Anastacia’s room turned out to be much, much larger than she could have even dreamt of. It came with a bed so large that it could have comfortably fit ten small necromancers in it without getting crowded, a window as big as any of the walls in her room at the inn, a small library that consisted of hundreds of plays and memoirs from famous people, a bath almost as large as the shared ones in Valor and even a balcony, in case she needed to freeze herself to death. In all accounts, the room was fit for a royalty, which she technically was.
The outfit she had been given was not at all what she had expected either, it consisted of a white, long-sleeved silk undershirt, a purple side buttoned waistcoat with the guild’s emblem embroidered on it with golden string, a pair of white trousers that were a bit uncomfortably tight, a weird piece of purple cloth that attached to the belt and covered her left leg. Yet the strangest part was the set of three knives attached to the right thigh. Since the officials didn’t really rely on violence, it was odd that their attire had weapons. Combined with her own knife, staff and five spears bundled on her back, she was about as armed to the teeth as she could be, though she slightly regretted not taking her new fancy sword along.
“Maybe I should pursue a career in diplomacy? I look amazing in uniform.” She marveled and spun around in front of a mirror.
“Mmh…” Lumira grunted from the doorway. “Hair still looks like pinecones might fall out if I shake you too much.” She commented gruffly.
“Nah, acorns maybe. Anyway, you’re just jealous because you don’t have a bunch of knives on you.” Sneered the necromancer back at the dark elf.
“I’d only need my hands to snap you in two. Can’t believe the guild would send some twerp like you…” The vice commander scoffed and pounded her fists together.
Figuring this was what Nikolai had meant with his advice about baring teeth, Anastacia grinned as widely as she could and stared into the elf’s red eyes. “Your hands would get snapped in two if you tried!” She laughed and bopped the confused vice commander’s nose with a finger before slipping past her into the hallway. “Now, you were going to show me around?”
Lumira groaned quietly but fixed her posture and started walking down the corridor at an almost unnaturally fast pace. “The second floor is reserved for the guests. As you go down this corridor, in order the rooms are: Nikolai’s room, my room, the guild master’s room, your room, and then Mournvalley, Vul, Mon Quasai, Toumarill, Astra and Ou.” She explained and pointed at the doors one by one.
“You’ve put the Mournvalley representative’s room right next to mine, are you expecting them to cause trouble?” Anastacia asked and squeaked her boots on the waxed wooden floor.
“We’ve put it as far away from Ou as physically possible, those two are guaranteed to tear into each other at some point, but that’s your problem now, isn’t it?” The vice commander said with a hint of defiance in her tone.
They walked along the corridor for a good while, almost long enough to cause some flashbacks for the adventurer from the infinite corridor she and Gilbert had been stuck in. Though the warm and pleasantly lit wooden one they were in now would have been a much more pleasant one for being eternally stuck in. Finally, they arrived at a small lobby with a couple of chairs, a few bookcases and a chessboard table in it. From there their options were a second corridor opposite to the one they had walked though, a staircase to the third floor and a staircase back to the ground floor.
“Over there are some more rooms, currently empty and locked, so they don’t really matter.” Lumira said and nodded towards the other corridor. “The third floor has Nikolai’s personal office, the main library, a small auditorium, a generously equipped bar and such. Explore them on your own time so you don’t waste mine. Fourth floor is reserved for the staff and storage, there’s no reason for anyone to go there.”
The dark elf didn’t waste time asking Anastacia whether she needed to know anything else and instead just headed back downstairs with the necromancer barely being able to keep up without running. At the bottom of the stairs was a short corridor that connected the kitchen and laundry room to the great hall. After quickly glancing if everything was okay at the hall, Lumira led Anastacia to the kitchen of the lodge.
Handily dwarfing Rosie’s kitchen in size and equipment, the cookery was something entirely different. Multiple lit stoves made the room far hotter than the rest of the lodge, and the fuming pots and pans made the air uncomfortably humid. The number of copper pots stacked on top of the cabinets and hanging from the walls was nothing short of mind boggling, as was the speed at which the chefs worked. In total, seven people were working in the kitchen, three humans and four dark elves. Three of them seemed to be chefs, working full time in the kitchen and the other four simply had aprons over their servant’s attires, suggesting that they were only helping out and were usually tasked to do other things.
“These are the people responsible for our food and other services during our stay at the lodge. You may interrogate them later, or whatever it is that you plan on doing.” Lumira introduced the servants and knocked on the counter to get their attention.
