The next few days you hardly saw Golden Guard, it seemed as if he was generally hardly out and about in the castle. Somehow Darius was surprised, because otherwise he saw the boy at least every second day. But now he hadn't seen him in a while.

Eberwolf pulled on his cloak to get the Abomination Coven leader's attention. In fact, he reacted immediately and pulled his cloak off before looking down at his partner. "What?", It came from him almost annoyed and Eberwolf grumbled briefly before he gave out loud what he wanted from the bigger one. Darius looked surprised. "Oh really?" The beast keeping leader nodded and jumped up and down excitedly.

Darius was just opening his mouth to say something when a coven scout stepped up to them. "T-the Emperor want all Coven Heads to come into the throne room." The Abomination Coven leader sighed in annoyance and waved the scout aside. "Of course he want.", He rolled his eyes and walked towards the throne room, Eberwolf followed him quickly, but happily.

Together they entered the throne room and could already see some other familiar faces. Besides them there were already 4 other Coven Heads present, as well as the Emperor on his throne and to his right the Golden Guard. The  younger one stood silently by the throne, most of his body hidden under the long white cloak, the mask pointed straight ahead.

Emperor Belos next to him sat proudly upright on his throne, obviously let his gaze wander over the Coven Heads and only looked towards the door again when the last three missing entered. All 9 of them gathered in a semicircle to see the Emperor. Only when they all stood in silence did the huge man who ruled the Boiling Isles rise.

It was a gathering, almost like any other, except that this time the Golden Guard was there and they didn't perform their little ritual either. In this case, they actually placed the little Coven Head symbols in appropriately aligned holes in a table with a blue fire in the middle. But nothing of it was to be seen today. Darius shot through the head whether the Emperor might want to hide it from his right hand, but he quickly pushed that thought aside.

The Emperor told them of future plans as he paced up and down in front of the throne. Golden Guard didn't move an inch in all of this. When the meeting was over, the Coven Heads left the throne room in an orderly group and before the last stepped out, they were followed by the Golden Guard who was apparently also dismissed.

Most of the Coven Heads moved forward to gather in their own small private meeting room in order to be able to simply talk undisturbed or do other things, while the others planned to do the same, but took their time on their way.

Darius and Eberwolf both belonged to the latter today. Usually the taller of the two always went off quickly, but today he allowed himself to do this in peace.

"Why don't you join us Golden Guard?", The Plant Coven leader smiled friendly in the direction of the younger who happened to be in the same direction as she was going, was probably actually on the way to his own quarters, which was near the meeting room of the Coven Heads.

Belos right hand looked up in surprise. "Huh? You want me to come with you?" It sounded more like a joke than a question, presumably he didn't take the leader very seriously. But next to her now stepped the future leader of the Bard Coven. Their name was Raine Whispers, but they weren't officially the new leader of the Coven, they just took over the duties. "Yes, why not.", The cyan-haired smiled friendly.

"Maybe we can get to know each other better that way." The smaller one was silent, presumably studying the two of them. Then Darius sighed heavily. "The other coven leaders won't mind either," he said and just looked over his shoulder at the younger one.

Eberwolf next to him agreed loudly and now ran next to Golden Guard, who in turn looked down at the Beast keeping Coven leader in silence. "Okay, but I won't stay long.", He announced, whereupon Raine and the Plant Coven leader nodded in agreement.

Now following them purposefully, Golden Guard went with them into the meeting room of the Coven Heads, where the others who had arrived before them looked up in surprise. Of course they didn't say anything, after all, Golden Guard was the Emperors right hand and yet the boy felt that they were wondering what he was doing here.

The other 5 coven leaders were already sitting at a long table, on which each of their chairs wore the shape of their coven symbol. The boy behind the golden guards mask looked around enthusiastically, couldn't remember having been here before.

"Golden Guard has agreed to keep us company.", The Plant Coven leader announced happily and fetched a normal-looking chair that she placed at the table, then sat down on her own chair and pointed to the new one.

"Have a seat.", She said and smiled. The other three had taken their seats by now, so Golden Guard sat down a little nervously. Even if he didn't need to have that feeling, he felt it.

Sure, this was the meeting room of the Coven Heads and of course he wasn't one of the main 9 himself, but it reassured him that at least 4 of the 9 were obviously on his side.

"Well then," said the Construction Coven leader before turning to the Illusion Leader and starting a quiet conversation with him.

Golden Guard felt the eyes of all 9 on him again and again, he half listened to their conversations while he himself either stared silently at the table or at the wall. At least until Darius cleared his throat next to him, and immediately the golden boy looked over at him. The other 8 now also looked at Darius in amazement. "I thought you wanted to get to know him.", Said the Abomination Coven leader now, looked at the leader of the Plant Coven and pointed to the Golden Guard. It just seemed to him as if Darius was interested in something that concerned himself or he just wanted to tease him again .... after all, he had already done it a few times since their mission together.

"Oh right!", The Plant Coven leader remembered and looked at the right hand of Emperor Belos. "So what's it like to be the Emperor's right hand man?" She was interested which Golden Guard could see while he was looking at her and the others also looked curiously at him. Even the Construction and Illusion Coven leaders had stopped talking to each other. Golden Guard looked at the Plant Coven leader. "Well, you always have something to do.", He answered calmly although he felt rather restless because of the many eyes that were on him and the boy under the mask felt an invisible pressure ... as if he had to be careful not to reveal too much about himself. He kept hearing the voice of Belos in his head.

"But doesn't it get ... boring sometimes?", the Healing Coven leader then asked. Golden Guard quickly shook his head. "No, just the opposite." "Say ...", the future Bard Coven leader began. "How ... old are you Golden Guard ...?", Everyone could hear the nervousness in Raine's voice. Apparently they had brought everything in themself to ask this question and yet Golden Guard did not answer, just looked silently around ... they were all waiting for the answer.

Raine noted that Golden Guard seemed uncomfortable with the question. "Oh sorry !! That was totally wrong!", They apologized even more nervously than before and looked worriedly at Belos right hand.

"I should go.", The golden boy only responded and got up. "Hold wait-!", The Plant Coven leader began, but interrupted by the younger one. "Thanks ... for letting me be here, Byee ~" And with that he disappeared from the room, leaving behind many astonished Coven leaders. Only Raine put their head on the table and sighed desperately. "He left because of me!" "No no, he already seemed uncomfortable before that," said the Oracle Coven leader and patted Raines' head, which actually made them look up again.