“So… I’ll take that as a yes.” Ajax broke the silence and everyone focused on him once again. “Seeing as I never heard of any such bonds it probably takes some very special plants or some farmer somewhere would have already shared it.”

All of the elves present focused on Ajax as he spoke, even Elara, Arianwyn and Aranor had been shocked since having an elf bonded to tree fortresses was the way the elves not held their capital palaces but even secured their border fortresses, this was one of the reasons their borders hadn’t grown all that much since they were established, it took ages for a new fortress to be grown.

“Since I went through a few elf cities on my way here I am going to guess that this specific species of tree is the only one you have that you can actually bond with.” Ajax continued to explain his train of thought. “Seeing as there were some young looking roots around the outside of the palace whose thin trucks had barely started to merge I am guessing that the supply for seeds isn’t an issue. That leaves either a question of bonding to them extremely difficult or that the resources to nurture them are rare and valuable, or both.”

Aranor looked at Ajax with renewed respect. He had long since respected Ajax as a fighter but after watching him in a social setting his opinion of him had somewhat settled, his skill when it came to any strategy based game also let him know that he would never be a master strategist. With this however Aranor marked Ajax not only as the future powerhouse of Gryndor but the most important person even at the current moment.

Queen Swiftleaf could only blame herself as she did her best to not look towards the beastkin that was in the room.She had pushed for the interrogation but that was all she could do. With Ajax cooperating so readily she didn’t even have grounds for aggressively confirming he wasn’t holding anything back, she knew he wasn’t because of her Epic truth telling skill that had passed its second threshold. All she could do was ask herself ‘why didn’t I tell the beastkin to wait outside for this, now The Republic would also have access to information about the Fortress guardians.

Elara was impressed with Ajax’s deductive reasoning. He had been right on all accounts so far. The last guess was a little off, he was technically correct. It was extremely resource intensive to not only grow but even maintain the fortress trees and that bonding with one was hard and only got harder as the tree aged. The last point was moot however as the elves had figured out a way to guarantee the tree would accept a bond but preparations needed to start from the birth of the new fortress guardian and those could only begin after the last guardian died. Her own younger cousin was the new Fortress guardian for their own estate after all and she had witnessed the process.

“You are correct.” the queen said with a sigh. “My nephew is the fortress Guardian for the palace.”

“Nephew?” Ajax couldn’t help but exclaim, with a single sentence the queen tore down a lot of his theories and started a new bunch in their place.

“Ugh!” the queen groaned as she realized her own slip-up moments too late.

“You have a way to get someone bonded with the tree.” Ajax wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings any more as he started thinking aloud as he had done many times over the years when researching anything with Balthazar or duke Manashaper. “From the title however there can only be one person bonded at a time, since your nephew holds the position despite being in the same generation as Arianwyn it suggests the preparation has to be started early in life, not only that but it can’t be started until the previous guardian has died. If the guardian was to be killed it would be a while until the next one could step up.”

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That was a very dangerous realization to come to, and while most people present were smart enough to have schooled their expression after the queen’s little slip-up the prince had good enough social skills that not all of them could guard their expressions well enough from him. By focusing on the younger members of the royal family the prince was getting all the confirmations he needed. The prince hadn’t initially been happy about the interrogation but he was very satisfied with the results, they wouldn’t even need to test Ajax’s theories now since he was confirming them all as they left his mouth.

“But why?” Ajax continued. “Does the tree need to be old enough before it can bond? Can it not be moved after it was bonded? What would happen if the small sapling that was added to the main tree had someone bonded to it? Would one of the bonds be broken? Would it be like the smaller tree died?”

“Wait what?” Ajax was interrupted as one of the younger elves in the royal family turned confused towards his own family. “Does that work?”

The queen herself was starting to get a little flustered now, it was only her father’s presence next to her that helped her keep her composure as she thought about the possibilities of Ajax’s theories.

The elves knew the answers to some of the questions Ajax had posed but others hadn’t ever been attempted. The queen could almost feel the pain from her vaults at the cost of the experiments.

“You never tried?” The previous outburst had brought Ajax back to the present and he had enough awareness to not question the queen so the question was posed to Arianwyn.

“It's very difficult to get a new tree to grow outside of the area where one is already present.” Arianwyn explained. “It would take years to even attempt the experiment.”

Left unsaid was that it would obviously be tried as soon as she returned to her kingdom. Despite the exorbitant costs it represented a chance that the elves could remove the period of vulnerability that came as fortress guardians died and were replaced.

“Well, that was a rather interesting theory.” the prince said with a grin so smug he was almost radiating. “I think it’ll be worth a lot.”

“I agree.” The former king nodded wisely. “The boy just proved he deserves the greatest reward we can offer someone like him.”

“Don’t accept.” Anna’s voice was barely a whisper meant for Ajax but quite a few other people also heard it and turned to her in turn.

“Why?” Ajax asked, confused.

“You’re human.” Anna didn’t hesitate and now that everyone was focused on her she didn’t bother to whisper. “The greatest reward they can offer a human is their freedom since all humans here are slaves. You accept and you walk away with nothing.”

The look of wise benevolence on the former king’s face was briefly replaced by a snarl for a moment as his scheme was revealed. The queen was quick to take control of the situation.

“That is enough for today.” the queen spoke as she returned to her throne. “You are dismissed. An appropriate reward for your information will be prepared and presented to you before you leave following your delve.”

The group was more than happy to take the queen up on her offer. Ajax himself was all but leading as he hurried to get out of the palace and he was not the only one. For the last few days the entire team had either been inside the dungeon or waiting around right outside the arch. The prince and Aranor were both strong enough that they could go days without sleep and even they were starting to get affected let alone everyone else.

“Thanks for that.” Ajax told Anna once they were a decent distance away from the throne room.

“No need for thanks, my consulting fee is 10%.” Anna replied without skipping a beat. Her delivery was so good Ajax had thought she was serious for a moment before a smile replaced the stoic emotionless look she always used during a negotiation.

“That went about as well as I could have hoped for.” The prince tried to bring up everyone’s spirits. “Though Xavier you best prepare for a duel after the delve.”

“What why?” Xavier sounded surprised.

“The royal family will want a chance to prove their might, that will be with a duel.” the prince explained. “Now while it is Ajax who showed them up they know for a fact there is no way a duel with him will show that. As a prince of Gryndor you will be the target.”

“We can deal with that when it happens.” Lexi said as she wrapped herself around Ajax’s arm once more but there was no need to drag him this time. “I just want to get some sleep.”