Chapter 6 High Council

"Who are you?" Melech snarled as he came face to face with Emet right after leaving Azalia's quarters.

The Lavan princess peeked from behind the King's shoulder to see who he was talking to, her body instinctively relaxing at the sight of her knight. Seeing a familiar face, someone she could trust, felt like a breath of fresh air after the intense interaction she had just had with Melech. It was relieving, except Melech didn't seem happy with Emet's sudden appearance.

"I'm the princess' personal guard." The half-Lavan half-Yarok knight said while holding Melech's gaze. It was his first time seeing the Adom King, and so Emet cautiously studied the man who had so blatantly disrespected Azalia yesterday while trying hard to contain his anger.

"Is that so?" Melech replied, his crimson eyes also taking in the sight of the knight before him. He had known Azalia had brought her personal guard with her, but clearly didn't like the thought of another man being this close to his future wife. Thick tension began to form between the two men as they stared at each other, neither of them looking away from the other. It was suffocating, and Azalia could do nothing but pray for no blood to be spilled today.

"Your presence isn't needed when I'm here, so you can dispose." Melech eventually told Emet in a voice filled with contempt. He didn't have any time to lose with some lowlife, even less when he had important meetings to attend.

"Let's go." He said before grabbing Azalia's wrist to lead her to the council room.

Emet was about to stop them but Azalia prevented him from doing so by vehemently shaking her head no, her blue eyes instructing him not to intervene. If the King was defied now, there was no doubt he would destitute Emet from his role as the princess' personal guard, or worse, eliminate him.

They had to be smart if they wanted to survive, both Emet and Azalia knew this. And so Emet had no choice but to reluctantly obey, the knight letting Melech drag Azalia away.

"You're going to meet the High council." The King told Azalia once they had arrived in front of two massive doors. "Stay quiet and be pretty."

Azalia barely managed to contain her gasp of indignation at the words. "I'm not some kind of accessory." She couldn't stop herself from replying, the words slipping past her lips on their own accord. She felt like Melech was treating her like an object, or like a prize to show off, and Azalia certainly didn't like it. It was degrading and humiliating.

But Melech only smirked before answering her. "No, you're not." He began, his voice low and husky as he leaned in even closer to her, until their faces were barely a few inches apart. "But, believe me, it's in your best interest to be obedient." The way he spoke made Azalia frown in response, but the Lavan princess decided to stay silent.

It seemed to please Melech, because the Adom King finally left her personal space. "Let's get inside." He said before pushing open the imposing doors that led into the council room.

It was an incredibly large room with high ceilings that looked just as luxurious as the King's private quarters. Eight people were sitting around an enormous table throning in the middle of the room, and Azalia immediately noticed Melech's general, Onan, among them. She observed the others and rightfully guessed they had to be members of the eight ancient families that constituted the High Council.

They all indeed seemed to be purely Adom, with dark hair and red eyes and impressive statures. There were three women and four men, five if Azalia counted Onan, all of them looking right at her. Melech had to represent the last out of the eight ancient Adom families since the general Onan was half Sagol.

"So, this is the famous Lavan princess?" Nahash asked, his eyes shamelessly looking Azalia up and down. He was a man with slick black hair and light red eyes, one small scar cutting across one of his eyebrows.

"She's gorgeous indeed." Leor, a man with black closely-shaved hair who seemed to be in his early thirties, said with a grin.

"Is she?" Yael raised a perfectly trimmed eyebrow in response. She was a woman with long black hair tied into a ponytail, thick eyelashes framing her red eyes. "She's a little too pale for my taste." Her mean comment aimed to hurt Azalia, but the Lavan princess could recognise jealousy when she saw it.

"Too much sun exposure makes your skin age faster, but I'm sure you've already noticed it." She told the Adom woman with a pointed look that said more than words ever could. It was a blatant insult to Yael's beauty, the woman instantly scowling at her words. It only made the rare age-lines of her face look even more visible, thus proving Azalia's words.

"Told you she's a fierce little thing." The general Onan chuckled at the exchange. He and two other members of the high council looked amused by Azalia's taunt, one woman named Tzilla and a man named Yaakov holding back their mocking snorts.

"I love it when they're untamed." Leor licked his lips while looking at Azalia, his words triggering a low threatening growl out of Melech.

"Careful with your words, Leor." He snarled at his counsellor. "She's mine." His sudden burst of possessiveness came by surprise, and Azalia found herself reevaluating all of their past encounters. Melech hadn't seemed protective of her before, but maybe the Adom king simply wasn't a man who liked to share.

"And enough talking. Tell me what the situation is." He ordered as he took the seat meant for the King around the table, before making Azalia sit right next to him.

Her own seat was more impressive-looking than the others, surely because it was meant for the queen, which pleased her a lot. She was situated between Melech and the woman named Tzilla, Onan sitting at Melech's right. He and Azalia were the only people who weren't purely Adom, unlike the rest of the High Council that was constituted of members of the eight ancient families.

Azalia didn't know how Onan did it, because the atmosphere clearly was uncomfortable. She felt like she wasn't welcome, even more when two out of the seven counsellors seemed to be glaring at her. It was Yael, which wasn't surprising, and Nahash, the man with the scar, who didn't seem to like her either.

"If I may, my King?" Elisav, the third woman belonging to this council, excluding Azalia, was the one to speak first.

"You may." Melech allowed her to continue and so Elisav started talking: "There were reports of a Yarok woman being murdered in one of the villages surrounding the castle." She unexpectedly stated. "She was found dead this morning, after having bled to death during the whole night." It was horrible, the sordid news taking Azalia by surprise. Murders weren't a common thing in the Lavan Kingdom.

