A/N: Here is the long awaited council meeting. Let's see how Ben handles things. (I didn't list the full council in the story but you can find the list at the end of the chapter.) Good news: I have already started writing Mal's date and it's 2 chapters long 😀. Bad news: it's a few chapters away still (20&21)😔. I will however be updating often so you won't have to wait too long. Happy Reading!
Mal's POV
I was a little nervous for the council meeting today. It was scheduled to start in twenty minutes and Ben texted me while I was still at school and said that he would like me to meet him in the conference room fifteen minutes before the meeting was due to start. I stepped into the conference room and noticed that a lot of chairs had been placed along the walls. Ben was sitting at the head of the table and noticed me looking at all the chairs.
"We will have more in attendance than we usually do. King Triton and King Arthur will be the only ones not here" he said to me, as he stood up and walked over to me. He reached up cupping my face bringing my lips to his. The kiss was slow and loving. He pulled back and just looked at me.
"Hi" he said with a smile.
"Hi" I said back, taking a breath. How did he make me feel like this? Like I was the best part of his day. He was definitely the best part of mine! "Why did you want me to come early?" I asked, trying to compose myself.
"Usually I am already here before the other council members arrive. I was late last meeting because I was talking to Fairy Godmother about the cameras on the Isle" he said giving me a smile. "I wanted you and I to be a united front, so I thought it would look better if you were also here when everyone arrives. When you come to council meetings you will always sit to my right while my parents sit to my left" he said motioning to my seat. We both walked to our seats and sat down.
"Gosh, there is going to be so many people in here today" I said looking around again.
"I'm hoping that will work in our favor" Ben said as he looked at something on his computer. "Lots of witnesses" he said with a chuckle. He pushed a button and a screen slowly lowered from the ceiling behind him.
"What's that for?" I asked.
"Presentation. I will be exhibiting the email on it. Make her squirm a little" he said with a smirk.
"When did you get so ruthless?" I said with a laugh.
"She did something to intentionally hurt me, but worse than that she hurt you" he said, completely serious. I reached over and grabbed his hand.
"I didn't know it bothered you that much" I said softly.
"I'm a forgiving person, but I want her to be made aware that this type of thing is not acceptable" he said. I nodded squeezing his hand. He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it.
"I love you" he said his voice soft with emotion.
"And I love you" I said back as I looked into his eyes.
The moment was broken when Belle and Adam walked in.
"This is going to be the largest council meeting since your coronation" Adam said sitting down next to Ben.
"This was kind of Mal's idea. She wants to put this behind us and not hash it out in the public eye, but knowing how Queen Leah is, calling her out in front of her peers is as good a consequence as any public statement or apology would be" Ben said. Adam laughed and we all looked at him.
"This is going to be far worse for her than a public apology. She is going to actually have to sit here in front of everyone. If she were to do a public apology it would be something she prerecords in her sitting room to be aired on TV. Plus she could think about what she wanted to say and twist it to make herself not look so bad. She won't be able to do that here. She will be put on the spot" he said as another chuckle escaped him. "This is going to be fun" he said. Belle swatted him with the back of her hand but you could tell she was trying not to smile.
"So no one knows the reason for this meeting but us right?" Belle asked. I guess Ben had filled Belle in on everything.
"Nope. The summons was simply for an emergency meeting" Ben said.
"I won't have to speak will I?" I asked, suddenly feeling panic struck that maybe I was going to have to address Queen Leah also.
"Not if you don't want to" Ben said reaching over and placing his hand over mine on the table. "I can't guarantee that anyone won't ask you questions though."
"It's ok, I think I can handle it" I said taking a deep breath to calm my nerves.
"Evie told me you are doing your dress fitting after the meeting" Belle said to me. I knew she was trying to calm my nerves by distracting me with something else.
"Yes. I haven't even seen my dress yet. Evie has made so many things for me that I only have to have one fitting and it's to the point now that it's usually perfect" I said smiling at her.
"I've seen it and it's beautiful" Belle said smiling at me.
