Ash followed Queen B into the shack and down a familiar stairway and corridor towards the large circular room.
"How was your orientation with the vampires yesterday?"
"I ended up skipping the orientation altogether. I had a long day and I am still not used to waking the whole night."
Queen B smiled understandably. "The room was filled with young ones. I had Drew address the room. You were right about the honing part," she sighed, "I just worry I haven't enough time to train her."
Ash patted her shoulder, "she will make a great representative for the vampires. And she has their best interest at heart. You have nothing to worry about."
Lady Bree could see right through her hollow consolation, "but she is pretty poor with her intercommunity interaction. She doesn't know how to get along with other representatives and it will make it difficult for her to get things sanctioned in the future."
She couldn't deny that Drew's attitude was pretty poor but she could only suggest, "she needs a hand little harder than yours. You might not protect her but you punish her very lightly. What happened to her reading you assigned yesterday?"
"She is still going about it. Do you disapprove of the method?"
Ash shook her head. "No. It was a good method but there is no harshness in it or urgency to finish within a timeline. Right now, even if you give her some responsibilities, you support her and save her from mistakes. You remind me so much of how my parents treat my brother. He was never meant to be trained for the throne so they supported him in a way they never supported me. And now that fate changed its course, his mistakes are costing the entire island."
Ash stopped talking quickly. In trying to make Bree understand, she slipped up and revealed her problems. She did not have a problem with her brother on the throne, however, she did have a problem with how he dealt with things. He was not trained to take over the throne, but their father had no intention of letting her aid him. What was he thinking?
They reached the circular room which looked bigger, wider, compared to yesterday. There was furniture strewn around the room, and more furniture against the wall and dim lights hung around the room casting soft glow. It did not look like place for a party, it looked like a very comfortable gathering room, meeting room or even a TV room.
The scattered furniture was arranged in a rough semicircle, facing the opposite wall and projector hung overhead to project on the wall.
"Take a seat."
Ash found a corner spot on a grey couch while Queen B sat on a long sofa, throwing her heels away and putting her legs up. "I knew from the get go that you would prove a valuable alley, a valuable source and connection but I am even more delighted to find a friend in you. Thank you for sharing that with me. Not a word of this will go out."
Ash sighed a laugh. "Thank you. I have studied for this my entire life, if I wasn't good at it, it would be a waste."
"It is not." Lady Bree cross her legs under her and leaned forward, throwing her glasses away. "I think I know the perfect place to put your unnamed talents to use."
Ash had the urge to frown but she forced herself to remain calm. "And where is that?"
"In the students' council."
"The student council the main body that serves as the head of the students, their voice and talks to the management for them."
It didn't sound right. "That doesn't sound right. No one on this campus would want a human representing them."
Queen B shook her head, all off her leader demeanor had fallen away. They looked like two friends chatting, gossiping. "That's just it. The university has so many races studying together and clashing with each other that they cannot stand to let anyone that is not from their race represent them. In the past years, the student council which was once an essential body of the school has been demoted to a club and very few people are willing to join or let us organize events. The university-wide events in the past year have also gone down. The teachers struggle to make it happen without the help, there are far too many clashes and some races entirely opt out of it. If this continues, we might as well be separate colleges than one university. More so, with the expanse of human population, the leaders of each race recognize the need to band together for peaceful life, which is why they send their kids here instead of independent universities. But if we fail to make the next in line of succession from connection or see reason, it will be too late for them once they have stepped out of here."
Ash was beginning to see the role of the council in the bigger picture of things. She remembered the priestess's words from yesterday. The answers to war are not always on the battlefield.
She had met Karn and Karlene. If she could form a better bond with the next in line of the moon tribe, even without stepping foot on the island, it would serve her home well. Karlene had a negative impression of her already. It had to do with a werewolf, named Sven. No matter what she felt against the heirs of MoonBlessed, as princess, she was trained to push past personal feelings for greater good. The thought filled her with a force of life. As if something she had lost had been found again. The constant coil of tension in an unfamiliar environment turned in a familiar whip in her hands. A whip she could command in a way she knew how to.
