Chapter 17 The Poison of Politics #2
Xander had a good relationship with the Lupus Court leaders, particularly their current and newly appointed first leader, Niamh Yue, who was a descendent from Allen.
She had only stepped up to take her place a week ago, and she had been a formidable friend in supporting the ever turbulent relationship between Lamiae and Lupi.
She’d also encouraged the Lupi to join the Daemonium division within the military, accepting her place as a lieutenant along with Ade and Dylan, the other two leaders of the Lupus Court.
Xander had achieved the unachievable, he had created a world that he had only ever dreamed of, that had not existed here before.
Lupi and Lamiae worked collaboratively, Daemons and mortals lived amongst one another in society, and the world was at peace.
But now, only two years into the new world order, chaos was rising again.
America had become a wasteland. The news had trickled in over the last few months of a mass exodus, a sudden silence where a nation once boomed.
The majority of America’s mortals and Daemons had fled to other countries in the last two years, deeming it unsafe ever since their leaders opposed the World Court.
But those that remained were lost, unable to tell their stories.
What exactly transpired remained shrouded in shadowed mystery, but their continuation of the devastating conflict between mortals and Daemons had likely been followed by an Umbranima surge.
The world watched with a terrified silence. Intervention was out of the question, and not a single leader of the World Court suggested it, knowing if they got involved then the chaos could follow them home. No one dared risk unleashing the mayhem there on a global scale.
Even right until the very last broadcast, the American media focused on the war between mortals and Daemons, on their insistent need to eradicate Daemonium from the earth.
Right up until the very end, they continued to ignore the real threat, until one day they fell silent.
The chilling truth was undeniable, America had fallen.
Lucas Rook, the disgraceful man that he was, used America as an example and reason to object to the government’s new laws.
His growing groups of Liberators utilised America’s downfall to spark fear in the public, and their poisonous views continued to spoonfeed lies to entice others to join their cult.
And now, that poison had spread to infect several Members of Parliament.
Despite not being allowed to re-enter Parliament, Rook was still destroying the government from the inside.
Xander had dealt with many fanatics in his time, and Rook was no different to the ones he’d encountered before. Whilst Rook was never spotted in public, only spoken about by his followers, Xander vowed to eliminate him the second he resurfaced from whatever hole of desperation he’d crawled into.
Forcing a nonchalant stretch in his cramped seat, Xander emphasised his feigned boredom at the verbal onslaught hurled at him by the opposing politicians.
Their jeers were a mere annoyance compared to his anxiety.
He did his best to hide the tremor in his right leg, the slight shaking the only tell tale sign of his nerves, whilst his face remained passive.
It was his first time in Parliament, and frankly, he’d rather there not be a second.
“Filthy blood sucker!”
“Murdering piece of shit!”
“Abomination!”
He felt Deion chuckle next to him. “Abomination? Ouch, that’s got to hurt, Xander.”
Xander smirked in response, grateful his brother had joined him.
Deion had always been there for him. From the very beginning, he had put his faith into Xander, and he knew he would be nowhere without it.
After what happened, after what he did to Adriana, Xander knew he would never forgive himself, and he thought he would never be able to get back up and fight again.
Years of isolation stretched, and Xander remained alone.
The only sign of life was the occasional creak of his door as he retrieved the bottles of blood Deion and Nicolai would deposit on his doorstep every so often.
But Xander knew they needed him. They needed their leader, their brother, but he was drowning in his own grief.
No one could get through to him. Xander needed to hit that rock bottom alone, and he needed to emerge on his own accord.
Finally, fueled by his never-ending grief and clinging to his loyalty to Adriana’s memory, Xander emerged from his self-imposed exile, and Deion fought alongside him once again.
They fought to re-establish the Courts, offering a beacon of hope for both Daemons and mortals desperately yearning for peace.
Yet peace remained a stranger to Xander himself.
The pain of his loss never dulled, a constant reminder of the life he destroyed and, in turn, the life stolen from him.
Her face would forever haunt his dreams, a face he longed to see again and yet couldn’t bear to ever complete another drawing of.
Seizing a rare pause in the playground insults, one of the older politicians of the opposition stood and addressed Katie directly, bringing Xander’s attention back to the present.
“You cannot expect us to sit back while they wreak havoc on our lives. These creatures, they are not human, and you invite one of them into our debate? It is outrageous!”
The old man was met with a few cheers of support. Not many, but more than Xander was comfortable with. He noticed the majority of Rook’s supporters tended to be older and almost always men.
Katie stood from her seat at the front, shoulders tense. She smoothed her greying blonde hair behind her ears and pushed her glasses further up her nose. Xander knew her well enough to know she was gearing up for a fight.
“These creatures, as you so call them, have provided our country and the world with solutions to our most devastating problems. They have gifted us with water during our droughts, the power to heal our most vulnerable children—they have given us a new way of life! And you stand there and question why I would let this man, their leader, have his say against your preposterous accusations?”
Xander felt the floor shake as their side of the room stomped their feet in support, cheering Katie on.
“And what of America?” another politician added from across the room.
“What happens when we follow in their footsteps? Will you let our country become a wasteland, void of all life, just like they have? Will you sacrifice the lives of your people to meet the sick, twisted desires of these foul beasts?”
“You know very well that the unfortunate events in America were not because of Daemons alone, it was the conflict between everyone there. A conflict that we are now suffering…”
Katie tried to continue but was continuously interrupted by the cries of outrage from the opposing side.
“These monsters are not holy!”
“They will kill us all!”
“His very existence goes against faith itself.”
Xander snapped his attention to the last comment.
A middle-aged man, in a cream coloured suit that almost matched his skin tone and was far too small to stretch over his large stomach, stood pointing directly at him.
