Jason watched Gina and Camille for a few more seconds before he finally spoke in a serious voice.
"How are things with the council?"
Once Jason asked this question, Farlow’s face turned serious, and Jason could feel the peaceful aura around Farlow slowly vanishing! Both men were still watching their partners talking with calm looks on their faces, but they spoke with an intensity that showed just how serious the situation was.
Farlow spoke up:
"Honestly, things aren’t looking good. I haven’t been to any council meeting since the Machina massacre because I didn’t want them to use Gina and me as leverage to try and find you, but from what I’ve heard from a friend of mine, it appears the council is split down the middle. Some of them are interested in looking over this entire situation since we also made the mistake of trusting the Rubik impersonator, but there are others who won’t let go of your crimes. They want to see you in prison, or at the very least, they want you to be fined for what you did. Hesbeath is also facing some backlash for losing control of her Bias, but the council already knows we can’t do too much to her, so they’re more likely to lean towards using you as the scapegoat for both incidents."
Jason clicked his tongue in irritation once he heard this. Jason already knew that there would be a lot of backlash from the council about what happened, and he also expected the fines, but in truth, Jason wasn’t interested in facing any punishment for this. How was it his fault that the council couldn’t snuff out an impersonator from right under their noses for so long!? If the council had just done its job, then none of this would have happened! Jason knew he could pay whatever fine the council asked from him since he was richer than most small worlds out there, but why should he bend over and pay a fine for something that wasn’t entirely his fault!?
"Who’s spearheading the campaign against me? Is it Val’kat?"
Jason asked this question with a small frown on his face, and Jason’s mind travelled back to the trial he had at the Stone Catacombs a few months ago and the people who had voted against him. One of the people who was the most vocal about his dislike for Jason was Val’kat, the leader of the goblins, along with Rak’hael, the queen of the Angels. Jason wouldn’t be surprised if one of those two were responsible for heading the campaign against him. Farlow thought about whether or not he should say anything for a few seconds. Council meetings were meant to be top secret, and sharing information with people outside the council was frowned upon, but Farlow looked over at the bright image of his wife laughing happily as she spoke to Gina on the bed, and he decided to screw the law and everything else. Farlow owed far too much to the people around him, and if this was how he was going to start paying back those debts, then so be it! Farlow would deal with whatever consequences he faced later!
"Do you know Rak’hael? The Angel Queen of Eden?"
Jason’s eyes narrowed once he heard that name, and his mind immediately took him back to the last council meeting that he had at the Hall of Fallen Heroes. In that meeting, Rak’hael had been one of the people who voted against Jason during his trial and supported Rubik. Jason had never had any interaction with the Angel Queen before that time, but that one action already painted a bad image of her in his mind. But then Jason’s mind suddenly travelled towards the last letter that he had gotten from his father in the [Book of The Apocalypse] and Jason hummed. Jason’s father had told him to get close to Rak’hael and figure out the secret of how the Period of Lawlessness had come to an end, and Jason’s father had even said that Rak’hael would be someone difficult to deal with. But if Rak’hael was already advocating for Jason’s punishment, then Jason knew it would be a little more than ’difficult’ to get her cooperation on anything. It was obvious that Rak’hael had some sort of grudge against him.
"Rak’hael isn’t a bad person, if that’s what you’re thinking. She might be difficult, but she isn’t the sort of person to advocate for anything without good cause. In her eyes, she sees your actions on Machina as well as the destruction of so many worlds as something too serious to overlook. And personally, if I didn’t know you as well as I did, then I would’ve also been on her side. I wouldn’t have advocated for you to suffer any prison time, but I would’ve definitely demanded that you pay reparations for the destruction done to the Machina. But the problem with Rak’hael is that she is far stricter than I am. Rak’hael is one of the newer members of the council, and she only took control over her world after her father disappeared in a fight against a Primordial. She is very young in Primordial Years, so most of the council sees Rak’hael as immature, but as the second seat of the council, we cannot overlook her authority. If she continues to push for you to be punished, then there is a real possibility that it might happen."
Jason hummed as he listened to everything Farlow had to say. In truth, Jason already didn’t like Rak’hael. Even though the rest of the council thought that Rak’hael was pushing for his punishment just because she thought it was the right thing to do, Jason knew that there was more to it than that. The letter Richard left for Jason told him one very important detail about Rak’hael, and that one detail had completely changed the way Jason would look at any interaction between him and Rak’hael in the future! When Jason asked his next question, Farlow turned to glance at him in slight surprise.
"What was the relationship between Rak’hael and my father?"
Farlow couldn’t believe Jason would ask something like this, and he couldn’t help but wonder how the hell Jason knew there was ever a relationship between Rak’hael and Richard at all! This was something that had happened centuries ago, a long time before Richard ever went to Earth and had Jason, so the only way Jason could know about this was if he had been told by someone else!
’Did Richard mention his past relationships to Jason? No, he wouldn’t do that. I’ve been trying to get Richard to tell me why he didn’t show up that day for a long time, but he never said anything. But this is Richard we’re talking about, you never really know what’s going on in that head of his.’
There was a real possibility that Richard had mentioned Rak’hael to Jason sometime in the past, and Farlow decided that he would try to figure out how Jason gets his information. Jason turned to give Farlow a look, and Farlow finally let out a calm sigh as he answered Jason’s question.
"Their relationship isn’t something you need to concern yourself with. It was short, and in truth, there was nothing romantic about it. Rak’hael had been the first princess of Eden when she met Richard, and during that time, Eden and Avaran had been looking to form an alliance. Rak’hael and Richard were already good friends before this alliance was ever brought up, and when the elders of both worlds saw this, the elders suggested that Richard take Rak’hael as one of his wives to solidify the alliance. It was meant to be the perfect union. A quick wedding that would strengthen both worlds exponentially. But for some reason, on the day of the wedding, Richard never showed up."