“This is outrageous! Who does this human think he is?!”
Forgemaster Ughlarer slammed his fist on the table. Nenavann just raised an eyebrow as he rolled up the scroll he had just finished reading for the signatories of the Compact.
“This is a negotiation with an outside party, Forgemaster, not us communicating the Compact’s decision to one of its citizens. We should not have expected Tower Keeper Belissar to simply accept our first offer as is, he is under no obligation to do so.”
Forgemaster Ughlarer growled.
“This, though, this is just insulting. He should be grateful we’d even let a human step foot into the land of the fair, much less that we would spill the blood of the fair on a human’s behalf! He’s as greedy and insolent as the rest of his kind!”
Nenavann narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Just as we should be grateful to the Tower Keeper who is now preserving the land of the fair. Whatever you believe of his character, we have already established the necessity of preserving our connection to his Tower. We must negotiate with him in good faith, at minimum.”
Forgemaster Ughlarer glared at him.
“And you call this a good faith negotiation by him?”
“And you! This offer has pixie written all over it! I should have expected you to be playing both sides, Queen Vanieskon.”
Queen Vanieskon had a bored expression on her face as she leaned her head and rested it upon her hand.
“I use everything at my disposal, Forgemaster. You know this. But your anger is misplaced. I merely received this offer, the same as you.”
Forgemaster Ughlarer glowered at her.
“You expect me to believe that? I know full well that you wouldn’t have written it yourself. But you cannot expect me to believe that it was anyone but a pixie that concocted this!”
Queen Vanieskon frowned slightly.
“Perhaps one did. My daughter has been missing ever since the human’s altercation with the spiderkin. She has not been revived so I’m assuming she’s still alive. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Dungeon Master Nenavann?”
Nenavann bowed his head.
“Ah, I apologize, Queen Vanieskon. I should have informed you that Princess Finnakynne is currently staying with Tower Keeper Belissar.”
Queen Vaniekson gave him a pointed look.
“Yes, you should have.”
Forgemaster Ughlarer rolled his eyes.
“Spare me the theatrics, Queen Vanieskon. You expect me to believe the princess acted without your approval?”
Queen Vanieskon made an exasperated sigh.
“You and I both know that sometimes children do things their parents prefer they not, without either knowledge or approval. I truly do need to reeducate that girl.”
Forgemaster Ughlarer frowned and fell silent at that. Queen Vanieskon shook her head and then waved her hand.
“If we assume the majority of this counteroffer is Finnakynne’s latest attempt to harass me, then we can simply ignore it.”
Nenavann raised his eyebrow and crossed his arms.
Queen Vaniekson sighed once again.
“Very well. Let us pick some terms that are agreeable enough to satisfy the human.”
At this point, Wardmaster Varilold interjected.
“Allow me to speed things up. As Wardmaster, I must insist upon accepting the mutual defense agreement and the joint contributions to the Tower Keeper for his defense.”
Forgemaster Ughlarer raised an eyebrow.
“Aren’t such things already covered by the Compact? We already fund the wardens to protect the Compact, do we not, Wardmaster?”
Wardmaster Varilold nodded.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Mutual defense is, but Tower Keeper Belissar may not realize that. It is important that we clarify for him, so agreeing to it explicitly may reassure him. As for the joint contributions, under normal circumstances the wardens are solely responsible for the defense of the Compact’s territory while the Circle masters are only responsible for their own dungeons. Needless to say, if we are to include a new chunk of land in the mortal realm that is directly exposed to the Hunger and hostile mortals, the wardens would need an exponential expansion to cover that ourselves. I find it more practical to request the assistance of the Tower Keeper for the defense of those lands, in which case we must provide him with an adequate budget for the task.”
The edge of Queen Vanieskon’s mouth curled up slightly.
“And if we accept a term already in the Compact, we will satisfy the human without giving up anything ourselves. It will allow us to reject some of the more egregious terms without complaint, won’t it?”
Forgemaster Ughlarer fell silent and rubbed his chin.
“So be it. I suppose it’s the least objectionable of these demands.”
It took all of Nenavann’s self-control not to smirk. It was fortunate that Tarwantrad wasn’t here today. But the last thing he wanted to do was give up the game, so he sighed and shook his head.
“I must insist we accept at least a few terms outside of the bounds of the Compact. Tower Keeper Belissar may not have realized the redundancy in his requests now, but he will eventually if ever he reads the Compact in detail. It would not do for him to feel cheated later on, we all know humans can be volatile and short-sighted. And it is fact that this human holds the fate of the Compact in his Tower. If we cannot show him any gratitude for that, let us at least not provoke him into doing anything foolish.”
