Minister Ilen Zxystar regarded me carefully from the other side of the large, semicircular table that filled most of the council chamber. I sat between my religious and military leaders, with Desdemona at my left side and Shatterbone to my right. Farther along Desdemona’s side sat Phaedra and Asmodeus. Next to Shatterbone sat the other senior Generals of the Legion, Krez and Braz. Ilmatar sat off to one side, his chair in the corner of the room. And there I was, at the middle of the table’s curve, sitting directly across from a snake person, with too many sets of eyes upon me.
The council chambers had a more understated tone than the Halls of War. There was no mural behind us depicting a glorious battle. Instead, the walls were adorned with various geometric patterns, swirls of black and purple.
“It is only a matter of time until the Army of Light brings their war to you, too,” I said to the Minister, speaking in fluent Vipertongue. “We both know this.” In fact, I did not know this. But it was the type of thing I would not want to hear if my name was Ilen Zxystar, and I was foreign minister of a country at war with a nation that ideally should have been my ally.
Both the Principality of Ophidium and the Queendom of Arachnia had plenty of mutual enemies on the other side of the world, enemies who could have destroyed either of them in isolation. From reading the Book, there’d been at least ten smaller military conflicts in the last three hundred years between Ophidium and one of the Divine nations, usually the Emerald Confederacy, a mixed-race nation of humans, elves, and dwarves located on the other side of a massive inland sea from both the snakefolk and Arachnia. The Emerald Confederacy, naturally, was currently a member of Sun-Domia’s Grand Alliance.
Ilen watched me from across the table as if waiting to see what else I would say.
“For now, a majority of the Light’s hatred is indeed reserved for Dreadthorn,” I continued. “But a majority is not a totality, Minister, and the Light will not spare your people forever.” I thought of what I’d read in the Books, the injustices that all of the Void-touched had experienced. “Do not forget the pogroms. When the Emerald Confederacy had the chance, what did they do?”
“This is true, my Lord. But the pogroms were long ago, and my people have more pressing concerns. The Principality views Arachnia as a more immediate threat. After all, they were the ones who attacked us. We did not start this war.”
“Be that as it may,” I said, switching back to the demonic tongue now, as I realized that most of the demons around the table had no idea what we’d just been saying. “What would it take for you to make peace with Arachnia?”
“Full reparations-s,” Ilen said, seamlessly switching to demonic as well. I couldn’t help but admire his apparent skill in both languages. “And a formal apology from Queen Aran to the Great Serpent.”
“What kind of reparations?”
Ilen shook his head, and his hood fanned out on either side of him. It was strange to speak to a creature who looked as he did and even stranger to be able to understand him. “It is pointless to negotiate until we know whether Arachnia will pay a single piece of copper, or even apologize for that matter.”
“Have you tried to negotiate peace on your own?”
Ilen hissed under his breath. “Of course. I would not be here to beg for your mediation if we had not. Queen Aran was clear that our terms-s were not agreeable to her. We asked for the same things we’re asking for from you. We have been remarkably consistent in our demands-s.”
“And what makes you think Dreadthorn can do any better?” I asked.
“You have things to offer that we do not,” Ilen said, switching back to Vipertongue again, a knowing look in his eye.
I had a feeling I knew exactly what he was referring to. I thought of the Princess, of how cold her fingers had felt in my hand yesterday. Had the Arachnians really started the war, as Ilen claimed? I was pretty sure the Princess would dispute that, but it made this whole situation much more complicated, if no one could even agree how it had started.
After a moment of silence, Ilen’s eyes focused on me, and he tilted his head slightly as if deciding to take a different approach. “Dark Lord, I must admit that I do not understand—why has Dreadthorn sold us so much produce only to attempt peace later? Why do we not simply band together against the Arachnians, who we obviously all despise for their treachery, and conclude the war on our terms?”
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I wondered if my ability to understand every language had somehow failed. What did he mean by produce? I frowned and looked at Mona, but to my surprise, I saw that she seemed just as confused as I was. But though she was frowning thoughtfully, I saw her eyes dart across the table, suspiciously settling on Shatterbone.
Shatterbone cleared his throat and said, “Apologies, Dark Lord, if there is any confusion. The Minister refers to shipments from the imp farms we have been selling to the snakefolk.”
“And the treaty?” I asked. “The one that forbids trade?”
