"What?" Baba’s face turned even darker when she heard the news that Drigo’s assistant just told them. The witches are outside waiting for them. "Why?" she asked. Those people hated her and surely they must have feared the Shaman’s presence.
Why would they come here and talk to them?
"I don’t know," Drigo said. He looked at the Shaman who was calmly reading a book next to the empty couch. The Shaman said he sent Ava to do something. Right now, there was only Drigo, Baba, and the Shaman inside the room. "Shall we go and see?"
"No," the Shaman said. "I refused to talk to other witches. And I highly doubt that they are here with good intentions."
"What?" Drigo frowned. "Perhaps— "
"No." The Shaman shook his head as he put the book down. "They do not support you and whatever it is that you wanted to do."
"Why?" he asked. "I am doing this for them... and how did you know that!?"
"Because...the witches who are supporting you are hiding their support. They didn’t want to involve their families who had been working with the other noble families who are supporting the previous queen’s antics."
The room went silent.
"We should go," Baba said. "These people hated me for not being one of them. I believe it is nice to hear what they have to say. Not that I care about their opinions."
"Then I am staying here..." the Shaman said.
"You must really hate this plane..."
The Shaman looked at Baba. "Indifference is different from hating. I don’t care enough to even hate this place."
"How smug..." Baba commented and looked at Drigo. "We should go."
The two of them left the Shaman alone and went to a hall where the witches are waiting.
"Your majesty..." a witch with blue hair and sharp green eyes started. "Thank you for granting us audience..." Despite her respectful tone, her sharp eyes were enough giveaway that she wasn’t a big fan of the King or the witch standing behind him.
"I was informed that you are going to tell me something about.... Your opinion about the current predicament of the Lycans..." Drigo said.
"Yes, your majesty. Thank you for taking the time to hear us. First, I would like to start by saying that this is our personal opinion. It had nothing to do with our families. I think it is only fair that you do not punish them for something that doesn’t involve them at all."
The woman continued," You are a magnanimous king who would prioritize the welfare of the people serving you. I believe that you are magnanimous enough to punish us for speaking our mind but not involving the people who we love."
"You are right. I have no interest in punishing people who had nothing to do with this."
"Your majesty is wise..."
"Your majesty is magnanimous..."
"Your majesty is kind and compassionate..."
Murmurs like this echoed inside the hall.
"Tell me your thoughts, " Drigo said.
"We have a very simple opinion about the matter however, we have decided to stand by it." The witch with blue hair said. "My name is Lucia and I am one of the witches serving the previous King. I believe that changing the tradition just after the King’s death is disrespectful."
"Go on..." the King nodded.
"That was the first reason why I don’t approve of these changes."
"The second reason is the fact that we have lived like this for thousands of years. I don’t think it is proper to suddenly change a tradition that our ancestors loved. "
"And third... we know that this was all Babaylan’s fault."
’What?" Baba who had been listening behind the King frowned.
"It was your fault. You never swore your allegiance to the crown and now, you are trying to influence the current King to turn our kids just like you!? For years, the Lycans have kept us safe! They have sheltered us from the outside world and all you think about is letting our children experience the unfair treatment that we experienced in the past!"
"That’s right!"
"Babaylan shouldn’t be allowed to come here!’
"How dare you Babaylan!"
"Babaylan wanted more power so she instructed the King to do this!"
"How dare you Babaylan!"
"I want to know if Babaylan used black magick to control the King!"
"I want to know that too!"
"Me too! Furthermore, I want to know what is going to happen if we— "
"Alright, calm down." Drigo raised his hand. However, his voice fell on deaf ears. Everyone started talking to each other, shouting and yelling profanities at Baba and the King. Anger can be seen in their eyes as they yelled for the King to make Babaylan and the other witches that she brought leave!
"She had no place here!"
"She’s not one of us!"
"She’s not a witch! She has to leave!"
"Your majesty please listen to us. Babaylan needed to leave! Right now, we should focus on looking for the Priestess, not about the changes that you want."
"Your majesty please listen to us!"
"Your majesty make Babaylan leave!’
"Your majesty please listen to us!"
"Your majesty make Babaylan leave!’
"Your majesty please listen to us!"
"Your majesty make Babaylan leave!’
"Your majesty please listen to us!"
"Your majesty make Babaylan leave!’
"Your majesty please listen to us!"
"Your majesty make Babaylan leave!’
The chanting continued until Drigo yelled. "All of you!" he said. "Stop talking!"
BAM!
The slapped the chair near him, destroying it into smithereens.
"If you want me to listen then you have to open your ears and hear my thoughts!" Drigo said. "If you want to stay in whatever tradition that you are talking about then go ahead and do that! However, I am not going to stop anyone from leaving this plane just because of a stupid rule that was created to oppress the witches!"
"Your majesty please listen to us!"
Drigo frowned.
"If you do not want to support my cause please feel free to do so. You have the right to decide whatever it is that you want while I have the right to think about what is going to work best for this plane for the next ten or twenty years. You may leave now!"
Just as he said this, chaos ensued.
One of the witches tried to approach him but was easily stopped by Babaylan. Seeing one of the witches hurt prompted the other to start throwing magick at Babaylan. Of course, she managed to avoid everything. However, this seemed to rile up the rest of the witches.
Many of them started doing magick but Drigo immediately called his knights and some other witches working for him, telling them to detain everyone who used their magick in the hall.
Obviously, this created more problems as many witches refused to cooperate.
In the end, Drigo had to leave the hall and went back to where the Shaman was.
However, the moment they walk inside the door, their gaze darkened.
The Shaman.... Was bleeding.
He was still sitting on the chair but he looked pale and there was a dagger in his stomach.
"That is— "
"The devil’s dagger. Take it away..." the Shaman winced. Almost immediately, Baba used her magick to remove the dagger, dark red blood flowed out of the wound but it didn’t take too long for the wound to close as the Shaman took a certain potion that... smells so bad, he felt like he is going to die from the smell and not from the wound.
"What happened!?" Baba asked, her eyes still on the black dagger that glinted against the lighting of the room. The knife looked new, its sinister energy seeping out of its sharp blade.
"Some came here... a woman attacked me by surprise using the dagger."
"You— " Drigo frowned as he stared at the dagger. From his memories... a devil’s daggers shouldn’t be that harmful to a witch. Unless of course that witch... isn’t exactly a witch. But a being that is the mortal enemy of the devils.
"This isn’t the time to ask questions." The Shaman said. "Whatever it is that you are currently thinking is wrong."
"But— "
"Something happened to Ava."
"What?"
"Ava is... in danger." The Shaman said. "Her astral body is... missing."
"What do you— what astral body?" Drigo asked, confused.
"Her astral body is trapped somewhere. I need some time to find out where. However, the witches... the ones that you dealt with just now aren’t done yet. They are going to be back. So... I want you to gather whoever it is that you can gather and do not let anyone inside this room." The Shaman sternly looked at the two people. "And I mean... anyone. Including the two of you."
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