Chapter 79: What If Her Presence is Making The Curse Worse?
"All of these are possibilities," Cedric acknowledged. "None of them are confirmed. What we know is that the girl is not what she appears to be. She is not a common servant. Her origins are shrouded in mystery. The village protects her with a kind of desperate fervor that suggests real danger would follow her discovery. And the kings are... interested in her."
"Interested?" Garrison repeated. "Is that the word you’re using for whatever it is the kings are doing regarding this girl?"
"What exactly are they doing?" Varrick asked. "And don’t tell me you don’t know, because I find it hard to believe you haven’t been watching them carefully."
Cedric met Varrick’s gaze steadily. "The kings are observing her. They seem aware of something about her that is not obvious to others. But their specific interactions and intentions remain unclear."
"Which means they know something we don’t," Matthias concluded.
"Possibly," Cedric agreed. "Or they are responding to her presence in ways they themselves don’t fully understand."
"So what do we do?" Brennan asked, his voice still carrying that note of nervous uncertainty. "Do we interrogate her? Do we try to force her to reveal what she is? Do we remove her from the palace?"
"And risk what?" Aldrich asked. "If she is the chosen one from prophecy, removing her might seal the curse permanently. If she is a spy, aggressive treatment might activate whatever orders she’s been given. If she is something else entirely, we risk harm to ourselves and the realm through ignorance."
"So we do nothing?" Varrick said sharply. "We simply leave this unknown element in our midst and hope for the best?"
"No," Cedric said. "We observe. We investigate. We gather information. And we prepare for multiple contingencies."
The room erupted.
For several minutes, all sense of formal decorum abandoned itself. The elders were talking over each other, proposing theories, arguing positions, expressing fears that they had been holding back.
"She’s definitely the Mother of Dragons," Venn was saying, his scholarly certainty overriding caution. "The prophecy is specific. A child of fire and shadow, born of the old magic, meant to break the curse. It fits perfectly!"
"It fits if you make it fit," Varrick shot back. "The prophecy is vague enough to be interpreted a hundred different ways. Just because this girl was born with a supposedly significant name doesn’t mean she’s the chosen one."
"But what if she is?" Brennan said, his uncertainty now mixing with desperate hope. "What if she can break the curse? What if that’s why the kings are interested in her? They know, somehow, and they’re trying to keep her close because she’s the solution to everything!"
"And what if she’s the exact opposite?" Matthias countered. "What if her presence is making the curse worse? What if the transformation incident is directly connected to her being in the palace?"
"That’s absurd," Venn said. "Why would the kings keep her close if she was making things worse? They would remove her immediately."
"Unless they don’t understand what she is," Garrison said, his practical mind working through scenarios. "Unless they’re attracted to her for reasons they don’t consciously understand, and her presence is triggering something in the curse that’s pushing them toward deterioration."
"In which case," Varrick said, his voice carrying the weight of his skepticism, "she is an active danger to the realm, and she needs to be removed."
"Removed how?" Elder Aldrich asked quietly. The simple question cut through the chaos of overlapping voices.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"Removed how?" Elder Aldrich repeated. "If the kings want her to remain, how do you propose we remove her without triggering a conflict between the council and the throne? Do we order her execution? Do we exile her? Do we imprison her?"
"We do whatever is necessary to protect the realm," Varrick said firmly.
"Even if it means going against the direct wishes of the kings?" Elder Aldrich pressed. "Even if it means weakening the throne’s authority? Even if it means potentially driving the kings further into instability?"
Mattias was nodding slowly. "He’s right. We don’t have leverage to remove her without causing collateral damage. And the moment we try, we alert the kings that the council sees her as a threat. At that point, any control we have over this situation evaporates."
"So we’re back to observation," Brennan said, sounding frustrated. "We watch her and hope something becomes clear."
"Yes," Cedric said. "We observe. We investigate. We wait for her true nature to reveal itself through actions and patterns. And we do it carefully, without alerting her or the kings to the level of scrutiny she’s under."
"This could take months," Garrison protested. "We don’t have months. If the curse is accelerating, if the kings are losing control, we need answers now."
"Then perhaps," Venn said, his scholarly voice carrying a different kind of intensity, "we should consult the prophecies more closely. The texts might hold clues about who she is or what she means. The ancients left records about the Mother of Dragons. If we could understand those records..."
"The prophecies are ambiguous," Varrick interrupted. "You know this. You’ve spent half your life trying to decode them, and you’ve never come to a definitive answer."
"But we have more data now," Venn argued. "We have the girl’s background. We have confirmation that she is not human. We have evidence of magical ability. With these new pieces, perhaps the prophecies would become clearer."
"Or perhaps they would become more confusing," Cedric said mildly. "Which is why we don’t rely on prophecy alone. We rely on facts. And the facts tell us that we need more information."
***
After the discussion had continued for perhaps another hour, cycling through the same arguments and fears with different phrasings, Cedric finally called for a decision.
"We must determine," he said, his voice cutting through the overlapping conversations, "what action we will take regarding the girl."
The room quieted.
"I propose the following," Cedric continued. "The girl remains in the palace, in her current position as a servant. Her status does not change. Her daily life does not change. But she is placed under active observation."