Chapter 113: Council eting
Eve reached him before anyone else could react.
She stopped close enough that Nyla’s grip on Damon’s arm visibly tightened, not dramatically, just the particular adjustnt of soone who had noticed sothing and chosen not to comnt on it yet.
"Do you have a minute?" Eve asked, her gaze moving to Nyla’s grip on Damon for a mont before looking back at him. "I have sothing important to discuss. I thought you might want to hear it. Maybe I can co to your room like yesterday?"
A smile flashed across Eve’s face that said she knew exactly what she was doing.
Nyla’s grip tightened another fraction.
But before she could say whatever was forming behind her brown eyes, a calm voice cut across the noise of the hall.
"Damon."
Ivy appeared at his other side. She looked composed at first, but as Damon turned to et her gaze, there was sothing about it that scread anger.
Her crimson eyes moved briefly across Eve, then Nyla, then settled on him with the practised neutrality of soone managing a room.
"I’ve called a council eting," she said. "It’s in ten minutes at the top of the east tower." She paused for a brief mont. "It would be good if you attended."
The way she said it left no room for debate, yet sohow it didn’t sound like an order.
Nyla released his arm. Though she would’ve liked to stay by his side, she knew she had no place in the council eting.
"I’ll be there," Damon said.
Ivy nodded once, her gaze sharpened for a mont as it landed straight at his eyes before she suddenly turned and walked away.
Eve watched her go with an expression that was difficult to read, which for Eve probably ant she was reading everything.
"Hmm, I guess we can go to your room another ti," Eve said before moving away, just not before brushing her hand across his shoulder. "I’ll see you at the council eting."
Nyla lingered a mont longer, staring needles into Eve’s back until she disappeared and she turned toward Damon.
"I’ll wait for you after the eting."
***
Ten minutes later, Damon pushed open the door to the council eting chamber.
The room was smaller than the grand hall, with a long table in the middle, high windows letting in grey morning light and a map of the ruined city already spread across the surface with markings he didn’t recognise.
Soone had been busy.
Ivy sat to the left of the head of the table, hands folded and visibly waiting for the last person, who was Damon, to arrive.
Far away from everyone present sat Theodore, the broad-shouldered man whose grin as Damon walked in was the most uncomplicated reaction in the room, which, given who else was sitting around that table, was quietly appreciated.
Eve had already claid a chair at the far end, legs crossed, watching the door with the expression of soone who had arrived first and wanted everyone to know it without saying so.
And beside her sat soone Damon didn’t quite recognise.
The stranger looked up as he entered.
She was in her early twenties, wearing a plaid mini skirt and a cropped top that, if it wasn’t for Eve’s short mini dress, would’ve looked out of place in the room. Her short, tousled light brown hair had a soft, golden sheen, framing her face as she t his gaze with an unreadable expression.
"This is Hana," Ivy quickly explained. "She joined us recently. She had been of great help, so we added her to the council."
The girl practically jumped to her feet. "I’m Hana, nice to et you, I heard so much about you!" she spoke oddly fast, but Damon didn’t really pay attention to that at the mont, as he noticed soone missing.
"Where’s Victor?" he asked.
Hana slid back into her seat with quiet disappointnt as Damon’s eyes barely grazed over her before moving back to Ivy.
There was one person Damon still hadn’t seen since his arrival at the Citadel. His scrawny healer companion.
"He left for a rift a couple of days ago and is yet to return." A brief pause followed the statent, small but noticeable, as if even Ivy wasn’t entirely sure how unconcerned she should sound about it.
Damon nodded before moving toward the table. He took the seat at the head without hesitation, a choice that would’ve felt strange a month ago and felt entirely natural now, which was perhaps the most unsettling thing about how much had changed.
He was the official leader of the citadel, and now it was ti for him to step up.
Monts later, Ivy began describing her plan for the next few weeks. They were going to send a scouting group to fetch information from the other two citadels. Theodore would take the lead on scouting the citadel in the city outskirts, while she assigned Damon to deal with the third citadel, which they knew very little about.
While she explained this plan in slightly more detail than necessary, Damon looked around the room, more specifically to the new person who kept taking quick glances at him from ti to ti.
’Let’s see...’ he thought to himself before activating one of his two new abilities, the one that allows him to inspect other people’s status system.
To his surprise, a window just like his appeared before his eyes, with the sole exception being that it wasn’t his.
[Na: Hana]
[Level: 41]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Telepath]
[Attributes: ntal Fortress, Empathic Resonance]
[Abilities: Telepathy, Mind Veil]
[Stats: ...]
Damon ignored most of the status screen, especially the girl’s stats, which had no use to him. He did, however, focus on one particular ability.
[Ability: Telepathy]
[Description: You are able to read the minds of intelligent beings within a 10 ter radius.]
His brows rose slightly.
’Mind reader?’
As Damon echoed the words in his head he saw the girl suddenly stiffen, her eyes widened in a clear surprise, the involuntary reaction of soone who had just heard sothing they weren’t supposed to.
And Damon was quick to take notice.
’Was she... reading my mind just now?’
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