Xander recognised him, he’d been known to run with Rook’s circle of friends, and most likely a spy for the Liberators.
Katie and Xander had discussed the ongoing situation with the Liberators; they were deeply concerned over their growing numbers from the rallies Rook had organised across the country over the past couple of years.
What had once been a small group of closed-minded, cowardly men who hated Daemons, had more recently become a country-wide terrorist threat.
And now that threat included current Members of Parliament.
The noise began to lower as one by one the politicians noticed the shadows that spread across the room. Xander rose from his seat and walked down to stand next to Katie, never taking his eyes off the man who stared back at him with disgust.
Katie gave him the stand and took her seat as Xander retracted his shadows back to him, the darkness slowly wafting back to its lord. He took a deep breath as the last of the shadows disappeared into his hands, the entire room silent as they waited for his speech.
“I am not here to disregard or dispute your faith,” he spoke softly.
He refused to shout or make threats like the rest of them to present his argument.
As he walked round the podium, he took in the rest of the room, particularly the faces of the opposing side.
The Liberators used all they could to back their cause, from the fall of America and now to religious excuses, they utilised everything they could to turn the public against Daemons and the government.
“I will tell you what I know about dying and being reborn, if you want,” Xander continued.
“I can tell you about the thin space between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead. I can even tell you tales of gods that you may or may not choose to believe in. What I will not do, however much you may wish to state as pitiful evidence of your futile argument, is challenge your beliefs.”
Xander noticed several politicians of the opposing sides sitting back in their seats, deciding not to try to argue back. He stopped to stand in front of the man in the cream suit, allowing himself to look down his nose at the pathetic excuse of a human.
“What I will challenge is your inability to see the humanity shared by mortals and Daemonium, and, in your case, your lack of it.”
He was met with low murmurs of support from Katie’s side, and a few eye rolls and tuts from the other. Xander smirked as the man shifted uncomfortably under his stare.
He had half a mind to continue scaring him, wondering if the coward would die of fright if he continued to glare at him any longer.
Xander had never prayed to any gods as a mortal and the Superi had never answered him as a Lamia, but he'd happily give Superus Mortis every single one of the Liberators’ wretched souls to drag to the Land of the Dead.
Before he could ponder the thought any longer, he straightened his tie, and slowly walked back to stand behind the podium.
“I stand before you today to continue to advocate for the equality of Daemons and mortals, not because I want to challenge your beliefs in faith or anything as pointless as that. It is because we are all human, all of us. We love our families and friends as you love yours, we search for a purpose in life as do you all. We have the same dreams, the same aspirations, the same fears. And right now, that fear, that anger, should be directed at the Umbranimae, not at each other.”
Xander’s eyes dropped to his hands that gripped either side of the podium, his dark Nocte brands stark against his skin. He took a brief moment to listen to the thoughts around him, and could sense the fear from the opposition that Rook had instilled deep within them.
“I know you are scared of me, you are scared of all of us. I can’t blame you for that.
But for years I have worked to strive for peace for us all.
I’ve dedicated the better parts of my life to protecting others no matter who or what they are.
And I have been met with the constant uphill battle of being divided by our differences, by our fears.
But now, we face a common enemy, and we must stand together, united against them.
What happened in America is a tragedy that I do not want to see befall any country.
But there is a way we can live peacefully in this world—I have seen it.
And to avoid such travesty, we need your support placed in the Courts, not placed in spineless terrorists like Lucas Rook. ”
Xander's knuckles shone white as his grip tightened on the podium, the wood cracking under his hands, threatening to splinter into pieces from his restrained anger.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a brief moment.
Steeling himself, he donned his mask of composure and resumed, his voice betraying no hint of the inferno he fought to control.
“The peace act of the World Court has allowed us to live in harmony and cooperation across countries. We have learned from one another, supported one another, and we have the ability to make our society stronger than ever. But this peace act must be upheld from within the government, from all of you. So I call on you to come together and fight for our peace, fight for our future. Because if we carry on the way we are, none of us will have one.”
He took one last look around the room before pushing himself away from the podium and walking back up the stairs to his seat. He smiled his well-rehearsed smile, polite and charming as always, thanking those who congratulated him.
Xander heaved a quiet sigh as Deion slapped a hand against his back. Katie turned and gave them a slight nod, before she continued her speech again. Thankfully, there were now far fewer interruptions from the opposition.
“Well done,” Deion whispered. “You know, it's irritating how good you are at this. You didn’t even use the speech I wrote, it’s like you’re a natural at politics.”
“Your speech writing needs a lot of work,” Xander winked at him. “I’d stick to healing people if I were you.”
Though the room had calmed down a considerable amount, Xander could sense the lingering thoughts running through their minds.
A single speech from him would only do so much in convincing them to stand by the World Court, it would not be enough to dig up and destroy such deep-rooted fears Rook had placed in them.
That burden fell on Katie’s shoulders; she would need to rally her government in taking down Rook’s every growing Liberator movement if the world was going to stand a chance against Caligo.
Xander fidgeted with the sleeves of his suit.
The fabric felt alien against his skin as he yearned for the worn leather of his Daemon lieutenant uniform.
That was where he belonged, on the battlefield fighting Caligo’s darkness with his own, fighting for the people he loved and the people he’d lost, not sitting in an itchy suit pretending to be a politician.
He had not been a loyal soldier as a mortal man, he hadn’t cared about any cause for war back then, but now he truly lived up to his title.
He was the first Daemon, the strongest Lamia, and the leader of the Courts of Daemonium. He would not give up.
“Besides,” Xander said, giving Deion a look of exhaustion. “We are going to need all the healing help we can get in this war to come.”