Chapter 68: Questions
The feeling of death pressed down on Zephyr from every side, nearly corporeal, like he could touch it. It threatened him into utter stillness, making him fearful to make even the slightest movement.
He felt like he was being locked on to by multiple life-ending spells from every direction. He couldn’t see the tell-tale sign of a spell model floating in the air anywhere, but he could feel the effects, all of his senses, even the weakest of them, were blaring alarms, warning him not to make a move. Not that he could if he wanted anyway, his muscles had gone stiff reflexively like it was anticipating an imminent impact.
"What the fuck is this?!" Zephyr muttered through stiff jaws, trying to move his head to look around.
Suddenly, just as it came, the pressure abruptly disappeared.
"Haa!" A collective gasp of released tension echoed through the room as members of the council sucked in deep breaths of air, panting. Some were on the floor like Zephyr, on their knees, or even nearly sprawled, while others like the old man and woman on both sides of Oswald, were still seated on their seats, albeit with varying levels of comfortability. The younger, more talented ones like Veronica and the suave gentleman at the ends of the table were bent over but still held their own, while the older generation closer to Grandmaster Oswald barely broke a sweat— or at least they put on a good act of not breaking a sweat.
Dale and the others had been brought to their knees, a testament to their relative weakness and their methods of getting into the council. Most of those on their knees had gotten in through political means, serving more as pawns for their families to influence council decisions.
"Pardon me, council members," Grandmaster Oswald waved a hand. "I was simply carried away because we were acting so undignified. It doesn’t read well to our guest here..." he pointed at Zephyr’s kneeling figure.
Zephyr took in deep breaths, analyzing what he’d just felt, he wanted to be able to at least move the next time something like that ever happened. That feeling of utter helplessness, fully at the mercy of someone else was very humbling and humiliating.
He raised his head to meet the Grandmaster, who was watching him with a gaze of approval. Zephyr scanned the faces of the others, noting their various states, spotting those who were not as strong as their colleagues but were still on his list previously.
As he watched them, they also watched him with amazement in their eyes, surprised that he could hold his own with his fragile body despite being put under the same pressure they had.