was treating him and gave it to me. Someone must have stole it from my place.”

“That seems like something we should address,” Taligree said. “It’s one thing for the kid to get it off the ground and use it. It’s an entirely other problem if someone is supplying him.”

Pemulabee spoke up. “He says he got it from a stranger.”

“So… the magsman?” Bevan asked. A few council members gave him a confused look.“He’s the only stranger in town,” he clarified. “It could be him.” Kylara nodded slowly. She suspected he wasn’t fully following the conversation. He usually didn’t.

“It wasn’t him,” Wawiriya dismissed.

“A different stranger, I agree,” Malyun said.

“Was it any of us?” Taligree said.

“None of us would give an entad to that idiot boy,” Leger said.

“One of us might,” Malyun said. She stared at Kylara.

“It was not me,” Kylara said. Why she needed to clarify, she had no idea. She had been the one attacked. Why would that make her a suspect?

She pressed her lips together. This happened often. Just because she needed to tell the truth, didn’t mean she wasn’t to be trusted unless she specifically stated it. She wasn’t being manipulative just by staying silent, despite Malyun’s opinion.

“Wawiriya,” Roy asked, “did anyone come to your house last night?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t think so.”

Yalmay did, Kylara thought. She wasn’t there when I woke up. She must have gone to met Joontah.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

She didn’t say anything, though. She didn’t want to bring up the topic of Yalmay with Malyun around. Especially at the council.

“Did Dhaligir say anything else?” Joe asked. “Any hint of who gave it to him?”

“He won’t talk,” Pemulabee said.

“Why?” Bevan asked.

“Why?” Leger said. “Because he–”

Roy shushed them. “Bevan asked a good question,” she said. For once, Kylara added. “Why isn’t he talking? The boy doesn’t have many friends to protect and he knows the consequences if he stays silent. So why isn’t he saying anything?”

“He has a sister,” Kylara said.

“It’s not her,” Joe said quickly. “I know her well. She wouldn’t do anything like this.”

“Maybe he just doesn’t trust us,” Malyun said. “Or he thinks he had nothing to lose.”

“I say we open a seperate investigation on who stole it,” Joe said.

“Agreed,” Pemulabee said. “Malyun, Kylara, you start it. Recruit any help you need. Report back any findings during the next council meeting.”

Kylara stared at him. Me? She thought. Me and Malyun? That was possibly the worst idea she had ever heard.

“I chose you two because Malyun has the most experience with entads in the town. And Kylara, I think your trigger wards can be helpful in this regard. Do you have any objections?”

“No,” Malyun said.

Yes, Kylara thought.

“Kylara?” Pemulabee asked.

“I’ll do it,” she said.

“Good, I’m glad that’s all settled. As for keeping the entad safe for now, Kylara,” she looked up, “do you mind putting some trigger wards around it? Just the basic stuff, but I want to know if someone tries to steal it again.”

“Of course,” she said.

They did not have any safes in Kookaburra Creek, as Kylara had recently discovered. Back when they had wards that worked, anything valuable was kept either high up, further than a human or a ladder could reach, or covered with material and wards. You couldn’t ward against humans entering, of course (warding against living flesh was forbidden), but you could ward against things leaving the area, like entads. Now that they didn’t have warding, they had to make do.

“So what are we going to do about him?” asked Leger.

“I think we can assume he’ll do this sort of thing again,” Joe said.

Pemulabee nodded, as if that was precisely what he had been thinking.

“What are your thoughts on him, Taligree?” he asked. “The boy used to work for your son.”

Taligree looked at the others around him before answering. “He was a decent worker, very quiet. But he was always a bit of a follower, never really interested in learning or getting ahead. That he’d attack someone surprises me. What provoked it?”

“His parents are moving out of Kookaburra Creek,” Kylara said. “He doesn’t want them to leave and he didn’t want to leave with them.”

Leger snuffed. “Hardly a reason to attack someone with a knife, I say.”