And it didn't look like it was in the Adom Kingdom either, because Melech frowned in response. "Do we have a clue about who could have done this?" He didn't seem the least happy about what he had just learned.

"We don't." Elisav sadly answered.

"It wasn't someone belonging to the Adom Kingdom, at least." Nahash said but Melech quickly shut him down. "All people living in the Adom Kingdom are under my protection. You'll do well to remember this, Nahash." His tone was firm, his reprimand strong enough to make Nahash lower his eyes in submission.

"Uziel." Melech addressed another one of his counsellors. It was the oldest person of this room, the now pepper-haired man seeming to be in his late-fifties. "Start an investigation about this murder. It's not the first time it happened in the last six months."

"As you wish, my King." Uziel answered with a polite bow of his head.

"Anything else?" Melech asked and, this time, it was Yaakov's turn to answer. He was the only man in the room that kept his dark hair at shoulder-length, his almond-shaped eyes making him look quite pretty. "I think the most pressing matter right now is your future marriage ceremony, my King." He said with a smile on his lips, his words instantly rendering the atmosphere even heavier than it already was.

That sparked Azalia's interest. She knew her marriage to the Adom King was a touchy subject, with most of the High Council being against mixing races, and so now was the time to learn everyone's opinion. It was important if she was to find powerful allies in the Adom Kingdom.

"With all due respects, my King." Yael was the first one to speak about the matter, without any big surprise. "You can't possibly intend to marry this..." She struggled to find a word to refer to Azalia, her distaste clear for everyone to see. "This foreigner." Was the term she ended up using.

"And why is that?" Melech simply asked her in an unimpressed tone.

"Because you're meant to marry an Adom woman!" Yael blurted out.

"I think the King is free to do whatever he wants, Yael." Tzilla told her with a roll of her eyes. Unlike Yael and Elisav who both had long straight hair, Tzilla had short curly hair that suited her perfectly. Azalia already liked her, if only because she had talked back to Yael.

"But abiding to hundreds of years of tradition is part of his duty." Leor said in what he thought was a wise voice. "Isn't that right, Uziel?"

The pepper-haired man had to be the one they listened to the most, mostly due to his older age. "Traditions and customs are what make a kingdom, but also what destroy it." Was his response to Leor's statement.

"What do you mean by that?" Elisav asked him with a curious look.

"He means that times are changing, and so traditions need to change as well if we want our kingdom to prosper." Yaakov was the one to answer her question, his words getting a nod out of Uziel in response. "Indeed." Refusing to evolve with its time was an error that could prove to be fatal for the Adom Kingdom.

"I agree." Onan finally spoke out. His stance on this subject was no surprise as he was born from an Adom man and a Sagol woman. "Mixing races isn't frown upon in the Sagol Kingdom. Adom men can't afford to be picky when Adom women are getting so rare."

It was true they had no other choice but to start marrying women coming from other kingdoms if they didn't want their race to slowly disappear. Most kingdoms already did this, not because they had to but simply because they saw no harm in doing so.

"This is ridiculous." Nahash suddenly scoffed. "This is the King of our kingdom we are talking about, not some lowlife. Marrying the Lavan princess would ruin the royal line as well as soil the blood of the future crown heir!" He exclaimed, the blatant insult in his words instantly angering Azalia.

To hear someone say she was going to soil the blood of her future child was pure blasphemy. Her blood was blessed by the gods, gifting her powers other people could only dream to was, and so making her blood way purer than Nahash could ever hope his own blood to be. She hadn't said anything until then, mainly because she wanted to observe things from afar, but even she couldn't ignore such disrespect. She had to put this mere counsellor back in his place, or would regret never doing so.

But Melech unexpectedly spoke out first, thus preventing Azalia from intervening.

"Enough." He loudly growled in a blood-curling tone that instantly caused all of the counsellors to stop talking, their eyes almost widening in fear as they looked at their King.

"I consider disrespecting my future wife the same as disrespecting me, and I will not tolerate it." Melech stated. His veins made of lava were visible beneath his skin, his muscles seeming to bulge with his anger as his body temperature dramatically increased. "You'll bow to her as you bow to me, understood?" He asked and every counsellor immediately nodded, no one daring to defy their powerful King.

To say Azalia hadn't expected this was an understatement.

Melech had just defended her and the Lavan princess had no idea what to think about it. Was she supposed to be grateful or was it just one of the King's games to better manipulate her? She didn't know, but could at least tell that some of the counsellors weren't pleased by Melech's order. Especially Nahash, who seemed to be silently raging while glaring at Azalia.

"I don't want to hear anyone question my decision again." Melech resumed talking in a calmer but no less impressive voice. "I'm your King, and what I decide is final. I think it's time Adom people start mixing with other races, if only for the sake of our own survival."

His words were clear and his tone firm. Azalia could finally understand why he had become King at such a young age: his only presence imposed fear and respect alike. His charisma was unlike anything Azalia had ever seen before, his ruby eyes seeming to look right through people's souls.

Melech hadn't even reached thirty years old yet, but already had the stature of a King.

"I'll be marrying the Lavan princess in one month time." He declared for everyone to hear. "Elisav will be the one to take care of the organisation of the sacred ceremony."

"It will be an honour, my King." Elisav answered and Melech hummed in response, the Adom King seeming pleased by the response of his counsellor. He didn't even meet Azalia's eyes before standing up from his seat. "Good. You can all dispose." Were his last words before he left the council room.