The atmosphere in the room changed somewhat. No one seemed quite sure what to make of what seemed to be an issue of contention between the two catkin. The rest of us remained quiet, it felt like the right decision. None of us wanted to get involved.

“I only have two choices. Bring an innocent here, with all that entails. Or don’t and have that thing removed, we all know what that means…” Altria said, before trailing off.

“I know, after what happened with my sister, I should never have let you become one of the summoners… Not that we have a choice.” Olentri replied.

“It’s a similar choice to what we have now though isn’t it?”

“It’s not the same, you could continue summoning for you entire natural life and come to no harm. If we hadn’t let one of our line become the summoner for our race, we would have been thrown out of the alliance. That could mean war with the other races again. It would mean we would face the demon lord alone, with no way of fighting them. But your refusal to summon makes matters much more complicated.”

“You mean, because it’s my life in the balance and not someone you’ll likely never meet?”

“Because I will have to choose between you or the kingdom…”

“That’s your decision to make.”

“I know. This is getting us nowhere. There was a reason I brought all of you here.” Olentri said turning her gaze from Altria to the rest of us. “I was hoping that you might be able to talk some sense into her.”

At first Olentri’s proposal was met with a stunned silence from all of us. We could all see why she would ask that of us, but it wasn’t that simple. We all also knew the reason why Altria was holding back on fulfilling her duty all too well. Just as Olentri didn’t want to be in the position to choose between the life of her daughter or the wellbeing of her own kingdom, Altria didn’t want to choose between her own life and that of another.

Finally, it was Serin spoke up.

“I understand why you would ask that of us, but it doesn’t seem right for us to try and sway Altria in a decision like this. It is her own life on the line, and it is her that will have to live with the consequences of her decision.”

“I’m not asking you to talk her into summoning someone and leaving them to their own devices like many of the other summoners. Of course, I would hope that you would all support her and the one summoned, much like you are doing with Theo here.”

“You would ask that, despite not knowing how Theo feels to have been brought here against his will?” Asked Altria.

“Then let me ask him… Tell me Theo, is it that bad being brought here?”

I thought for a moment before answering.

“No… At least not so far, but my experience doesn’t mean it will be the same for anyone else. The life of someone else brought here will be completely different than my own. There’s no telling how someone else would feel about going through that.”

“Would you be happy for Altria to lose her life over it?”

“No, the last thing I would want to happen is that. But at the time, it’s her choice to make. I wouldn’t want to force her to summon and live with someone else’s death on her conscience…”

“I see… No, you are right. I couldn’t ask that of you. I won’t press the matter any further.”

“Look, I’ll summon again, but not until I have no other choice. When the council is called, I’ll do it then, but not before.” Altria said out of the blue.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.” Olentri said sighing in relief.

“But you have to promise to buy me as much time as you can.”

“I will, I promise.”

“Good… Now, was that everything that you wanted to talk to us about?”

“Actually, there was something that I wanted to discuss with Theo in private.”

“With Theo?”

“Yes.”

“But, what?”

“That is between him and me for now. Depending on how he answers me, I will discuss it with you later. Is that okay with you Theo?”

“I don’t know what you could possibly want to discuss, but yes that’s fine.” I didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t like I could just refuse the queen.

“Great. Do the rest of you mind hanging around until we are done? Timothy will be along shortly with some refreshments, but I was hoping you would all stay for dinner afterwards.”

The rest of the group all looked at each other before Lillia spoke up for the group.

“Yes, we would be more than happy to do so.”

“Then I will leave you all here for now. Theo, please follow me.” Olentri said as she stood up to leave.

“Right okay.” I answered.

Olentri left the room and I followed closely behind. We were met in the corridor by Timothy who was patiently waiting close to the door.

“Timothy, please bring tea for two, to my interviewing room. Sorry I presume tea is fine with you Theo?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Thank you.”

“Tea for two then Timothy, and please see to it that the others have whatever they want.”

“As you wish my lady.”

“Then let us proceed Theo.”

Olentri walked on while Timothy went to prepare the tea and check on the others we had left behind. I followed behind Olentri as we climbed a grand staircase to the second floor. While I was following, I noticed just how much her figure resembled that of Altria. I had no idea how old she was or what the lifespan of a catkin was, but she looked more like an older sister than her mother. I shook my head, there was no way I should be letting thoughts like that enter my head about the queen before we went to discuss something important.

I managed to pull my eyes away from her round ass and followed her up the stairs. Once on the landing we passed a couple of doors before we came to a stop in front of the third door along. She stepped inside, while I paused for a moment thinking over what she could possibly want to talk to me about.

“Are you coming in?” She asked from inside.

