Chapter 7: Futility

The sounds of wood being smashed can be heard everywhere in the surroundings of the council chamber. In the center of the chamber the old council leader was standing surrounded by the shattered scraps of wood the was once an ornate table. 

"What did that useless little shit do to get himself killed! If that wasn't enough he didn't even tell anyone they escaped. FUCKING USELESS BASTARD!!!" He shouted venting his anger out to lie to himself about the budding anxiousness he felt. Having calmed down enough to think rationally again he turned to the entrance of the room and asked the guard who just showed up. "Where did they go? hmmm... no just tell us everything from the start, don't spare any details even if you don't think they are important"

Another younger council member looked at the old man in confusion "Huh? Why aren't we hurrying to catch them? Aren't we in a rush to bring them back?" 

He was responded too by one of the two people who felt the child's birth and the recognized strongest existence in the empire Nachtavius Zaracus "No, now that they already escaped into the ocean we wont be able to catch them within a short period of time" his tone was steady and held no fluctions of a single emotion to the point of being eerie, however the other members of the council have grown used to this.

"I mean I get that they planned an escape and all that and that it'll take a while to catch up but I still don't get why we're acting so cautiously. Even if Samira got a boost in strength she's only so strong and the boost will only last so long" The response he received was silence, he saw the old man and the strongest look around the room studying their reactions with growing disappointment.

With a loud sigh the old man sat down in his chair looking truly tired "This is what I've been trying to beat into all of your heads for so long. Stop just looking at strength as being the only important matter. Take a moment to think about how they somehow planned a well planned and executed escape with little to no signals of their thoughts. Take that with Avantus getting killed with seemingly little effort or at least little time wasted and think about the meaning behind that"

"Who do you think is the biggest problem between the two of them at least when it comes to this escape and us catching them? Because I can tell you it's not Samira, it's Lucious. He is one of the best strategist and rune mages in the empire. He can easily maximize Samira's strengths and hide her weaknesses and on top of that we have no idea what he can really create with his runes. They found an old ruin from the 1st era and it wouldn't be surprising if he found a lot of runic knowledge and never informed anyone" His voice was still steady throughout even while giving his rare acknowledgement towards Lucious

"Yes, as far as I know he has not failed a single time when devising a strategy involving Samira, and now that they have a 'Daughter' I doubt they'll go down easy this time. He either somehow worked a way to avoid us with the three of them or planned with his and Samira's death in mind. If it's the latter it will be much more troublesome to deal with."

A soft tranquil voice added onto their conversation "There's also the fact that our emotions are being volatile at the moment" with that the room all turned to stare at the woman with varying displays of emotions ranging form utter confusion to dawning understanding. She stared at the center of the floor with dead eyes lost in her own thoughts. They knew that was the best they were gonna get out of her and the sole fact that she even responded this much lends some credence to her words. This as well as her being ranked as 2nd in the empire, Calypso the silent dread. 

The old man now looking a little chipper explained "Ahhh so that's what I couldn't figure out. I was wondering why we all suddenly started to display our emotions so easily. I even lashed out at a table" with that he started to try and suppress his emotions at least so they didn't spike and change so easily. 

Looking up once again he was back to being the old monster who personally saw the end of the 3rd era. Emotionless eyes scanned the room, about half of the room was getting their emotions under control. "Enough of our idle chatter" now looking at the guard who has been quite up until this point "Speak, explain from the beginning all of the information you have"

The guard trembled at the gazes of everyone present especially after seeing all of them in such a bad state moments ago he was scared they would get rid of him the second he finished explaining. He tried to calm himself and took a shaky step forward. As he did he noticed the Council member who spoke earlier that noticed the emotion problem stare into his eyes and say a single word "Suppress". Thus he was, the world felt as if it was stripped of all colors, his emotions pressed down to the very core of his being unable to be connected to. He couldn't even feel fear towards this as that was suppressed as well. Nothing would matter in this state, existence meaningless like a puppet with strings cut. 

Seeing the guard no longer shaking like a lamb to the slaughter the old leader spoke one last time with authority in his voice "Speak". Now no longer compelled by the previous volatile emotions the guard began filling in the details to the council. Starting from what they could pick up in the delivery room, the explosives all around the building, Avantus being told of the escape and not reporting it the council, the direction of the escape, and all of the details they could gather from their fight. He added as many details as he could and when he was done went completely silent. 

After a minute of silence the old man stood up once again, he calmly and slowly walked to the guard and tapped him on the forehead granting him a peaceful death. without bothering to look at the corpse he stated "He died due to a trap from Lucious and Samira, it's unfortunate but we cannot be allowed to show weakness. Now Nacht and Calypso the two of you will take 5 of the 10 and 10 out of the hundred rankers to go and catch them. Leave in 30 minutes, and during that time everyone can try to look for clues to take a guess at what they are planning. As of now it looks like they are trying to cross the water to the central continent, most likely towards the nearest edge of the continent. Do either of you have any more input into this matter before the meeting is adjourned?" 

The response was silence and a light head shake from Nacht. After seeing that no one had any more to add he turned around a left. They all filed out of the room in order of status and importance leaving the final member to deal with the room and body. 

As everyone continued to complete whatever they could in the allotted time they could all feel their emotions trying to break through once again. For some it was fear and anxiety but for most of the others it was excitement at the Empire making such a big move after so long, even without targeting any outsiders or going to make a big show of force just the fact that the top two rankers were moving together was big enough. Those who were qualified to know what was happening felt a sense of utter superiority towards the outside as well as pure disdain at the traitors for putting up a futile fight against the empires elites.