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Claire chewed a bite of bacon as she thought. She hadn’t spent much time with Malcolm and Everett’s families and even though she stayed at Brandlevine, she hadn’t really spent a lot of time with Frederick or Ilena either but all of them seemed nice enough. None of them had pushed much for anything from her Triad, at least not in front of Claire. That didn’t mean it didn’t happen though. The Council’s expectations of her Triad were more interesting to her
“What do you mean they ran interference with the Council? What did the Council want?”
“A lot of Triads were decimated in the Great War,” Malcolm explained. “It’s a tricky bond. On one hand, it makes us all much stronger but on the other hand, if one of us falls or if the Fourth is killed, the whole Triad dies. It’s a tactic that both sides took advantage of.”
“The Fae and Elves have Triads?”
“They don’t have them exclusively but there were many Fae and Elves that were a part of Triads,” Desmond said. “They were put in difficult positions during the Great War.”
“I can’t imagine,” Claire murmured. Having to choose between your people and your family was a decision Claire could barely fathom.
“A united Triad, though, with their Fourth was a powerful force on the battlefield,” Malcolm said. “After the Great War, the Council became almost obsessive with creating more Triads among the shifters, witches, and dragons. When this cheeky asshole,” he stopped and shot Desmond a glare with no heat behind it, “announced at a Capital gathering that we were a Triad, we caught the Council’s eye. They wanted us to come to the Capital and be tutored by the Council but our parents said no.”
“Why? I mean I know we suspect them of being negligent when it came to the treatment of the other races but this was way before we had those doubts,” Claire pointed out.
“I don’t know for sure,” Desmond said, thoughtfully. “We can definitely ask. I know the Council has changed up a bit in the last decade or so. Right after the Great War, they decided to add one more member of every race so two each sat on the Council. I know the original Council members kept their seats and it added some friction.”
“Friction how?”
“Well even if the narrative the Council spun about the Great War occuring due to Elven and Fae greed in trade was true, there were a lot of people that blamed the Council for letting it get that far. The original Council seats stayed hereditary but the new half of the Council seats became elected seats, meaning the people had a say.”
“Are Councilmember Roland and Vanya hereditary or elected seats?” Claire asked, thinking of the two Councilmen who had visited them at Brandlevine.
“Both are hereditary,” Malcolm said.
“Was your father elected?” she asked him.
“He was. He resigned after two terms although he still holds a lot of sway as Clan Leader. Arran of the Ventian clan holds the elected seat now and Maxios of the Traustan clan holds the hereditary seat.”
Everett grimaced at the last name and Claire arched an eyebrow in a silent question. “Maxios is very pureblood focused. He was very vocal when Everina and Brantley took me in.”
“He’s an all around asshole and an old one at that,” Malcolm snorted. “But he’s the hereditary seat holder and a lot of dragons still listen to him. We’re not huge on change here. Loyalty and tradition are two things my people hold in high value.”
Claire’s mind turned that over, thinking back on all of the information they had discovered. “But the dragons and Fae had an alliance, didn’t they?” she asked. “Surely, if the dragons valued loyalty, they would have honored the Fae alliance first.”
Desmond thought for a few moments, brow furrowed. “That’s an excellent point, little love.”
“Something must have happened,” Malcolm said.
“But what?” Everett asked. “And why did we not hear about it? Or at very least, question why we didn’t uphold it?”
“Well, you were children at the time, first of all,” Claire pointed out. “And second, no one pointed it out because it wasn’t part of the narrative. Up until we started asking questions, no one questioned the Council’s narrative. I don’t think that was unintentional.”
“What do you mean?” Desmond asked.
“I think that people probably did have questions. But did the Council answer them or make examples out of them?” Claire asked. “Or is that why they introduced the elected seats? To shut anyone up who was asking questions?”
Everett nodded. “It would be a brilliant strategy. They knew people were angry so they introduced the elected seats and the people who were first elected to those seats probably promised answers.”
“Answers that the existing Council members would have given them,” Desmond said slowly. “But there was no way to know if those were the right answers.”
“And because the Fae and Elves had retreated,” Claire said, “there was no one to confirm or deny that story. And if the Triads really did fall in the Great War, there would have been no surviving Fae or Elven members to ask anyways.”
“You think the Council killed those Triads specifically that had any Fae or Elven members?” Everett picked up on the thoughts Claire didn’t want to voice out loud.
She sighed. “Maybe? I don’t know. It sounds terrible when you say it out loud like that but…”
“War is terrible,” Malcolm said bluntly. “I think we should assume the worst. We can ask my father to fill in some of the blanks.”
