When Seth and the others arrived a the police headquarters they found it secured and guarded by vampires. Vlad had already met up with Leana and they set up a command structure to manage the present people and fighters.
Taking their current situation into account, Seth was not given any time for a break. While Yulecat's Fur and the others were given some temporary room, the blacksmith was forced to take part in a meeting to exchange their information and decide how to continue.
Currently present in the room were Leana, Idyllin, Vlad, Hesing, Seth, Genevieve, and some leaders of Sigma.
Although Vlad had already informed Leana and the higher-up of Sigma of what happened from his perspective and Seth knew the rough situation of Sigma from Idyllin and the others, they had to match their information and get everyone on the same level before coming up with a plan.
There were technically two rough solutions.
Leana had previously argued in favor of evacuating the populace to Delta. The quicker they managed to get everyone to safety, the smaller was the chance that any of the Ethnarchs getting in their way.
"With the vampires taking over the fighting and guarding the breach in the barrier, I think we should destroy the rest of the towers and bring back the whole piece of Sigma." Vlad advocated fervently.
It found much approval among the others from Sigma. It was understandable. Who would want to leave their home in some twilight dimension and become a refuge in a foreign district? Not wanting to leave was understandable when there was an option to bring everything back.
The counterargument was that even if they brought everything back to Urth, it would not change that Sigma District was situated at the border to the Beyond and nothing would stop these being from repeating what they did.
And there was another flaw in both approaches.
"And leave us behind again. How typical." Genevieve commented poisonous at Vlad's suggestion.
With this, she meant, that the vampire would not be able to come back to Urth with them unless the oath was broken. Which it wasn't, yet. A small detail that had not come up, yet.
"What do you mean? Didn't I bring Seth to defeat the 13th Ethnarch and free our people?" Vlad countered as if it was natural that this was the order of things.
His sister stared at him blankly while the bard broke the serious atmosphere with a fit of laughter.
"I didn't expect that my speech would be so potent, that even you fell for it. Shouldn't you be the one who knows the clearest, that all of it was a beautiful lie?"
He pointed at himself, Genevieve, and Vlad.
"Between the three of us, we know you never intended to spare another thought for your people, if all this had not happened."
The bard's words were just the right thing to cut into Vlad's heart like a searing hot blade. The delusions built by Seth's speech that had woven together with the excuses he had made for himself, crumbled apart in one go.
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For the first time, Vlad really faced what he had done to his people. He had abandoned them when he couldn't take it anymore and he had used them when it was convenient for him, all with the glorious belief of doing the best thing, the right thing for everyone.
The man's descent was vividly expressed on his face and Seth spotted a smile playing around the corners of Genevieve's mouth as she watched it happen. Of course, Seth didn't mean to blame Vlad, although he couldn't agree with his actions, it didn't faze the blacksmith for he did not care about the Vampires.
"So you really gave them an empty promise?!" Leana exclaimed exasperated.
"What do you mean? If that thing had appeared in our way at any point before coming here I would have tried to killed it and freed them. But it didn't appear." Seth said earnestly. After hearing that Vlad could literally bind them into obedience with an oath, the blacksmith had made some loose plans. It would have been a lie that his intentions were purely virtuous. Who wouldn't covet a loyal force of super powerful people?
Since they spoke about the creature with such fear, Seth had expected the 13thEthnarch to appear in front of them and stop them, when the vampires moved into action and left their territory. But no such thing happened.
Now the situation had changed. Seth had finished his quest, he had his dragon scales, and the people he cared about were beside him and in safety. They even had a good plan that would mean a happy end for most people currently present in The Wards.
He so absolutely had no reason to go out of his way and stay in this grotesque twilight zone full of terribly powerful beasts, just to search for one specific unknowingly powerful entity and fight it. The blacksmith would rather give up on recruiting the vampires altogether.
That was, of course, only if he really couldn't pick them up on the way. Seth had a sneaking suspicion and another loose plan depending on how everything would unfold. But it was not yet time to share it.
Instead, he passed the hot potato.
"Princess Leana, don't you maybe know of a way to break this dolts oath and free the vampires from his promise?" he asked candidly.
As the princess of a multidimensional empire that had connections to many strange places, there was nothing weird about expecting her to know something about it.
"...None. I'm sorry," she said after a heavy moment of silence.
These vampires' magic of oaths was based on everything having a true name and knowing it gave them power over it. This was not a new concept, but the princess had no way to break a contract made like this, except by killing one side.
Everyone's mood became heavy. No matter what plan they chose, they all knew that they would need the help of the vampires. The best solution would have been an earnest way to free them. Having no such way put them before a dilemma that bore heavy on most of their minds.
Would they tell the vampires and hope that they would help anyway? Or would they keep them in blissful ignorance until they already got what they wanted? In that case, would Genevieve even let them do that?
For some reason, it never crossed anybody's mind, that they could try and pressure the blacksmith into finding the 13th Ethnarch while they took care of the towers. They didn't realize, but something in Seth's politely spoken words had made it unmistakably clear that this was not the solution to their problem.
Hearing Leana did not have a method to save the vampires and seeing them all troubled, the bard saw his chance. Now was the perfect time to reveal his plan.
…
"Is it time yet?" a disembodied voice asked in the void.
"Just a little longer," another voice answered.
"Yes, yes. Let them squirm a little longer," a third said.
"Isn't it fun to watch them run around? Thinking they have any hope to escape?" a fourth agreed.
"But don't they?" a fifth, slightly higher one asked.
"Don't they what?" the fourth said.
"Have hope to escape? That oldie seemed capable. ," the fifth explained.
"Now that you say it...that guy with the snake makes me feel uneasy. The fire he used and he had an unsettling aura about him," a young sixth voice added.
"Unnecessary worries. No matter what they do, we can just step in and stop it. Imagine their expressions when they are just about to succeed only for all they hope to come crashing down and crumble apart when we step in," the second said certainly.
"Their despair will be delicious." several voices said in sync.