“You ready buddy?” I gave Loki an affectionate nose pat (Loki is far too tall for me to do head pats by now).
“AWOOOO~” An armored Loki replied as he sniffed my neck. He was wearing a leather cap on his head (with 2 holes cut out for his ears), a leather chest piece that covered the front of his neck and down his chest, and a leather armor around the stirrup protecting his spine.
“Yeah, you are! You’re my good boy!” I gave his ears a good petting and hopped on. Tali was pulled up shortly after. We sallied out of the gate in a blur. Loki gracefully jumped across the various trenchlines that lined the field and arrived at a stone obelisk with a “700m” carving near the top.
Tali and I got off Loki and waited for the other side to arrive. Within a few minutes, a diplomatic party of 4 rode their war horses towards our position. Based on the fancy gear, fancy flag, and fancy horse (those things are twice as large as the horses in Carnwennan), this is the guy I needed to meet.
The diplomatic party stopped and got off their horses. The prince guy looked the part- he was in Knight gear, but with a thin gold crown on his helmet. He was escorted by 4 Knights decked out in heavy armor and a mage-looking guy. A Knight (decked out in gear so inundated with so much magic that even I could sense it) approached and pompously announced. ”Peasant! You are in the presence of Imperial Prince Avalon and the Holy Paladins serving under his most exalted banner. You shall kneel in fealty!”
I puffed up my chest and spat to the side. “I kneel to no bandit who threatens my home and livelihood!”
The Paladin’s face contorted in rage. “ARE YOU DAFT, BOY?!? HOW DARE YOU COMPARE HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY TO MERE OUTLAWS?!?”
With a bored expression and a flat tone, I replied. “You’re here to take what doesn’t belong to you. Banditry is banditry no matter how fancy you look or how shiny that silver spoon in your mouth is.”
“YOU DARE…”
I cut him off. “This will go a lot faster if you do the talking, Princey-boy. Tell your bitch to shut it.”
Before that ticked off Paladin could draw (and he looked like he really wanted to draw his fancy sword), the Prince cleared his throat. That got his attention as he stopped, with rage still simmering on his face.
“Rummy of Carnwennan, I presume?” He asked in a curiously calm tone.
“Rummy of Pridwen.” I replied. “I have not been a subject of the Empire for some time.”
Before the Paladin erupted once more, a scholarly-looking man in an ornate robe (likely an Archmage) stepped forward and countered. “This town you’ve impressively built resides on Imperial land.”
I scoffed. “If only claiming something truly makes it yours. Tell me, Archmage, do you see any Imperial presence around here?”
Unlike the easily excitable Paladin, he took that jab in stride. “As I recall, I did see 5 Imperial Eagles here.” He subtly smirked as he reposted.
Damn, they fielded 4 Household legions plus the 626th? Though I doubt any of them are fully manned, that’s 25000 men on paper. Given what I saw at the battlements, they managed to get around 18000 to Pridwen. Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have slacked on the bullets production. Still, the fact that they managed to march that many men through hostile terrain and not lose half the army was impressive enough. Unlike the Paladin, that Archmage was no fool.
“A foreign eyesore that shall be removed posthaste.” I casually countered.
Oh boy, at this point, you could see the steam coming out of the Paladin’s ears. He erupted in rage. “YOU WILL PAY FOR INSULTING THE MAJESTY OF-”
“There will be decorum, Ser Palusi. Your Prince demands it.” A calm and steady voice stopped the rampaging bull in its tracks. He then turned to me. “Ser Rummy, I grow tired of these clever games. I propose we initiate negotiation from the common understanding that you are a foreign entity to be absorbed into the Holy Artorian Empire. That is what you are after, yes?”
I politely smiled. “Indeed. Although you will not be negotiating with me, but with the Lady of Pridwen.” I gestured to Tali, purposely choosing to address her with her title and refusing to address the Prince with his. The Paladin got a good rise outta that dig.
From first glance, the Prince certainly had more going on inside his head than the average Carnwennan noble. He was able to track the subtext of what me and the Archmage were getting at. If we began negotiating as traitors who left the Empire, I doubt we’d get any concessions beyond “we won’t throw you in prison, for now.” But if we negotiated as a foreign entity, the Empire historically would offer generous terms for agreeing to fall under their banner.
Of course, I had no intention of ever returning to the imperial fold, at least not until I truly trusted this Prince guy (who knows if that’d ever happen). But they didn’t need to know that~
Prince Avalon passed the first test, but there were plenty of other tests left on the docket. Ideally, I would maintain independence while slowly transferring some obsolete tech after years of trust-building. That is, if I were to go down the path of peace.
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Aside from a slight frown, Avalon didn’t show any reaction to my slights. “I suppose that is the proper way to go about it.” He then turned to Tali. “Lady Natalia, in exchange for agreeing to come under Imperial sovereignty and surrendering your forgemaster, I shall name you the Lady of Carnwennan and exempt you from any Imperial taxes or levies for no less than 20 winters.”
Tali, who was playing the good cop, curtsied before replying. “Your Grace, as generous as your terms may be, what is to stop some noble upstart from usurping a woman’s city?”
