The four birds slowly descended on their targets shoulders slowly, flapping their wings powerfully despite being small.
The birds landed on their shoulders gently, chirping warmly atop the shoulders they’d found as their new resting spot.
The four individuals these birds had landed on were the four Family Lords present. Lord Terrace, Lord Acheon who’d just finished discussions with the Lord of the Terrace family, Lord Daystorm of the Daystorm Family, and Lord Sketcher of the Sketcher Household.
These four were the four with the birds bouncing on their shoulders. “Hmm?” Lord Acheon was the first to notice the small encasing attached to the back of the bird on his shoulder.
He moved his hand toward the bird and it bounced off his shoulder, perching on his hand which he then brought closer to his face to observe the bird more closely.
“Oh.” Lord Terrace was the first to understand what these were as he quickly took off the encasing from the bird and opened it, revealing a small piece of paper with a very unique stamp.
The stamp of one very powerful individual. The approval stamp of Great Elder White Fang.
All three of them began to read through the letters that had been delivered to them, their eyes moving at speeds that couldx not be followed by those around, although there were exceptions like Commander Osbourne, Lady Reyla and a few others. Lady Danyel was also one of such people.
Their reading didn’t take time as they were done with it within a minute.
The four Lords glanced at each other, Lord Acheon speaking up first. “It’s a letter of invitation.” He briefed all three of them who nodded.
“As well as a congratulatory footnote.” Lord Terrace pointed out as the bottom of his own letter had contained a congratulatory footnote.
The others looked at him with confused expressions. Each glancing the other’s way to see if any of them understood what he’d just said.
Lord Terrace seemed to understand their confusion and spoke up. “I think only I got that part.” Lord Terrace took brief looks at them before adding. “It’s a letter of congratulations about the current events happening here.”
“Oh, that’s a given.” Lord Sketcher said with a slight chuckle, the others nodding at the revelation as well. It was obvious the elder would’ve congratulated Lord Terrace seeing that the man saw Lord Terrace as his sonb of some sort.
“It’s only a given that a father would congratulate his son after all.” Lord Acheon added with a grin.
Lord Terrace smiled warmly despite his almost cold expression as he turned to address the others in the room.
“Excuse us for the interruption.” He said, bowing politely to the crowd which soon began to murmur various things about how even he hadn’t expected the interruption and what not. “Let’s agree to disagree.” Lord Terrace added with a chuckle.
“Myself and the other Family Lords will be taking a brief escape from here to settle some very important discussion.” He turned to the band of musicians, giving them a nod before departing with the other Lords. “Let the celebration resume!” He declared and the soft music resumed, the dancing continued, and even worse, the constant chatter resumed.
“God! I hate the noise. I liked it better when those birdies arrived.” Lady Reyla sank deeper into the chair she sat on reliving the moment the birds had first arrived and everywhere had gone silent.
“Hehehe… Take it easy, Aunt Reyla.” Her nephew’s gentle voice broke through the ongoing noise, reaching her ears. She felt his hand on her shoulder and turned to him lazily. “Let’s go outside and train at the training ground if you can’t handle the noise.” Seth suggested with a smile. It seemed he too was tired of the celebrations.
Lady Reyla grinned, rising from her chair without a second to spare. “Let’s go then.” She grabbed Seth by his hand, pulling her young nephew out of his own chair. “Let’s go swear a little.”
Seth didn’t hesitate to follow her either. “Yes, Aunt Reyla.” Both of them walked toward the stairs that led outside of the hall.
Osbourne had also somehow vanished, his location unknown to anyone but himself.
The four Lord’s gathered together in a room away from all noises, occupied only by the occasional sound of liquid dripping from the mouth of a stone statue the shape of a wolf. It dripped into a small golden cup that was almost full with the silver liquid that continued to drip.
“Lord Terrace, the invitation states that we are all to arrive at the Imperial City by the end of the week.” Lord Sketcher pointed out even though they’d all read through the letter individually.
Lord Acheon nodded, his gaze meeting with Lord Terrace’s. “The meeting aims to discuss the planning we’ll need for the war that will soon arrive. The last meeting between the Family Lords pointed out that the preparation period had been shortened and now. We’ll need to plan and factor in the time lost.”
Lord Terrace sighed. “We cannot delay the gathering because of my own gathering. The Great Elder has called this gathering together which can only mean he’s managed to invite the others as well as the Emperor seeing that were to meet at the Imperial City. We will have to honor this.”
“It involves the entire Eastern Shirefort Continent after all.” Lord Terrace ended his speech.
“He definitely managed to pull it.” Lord Daystorm said. He was a man of very few words.
Lord Acheon looked around, his eyes landing on the dripping liquid source not too far away. “The journey is quite long from your estate and so, we shall be taking our leave earlier than we’d all anticipated.”
The room went silent.
Drip!
Drip!
The liquid was the only source of noise in the room.
“Before you all leave, I would like you to have a drink from the Fountain of Enlightenment of the Terrace family. It is a liquid that enhances the body and clears the mind.” Lord Terrace smiled as he picked up the almost full cup, replacing it with another empty one.
He poured the liquid from the cup into four smaller cups, presenting one to each of the Family Lords.
“Toast to the battle that is yet to come.” Lord Terrace also held a cup in his hand.
“Cheers!” The four Lords smiled, clinking their cups together and gulping down the liquid simultaneously.