Lady Bree did not disturb her thoughts until she was ready to speak. "I understand where you are coming from but why would you want to do this? Wouldn't it be in the coven's favor to let the other races fight among themselves while it rose to power?"
Lady Bree closed her eyes for a moment, still. "One would think so. It should be so but the coven is suffering from internal issues. We do not have the time or resources for this now. We are better off bonding with other races."
"Is it something I can help with?"
Lady Bree opened her eyes and smiled a little. "Thank you. Back to the matter at hand, not only I but the leaders of other races, in a meeting last year, have expressed their troubles as well. At first we looked at the sirens for help but they would rather go extinct than band together with the kelpies and the centaurs are too prideful and too hurt to be forced to work together with the kelpies."
Ash remembered Mondin Rockfish and Irla holding hands on her first day and felt their pain for the secret of their relationship.
"Not all centaurs hate kelpies." she smiled. Queen Bree raised a brow and Ash shook her head. "It's a story for another time. What you are saying now, you would like me to join the council and help you revive it by forming relationship with other races and their representative in schools. You want them to see the benefits of such a connection."
"Right on the money."
"And how you propose we do that?"
As quickly as she had sat down, she lay down on the sofa again, "we will have to think of something together. You will be attending classes with multiple races this year. You might not be on good terms with many of them but the classes with continue and most of them will learn to have you in their class one way or another. The chancellor has put his foot down about that. Even the professors are being strict about it. I heard about the nixie incident. They are getting rowdier than the werewolves this year around, won't even let the professors into the building."
Ash had experienced it first hand.
"With you in each of their classes, we would know how things are looking on the inside and from there we can think of a solution together."
Ash had to laugh. She had never thought that her schedule which reflected her lack of direction in life would come in handy in such a way. Queen B looked at her with a soft smile but did not ask anything more.
As silence fell between them, Ash could sense the vampire queen's eagerness to ask her thoughts.
Ash felt lighter somehow taking on the impossible responsibility on her shoulder. It was like slipping on comfortable shoes. "I want to but I do not know if I can succeed in doing what you expect of me to do."
Queen Bree sat down straight, hand in the air, fingers clicking. From one of the corridors, a small thing zoomed in, fluttering in the air, hands and feet so small. It was a fairy, big eyes, pale skin, nerves showing on its entire body and transparent, colorful wings, moving quickly. This was what she had seen at the mansion.
"Send a message to all the members of the council to come to the meeting room as quickly as possible." The little thing zoomed out just as quickly.
Ash said, "you could have just texted them."
"The network is not always reliable here. Today with the full moon at its peak, being in the main building, there will be no reception."
Ash checked her phone. No reception at all. Queen B picked up their conversation again, "if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. We ought to try something. It will not be on you."
Ash asked, "my next schedule is with the vampires. I should head to class now."
Queen B shook her head, "just stay. They are doing blood resistance today. You don't have to be there."
Ash looked down her schedule for the rest of the night and the next day. Seeing werecats on her schedule the next morning, a few questions popped in her head.
"How many credits do I get for clubs? Can I drop some classes that you don't need help with in favor of the club?"
"What do you have in mind?"
"The werecats. I would also prefer to drop the nixie class but I will bite one bullet on that one."
Queen B gave her helpless smile, "sorry about the nixies. They are on the priority list." Ash smiled, "no worries about it," and Queen B explained, "Werecats, sure, you can opt out. The heads of tribes and their heir have a good relationship but their tribes are just too competitive to get along. When push comes to shove, the were-people always side with other Weres no matter what."
Always band together. That didn't seem right. The reaction from the werecat who manhandled her wasn't of someone with a healthy competitive spirit. It was that of hatred and grudge. Since the tribe leaders were closer, she did not have to be the one to mull this over.