1953 Nineteen (Part 1)

"Your story is too convenient to be true, 'Elphyn'. I need proof of your identity. Tell me something that only Menadion would know." Tryssa said.

"Like what?" Solus replied with a scoff. "I won't share my legacy's secrets with you and even if I did, it's all outdated knowledge. Whatever I say, you could just claim that I'm making it up or that's not enough until you learn what little I've left of my mother's work.

"If it's proof that you want, I can give you plenty, though. I can call Lochra Silverwing and Baba Yaga to vouch for me. I can even call Overlord Salaark to testify about my identity and how my mother entrusted me to her."

Solus didn't actually have their contact runes, but Zoreth could ask Nandi to summon Baba Yaga who in turn knew where to find Silverwing. As for Salaark, her rune was on the speed dial.

Seeing the rune of the Guardian on Solus' amulet sent Tryssa into such a panic that she lost control over her shapeshifting and her skin slowly turned from brown to green.

Arguing over the ownership of the mouth with the Garlen Council was one thing. Making an enemy of one of the original six Guardians and two white cored Awakened was another.

If the young woman in front of Tryssa really was Elphyn Menadion, her claim had solid grounds that couldn't be denied.

"Heck, if among your ranks there's someone who met me in person, ask them to come here. They'll recognize my energy signature. That's something that no shapeshifting can change." Solus turned around and went back to her seat.

"This is a complicated matter that's clearly above my authority." Tryssa decided to swallow her pride and bail out.

If she agreed on giving back the Mouth, the Council would kill her. If she refused to give it back and triggered a war, the Council would kill her. Allying with Thrud was but a bluff.

The Verendi Council knew that once the Mad Queen claimed Garlen, they would be next. They looked at the War of the Griffons in fear and wanted Thrud defeated. They didn't intervene because distance made them feel safe and wanted to preserve their numbers.

If the Garlen Council lost its power, part of its territories would be up for the taking and many Awakened would move from Verendi to take them.

An all-out war between Awakened Councils, instead, would have thinned their already small numbers and paved the road to conquest for the Mad Queen. A nightmare scenario that had to be avoided at all cost.

"That's none of our problem." Zoreth shook her head. "Elphyn waited 700 years to get her life back and she's not going to wait for you. Her homeland is in danger and there's no time to waste.

"You have 24 hours to come back with a declaration of war or the Mouth. After that, we'll reveal everything to the Garlen Council. She might lose the Mouth, but it's still better than leaving it with you.

"Also, know that you won't face just the Council of the Awakened but also the Master's Organization." Zoreth noticed that Tryssa didn't seem impressed so she raised the ante.

"I don't come to Verendi for over a century, but I bet that you heard about the Final Smile." She shapeshifted into her old Eldritch form.

It resembled a humanoid with a small torso, huge claw-ending limbs, and two membranous wings on its back. Even before undergoing the Master's experiments, turning into an Eldritch had restored part of Zoreth's draconic nature.

The four white eyes and the monstrous row of teeth on the Eldritch's oversized head resembled a distorted face wearing a cruel smile. It was the last thing that Xenagrosh's victims would see and that gave her the nickname.

Tryssa recognized the ancient monster from the surveillance footage that she had studied during her apprenticeship and shivered in fear. The black aura that Zoreth now exuded made it hard for her to breathe.

"I'm not as famous, but I hope you haven't forgotten about the White Lightning of Verendi." Bytra shapeshifted as well, turning into Korgh's form.

She now looked like a pitch-black humanoid covered with small scales and long silver hair. Her horns were much smaller than a Raiju's but they sparked with a pristine electricity that only Chaos could trigger after robbing it of its light.

Another black aura spread, covering Tryssa in a cold sweat and making her grip a nearby chair so hard that it turned into splinters.

"Also, you'll have to fight me. The Red Carnival." Theseus stood up, turning into his old appearance, that of an unnaturally tall and thin man with limbs as thin as a twig.

White stripes alternated with the blackness of his body, giving the impression he was wearing a suit. His head was elongated as well, looking like a cylinder with two 10 cm (4') long shiny slits that were actually his eyes.

The Fae jumped back in terror and reverted to her true form, ready to fight for her life. The Final Smile and the White Lightning were famous Eldritches who had done lots of damage in Verendi, but their visits never lasted.

They were considered natural disasters, something that was more convenient to wait to be over than to fight against. The Red Carnival, however, was a scourge that had plagued Verendi for millennia.

A rot that had resisted every attempt of the Council to excise it. Paquut's feats were well known. He would reach a city at sundown and by daylight, its inhabitants would be gone forever.

He used their entrails as festoons, decorating the main roads. He painted the biggest walls he found using bile, blood, and every bodily fluid he could squeeze out of his victims instead of colors.

Yet the worst part was the carnival rides. They were the results of the bodies of the citizens fused with Body Sculpting and turned into living carousels that emitted agonized moans instead of music.

Their bones would break and their organs collapse, unable to sustain such an unnatural and complex form for long. Yet Paquut always made sure to have an audience.

That a few hapless travelers would witness his work until he made the bodies explode into what he considered the closing time fireworks.

His name was that of the bogeyman mothers would use to scare their unruly children and Awakened masters to threaten their disciples.

Theseus quickly reverted back to his human form and sat down again. Only then did Tryssa manage to stop quivering like a leaf in a storm.

She was glad to be a plant instead of a human because otherwise she would have lost control of her bladder and would have fainted from the lack of oxygen. She had stopped breathing for a while, but Faes could do it from their skin even when their lungs refused to move.

Once she managed to regain her cool, Tryssa noticed that one of the men at the table was almost as flabbergasted as she was while the other looked completely unfazed. He had listened to all those ancient names without batting an eye.

'He must be so powerful that even such an assembly of monsters poses no threat to him.'