AILENE: The Council of Ailene

Hi dear friend,

Today I will talk about politics. No, please, don’t leave already! I’ll try not to make it too boring :)

First of all, I need to tell you about the Council. We have different councils all over our planet, but there is only one that everyone knows about, and that’s the Council of Ailene. Many years ago, ambassadors from all over the world came together in the capital city of Ailene to form a council that discusses the most important issues concerning the planet. The goal was to unite all countries and work together to make our world a better place.

But the people were concerned the council members would get too much power. To ensure every citizen indirectly has a say in the Council’s decisions, it was decided that each country can choose its own ambassador by popular vote. These elections are held every five years.

Back then, this probably sounded like a great idea, and maybe it still does (maybe not?). I know people who believe citizens should have more say in the decisions that are made by the Council, and I think they’re onto something.

OWS I am afraid this might have been a bit boring after all, so I will switch to my parents, who’re OWS agents. The Organisation of World Security (OWS) is an organisation that tries to protect people all across the planet. Almost everyone knows about the existence of the OWS, but the identities of its agents are being kept secret. That’s why, growing up, I often had to lie about my parent’s whereabouts. No one knew about their real job, not even Lowell.

At the beginning of AILENE, there have been several attacks in some of the smaller, lesser known countries. The OWS connected it to a suspected terrorist group. Some of the intelligence they gathered led them to believe there was a mole in the Council of Ailene, who fed the terrorists information.

Internship And that’s where I come in. My parents wanted me to infiltrate the Council as an intern and find out if there truly was a mole, and if so, who it was. At first, I was hesitant, because I didn’t want to leave Lowell behind. Things changed when he was allowed to come with me, and when I learned the terrorists’ next target might be our own country, the Wastelands.

Together with Lowell and Suri, I travelled to Ailene. There, I met the twenty-three council members, but for now I will only tell you about three of them (not because the others aren’t important, they certainly are).

The ambassadors First of all, there is Kira Jaymes, the ambassador for Ailene. She looks petite, but she is a total bad-ass. I have to admit I was very intimidated when I first met Kira, but I felt more comfortable around her once I got to know her.

Meeting her also led to meeting the ambassador for Timberland, Alexander Collins. He used to be Kira’s advisor, but his goal had always been to become a council member himself. During the elections, he ran for ambassador and won by a landslide. It wasn’t easy to find a Timbrian who didn’t love him, and I could understand why. It’s hard to miss his charm. He’s kind and funny–and ridiculously handsome–and he just radiates joyful energy. His biggest flaw probably is that he tries too hard to do good, and ends up doing something not so great in the process. I’m afraid most of us have been guilty of that, myself included.

Lastly, I would like to tell you about the Wastelands’ ambassador, Devarian Rayli. There were many different opinions about him. Some people swooned at his sight, others thought he was just a stuck-up guy who was more concerned with his looks and reputation than anything else. When I first saw him in real life–I say ‘in real life’ because in my country, images of his face were projected everywhere!–I wasn’t sure what to think. He came across as so terribly vain, but I didn’t want to judge a book solely by its cover.

I realise I’ve been talking too long already, but I would like to add one name to the list, even though in AILENE she’s Kira’s intern, not a council member. Lena Mayfair is the first person we met in Ailene, and I think she might have stolen Lowell’s heart right away. She’s very serious about the Council and is always striving for perfection on her way to become an ambassador herself.

I promise I will really stop now. I hope this post wasn’t too boring. If it was, I can assure you next month’s post will be a lot more fun, because then I’ll be talking about special abilities!

Until then!

Warmest wishes,

Hayden Navarro

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