by Namita Singh
only if we summon the Occultist and appeal to her.”
“Summoning her is out of the question.” Mikhail says again in a heartbeat. He gets up from his seat and starts pacing behind the chairs on which all the council members that are present are sitting.
“You have yourself to blame for that.” Pleve mutters from the corner he is sitting at.
“I am not going to tolerateyour quips, Pleve. Keep your words in check.”
A deafening silence falls after Mikhail says that. Pleve stares back at an apathetic Mikhail, who has paused his pacing to return the stare. Pleve is staring ferociously alright, but even I have seen who is enough daring to jump in a fight and who is more adroit during sparing. Pleve had not motioned to help us when that guy, Jeremiah or Jermaine, whatever, had been attacking us. He was there alright, as his duty called. But he remained only at the periphery of the commotion. It may have been because he doesn’t like my family much, but there were four witnesses to notice his lack of participation. As one of the council members, his duty doesn’t expect him to let somebody die only because he doesn’t like the person.
“I do not think we have any other way to resolve this, Mr. Lichinsky.” Anastasia says, “If anybody has any suggestions, we are all ears.” She looks at the present council members.
“Why is summoning the Occultist being ill voted for?” a young woman, whose name I haven’t learned, asks. She has been absent during the capture and release of Jermaine. Or Jeremiah.
Pleve, who has averted his eyes from Mikhail, quietly snorts, “Ask Mr. Lichinsky.” He drawls, “He is the one who committed the mistake all these years back. And now he somehow expects us to help him through every glitch in his life.”
“I expect nothing from you.” Mikhail says, surprisingly, in a calm tone. “The sycophant of the Occultist has an ill will towards my family.” He says to the woman who had raised the question.
“But what do you have to worry about?” Pleve says, in an annoying voice, “You have the scimitar at your back, right? The same one you were supposed to burn in the flames.”
“I have to raise this question as well.” Anastasia says, turning to look at Mikhail, “The whole Realm believes that the holy scimitar was destroyed in the land of flames. Was that not true?”
“It was in the possession of Nikolai Lichinsky.” Pleve adds, accusingly looking at my father.
I frown, not at all understanding the fuss over the sword. Especially when I have my partner in a witch’s grasp. I turn my face sideways to see father looking on with a bored look, unaffected by the accusation sprawling at him.
“I do not know where the rumors came from about. I never agreed to let go of the sword, and it is extremely daft of some of you to believe that the flames can destroy it.” Mikhail says, “Irrespective, the holy scimitar has always been and still is my property. And as my successor, Nikolai’s property as well.”
“The scimitar belongs to the Occultists.” Pleve sneers.
“Do they?” Mikhail challenges.
“They are wielded from their clothes.” Pleve elaborates.
“And all these years back, one of my great ancestors was the one to wield it. Don’t tell me who possesses the scimitar. If somebody wants it, they can go and wield one of their own.” Mikhail effectively shuts off the topic.
This discussion has made my already confounded mind get even more jumbled up. Is that sword a…supernatural thing?
That would just be the limit of weirdness in my life.
“Mr. Lichinsky,” Anastasia starts, “Let’s keep the scimitar aside for a moment. Now, of Neal. As a council member, I believe in our Occultist. If she has taken Neal, I do not believe he is in bad hands-”
“Are you kidding me?” I snap, frowning at her.
“Let me finish, Josh.” She orders, “Again, I do not believe Neal is in any sort of danger if he is with the Ninth Occultist. If the Occultist makes Neal divine the future, I am sure she will demand the betterment of our realm. Which is not so bad. If not with the Occultist, we would have expected the same of Neal at some point in the near future-”
“Why the hell would you?” I snarl, “He is not your property.”
“But he belongs to our Realm.” Anastasia says in a tone as if she cannot believe that I am antagonizing her. “You wanted him to belong to this Realm. Now he does. If he were to remain as a permanent residence here then at some point we would expect him to ensure no ill luck over our whole family.”
“And why the hell would he permanently live here?” I ask rhetorically. “Did any of us say that he will reside here for the rest of his life?”