Forgemaster Ughlarer eyed him suspiciously but eventually let out a sigh.
“Fine. This is why the Compact should not place its hopes on the wisdom and stability of a human, but since the Wardmaster is giving us no choice in the matter I suppose we will do what we have to, even bowing our heads to a human. Let us hope that it will not end in even greater disaster.”
And so, the Compact went through the terms of Belissar’s counteroffer, aiming for the minimum concessions that wouldn’t require too much of them.
Or so most of them thought, Nenavann chuckled internally to himself.
A massive pillar of blue fire burst into the air, piercing through the red and orange flames all around it. A crackling roar drowned out the sounds of the other fires as the God of Fire shouted with all his might. Mana that matched his authority, alcohol that physically fueled his flames, and sincere gratitude directed towards him seeped into his core, stoking his blaze to new heights. His eyes burned white hot as, somehow, a pleasant warmth spread through his body flames.
Now he understood why Flower had been so smug. He’d had plenty of alcohol offerings before, but this mead was something special. The pure devotion of Belissar and the bees both to the gods and to each other was something uncommon and the mana in both honey and mead responded to it. He smiled and chuckled as he waved his hand, sending Belissar a new mission. Bee really found something special with her first master.
It was not at all the mead driving him to do this, for the God of Fire needed no alcohol to act impulsively.
Unfortunately, his revelry was interrupted. A massive explosion of steam burst within his realm. He couldn’t see what lay within the cloud of superhot vapor, but he didn’t need to. That’s just what his guest looked like when visiting a realm of pure fire. The God of Fire raised his hand, walked over, and tried to slap the newcomer on the back…causing another explosion of steam.
“Water! To what do I owe the pleasure?”
The steam formed into a vague resemblance of a person, as the God of Water gathered himself.
“Hi Fire. You’re happy today…is that mead really so good?”
The God of Fire threw his head back and laughed.
“Wouldn’t you like to know!”
The God of Water shrugged.
“Maybe I'll find out. I didn’t think Bee and I had much overlap, but Nenavann’s trying his best to change that.”
The God of Fire rubbed his chin.
“Huh, and if Forest plants herself there with Flower already present…we might be dungeon mates yet again.”
The God of Water nodded.
“Seems that way. Well, if things work out, that is.”
The God of Fire smirked. The mortals really loved putting the elements together, didn’t they? He, Ground, Water, and Air had all been forced to speak constantly just from the sheer number of devotees that were determined to receive all their blessings at once.
He raised his eyebrow, however, for Belissar was not one of those yet.
“I see. Something else is going on, then?”
The God of Water nodded.
“Light asked me to come.”
The God of Fire began to burn off the remaining alcohol within him.
“Oh? That’s really unusual.”
The God of Water shrugged.
“Beast is petitioning her again. One of Dragon’s dungeon masters killed yet another of his and he’s tired of it. He’s considering withdrawing all blessings, including primary ones, from the entire Conclave at this point.”
The God of Fire sighed, letting out a cloud of smoke.
“I’m sure he’d have sent his followers to war already if it weren’t for the ban on that. But Light wouldn’t send you to me for that, right? I’d only make things worse if I got involved, Dragon still hasn’t forgiven me for Rippotis, you know?”
The God of Water shook his head.
“Beast looked into it more to make his case…and found the latest human invasion resulted because another god intervened directly.”
The God of Fire blinked.
“Really? Who would do that?”
The God of Water stared right at him.
“A god without other options to affect the situation and with her first Oracle in play.”
The God of Fire’s eyes flared up.
“Ah…it was Bee, wasn’t it?”
The God of Water nodded.
“The situation’s complicated now. One of Dragon’s masters is making their way towards Bee’s dungeon. The High Council advised him otherwise but he’ll probably act violently anyways and Dragon won’t care. Light doesn’t want to play favorites but also doesn’t want Bee’s very first dungeon destroyed by another. But then, she noticed a bigger problem. The Compact’s getting involved with Bee’s dungeon while a Conclave master is heading there on the war path…”
The God of Fire’s body cooled down back to reds and oranges.
The God of Water’s steam began fading away as he withdrew his presence.
“Anyways, Light wants everyone involved to gather together. You especially, since you’ve blessed Bee’s dungeon and are the primary patron of both a High Councilor and a Circle Master. So…good luck.”
The God of Fire let out another sigh as the God of Water left. Then he shrugged, threw his head back, and chugged down the jar of mead in his hand. He had a feeling he’d need it for the meeting ahead.
He smiled as the warmth spread through him once more.
“Oh well, if everything gets set on fire, I won’t complain!”