Anastacia tried to quickly memorize their faces, just in case. “Hello, everyone! My name is Anastacia, I’m the head, and I suppose the rest of the body as well, of security. It’d make my job a lot easier if any would-be assassins among you could raise their hand now.” She said and smiled happily to her confused audience. “No takers? Okay… I’ll find out who you are sooner or later… Anyway, if one of you sees anything odd, day or night, you come to me immediately. Also, whoever brews the coffee here, I take mine with all the sugar – all of it.”
“Right…” The vice commander sighed. “The meeting once everyone gets here will be followed by a meal, so lets just leave these people to their work and return to the great hall.” She said and left the room in the same hasty but exact and purposeful manner she appeared to do everything in.
Back at the hall, Strawberry was going through the paperwork for the one last time with Nikolai and to Anastacia it almost appeared like he was happy flipping the pages and stacking them neatly on the table in front of him, though noticing that the necromancer returned seemed to kill his mood entirely.
Lumira pointed the necromancer to a chair between Nikolai and Strawberry and sat down on the chair on the other side of her commanding officer.
“I must say, that uniform suits you. Have you thought about a career in the military?” Nikolai laughed and tapped his cane on the floor a couple of times.
“All clothes suit me. Besides, I’m already a queen, so I don’t feel like getting demoted.” Smiled Anastacia and adjusted her trousers by the knees. After she had moved around for a bit, it had become clearer that the uniform wasn’t made for her specifically.
The commander nodded happily and stroked his beard. “Well, if you change your mind, the offer still stands. But let us get to business. After all, you never know if someone decides to arrive early.” He said and placed his cane on the table. The handle caught Anastacia’s attention, as it was carved from bone and had some eerily familiar-looking patterns on it. “The schedule we have planned for the next few days, is as follows: the mornings start with an optional breakfast here, after which we’ll begin the first couple of hours of negotiations of the day. Once we’ve decided that no further progress will be made, everyone is free to roam the lodge, mingle or gather their thoughts until the chefs are done preparing our lunch. Attending the lunch is mandatory for all guests, as it is our tradition that both lunch and dinner are eaten together. After a short rest, we’ll gather here for a second round of negotiations, which may well last until dinner is prepared. Again, dinner is mandatory to all guests as well. After everyone has had their fill, the schedule for the day is over and everyone is free to spend them as they wish. Personally, I’ll retire to my study in the third floor to record what was discussed during the day, feel free to visit me if something is bothering you. As for today, we’ll simply have everyone air out their grievances quickly and have a dinner before letting everyone get familiar with the lodge.”
“Huh, are you sure about the whole mandatory attendance for meals? Wouldn’t it be a bit awkward if the negotiations don’t go well?” Anastacia asked.
“Oh, such matters will be forgotten entirely while we eat.” Nikolai laughed once more. “Vassund is… well, an inhospitable frozen wasteland for a good part of the year. Work tends to be grueling at best for many, and life isn’t as easy as it could be. That’s why the people of Vassund believe that such matters should be firmly set aside for the few moments of respite we get during the day, and instead we focus on the good things in life: good food, good drink and good company.” He explained and patted his vice commander’s back, though the dark elf didn’t seem to be as into the tradition as he was and only sighed in response. “But back to the matter of your assignment. Your only goal is to make sure everyone leaves this lodge in one piece, which you can achieve in the manner of your choosing. I’m sure the guild master traveling with you has informed you about the restrictions of your position as an adventurer, so I’ll not delve into that. As for suggestions, it’d probably be a good idea for you stay right there during negotiations, just in case things get heated. I’ll do what I can to keep things calm, but I’ve no doubt these won’t be easygoing talks we’re heading into. I’ll also have you introduce yourself once everyone is here, if you can pull some fancy trick to impress them, it’d probably help.”
“I’ll figure out something.” Anastacia shrugged. “What about when I sleep? That’s a pretty obvious moment of opportunity for shenanigans.”
“I will be watching the corridor during your rest, but please, keep it at a minimum. I have no way to defend myself, so I can only scream for help if something happens.” Strawberry jumped into the conversation.
Anastacia frowned. “What about the guard, can’t you just have him watch over you, and won’t you need some sleep too? I can’t imagine you’ll have much time between watching me and the negotiations.”
“My guard will not be allowed to enter the lodge as he was not mentioned in the paperwork, instead he’ll spend his time in the stables.” The guild official said and tapped the stack of paper in front of him with his fingers. “As for my sleep schedule, the guild doesn’t deem that information pertinent for your success.”
