Kyle2: the meeting of illumini and Plutonian Senate.

As soon as Riut, Avett and Isabel appeared one man with a goatee beard sneered at Magnus “Your illumini are never punctual. Is that how you discipline them, Commander Magnus?”

Magnus scowled at the man and at them. “Take your seats please.” He said in a displeased voice.

There were lots of older looking men there and Avett saw the meeting room was quite grand but the tables, chairs, the linoleum floor and even the decorations on the white walls were all black. The official colour of the Plutonians were black.

Magnus said to them “We have with us today, the members of our senate. They tell me they have important news to discuss. So let’s see what they want before we ask them to leave.”

Avett was surprised Magnus was rude with the senate. Isabel said beside him “I just love it when Magnus head butts with the senate.”

Georgis, the man Avett had seen earlier said with a cool look at Magnus “We have decided we would overthrow Armedien.”

There was a collective gasp from the illumini at that. Magnus looked at him in shock and asked “Have you lost your mind?”

“It’s the decision of the senate. Armedien vowed to keep us from harm but here we are, hiding like cowards, while he is sleeping around with his wife, having the time of his life.” Georgis explained in a voice meant to convince.

“Sleeping around? His wife hates him Georgis. I can’t think anything worse for him than being trapped in his room with that woman.” Solange said in defense.

“Who thinks being trapped in the bedroom with their wife is punishment? Honestly I would have given anything for that punishment.” Georgis said with a sneer.

Another blonde illumini guy said wryly then “That’s because you don’t have a wife, let alone, you are a loser Georgis. I can imagine you’d love that.”

Magnus scowled at the blonde guy who looked away bored and said to Georgis “This is not the time for internal problems Georgis. The plutonian people love Armedien.”

Another man from the senate snorted at that and said “Yeah right. They are all scared of him. When was the last time you saw him smile at any of his people? When was the last time you saw anyone go close to Armedien? He is a monster like I always said.”

Magnus glared at him “He is the reason why we all are free, Radus. He is the reason we have a plutonia. What is the problem with you people? If you so wish to overthrow him, tell him that when he is free from his prison. Did you know how much of a struggle he is going through to not turn sides? The earlier elitas were very close to the anazari. Now, he is feeling the pull on his elita spirit to join them. He is fighting it with all his might. Be grateful he hadn’t joined the anazari. If he had we would all be dead now.”

Avett looked around at the formally dressed people from the senate and saw that they were not convinced with what Magnus said. The man whom Magnus called Radus said now “Yeah. But for how long? You said you know he would join them in a week’s time. You said his powers of resistance are growing perilously thin.”

Magnus sighed “That is what we should be discussing instead of planning to overthrow him. Armedien’s bird Lyca came to me yesterday, when I was at the Western frontier. She brought me a message from Armedien. He said Azekeil is planning to dominate the mind of all his spirits and that he is quite easily succeeding. But Armedien believes someone else inside the anazari is helping him to fight Azekeil’s presence in his mind but that unknown person is very weak now and he fears he would be dominated in a week’s time no matter how much he resisted. He wants us to fight the anazari before that and I believe he is right. With Azekeil and Armedien fighting side by side our chances of winning this battle would be more closer to nil than fighting only the anazari.”

Radus looked at his cronies and said with a smirk “what use are the illumini if you can’t win the battle with them? I thought you people were invincible yet I hear half of you are comatose and about thirty are dead. How many warriors do you have now Magnus? Twenty? And even at that one of your most powerful warriors is just a kid now due to your stupidity Magnus.”

Riut snarled at that “Why don’t you and your stupid senate go and fight them?”

Magnus stopped him as he directed his gaze to Radus “Yes, we are normally quite invincible. But the major point you yourself has identified is that most of my warriors are comatose, not dead. We are not facing normal enemies here. They have extra sensory perceptive powers to a genius level and they are well trained. Not all of us are naturally gifted with ESP powers. That is the reason some of my warriors are comatose now, yet they fight even in sleep so that they are not dead. I think that itself is heroic. Radus, I will not tolerate any senate member belittling my warriors anymore. If you want to do that, chose your warrior and fight them.”

“Yeah, I’d love that. But we would fight only if we can kill.” Haidis said as if he was savoring the thought greatly.

Radus looked away quickly as he realized that Magnus had just given permission to the illumini to fight whoever insults them.

Magnus continued calmly now “Now, if you ladies and gentleman of the senate could leave us alone, we have battle plans to discuss.”

They threw a dirty look at Magnus as they left the hall grumbling. Magnus looked at them and Riut grinned at him “Way to go, Magnus.”

Some laughed at that. Magnus shook his head and said “I am just tired of them. Now, we have someone important here today with new information.”

The man was a small Uranian man with a small beard and beady eyes. He looked like the typical bad man described in books but this man was a good man. He was a spy working for them with the anazari. Magnus nodded at him in greeting and all the warriors in the meeting room looked up at him. The man looked ill at ease at their steady gaze on him and a little scared. Avett could understand that. If, legends were to be believed, the illumini warriors were extremely dangerous and barbaric predators, who were invincible.

He looked at Magnus and said “I have found out there is a scientist who knows everything about the gene structure and creation of the wolves, zalz, neferati and lycos, other than Azekeil.”

Everyone looked at him with interest. “The scientist’s name is Dr. Dimitrius DuVallance Ambus. He is very close to Azekeil and as I know it there are rumours among the anazari that Azek and Dimitrius are lovers. Supposedly, Dimitrius betrayed Azek in the war that defeated them and for that Azek is now punishing him. He is in the anazari castle in one of the underground torture cells. I have never seen him and most of the anazari hadn’t seen Dimitrius either.”

