Morning

Pausing for a moment, Wither Feather continued, "now, should we make the alliance, or do you think that the Space Birds and Half Dragons are going to team up together. Go."

Everyone started to talk at the same time.

"We should wait for some time--"

"It's best that we start with a faked alliance--"

"Can't we trick them--?"

"Let's make the alliance--"

"But then they will find out?"

"Can't we just talk one at a time..?" Vaite-Key, with his anxious looks, asked Morning-Prase quietly.

The Aster Fate beside Morning-Prase hasn't said a thing yet, neither did Wither Feather. So no, they are just going to find a good argument.

"Not yet," she said through her gritted teeth. "Till then, just listen."

It's quite annoying for me too, Vaite-Key.

"It's best we make a starter alliance, something that isn't quite one but at the same time, is," the Brain shouted over the growing arguments.

Gravel-Zircon and a pale red Spirit Butterfly turned to her at the same time. "How do you do that?" The butterfly queried.

"Well, good question, Gale Hermit. But let us all introduce ourselves, just in case," she stood up as she clapped her hands to get attention, then glanced at Wither Feather for approval.

"Sure," was all he said.

Clearing her throat, she got ready to speak.

Mutters broke out from the Fallen Angels side as the Brain started,

"Ok, I'm one of the elite soldiers but is still the smartest, Sliver Glide. The Silver Eagle that Glides. On my right, these four are; Far Zi, the Far metal of Zi, Spire Sight, the spire castle of Sight, who's parents picked a ridiculous name, Latern's Blossom, I don't know her full name, and another elite soldier, Crop Xeric, the Crops that grows in Xerics."

Those were long names.. did they really have to say all of that?

"And to my left-"

Rising from her chair, Morning-Prase raised her hand, eyes in a squint, said,

"You don't have to say the full names. Just say what you go by."

"Incredibly disrespectful," Dawn's Night instantly commented as he shifted in his seat by the window. The light reflected beautifully off of his silky sighted wings. "The Leader was about to speak."

"It's best that we do that so it doesn't take very long," the Aster Fate finally cut in, silencing Morning-Prase with a tiny glance as she was about to say one nice, nice... remark.

The one that was called Gale Hermit raised an eyebrow and just with a flash, disappeared.

Wither Feather's eyes went immediately to the flash, then he sighed. "Crazy crazy.." he said with growing temper. "Let's see. We'll make the alliance. But," he raised a hand to stop anyone who wanted to speak, "it'll be better if every 6 of my elites agree with me."

"What was the point of the hearing the opinion?" Crop Xeric questioned with curiosity.

With Feather smiled coolly. "Just to see if it's necessary for my opinion to go out, even if I'm the Leader."

Then with a flick of her tail, Sliver Glide was flipping through a bunch of papers, her fingers perfectly moving with swift purpose.

"Ok, then only your second potential and first potential are gone, and the other four are here," she said casually, "I just have a que-"

"It's better you don't say it," a yale-colored butterfly stopped her in her tracks. "Wither Feather didn't ask for it."

"Morning-Prase," the Aster Fate's voice made her jump. She was so drunk on the conversations and tense in the room, she forgot that she was there herself. "It's best you and me suggest something that will get them on our side."

What can we say? They gave a lot of information, suggestions, so what can they say?

"I don't have any ideas of what we can say," Morning-Prase whispered back, her eyes trained on Sliver Glide. "The tense is building up, and it's best we think this through during the arguments, it's only going to make it worse if we just say something random."

"'We-?'"

"Me, forgive me."

Don't continue on with that, you are old but you still need to be control.

Then Crop Xeric's voice rose. "Best everyone cools down, since-"

"Not everyone, some didn't even talk," Gravel-Zircon strikes again!

"Gravel-Zircon!" Morning-Prase, her temper rising, exclaimed. "Nobody needed your opinion, yea? Don't make side comments when it's not needed, ok?" Signaling towards Wither Feather, whow as curiously gazing at her, she forced a smile and said, "if you agree, we can take the break. Once everyone gets their arguments together then we can come back here. Though," her eyes flickered over to Gravel-Zircon, "we'll only have your deputies and our one elder besides us, agree?"

Nobody talked while she waited for Wither Feather to speak, the air still crackling with tension.

"Of course," he said smoothly, getting to his feet. He made his way towards Morning-Prase, his wings opening with tiny collision to the other, his steps gracefully light. Was it because a butterfly is such a weightless insect? "Only if you can keep some of your clan mates in check." Holding out his hand, he smiled with no emotion at all, inky gray staring into sunset ice. "Then a deal."

***

Nowadays, the Aster Fate was quiet and let her deputy do everything for her. A deputy is just a second in command, even though if you take them both away, the Healer should be first in command and should help the Aster Fate more than the deputy, as a deputy has to get ready to be a Aster Fate.

Morning-Prase and the Aster Fate exited the room, walking silently down the long, polished hallway.

"Today's meeting didn't go well," the Aster Fate commented weakly.

Your health isn't either. Not a threat, just a fact.

Vaite-Key, Vex-Ice, and Fade-Trix walked right behind them. Their steps were heavy at foot. "Gosh, at least it ain't the camp. It used to be so chaotic when you sometimes announced things energeticly. Kem-Lock was good with meetings though," Fade-Trix pouted. "Her sibling too, Elk-Ski-"

"Kem-Lock's dead. Elk-Skip is dead also. Don't continue," Vex-Ice hissed. Yea, he must remember that Elk-Skip was his favorite.