"I can't wait to see it!" I said. I was starting to feel excited about the ball.
"I can't wait either" Ben said with a smirk.
Everyone began to arrive. Queen Leah was one of the first to arrive, even before some of the members who were staying at the castle. She looked at me as if I had no business being there. This didn't surprise or offend me. I am 'that villain' after all.
After everyone arrived, Ben had everyone state their attendance for the minutes like he did last time. It took quite a long time considering there were thirty-two people actually present and King Triton stated his attendance via the bluetooth speaker, which didn't startle me this time.
"Before we get to the reason I called this meeting, does anyone have any grievances they would like to address?" Ben asked. No one said anything, just looked around to see if anyone had anything to say. Queen Leah raised her hand slightly, still throwing glances my way.
"Yes Queen Leah" Ben said keeping his voice even as he spoke.
"I don't have a grievance" she began. "Are we going to be discussing bringing over villain children again?" she asked him.
"Not today Queen Leah" he answered her.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but if the meeting isn't about the villain children, I don't understand why Lady Mal would be present at a council meeting when she is not part of the council" she said in that tone she always has. I don't know why people always say 'I don't mean to sound rude' before they say something they know is rude.
"She is here because I asked her to be" Ben said in a way that said she shouldn't question him. She wisely kept her mouth closed.
"Well if no one has anything to add I guess I will jump right into it" Ben began. "I always assumed my personal life would not have to be addressed in council meetings, no matter how many emails I receive from certain members about my personal life and relationship." That was the first jab, I thought. "Though something has come to my attention that is forcing me to address a personal matter. Let me remind the council that, like every other member of royalty, the council has no say in who I marry, when I get married and when I must have an heir. The Happily Ever After Act assures us that we can choose who we want to be with." I tried not to have a reaction to Ben mentioning marriage.
"I am sure that everyone is aware of the articles that came out in late October" Ben said pushing a button and the articles appeared on the screen behind him. There were three articles. I had heard that there were two other articles, but I hadn't read the other two and didn't care to now, so I just let my eyes wander. Queen Leah looked a little worried to me.
"Now of course the articles were very misleading and that is because they were not true" Ben said. Meg put her hand up. "Yes Lady Meg?" Ben asked.
"Didn't the young man from these articles release a statement telling everyone there was no truth to the stories?" she asked him.
"Yes he did" Ben said and pushed another button and Derek's statement appeared on the screen. "Now I need everyone to understand what was going on around the time of these articles. As most of you know I was extremely busy and had been working so much I wasn't even able to attend classes for a month. In that time I was barely able to talk to Mal let alone spend any time with her. Mal is and always has been understanding of my restricted time. So when those articles came out I was crushed. I thought the woman I loved had finally turned her back on me because I didn't have time for her." Ben's voice quivered ever so slightly and I knew he was thinking about how he felt when he first read the articles.
"Days went by where I didn't speak to anyone, including Mal. The statement was released because the articles hurt people other than just me and Mal" Ben said. Queen Leah kept her eyes down, not really looking at anyone. She probably didn't even give Derek a second thought when she sought to cause trouble between Ben and I.
"Now I'm sure you are all wondering why I called a council meeting to address an issue that seemed to be resolved" Ben continued. Many people nodded their heads, interested where he was going with this.
"After Derek released his statement, Lady Mal and I were obviously able to work things out. The statement and talking to Lady Mal brought to light that the articles were false and as King, and Mal being my Lady of the Court, I issued fines to the publications for defamation" Ben said his voice sounding intense. "All three publications came back to me claiming they received an email from an anonymous sender telling them that Lady Mal was spending time with another man." Ben once again pushed a button and then the anonymous email popped up on the screen. I looked around and watched as everyone was reading the email. Everyone except Queen Leah. Ben was watching her too. Several people started to murmur to each other. Aladdin looked to Ben.
"I hope you launched an investigation" he said sounding like he took offence to someone actually doing this to the king. It wasn't the worst thing to happen but upholding a good reputation was important to all of the royals in the kingdom.
