The Council of Five

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I sat in a conference room at a round table full of some of Redrook’s most important people. Shion, Headmaster Argo, and the other four members of the Institute’s Council of Five’s attention were turned towards me. I shrank beneath their gazes.

“I’m Headteacher Meredith Fury, I teach spellcraft and general studies at the Institute.” The first of my assessors introduced themselves in a curt manner. “Now, Itsuka Ren, would you please describe the event of your summoning in as much detail as you can remember?”

“Sorry, but is that really important?”

Headteacher Fury wore her striking violet hair back in a ponytail, and donned a black, buttoned pantsuit with a purple cape.

“Of course. I would just like to confirm whether your story matches the accounts of some of our other students.”

She eyed me sharply, awaiting my answer. The first question I was asked was about how much I could remember on the day of my summoning. Bits and pieces came back to me with each passing day, but the majority still escaped me.

“Well… That morning I had gone to school, and met up with a friend who had told me about a typhoon rolling in. Though, I still can’t remember her name...” I paused, thinking deeply. “She warned me not to go out, but I got into a big fight with my old man later on, and ran away. After that it’s kinda fuzzy… I ended up here and fended for myself for a while after that.”

I left out the part about being denied entry to the Institute. They likely already knew that, and Shion had advised against my admission for her own reasons, besides. Headteacher Fury nodded, satisfied.

The floor was open with a few moments of silence following her question until another council member finally spoke up, a man. He had narrow eyes and wore a white haori jacket with round amber-colored sunglasses that sat on the bridge of his nose. There was something about his flat smile that made me just a bit uncomfortable as he examined me.

“My name is Swordmaster Xianzhou, I’m a special instructor at the Institute.” He said. “Swordplay is my primary area of expertise, but I also instruct students on hand-to-hand combat, and basic wilderness and urban survival techniques. Being that the world is as dangerous as it is, it’s a necessary elective, wouldn’t you say so?”

I nodded. I could see how that sort of curriculum would prove helpful to a bunch of folks who weren’t familiar with the World of Kai. I had to learn it all on my own, meanwhile. One could count the number of similarities between our worlds on one hand, but the differences could spell life or death for someone who wasn’t careful or extremely lucky.

“Just one look at you has convinced me that you’re not like the other soft piles of waste I’ve been handed in the past, I like the cut of your jib.” Swordmaster Xianzhou declared. “Buuuut I have to ask though, if you’d excuse my forwardness… What beef did you have with your old man?”

“Eh?”

“Xianzhou!” Headteacher Fury snapped. “What does that have to do with accessing his suitability for admission? I swear, you always do this…”

I’m with Fury on this one.

“You already said your piece Headteacher, now don’t I get a turn?” The man waved her off flippantly. “Sheesh, I’m just a little curious is all. Go ahead and ignore her, sport. I certainly do. Why were you and daddy duking it out?”

I paused, looking around, but no one else seemed keen on jumping to my defense. Shion nodded to me as if she wanted me to answer, which surprised me to some small degree. In all honesty, I didn’t typically mind answering a personal question or two since I had little to hide, but this one was rather difficult.

My relationship with my father was a touchy subject amongst those who knew anything about my personal life, and the night of my summoning was particularly tough to recall. I decided to explain the bare minimum.

“My father and I… have never got on that well.”

“And? Me either, but surely that’s not it?”

I sighed.

“My mom got sick after I was born and never quite recovered until the day she died years later. He blamed me for it, I guess. But I also wasn’t the easiest kid to raise...” I admitted. “On the night I was summoned, he got drunk and tried to choke the life out of me in anger. Almost succeeded too.”

“And what happened then?” There was a twinkle in Swordmaster Xianzhou’s eye. “Go on, go on.”

This guy is gonna make me come out and spill everything??

“I couldn’t breathe, so I… I picked up this glass bottle, and, well…”

“Boo-boo, time’s up!” A third council member, a small gal with pigtails and thick glasses in a judiciary robe cut in. She was a little burly for being so short, I noticed.

