There Is No Lie In This World-Chapter 21: The Council and the Heart

The silver platter was set down with a soft, deliberate clink.

I hadn’t even seen Luc carry it in. One moment I was helping Bada cling to life in the blood-slicked lobby and the next, I was seated here - at the far end of a long, polished obsidian table that stretched like a blade through the chamber.

The Senior Council Room.

If I was told before that I would be coming here, or attending any sort of meeting that had the word ’senior’ in it, I would have freaked out. But at this point I just felt numb. My mind wasn’t even trying to process what happened earlier. It all felt like a surreal dream, but the fear that lingered deep inside me told me that it was as real as anything can be - or worse, even more real than anything can pretend to be.

In the chamber, everything was dark stone, glass, and old gold trim. High ceilings. No windows. Just a central candlelit chandelier, and shadows that flickered like creatures that were once alive.

Shadows and darkness will never be the same for me again.

Luc stood right next to me. Just one step to the left. Her hands were clasped behind her back, her eyes scanned the room, fixed on everyone - and on no one - all at once.

She hadn’t said a word since we entered. Neither had the nine others seated before us. All dressed in ceremonial black with silver pins shaped like the Roen sigil. Seven men and two women. They had the air of people who’d witnessed too much, and dreaded yet another sighting.

Then she lifted the silver lid.

It was the heart that Nabir brought earlier.

But it was no longer red or pulsing with the impossible beat I’d seen in the darkness. It was blackened, shriveled, its veins hard as charred roots. It looked like it had burned from the inside out until all its life was consumed. The heart didn’t look like it will ever rot and wither. Instead, it seemed that this dead heart will remain in its form for eternity, fossilized.

For a moment, no one breathed.

Then one Councilman spoke. The one that was sitting closest to me, on my right.

"You’ve brought something unfitting into this room."

His voice was crisp, clipped, and unimpressed. There was a hint of protest at what Luc had done. He looked up at Luc and their eyes met. But it didn’t last long for him to avert his gaze apologetically.

The air was oppressive. This place would have been an intimidating place to me under any circumstances, but I knew it was because of Luc that the air in this room pressed everyone else down with unbearable weight too.

She said nothing for another full minute. Her eyes found each council member one by one. Intense stare. But she wasn’t probing. She wasn’t trying to read anyone. She was judging. And warning.

"There was an attack on the heiress."

Luc announced what everyone must have already known.

She gave the Senior Council another full minute. This time not making eye contact with anyone, but just staring at the cold, blackened heart.

The silence was finally broken as a Councilwoman cleared her throat. An elderly lady. Her hand, clad in a velvet glove, trembling slightly.

"Who could it have been?" she inquired. There was a genuine intrigue in her voice.

"Or more importantly... how could it have happened?" Another Councilman, sitting on my left side, posed a question.

"Inside the Roen Tower?" yet another Councilman, now from the far end of my right side.

"How could it happen, Luc?" a relatively young one asked, leaning forward a little.

My gaze flicked across the table. A few looked up at Luc, while others seem to do their best to look away. The eyes of the councilwoman in the velvet gloves widened

"Could you repeat the question again?" Luc asked the younger man again, somewhat casually.

"How-"

Suddenly, the man couldn’t continue. It looked like he wanted to say something, but no words were coming out of his mouth. He began to sweat and his face started to turn pale. His hands on the table were twitching, and for a brief moment I felt like his eyes were going to turn black.

"Stop this!" the eldest Councilman demanded.

The younger one gasped, panting, finally catching his breath.

"Luc, we will find them," the Councilwoman declared.

"We will find this rat," another one pledged.

"Leave it to us," the place was now becoming an echo chamber.

Luc raised her hand to shush them all.

"I leave this matter in your hands. I trust it will be dealt with."

With that, she nodded to me once, signaling that we were leaving.

I stood and looked around the table awkwardly. Everyone got up and politely bowed.

After we left the room, we were walking down the long stone-walled hallway.

"Luc... what is going on?"

She said nothing.

"Could you please explain? What was all that about... earlier?"

She kept on walking, leading the way, without turning back.

Her hands were clasped behind her back, but then I saw it.

A very slight tremble, and a twitch on her finger. It was only for a split second and perhaps my eyes were deceiving me in this dimly lit place, but I felt it.

"Are you OK?" I asked her.

She took a few more steps, ignoring me, then stopped.

Luc then turned, walked back to me again, and asked me in return.

"Do I look not OK to you?"

I studied her face carefully.

"You look bothered. And... tired."

She let out a quiet sigh, then spoke.

"You sure are perceptive."

"Is that a good thing?"

"It makes you special."

Special.

That wasn’t a word I was used to hearing.

"And I wouldn’t want to lose you."

She turned again and we walked in silence.

I had a million questions for her.

But I was afraid of her answers.