[b][center]Ssussun wun Oloth, the Council's Chambers[/center][/b]

Councillor Varrin looked out of the window of the grand stalactite that served as headquarters of the Council of Ten, from here he had a good view on the grand coliseum down in the pleasure district, he could not make out the individual shapes but he did see a horde of figures darting across the coliseum grounds and heard the chanting and cheering of the crowds. The volume rising in pitch when a crowd favorite was either victorious or was dealt a deadly blow in the arena. He looked over the rest of the city, their home, their place of rule and dominance in this underground realm of theirs that had been carved out with the blood of their people, and he had to grudgingly admit, the thrall races in their service. They had grown lax however and content to keep the status quo and now their people were restless, blades were being sharpened and drills were executed by the various household and slave regiments in service to the various houses, but was it to keep themselves alert and ready for the dangers out there? Or would there be a clan war soon, he would like to avoid that, there were great terrors in the darkness and he would slit his own throat rather than to see his people get exterminated or enslaved by a enemy who would take advantage of their weakness.

He turned around when a voice called out to him, "Councillor Varrin, if you would be so kind to stop looking out of the window and once again pay attention to the meeting?" Looking at the one who addressed him, matron Xanna of house Baenre looked at him directly with her golden eyes and gestured to the empty seat, the other seats around the circular dais already occupied by the other councilors, all save two, Varrin's and the one seat reserved at all times for a particular member of Infriet Oloth who hardly showed at these meetings.

He took his seat and bowed his head curtly, "My apologies my mind was elsewhere." He leaned back in his chair, shadows obscuring his face, he always wondered why the council at the time had designed these chairs to have their occupant's face be obscured in the shadows when not speaking. Councilor Xanna was still leaning forward her face revealed in the light of the torches lit in the council chambers, as she looked at each chair.

"Now that we are all here... and are paying attention." She began, a disapproving frown on her face when she looked at the empty seat as she spoke, "We all know why we are here... accusations have been brought before us that Houses Lo and Uss have been raising troops to take the caves of Salk, containing mushroom and grox farms belonging to house Van'Ra by force." She looked at the seats of the three councilors whose houses she just had named, only councilor Pertark of house Van'Ra leaned forward, the angry scowl on his face clear to all to see as he glared daggers at the seats of the councilors whose houses were raising troops. "The great Conclave of 236AC clearly states that only minor houses may be attacked, the great houses who have members in the Council of Ten may not be targeted by any of the great houses except by the minor houses who may wish to take over a seat on the council." Xanna continued. "What have houses Lo and Uss to say for themselves?"

The councilor of house Lo shifted in his seat and did not reveal his face, taking this as his cue Crazja, matron of house Uss leaned forward with a sly smirk on her face, "Neither my house or house Lo are in violation of the treaty discussed at the Conclave of 236AC matron mother Xanna, we merely are strengthening our borders, because we in fact heard through our agents it was house Van'Ra who was going to attack us, we merely-"

"That is a lie!" Pertark snarled slamming his balled fist down on the armrest of his chair and gestured to matron Crazja. "Most of my troops are on their rotation patrolling the passages to out outlying settlements and you and that house Lo bitch conspired to use this situation to marshal your combined forces to attack my house's land and I will not stand for that!"

"Patriarch Pertark control yourself." Xanna said, her voice low and sharp as she bore her eyes into the councilor until he bowed his head and leaned back in his chair, she looked back towards the smirking Crazja, "Continue... and wipe that smirk of your face Craz, it does not suit you to gloat so obviously."

The smirk was replaced by a small, thin smile and a narrowing of her eyes, "As you wish." She adjusted her clothes and armour and then shrugged lazily, "As I was saying, while our dear patriarch Pertark claims his troops are out patrolling the passages, we in fact gathered he is having his troops disguise themselves with weapons and armour of a minor house to invade caverns belonging to house Uss and Lo and then claim his troops 'defeated' the troops belonging to the minor house and claim the caverns to his holdings." She shrugged again, "We merely took steps to defend ourselves, nothing less, nothing more."

Xanna turned to the seat of Pertark, "Your evidence to the contrary?"

The patriarch shuffled in his seat uncomfortably and grunted, "We caught one of their spies and he revealed the plans... but died during interrogation, he however had a bran of house Lo and I have several witnesses who heard the confession before he died."

"I object, your witnesses all belong to your house no doubt and therefore only owe allegiance to you so we cannot trust any of them to speak the truth, not that any would expect that from anyone belonging to house Van'Ra." Crazja said, cleaning her nails with a small dagger as if she was bored.

The Van'Ra councilor exploded raising up from his chair with a shout and balled fists, "You take that back bitch! I will not suffer such insults to my house, if you and Lo want war then war you will get! You can count on that!" He snarled.

She twirled the dagger between her fingertips and yawned, "As if your house would last a single week, but fine I think my house and house Lo are more than happy to answer your war mongering and face you in battle and exterminate your pathetic house."

