Chapter Nineteen: A Secret Meeting

If you are an approval addict,

your behavior is as easy to control

as that of any other junkie.

All a manipulator need do is

a simple two-step process:

Give you what you crave,

and then threaten to take it away.

Every drug dealer in the world

plays this game.

Harriet B. Braiker, 

Who's Pulling Your Strings?

The Dark Masters are getting very anxious as the days leading up to the selection of the Question for this Prudence Wars nears with the holding of the election of the Group of Seven. There is nothing else to do at this point, since the electoral process is done in secret balloting, but they also cannot afford to put their destiny in the hands of luck and probability, if they can do something else otherwise.

Almost every possible technique available has been discussed, in order to sway the odds in their favor, but nothing else looks assuring at this point. This will probably be the most important game of their lives as everything depends on its outcome. Nothing else matters in the world full of troubles but the success of this one-time decisive battle.

The Dark Masters needed the Steel of Willows for their own welfare and survival, and there is no truth to the claims made by the greedy Potioneers about the matter being a case of plagiarism. An unexpected tilt in the balance of power is undeniably an excessive abuse of discretion, with no truth in the allegations that can be determined under a fair trial of facts. They themselves are creating the rules in a unilateral way, which has proven to be problematic on the side of the Dark Masters, as time went by.

Someone spoke inside a room.

"Will they listen to calls of reform? I think we will have a better chance when we legitimize the Steel of Willows first, and then work from there."

This private conversation has been held for a couple of times now, each of which went on to be long and hard, but nothing convincing has been proven yet to get a guaranteed outcome from the present odds and circumstances. The last thing that the Dark Masters wanted to do is to attract political attribution from all the policies they are wishing to change.

"The reforms must push through," someone in the room emphasized again.

The statements being made are difficult, and requires conviction, but to gamble with these important matters as collateral to a crucial end seems foolish especially with no other fallback available, or a plan of action once the battle was unsuccessful. Obviously, a decision needed to be made as soon as possible, in fact, right now, and a cowardly hesitation will give them no edge to emerge in whatever future they are fearing to reach.

A decisive action must be made immediately.

"Is there any other choice that isn't as dangerous as this option?"

"There is none." 

x--------x

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