Jakob was with Jayln when she returned. His huge arms were crossed but Fenrin's eyes immediately flew to the ring of keys in his meaty fist.

"Give me a moment alone with him, please," Jayln asked and Jakob obliged, giving Fenrin a wary, if not straight up dirty, look.

Jayln seemed tired. She hesitated with every movement, questioning if she was making the right choice. "I've decided...to trust you."

Fenrin didn't hide his surprise and Jayln held up a hand to fend off any smart remark. "At least to try to trust you. I want to make a deal. If I let you go, you send your remaining men south to keep Lyra away from my village. Meanwhile, you and I head elsewhere on a journey of sorts. We can go somewhere wild for you to find your new estate or whatever it is you want. After two months, we come back and decide whether we can be allies."

Fenrin let her continue, "I believe you see the value our village has to offer and this would give you a chance to use what we have towards furthering your goal. So either we make an alliance or you lose that chance."

He pondered this idea. "Love or War huh?"

"Essentially," Jayln responded dryly. "Of course, there'd be a few more particulars if you agreed."

"Such as I not kill you as soon as I'm free."

Jayln didn't even blink. "Even if you could, you wouldn't make it out of our village alive. I didn't think you'd been in here so long you'd forget how effective our jitsu is."

"So you're bargaining your life on this deal?"

"My life was in danger the moment you entered our land. If I can minimize the risk to just myself, I will have done my job."

Fenrin found he respected Jayln for that answer. It was brutal and realistic but with that selfless optimistic strain Fenrin still found hard to understand.

Of course, Jayln was missing a very obvious flaw in her plan, but he wasn't going to mention it. If he agreed, he could just leave and come back with a bigger army and torture her people into giving up their secrets.

Stolen story; please report.

Luckily for her, he mused, the idea of trying out her negotiations was intriguing enough to make it worth the effort. "Alright, what about those 'few particulars'?"

Jayln straightened slightly, meeting Fenrin's eyes. "We need to come to a agreement of certain rules for each other to follow. I have one I want and therefore in movement towards equal power, you need to present your own."

"And what's your one rule?" Fenrin asked with playful curiosity.

"For those two month we travel together you cannot murder anyone."

Fenrin laughed, his hands on his sides. He gave Jayln his hungry grin. "You're asking a wolf to give up hunting?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "No I'm asking a man to avoid unnecessary bloodshed for two months in order to solidify an alliance. And, as I said, you would place a rule on me as well."

Still amused by her audacity, Fenrin thought over what he could ask for. What would be as restrictive towards her nature as her rule was to him? Ah...

He held up a finger. "Alright, my one rule is you have to obey my every order for those two months."

Jayln didn't laugh, she just stiffened and pressed her lips together. "That defeats the balance of power."

"So does restricting my ability to do my job, let alone my very nature."

"It's in no one's nature to murder."

"On that we disagree."

Jayln took a deep breath and bit her lip thoughtfully. "Your rule is too broad. Mine was limited to murder, not defending oneself, etcetra. I won't obey orders that ask me to take anyone's life and I reserve the right to refuse orders that would endanger my people."

Fenrin's eyes widened, she was actually going to agree? They narrowed again—it was always possible she never intended to follow any rule.

Then again maybe he wouldn't either.

She saw the look in his eyes and held up two palms. "It's a rabbit hole I know. Everything depends on us trusting each other, which is the point of the whole arrangement. If it falls apart, it falls apart, no talk here will change that."

Jayln stuck her hand out and stepped forward. "Do we have a deal?"

Fenrin could see the fear in her eyes, the hesitation. He could smell it on her, his instincts telling him to turn that fear into reality. But mind had been ruling over instinct since being in the cell, so his curiosity won out.

He took her hand, but couldn't resist yanking her up to the bars, whispering into her ear as she flinched, surprised by his strength.

"Now let me out of this cage."