"Of course" Ben said. You could see the blood drain from Queen Leah's face.
"I hope you have given consequences to whoever did this" Jasmine said.
"Who would do such a thing though" Queen Tiana asked, looking from Jasmine to Ben.
"I know who did it. I had my suspicions even before I was presented with proof. Now all I want to know is how they knew that Lady Mal was spending extra time with someone else?" Ben stated, still building it up. A couple more people whispered to each other. Queen Leah still sat staring at the table. I looked at Queen Aurora and King Phillip. They looked just as interested as everyone else to know who would do something like this. I knew then that they had no clue about Queen Leah's meddling. Ben didn't say anything for a minute. I wondered if he was giving her a chance to admit what she had done, but she said nothing. Ben took a deep breath. I knew he was about to confront her.
"Queen Leah" he began. "Would you please explain to me how you knew Lady Mal was spending all her free time with a gentleman that wasn't me and why you thought the press ought to know instead of coming to me?" he asked her in a no-nonsense tone. I heard several gasps including Queen Aurora. She finally looked up at Ben.
"Your Majesty I would never..." she began but Ben cut her off.
"Queen Leah do you know what an IP address is?" Ben asked her. He was being so calm.
"No I can't say that I do" Queen Leah said as if her knowledge of it had no significance to what was going on.
"Let me explain it to you. IP addresses are a unique set of numbers assigned to a device connected to a network. In other words anything you send on the internet will have your IP address attached to it even if you send it anonymously. It also shows where it is being sent from" he told her. Her mouth dropped open. "Now I will ask you again, how did you know about Lady Mal and Derek and why did you send an anonymous email to the press?"
"Audrey told me about them" Queen Leah said in a low voice.
"And how would Audrey know considering she has been away?" he asked her.
"She said that Anxelin told her" she informed him, her eyes on the table again.
"So it seems we have a she said she said thing going on" Ben said. "I would like to get to the bottom of this. Lumiere" he called.
"Yes Your Majesty?" Lumiere said stepping in the door.
"Would you please send for Princess Audrey and Princess Anxelin. I want them here post haste" he said.
Ben said nothing after that and didn't dismiss anyone either. Almost everyone started to talk amongst themselves, except Queen Leah who just sat quietly and stared at the table. I looked at Ben. He looked like he was trying to put it all together in his head. He leaned over to me.
"Are you ok?" he whispered. I nodded my head.
"Are you ok?" I whispered back.
"Yeah" he said reaching under the table for my hand.
It only took twenty minutes before both Audrey and Anxelin were shown into the conference room. Both of them looked very confused.
"Your Majesty" they both said dipping a small curtsy, showing etiquette in front of the council. Both of their fathers stood, giving them their seats.
"We are trying to get to the bottom of a situation" Ben said. I saw Audrey looking at the anonymous email still on the screen and her eyes grew big.
"Anxelin can you tell me exactly what you told Audrey about Lady Mal and Derek prior to the release of the articles?" Ben asked her.
"Um all I said was that I noticed Mal had been spending every evening with that guy from her art class when she asked what had been going on around Auradon Prep" Anxelin said. She seemed nervous. She probably thought she was in trouble.
"That was all you said?" Ben asked.
"Yes Your Majesty" she said.
"Audrey why did you find the need to pass this information on to your grandmother?" Ben asked, turning his attention to her. Her mouth opened and closed a couple times like she was trying to figure out what to say.
"Well she mentioned that the two of you hadn't been seen together in quite some time, so I told her that that probably had to do with the fact that Mal was spending all her time with that art guy" she said to him.
"So you assumed that because Mal had been seen with another guy that her and I must be having problems? That she was cheating on me or we had broken up even?" he accused raising his eyebrows. Audrey didn't say anything. Ben shook his head in disgust.
"Ok, it seems we have come full circle. Queen Leah now that we know where you got your information, why did you take it to the press instead of me?" He sounded like he was getting angry.
