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Trinity
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This new way of life for us had been in effect for a little while now. It was now the middle of April and time for the first ever quarterly meeting with the High Nobles and the Grand Nobles. There were going to be a lot of people here, but definitely nowhere near as many as there could have been.
The nobles were arriving slowly over a few days. Star and Artem were the first to arrive, and we spent some time hanging out with them. When they came for their Nobility assignment, we had actually had dinner with them, got to meet their two babies and see all thirteen of their adopted boys who had gotten so much bigger and stronger since the talismans they had been wearing were removed..
The last time that they had been here, Reagan and Rika had enjoyed playing with their little boy, and I was glad that they got the chance to play with him again. And their youngest son was now four months old and curious about everything. Sometimes I still couldn't believe it. They had fifteen sons between the two they had together and the thirteen they adopted. I even remembered when Reece had Noah call and gently threaten the judge in their adoption case to force him to approve the adoptions. That hadn't actually been nice to the judge, but it was nice for Star and Artem.
I quite enjoyed the quick reunion we had with our friends and family from back in California. They were family because Star was actually my cousin thanks to my heritage linking me to Athair mòr. His brother Sorrel was the starting point for Star's Fae bloodline. So yeah, we were family.
After the visit with them was over, it was time to get to work. Once all the nobles had arrived, I had them assemble in the throne room the next day. Reece and I took our places before them while they all sat in the chairs on either side of the main aisle.
"Welcome, all of you. Thank you for returning to Castle Gray." Gabriel greeted them for us. "You are all here for the first of the quarterly meetings that you are required to attend. Since this is a new process for us all, I am certain that it will take you all some time to get into the flow of things. However, over time we do believe that things will go a little more smoothly for us all."
Silence greeted him when he finished his welcome. Everyone had bowed to me already, and so they were sitting patiently waiting for the meeting to begin.
"Again, thank you for making this trip here. This will soon become a regular and normal thing for you so it will not be as chaotic as it was this time. Now, I want to open the floor to all of you. If there were any major conflicts among the territories that you oversee, I want to know about them now."
There were a few people that raised their hands to tell me of the disputes that happened among the different packs, clans, and covens. It seemed that the most notable disputes were between two of the merfolk clans and several of the wolf pack and feline packs. That was not what I was expecting. It seems that this time around there were no issues with the magic users. Or at least none that they told me about.
I could get used to just minor issues like this. I didn't want to see my people fighting amongst themselves too often. I knew that total peace wasn't possible, just like Athair mòr had said before. However, a degree of calmness among the people was something that would be nice.
I worked my way through the disputes that existed among the groups. We tried to find solutions that were suitable for the parties, and the High Nobles were supposed to go back and delegate the issue for the others. They would tell them of my input, and if that was something they could agree on, they could move on peacefully. If they refused, they would be summoned to the castle for me to handle the issue personally.
This meeting was taking a little longer than I expected with how detailed everyone was being. However, I was glad that they were thoroughly detailed. It would be for the best in the long run. The more details I had the more efficiently I could make my decisions.
After the main meeting was over, we retired to our quarters for the night. The different groups would meet in their own meeting halls tomorrow to discuss any issues that they wanted to bring up to me. If there was nothing, they could go back to their rooms until the next group meeting. The Grand Nobles had watched over the group meeting and would watch again at the next one as well. We were going to meet while the others had their small meeting to see if there were any problems they wanted to address. There would be another meeting between them and myself if they thought it was necessary after the second group meeting. If not, then everyone would be dismissed and free to go home.
Thankfully, everything had actually been relatively good over the last few months. I do believe that they were all just trying to get used to the new way of life, and most groups were still scared shitless with having been summoned for the meetings back in January. Still, that peace made it so that the quarterly meetings ended after the third day, and we were able to adjourn until the next meeting.
Still, despite all of this going so smoothly, I couldn't stop myself from worrying about the warning from Danu and the impending threat to Aunt Glory and Athair mòr. It would be so much easier if we knew when the impending battle was coming. But no, we were left relatively clueless about the entire situation.
