The Apathetic Mage Loves Cats

Chapter 18: Prophecy

"A ball?" A voice chimed. I sighed, as I walked through the doors to Romand's study, shutting them lightly behind me and making my way over to a table and sitting down with a loud thud. Nene fluttered around the room, the invitation to the ball where Caiden would announce his wedding arrangement sitting in her hands. "I've been wanting to go to one for ages! But who is the King getting married to and why? Isn't this a little too early?" I was, once more, called here on the prospect that Caiden didn't want to deal with Romand, but I had no idea that the others would be here as well. If I had known, I would've probably just told them all to leave and that we were too busy today to worry about them.

Romand had his back to me looking at a glass tube in his hand, but I knew that he was actually paying attention to me rather than looking at the brown-colored liquid swimming in the glass. Drac and Lucy sat on the far right of the room, Lucy's head buried in a book and Drac spending his time idly creating paper balls and trying to fling them around Lucy, making sure that he avoids her so that she doesn't get aggravated. However, I could see that Lucy was pretty engrossed in her book which was probably the only reason that Drac was able to do this. Akan sat on the stairs to the left, his eyes watching the scene in front of him.

Nene stood up and carried the invitation over to Akan whose red eyes just watched her slowly. She sat down beside him on the stairs and leaned against him, which he allowed her to do so with only slight tensing of his body before he willed himself to relax and lean on the railings of the stairs.

"Genene is right, what would spur on this decision, and why haven't you mentioned it before?" Romand spoke up. I frowned and shrugged, throwing my hands out to my sides to show that I too was innocent and had no idea of this predicament.

"In all honesty, I have no idea where he gathered this from, or who it may be with, I know just as much as you guys." This was an obvious lie; I of course knew that this was his way of getting the mages down to us and allowing us to figure out about the traitor. However, I was told by Caiden to not mention that he knew about it otherwise the plan might be ruined. I had already decided not to mention anything, since Romand seemed to have told me in confidence what was weighing on his mind. Although, despite my lie, no one seemed to be phased and instead seemed to accept this answer, like Kings were naturally secretive and mages weren't told things, to begin with, but instead were forced to accept things as they were.

"It seems a little sudden, doesn't it?" Drac's commented, leaning back in his chair, and glancing over at me. "Were there no signs? Do you even know who they may be at all? Was there anyone lurking around you?" I frowned and wracked my brain for anything. However, there wasn't anything that stuck out to me. Since I started working for him, he had only managed to travel to the same places almost daily, with only minor interruptions in the daily routine to a different room for a different meeting. He was a boringly repetitive man, but that is what he enjoyed and seemed to need; a desire to stick to a routine. Due to this, I never saw anyone different merging into this routine to change it.

"No one," I muttered, "other than me I guess, but everyone else seemed to be the same." Drac shrugged in response, leaning even further back to the point that I wondered how he managed to stay balanced in his chair.

"Well, I guess there's no point in fretting over it, it's not like we can change the course of the day just by trying to figure it out," Romand droned, finally putting down his glass so that he could look at the room. "It's time for us to come up with a safety plan, once more." However, before we could start, a small sound scratched on the outside of Romand's study. It was light but because everyone in the room was attuned to notice every little sound, it was quite loud. Because I was the closest, I stood up and made my way to the door. Already knowing who it was, I opened it and watched as Iban's red eyes drilled into mine for a beat. He sat perfectly still outside the door as if waiting for me to pick him up. And so, I did. I picked him up and shut the door lightly, listening to his light purrs against my chest as I went inside.