It was the first real meeting of the new school semester. At least as far as the Representative council was concerned. The nine of us sitting in our room talking about…something. Whatever this meeting was about I was sure someone would say something.

It was the first meeting, it couldn't be that crazy.

I opened the door to the room.

"I think you're full of shit!" It took me a moment to realize that was Ra that was yelling. It was the loudest anyone had been during these meetings.

Was I late? No. I couldn't be. I'd left the Tower early today. What the hell was I stepping into this time?

Horus looked annoyed as Thoth put his feet up on the table in the middle of the room.

Thoth looked smug. If he was the one Ra was taking his anger out on, I was on Ra's side.

I blinked as I found a seat as far from the chaos as possible. "Good morning," I greeted like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

"Good morning Serafina," Set greeted. He was also ignoring whatever was going on over there. Ra was still yelling while Thoth was being smug.

"What did I miss?" I asked him quietly.

"They're arguing about the Founder's Trials. Thoth accused Ra of being a coward," Set responded just as quietly.

"Wonderful, the meeting hasn't officially started yet and there's already an argument," I mumbled.

"Ra's always been short tempered," Set commented.

"He's a Salamander. Thought that was part of the deal," I joked.

"Are you two done?" Horus asked of Ra and Thoth. He sounded like he was considering if the punishment for tossing a spell at them would be worth it.

Thoth rolled his eyes and moved his feet off the table. Ra huffed and crossed his arms before taking his usual seat near Osiris.

I was kind of glad we had Horus in the room. If I tried anything like that it would just make everything worse. Set didn't really have the presence for it either.

Horus and I would probably never be 'friends' by any definition, but I appreciated having him around. Anyone willing to help get stuff done was okay as far as I was concerned.

Another moment passed before the door opened and Bastet stepped into the room in a rush. Probably just trying to not be late. I was pretty sure he was fine. Honestly, a few minutes either way didn't make that much difference here.

I was just as confident that there was at least one person in this room who would argue with me about it if I said that thought out loud.

Bastet looked around the room, probably noticing the tension in both the Salamander and Pegasus Representatives. "Um…it's a little early for disagreements, isn't it?" he asked.

"It's always too early," I commented. I probably shouldn't have said that, but really whatever their opinions of me were probably already solidified and unchanging at this point.

"Stewart," Horus addressed me. By name. Not unheard of anymore, but still rare enough to catch my attention. Besides, my Tower didn't need more problems. We had enough going on with Horus trying to get rid of me or something.

"What's up?" I asked.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Do you think Dragon Tower has a place competing in the Founder's Trials?" Horus asked point blank.

I blinked for a moment at the question. Was this what the argument was about? I hoped not. "We're students here, it's a competition for students of all years. Therefore Dragon Tower has a right to compete."

Maat straightened up, "That might be true, but won't they be worried about the pressure? No parts of it are easy, and it might not be fair to your Tower being only first years."

I rolled my eyes, "We're Dragons, no step of any of this has been easy." That was extra true for me specifically. "Besides, I already know they want to compete."

"Sure, but will they be competing under Dragon Tower?" Anubis asked. The bits of spite I could pick up in her tone made me want to throw something at her. But I needed to not cause another fight. It was, frankly, too early to deal with whatever her problem with me was.

"Why not?" I demanded instead. "They're Dragons. They're not going to be okay with being in other colors out there." If they weren't going to be able to do that, we were going to have problems. I didn't want a fight, but I did have a job to do here.

"All that will accomplish is everyone knowing who last place will be before it even starts," Anubis said, because she really wanted to see if I was capable of violence.

The answer was leaning towards 'yes'.

"I don't see how that's any of your problem. Unless you think your Tower might lose to us?" Which in reality was unlikely, but biting my tongue hadn't helped get me on her good side so what did I have to lose?

"That's what I was telling Ra, but Salamanders," Thoth said with a shrug. Like he thought I liked him more or something. Somehow, he was even smugger.

"Salamanders aren't scared of five little upstarts," Ra insisted.

"Then there's no issues. Dragon Tower should be able to compete the same as everyone else, in their Tower color. Issue solved." I wasn't budging on this. I couldn't. Not when I knew with certainty what the others wanted. This was the point of being and have a Representative, wasn't it? To speak on behalf of the people who gave you the job so they got the things they wanted?

"We'll see," Anubis said with a sneer. "Why don't we all put this to a vote?"

"Sure," I agreed. "But I assume if Dragon Tower can't compete they'll all be put in their previous Towers. Which means you'll be the one who has to deal with Celica Fel'Graces." And she would be furious about. Even more if I told her it was Anubis' fault.

I wondered what that said about Celica's reputation amongst Krakens that Anubis blanched a little at the warning. Celica would probably be thrilled to know about it.

Though, the others would be more thrilled if I could convince these guys to let us do this.

I didn't really know any of them well enough to comfortably guess who would vote for what. So I took a deep breath and hoped it would be enough.

Horus looked around the room, maybe he was having the same kind of thoughts. "Fine. Hands for letting Dragon Tower compete on its own as Dragon Tower?"

I braced myself for this, and could only hope I'd made the right points to get them to vote on my side.

Anubis didn't raise her hand, either out of her dislike for me or a lack of concern for what Celica would do to the Krakens.

Ra raised his hand. I had no idea if it was him wanting to prove he didn't view us as threats or him not wanting to deal with Russel.

Horus raised his hand. Huh. Okay.

Osiris raised her hand. Odds were looking pretty good. I just needed one more raised hand.

Set didn't raise his hand. I had no idea why and it made me feel a little betrayed.

Bastet didn't raise his hand either. Ah well.

Maat raised her hand. Which took me a moment longer to process than it maybe should have.

I'd done it. Somehow. I'd convinced them to let us compete. Dragon Tower would be out there with everyone else as equals. That was going to be terrifying but worth it.

The excitement in my chest pulsed in a burst of volcanic heat.

We could do this. I had complete faith in the others. They'd do their best in Dragon Red.

It was probably the best bit of news for us since the start of the semester. It was far better than the alternative.

Was thanking the room too much? Was saying nothing not enough? What was I supposed to do now?

"Good. I'm glad we've got that over with," Horus interrupted my thoughts before they could start spiraling.

This was going to be the biggest event of the year and we were going to do our Tower proud.

Whatever that meant for me.

(*********)

Fethris was back in Dragon Tower when I finally got back. He was seated in a chair by the fireplace with a book his lap.

"Hey," I greeted.

"Welcome back," he responded, closing his book and sitting up in his chair. "How was the meeting? They don't usually run that long."

"Boring, but I do have some good news," I told him as I stepped down and settled on the other chair.

"Oh?"

"We're competing in the Founder's Trials. As Dragon Tower."

"That was up for debate?"

"A little. But I sorted it out."

"We'll do our Tower proud, I'm sure."

"I have faith in you guys."

He smiled at that.

"Can I ask something of you?" I prompted after a moment quiet between us.

"What's up?" he asked.

"There's something I want to check out but I don't want to do it alone. Don't trust the curse to not cause problems."

Fethris paused for a moment then he glanced out the big stained-glass window. The statue wasn't there but I knew enough to know he was almost certainly listening to M. Filling him in on the deal with the wall and the knocking pattern? Whatever was there that he wanted to show me? Show us?

"Okay," Fethris agreed. I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or to M, but the sentiment remained the same. He snapped his fingers and his book vanished in a puff of green.

I took a deep breath and stood up, ready to face whatever was waiting for us downstairs.

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