Winterfall

Sybil sent a message and within a few minutes a few unseen servants entered the Council chambers carrying a few trays with glasses of half filled wine glasses. Each servant walked up to one of us and gave us a glass of wine. They even gave the guards and Marcel in the back a glass.

Sybil leaned over and whispered to the one next to her, “Come back in five minutes with the dinner portion.”

The servant hurried off with the rest of the workers and closed the door.

Dinner portion? Why did Marcel want to go to dinner if we were going to eat dinner here? I groaned through the bond as I was still stuffed from the dinner I had not even an hour ago.

I don’t know. Is all I got out of Théoden as he was trying to remain focused on the meeting at hand.

“Let’s raise our glasses to our newest addition to the Council.” Sybil said as one by one all the Council members raised their glass. All eyes fell upon me as I was the last to raise mine.

This whole evening had me confused as Sybil was being polite and formal and even Marcel was being, well, tolerable. If this was all an act, they had some impressive performance skills that were beyond my own level. Regardless of the matter, I raised my glass after thirty seconds of complete silence.

Sybil nodded, “Now, we drink to celebrate Maria Roza Silvermist, the heir to our throne and our future!”

“Here, here!” Everyone shouted as one by one their glasses were raised and each took a sip of their drink.

However, part of me wasn’t sitting well with this. Why was Sybil acting so casual? I just couldn’t pass the feeling I was getting but I knew I had to partake in this adventure, if I did not then I would for sure be questioned heavily.

What is it? Théoden questioned me as he picked up my overwhelming sense of concern.

I don’t know. Sybil/Crimson just seems off.

You are not wrong. Just keep an eye and I will too.

I nodded and raised my glass to my lips and took a small drink of the wine. The wine was rich and creamy as it went down smooth. No wonder why Thora loves this wine. I said to Théoden however his response back concerned me greatly.

Don’t drink anymore.

I couldn’t help but arch my eyebrow which caught the attention of Thora, “What is it dear?”

“I don’t know, something feels off.” I said as I looked into the glass of wine and swirled it around. I took another small sip.

Maria! “Don’t drink the wine!” Théoden shouted, causing all attention to fall on him.

“What is it, Captain Théoden?” Thora said as everyone’s focus was on him.

“Sorry, to interject the toast, but I am afraid the wine has been tampered with.” Théoden said.

“How do you know?” Thora said as she carefully placed her glass back down. “I feel fine.”

“You may feel fine now, but I can assure you all that there is the finest taste of poison in that wine. I know alcohol is considered poison but I recognize this as something more.” Théoden said. “Let me first, restore all of you. I prefer not to take any risks on any of you getting seriously ill. From there I can summon a creature and have them drink the wine to prove my point.”

Théoden moved from the wall and went first to Thora and placed his hand on her shoulder. We all watched as a wave of magical essence seeped from him and into her as he used a lesser restoration spell. One by one he performed the spell on everyone who drank some of the wine. By the time he got to me, I saw a pull of fear race through him. I knew he had used a bit of essence already so I knew he was already getting overwhelmed by the amount of power he was using. Though he would never complain about it.

He performed the spell on me and I felt normal. Then again I only had two small sips compared to everyone else who pretty much downed the whole glass of wine with the simple toast.

“There.” He said once he performed the last one on the last of his guards. “Now before we consume the food I would like to test that as well. But first, with what wine is left from the bottle that was used, I shall summon the wolves and have one of them drink the wine and we shall see how the wine is affected.”

“Now wait a damn minute! How will wolves tell us anything? How do you know the wine is affected by anything?” Sybil snapped as Théoden went to start casting the spell.

He paused and glared at her with narrow eyes, “Call it, intuition. Remember Sybil I am very observant when it comes to certain things. One being the Princess and her wellbeing.”

“I am curious about this as well. I will admit I thought the wine tasted a bit off however I thought it was just because it was aged to perfection.” Thora said.

“I agree with Thora on this one. Let Captain Théoden continue his experiment. We can ask more questions as time lapses, Sybil.” Cedric said.

“Thank you both.” Théoden said as he resumed casting Evoke Spiritual Beasts and his two wolves appeared in the Council chambers.

“Sephora, I am going to have you drink some wine alright?” Théoden said to the female wolf. The wolf just nodded in agreement like it understood him just fine. “May I have the rest of your wine Princess Maria?” Théoden said as he walked over to me.

I nodded and gave him my glass. “Take the rest of mine and mine.” The Council members piped up as Théoden went to each of them and got what was left of their wine. He managed to fill a bowl that was brought by one of the servants over half full and gave it to Sephora.

We all watched as Sephora lapped up every bit of wine and within a minute, Sephora’s body started to compuls in pain.

A few gasps could be heard at the display, “he was right….” Thora whispered. “But who would try and poison the Council?”

“Please, that is all an act.” Sybil said as she began to clap her hands slowly, “Right?” She glared up at Marcel who shrugged and seemed to mouth, I don’t know…

“I’m afraid not Sybil.” Théoden said. “Guards, I want you to begin an in depth search of the chamber to see if you may find anything suspicious. Council members, I wish you no harm and I do hope you understand the in depth search will involve each of you.”

“Of course Captain Theo.” Cedric said, “Do as you must.”

All of his guards went to work as each member was searched with the aid of his remaining wolf as he dismissed Sephora. Thankfully after ten minutes of searching nothing was found in the Council chambers.

Théoden scratched his head, “Unusual… the poison was familiar to that one I am seeing around town.”

“You have seen this poison in town?” Cedric questioned.

“Yes, however, it has only been injected through the skin. Not orally. This might be a one and done case but don’t you worry, we all will be on high alert. Until we fully get to the bottom of this.”

“Thank you Captain Théoden for your quick action and thank you to the rest of the guards on hand.” Cedric said.

“Perhaps, we should conclude the meeting early and we all return to the safety of our chambers.” Sybil said. “I’d prefer us all not to drop dead.”

“I can get behind that.” Thora said, “Besides I think we all have had enough excitement for one evening.”

“Agreed.” Wulfric said.

“If that is what you all wish.” Théoden said, “I will assign a guard to watch your doors in case more threats come your way.”

“Thank you.” Thora said.

Théoden instructed the guards present to take an overnight watch at each Council member’s doors.

“Before we all leave, let us do a formal conclusion of this meeting.” Sybil said.

Everyone turned to her as most had approached the door at this point. “Princess Maria, we welcome you formerly to the Council of Winterfall and I look forward to seeing what you do for the future of our kingdom. And with that, I bid you all a goodnight.”

Everyone filled out leaving me, her, Théoden, and Marcel behind. “If you had anything to do with this…” Théoden growled as he stood between me and the other two.

“Why accuse us?” Marcel snarled back.

He glanced around the room to make sure no one was there before he said what he did next. “It was your damn poison!”

Marcel blinked, “My poison?!?” Marcel looked over at Sybil who shrugged.

“It was the same poison you used on her!” Théoden shouted as he pointed back at me.

“I honestly don’t know what you're talking about. I was with Maria for the majority of the day!” Marcel snapped back.

I looked up at Théoden who narrowed his eyes, “I’m onto you. The both of you!” Théoden growled. He held onto my hand as he teleported the both of us to his bedchambers.