He smirked. “That is why I did not wish to tell you, Master. You should not need to worry about the underhanded things that must be done to preserve your domain in your absence. We have been smuggling the shipments through an underground tunnel network dug by the snakefolk. The Grand Alliance already began to prepare for war since before we summoned your divinity, so upholding the treaty any further was pointless, as we’d long since violated it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “So you’ve been selling to Ophidium for a long time, since before my arrival,” I said. “Haven’t you? I assume you’ve been doing so for years.”
Shatterbone nodded. “Hence the need for the tunnels. The Grand Alliance was never the wiser.”
But even if this was true, I wondered, why was produce from the imp farm useful in a war? What the hell were they selling? Somehow I doubted it was cabbage and potatoes.
“Ah,” I said. “You’ve done adequately, General.” I had no idea if he had done well or not, but it seemed unwise to question him in front of a foreign dignitary. I turned back to Ilen. “We must have both profited greatly from keeping trade alive between our nations.”
“Indeed, Dark Lord, and as our people have been true friends all these years and have kept faith with you in perpetuity, we do not necessarily see any reason to entertain the Arachnians, who have been duplicitous aggress-sors against us, in the slightest. With Dreadthorn’s assistance, we could bully them into submission. But if you wish to avoid that…” Ilen slithered off his chair and rose to his full height, looming over the table. I stared at him, knowing that in this moment, it would only show weakness to look away. “You know Ophidium’s terms. I return to the Principality tomorrow morning, Dark Lord, and will relay whatever answer you give me to the Great Serpent. But pleas-se consider us, who have been with you all along.”
I nodded. “I will keep that in mind.”
After a slight bow, he turned and slithered towards the door. The guards opened the council doors to let him pass, and out in the entrance hallway between our chamber and the elevator, I caught sight of Princess Nymphyra.
She was pacing back and forth as her attendants frantically tried to stay in control of the train of her dress. I had expected her to wear something more practical today, but I had been mistaken. The only difference was that today her ridiculously long dress was pure white, almost the same color as her skin, as if she were a ghostly apparition haunting the tower.
The Princess stopped pacing as the Minister walked past her, and she stared at him with a haughty expression. Ilen nodded at her coldly as he slunk to the elevator, giving her a wide berth.
I must have been so distracted by the news of our apparent smuggling operation and by trying not to offend Minister Ilen, that I hadn’t sensed the arrival of Princess Nymphyra’s aura outside. At the center of her soul, I noticed a darkness, like a tiny version of the Void itself, a black core from which no light escaped.
I wondered what it meant to have such a Will, what it represented within her. Though I was becoming sensitive to the magic that burned within each soul, I had no idea how to interpret their light and shadow.
The closest I had been to understanding, perhaps, was with Mona the previous night, as I had watched our Wills intermingle, even coalesce for those brief moments where we wholly shared each other. From everyone else, I caught only glimpses of their nature, fragments of their inner light.
When the Princess caught me looking at her, she took a deep breath, and her face changed from the outrage she had directed at Ilen to a calm, perhaps overly practiced smile. Her features were refined, almost cruel, as you might expect from an aristocrat. Her glowing red eyes were striking against her pale, ash-colored skin.
“Please enter, Princess Nymphyra Aran of Arachnia. We have much to discuss.”
She turned up her nose as she approached. Between her and her two attendants, the sound of twenty-four pointy legs tapping against the marble echoed throughout the chamber, a cacophony of chattering footsteps. Though I’d spoken in demonic, the Princess replied in the smooth and silky tones of the tongue of Arachnia. “We certainly do, Great One. Did you really see snakey-boy before me?” To her credit, her expression looked suitably aggrieved—her eyes wet with the glimmer of tears, her mouth curled—that I was not entirely sure if she was putting on an act or if she was genuinely offended that I had made her wait. “Whatever he told you, he’s full of shit.”
Her directness was so far from what I had expected that I could only stare at her, smirking slightly.
She waited next to the chair Ilen had sat in as if refusing to occupy the same place, and flicked her human fingers at it until one of her attendants briefly dropped her train and dragged the chair to the side. Her fingernails were long and slightly curved, like the claws of a beast.
Something about her, a predatory nature, made me wonder if the Minister had told the truth. If perhaps the Arachnians were the aggressors. But I would need to hear her out either way. Once again, the fate of so many souls now rested on my shoulders. That fact, more than ever, weighed on my mind. It was not enough that I had to consider the demons. Now, spiders and snakes in countries I had never seen would also be subject to my whims.
With her pathway cleared, the Princess approached and tapped her fingernails on the council table in a staccato rhythm. “Well then, Dark Lord,” she said boldly, holding her smile as she stared me down. “As you said, let’s discuss.”