Anastasia falters at my accusation. She frowns, “Preventing any sort of bad luck is for what vaticinator exists in the first place, son.”
“And Neal didn’t ask for this job. He has a life of his own.” I snap.
“I knew from the start they are here for selfish reasons.” Pleve quips.
“You’re one to talk.” I riposte to him, “Wanting Neal all to yourselves, so you can improve your freaking Realm.”
“Okay, calm down.” Father says next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I do not back down from glaring the living daylights out of this Pleve fellow. He has seriously started to tick me off by all his antagonism against my family. “Ana,” father says to Anastasia, “Please continue your verdict.”
Anastasia sighs, an unhappy frown on her face. She minutely shakes her head, as if getting rid of a bad thought and then continues, “As I said…as a council member, I do not see Neal being with the Occultist as something bad. I am sure other council members agree with me. If not, you may raise your hand now.” No council member raises their hand, making me huff in disbelief. Am I the only one to whom the Occultists are represented as something bad? For the members of the Realm they seem like Gods. Everybody blindly believes that Neal is in good hands. No hands reach for the sky and Mikhail remains at the back, forbidden to participate. Anastasia continues when nobody interrupts, “So, the only glitch we are now seeing is that Neal’s partner is left behind. I understand how important a partner’s presence can be and I sympathize with you, Josh. To remedy the situation, the only possible solution is to summon the Ninth Occultist. Once here, we can put forth the dilemma. I am sure that a discussion with our Occultist will conjure a situation where Josh can have his partner around, and at the same time allow the Occultist to utilize the powers of the vaticinator. The problem you all have with that is the presence of the sycophant, which can also be discussed with the Occultist. Under the Occultist’s orders, the sycophant will have no right to harm anybody from this Realm.” She pauses for effect and looks at us, “This is the best possible solution.” She looks back at Mikhail, “Your family can take the day to ponder over this and decide. Maybe even come up with more solutions if you can think of one. Else, we all will be more than happy to stand by you, while we discuss the situation with our Occultist.”
Mikhail is silent for a long moment. He looks at us, then turns back at Anastasia and simply nods. Anastasia smiles and starts dismissing the meeting, assuring me once more that Neal will be alright. I resist the urge to roll my eyes. I have given up all hope regarding my expectations from this Realm. Terry uncle interrupts Anastasia’s dismissal.
“What about her?” he says, disgustingly pointing at Jennifer.
Anastasia pauses, looking over at Jennifer, “She has committed no serious crime-”
“Are you being serious?” Terry uncle snaps in a loud voice. Anastasia opens her mouth but Terry uncle hastily cuts her off, “You let her loose, I’ll kill her myself.” He warns. He then effectively gets up and storms away towards the exit of the grand room.
“They let me loose, the First Occultist is going to find me anyway.” Jennifer says, looking stoic but it’s easy to notice the dejection.
“Serves you right.” Terry uncle says one last time before he finally exits.
I decide that I have had enough of this drama. I get up too and follow my uncle outside. Behin
d me, I sense other auras following me, most probably of my family. When I exit into the corridor outside, I see Terry uncle walking quite ahead of me. Further ahead of him, I am greeted by the sight of my mother and Aakir, worriedly traversing the length in our direction. Terry uncle meets them half way and I immediately hear him start cursing Jennifer. He briefly, very briefly, tells them what has conspired. By the time he is finished telling about Neal, I am right by their side.
Mother, a worried frown on her usually happy face, cradles my face, making me hunch slightly. She kisses my forehead and engulfs me in one of her motherly hugs.
It’s this outward display of sympathetic affection that makes me realize the severity of the situation. My already tensed mind goes into over drive. Through the worry filled haze, I realize that the incident we were working so hard to prevent has taken place, only with a different Occultist. I have never met an Occultist in my life, but I have read enough books and heard enough stories from my elders to know that they are not a nice bunch to dream of meeting. So, if the Council of the Ninth Realm expects me to be optimistic by their proposition of summoning the Occultist then they have serious thoughts to ponder over. To put the cherry on the top, Mikhail is as it is against summoning the witch because of some psycho man that I know almost nothing about, and presently, I don’t really give a flying fuck about him