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The council as usual met the following day to discuss the previous day's events. All of them had been invited to the party which after all was a public affair. They went there expecting something to happen between Alice and Wendy but they got a more shocking outcome. It would have been frightful if Wendy had the gift to know the future but she didn't, or at least they didn't think so. Nathan and Alice were invited to the council meeting but they were given the option of backing down from the request. Unfortunately anything concerning Wendy Summer was a priority to both royalties though Nathan seemed to pretend otherwise.
They were now in the large hall seated on the curved table and talking to one another before the meeting officially began. Then Chancellor Aaron opened up the meeting starting with the preliminaries which was why he had called the meeting.
`...My fellow council members and your Majesties, I do not know if we should in fact fear Wendy Summer or not given that I do not have enough information regarding the full extent of her powers.'
The current vice chancellor asked, `What do you know then?'
`That regarding her natural nature to be able to manipulate the elements, she can control all six. Some of the wise men have been asked what would be the outcome of such a union as the one that Diane had had with this Henry and they came up with countless possibilities.'
`Then what you are telling us is that Wendy is something beyond this world?'
Aaron avoided to answer that question and continued on to report what he knew. `They all agree that she, as she has lived this long, is something more of a wizard than anything else. Though they all agreed that she may not have the constraints of other wizards...'
`Meaning that if she wanted to dominate, she can very well do so?' It was a rhetorical question. They looked at the fear in each other’s eyes.
Nathan intervened, `We have already been through this issue several times before. I think now we should focus more on what happened yesterday.'
`Yes, I was wondering if she could see the future.' Another member asked.
Aaron looked around. `I have been told that Victor Raymond is quite sick and it doesn't seem that any of the wizards can do anything for him.' he paused, `It may very well be anyone who would have been saying that Victor is going to die or it may be the work of her deluded mind to tell us of this inevitable death then what will happen next is that she will claim to have healed him.' `So you are saying that all this is all for show?' Alice asked.
`Think about it. Now we are suspecting that she can see the future, in the next few days we will see her as being able to heal whatever ailments anybody has. If word got out she may very well be worshiped in a week or so and all this with one perfect stroke.'
Alice leaned back in her seat defeated. The other council members discussed the point of view of their head. But it was Nathan as always who came up with something sensible to counter back. `Then if it was all an act. What possible reason would she have to portray Sidney Storm as a wizard?'
From the look of their faces, they hadn't remembered that aspect of the events the previous night. `We have no evidence to prove that Sidney Storm is a wizard.'
`What proof would you have if the only person who could confirm it, is dead and the other is consorting with the wizards?' Nathan asked but he couldn't help a bit of spite slip from his words.
`We don't have evidence.'
Alice had been thoughtful. `The only evidence you need is the reason why the wizards were taking care of Sidney from the time that they arrived.'
`So you are suggesting that Gorham married a wizard under our very noses?' Aaron asked but didn't wait for an answer as he continued to make his own observation. `What happened to wizards not dominating? Would she have accepted the marriage proposal if she was a wizard?'
Another old man chipped in, `There was something that the late Diane had said before she died. That she did not see why she had to continue on hating the wizards when everything happened a long time ago. Truth be told she adjusted to her surrounding as expected from humans and it frightens me to say this also,' he hesitated before he added, `I think that some of the wizards may have found a way to overcome their shortcomings. Take the reason why Wendy and Victor came back, the wizard Madison, she wanted power, something that went against her supposed nature and maybe now we may also have a second example.' He looked at Nathan expectantly but didn't stop there.
`When King Nathan came to us that the woman was controlling Gorham we thought that maybe it was part of his strange plans to get ahead but now with hindsight,' he sighed. `We should have done away with the woman when we had the chance.'
`Are you suggesting that...' the chancellor didn't finish.
`Not kill her. She has successfully turned Gorham against us and there is no reason for her to turn the people also against us. All I wanted to do was to express my regret. Now she may be a wizard and why else would the others obey her if she was a weakling? Why would Wendy think that she could help with Victor's case even if it was all an act?'
`She must be very powerful,' Nathan managed to say. His plans suddenly crushed with that. Now he realized why he didn't feel her weaken when Wendy was distraught. She had more power now and she would live even longer than him so he didn't have any hope of crushing her in the next few lives that he may have. His dread seemed to spread around because no one else said a word about it. They were all losing faith in their power and it was all because of the women around Gorham. He was turning into a very powerful force given that he was being backed by two of the most powerful people in the kingdom. How did they get to that point and how did he? They wondered.