The Bewitched Soul - Chapter 19 Meeting David 2

Later in the evening, Lord Gerard had invited Lord Alexander for a palace tour and a brief meeting with the councilmen. Lord Gerard had a separate council apart from the central one as the Land of Ostbarrow was responsible for the management of trades all across the four provinces.

Sharp at four in the evening, Alexander climbed down to the first floor towards Lord Gerard’s study.

Knocking the brass coated door thrice, Alexander heard Lord Gerard say,

“Get in.”

The door creaked when he pushed it open.

“Good evening, Lord Gerard.” his face broke into a gentle smile.

for visiting.

“Good evening, Lord Alexander. Have a seat, there’s one paper left where I need to sign.” Gerard’s sounded apologetic.

“No worries, I shall wait.” Alexander smiled.

“Umm… done! Let’s go,” Gerard quickly assembled the scattered papers on his desk into a huge pile.

He quickly grabbed his coat hanging on his chair, taking long strides he walked towards the door. He stopped suddenly, realizing he left Alexander behind.

“Oh sorry, haha. I’m too excited.” Gerard laughed.

“It’s fine, let’s go!” Alexander laughed as well.

Both walked through the vast corridor. They climbed up to the terrace which was more than four floors above. Breathing in the fresh air,

“Do you know how old this palace is, Alexander?” Gerard asked, his hands were warmly secured in the coat pockets.

“Definitely older than me,” Alexander spoke while looking at the view in front of him.

“It must be like a few hundred years old?”

“A few hundred thousand years,” Gerard looked at Alexander as he spoke.

“It’s ancient,” Alexander bent down to pick up a dry maple leaf.

Dusting it, he carefully wiped its surface. The fallen leaf has still its glow intact.

“My father had built this palace when they burned down our previous home,” Gerard stared blankly at the maple leaf Alexander was holding.

“They who?” Alexander brows furrowed as this information came as a complete shock.

“Revolters,” Gerard spoke as he treated over the fallen leaves, leaving a trail of crunching noises every time he took a step.

“The warlocks had gone to the Land of Shadowlake for a council meeting along with my parents. Apparently, the servants in the palace were cast upon a spell which made them follow the orders of the revolters in absence of my parents and others. They started burning the palace bit by bit and in the end, they died in the fire. They wanted us to cut relations outside Land of Ostbarrow.” Gerard sighed as he continued.

“The revolters hovered over the palace finally burning it down into ashes. It was too late when my parents and the warlocks reached Ostbarrow. Luckily, they were able to save the civilians from the revolters. Since then, we started practicing more on white magic. There are a few more revolters left to be killed.” he spoke finally turning around to face Alexander.

Alexander’s face was expressionless. This was something unexpected. Like who could have predicted that coming?

“They still possess danger and you know it,” he spoke in a plain tone.

“You still have two days left. I’ll take you somewhere to meet someone if you want.” Gerard waited for Alexander’s response.

“I won’t be able to handle the situation, Lord Gerard.” Alexander knew about whom Lord Gerard was talking about.

“It wasn’t my authority to take action against you. The council didn’t even have enough proofs against him, Alexander,” Gerard tried to make Alexander understand about what had happened.

“He’s unworthy of being a white witch. But, it’s only I and you who knows who was the mastermind behind that incident.” he continued.

“Let me handle this. But, not this time,” Alexander continued.

“To all those questions swirling in my head, needs to get answered, Lord Gerard. I’ve lost all my dearest ones. And now that you’ve mentioned that she is alive, makes me grow impatient every passing second. I need to find Emilia’s daughter also,” he was speaking when Gerard interfered.

“You don’t notice things around you when it comes to your personal life, Alexander. Every small doubt of yours might guide you the path to the answers to your questions.” Alexander’s left eyebrow lifted in reflex as his lips slightly opened.

“Why did my mother died?” Alexander spoke after a minute of silence.

“You were very weak and fragile at the time of birth. She gave all of her powers to you before she died to save you, Alexander. You can say, she drained the soul to you before she took her last breath. The reason why you have more strong super-powers than the rest mixed bloods,” Gerard patted Alexander’s shoulder gently.

“She had suffered a lot in her life, didn’t she?” Alexander spoke as his voice started to shiver and his eyes started becoming red at ends. After much control, he failed to contain the tears. A single drop of tear raced down his cheeks, his Adam’s apple moved as he gulped, trying to hold back his emotions.

The great king now looked like a lost child searching for his mother to get back to him and hold him tight in her arms.

