17-The Pact of Ten

Lupri, the First's Castle:

Nulara was still feeling a bit weird from how Bristlecone sat next to her, but soon enough, she didn't have the luxury of caring about that, her thoughts started getting out of her control again, heading to what the future held for her.

With each second passing her anxiety mounted. The worst part of all that was that even with all the torment she was dealing with inside, she couldn't show any of that, she still had to take her appearance, manners and image into consideration. She had to stand straight and act all proper, the most she could do was ball her hands into fists as she sat there.

Fortunately, and weirdly enough, whenever she felt as if she won't be able to hold on anymore, and that the mask she had on was going to fall, she would catch a whiff of a calming scent.

The scent of calming and refreshing forest, blooming flowers and humid dirt would subdue her anxiety and worries, helping her not lose control.

After calming down, she would instinctively look to Bristlecone sitting next to her, the old ajahit never showed any sign that he cared about anything at all, the most he did was nod at her lightly or give a small gentle chuckle.

Nulara wasn't stupid enough to think that the ancient ajahit didn't have anything to do with that, she would nod at him in return in silent appreciation.

Even after waiting for more than an hour in that hall, they still didn't get led to the meeting room. The other representatives of the Pact arrived one after the other though.

The first to arrive after Bristlecone was a long thin yet well-built man with deep purple skin and red long braided hair that appeared to be somehow dyed, he also had a well kept black stubble.

He was wearing a long embodied golden robe that reached just a bit above his ankles. In his right hand, he held a long silver spear with a golden head. The spear was extremely long, being just a bit below three meters and engraved with dense and complicated runic glyphs.

Like with Bristlecone, Nulara recognized the new arrival fast, he was the emperor Fenton Veverell, the designated leader of the amaryn tribes spread all around the wastelands that lead to the forgotten desert.

After Fenton, a man Nulara recognized by his race came in, he was clearly a livitus, he was tall, taller than anyone she ever met and than everyone else in the room till then, he was around three meters, muscular and had a blood-freezing expression. His long lush white hair was let loose to cascade down his back freely while winding silver lines covered his whole body, they gave the impression that they were pulsing from time to time.

Midlus Talavir, the livitus' current king was a merciless man, that was something Nulara and almost everyone in Tellor knew, what he had done to keep his race's power at its peak was known and condemned by most.

Heartlessness, cruelty and mercilessness were things that would spring up into everyone's mind's whenever they remember what the livitus' king did.

Thinking about that, Nulara remembered something as she threw a glance at Mosi, this new butler was standing there with a straight back as if he wasn't worried at all about that who he was standing next to, and what the livitus had done to people like him and how many massacres he had caused. Midlus himself had good control over himself and emotions, nothing seemed to be off about him.

After Midlus came in, the atmosphere in the hall changed a lot, becoming colder and more oppressive.

His expression changed when his eyes fell on Amathira, who didn't stand up to greet him when she saw that it was actually him who came in. He seemed irritated that she was there, still, all he did was frown a bit before moving to the other side of the room.

Nulara knew that Midlus didn't like how the phas took part in the Pact of Ten's meetings, after all, the reason the Pact of Ten started up was so they could stand against the phas and their partners. Midlus saw that the phas being a part of these meetings was illogical, but his irritation never changed the Alpha's opinion on the matter, which only made him hate the phas more.

Nulara tried as best as she could to make herself as inconspicuous as possible and to stop herself from looking at Midlus and his group, she didn't want to pull unwanted attention to herself.

Unfortunately, that wasn't something she had much control over, and she soon noticed Midlus throwing glances her way from time to time.

After Midlus, it was Randall Revenmar, the skugg's current king. The moment his eyes passed over her, she felt a chill travel all over her body, making her want to find a place to hide in, he gave the impression that he was a poisonous snake waiting for its chance to strike.

Randall didn't say much after his entrance, giving a small nod to everyone in the room, he and those with him took an empty corner of it and sat down. But Nulara was still able to feel their eyes scanning everyone there without rest, as if they were ready to jump up at a momentary notice.

With each new arrival, the oppressive atmosphere in the room got stronger, they didn't try making any small talks, didn't try getting close to each other, each of them took a part of the room with their followers and sat in freezing silence, waiting for all the others to gather so they can go and meet this new king.

Amidst this charged scene, the others arrived one after the other in quick succession, the first among them was a tall well-built man, the only person who was taller than him in that room was Midlus, and that was the case only because he walked with a bit of a hunch.

The man had short black fur with some silver on his body, his arms were long, reaching till his knees, and thick, giving a solid feel. His bat-like features were sharp, black and emotionless.

