Conclave...Part 2

The explosion of voices, hugs, smiles and questions erupted as we arrived in the room. With so many people talking all at once, so many questions and expressions of concern (mostly at Ravyn and severely frazzled appearance), and with everyone rushing to get their words in, it was a little surprising that Jim followed us down shortly, indicating for everyone to quiet their voices a bit, since the baby was now soundly asleep.

Luckily for me, Ravyn was more than willing to do most of the talking, answering question after question about what had happened in New Orleans and how we found the baby. Her answers we much more patient and much clearer than mine would have been, and certainly contained less objectionable language than I would have used.

Even knowing all of the people in the room as well I had come to know them over the last 6 months or so (except for my children and ex-wife, of course), it made me feel uncomfortable to be the center of so much attention.

After Jim had quieted things down a bit, Ravyn was able to get an even better handle on the many questions that everyone was throwing at her. She soon had everyone’s rapt attention, even mine, as she told the story from her perspective. I was appreciative that she most of the torturing incident out, as she described it:

“Rusty here showed up at my doorstep with that bumbling fool of a doctor that we had last left near Vancouver. Something had affected the poor man’s memory, but it wasn’t him I was concerned with as I saw how Rusty looked when he dropped him off with hardly a word of explanation. Of course, you all know, I just can’t allow this dunce of a zombie of ours to go off on some half-cocked adventure without someone to look after him. So, I got myself put together and followed him...”

After a good twenty minutes of telling the story, interrupted only by taking small sips from a tall glass of iced tea made by the Frau, Ravyn had told the tale of our adventure and had answered most of the questions that the listeners had.

When Ravyn finished, Jim summed things up nicely, “OK, so now we have to come up with a plan to raise this child in as safe an environment as we can manage. We also need to figure out what exactly Drake was trying to do with this genetic experiment of his and whether he has any more these little ‘projects’ in operation and if we need to intervene in those as well. Finally, we need to find out where Drake is and whether we need to move to neutralize him once and for all.”

Katherine was looking almost as uncomfortable as I felt, but she spoke up as soon as Jim was through. “Well,...uh...I suppose I could raise the baby...uh I mean, Alexa. She could become part of the family.”

Cerrydwen emerged from the dark corner in which she had slipped into after the initial excitement and put an end to that possibility. “No. Drake knows where you are, and it will be too hard and too dangerous for you to try to disappear. He has too many sources inside the government and too many allies that we don’t know about. Alexa is going to have to disappear for awhile. Whoever takes her for now will have to be a strong enough Caster to either escape with her from Drake or his allies if they are found or to fend them off until we can send help.”

I had to interject. “Wait a minute, Alexa is my daughter. I think I should be the one making the decisions about who cares for her.”

Ravyn stepped in at this. “Yes dear, she is your daughter, and I’m sure you want her to survive her childhood. Kathy, I’m sorry, but I agree with Cerry. You’re not strong enough as a Caster yet to fend off anyone that Drake will be sending for the child on your own, and we can’t raise her at my place, I’m way to visible and well known to Drake to risk it.”

Jim cleared his throat, and took this chance to add his own thoughts. “I agree with both Cerry and Ravyn. Indeed, I think it is best if we don’t finalize anything at this point. Katherine, Jasmine, Kenny? I don’t thnk you three should be here when the final decision is made on where Alexa will be and who she will be staying with, in the event that Drake or one of his people finds you and tries to coerce the information from you in one way or another. Therefore, I would propose that adjourn on this matter for the moment, finish catching up with events to date, and then set a time and date for a true Conclave of ORC’s we are certain we can trust with this matter. I would really like to bring T’Tubah up from Atlanta and some others in as well. In the meantime, we can let poor Ravyn here get cleaned up and I can do some additional research. Until the Conclave, I would like to ask Cerrydwen and the Frau to stay with me to help care for Alexa. Rusty, I would like you to look into how Drake still has access to that tracking software you used on Naomi’s cell phone. Any questions?”

None were raised.

The meeting quickly devolved into a more informal session of old time friends and family catching up.

I was able to get some time with Jasmine and Kenny to see how they were doing, and even spent a few tension filled moments with Katherine, who seemed to be fairly happy studying under Ravyn with Jasmine.

Eventually, Alexa’s cries broke up the session with the Frau toddling up the stairs behind Jim to go tend to her needs. We did set the date for the Conclave for a week from that night, with the location to be given out closer to that time by Jim.