When they arrived on Earth, Emory took a deep breath before opening her eyes. The sweet aroma of wildflowers and pine filled the air, but Emory looked puzzled when she opened her eyes and looked at the scene before her. The structure in front of her could hardly be called a house as it spanned over three hundred feet wide and at least fifty feet tall. Like Perceval had described, the mansion was made entirely of stained mahogany or cherrywood with a few well-placed windows that were big enough to walk through. To the right side, there was a gorgeous garden of irises, mint, and peonies with several other hardy flowers behind them, leading Emory to believe that they were either in the mountains or somewhere it got cold. By the time they finished surveying the house, a slender blonde man came out from the door followed by a dozen other houseworkers. They all bowed very low, with the man slightly in front of the others, and held their bow as Emory approached.
"Lady Aurelias, Clan Ide welcomes you to our humble abode," the blonde man said politely without raising his body, "My name is Franz, and my Lord has ordered me to take care of your every need while you are staying with us. Will you and your companions please come in?"
"Thank you, Franz. It's good to meet you. Please stand; I'm not really used to all the formalities. Is Lord Ide available?" Emory asked nicely.
"Lord Ide will be down shortly," Franz replied as he stood up, "After we show you the rooms you'll be staying in and a tour of the residence, I'll take you to the sunroom with Lord Ide. Is that order to your pleasing?"
Emory nodded, "That will be fine, Franz. Lead the way." He bowed again as he opened the door and beckoned the others to follow him in. Emory, Gwen, and Sam followed him into the foyer, and the other servants quickly filed in behind them before dispersing around the mansion. Much like the outside, the foyer was a stained wood construction, though now that they were inside, they could see large skylights in the ceiling. From this rustic welcome hall, they could go left, right, straight, or up, as a magnificent spiral staircase was placed in the back of the room. Franz led the group left to a long hallway with five exits doors on each side, meaning each room that connected to this hall was at least five hundred square feet. Near the end of the hall, he stopped and turned to the girls.
"Will you each be needing separate rooms?" Franz questioned, "It's no trouble if you're together or separate; I just wanted to show you all the rooms."
The three girls looked at each other before responding together, "Separate please." Franz nodded and opened a door to show them the inside. Like in several other parts of the mansion, viny violets decorated the room in place of trimming or gilding, yet even in books, none of them had ever seen so many different colors of violets. A floor to ceiling colored window gave the room a green hue, though Emory was struggling to find a single light in the place. However, the centerpiece of the room was a bed fit for royalty, both because of the intricate sculpting in the framing and the massive mattress itself. Even the floor in the room was made of soft grass and soil. All three rooms looked alike with very few differences between them except the color of the stained glass in each room.
After seeing the rooms, Franz showed the girls the kitchen, dining room, and council meeting room, each of which continued the rustic theme that the bedrooms and foyer had. From the council room, Franz took them into the sunroom where the walls and ceiling were made of clear glass instead of wood or stained glass like the rest of the house. The sunroom doubled as an attached greenhouse, making it at least a hundred feet wide and deep. In the back were plenty of fruit trees like lemons and limes that couldn't withstand the outside changes in temperature while the sides were lined with rare and exotic flowers someone would normally find in a tropical jungle. Close to the front where they were, however, was a small sitting area with some side tables next to hanging chairs that looked like they were made of tree roots. An older man sat in one of the chairs and sipped a purple liquid until the group came in, causing him to slowly rise to his feet.
He grinned, "Welcome, Lady Aurelias and her advisors. I hope my home is to your liking. I am Lord Perceval Ide." He extended his hand gracefully towards Emory who enthusiastically shook it.
"Pleased to meet you Lord Ide," Emory bowed slightly as did Gwen and Sam, "I'm Emory Reiss, and these are my good friends Gwen Grado and Sam Rice. Thank you for allowing us to visit you on such short notice; you have a beautiful residence."
"An Aurelias, a Grado, and a Rice. That sounds like the beginning of a good tale that led to the three of you coming together. Please sit; I have all manner of juices to serve you," Perceval chuckled as he motioned to the other chairs. After they sat, Franz brought them a smorgasbord of juice options with every color under the sun. Then he bowed and left the room while Perceval returned to his chair.
"This juice is amazing," Gwen remarked, "Do you grow it all here or how do you have so many different kinds?"
Perceval smiled, "We grow it all here in this very room, mostly. Everything from apples to yuzus, we pride ourselves on having the best nature has to offer. I apologize, though, as we don't have meat options in this household."
"That's alright," Emory accepted as she sipped dragon fruit juice, "Lord Ide, I've come with my friends to accept my rightful seat on the Council."
"Please, call me Perceval. Yes, I imagined that you would when you contacted me; I just can't believe how much you've grown in such a short time, Lady Aurelias. Even now, your mere presence is overwhelming," Perceval praised her.
"I'll call you Perceval if you call me Emory," she smirked, "Thank you for your kind words. Truth be told, I only gained this much magik very recently."
Perceval rubbed his chin, "So, you want to join the Council? That will be easy enough, either by demonstrating your sphere or by your spellbook. Now what would you say to taking this venture a little further?"
