by Joe Jackson
The two humans smiled, and there was a silent accord around the table. “Just out of curiosity, what do I bring to the table other than muscle?” Typhonix asked.
“Nothing,” Aeligos said, but then he bobbed his head to the side. “Well, that’s not true. You bring irrelevant but amazing socio-political and economic information to the table. Frankly, muscle is all you need to contribute, since I don’t think any of us scare people as easily as you do – not even Jol.” The largest of the brothers smiled at that statement, and Typhonix laughed.
“With any luck, we’ll receive word of an appointment by the morning,” Sonja said. “I believe Kari and Erik may be here within a few days, but if we can get the meeting with the council taken care of before they arrive, it will expedite things.”
“Is there anything the rest of us should be doing while we wait?” Grakin asked.
Aeligos shook his head. “Just stay out of trouble,” he said. “We don’t want or need any negative attention while we’re here. If you need any supplies or such for our impending trip south, go ahead and pick them up tomorrow on the off chance we’re out of the city sooner than expected. Other than that, enjoy yourselves...as inconspicuously as possible.”
The group played cards for a few hours, and then most of them retired to their rooms, leaving only Aeligos and Sonja at the table in the common room. “If you can manage it, I’d like you to use your magic to see where Kari and Erik are,” Aeligos said, and Sonja tilted her head curiously. “It’s not that I don’t want to be in charge – although I still don’t – but we have a lot to fill them in on, and we may be leaving the city earlier than expected. It would help to know how much longer it will take them to get here, or if they’re even headed here in the first place.”
“I’ll do so right now,” Sonja said. Aeligos followed her out into the street, where both of them looked around before she began to work her magic. He watched her while she stared at the moon and some unseen image in the sky, and she turned her hands gently and tilted her head every so often. After a few minutes, a smile came to her face. She blinked away whatever it was she was seeing and turned to look at him. “They’re just south of Saint John’s pass! They should be here in less than a week, even if they stop at Fahrem first.”
“Hmm, unless they make the mistake of going to Kulthon,” Aeligos said quietly, but then he shook his head. “I think it’s safe to assume they’ll come here first, given how long we’ve been at our task. Go get some rest; we may have a busy day before us tomorrow.” She nodded, and the two retired to their rooms to get some sleep.
The courier arrived the next morning while the group took their breakfast, and the young human informed them that the council would meet with them the following day at midmorning. While not surprised, Aeligos was disappointed: he’d hoped the council might suspend even an hour of its open session for such an urgent matter. Sherman and Katarina bid the group goodbye and made their way into the city. Aeligos was a little nervous about sending the teenagers out alone, but felt he had prepared them as well as he possibly could, and in the end he reasoned that they needed to learn to interact with the rest of the world without being babysat, as Erik had put it. He doubted they would find out anything of any real worth, but he was willing to hope he might be pleasantly surprised. In any case, he would find out if they were useful for doing the sort of work he and Eryn did. Except possibly for Grakin’s healing skills, Aeligos had always felt that his was the most important and difficult of the group’s roles: the rest of them were effectively useless if he couldn’t do his job.
Aeligos shook off the anxiety eventually and separated from the rest of the group to go do something he hadn’t done since before the War. Down by the docks, he was able to purchase a simple fishing pole and line along with some bait, and he spent several hours fishing on the edge of the river near the bridge. There were many people doing the same, and he was able to make small talk with several humans and rir while he passed the day lazily. The people of Raugro seemed to pay little to no attention to the fact that Aeligos was half-demon, and he found that to be a welcome change. They didn’t offer much in the way of information other than the fact that the city was prospering and life was generally peaceful. Curiously, there wasn’t anything said about Gaswell, and while alarming, the rogue also found it somewhat comforting.