“C’mon, Professor, he was just getting to the good part!”

“You’d do well to reign in that morbid curiosity of yours, Xianzhou, it’s unbecoming.” The diminutive young brunette wagged her finger at the man. “Please excuse him, Ren, he’s a big dumb idiot who says big dumb idiot things sometimes.”

“I resent that, milady!” He sulked like a child. “But if you say so, I guess it’s true…”

I sighed silently in relief since I didn’t want to go through with a retelling of the rest. Despite being a fraction of his size, the woman sure put the Swordmaster in check rather quickly. I made a mental note not to underestimate her, she was a member of the council after all.

“Well anywho, I guess I’m up now.” She cleared her throat. “My name is Phantasia, but most folk around the Institute just call me the Professor. I’m a dwarf by birth, but unlike most of my kin, I prefer an alembic to a forging hammer. If you’re wondering about what an alembic is, it's used to distill potions and such. Since you’re a newbie to magic I thought you might not know…”

“Ah… is that so?” I didn’t want to seem rude or anything, but potion making was as far as it got from my area of interest and expertise.

“I used to lead the Alchemist’s Guild in Redrook until it was dissolved, but now I teach alchemy and botany for the Institute.” She continued. “My motto that applies to alchemical research—and just about everything else—is that a mistake is only a mistake if it makes you stop trying. Everything is a learning opportunity, in other words.”

I suddenly remembered Mother Grabel for some reason since she seemed to have a problem with the Alchemist’s Guild, or perhaps it was the Fishermen’s Guild. I don’t think even she knew for sure which one. Though the Professor’s creed seemed a good one, and reminded me of something Shion had told me.

“As for my question… I hadn’t planned to grill you since it isn’t my style, but I heard of your exploits from Miss Shion and Guildmaster Milton who frequently buys our potions.”

Oh, I don’t like where this is going…

“Is it really true that you slayed a high level fire golem with nothing but that dagger at your hip?”

“Well, that’s…”

“And that your arm half-melted off??”

“Xianzhou!!” Headteacher Fury exclaimed.

“What?? I’m only asking!”

“If so, that’s seriously impressive for a greenhorn.” The Professor continued, ignoring their bickering. “Especially since you don’t have any active combat abilities yet.”

“I’m sure they made it sound more impressive than it is, though I guess that’s right.” I answered honestly. “Shion and the others did most of the work, to be honest. I wouldn’t have been in a position to land the final blow had they not all put their best effort in.”

Alone I would’ve got my ass handed to me, that was just the truth. Shion’s whole spiel about fighting alongside trustworthy allies turned out to be true. And while I wouldn’t go as far as to call everyone my best buddies or anything just yet… I didn’t mind being with them.

“In any case, you all did splendidly to protect the Northern District when our threat response team failed. You have our thanks.” The Professor gave me a silent round of applause. “In truth, since it included mostly student volunteers, they were quickly overwhelmed by the beast. We’re fortunate no one was killed.”

“Not that I’m blaming you guys or anything, but what were the faculty doing when the attack happened?”

“We were looking into the matter of the undead for Miss Shion since it involves a group we’ve been keeping our eye on, but that’s all I can say at this time.” Headteacher Fury answered for her. “Though I must also offer thanks as second in command at the Institute, and my deepest apologies. If I hadn’t been so careless and lost track of that wand…”

Shion had contacted Headteacher Fury to confiscate Fia Fuoco’s wand after her outburst in the courtyard, but she had lost it somehow and it ended up back in the possession of its owner. Or, more accurately put, Alpha had likely meddled somehow to that end.

“It’s fine, really, Meredith.” Shion assured her. “We all made it through the ordeal with our lives, that’s what counts.”

“What’s gonna happen to that chick that summoned the golem, Fia?”

