Meeting I
As Briar stepped into the meeting room he was greeted with the sight of a room divided into four uneven sections. There was the Earth and Air contingents in the middle, both of which were small. And then on one side was a large group of merrow, many of whom were armed and were surrounding another merrow, guarding him but not as if they were protecting him.
And then, the contingent that Briar was most eager to see, the Fire contingent.
Much like the merrow, there were many gheyo surrounding someone, though the one these gheyos surrounded was much smaller. In the center of the gheyo were two boys. One was taller with whitish blue hair and clear blue eyes while the smaller had messy black hair and deeply familiar bright green eyes.
The breath in Briar's lungs left him all at once as he saw those green eyes behind glasses.
Those were his alpha's eyes.
Briar hadn't seen that shade of green in so many years it was like a punch to the gut.
Briar couldn't take his eyes off of the boy if he tried.
Crown Prince Raspen noticed Briar and Tauria come in and called attention to himself.
“The last of the requested attendees of this meeting have arrived. If everyone would settle down, we could begin the meeting.”
Briar moved over to the Fire contingent's side, utterly mesmerized by the small teen.
Tauria moved over to Crown Princess Dawne's side, as a head of one of the family's of her court.
Closer up, Briar could tell the teen was nervous but was putting on a brave front. Briar held in a coo at the youngling that welled up. He didn't know who this child was but he knows he's family.
The Merrow royal stepped up to speak.
“I have called this meeting with you all to attempt to remedy a heinous mistake on my court's side. A week ago Levi Ulyian was called to the Earth realm to retrieve his newly inherited student, Tom Riddle and brought along Harry Potter, his student's son back with him to Nevarah. Upon return, both Tom Riddle and Harry Potter were seen by Master Healer Koama Malifors, who found evidence of numerous detrimental seals being placed upon both of them,” Alcandor's words were said with heavy severity as he looked across evenly at everyone in the room.
“Levi then took them both back to his home for a few days until a scheduled ritual to locate the Lost Children was able to be performed, at which it was found that both Tom Riddle and Harry Potter are descendents of the dead Ceirean clan. The next day Levi brought them both up to the land to check on a family connection to the Rydel family, in which Harry Potter took his chance to escape.”
Alcandor looked right over to the green eyed boy.
“As King of the Merrow, I would like to give a formal apology to Harry Potter for not acting further upon my suspicions of the situation.”
Briar's brown eyes widened. A formal apology from a Crown Royal, and a King at that, was priceless.
Harry, the green eyed boy, nodded deeply.
Princess Dawne chose that moment to chime in.
“What were these suspicions of yours, Alcandor?”
“Harry came to me for advice on the best ways to ask for asylum. I tried to subtly invite him to tell me whatever was the issue by telling him the truth that the fastest way was to give a verbal petition a Crown Royal, but he remained quiet. I have now come to understand that that was because he had no confidence that I would honor the asylum and not let him return to his former tormentor. I want to assure you,” he says, staring intently into the boy's green eyes, “That I would never have allowed it if you had told me.”
Harry gulped audibly and nodded quickly, tightly squeezing the other boy's hand.
“Tormentor?” Prince Raspen asked with a worried tinge to his voice.
Princess Ebony took this as her cue to give input.
“Harry Potter has been repeatedly harassed throughout his life by the criminal Tom Riddle. The man himself murdered the child's bearer and sire and attempted to kill the child himself three times. On the day of Tom Riddle's inheritance, he had used the child in an illegal resurrection ritual after kidnapping him. Levi Ulyian then abetted the criminal in his kidnapping by taking the child to Nevarah.”
The words were said in that fast no-nonsense tone the princess was known for when she was angry.
“Not that I want to send the child back on Earth. There needs to be multiple Hunts sent out to the Earth realm. There has already been a claim for Healer's Rights.”
Alcandor decided to cut in there.
“Yes, Healer's Rights claimed by my Court's Master Healer.”
“Healer Kuroe has had no issue seeing to him and claiming Healer's Rights of his own,” Princess Ebony smiled meanly.
The king was visibly restraining himself and it seemed like that was what it took for Prince Raspen to try to rein everyone in.
“If the issue now is with primary healers, let's go with a neutral party and assign a Kalzik to the child.”
Both sides stopped moving, unable to come up with a reasonable response against the request.
“Then that will be done. Now I believe King Alcandor mentioned seals? And there was no mention of how someone old enough to have a teenager just now inherited.”
King Alcandor moved his jaw as he reined his own temper in.
“I will leave this to Healer Malifors,” he said.
A pretty merrow lady with purple hair stepped up to speak this time.
“Tom Riddle was under numerous spells, including ones to suppress an inheritance, guide a mind, and bind a soul. With my Healer's opinion, any crimes committed during his times under his seal cannot be considered as fully within his control. Any sentence should be with this in mind,” she said solemnly.
This didn't appear to make the fire types happy as the air began to heat up around Briar.
Prince Raspen looked pained.
“We can review Tom Riddle's crimes another time. For now, we must deal with the more pressing issue, the child,” he said, a glance over at the short teen.
Princess Ebony stepped up again, a harsh glare on her face.
“Yes, let's talk about the boy.”
Briar didn't like how she said that, or the glare she had for everyone in the room.
Briar was reasonably sure he wouldn't like what she had to say next very much either.