Supreme Magus novel Chapter 2623

The guards stepped aside, letting the group through.

They had been forewarned of the arrival of foreigners but had feigned ignorance in order to display their prowess. It was a subtle message from the upper floors that rules of hospitality or not, the guests had to be careful not to overstep their welcome.

Le'Ahy led them to the center of the tree trunk where there was the only passage to the next floor through what looked like an elevator shaft. On every floor they were stopped and questioned by more guards while arrays sealed the access to the lower levels, trapping them behind more and more security layers.

By the time they reached the Parliament's Hall, the subtle message had become so glaring that only someone blind, dumb, and deaf might have missed it.

'This isn't just a matter of pride or security anymore.' Aalejah said via the mind link. 'They are trying to intimidate us.'

The Hall reminded Lith of the classroom where he gave the Void Magic lesson. The room had a pitched floor and each level was filled with desks arranged in a semi-circular shape.

The main difference was that each one of those desks was a masterpiece of carpentry worthy of one of the Headmasters of the six great academies or a Regional Lord. Also, each member of the Parliament had plenty of personal space.

The place where the scouts had brought Lith's group was below the level of the lowest row of desks so that even the less important deputy could look down on them.

To make matters worse, the door they had come from had just disappeared and the space in front of the desks was guarded by soldiers in full plate of Adamant armor, leaving the "guests" surrounded and with no way out.

'Based on Le'Ahy's words I bet the Parliament has a vertical structure as well.' Lith thought after noticing that the higher a desk, the more enchantments it had and the more artifacts its occupant wore.

The elves on the bottom level were dressed barely better than a Kingdom's commoner whereas those on the top looked like members of the Royal family.

'Fuck me sideways!' Lith thought while shutting down the mind link the moment his eyes met the High Chancellor's.

He sat alone, in the middle of the highest level. Not only were his clothes made of the finest materials, with white crystals as buttons and embroidered in purified Adamant, but he also wore what looked like a wooden crown studded with six elemental crystals of different colors.

The Eyes of Menadion confirmed Lith's suspicions about the crown being made of Yggdrasill wood and revealed to him the vigorous violet mana flow that M'Rael was masterfully suppressing.

'The good news is that the crown has no life force, so the connection with the World Tree is cut off. Otherwise he would recognize me at first glance and our cover would be blown.

'The bad news is that not only is he Awakened but now we can't even communicate via a mind link without him noticing.' Lith thought.

"Greetings, dear guests." M'Rael stood up, addressing the newcomers while the rest of the Parliament stared at them with a mix of hope and suspicion. "I'm High Chancellor M'Rael Firestone. Please, don't mind my title. I'm merely first among equals."

The fact that he strutted like a king and that felt the need to say such things told a different story and so did his wooden crown.