When Aeligos returned to the inn at dusk, Sherman and Katarina spent the dinner hour telling him all about the city and its people, though as he expected, they didn’t tell him anything of particular use. They were quite thorough, however, in explaining that the east side of the city was primarily populated by humans and shakna-rir, while the west side was mostly terra-rir with a smaller human population. They also mentioned that the humans had a second dialect, and that was the reason for the accent the group noticed right away. Aeligos sat forward with interest as they began to describe the ruling body: there was a council of five, with a governor who oversaw the execution of the council’s wishes as well as the day-to-day running of the city. The twins were also able to tell Aeligos that there were three humans, a terra-rir, and a shakna-rir on the council, and that the governor was also human, though they seemed embarrassed that they couldn’t remember any of their names.
The rogue waved off their concern, and told them that he hadn’t really expected the people to tell them anything of use, so he was quite pleasantly surprised at what the twins had discovered. He asked about how difficult it was for them to question the people without seeming too inquisitive, and Katarina told him that the people of the city were very open and happy to share on virtually any topic. While glad the twins hadn’t marked themselves as conspicuous people, in the back of his mind Aeligos sighed, cursing the fact that in the one city where he didn’t need to do any digging, information had proven to be soft and fertile ground.
The Silver Blades passed the night playing cards again, and retired to their rooms well before midnight. After sharing a meal the next morning, Aeligos decided that the entire group should go to the capitol as a show of solidarity if nothing else, and that all of them could use a refresher in diplomacy. He led his siblings and his human charges into the domed building, and when he stepped up to the desk, the young human girl looked up to him with a smile.
“Welcome back. The council is ready to see you. You may head into the assembly chamber when you’re ready,” she said with a gesture toward the double door to her right. After looking briefly to the rest of the group, Aeligos thanked her and proceeded through.
The assembly chamber was massive, comprised of a semi-circular seating gallery that surrounded an open floor affronted by a long podium behind which five people sat. As Sherman and Katarina had informed the group, there was a single human seated at his own desk on the right side of the open floor, at the same elevation as the raised podium. A shakna-rir woman sat at the center of the longer council podium, and to her right sat two humans, with a terra-rir and another human to her left. The council watched with interest as the half-demons passed through the gallery, and the governor waved them forward casually.
Aeligos was surprised to find the gallery full of people: he didn’t expect anyone else to be in attendance since the council hadn’t agreed to see them during their open session. He moved to the railing that separated the gallery from the floor and stepped through its swinging gate, and he took only a few moments to regard the chamber’s décor before he stood in the center. Normally he would’ve liked to take in his surroundings more carefully, but he decided to focus on the task at hand and not waste a single moment the council gave him. His companions followed him, and they took seats on benches just inside and to either side of the gate itself.
“Please state your name and city of origin for the record,” the governor said.
Aeligos saw there was a trio of scribes to the left, across from the governor, and they went into action as soon as the governor had spoken. “Aeligos Tesconis of Latalex,” the rogue answered, which drew surprised glances from all six of th
e people before him and hushed whispers from the gallery behind.
“Latalex, on Askies?” the governor responded, and Aeligos nodded. “You have come a long way, indeed. Very well, the council recognizes Aeligos Tesconis of Latalex. You have the floor; please state your business before the council this day.”
Aeligos gave each of the six people before him quick but appraising glances and noted the names that were clearly etched onto wooden plaques in front of them. “Am I correct in assuming you received and reviewed the documents I brought from Kulthon?” he asked.
The governor, an older man with graying hair whose plaque read Gov. David Potter, nodded and held up the scroll from Maktus Tuvurasti. It was obvious just from a glance that he had held his post for quite some time, and Aeligos had no doubt the man had worked in either law or politics – or both – for most of his life. “Yes, we have,” Potter said. “The documents state that you bring word from the warlord of the Tuvurasti kingdom, and that your news is of great import. So tell us then, what would you and our shakna-rir neighbors have of us?”