"Then can we just say it's now unhinged that Vaite-Key rotated through three, alive and fair health mates? Better than talking about the dead ones?"

Not this one again.

Vaite-Key spoke up first. "But my love was just- well, not settled at the time I courted Crippling-Creek and you!" He said. Dusty, un tamed point

"So settling down with Gravel-Zircon was best? She's one of the most short-tempered females in the tribe!"

That was a good observation. Fade-Trix is a more conscientious than cultured. Gravel-Zircon was heavily cultured when she was younger. Her used to be apprentice, Stalk-Fern, was lazy, but then after being trained by Gravel-Zircon for just two days, she seemed more attentive than ever. That was only to feed Gravel-Zircon drama of course, but Stalk-Fern's potential is having a great memory was found with that.

But, Morning-Prase shouldn't listen to whatever they were bickering about. She needed to think some things through.

Hua and Lightning were Guardian Apprentices, which being a Guardian is, well, a Guardian.

Guardian is to make sure the Aster Fate can travel safely, but the real reason is to protect the Aster Fate from their chosen Umboni Umphathi. Those are the ones that communicate through the Ikati.

Lightning couldn't summon his spirit, while Hua did it at his second training session. Morning-Prase already knew that Hua needed his name, especially the other older apprentices. Crippling-Creek did come to her once so they can look over that, but she wasn't paying attention since they were kinda of stuck at a cliff. The Taiga isn't a joke when it comes to 'the trees block our way!'

It's also better to have Guardians as if they couldn't think up of something to get the Spirit Butterflies on their side, then powerful Guardians will help a lot, nobody can be neutral in this.

Just hoping that the Aster Fate doesn't die until Lightning can get his spirit will be hard though because Aster Fates die unpredictability.

She didn't experience one, no, but the current Aster Fate remembered when one died.

"You all should stay here..."

That Aster Fate died by war. His Umboni Umphathi didn't protect him, and the three Guardians at that time weren't for him. His died a long time ago. That's how long Aster Fates live.

A creeping sensation of cold air chilled Morning-Prase as she and the Aster Fate came closer to the entrance of the building.

"Morning-Prase," the Aster Fate said after the long silence that went between them, "we have to talk. Quickly."

Surprised, Morning-Prase raised her eyebrow with confusion. "In the hallway?"

Looking around, she noticed that the three senior tribemembers weren't behind them. Where did they go? Suspicious.

"No, just right at the end of the town's border," she pushed the door open, and they both were immediately blasted with cold air.

***

"Couldn't we go inside?"

"Too tight-spaced. I have no idea who Wither Feather is, but he feels like a person who would set his whole rule tensely on us."

"Then why keep the others there?"

"Because they're not the next Aster Fate." True-- what?

"Wait," Morning-Prase closed her eyes for a second. Wiggling her index finger, she asked, "'not the next Aster Fate?' What happened?"

"This is something that only the Aster Fate and next Aster Fate should hear, which is you," the Aster Fate pointed out. "So now, let's talk."

Launching into a explanation, the Aster Fate revealed a prophecy that Morning-Prase didn't even know started. She explained the dream, her blurry Umboni Umphathi, and a mysterious pair of eyes that looked nowhere familiar to her.

Then she started to talk about the Ikati and if it was triggered, because only a Aster Fate can activate it and it had to be under certain circumstances.

After she finished, she patted her hair down while she waited for Morning-Prase to talk. The thin gold headwear chimes softly, a gift from Wither Feather. That's what Morning-Prase decided to focus on.

"Then.." Morning-Prase sighed. Too much information. What will she do with all of that? It sounded that someone was dying back there, which shouldn't be possible since they don't really have any threats. "We have to go back quickly?"

"Yes," the debonair Aster Fate concluded.

"So you're saying that we have to hurry, right? How should we make the alliance and go back at the same time?" Morning-Prase didn't get it. They were told to cool their heads already when they weren't even one hour in the interrogation, now there was a prophecy that started back home, and they were stuck here.

It didn't take so long to-- actually it felt like forever-- but it will be shorter when they go back because they know the path. But anyways, it took quite the time and patience to get here, and some of the snowfall wasn't a very big help. If there was something major going on at home and the others can't deal with it by themselves, it's the Aster Fate's fault, and Morning-Prase will fix that.

The alliance.. the alliance... Wait.

The Aster Fate didn't say a thing yet, and it felt like it was getting colder out, so, "we can do a held-up alliance," she held out her hand to prove her point, since she herself never heard of a held-up alliance. "It's like this, yes, we make the alliance. But in reality, they will be in debited to us."

The Aster Fate's eyes became judging as she said, "that doesn't make sense."

"Hear me out please," if the Aster Fate would just let Morning-Prase think of the next of her suggestion.. "they can be in debited to us since the Half Dragons are next to them, very close. The biome changes rapidly at the other end of their territory, and by the looks of it, it's definitely the Half Dragons. It's likely that they attack a close neighbor while they can, the Space Birds have had to already make a alliance-"

"Your sentences aren't making that much sense, but I get you," she smiled. Still a beautiful fallen angel. Spreading out her wings, the Aster Fate took some steps to the gray slab walkway before she turned back and said, "present it to the Leader. But just be careful, because the last time I remember the Leader was is Flood Feather, not that long ago."