Chapter 105: Elder Wode (2)

The reaction to Elder Wode’s statement was immediate.

Several commanders moved at once.

Dane’s eyes widened.

Vess actually straightened in his chair.

Someone whispered something under their breath, and another commander immediately turned toward him with a warning look.

But the most confused person in the room was probably Encrid himself.

He stared at Elder Wode as though the old man had just announced that the Wall was built on the back of a sleeping dragon.

The Black Star.

Of all things.

Wode continued calmly, apparently unaware that he had just dropped a stone into still water.

"Such insight would explain much. Observation beyond ordinary perception. An understanding of things before they become apparent."

He paused.

"Perhaps even glimpses of what has yet to happen."

Encrid’s confusion deepened.

What is this old man talking about?

He had no Black Star.

He had never opened one.

His Appraisal skill had simply told him what was wrong with those people.

That was it.

Nothing more.

He had seen an injury that had not yet become serious and sent the person to the healers. He had noticed signs of illness that the person themselves had overlooked. There was nothing mysterious about it.

At least, not from his perspective.

Across the table, Garrick Dane was staring at him.

Then Encrid felt it.

A faint pressure brushed against his body.

Dane had released a thin thread of aura.

Not enough to be considered an attack.

It was barely there.

A test.

Encrid remained still.

He did not even look at Dane.

The First Watch commander allowed his aura to spread over Encrid, examining him carefully.

He found nothing.

No hidden strength.

No overwhelming aura.

Nothing except the faint Azure Star energy Encrid had already cultivated, and even that was barely at the Initiate realm.

Dane’s brows drew together.

He pushed his perception further.

Still nothing.

Not even the slightest trace of another Star.

His gaze shifted toward Wode.

’Could the Elder have assumed wrong?’

The thought came naturally.

But Dane dismissed it almost immediately.

Sabin Wode had served the Wall for more than sixty years. He had sat in this Council longer than most of the men around this table had been alive.

He was not a warrior. He was not even particularly impressive in combat.

But when it came to cultivation, medicine, healing, and the human body, there was no one at the Wall who could match him.

For decades, soldiers had been brought to him when everyone else had already given up.

Broken bodies. Poisoned bodies. Burned bodies. Bodies that had lost too much blood and should never have survived the journey back.

Wode had put them back together.

Sometimes he had done it through medicine.

Sometimes through Star Energy.

And sometimes through knowledge that had taken him a lifetime to acquire.

If such a man said he saw something unusual in Encrid, then Dane could not simply dismiss it

His eyes returned to the young clerk.

’Could the boy actually be hiding it?’

Dane’s eyes narrowed further.

If he was, then his control was extraordinary.

The thought alone was unsettling.

Encrid noticed Dane’s expression.

Then he noticed the others.

Ysolde was looking at him as if she had finally found an answer to a question she had been asking since their duel.

Steward Vess had stars in his eyes.

Not literally.

But he looked dangerously close to becoming excited.

Kass had gone very still.

Some of the others looked suspicious.

Some looked wary.

Some looked impressed.

Whatever the emotion, the expression on every face had changed.

They were watching him differently now.

Encrid felt the shift happen in real time.

Five minutes ago, he had been a young clerk trying to force his way into a Council that had no reason to trust him.

Now several of the people in the room were looking at him as though he might be something much rarer.

Something they had never expected to find sitting at the end of their table.

A Black Star user.

Encrid almost wanted to interrupt.

But he did not.

Because another thought came to him.

If they believed he had a Black Star.

He could work with that.

His knowledge of the future had always been his greatest secret.

A Black Star could provide a convenient explanation for some of it.

Not a perfect one.

But perhaps a useful one.

So Encrid said nothing.

Wode looked around the table.

"I cannot tell you whether the boy truly possesses a Black Star."

Encrid almost relaxed.

Then the old man continued.

"But I can tell you that his insight has already been useful."

He tapped his walking stick against the floor.

"We are living through peculiar times."

His gaze settled on the commanders.

"Perhaps it would be wise to have someone in this Council who notices things before the rest of us do."

Wode looked at Encrid one last time.

"I will cast my votes in the boy’s favour."

The room went silent.

Danel looked down at the sheet.

For a moment, he simply stared at the tally.

Then he drew a line beneath the previous total.

Two votes.

The votes that had belonged to the absent Chief Healer were no longer against the motion.

He corrected the marks.

"Eleven in favour."

He looked toward the remaining members.

"Eight against."

Nobody spoke.

Danel took a breath.

"By the rule of majority vote, the motion carries."

His eyes lifted.

"A sixteenth seat will henceforth be established on the Council of the Wall."

Encrid stood perfectly still.

Eleven votes.

He had won.

Not because of his arguments.

Not because of the votes he had spent fourteen days securing.

He had won because an eighty-one-year-old healer had woken up, walked into the room with a stick, and decided that Encrid was apparently a man with a Black Star.

Encrid looked at Elder Wode.

The old man smiled at him.

Encrid was beginning to suspect that he had just acquired a much bigger problem than a Council seat.

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