Eligor
Dusk of Life, Marlight, Hall of Decisions
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To Eligor Jurvight, the buzz and commotion of his colleagues was a calming, familiar thing, a soft background sound on the back of his mind. It echoed through the large hall, this Hall of Decisions, with its rows of seats placed in a half circle around a central large table, with every row placed slightly higher than the one in front of it, so every council member had a good view of the proceedings. Beams of sunlight filtered down through the stained glass windows above, sending down beams of light in a myriad of colours. The walls were painted with murals, depicting the Hybrid races, as well as the races living in the Day of Life, sitting and living together, drinking, laughing and talking. This, in his eyes and hopefully in those of the council, was their main purpose, their main ideal they had to strive for. Establish and maintain harmony and peace between the races they represented and the ones they shared this world with. At least, that’s what the council should stand for, but not everyone shared that vision. As of late, whispers of hate and war began to drift through the halls, casting a dark fog on the council members present. Even though nobody wanted to admit it, conflict was near, and a resolution would have to be found soon, or the fog that lingered would inevitably turn into a storm cloud that could shake the very foundations of their way of life.
Despite these dark thoughts, the shouts and whispers of the councilmembers, their laughs, their shouts, soothed him and his old mind. Eligor shifted in his seat and sat back into his front-row seat, shrugging his councilman's clothing into place again. He was a rather scrawny Pyrn, wearing a dark grey robe that reached his ankles, with his Elder’s broad dark-red sash draped around his shoulders. His wings, dull and grey with age, were folded neatly on his back. It had been ages since he last used them, and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to fly with them at all. He could live without them though, as he was most needed here anyway, tucked away inside and talking his days away. His wings might be weak, but his mind was still as sharp as it was when he was in his prime. A fact that the younger members of the council often seemed to forget.
One of said newer members of the council, a younger Yrus man, approached him, greeting him politely with a small bow. Even with the problems between the Yrus and the Pyrn of late, a good few of the council’s representatives kept it civil and advocated for peace. It was just a damn shame that the council members that wanted to cause trouble were also actually the most vocal and charismatic ones, especially those on the Yrus’ side.
“Elder Eligor Jurvight, it is your turn to speak to the council in a few minutes. I trust you have everything in order?”
Eligor gave the youngster a warm smile, the old Pyrn brushing the grey collar of fur around his neck flat as he nodded.
“Everything is fine, Councilman Uray, thank you for your consideration. I’ll be taking the stand shortly, as was planned.”
He rose from his seat, raising his hand to decline the hand offered by Uray to help him get up. Wasn’t that old just yet. With a gait and stance belying his age, he made his way to the middle of the hall. He stood behind the table and grabbed the gavel that lay there. With the gavel in hand, he patiently waited for a little while, the hall getting quieter and quieter when they noticed one of the Elders was about to speak, and one of the Pyrn at that. Within half a minute, the hall was silent. Eligor cleared his throat before he began speaking.
“Esteemed colleagues and friends. For the fourth day in succession, we’ve come here together to discuss the rising tensions between the Yrus and the Pyrn people. To briefly summarize the last proceedings, we’ve established that there are a fair number of individuals amongst both sides that blame the other for several vile transgressions."
The old Pyrn's sharp eyes scanned the crowd, seeing the tension rise.
"A substantial number of the Pyrn blame the leaders of the Yrus for the death of Chief Baros, may his name be forever mentioned in the stories and myths of our people. On the other hand, there have been casualties amongst the ranks of the Yrus as well, many of which have been suspected to have been carried out by members of the Pyrn faction. In addition, there is the matter of the amulet stolen from the late Chief’s house, which further raises suspicion.”
‘Oh Ayuen, dear niece of mine. What have you done…..’ He thought with sadness in his heart while he narrated. He skillfully kept any expression off his face, as he’d done all these years in the council.
“As I’ve done every time this past couple of days, I wish to stress the fact that neither side has any waterproof evidence on either of these happenings-“
As he finished his sentence, the council broke into a stream of protest, with people shouting their visions and opinions with disturbing fanaticism.
“Objection! There is plenty of-….”
“This is an outrage!”
“Clearly, the evidence points to-….”
This time it took Eligor a couple of well-placed hits with the gavel on the wooden sound block to silence the crowd.
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“There have been no direct eyewitness accounts on any of the charges that have been put forward. I know the allegations are personal to a great many of us.”
‘Too many, if you’d ask me.’
“But if we choose our verdicts too fast and at the wrong people, it will only bring us further from our goals and the truth. The Marlight guards are working to shed some necessary light on these mysteries, with the help of Marlight’s best mages, including even a fair number of Casomancers.” Eligor said, putting a clear emphasis on the last word, hoping the mention of that specific group of magic users got the graveness of the whole situation. The cacophony of outcries that he got made him realize he should’ve known better though.
“Those people?! Are you mad?”
“Mad scientists they are!”
“Only a fool would ask for help from them…..”
“They are too unreliable! They wield Legria's Chaos!”