“The kid has obvious issues,” Joe said.

“Their orchard burnt down,” Kylara pointed out. She felt an odd need to justify Dhaligir’s actions. “It was their livelihood.”

“We did give them another, if I recall,” Roy said. “Right, Wawiriya?”

“We did,” she confirmed. Pemulabee was the head council member, but Wawiriya was their unofficial record keeper.

“We gave them money too,” Malyun said, “a not insignificant amount.”

“I don’t think…” Kylara started, then revised her wording. It was a habit to always start sentences with clarifications like that. It was an easy way to avoid lies, but bad when she wanted to make a statement. “He's not…a bad kid,” she said. It did feel funny to call Dhaligir a kid when he was several years older than her, but the others wouldn’t care. Or probably even notice.

“But?” Wawiriya prompted, keen eyed.

Kylara frowned and stared at her hands. She did not want to get into the fact that half the reason she had let him attack her in the first place was because she was guilty about the whole fire situation.

That and her arrogance. If she was being honest with herself (which, considering her situation, she did not do very often), she had been itching for a fight. She had known it was going to be taken seriously at the time, but the fight had still felt like a minor thing with no consequences. If she had been actually taking Dhaligir seriously, she would have simply walked away. Then he would never have been in this situation. Of course, she would never do that, but it was still a decision that she had made.

If she had actually cared about Dhaligir, she would have just shut up, not listened to what he had to say, and walked away. It wasn’t her fault, but it was still the predictable results of her actions.

Still, she could make an argument in his favour. “It’s not like he expected to actually hurt me,” Kylara pointed out.

“Because you heal,” her grandad said. “Just because someone heals fast doesn’t mean you can hurt them in the first place. That’s not how that works.”

“The way I see it, We have two options,” Pemulabee said. “We either can keep him here, in Kookaburra Creek, or we can ask him to leave.”

“Exile him?” Taligree asked.

“It seems like the most straightforward option,” Bevan said.

“The last time we did that was almost ten years ago,” Malyun said. “It would be a big step.” Pemulabee nodded slowly as if he had been expecting someone to say that.

Last time, meaning my mother, Kylara thought.

“His family is already leaving for Bormbora, it would be quieter than last time.”

“Doesn’t seem like much of a punishment if he’s already leaving,” Joe said, sitting back.

“It doesn’t need to be,” Pemulabee said. “We are trying to prevent more trouble, not punish the boy.”

“We should be doing both,” Malyun said.

“And if we let him stay?” Leger asked.

“Who would he stay with? I thought the assumption was he was already leaving with Draven and Hamalia,” Roy said. Kylara assumed they were Dhaligir’s parents.

“He hasn’t decided if he was going with them yet,” Kylara said.

“Is his sister leaving?” Roy asked.

“I don’t think so,” Pemulabee said.

“I know his sister well,” Bevan said. “She’s a good woman. She’d take him in if she needed to.”

“I know her too,” Roy said, “but I’m not sure would. She talked to me yesterday, she seemed troubled by the attack.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Malyun said. “If he stays, and she can take care of him, she will. They are blood. Blood is responsible for blood. Is she capable?”

“Of course she’s capable,” Leger said. “She works with my sheep sometimes, helping with the shearers and rouseys. She’s a good worker. Volunteers around town helping with the kids too.”

“I was checking to see if she was of age.”

“She is.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” Leger muttered. “Clearly the boy is not smart enough to care for himself, let alone his sister.”

Pemulabee raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry,” Leger said.

Pemulabee took a deep breath. “Here’s what I would suggest. “He is a troublemaker, we all know that.”

“Troublemaker?” Malyun said. “Even before he attacked Kookaburra Creek’s most valuable asset with a knife, he had a history of it. He obviously has no respect for our laws. I say we exile him and be done with. We have more important topics to discuss.”

There was a long pause. Then, Bevan said, “We should exile him.”

