WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF TORTURE. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm my nerves. Once I felt like I could talk in a steady voice, I began speaking. "Thank you, esteemed Elders, for allowing me to speak. As my Uncle, King Bartholomew, said, my name is Andrew Slate and I'm currently 14 years old." My voice started shaking at the end, so I paused to re-steady myself.
"Pardon me for interrupting, but I'm curious about something." Elder Rosa said, a look of confusion on her face. "If you are King Bartholomew's nephew, does that mean the Hunter's Association has already attacked humans? And, no offense, but you seem like an ordinary teenager that it makes me wonder why they would target you."
"You are the first person to ever call me ordinary." I said with a slight chuckle, my nerves easing slightly. "And even though I'm the King's nephew and my family is human, I'm not. My mom's side of the family, the Royal side, holds an Ayakashi gene and my dad's side has a Dragon's gene. For generations, these genes had stayed dormant, but both presented themselves when I was born. I'm the first Dual Shifter in history and this is the main reason why the HA has been targeting me." I paused to take a sip of water and all hell broke loose.
"How is that possible?!" Elder Rosa exclaimed, shocked.
"Impossible!" Another female Elder yelled.
"Stop spewing lies or I'll have you thrown out of here!"An unknown male Elder shouted, angry.
"That's enough! Silence!" Elder Henry shouted, with a volume that was surprising for his age. "If you are a Dual Shifter as you claim, then prove it to us. Do a partial shift for each of your Beasts." At Elder Henry's order, I nodded my head. Moving to the side of the podium, I started the first partial shift.
I focused on Magnis first and soon the partial shift began. A tail with black scales that were tipped red, yellow, and purple with spikes on the end extended from my tailbone. Next wings grew from my shoulder blades, ripping holes in the back of my shirt. Finally, streaks of purple joined my already tri-colored hair. Removing the mask that I always wore when I wasn't eating as well as my sunglasses that I had put on at the last minute, I put my permanent fangs on display along with my slitted pupils.
"These are the characteristics of the Dragon King, Magnis Rex!" Elder Harvey exclaimed. He obviously wasn't expecting to see this. I nodded my head to show that he was correct before focusing on Nightmare.
The wings withdrew back into my back, while my tail turned furry. The fur on my tail and my hair turned pitch black with blue accents, and my pupils rounded out. However, instead of one tail, I now had ten.
"T-ten tails! That's only possible by the Ayakashi King, Nightmare!" The last remaining male Elder, exclaimed. Again, I nodded my head before returning to normal. Once the partial shift was undone, I returned to my spot behind the podium.
"Both of the esteemed Elders are correct. I have both the Dragon King and the Ayakashi King as my Beasts. Not only am I the first Dual Shifter in history, but I'm the first Dual Shifter King." I said, looking at each Elder as I spoke.
"This is inconceivable! There has never been a Dual Shifter in the entire history of the country. And now we're to believe that one has stayed hidden for 14 years?!" Elder Harvey yelled. Apparently, he didn't think the partial shifts were adequate evidence of my existence.
"Since Elder Harvey knows so much about the Dragon and Ayakashi Kings, would you mind reminding us of the Elements they possessed?" I asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.
"Of course! Magnis Rex controlled Fire, Electricity, Darkness, and Poison. However, the Poison is a delayed Element that would be acquired at a different age, depending on the strength of the 'host' body. Nightmare controlled Darkness as well as Ice." As Elder Harvey spoke, I lifted each finger on my left hand and a symbol for each spoken Element appeared. A small flame for Fire, a lightning bolt for Electricity, a purple cloud for Poison, a black cloud for Darkness, and a snowflake for Ice. If a partial shift wasn't enough to convince this old geezer, then this should. After all, I wouldn't be able to do this trick if I didn't possess the Elements.
Elder Harvey was speechless and before he could find any words to say, Elder Henry spoke up. "On behalf of the Royal Council of Elders, I would like to apologize for the way we reacted. We didn't think a Dual Shifter was possible, let alone the fact that you have both of the Great Kings. Please, proceed with your testimony." When Elder Henry was done speaking, I nodded my head and began talking again.
