Chapter 19

A lone elf observed the scene playing out in the courtyard below. Hiding behind one of the few pillars still standing among the ruins of the collapsed first floor, he'd watched the council meeting of forked tongues progress.

Surprised, he had to suppress a sudden laugh when the female elf from internal surveys took down his brother.

That goody two shoes, he'd never done anything for the cause, their father's cause. Rather, Areurion had hung around the halls of politics and worked his way to the top of that snake king Thranduil's council of lies. Yes, his brother had nothing to do with the C.A.T., pretending all the wounds of the past were forgotten.

But they were not.

They would never be, and the time Amarthelion had spent wandering the shadows, his anger had blossomed. He wanted revenge.

He wanted to take all these rats down, like his father had been destroyed and cast out. His whole family had been put to shame, and so it would be forever, no matter how hard Areurion tried to ignore the past.

Even Amarthelion admitted that taking down a millenia-old system was a daunting challenge, which would suggest why his father and the Council of Ascetic Telerin had failed 1400 years ago. Not this time around though.

Amarthelion was patient. He could hope, he could dream, and he could plot against this rotten society of elves, focused on bodily pleasures and carrying about without any real spiritual direction. Yes, he could plan his family's revenge, and so far things had gone pretty well.

'Mayhem and murder' he muttered to himself, grinning maniacally.

The scene below was still unraveling, the dumb blonde haired detective now being publicly chastised by the king. She looked baffled and ashamed, and his little brother looked oh-so wronged and clueless. But he was exactly that. The fool had pledged to stand by Thranduil a long time ago, and Amarthelion had known better than to trust him with his master plan.

Taking a deep breath, he felt on top of his game. Yet unbeknown to Amarthelion, he was being shadowed himself.

Someone else did not think the dumb blonde elf quite so dumb, and felt it was time to wrap up the show.

The cat was ready to strike again.