“It would seem she’s disappeared someplace…” Shion rubbed her chin, looking a bit worried. “We’ve asked for the Garrison’s help in locating her, but they haven’t been too cooperative, citing higher priorities elsewhere.”

“Interesting…”

Just like Captain Dimwit to shirk his responsibilities, but maybe there’s more to that story than meets the eye…

“Archdruid Celeste, did you have anything to ask Ren-kun?” Shion asked.

“Nothing from me.” Crossing her legs and leaning her chin on her palm, the last council member not including Shion’s master provided little in the way of a self-introduction. Her tone was neutral, almost bored-sounding. ”Oh, and I teach the spirit arts, I guess.”

Archdruid Celeste was elvish in appearance with pointed ears and medium length green hair, but she also had small antlers protruding from her forehead. Of all the races of people in Redrook I had stumbled across, her look was unique amongst them all. I couldn’t quite tell if she was a sort of fae, a spirit, or perhaps a wood elf. She wore a wispy green gown to compliment her tall and slender figure.

“You could at least pretend to sound interested, hun.” The Professor sighed, exasperated. “But I guess the green would tell you if Ren were some kind of evil infiltrator, so that’s heartening and certainly helps his case.”

“The green?”

“The grass, the flowers, the trees and nature itself, Ren-kun. They all have a collective consciousness that can be heard by practitioners of the spirit arts, but very rarely.” Shion explained. “Archdruid Celeste is something of an enigma in that regard. The green answers to her, and she can communicate with it at her leisure.”

“But the flipside is that she doesn’t seem to be interested in just about anything else at all, always yammering to herself…” Swordmaster Xianzhou muttered.

“That’s rich coming from a guy who talks to his katana collection, just saying…”

“That’s different, Professor!”

“Mhmm. Sure it is.”

”Well since everyone has spoken, I wanted to ask. What do you all think of Ren-kun? In your honest opinions?” Shion asked.

“Me? I think the kid is Institute material!” Swordmaster Xianzhou said with full enthusiasm. “He’s already met my favorite pupil, Zero, and I wouldn’t mind having him add some toughness to the gutless bunch of weenies I’ve got in my class at the moment. Someone who’s lived outside the comforts of campus is a welcome addition.”

“Favorite pupil, huh?” I muttered.

Considering Zero’s strange personality it made perfect sense that Xianzhou, who had an equally strange personality, was his teacher. I wondered how many other oddballs I would meet at the Institute if I were to attend.

“Sure, whatever.” Archdruid Celeste gave me what I could only assume was her approval, looking to the Professor.

“I don’t consider myself the ultimate judge of character or anything, despite the robes and all, but I can tell that you mean us no harm.” The Professor said before smiling. “The hardest one to please is Merry though, since she’s second in command here. What do you say, Headteacher?”

“Well… Your story about arriving a full year late is unprecedented and we plan to look into the root cause of all summonings, but for what it’s worth, we believe you. And Shion, my trusted friend, most of all.” Headteacher Fury said to my surprise. “So, after careful consideration… Itsuka Ren has my vote of confidence.”

“You hear that Ren-kun??” Shion beamed.

I had expected an absolute grilling, but the atmosphere was shockingly loose and inviting. And after I had built up the council as this scary group of individuals in my head.

“And pardon me, Professor, but I’m not really that hard to please, am I?”

“Well, now that you mention it…”

“Nobody asked you, Xianzhou!”

“WHA—??”

The council members and Shion chuckled amongst themselves. I, too, wore a smile.

Now all that was left for Headmaster Argo to pass down his final judgement, a man whom Shion and others had lauded for his wisdom and understanding, and who had been intently listening to our entire exchange without uttering a single word.

Despite his old and fragile frame, he exuded a sense of overwhelming power that was hard to ignore, it deeply unsettled me in fact. His eyes remained closed in thought, stroking his long white beard. He finally opened his milky white eyes, scanning the room until they came to rest on me.

“I’m afraid, Master Ren…” He began.

My smile, along with Shion’s, faded instantly.