"I felt like it was the best way to get through to you. You weren't taking any of the advice I had been giving you. Your reputation was at stake. I couldn't stand by and let her humiliate you while she paraded around with another boy" Queen Leah said indignantly. Ben just gave a humorless chuckle.
"Let's talk hypothetically for a moment. When Audrey and I were together, she spent a lot of time with Chad on her own. Do you think someone should have gone to the press with that?" he asked her. Queen Leah shook her head.
"The thing is Queen Leah, Lady Mal didn't humiliate me, you did. She didn't go to the press with this, you did" Ben said, his tone becoming more angry with every word. Nobody said anything for a few moments.
"I apologize Your Majesty. I can see now that it was a mistake" she said to Ben. He took another deep breath.
"Queen Leah I implore that you stay out of my personal life. You will be charged and fined for defamation. Let this be a lesson to you" Ben said, his tone low and even.
"But Your Majesty..." she began to argue.
"Queen Leah you are a hero and it is time you acted like it. I have nothing more to say on the matter, unless you would like to hash out why you are constantly trying to break up my relationship with Mal in front to the whole council?" Ben practically shouted at her with raised eyebrows. She closed her mouth and shook her head.
"Let's all take what we learned here and know not to repeat the mistakes of others. If anyone else has anything to say..." Ben said looking at every one. No one said anything. A couple of people shook their heads no.
"This meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for attending" Ben said to the room.
With there being so many people there, no one was leaving in a hurry and I knew that Ben stayed until everyone else left. I leaned over to talk to him.
"Hey, this lasted longer than I thought so I'm going to head out to meet Evie in my room for my fitting" I said to him.
"Ok" he said and I began to stand. He stood also and grabbed my hand. He pulled me to him and gave me a quick sweet kiss. "I'll see you later" he said with a smile.
As I stepped out into the hall way about to make my way to the back stairs I heard Queen Leah's voice from around the corner and couldn't help but stop.
"Unbelievable. I can't believe he would humiliate me like that!" she said.
"I'm sorry Grammy" I heard Audrey say. I guess she was trying to console her.
"I can't take another meeting like that and now I have mark against our name with that defamation charge. I should have covered my tracks better. I should have gone with a typed note and had them delivered. Not like it did any good anyhow" I heard her scoff. Well I guess she wasn't all that sorry after all.
"Looks like it is up to you to get him back" she said to Audrey.
I rolled my eyes. What would it take to get them off our backs I thought as I made my way down the hall and up the back stairs.
Full Council in attendance
King Benjamin of Auradon
King Elder Adan of Auradon
Queen Belle of Auradon
Queen Elder Leah of South Riding Auroria
Queen Aurora of South Riding Auroria
King Phillip of South Riding Auroria
Queen Rapunzel of South Riding Tangletown
King Eugene of South Riding Tangletown
Queen Cinderella of Cinderellasburg
King Charming of Cinderellasburg
Queen Snow White of Charmington
King Florian of Charmington
Queen Elsa of Winter's Keep
Princess Anna of Winter's Keep
Kristoff of Winter's Keep
Queen Tiana of Towering Heights
King Naveen of Towering Heights
Queen Ariel of Westerly Triton's Bay
King Eric of Westerly Triton's Bay
Peter Pan of Neverland
Tinker Bell of Neverland
Lady Alice of Wonderland
Mulan of Northern Wei
Li Shang of Northern Wei
Sultan Aladdin of Lone Keep
Sultana Jasmine of Lone Keep
Genie of Lone Keep
Zeus of Olympus
Lady Hera of Olympus
Hercules of Olympus
Lady Megara of Olympus
Lady Mal of The Isle
There you have it! I know that Elsa, Anna and Kristoff aren't really apart of Descendants but I thought they fit that region because it is mentioned that the kingdom of Arendelle is in Winter's Keep.
So it seems that Queen Leah doesn't really regret sending the email just the fact that she got caught. Anyhow the ball is next!
Reviews are love!