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Trinity
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This was uncomfortable. I had just managed to get everyone to stop bowing and to go back to their seats, but it was still very strange to me that they reacted like that to my announcement. And the fact that they did it all at once.
I had to wonder if they had all spoken through a mental connection and decided to do it as a group. That would make sense, but it would also be a little weird. Oh well, I don't know if I truly want to know about it right now. Some mysteries are best left unsolved.
Now that the meeting could get back on track, I wanted to talk to them all about what to do with the prisoners. We couldn't ignore the fact that we had a lot of dark Fae here in the castle right now. And honestly, I didn't know if I fully trusted Aunt Glory and Athair mòr to deal with them properly.
Well, I guess I would never know who was capable of doing something unless I tried. We needed to solve this together, but Aunt Glory and Athair mòr would need to deal with these types of situations on their own soon. This was a chance to see what it was that they had in mind for the solution.
"Athair mòr, what do you think we should do with the dark Fae that survived the battle?" It was a serious question, and I could tell that it immediately darkened the mood in the room by several degrees.
"Well, to be honest Trinity, I think that the best option would be to execute them all. That would be the safest thing for us to do. It would give everyone the peace of mind to know that the threat was gone permanently."
"OK, that is your opinion. Aunt Glory, what do you think we should do about this situation?" I wanted to see if they agreed or not on this.
"I disagree with my brother. I am not against an execution when it is necessary but there are simply too many of them to justify it. We are talking about nearly a thousand Fae, there is no justification for killing that many people."
"Glory, are you forgetting that there were over nine thousand dark Fae killed in the battle, and then there were the nearly two thousand Fae, shifters, magic users, and vampires. And nearly eight times that many were injured." Athair mòr turned to his sister to try and justify his position.
"That is my point, Val, there has been enough death, enough heartache. Let us all move forward and heal now."
I could see where they were both coming from with this. It wasn't hard to understand what they were both feeling right now, but I also had my choice to add here.
"Well, I am of the opinion that we lock them all back into the dark Realm. I understand where you are coming from, Athair mòr, I truly do. However, I do not wish for my first act as a Goddess to be mass murder." I could see that he was not happy, but he wasn't going to argue with me. "I am not saying that they do not need to be punished. They will all be made aware of the fate that awaits any of them that try to start another war. I also plan to strip them of their magic before sending them over there again."
There were several gasps at that declaration. I don't think that they expected me to say such a thing.
"Trinity, if you're going to take their magic, do we need to resort to them being banished?" Kayda asked me with a shocked tone in her voice.
"Just because they no longer have magic doesn't mean that they are no longer a threat. They could commit other crimes against people. They can, and most likely will, still harbor ill feelings toward the Fae that live in the light."
"Yes, I do see what you mean." Kayda nodded in understanding. I was glad that they were seeing my point so easily.
"Does anyone else have a suggestion or idea of how to deal with the dark Fae?" I asked for more opinions from the others.
"I think that you and Queen Gloriana have the right idea about it." Anastasia spoke softly. "They need to be punished, but murder should not be the punishment."
Everyone else started to give their agreement to it all as well. It was decided then that we would address the prisoners, strip them of their magic, and send them back to the dark Realm. Aunt Glory, Athair mòr, and I would be sealing the barrier together this time. Adding my magic to the mix will make it much stronger against sabotage.
It was decided that the prisoners would be dealt with tomorrow morning. None of us wanted to have them here longer than we had to, but there were still a lot of things that we needed to get done today. That meant that we needed to postpone that particular task.
Now that the council knew about my new status and the punishment was settled, there was nothing that they needed to discuss with us. I dismissed everyone that wasn't part of my inner circle and let them go about their day. A lot of them had to make funeral and travel arrangements back to their homes.
With just Aunt Glory, Trevor, Athair mòr, Daciana, Landon, Riley, Dietrich, and Shawn left among the group, and of course Reece and I as well, it was time to discuss another matter.
"Trinity, what was so important that you needed to talk to just us?" Conveniently, Trevor was the one to start this part of the conversation. That was good, since he was part of the reason that we were all still here.
"There is something that we need to reschedule. And I think I know what we need to do with all of this so that it kills two birds with one stone." I know that my answer was a little cryptic, that was obvious based on the looks that everyone was giving me.
"Reschedule what?" Athair mòr asked me.
"What are you even talking about?" Reece asked me, just as confused as everyone else.
"We need to reschedule Aunt Glory's wedding to Trevor, we need to hold a banquet for the end of the war, and we need to honor those that were lost. We can put at least two of those things together into one event."
"Oh!" Aunt Glory and Trevor both said at the same time.
We spent the next hour or so talking about when to hold the events. We weren't going to put as much emphasis on the wedding as last time, but I wanted to make sure that Aunt Glory had her moment. She deserved that after all this time. She needed to be made to feel special.
It was decided that all three events would be one. That sounds morbid, but there were several people that wanted to attend the wedding but would not be able to stay here for too much longer now that the war was over. So, we were going to have the wedding, banquet, and honoring ceremony in a week. Most of the people that were here were going to be going home before that time and then the citizens of the city would return just in time.
The plans were set, and we all called it a day. I went back to the residence with Reece to enjoy the rest of my day. I told everyone that was there about the new change in my title. Roisin, Noah, Carter, all of them that hadn't found out the day before. The next thing that I was going to need to do was to tell my family about it.
Hmm, I wonder what they will say. And not to mention the kids. What will they all think about this when they get older? What will our lives be like when the kids are older? I guess we will all just find out as time goes on. That is the only thing that we can do.
I was going to put the future out of my mind. I was going to try and focus on the wedding and then getting back home to my family.. I needed to not think about the future and what was going to happen years from now.