"You don't mean what I think you do, do you?" Sam's voice wavered, "She's never even met most of the rest of the Council, and you want to pursue this? She'd be the youngest one ever by decades."
"You're very knowledgeable, Miss Rice. Yes, I mean the Supremacy. Though typically our Supreme Witch or Warlock is from the Aurelias clan, if they are quite young, the role goes to a caretaker until they come of age. Emory, it's true that you are very young, however, you have more magik now that the entire Council combined, meaning you are more than qualified to be in charge. What are your thoughts about becoming the Supreme Witch, Emory?" Perceval grinned.
Emory sat in silence for a few moments with a pained expression on her face as she weighed her options. Originally, she only wanted to be a voice for humanity on the Council, but now, she was being asked to lead the Council. Though she didn't know how many enemies she would have on the Council, she knew that there were some. Combined with the fact that she had never been a part of the Council business before, the choice was difficult. So, she started slowly, "Perceval, when we first talked, you told me a story from your childhood. Now that you've met me in person, do you still believe it?"
"More than ever, Emory," Perceval solemnly spoke, "I know this is a great burden for someone as young as you, but especially now, we need someone to breathe life into these old bones. We need your youth and clarity to lead us into the future that we were meant to have."
"Maybe you should start by explaining the position a little more. What is she signing up for as the Supreme Witch?" Gwen asked.
"As you might have already guessed, the Supreme Witch is in charge of the Council of Witches. We act according to how she dictates," Perceval explained, "It's a lifetime appointment unless the Council holds a vote of no confidence and votes unanimously. We elect them by a simple majority, and if there's a tie or dispute, a simple combat occurs between the top contenders. Are there any specific questions you have about it?"
Emory released a barrage of questions, "Do I get any advisors? If I wanted to move large sections of the Clans elsewhere, what kind of resistance could I expect to encounter? How many witches are there total? If I were to take unpopular actions, would some Council members secede from the Council?"
"My word, you have been thinking about this already, haven't you?" Perceval eased the tension, "You can have two official advisors that can speak, but not make decisions, on your behalf in your absence. There are roughly one hundred thousand witches; you can move them how you see fit. There is some resistance to change, especially with a certain Warlock fearmongering all the time, but it would shock me if they rejected the authority of the Council. I firmly believe many of them will be swayed to your side when you reveal yourself though."
"What about Lady Black's disappearance? Won't it cause issues that the Council never recognized her death?" Sam interrupted.
"Naughty Lilina, she shouldn't have told you any of that," Perceval chuckled, "If you have the spellbook with you, it shouldn't be a problem; there's an index of all current Clan members in the book. Pull it out and let's have a look." Emory removed the Arcane spellbook from her bag and passed it over to Perceval who said a few words in a language no one else recognized. As if it was some kind of command, the book instantly flipped open and turned several pages. When it stopped, Perceval's jaw dropped a little as he looked at the page. He murmured, "Have you really cast Contract five times already? I thought you said you had only gained this power recently."
"Yesterday, to be more precise," Emory corrected him, "I have a gift that allows me to make more than usual. Is that a problem?"
"Well, not so much a problem as a surprise. Most Hexbloods can only make five more their entire life through Contract with a growing recovery time after each cast. To think that you have this much magik and have made five more Hexbloods is unfathomable. I believe it is time to bring your birthright to you," Perceval replied as he picked up a wooden cane from his side and tapped it on the ground three times. Moments later, Franz came in through the doors and knelt in front of Perceval who closed Emory's spellbook and handed it back to her.
"Lord Ide," Franz bowed, "What would you have me do?"
Perceval gently ordered, "Reach out to the others and request we move up our Equinox meeting to tomorrow. Apologize to them but convey the urgency of the situation without showing our cards." Franz nodded, excused himself, and exited the room without delay. Meanwhile Perceval leaned back and sipped his purple drink, finishing it and pouring himself another.
"There's more I need to tell you about the Mantoan," Emory expressed after taking a drink herself, "Actually, it's about the Apleem. That's the name the Fae gave me to refer to their collective races. I suppose I just have a lot of information in general to tell you."
"You've even met the legendary Fae. This is quite the journey you've taken so far. But if you don't mind, there are two other allies of ours that should hear this information as well. I imagine after Franz finishes notifying the Council these two people will be on their way shortly," Perceval stopped her from going any further.
Emory nodded, so while they waited, Perceval asked about their sphere development. Sam was still level two in Shifting but had quickly progressed to level two in Arcane as well, largely because of the training she had done with Emory. Gwen had reached level three in Blood, but as she had just gotten Arcane today, she was only level one in Arcane. Emory was a level four in Arcane and still hadn't decided on another sphere. Perceval, having lived for hundreds of years, was level five in Nature and level five in Poison as well as capable of producing all five general magik spells. Afterwards, each of the girls took turns describing the new planets they had landed on and the friendly entities they had encountered, Myrrh and Ninian. Twenty minutes had passed since Franz had been given the order when a light knock on the door rang out.