Chapter 6: Blames and promises.

Lord Jaratte's blatant accusation brought me back from my reverie, uncertain how I was to answer his mockery I remained quiet, waiting until this faded discussion finished.

"What are you not going to answer me now?" he asked, almost standing from his dignified chair and spit flying through his redden mouth, "Just because you have been allowed in the council and given a seat doesn't mean that...." His words ran from his mouth but my mind was already far from there.

It had been an three months since I had found myself in this place and crossing that damned mountain. And then this political turmoil. All of these started soon after I was allowed to seat in this chair, a place of power, indeed. Who was I kidding even?

Soon other smaller lords joined in agreeing with lord jaratte, how it was all my fault and that I shouldn't have been allowed to do such.

The apprentice of the lord each kept quiet and stood still beside their master, but some of them forgot to hide their smirk at my inconvenience. I'd assume and was right, they were rather annoyed other the fact that someone like me, an outsider was allowed a seat in the council and yet they weren't. And I understood their little jealousy.

"-We should rebuke Cretin and punish him for" Jaratte continued, but his words were cut off by the lord leader.

"Stop it, Jaratte. I know you are worried about our tribe but we mustn't push someone so much, at least without listening to them, " he reasoned in my favor, before meeting my eyes and then looking at the other council members, most of them agreeing along. To this day, I wasn't certain as to what this man thought behind the veil that hid him, but there was one thing I was certain of; he was on my side at least for now.

Jaratte spat but stayed quiet otherwise. "Now, then since everyone is in favor of hearing zareth out, let's hear his part of the story first, " Lord leader said, bringing my attention to him, "And then we will decide whether to punish or reward him."

At the end of his words, I stood up and saluted with my palm placed right above my left chest and bowed my head slightly, "Thank you, lord leader."

I sorted my excuses straight, with enough truth readied to be spilled but I couldn't reveal everything, not now. It was rather weird how much all these people have influenced my thinking to this point of craftiness.

"As you know I had been tasked with mapping out the third zone but," I began, recounting what they already knew, "soon after I had started doing such lord dayahan there, " I pointed my fingers at a fat man wearing an embroidered cloak and beside him, his sickly apprentice standing, "-have come to me offering their clan's helping hand. Being short with the necessaries I'd gladly accept their help. But who would have thought..." I gently dragged my words out and lord dayahan burst out with his words, "Zareth, what are you saying?! Even though you planned to"

I cut him off, " Lord dayahan are you saying it wasn't you who came with the offer?"

"I..I-I did, but, "he admitted and the lord leader said, "Lord dayahan I was certain that this was zareth's task, not yours. I hope you can explain to me, later. Continue zareth. "

"Yes. Along with lord dayahan's men, I would set out for the third zone. Everything was fine for the first few days, and during our fifth day there, we would come across an empty town. It seemed to have been left like that for decades if not centuries. All of you must know that by now, I take?" I said and looked at them to find them nodding at my words.

"We would spend a few more days there and find out the small details, making sure we did not miss anything important in haste. And that's when we found something weird," I paused and looked at the sweating dayahan, must be hard for you huh, "There was a letter inside the old house, weirdly enough it hadn't degraded even slightly. Further opening the seal, I found no content inside.

"And that leads to our present situation, while we were returning from the zone, we would come in contact with a septic zone, and two of lord dayahan's men passed away. It was an unfortunate incident and I take responsibility for it." I bowed down again and this time with sincerity.

Breaking the silence one of the council members voiced out, "What happened to the letter?"
"It had been destroyed along with the fellows," I lied. From the corner of my eyes, I saw dayahan sigh in relief, and I remembered our deal, something that was sworn by an artifact. But he was still stressed for I had twisted my words become and the words back then left enough holes for me to use against him.

I smiled at him, a genuine smile or so I thought, "If that was all, may I leave my lord?" I asked the lord leader for permission and when he did, I silently took my leave; too tired for any more of this now.

Walking along the council hall's corridor, I felt my world shake again-forcing me to hold onto the pillar and balance my feet. A few moments later when everything turned fine, my breathing evening out I resumed my walk like it wasn't anything. Perhaps it was the side effect of being here in this place...

Outside I found someone waiting for me, one of the people here whom I could trust more than anyone else. I hadn't seen her for a month now.

"Hey aria, how is it going?" I smiled at her as she turned her head toward me and returned my smile with her own, "It's good. But I presume it's still annoying for you?"