“Your Majesties, I apologize for the interruption, but I have a letter I need to give you before the meeting begins,” Lichpriestess Saura D’Vaire said. She had a cream-colored envelope in her hand that was embellished with golden vines.
“Thank you, Saura,” Ellery replied as he took it from her.
“You already know what it says, don’t you?” Chrysander asked as Ellery tore it open.
“I want you to know I did my best to convince him to come,” she offered with a frown.
“We’ll keep at it. He won’t allow us to visit him, but he’s at least answering our mail once in a while. I’m not going to just let him fester in that tree of his,” T’Eirick said.
Ellery pulled the thick piece of stationery from the envelope and read the bold script.
Your Majesties,
I greatly appreciate the invitation to join you, but I must send my regrets as I am unable to attend. If you would like to involve the Circle of Druids into your plans, I humbly suggest you contact my sister Aloisa and her mate. They are now the leaders of our people, and I am nothing more than a man tending his garden. I wish you all the best in the future.
Sincerely,
Killian
“He didn’t even sign it with his title,” Chrysander noted after Ellery handed it over to his other half.
“This may be a bigger project than we first thought, getting Killian out of that damn tree,” Saura muttered.
“He’s going to have to come to terms with his title and his role as part of the ruling family of the Circle of Druids if I have to personally drag him kicking and screaming from that tree he calls home,” T’Eirick retorted.
“Thank you both for contacting him on our behalf. I will explain the entire purpose of this meeting once everyone is in their seats, but if you would not mind carrying back a note to him…”
Saura waved her hand slightly and a blue-black paper appeared. She handed it to Ellery. “If you’ll write down what you want to say, I can send it to him.”
“I will do it as soon as we are done, thanks again.”
“Of course, Elf, my pleasure.”
“I think everyone is in their seats but us, let’s grab a chair, Saura,” T’Eirick said and the leaders of the Darkfallen Court wandered over to sit around the giant table in the boardroom.
“Shall we?” Chrysander asked.
With a nod, Ellery walked over and graciously sat in the chair Chrysander pulled out for him. His mate was the consummate gentleman, and Ellery adored that about him. For no good reason besides loving him dearly, Ellery leaned over and kissed him once Chrysander was settled at his side. Chrysander grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together. Warmth infused Ellery, and he briefly wondered how he ever made it a day without Chrysander. It no longer mattered; he had him for eternity.
Gathering his scattered wits, Ellery turned to the assembled men and women. “I want to thank everyone for being here today. I apologize for being rather mysterious about the purpose of our meeting, but I thought it best if I explained it in person. As you are all aware, a great deal has changed in the Office of the Emperor in the past year or so. His Majesty and I have learned many things, and I am afraid one of those is that there is risk when you trust.”
Chrysander gave him a wry grin. “This idea began because I refuse to hire additional permanent staff at this time in the Office of the Emperor. We couldn’t be selfish enough to demand the Council of Sorcery and Shifters change for my trust issues, so we examined how things are run. For years we’ve funneled complaints through our office about the speed with which we do business. All we know is how the dragons feel, and Draconis has a lot of resources.”
“It was immediately apparent to me that Draconis is not a good barometer for determining Council matters,” Ellery said. “I know that sounds strange since we run it, but we are gifted with men who have been talented enough and even in some ways lucky enough to make us rich. We can hire as much staff as we want and shuttle things through as fast as we want, but most other races cannot.”
“The idea of putting together a group to help measure the pace in which we do things is not new for our office, but it was always dismissed for one reason or another…none of them really good either,” Chrysander remarked.
“When we sat down, and the idea was re-examined, it occurred to me that if we developed an advisory panel to the Office of the Emperor, there were many things we could tackle to help further the progress of our Council. You are here today because we feel you are the best candidates to serve as the initial members of our new advisory panel. I see the number of people in it as not a firm one but something flexible that grows as necessary,” Ellery stated. “Our mission is not only to determine how fast we move bills through the Main Assembly Hall for questions and voting but also to pool our resources.”
“Each race has designated people to review bills, which is quite redundant. The important measures brought forth in a bill impact every species, so what we’re suggesting is that this panel divvies up bills as they’re received, and we share that information with not only ourselves but make it available to the entire Council. They can either use it or choose to move forward on their own,” Chrysander added.
“What this does is even the playing field in some way. It allows every race to have access to the same data. It frees up personnel for other tasks or allows a race with less money to perhaps consolidate their staff to redistribute funds to other projects,” Ellery commented. “We welcome your feedback on this idea.”
“Personally, I have to say I love it,” Chander said. “I have a small staff that struggles with the volume of the bills. We already coordinate with the Sentinel Brotherhood to lessen the burden as I have some trust issues as well.”
“At D’Vaire we have several Council leaders, or their advisors, and we also pool our data,” Dra’Kaedan replied. “We realized shortly after Idris and Del started working with Vadimas on Council matters that having us all doing the same things was ridiculous. I can’t imagine there’s a race who wouldn’t appreciate having less work to do. It gives leaders more time to focus on their people. Doing that can only make us stronger.”
“I’m fully on board to move our Council into a more cooperative government,” Vampyress Irina Volkov remarked. “We’re supposed to be in this together but in reality, it’s only the leaders who spend their time intermingling. It would be nice if we could encourage and build a community where every race is doing these types of things—combining businesses, sharing technology, and establishing more multi-race sanctuaries like Dra’Kaedan’s Coven.”