Aeligos stood at attention with his wings folded tightly behind him, and accentuated his words with soft gestures of his hands. “I’m sure the council is well aware of the rise of General Gaswell in the south and the army he has been amassing. My brother Erijinkor was assigned by Zalkar’s Demonhunter Order to come here to your island and do everything in his power to prevent any sort of prolonged war from breaking out. While he is busy taking care of a demon-hunting mission on the other side of the island, he asked us to come ahead and speak to you about Gaswell. I’m curious to know where you stand on this matter.”
The shakna-rir woman – Petra Sil’Duranti – leaned forward to speak, and Aeligos was surprised that her accent was closer to that of the innkeeper at Guzman’s Hearth than that of the desert people of Kulthon. There was an obvious strength about the woman as she began to speak, and Aeligos could tell she was the de facto head of the council. It didn’t take him long to recognize that she was both well-named and married to a terra-rir. “Yes, we’re aware of Gaswell and his forces; however, to date we have not considered him to be a threat. Our sources have informed us that the general’s plans involve pushing all but the terra-rir from the island. As alarming as such a proposition sounded initially, we quickly decided that such a plan is doomed to fail without any action on our part.”
“How so?” Sonja asked before Aeligos could, and she rose and approached to stand beside him. “Forgive me; I am Sonja Tesconis, Aeligos’ sister.”
“The council recognizes you, Sonja Tesconis,” Potter said. “Mr. Duvall?”
The terra-rir to the right of Petra leaned forward on his elbows to speak. He appeared to be the youngest of the councilors, but while Aeligos could see the impatience of youth in his eyes before the man even spoke, the rogue could also sense that being called on first to speak by the governor held some subtle meaning. “As Mrs. Sil’Duranti said, the general’s plan was recognized as doomed to fail without outside interference. Every city on the island has a mixed population, and anyone who has not already flocked to his call is unlikely to do so. It stands to reason that he will encounter resistance from those he finds in each city – and then from his own soldiers if he orders them to kill their own kind while trying to secure the island for them.”
“And you think that will stop him?” Aeligos asked incredulously; that had to be one of the stupidest things he’d ever heard. Based on the way Sonja reached up and scratched the end of her snout as if suppressing a laugh, he guessed she either thought the same thing or had managed to overhear his thoughts.
Avery Nash, the human male on the far left end, leaned forward and spoke next. Avery was a middle-aged human who seemed rather unconcerned with the topic at hand, and with only a brief study, Aeligos could tell the human would be the toughest councilor to convince. There was a calm about him that went beyond age or experience; the rogue interpreted it to mean that Avery was a born politician, and that he was already looking at how best to use the situation to his political advantage. “We don’t believe his army will ever begin its ill-fated march,” Avery said. “In order to sustain its advance, Gaswell would need to find new soldiers and supporters in each town as he conquers it. As it stands, none of the cities nearest to his stronghold have a population that would benefit him to attack. Markho and Vagan are both primarily human towns, but with enough of a rir presence to give him doubts about attacking them. He stands to lose too much, and if the terra-rir are all he will press into his forces, he has little to gain.”
Avery sat back and the human woman beside him, whose plaque read Sadessa Alvarez, took up his line of thought. Sadessa appeared to be in her late twenties, and Aeligos got the impression that she was a citizen servant and not a born politician. She had the look of a laborer about her despite her important position, and the rogue assumed that she came from a working-class family and would be more inclined to protect the people than Mr. Nash. “Lanz, too, has a primarily human population like Markho and Vagan, so Gaswell stands to gain little by moving south to secure his rear flank,” she said with the wondrous accent of the secondary dialect. “As the others have said, there are no cities for him to conquer that will not offer stiff resistance, and even if victorious, he will not be able to replenish his ranks enough to sustain an advance.”