There was a moment of silence. The breeze swept past their ears, the maple leaf was set loose from Alexander’s grip. Looking at the flying leaf,

“Let’s go, the meeting will start in fifteen minutes.” Gerard turned around to leave.

Alexander stood there for a few seconds and then followed Gerard to the council hall. They climbed down to the ground floor where the council meeting was about to be held. Entering the huge hall, Alexander saw three men in uniform, sitting and discussing something. The moment they saw the two Kings, they immediately stood up from their seats.

“Greetings, Milord. Greetings to the great king, Lord Alexander.” both the councilmen bowed as they paid their respects to them.

“Good evening. I hope everything is organized as per the plan,” Gerard smiled as he spoke.

“Good evening to you both,” Alexander wished at the same time.

“Yes, Master. Everything is planned accordingly. The rest councilmen must be arriving in a few minutes. Please have your seats,” one of the two councilmen spoke as he asked them to follow them to their seats.

“Sorry, he is James and he is Harold,” Gerard remembered that he had forgotten to introduce them to Alexander.

Alexander observed the two. They looked almost similar.

“We are twins,” James said as he held Harold’s arm.

“I see. Nice to meet you both,” bringing their right hands forward, they shook their hands and smiled at each other.

“Nice to meet you too, Lord Alexander.” the twins said at the same time.

“Ah, the meeting will begin in eleven minutes. Where are the rest?” Gerard was very punctual. He was always before the time for any important meeting.

Suddenly, they heard the carriage horses enter the main entrance gate. James and Harold ran near the door as they saw three carriages park straight in a line.

The councilmen started climbing down the carriage and rushed towards the main hall.

“Hurry up! Both the kings have already reached,” Harold whispered loudly.

“We’re coming,” one of the running councilmen laughed.

All of them adjusted their bow tie and dusted their suit before entering the main hall.

“A very good evening to the great Kings,” all of them spoke at once.

“Good evening,” Alexander wished.

“Good evening. Take your seats fast. The meeting will start in 7 mins.” Gerard’s face was expressionless and gave them a meaningful stare.

All of them hurriedly ran to their respective seats and started taking out files out of their bags.

James and Harold were young compared to the rest of the councilmen. Because of their unmatched intelligence and smart work, they were selected as the head of the council. They were orphaned at a very young when their parents died in a mission. From that day, Gerard took care of the twins as his own children.

“Three, Two, One.. and” Harold whispered looking at the giant wall clock.

“Let the meeting begin,” James announced.

“As per the statistics, the trade between the Land of Ostbarrow and Land of Shadowlake has declined due to the recent storm which hit Shadowlake. The demands are high, but the supplies from our province couldn’t meet their demand.” one of the councilmen continued.

“So, we’ve come up with an idea that we will start recruiting more workers this weekend or maybe the next.”

“Don’t we have sufficient workers for that?” Gerard sighed and he flipped the statistics file.

“Continue,” he ordered, his eyes were still scanning the file.

“Next,” James ordered as he took out a pink file out of the pile of files.

“This is regarding the revolters. Recently, a civilian saw a man being murdered near the forest. The person was in black robes. He couldn’t see the face as ran right after seeing the incident. The dead man was a human and the family now wants actions to be taken against the revolter. The villagers also demand the same.” another councilman spoke as he walked towards Lord Gerard to hand him the file.

“Assign ten warlocks for this task and ask them to watch over the whole village. Especially at night.” Gerard’s glanced at Alexander sideways.

“Next,” he ordered.

“Wait, I have a suggestion. May I?” Alexander interrupted.

“Yes, sure. What is it?” Gerard’s face suddenly lit up.

“Talking about the revolters, a few incidents have already occurred in the Land of Brookville as you all know. The warlocks currently are undergoing training. ” he continued.

“As there a few such cases that will be taken to the council, I want my army to be a part of this mission.” Alexander looked at Gerard, wanting to get his permission.

After a minute of silence,

“Okay, you shall now be a part of this mission.”

Hearing this, Alexander smiled gently.The smile was short lived and was soon replaced with a stern, determinant look.

Soon, the council meeting was dismissed. Alexander and Gerard moved out of the hall, followed by the councilmen. They all entered their respective carriages and started leaving.

Meanwhile, the two lords wandered around the palace garden.

“Only one more day left,” Gerard smiled looking at Alexander.

“We will meet again,” Alexander smiled back.

“Stay there! Right there…” Gerard spoke as he stopped in his tracks.

“W-what?” Alexander was confused. He suddenly stopped and looked at the ground.

“What is it?”

“This is where your father had seen your mother for the first time,” Gerard spoke.

Alexander spoke nothing but stared at the ground and the surrounding.