The Council Building

    The air felt heavy, thick, cold.     Winter hadn’t arrived yet, but was just weeks away, and most leaves had already given way in anticipation, but the clouds were not quite ready, it was dark and heavy with cumulonimbus forming about it. The winds had picked up and were creating whistling sounds as they drifted through hollows created by the trees that were scattered around. Behind this trees was a great building, the Council building.     Spanning about a kilometer across, it was only six storeys tall from the ground, but extended ten floors below, bringing the total floors of the building to seventeen. Across its one kilometer span were rooms of different sizes ranging from halls to offices to restrooms, all in the seventeenth floors, although some rooms cut across more than one floors like the great hall within.     The exterior entrance protruded outwards, and had eight doors in total. Above it on the roof was a large statue of a golden eagle which had its wings extended. The bronze eagle spanned twenty-five feet across and nine feet tall. Around the edges of the concrete roof were gargoyles shaped like small flying humans. The walls of the exterior was designed with big flat granite rocks attached in a mosaic fashion.     The great hall was what followed after entering the building. It was the whole seven floors in height above and had a large glass dome as its ceiling which had a golden eagle similar to the statue outside designed on it. Passage extensions attached to each floors connected sections of the floors across around the hall. It was very busy, with people moving to and fro, most of them dressed smartly, some carrying files, most hurrying.     The council building was the office of the Head of Council, an official position that headed six others; the councillors, people who were governors over the six continents of this world. Ofcourse, the building had to be this big, perhaps bigger given the offices it housed.     At the middle of the hall was a complicated circular structure, the crurix, its exterior was made of transparent glass so the insides were visible. It extended from the first floor up to the fifth, and was surrounded by railings on the floor twenty feet from the structure. The first to fourth floor had offices with people busy in them, while the fifth floor was largely empty…except for a man staring at the wall of the room. Above the structure was a bronze statue of a man in robe holding the decapitated head of another man.     The man in the fifth floor’s room was staring at something in the wall. It looked like a wooden box fitted into the concrete wall, with a keyhole at its middle – it looked more like a safe. The man staring at it was a tall middle aged man. He was dressed in a black robe reaching his knees, with a black suit inside and a black trousers. The front pocket of his coat was designed with an embroidery of the golden eagle that designed the hall’s dome and the statue outside. It was the council’s symbol. Under it was written ‘Head of Council’.     The man had been staring at the box for some time now. His arms were behind him with his palms folded into each other. He had also been waiting for someone.     The man wore an emerald ring, and it began to glow. On noticing the glow, he touched the gemstone, and on so doing three large concentric circles drawn around in foreign language appeared behind him. The circles shone red as they appeared. These circles were the magic circles for teleportation.     Three humanoid figures appeared out of the circles, all in black plain cloaks covering their heads and extending to their feet. They went down on one knee and bowed their heads, taking off the hood of their cloaks, which revealed masked faces. The masks were white in colour, with holes for sight, breathing and talking made in. The magic circles disappeared after the men had fully come out of it.     “Did you get the key?” The Head councillor asked.     “No, master Ferenc, Accel hid it away. She escaped while we tried taking it off her,” one of the figures answered.     “Hmm? What’s this I hear? Another failure?” Ferenc Nebulous, the Head councillor asked again.     “It appears she teleported the key together with her baby across time or something more complex; we noticed blue rays coming from the direction she cast the spells,” another of the three said.     Ferenc closed his eyes, and appeared as if in deep thoughts, then turned to face the figures. He reached for the face of the middle figure and removed his mask. What unraveled was a faceless figure, no eyes, nose or lips, it was all just plain extending from his hair to his beardless chin to his ears, which he had. Ferenc frowned at the faceless figure, turned to look at the two other masked faces left and right, before dropping the one he was holding and regaining an upright posture.     You faceless men were cursed to become shadows since the old world era. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was because you lots were just plain useless. I enchanted you all with a masking spell so you could sneak into the Esteria household and extract one half of the key while their battle-hardened sister was at war. How did it get to Accel escaping, and what about her other family members?”    “It appears Accel could sense up even slightly, her powers were underestimated. She eventually removed the masking spell on us and revealed us to her family, who put up a fight, but they all eventually died, including Accel. It was pointless investigating her since she didn’t even know where she sent the key to, and the baby,” the third shadow said.     “Tsk, Accel damn you, she was just too talented in magic, a big waste she wasn’t on our side. The rebels trying their best to bring down the council. They might have actually succeeded in that regard given the war’s purpose for…me wasn’t achieved. Sigh!” After the Head councillor had spoken, he turned around to face the box again. ‘I must open Pandora,' he said to himself.     “Go meet councillor Gione, tell him to ready an armament to counter the invasion coming to the council from his continent, or he won’t find life very easy,” Ferenc said.     The three shadows hummed in response.     “Dismissed!” Ferenc ordered, and red magic circles appeared again which took the shadows away.     Ferenc frowned a little, lost on deep thoughts. This failures weren’t going to be too kind on him. He turned around and left the room where he was.