"Before I begin telling you my story, there is something that you must see first." As I spoke, I took off my ripped shirt and put my scars on full display. Ignoring the shocked gasps from the Council members, I continued talking. "Unlike Humans, Shifters do not scar easily. The scars I bare were given to me between the ages of 6 to 10 years old. My first experience with the HA was when I was around 6 and a half. They took me off the streets in broad daylight, holding my older sister at gunpoint until I was in the van. Then they gave me enough Dragon's Bane and Wolfsbane to knock me unconscious." I paused to lick my suddenly dry lips, and another Elder, a woman, took the chance to ask a question.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but could you please explain what Dragon's Bane and Wolfsbane are?" She asked politely. Nodding my head, I gave her an explanation.
"Dragon's Bane, Wolfsbane, and silver are all poisons used to target Shifters. They were specifically created to have no taste or smell. In low doses, they only weaken us, making it hard to shift or heal. Larger doses, however, have the potential to kill. When I had regained consciousness, I was chained by my wrists from the ceiling. At some point, they had already taken off my shirt and pants, leaving only my boxers on." As I talked, the Elders remained silent. My voice and hands were shaking as a flashback happened.
I was dangling from the ceiling of a cell. My shoulders and wrists were burning from the strain being applied by the chains. As the door opened, a bald man in his 30s with Japanese tattoos appeared. "Ah, you're finally awake. I'm Yuri and we'll be having some fun together for a while." While Yuri spoke, he went to a table that was outside of my field of vision. The next moment, pain exploded across my back as a crack filled the room, mixed with my screams of pain. "Shifters are abominations that should never have been created. The world would be better off without them polluting everything." While Yuri was talking, he was still torturing me. "No creature should exist with the amount of power that your kind were given. But that's why we exist. To exterminate all Shifters to make the world a place for only Humans. And that's not all. We'll also kill anyone who sympathizes with your kind. Anyone who sides with Shifters have turned their back on their own and are no better than Shifters." If Yuri had said anything else, then I hadn't heard it because I had passed out from the pain.
Throughout the flashback, I had kept talking. What I didn't know was that I had shared my mind with everyone in the room. They had all seen the flashback as it had happened. The female Elders and my Aunt ended up vomiting, Esmeralda and my Uncle were silently crying, and the male Elders were as pale as sheets of paper.
"How did we just see that?" Elder Harvey whispered, shaken.
"We were able to see it because Shifters have a gift for telepathy." Elder Henry whispered.
"Yuri tortured me everyday for two weeks, until I was rescued by Police Chief Deus. He bragged about the fact that he was the one who genetically modified the Dragon's Bane, Wolfsbane, and silver to the tasteless and scentless. And that all of his 'toys for pain' were dipped in a concoction of all three poisons. That way, he could torture any Shifter with only one solution. I ended up spending a month in the ICU at Northwood Regional Hospital. When I was discharged, it took another month for my vocal cords to heal, so during that period of time, I learned sign language. The amount of poison in my system should have killed me, but it didn't. As Elder Harvey had said, Magnis gains the Element of Poison at different times, depending on the strength of his current body. It was this situation that allowed me to gain the Poison Element." I stammered. Flashbacks always took a heavy toll on me mentally.
"Thank you so much for stepping forward to tell, and show, us this information. We can never imagine the true extent of your suffering, but we can imagine the amount of strength it took to finally come forward. Give us a few minutes to talk amongst ourselves before we announce our decision." Elder Rosa said, her voice still unsteady. As she finished speaking, all of the Council members stood and went into a separate room in the back, out of range for my enhanced hearing.
Getting back to my seat, I slumped forward with my head in my hands and my elbows on my knees. My hands were still shaking and my breathing was coming out in gasps. It took the rest of my focus to fight the panic attack that was trying to overwhelm me.
"We're so proud of you, Andrew. You did great." My Aunt said, as she crouched in front of me, with her hands lightly squeezing my thighs. Finally showing the emotions that were fighting within me, I threw my arms around her neck and quietly cried on her shoulder. The soothing circles that she was rubbing on my back helped calm me down and I was able to regain my composure by the time the Council returned.
"We, as the Royal Council, have made a decision on this situation." Elder Henry began once they were back in their seats. "In the case of the Royal Family versus the Hunter's Association, we decided to grant the Royal Family permission to eradicate the HA, using any amount of force deemed necessary." As Elder Henry made the ruling, it was like a weight had been lifted and we could all breathe again.