He should’ve known better. By the sound of it, it was the younger council members that were making such a fuss about it too. Eligor looked to the elder counsel's seats and found many of them quietly talking amongst themselves, and a fair number of them seemed to nod approvingly.
"Enough!” The old Pyrn voice rang through the large hall, loud and clear despite his age. “Haven’t you young ones read your history books? Every branch of magic has its place. The path of Flux Magic, although a rather unconventional one, is as valid as any other. You all ought to know this! Law without Chaos is stagnant!”
The murmuring quieted down, and most of the councilmembers sat down, a good amount of them with embarrassment written across their faces. However, one of them, a younger Yrus woman, kept standing. Siandra, her name was, if he recalled correctly.
“If you’d excuse me, sir Eligor. I would want to express my opinion on the matter at hand.”
“Permission granted, councilwoman Siandra. You have permission to speak freely.”
With a minute nod of thanks, the woman made her way down the stairs until she stood next to Yrus’ Elder Council members. Softly clearing her throat, she spoke up to the meeting. Confident and unwavering. Maybe there was hoping that she would have a better head on her shoulders than most.
“You are quick to dismiss the current evidence as circumstantial and less than reliable, but there are members here who disagree with that notion, including me. Every member of this council has at least read a summary of the evidence gathered by the different groups, and many of them have found the evidence compelling, to say the least. While you call in the help of some questionable parties, I know I speak for a lot of people when I say that we should review the information we already have at this moment, and do that in depth.” A murmur of agreement buzzed through the ranks of the younger council members, especially those of the Pyrn and Yrus stands.
And there you had it. The group he was fighting to keep in check. Even though the ones that cried out for conflict were the younger members of the council, they were more vocal and passionate about voicing their opinions, and as such sometimes threatened to overpower the voices of the more experienced members. And a hasty decision would be their undoing in a situation like this.
“Councilwoman Siandra, might I remind you that the perpetrators of both crimes have not been arrested yet, nor do we have definitive….”
A wave of protest interrupted him mid-sentence, drowning the rest of his retort in a cacophony of noise.
“There were Yrus feathers found at…..!”
“….-yrn servant of one of the murdered Yrus has disappeared!”
“And there have been written threats!”
“…..call that circumstantial evidence?!”
This was starting to get ridiculous. Both Yrus and Pyrn council members were beginning to shout at one another, accusations of foul play flying through the room like bullets. Not managing to raise his voice enough to be heard, Eligor resorted to his gavel, the blows of the hammer resounding through the hall. The clamour of voices started to die down enough for him to let himself be heard.
“Contain yourselves!” He all but shouted through the large, circular hall, the older man feeling his throat hurt and get parched.
“Do you think screeching accusations into each other's faces is going to solve anything? You’re all part of this council and should know better than this. Objectivity and neutrality are what we must maintain. I feel for my people as well, as does everyone else in this room. But we shouldn’t lose sight of what this council is built upon. Trust...”
He balled his free hand and brought it down hard on the oaken table in front of him as he said the word, hoping to accentuate his point.
“... and cooperation.” And again, he hit the table. Damn these youngsters. Far too impulsive, far too easily manipulated. He’d heard from his son and grandchildren he was like a mule sometimes, his feet firmly dug into the ground of his arguments. But the reverse was currently a more grave danger to the integrity of this council.
“Malibily of opinion, shadows whispering dark tidings into the ears of puppets. Too many stories we heard regarding that. We mustn’t forget why this council exists in the first place. To make individual informed decisions based on the carefully constructed opinions of the many.” Another murmur, this time coming from the front, out of the ranks of the elder members of the council. By the sound of it, they were mostly approving of his standpoints. That was good. With a bit of luck, they could keep this whole situation from escalating too rapidly.
Eligor looked down at his arms and hands. His wrists throbbed, one of wielding his gavel, and one of smashing his fist into solid wood. He felt more tired by the minute, and this wasn’t working. This was enough for today.
“With the other elder’s permission, I would like to ask the council to take a closer look at the available evidence, discuss it, and wait for a verdict until we have found the culprits that orchestrated these crimes. Asking permission to adjourn this meeting.”
At this, the ruckus was about to break out again, but finally, the chief of the Yrus, an elderly woman called Yuna, stood up and raised a somewhat bony hand, her old grey wings folded at her back.
“I agree with Eligor here.” She simply said, her voice soft but firm. “We’ve got much to consider, and with emotions running rampant through our veins like it is now, I fear that our decisions will be murky at best. We, both young and old, need to sleep this over and let the fire out of our veins. And it is getting difficult for the older ones to keep up, I’ll have to admit. Permission granted, Eligor.”
A wave of relief washed over him and a small smile formed on his lips. This was the type of help he was desperately looking for. Gwiantz’ praise be to that crafty old woman. He nodded politely towards Yuna.
“Thank you, Chief Yuna, we will take your advice to heart. Meeting adjourned.”
And so the meeting came to an end, much to Eligor’s relief.
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