The Archmage chuckled and answered. “As foolhardy as those gentlemen are, I doubt any of them are foolish enough to openly defy an order of an Imperial Prince.”
Tali, undeterred, pressed on. “Please allow me to be blunt, your Grace. I have concerns that after you depart for the capital with my forgemaster, I will be left without any proper means to defend my claim and my dependents. I fear that by the time you’ve realized that something is amiss, it would be too late since the capital is months away.”
Nice, Tali. Just like we drew it up. Now let’s see how he responds.
“Surely, after your ascension as Lady, there would be many Knights flocking to your newly-raised banner. Even so, I am willing to offer a small detachment of guards to guarantee your security.”
“Your Grace, I thank you for your generosity, but it is simply not enough to guarantee my personal safety. My dependents are under threat as well.” She pleaded.
“Lady Natalia, if you are aware of the world-ending threats that will soon descend upon this land, you would not be belaboring this point.”
“Your Grace, I propose that I and my forgemaster remain in Pridwen. I shall invite forgemasters from the Empire to learn how to forge rifles in exchange for raw materials. After sufficient trust has been built, I shall allow the techniques for forging the machine guns and mortars to be shared.”
Before the Prince could say anything, the Archmage stepped in. “Lady Natalia, surely you are not suggesting we move the Imperial Forge to Pridwen?”
“Archmage..?”
“Archmage Schuma, at your service, my Lady.” He politely bowed..
“Archmage Schuma, what his Grace does with the Imperial Forge is a matter beyond my station. Pridwen was completely designed and operated by Forgemaster Rummy. It is optimized to function as he envisioned from the gathering of raw ores to the final product. There is no better place to learn, in my humble opinion.”
Avalon pondered for a brief moment, but his answer was as sure as it was quick. “Lady Natalia, I am afraid I have to decline your proposal. As amazing and miraculous as this town is, it has a small fraction of the production capability of the Imperial Forge. That is where Rummy needs to be as we try to fend off the impending disaster. I am afraid that I cannot concede on this point.”
Tali shook off the flat rejection effortlessly. “If that is the case, I am afraid negotiation has broken down. Now shall we move onto the final topic of prisoner ransom and repatriation before the siege begins?”
The Archmage lost his cool a bit and cut in. “My Lady, I fear that you do not understand the dire situation you are in. You are besieged by 5 legions- surely some concessions had to be made if you want to guarantee the safety of your dependents.”
Tali, ever graceful under the heavily implied threat, politely smiled. She then reached for her holster, took out Cleopatra and pointed the pearly white pistol at my head. “I understand that the only concession I need to make is not kill the one person you are here for. Everything else is negotiable~”
The Paladins were understandably concerned. Meanwhile, I had a shit-eating grin despite a gun in my face. Damn, my woman is such a badass~
Credit to the Prince. He remained cool and collected despite our attempts to rattle him. “I admire your fire, Lady Natalia. However, I doubt you have the resolve to kill the only man you have ever trusted. Besides, I fear that you are underestimating the might and precision of the Imperial Legions if you think we cannot capture him in open combat. So my terms remain the same. I pray you reconsider your position."
After a dramatic pause, he grimly warned. "You shall not expect the same level of generosity the next time we parley.”
Tali coolly sheathed her sidearm and replied. “Unlike your Grace, I am willing to leave our current terms available for the duration of this siege. Perhaps after sufficient legion blood had wet the grounds of Pridwen, we could revisit them? I would imagine that the pain of losing the legions necessary to contest the throne is… sobering.”
Damn. This is why I leave the negotiations to her. Way to grab his Imperial ambitions and (rhetorically) beat him in the head with it, sweetie! After all, competent and loyal legions don’t grow on trees, and who knows when the next succession war would kick off?
Still, there goes our hope for a peaceful resolution. Sigh, I fully expected this, but it still felt… disappointing? Hopefully after winning a few battles, they’ll start to see us as equals. Until then, they’d never respect us enough to treat on an equal standing.
Archmage Schuma then tried to finish the parley. “Regarding the topics of prisoners- we have none. We were unable to capture the patrol and were forced to kill both of them in the process.”
Fuck. Poor Ratty and his girlfriend. They didn’t deserve this. And poor wolves, too. Well, the very least I could do is to avenge them. I shall do just that.
“So much for the might and precision of the Imperial legion.” I bitterly quipped.
The Paladin finally lost his restraint. “There is no need to spare street rats from their fate, boy!”
“Perhaps not. But that could’ve pleasantly surprised me and earned my favor. Because as it is now, I’d rather die than to help this shitty Empire. Hell, I would even die with a smile on my face, knowing that it would mean the certain doom of those old fuckers in the Pantheon.”
“SUCH BLASPHEMY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!” The Paladin had to be restrained by the other escorts from charging towards me.
“Why do you provoke the good Paladin, Ser Rummy?” Schuma strained as he and his cohort tried to hold back a raging bull. Avalon looked towards this devolving sideshow with stern disapproval.
“Because I want to challenge the arrogant bastard to a duel!” I smirked as I replied.