The Councilman

"Of course! I don't mind at all," Colette says, gesturing to the well-dressed elf.

From the back of her surprisingly tidy closet, he pulls the black nun robes and hands them to Vol. Apparently, he's both Colette's butler and bodyguard, as appointed by the elven council.

"What do you need them for?" she asks, interestedly.

"It's rather complicated."

I have a hunch that there may be some form of magic embedded in the clothes the nuns wear. Something that keeps out the celestial light. That would allow them to communicate with the gods in the celestial realm without the migraines we've been experiencing every time.

We're lucky that Colette still has her old nun robes. Otherwise, we'd have needed to steal some from the church. That could have gotten rather messy.

As we wave goodbye to Colette, we proceed up the newly bricked streets of Rosewood. We soon pass the massive chains keeping the academy in place, and take the "elevator" up to the academy entrance.

Entering the main hall, I notice that the long cracks in the academy marble are still there from when Elizabeth's sword struck the floor. It's good to be back.

"Ma-master Vol!" a man exclaims, stunned.

Here we go again.

Once half the academy has finally finished greeting Vol, we enter his old office, where he lays the girl's clothes out on a table.

Vol leans over the table, studying the robes carefully. I notice that his eyes have the same far-away stare that they did when he was confirming my collapsed mana store.

"Thoughts?" I ask, as Vol studies the robes carefully.

"Nothing," he says, looking confused, "There are no spells or engravings or anything."

Was I wrong? Is there really nothing special about these clothes? I trust Vol's judgement, but something still feels off about them. I can't quite put my finger on it, though.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Elizabeth approaching the robes.

"Any ideas?" I ask her as she kneels down.

Silently, she takes hold of a loose thread, slowly unravelling it until it pulls away. She holds it up under the light, rotating it slowly.

"Elizabeth?"

"Look," she says, rotating it again, "This side isn't reflecting any light."

Vol and I move up beside her and look closely at the thin thread as she rotates it.

She's right.

One side of the thread reflects light normally, but the other seems completely dark, even under direct light.

"How very interesting," Vol mumbles, "I wonder how that works."

"Unfortunately, we don't have time to study it."

There isn't long until the meeting of the greater gods and figuring out how to make this could take weeks or months.

"Let's unravel the robes," I decide. "Then we'll use the thread to make something to cover us."

"Eh, Seb, I'm not sure there are enough threads in a child's clothes to cover Elizabeth and I, too."

That's true. I guess it came to this, anyway.

"Fine, let's keep it intact. I'll wear it as is. We can steal some more robes from the church in Tayde for you two."

"I can ask Jonas," Elizabeth suggests, "He won't mind robbing them."

Work for me. Less dirty work.

Leaving Vol's office, we find the entrance hall packed. We were only in there for a few minutes, though. Somebody probably tipped off the council.

"Welcome back, Vol."

An elf who looks to be middle-aged steps out from the the perfect line of councilmembers. How old does an elf have to be to look middle-aged? Vol is 1400 years old, but barely looks 30, so this man might very well be nearing 3000.

Finally, somebody older than me.

"There's no need for this," Vol says, "I'm just on my way out."

"You're leaving? Again?"

"I'm in the middle of something important."

"And what is it this time? Destroying another port?"

The council doesn't seem too happy. A few of them glance annoyedly at myself and Elizabeth.

"No, nothing of the sort. Now, if you'll excuse us," Vol says, leading us toward the exit.

"Hold it."

A group of soldiers blocks our path to the exit.

Vol looks back at the councilmembers, his eyebrow raised.

"You have been given free reign for too long, Vol. You have abused your position. You will stay with the academy or you will face expulsion from Rosewood."

I know the council aren't the biggest fans of us, but they've been generally supportive of our work so far. Why are they suddenly making such an extreme turn?

"In accordance with paragraph 4 of the council foundation article: 'Permanent expulsion of a former council member is not permitted except in the event of high treason.'" Vol retorts. "What exactly do you claim that I have done?"

The greatest magic researcher of all time, founder of Tayde, is also a former elven council member? I guess that explains why everyone seems to revere Vol so much.

Still, if what he says is true, I'll be interested to hear exactly what their reason is.

"You have vouched for the permanent stay of Sebastian Malt, knowing full well that his collapsed mana store would attract monsters and heighten spawns in the area."

Wait, what?

"You have concealed this information despite the appearance of a greater monster and the destruction it wrought upon us in its search for the individual known as Sebastian Malt, Stencil Marakov, and Shawl."

Wait. Hold on.

"You are therefore guilty of harboring and protecting the man responsible for the obliteration of the elven capital city, Rosewood."

What the fuck?