Chapter 22 Meeting the council

She then felt a thick array of fog surrounding her, the fog went round and round her until she felt it begin to lift her up. It lifted her from the ground and took her to the skies, as fast as the speed of lightning. She tried to break free from its grasp, but as light as the fog was, if felt as if a large hand was holding her tightly. The fog finally dropped her in an opening. Surrounding her was not the five large stones anymore, but each member of the council of five, seated on their thrones.

“Are you the one who summoned us?” One of them, the first member said to her.

“Yes,” Joana said nervously.

“And why did you do so?”

“I came here before, in a first life,” she said. “And I have come again to ask of the same thing I asked for the last time I came here. I want my mortal life back.”

“Oh, I remember you now,” the third member said. “You are Marylin Lou, the one who loved that human boy.”

“Yes,” Joana said.

“We had an agreement, that you would return as your 200th descendant, and you would have your immortality back on your 18th birthday.”

“Yes.”

“And I am guessing that you are the 200th descendant?”

“Yes.”

“So why do you want this short life back so much so that you come here to exchange again? We would understand if it was a human wanting to be an immortal, but the other way around is quite absurd. We thought that you would have learnt your lesson from the last mistake you made, but now you come here the way you did before, wanting to make the same mistake again.”

“What mistake?” Joana asked.

“We apologize, but we cannot tell you of the things you did in your past life, it is forbidden. If you really want to know, then you will have to find out for yourself.”

“Ok,” Joana said. “But what about my request to become human again?”

“If you truly want to become human again, then you will have to perform the sacrifice your ancestor did again, we will consider it, and if we deem it acceptable unto the council, then you will have your request to become human again granted.

“You will take that gem in your hand, you will gather five ingredients; waters from the evergreen river, a tear of the black dragon, earth from the volcano of life, a speck of pixie dust, and finally, your immortal blood.

“You will mix all these at the center of the heart, placing them on the ground one by one, then afterwards you will return the gems on their rightful places on the five stones.

“If your sacrifice is accepted, then your wish to become human will be granted after three days, and like the former agreement, you will be reborn as your 200th descendant. And on your 18th birthday, you will become immortal once more. If it is not accepted, you will remain immortal, and you will be unable to offer another sacrifice until after a thousand years. Since you have done it well before, you shouldn’t have a problem doing it again.

“But we will warn you for the last time, do not come here hoping that you can reverse any of your actions, it will not be granted and the agreement would not be changed. You may leave now; the fog will transport you back to the earth.”

Suddenly, the fog that brought her here began to lift her up again, it then brought her down with the same speed as before and within a matter of seconds, she was back in the middle of the stones.

She felt happy that she had finally been able to enter the presence of the supreme council. They had told her all she needed to perform the sacrifice and now, all she needed to do was find them. She did get a little confused as to what they meant by her making a mistake again, and coming back into their presence to change the agreement. What happened with Marylin? She hadn’t given an answer to her question before she heard a growling noise coming from behind her. She turned around and met the gaze of a big hungry wolf, looking at her, ready to strike. This must be the guardian of the sacred place that Dana was talking about. As if things couldn’t get any worse, more hungry wolves came out of the surrounding forest to join their leader who had found her, ready to spring an attack on the intruder. She was surrounded by a lot of them, she then tried to unfold her wings and fly away as quickly as she could, until one of them jumped to push her off course, making her fall to the ground with a thud. She lay on the floor, looking at them as they were slowly walking towards her, the leader looking like he was about to take the first bite. Growing up, she had always heard stories of the enmity between vampires and wolves, but she never ever thought she would experience it first-hand.