“Oh…” Anastacia felt slightly bad for the guard, since he would be stuck outside in the cold.
Nikolai noticed this and patted the necromancer’s shoulder. “’tis a good quality in one to worry for others like that, but fret not, lass. We here at Vassund value our horses as much as the rest of our family, so the stables are just as warm as this lodge, and the man will have all the beer and meat he needs – in fact, I’m a bit bummed out that I’m needed here and can’t join him.” He admitted reassuringly.
The host shared a few more details about the lodge with Anastacia while they waited for the guests to arrive, apparently there was a cellar that could be accessed through a hatch in the floor somewhere in the kitchen, but it was only really used as a cold storage for food. Anastacia also mentioned Mikhail, who was apparently a good friend of Nikolai’s and loosely related to Lumira.
Eventually Anastacia could feel two carriages approaching the lodge, neither of them had a necromancer in them, but she figured that she might as well greet them right away and confiscate any weapons they might have. Lumira joined her as the official greeter for the event.
The carriages couldn’t have been more different from each other. Pulled by four sturdy warhorses, the first one to arrive was a large, armored wagon that looked like it could probably shrug off a direct hit from a cannon. The crest on its side had a blacksmith’s hammer and a sword crossed over a shield, which Anastacia recognized as one of the crests drawn on the forms about Vul she had read on the way to the lodge.
The other carriage was drawn by two beautiful steeds that were almost white enough to blend into the snow around them. The carriage itself was fairly ordinary and much like the one Anastacia and Strawberry had traveled in, but the distinguishing feature was the driver, who appeared to be a golem of some sort. A pile of floating rocks tied to each other by glowing white threads that puppeteered its movements. On the side of the carriage was the emblem of the Institute Astraea, the letter A with some magical incantation described on it.
“Vul and Astra, two very different nations, but both always on time. One thought rigorous discipline and the other through scholarly conduct.” Lumira explained and straightened her uniform. “Vul’s representative is the forgemaster Magnon, as for Astra, they should be sending the high magister Ilyu Minerva.”
Anastacia nodded and straightened her own outfit as the representatives stepped down from their carriages and dragged out their luggage. Noticing each other, both bowed slightly and greeted each other. In the closed off yard, the conversation echoed well all the way to the door.
“I see that the children’s storybooks clearly did not exaggerate the hideousness of witches. Have you forgotten to pack your cauldron and broomstick, Ilyu?” The forgemaster said mockingly.
“Ah, forgemaster! Is banging rocks together still going well for you? Or have you discovered the secrets of sharpened sticks yet?” The high magister responded.
Suddenly both of them burst into laughter as they shook each other’s hands and the forgemaster picked up Ilyu’s luggage as well. Though they were supposed to represent two different alliances that were on the brink of a war, there was no hostility to be sensed between the two as they walked up the stairs and greeted Lumira.
The high magister entered the lodge first, as Magnon politely let her. She lowered the hood of her turquoise cloak and stared at Anastacia, almost looking like she was wondering why there was a lost child in the meeting. Probably somewhere in her sixties, the high magister had a long, grayed hair that was tied up on a bun. Though she looked slightly frail, Ilyu also had an aura of dignity that made her a bit hard to look directly at without feeling somehow inferior.
“Uh… My name is Anastacia, I’m in charge of security here. Do you have any weapons on you?” The adventurer mumbled and avoided the mage’s gaze.
“My mind is sharper than any weapon and my tongue can bring forth disaster, how do you suppose I hand them over?” The high magister asked, seeming completely sincere in her inquiry. She then noticed the staff on Anastacia’s back and ran her fingers along it, at the same time, the temperature of the entryway fell sharply as the mage transferred the heat to the staff. “I see… So you’re a student of the arcane arts as well?”
“I… dabble in ice and fire magic.” Anastacia nodded.
Ilyu suddenly smiled warmly. “Perhaps we have things to discuss as well then. As for weapons, I have naught but this ring I use to cool down drinks.” She said and showed her hand to the necromancer. On the mage’s middle finger was a somewhat bulky crystalline ring that had been carved from the same material as Anastacia’s staff. Instead of a gemstone, the ring had a droplet of ice on it to imitate one. “I’m sure you know that it doesn’t have the capacity to cause any harm.”