Haidis pointed out “How could you be sure he knows everything? He could just be Azekeil’s bitch and nothing else. By the way I didn’t know Azekeil was gay. Have you met him George? Do you think he has any weaknesses”

He nodded and said “Yes, I have seen him a few times. But it was from far away. To answer your question Azek is not gay. He sleeps with his anazari women and to my knowledge he hasn’t slept with any guy. I am not sure Dimitrius is his lover either because no one claims to have ever seen them acting as lovers but still it is rumoured they are lovers so there is a chance it might be true. I also did check to see if he participates in the orgies they have quite regularly. He doesn’t but he watches them if it amuses him. I have noticed he is always alert and cognizant of everything around him. The first thing he does when he enters a place is dominate everyone’s mind who is close to him. That way no body even dares think of attacking him without him knowing about it. His presence is overwhelming. I see no weakness at all in him but perhaps this guy Dimitrius might be his weakness. I say that because, for a month since he rose all he did was to torture Dimitrius according to his people. Supposedly he still doesn’t know why Dimitrius betrayed him. That says a lot about this Dimitrius guy. There is no person whose mind couldn’t be dominated by Azek but it seems Azek cannot dominate Dimitrius’s mind. One way or the other, I think you guys might want to get Dimitrius.”

Magnus looked thoughtful as he said “Raiding the anazari castle is going to be extremely risky. We have the map of the place but still there are anazari leaders and their minions lurking everywhere in the castle, not to mention Azekeil himself. We have to be very sure Dimitrius is worth this stunt.”

The man said “Sir, I haven’t told you exactly how close this Dimitrius is to Azekeil. Dimitrius’s grandfather, Almus worked with the scientist Constantine who created the mutant genes to create you guys. After they died their family still continued as before. All of Dimitrius’s parents were partners and assistants for the Constantine family and he himself was assistant to the third generation anazari leader Lirien and fourth generation leader Azekeil. See, it’s a big family bond. Dimitrius knows as much about you guys as Azekeil. Also, whoever has seen Dimitrius had only seen him working in the labs with Azekeil. Dimitrius was also a very distinguished member of the Royalist Scientific Council. Some people say if not for some defect he has he would have had the chance to compete alongside Azekeil to become the next president of the Scientific council.”

“What sort of defect?” Solange asked him.

The man shook his head and said “I don’t know, ma’am”

A straight black haired girl among the ilumini snorted at that “Considering how superior the royalist’s are the defect could be that he is normal and likes to sleep atleast six hours.”

Magnus nodded at that but said “It looks like he is very important though. If we take him we could know how to unlock whatever makes us obey their orders. On the other hand we couldn’t make radical changes to our body in a week’s time. It would be a future investment sort of thing but we would nettle a bee hive if we did that. Not to mention kill whoever goes into the castle on this mission. I’ll ask for a vote.”

The vote resulted with 90% of them agreeing to capture Dimitrius. Solange said “Magnus, if you are going, I want to go with you.”

Magnus sighed “Ange, how many fights have I survived? I have no intention of dying now. I want you to stay home. I would have considered taking you, if you were not pregnant.”

Solange gave him an exasperated look and the black haired girl who had talked earlier came over to her and said “That’s right Ange. Let Magnus go. He always comes back and he wouldn’t fail this time because big brother is expecting kids. He dreams of them so often it isn’t likely he would miss their birth. Actually instead of twins he seems to want ten kids and they all look like you as a baby, it’s scary.” She started laughing.

Magnus scowled at his sister trying hard to disguise the flush on his face, “Erin, don’t you understand the meaning of privacy? You are not supposed to sneak into my dreams.”

She stuck her tongue out at him “Oh, but it’s so much fun. He always dreams so sweet things like holding hands. No erotic dreams for my brother. Well, if it was I wouldn’t dare venture into his dreams coz it would gross me out. Um, but on the other hand he has one of the worst nightmares I have ever even thought off.”

Magnus growled “How many times Erin?”

Erin gave him a sweet smile “All the time when you are sleeping alone. See, I care about privacy. I never try to see your dreams when you are sleeping with Ange.”

Riut laughed “It’s too bad I don’t have the power to see into people’s dreams. But on the other hand perhaps I won’t like it. It sure would gross me out if I see Magnus dreaming about my sister.”

“Quit it will you?” Magnus said in a peeved voice. “You really need to see a psychiatrist or something Erin. You are just sick if you cant stop snooping around my dreams. On that sweet note, who’d like to raid the castle with me?”

Everyone’s hands went up. Magnus wasn’t surprised because his warriors were very brave and didn’t fear death. “We need only three. We cannot start a war over this. It’s just a secret mission. Most of you are injured and tired. So I would ask you to rest. As Sebastian is well rested I’ll take Sebastian and two more. Haidis you think you are upto it?” he asked Haidis and haidis shrugged.

Magnus continued “And Edan, are you well rested and upto the task?” the blonde guy who had talked earlier to the senators said “Count me in”

Magnus looked at Riut and said “As for you Riut, you stay here and try growing up will you? We also might need your intuitive powers when we are in the castle. So, I’ll keep my mind connected to yours okay, Riut? Will that be too much?”

Riut smiled “Not much at all but I’ll miss the action. So when are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow night. I want everyone rested and ready for tomorrow. The meeting is adjourned” Magnus said and everyone gave a shout as usual “For victory, for freedom”