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After he entered, Nulara noticed that there was no reaction from him at all when his eyes fell on her, all the others gave the feeling as if their eyes remained on her for a bit longer than normal, or their expressions changed, but this man showed none of that, all he did was scan everyone in the room automatically before heading to a random side with those behind him and sitting there like a lifeless statue.

That man was Rillin Wigan, the current leader of the united tribes of the semigins, a race known for their wide diversity, he was a man who sacrificed everything he had and all that represented him for the greater good of his race, because of his sacrifice, he was considered one of the strongest individuals in all of Tellor behind the Alpha himself, no one envied him for that though.

After him, it was a woman, or someone Nulara recognized as a woman from knowing those who were going to come to the meeting, nothing showed her sex really, she was wearing a long hooded robe that was dropped over her lightly, covering every inch of her, and a featureless mask covering her face, it was also well known that she had no hair under the hood that covered her head.

That was the current queen of the ammonil, Aconi Charnin, the last survivor of the Hatching and by so, the chosen queen of her race.

Nulara didn't look at her for long, for she knew how much Aconi hated people staring at her because even though she was the Hatching's last survivor, she didn't fulfil the ritual fast enough and what she lost during it was too big for her to appear normally in public.

Like Randall, Aconi nodded lightly to the people present there before taking her place of the room and sitting down.

A short while after that, Nulara felt some coldness from her direction, turning her head and throwing her a quick glance, she saw that the latter's eyes were scanning her behind that featureless mask. The completely black eyes gave Nulara a strong sense of fear and terror, after holding her gaze for a bit, Aconi turned her head as if nothing happened.

Cynor Rydross was the next to come, he was the minmos' king and someone who had a special status among the people there.

Nulara noticed that even though he tried his best to hide it, Cynor was under tremendous pressure and had a lot of worry on his mind about how this meeting was going to go, which was honestly to be expected taking the relationship between the minmos, the Alpha and Lupri in general into account.

The minmos' relationship with the Alpha and Lupri was strong, that was something everyone there, and even normal people in Tellor, knew. Some would even go as far as to say that the minmos were but a subsidiary race under the Alpha, and that their freedom was nothing but an illusion.

Cynor himself was a short but strong man, he was muscular yet he still had a weak feeling about him, as if there was something different about him from the other leaders in the room.

His skin was pale blue with blue glossy scales on his hands, his body also didn't have any hair. The most eye-catching thing about him though was what appeared to be closed up gills on both sides of his neck, extending from under his jaw along his neck.

Scanning the hall and those in it, giving a nod to each person he locked eyes with, Cynor froze when his gaze fell on Nulara, and he could only move his eyes away after what appeared to be a long battle with himself, then he took a random part of the hall and sat silently like the other, but even with all of that, Nulara still felt his eyes fell open her from time to time.

A man way younger than most people in the room, closer to Nulara in age than the others, came next. He had a big head and had a third eye on his forehead, his hands were bigger than normal and his fingers longer and thinner, he was the oldest prince of the encolian, and the one chosen to take his father's role as king, Mathias Ranly.

The people in the hall showed some mild surprise and wonder at seeing Mathias there instead of his father, Tilton Ranly, the current king of the encolian, but that was brief, it wasn't something that unexpected, Tilton wasn't only known as the king of the encolian, but also by the fact that he was one of the most talented and knowledgeable people, if he wasn't the most, when it came to runic glyphs and grand arrays in all of Tellor. With what was happening right then, it wasn't hard to conclude what Tilton must be doing right then.

Mathias was more respectful to the people in the hall than the others were as he greeted them, he also faced some problems in keeping his eyes to himself when he noticed Nulara, it took someone from his group coughing at him to bring him back to himself as he lowered his head with what appeared to be a light blush on his face.

The last arrival was Manava Rahiti, the joroth's queen, she was wearing a well-decorated and well-made leather armour. She had long braided black hair, a neck that was longer than usual and a single horn on her forehead, the horn was black with the tip being a crystalline red.

This time, after Manava entered Mosi didn't leave, instead, he looked at everyone in the room and said in respect as he bowed towards them, "sorry for making you wait everyone."

Despite his apparent respect and apology, there was an unmistakable halo of superiority radiating from him, something that didn't escape the eyes of the people there, Midlus was the one with the most extreme reaction, he snorted at Mosi before rolling his eyes at him.

Again, Nulara found herself surprised by how Mosi held himself, he had confidence she never saw in any other hybrid before, even she wasn't like that.

"Seeing that everyone is here, let's head in then," continued Mosi ignoring Midlus' reaction as he moved to and opened a side door before leading them through it.