Not wanting to keep her waiting I followed her in. The room was almost as big as the one downstairs. There was a table set out at one end and at the other there was a sofa to the side of a fireplace and a couple of armchairs next to it. There was also a single door leading out of the room at the far end. Olentri sat herself down on the sofa and I took a seat on one of the armchairs opposite her.

“You look concerned. Do you have any idea why I wanted to talk to you alone like this?” She asked me.

“Not a clue.” I replied having absolutely no idea why.

“Hmm… You don’t appear to be trying to deceive me.”

“Should I?”

“Perhaps, if you gave it some thought.”

I racked my brain for any reason why Altria’s mother would want to talk to me alone instead of with the rest of the party. Could it be the about the quest? No, there should be no reason why she wouldn’t be able to talk about that with the rest of the group. If Altria or one of the others had let on about the things I knew, but shouldn’t I doubted that the queen would have invited me for a quiet chat like this. I didn’t think it could be that. It only left one thing in my mind. I thought that things like didn’t matter among the catkin, especially after the mention of what her father was up to, but I had no other idea.

“Could it be, my relationship with Altria? I mean the fact that, well um, we’ve been intimate?”

Olentri burst out into laughter. She was laughing so hard that she almost brought a tear to her eyes and it took her a few moments to gather herself.

“Sorry, sorry… No, no. It’s not that. I’m not sure why you think that would bother me or require me to talk to you alone like this, but I appreciate your honesty.”

“Oh, right. I’m afraid that was all I could think of.” I said suddenly feeling a little embarrassed that I had said such a thing to her.

“Please don’t let it bother you. I think I can see a little of why my daughter is so taken with you.”

There was a knock at the door that interrupted us.

“Please come in.” Olentri called over.

The door opened and Timothy walked in carrying a tray with a tea pot and two cups and saucers.

“The tea you requested my lady.” He said as he walked other.

“Thank you, Timothy. Place it down over there.” She said indicating to the small coffee table next to the sofa.

Timothy placed the tray down and went to pour the tea, but he was stopped short by Olentri.

“You can leave it there. We will serve ourselves. Please leave us, oh and make sure we aren’t disturbed.” She told him.

“As you wish my lady.”

Timothy quietly left the room, leaving me alone with Olentri once again. She leant over to the coffee table and poured herself a cup of tea. She took a sip and looked at me.

“Please help yourself.”

“Thank you.”

Olentri waited while I also poured myself a cup. Once I’d finished, she begun to tell me why she had taken me up here with her.

“I’ll cut to the chase. The only reason I’ve asked you to speak like this, is because my daughter has never put herself at risk for someone else like this before. I wanted to speak to you in person before I made up my mind what to do with you. If I wasn’t so surprised by what she had done, I would have passed on what I’d found, and you would no longer be with us…”

“Hold on, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You mean you haven’t asked her to do something for you? Something that could carry great risk for her?”

Then it dawned on me what she was talking about. True we had discussed the Relics and Altria had agreed she would help me, but nothing had been decided. She had only said that she would look into how she could help through her own contacts.

“We talked about something like that, but I had no idea that she was already working on it.”

“I see. So, she has gone ahead without your knowledge?”

“Yes… I promise you. I wouldn’t let her do something that I knew would land her in trouble like that. Only if she thought it was possible.”

“For what it’s worth I believe you.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Well, I can’t do nothing. If I leave it be, the likelihood is she will be caught. You will both end up dead…”

“I don’t care about me, do what you need to protect your daughter.”

“I will. However, if I reported you and you were killed because of it. She would know it was me and I’m not sure if she would ever forgive me. What I can do is make sure that no one finds out.”

“You’re going to help me?”

“I’m going to help my daughter… But, I’ll need you to agree to do something for me in return.”

“What is it?”

“I need you to convince her to resume with the summoning. I know that she has agreed to do it again when she must, but I would prefer it to happen before the council is called. I’d also like you to convince her to continue doing it, for as many times as is required, whatever happens to the summoned. Can you do this?”

I thought for a moment. I knew how Altria felt about the summoning and convincing her to continue would be convincing her to continue to kill and trap people into a life where they must face the demon lord or die. But if I didn’t, I would die. For all I knew she would have to summon again anyway and even if she didn’t someone else would be forced to do so. Maybe the best option was to agree and hope that I would eventually be able to put a stop to the entire cycle. Maybe that was my mind trying to justify myself wanting to save my own skin.

“I’m afraid I will be wanting an answer before we leave here.” Olentri said trying to hurry me.

“I’ll do it.”

“Good.” Olentri’s face switched back from a serious expression to a smile.