A Queen Among Blood: Chapter Three - Yildiz
Stepping into the meeting hall I can see the kaleidoscopic colours that make up my sister’s auras filling the room as each one enters and takes their seat around the large circular table in the centre of the room. The table is gargantuan in size. Has to be to fit all one hundred and one of us. Hiranur and I take our seats and once everyone has gotten settled, our sister Imak, with her soft celadon aura and glittering gold hue stands to address us all. Aside from the unique shades, all of my sister’s auras have a gold glittering hue, which I’ve learned is unique to our species.
Among us, there is no leader or chief as we handle things equally, but when it comes to overseeing meetings we do take turns. It just keeps things more balanced that way.
I can hear the sound of rustling paper as I watch Imak, pass out dossiers. Once my dossier makes its way to my hands, I open it and begin running my fingers over the small bumps that fill the page. Naturally, I’m the only one who has to have a separate dossier that’s done in brail. They’ve never complained about the little accommodations they have to make for me, and I’m very grateful to my sisters for that. If anything they act a little more protective, but never overbearing. I’m blessed to have such a loving family.
“First order of business,” Imak begins, “Two mutolupus packs are having a land dispute in Argentina and Alpha Filipe of the Angatupyry Pack has reached out seeking our assistance as it seems the Luison Pack has threatened to go to war over the matter.”
“It says here they established and agreed to their pack borders three centuries ago. Why the sudden feuding over territory?” asks Kelebek.
“The Angatupyry Pack has grown a great deal in recent centuries making it the third largest pack in Argentina. They need to expand their borders in order to make more room for their growing numbers. However, as you can see from the maps included, if they expand to the east, west and north of the pack, then they’re crossing into human territory and it’s a risk they don’t want to take. They feel the only logical option is to expand south, but that then means they’re cutting into Luison territory. Luison are a smaller pack, known for rarely letting in new members, preferring to allow members who find their animais outside the pack to leave the pack instead of welcoming their soulmates in. They don’t wish to relinquish any of their land. Angatupyry has offered to pay for the land, but that seemed to just infuriate Alpha Bautista who responded by threatening them with war,” Imak explains.
“That seems like suicide. Luison has 604 pack members, whereas Angatupyry has 1438. Declaring war on a pack that is more than double theirs is just idiotic,” says Lale in disapproval.
“While they do have fewer members, their warriors are, however, elite. There’s no guarantee they’ll win, but they would certainly cause a great deal of casualties in their attempts at victory. Either way, it would be senseless loss of life. This doesn’t need to result in war. We should step in and ensure a peaceful resolution,” argues Sanem.
“All those in favour, raise your hand,” instructs Imak. I watch as the auras of seventy-three arms are raised into the air, my own included. If we can prevent even a single life being lost, then we should always do so.
“Then it’s settled,” says Imak.
I listen as she pulls a glass bowl towards herself. This is how things are done here. Instead of anyone feeling excluded or anyone being overworked, our names are drawn out of a bowl to keep things even. Everything we do is about keeping peace, that includes amongst ourselves. I listen as Imak’s hand rustles around inside the bowl, and I wonder whose names she will pull out.
“Derya. You shall go to the packs to ensure a peaceful resolution,” announces Imak.
Derya nods, “Consider it done.”
“Next order of business is a unique one,” says Imak as we all turn to the next page. I fail to hide my surprise as I feel the words under my fingertips.
“A visum?” Nuray says, her voice carrying the same surprise I, and I’m sure many of us, feel. I can’t remember the last time we had to handle a situation regarding a visum… actually I can’t recall ever having to do that.
“I’m as surprised as you are, but it would seem this particular visum hasn’t learned from past mistakes,” Imak says gravely.
Many supernatural beings were created by the Gods in an attempt to save and preserve human life, but some species didn’t have such humble beginnings. Visums are one of them. Visums were once human beings who found themselves targets of the Goddess Merlos. Merlos is the Goddess of Darkness and Shadows, with the ability to see the darkness within people. When she encounters humans with a great amount of darkness inside them, who have committed serious and repeated acts of betrayal against their fellow man, she curses them to become a visum. Forced to spend eternity granting a wish to anyone who touches them. An eternity forced to do for others, as penance for their misdeeds.
“How on earth has a visum earned the attention of the Delegation?” asks Setia in confusion.
“I suppose after centuries of a cursed life she got fed up. It seems she is intentionally allowing herself to come into physical contact with unsavoury people so that she can grant what she knows will be devastating wishes. As we know, visums can only grant one wish to the people they become tied to, but she appears to be making quick work of them. Moving from one to the next. After some investigating, it would seem she recently granted the wish of a young human man who… at the time was wanted for stalking a young woman. The visum in question granted his wish and while we can’t be certain what he wished for without asking, if you keep reading you can see what the end result was,” Imak says gravely.
My fingers fly across the page as I read the report and I can feel the blood drain from my face and my stomach turn. I’ve been around for tens of thousands of years, and I’ve witnessed all levels of depravity this world has to offer, and yet it never gets any easier. The poor young woman this man was accused of stalking was found mutilated beyond recognition in his flat. Her body parts covering his bedroom wall like some grotesque Ed Gein-inspired wallpaper. Police officials in England are still at a loss for words on how he managed to do it, but there’s no denying his guilt. They’ll never know magic was the cause but finding a woman’s body parts covering every surface of a man’s room leaves little debate for reasonable doubt. Human laws need to take stalking far more seriously. Even in the supernatural world stalking occurs, and the results can be catastrophic.
“It is important we step in and bring this visum to justice. If we don’t I’m sure Merlos herself will handle the matter and I’m sure it won’t be pretty,” says Imak in warning.
“So? This woman is seeking psychopaths so she can grant their wishes and cause suffering and chaos. Let Merlos deal with her, she deserves a fate far worse than anything we can arrange for her and I’m sure Merlos can get creative. Plus, she created her, she should fix it,” says Ceren, disgust coating her words.
“We can’t be certain if or when Merlos would intervene. If we sit back and wait more people could be hurt, and things could get worse before they get better. We should capture her and place her in the cells, then have mother reach out to Merlos and see how she wishes to proceed,” suggests Defne.
“All those in favour of Defne’s idea?” Imak asks.
I watch as eighty-four hands raise into the air, mine included. I’m all for Merlos punishing this visum for their crimes, but Merlos rarely bothers with matters on earth, so who knows how long it could be until she decides to do something, if at all. It’s best we nip this in the bud immediately.
“Then it’s agreed,” says Imak as she again rustles her hand inside the glass bowl. “Kelebek and Feray, you will be handling the matter,” she announces after drawing their names from the bowl.
“We’ll have her brought back as soon as possible. We may ask Arthwin or Aulen to assist us in tracking the visum down,” says Feray.
“Good idea,” agrees Imak, “Now, final order of business,” she says as we all turn to the next page in our dossiers, “As you can see there has been an unusual spike in sanguidae attacks in Auckland, New Zealand.”
“New Zealand? They’ve never seen a high number of sanguidae there ever, maybe a handful, but nothing that warranted our intervention,” says Zehra.
“To be fair our intervention has almost never been required,” I argue.
“Yildiz is right, for thousands of years whenever there’s an increase in sanguidae numbers, by the time we show up the situation has already been dealt with, we just never knew by who or why,” says Aiyla, finishing my train of thought.