That made a little more sense, but Aeligos was still left to wonder if the council had or had access to even a single tactician. “With all due respect, you’re forgetting a couple of important facts,” Aeligos said, but he made soft gestures to make his words seem less hostile. “First and foremost, Gaswell is far from sane. Your assumptions are based on the belief that he is thinking rationally and that he’s not going to do anything self-destructive. To have even come this far, he is clearly not in his right mind, and the results of any pending attack beyond victory are likely unimportant to him. At this time, you have to consider that if he attacks, it’s not a sustained advance you need to worry about so much as the immediate results: the razing of one of your neighboring cities. If he razes one of your cities and it looks like this crusade of his might actually succeed, he’ll start attracting more followers and insurgents in these other towns.”
Max Soroza, the only councilor who hadn’t spoken, leaned forward, and Aeligos paused to let the human speak. Max, like Sadessa, had a working-class look to him, but he was easily twice his counterpart’s age and his eyes were full of skepticism as he listened to Aeligos speak. “Yes, you are correct in that regard,” the middle-aged human male said with the same accent as Sadessa. “We have scouts in each of our southern neighboring cities, as well as ranging the plains north of Gaswell’s stronghold to monitor his armies for movement. Rest assured that when they mobilize, we will send a sufficient force to deter them.”
“Again, with all due respect, deterrence won’t be enough,” Aeligos countered. “When faced with a madman, you cannot simply put an opposing force in front of him and hope that he backs down. If he goes so far as to mobilize and attack, he’s not going to give up unless there’s a significant enough force to crush him; scare tactics will be ineffective.”
“Where exactly do our shakna-rir neighbors stand on this matter?” Potter asked.
“I expected the sealed documents I brought along to explain that,” Aeligos answered. “Were they unclear?”
“They were affixed with the personal seal of Maktus Tuvurasti, the warlord of the kingdom and mate to the queen, but he did not include actual details on what they intended. His letter stated that the bearer would make their intentions clear due to the possibility the message would be intercepted by Gaswell’s forces. The shakna-rir are nothing if not thorough,” the governor said, and his quip drew a short chuckle from Petra.
Aeligos regarded his sister for a moment before he sighed and began to explain. “The Tuvurasti are already moving their forces south to stonewall any advance by Gaswell. They would like to attack, dismantle his forces, and depose him as soon as poss
ible, but since they are crossing lands in your jurisdiction, they want your consent and help in this matter. They clearly wanted your council to send whatever military aid it could to assist them, and make sure that the battle, once joined, is short and successful.”
“And they felt they needed our help in such a matter?” Max asked. “The shakna-rir are far stronger than we are in matters of war. I find it strange they would need our help.”
“It’s because this needs to be done as quickly as possible,” Aeligos said. “The other fact you’re forgetting is the threat of invasion from the north. When I spoke to the Tuvurasti queen and her warlord, they agreed that should the kingdoms of Dannumore to the north become aware of fighting here on the island, they may take the opportunity to invade.”
“Dannumore?” Petra echoed. The gallery erupted into mumbling, and Petra folded her arms before her as Potter banged his gavel to restore the silence. “We’ve heard nothing from the mainland in the way of trouble for decades; they have been locked in the throes of civil war for over a century. Why do the Tuvurasti assume that would change?”
“I can’t say for sure,” Aeligos returned. “It was something the queen, her warlord, and his generals were all in agreement on, and one of the primary reasons my elder brother was sent to the island. The Tuvurasti even went so far as to send scouts to their northern and neighboring cities to watch for any sign of trouble from Dannumore. What kind of trouble would they be expecting from the north?”
“You come from Askies, was that land not invaded by a people called the bakatur many years ago?” the terra-rir, Carson Duvall, asked.
Aeligos glanced at Sonja and then looked back at his siblings. Serenjols and Typhonix were students of history, but Aeligos wondered if Jol would be comfortable speaking in front of a room full of people. Under the rogue’s gaze, Serenjols spoke. “I am Serenjols Tesconis of Latalex,” he introduced himself, though he did not stand. “The bah’qitur invaded shortly before the Fifth Demon War.”