“I agree,” Roy said after a moment, looking at his granddaughter. “He’s a danger if he stays.”

“Let’s take a vote,” Pemulabee said. “Everyone in favour of exile, raise your hand.” Malyun, Roy, Bevan, Joe, Wawiriya, and Leger raised their hand. After a minute, Pemulabee did too. “It looks like everyone except Taligree and Kylara are in favour, so it is decided.” Pemulabee said. “I don’t like the idea of giving up on a kid who has no one else, but his family is supportive and already leaving. I think that is the best course of action. He’s young enough that he will not have any issues building a life somewhere else. Does he have any other relatives here?” Pemulabee directed the question at Wawiriya.

“Not any close ones,” she said. “Other than his immediate family, his closest relative is actually Kylara.”

“Me?”

“Through your mother and through his father, you share a great grandfather,” she said.

Great, we’re cousins, Kylara thought. And of course it was through her mother’s side. Had anything good ever come from there?

“This is a good thing,” Roy said, reading his granddaughter’s expression. “It gives us an excuse not to punish him more harshly. I believe there are rules about punishing someone who attacks a warder.” He turned to Wawiriya.

“There are,” she confirmed.

“If you could recite it–” Pemulabee said.

“Don’t,” Kylara interrupted. “I don’t know them and I don’t want to.”

“I won’t then. But knowing the rules, just know that I think this is the right decision.”

Kylara nodded. That was oddly reassuring.

When she had got warding, they had made her say some promises, including to uphold the rules of Kookaburra Creek. But it had been a chaotic exchange, and Kylara’s mother hadn’t been fully… with it at the time. Some things slipped through the cracks in the transfer, and Kylara was glad. Some of the rules could be harsh.

The problem was chain promising. You couldn’t keep someone to a promise they made before they got a warding mark, but you could keep someone to a belief of a promise. Kylara had made a promise that she would chose the next warder based on who she sincerely believed would make the same promises as she did. It was meant to be a whole ritual and everything, passing down generations of rules and traditions. Personally, Kylara thought it was more akin to an inherited disease.

If she decided that Dayindi was going to be the next warder tomorrow, she couldn’t just tell him oh, here are the rules you’re going to need to say and then list them. The transfer wouldn’t work. She needed to be damn certain that he would say them. Not just mostly certain, but 100%. Him promising that he would say them wouldn’t work. He could lie. Warders weren’t kept to promises they made before getting warding. The way almost every warder for hundreds of years had done involved threats. It was a horrible system.

It wasn’t the main reason why Kylara hadn’t officially chosen the next warder yet, but it was a big part.

Pemulabee took a deep breath. “If you all agree, I think we have reached a decision. I'll speak with him, and I'll tell him to leave with his parents for Bormbora. We do not need to make a big deal of it.”

“Agreed,” Leger said.

“Me too,” said Malyun.

Pemulabee looked down the table, and Bevan, Roy, and Joe all nodded.

“It seems best,” Roy said.

“Kylara?”

She hesitated.

Her grandad leaned over and whispered in her ear.

“I think,” he said gently, “you would be more well-served by letting this one go.”

She very slightly nodded. “If it makes the most sense," she said.

“Taligree?”

“Agreed.”

“The decision is made then,” said Pemulabee.

“Are you sure you want to speak with him?” Roy asked. “I know you already dealt with him last night.”

“No, I said I would,” Pemulabee said. “Let me handle it.”

“Be careful,” Wawiriya said.

“I’m sure I won’t have any problems. I’ll tell him gently, and leave it open. If he wants to come back here, he can wait several years and do some service for the town. If he wants to come back, he has to do it as a more mature person. It wouldn’t be easy, but it is possible for him to do.”

Pemulabee wrote down his decision on the official document they used to make these types of decision. Then passed around a piece of paper, which everyone signed. Kylara, who always sat to Pemulabee’s right, signed last.