Other councilors started to speak and murmur and while Xanna opened her mouth, her face a mask of rage at the actions of both these councilors it was someone else's voice who spoke up, a dry voice which sounded unnatural and made everyone present feel a shiver down their spine. "There will be no war, I will not allow it when other options are available." As one ten faces turned to the seat which had been empty a moment before and now it was occupied, a skeletal figure with glowing eyes was sitting in it rigidly, "My great granddaughter is far too eager to go to war with her own kind." The glowing eyes of the skull turned to councilor Crazja and she let out a whimper and seemed to retreat back in her chair as if she wanted to flee. "My apologies, normally I send word I would be attending a council meeting but it seems my messenger was delayed while I was visiting the caves of Salk and ordered no more than five small armies whose loyalties lie with members of this council to return to their clan homes and stand down. It seems they were mistaken with some orders that were given to them, how fortunate I was there to correct the mistake."

He clasped his skeletal hands together, while no facial expression could be read from the skull it seemed he was very amused right now before he continued, "I think our people can do better things than slaughter each other." He let out a dry chuckle and turned to matron Xanna. "But my apologies I am speaking out of turn at this council, may I continue dear Xanna?"

Of all the councilors Xanna seemed relieved, though wary, than afraid at the presence among them and she nodded. "You have the council's attention Ze'zhuanth Uss, speak and we shall listen."

"Why thank you, how kind." He replied and stood up from the chair to walk in a circle before each seat before he stopped in the middle. "For several decades we have sit here, in our realm and secured our borders... and when they were secured... we did nothing." His eyes bored accusingly into each seat. "It is time to change that, time to stop sitting in chairs and do something. What I am proposing is twofold." He raised a bony finger, "There is a whole world above... send out emissaries, perhaps we can foster relations and rent out our services and fight something else instead of ourselves, it also keeps our troops on edge and not have them risk getting lazy and inexperienced."

He raised a second finger, "Second... I propose we send out troops to secure caverns beyond our current borders and start slowly expanding our realm and grow somewhat." He shrugged and it seems his bones rattled as he did so. "That seems like a much... simpler idea than killing our own people, but that is just my humble opinion I am certain this council consisting of the most worthy and powerful among our kind could think of something better if my suggestions do not suit the interests of our realm." With that he returned to his seat and sat back down, again a vague sense could be felt that the figure was just radiating amusement as his glowing eyes studied each seat.

It was Crazja who broke the silence after a moment, "House Uss... agrees with what the... venerable Ze'zhuanth Uss has proposed, this scion of my house clearly speaks with wisdom and therefore I offer my apologies to councilor Pertark and his house, clearly myself and house Lo were falsely informed that his house was about to attack us, to make amends I am willing to be the first house to offer its troops and resources to expand our realm and send out emissaries or traders to the world above." She quickly said, looking anywhere but the seat occupied by the skeletal figure.

"House Van'Ra... accepts the apology and offers one in return, clearly we acted too hastily and had not investigated these... rumors of a impending attack against us properly. "Pertark began and gulped, "We too offer our resources to this effort, in the hopes that it may avoid conflict among our people."

One by one each other councilor agreed with the proposal, almost reluctantly and some with clear fear in the end a uncomfortable silence came over them all and matron mother Xanna spoke up, "I think, that all has been discussed that we had to, we have all voted in favor of the proposal, I suggest that we end this meeting and all return to their respective houses to make preparations." 

After this one by one councilors began to leave the chamber, after the eight member had left, three people were left.

Xanna stood up and groaned, "Sometimes I think these seats are so uncomfortable to force us to make quick decisions so we won't be stuck here for hours or days." She said with a snort and then turned to the skeletal figure who had not moved. "That matron mother of your house was creating trouble... again." The figure shrugged and she turned to the other person remaining in the room, councilor Varrin. "That was your spy house Van'Ra caught, wasn't? You learned of the scheme house Uss and Lo were up to and you forced this meeting to happen by letting that spy of yours, branded with house Lo's mark be captured by Pertark and his people."

Varrin tilted his head and rose a eyebrow, "Matron mother Xanna, I feel obligated to tell you that I or any of my house did no such thing, but if we did, better to have it happened otherwise this meeting wouldn't have taken place and three... or five... of the major houses would have been at war with each other." He sighed and pinched his nose, "I have to agree however that matron Crazja is going to be trouble, this was what... her fifth attempt of creating conflict between major houses?"

The skeletal figure scratched over his skull, the sound it produced uncomfortable for the ears of the two living council members. "Yes... I think her daughter, my great-great granddaughter, might be a better candidate to sit on her mother's seat. Such a shame that accidents happen in our realm." He cackled and stood up, "However, with my proposal that might not be necessary, now if you both would excuse me, I have to return to my experiments." He bowed and as both remaining council members blinked the most powerful individual in Infriet Oloth had vanished as if he had never been present.

Xanna shook her head and muttered, "I hate it when he does that..."