After a few more questions in a similar vein, the reporter from Ibanta Express passed the mic to Nihar Joshi, a well-known political correspondent from CXN News.

Ruban bit back a groan. This wasn’t going to get any easier.

Helmed by Viman Rai, CXN had spent the past week adding fuel to the fire of public discontent with its incendiary, anti-Vaan rhetoric. WNN wasn’t too far behind, although Casia Washi had fought hard to maintain some modicum of objectivity on her show. She’d paid the price for it, too. Her ratings had plummeted. There were even rumors that her refusal to toe the network’s line on this issue might get her replaced, although Ruban found that hard to believe.

Almost involuntarily, his gaze flicked to where she sat near the back of the room, dressed impeccably in a cream tunic and a pair of matching trousers. Her expression was neutral, her posture relaxed as she listened to Ashwin’s repartee with his interrogators.

It was common knowledge that Kushal Mayiti, the owner of WNN, was a staunch critic of the Vaan alliance. But Ruban didn’t know how much control he really had over the network and its editorial decisions. It was held through a media trust with an independent board of trustees, and had seemed quite nonpartisan in its reporting, heretofore. It was hard to tell if the journalists at WNN were being pressured to fall in line or if they simply agreed with his views on the alliance, as did a vast majority of the Vandran population.

“Vandram is on the verge of all-out civil unrest,” Nihar Joshi said, his tone conversational. “Should the conflict escalate into a civil war, will Vaan take part in the fighting?”

“No.” Ashwin’s voice was firm, unhesitant. “We will, of course, do everything in our power to prevent such a situation. But if it came to that, Vaan will not deploy its own forces to fight on behalf of any human faction.”

Nihar raised a single bushy eyebrow. “Because an Aeriel life is more valuable than five human ones, I suppose?”

Ashwin laughed, silver locks fluttering wildly. “If we had the numbers to fight humans one-to-five, do you really think we’d need this alliance?”

Nihar frowned. “Meaning?”

“Humans have always outnumbered Aeriels,” Ashwin said. “Even before the Rebellion, there had been about five hundred humans for every Aeriel on earth and Vaan combined. Now, that number is closer to five thousand. I don’t need to tell you that the human population has increased exponentially over the past six hundred years. Vandram itself has over two thousand people for every—”

“So you admit that you only want this alliance because you fear a war with Vandram?” demanded Nihar, his voice rising with every word.

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Ashwin squinted at him. “Did you think we wanted it because we missed the muggy weather? Your dreary, overcast monsoons?”

This time around, the hall echoed with bolder, more unrestrained laughter.

Ruban took a sip of water to mask the smile that rose unbidden to his lips.

“If Vaan had one-fifth of the earth’s population, we wouldn’t be so fixated on this alliance. That’s true enough.” Ashwin carried on, unperturbed by the scowl Nihar Joshi directed at him. “One Aeriel can easily take on five humans, especially considering that most humans aren’t trained Hunters.”

The discomfort in the room was palpable. Uneasy murmurs rose amongst the gathered crowd. From her seat at the table, Unnati glared daggers at Ashwin. Ruban admired the self-mastery with which she restrained herself from aiming a sifblade at his back, as she clearly itched to do.

Ashwin ignored them all. “The problem, of course, is that in the event of a war between Vaan and Vandram, one Aeriel would not be fighting five humans. We’d be fighting hundreds each. And that’s even before accounting for the Exiles, whose allegiance cannot be taken for granted by either side.

“They despise the idea of equality with humans, almost as much as they hate the thought of submitting to my sister as their queen.” He sighed. “To cut a long story short, you can rest assured that Vaan will never initiate a war with any of earth’s nations, nor participate in any war between humans. Not for any moral or ethical reasons, but simply because we don’t have the numbers to do so.”

“We admire your candor,” Nihar said, visibly pulling himself together after that disconcerting exchange. “But while you’ve made clear why Vaan wants this alliance, why should Vandram agree to it? Forgive my bluntness, but what do we stand to gain from it?”

Ashwin smiled. “In the event of a war, Vandram certainly would have the upper hand over Vaan. Both in terms of manpower and weaponry – now that you have the reinforced sifblades. There’s almost no possibility that Vandram would lose such a war. There’s even less of a possibility that it’d come out of the war unravaged.

“Aeriels are hard to kill, and rarely die without wreaking significant damage in the process. It’s why the Exiles have remained a thorn in your side for over six centuries. Now, hundreds of thousands of Aeriels descending upon you all at once, in a desperate struggle for survival?

“Such a war would devastate this country. Leave it weak and vulnerable, completely debilitated for another hundred years, at least. So, it comes down to a matter of faith, really.

“The development of the reinforced sifblade is an exemplary achievement in science, but sif only works against Aeriels.” Ashwin’s silver gaze bored into Nihar, making him fidget. “Once there’re no more Aeriels to unite the three nations, how sure can you be that your neighbors wouldn’t capitalize on the opportunity to subsume the territories close to their borders? And balkanize the rest of Vandram into ineffectual client states dependent on either or both of them? Might it not be the case that Kanbar and Zaini emerge as the real victors of a war between Vaan and Vandram?”

Nihar opened his mouth to reply, then closed it.

Ruban empathized.

Earth, unlike Vaan, didn’t have a single government. And while the three nations had been united in their antipathy to Vaan and Aeriels for as long as anyone could remember, they’d had their own territorial disputes from time to time.

In a world without Aeriels, would those conflicts escalate? Would Kanbar and Zaini take advantage of a war-ravaged Vandram? Would Vandram be able to resist the temptation to do the same to them, if their positions were reversed?

The fact was, Ruban didn’t know. And he had a strong feeling – neither did anyone else in the room.