Indeed, Anastacia had learned enough to know that no matter how powerful the ice mage was, the size of the item they used as a heat sink ultimately decided how much energy it could store before exploding. Though it could still technically be used as a weapon thanks to the explosive nature of the crystal, the loud ringing it made before that would reveal any such intentions, so she figured that there was no harm in letting the mage keep her ring. Besides, it was probably the least of the mischief the high magister could cause.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
While Lumira Announced the arrival of Astra’s representative, forgemaster Magnon stepped inside. At about two meters in height, Vul’s representative was a hulking monster of a man. Being a member of the strange species that made up most of the nation’s population, most of his skin was covered in stone-like material that emanated some heat. Sprouting from his forearms were two metallic spikes that could easily be categorized as weapons, but clearly weren’t going to come off. Despite all this, they still deemed it necessary to clad themselves in armor more often than not, as was the case with the forgemaster. However, the most striking aspects of Magnon were his beautifully golden eyes. It was as if they were filled with liquid gold and as he looked around, small swirls appeared in them.
He put down the heavy looking chest he had been hauling from his carriage and promptly saluted the adventurer by placing his right hand over his chest. “Security?” He asked.
Anastacia nodded and quietly thanked some deity that the forgemaster was susceptible to necromancy, as fire magic probably wouldn’t do much to stop him from doing anything.
“Have you surveyed the perimeter sufficiently?” He continued.
Anastacia nodded again.
“Good.” Magnon approved and took a better look at the small adventurer in front of him. “You have strapped an impressive arsenal of weaponry on you. A rare choice for creatures your size.” He muttered and kneeled to go though his luggage. After a while he turned back to Anastacia and handed a small throwing axe to the necromancer. “Here’s one more, I made it on the way here.”
Though relatively basic, the axe seemed sturdy and like it would do its job if thrown. Because she didn’t have anything to hang it on, Anastacia simply placed it on the bench next to her for the time being. “Thank you, but I have to ask, do you have any other weapons?” She said and pointed at the chest.
The forgemaster stared at the chest for a few seconds before turning back to Anastacia. “You know what? It’s probably better if I just leave that there then.”
“Okay… I can help you later if you need something from there, other than that, the weapons stay with me.” The adventurer said and pushed the chest against a wall, so it was out of the way.
Lumira returned to fetch the forgemaster and quickly show him to his seat before getting back to the door. While they waited for the next guest and the newly arrived ones greeted Nikolai, Anastacia showed her new axe to the dark elf, who for some reason didn’t seem too impressed by the weapon.
Roughly twenty minutes later, the necromancer could feel the next two carriages find their way towards the lodge on the snowy road. This time the first one to arrive was pulled by two oxen, which was somewhat odd, but also revealed who the carriage belonged to, even before the feathered emblem of Toumarill was visible. The fourth carriage to arrive seemed more like a traveling merchant’s wagon than anything, and the crest of Emporium Quasai on it explained why, as it was one of the largest trading companies that controlled the nation of Mon Quasai.
“War chief Fang of Toumarill is a quiet man of faith, I’d keep talking to a minimum if you want to earn his respect.” The vice commander pointed out as the guests hopped out of their carriages. “As for Farcie the Younger… Do not believe anything he says, or you’ll find out where the ‘con’ in ‘economy’ comes from.”
Despite the earlier arrival of Toumarill’s representative, the elf that jumped off the wagon from Mon Quasai rushed to the door faster and almost crashed into Lumira. “Why hello there Lumira, the beauty of snow and ice. Have you been waiting for me eagerly?” He asked with an extremely punchable grin on his face and winked. When the reaction he received from the vice commander was less than nothing, he moved on to Anastacia. “And what’s this? A pale beauty I’ve yet to meet?”
As the elf approached her, Anastacia’s hand unconsciously moved towards the daggers on her leg. While otherwise normal looking for an elf, Farcie the Younger had leaves growing from his neatly greased black hair. His clothes were obviously expensive, and he even had his name embroidered on his vest.
“The name is Farcie the Younger, named after my father, Farcie the Older. Together we are the greatest and the second greatest merchants this world has ever seen – I’ll let you figure out the order.” He repeated a speech that was so obviously rehearsed that it didn’t even sound witty to someone who heard it for the first time.
Anastacia fiddled with the knives strapped to her thigh and took back a step. “Do you have any weapons? I’m in charge of security and have decided to confiscate them all for now.” She asked with the most monotone and uninterested voice she could.
“Security? You? That’s adorable!” The elf exclaimed. “Well, I do have the most powerful weapon there is.” He grinned and pulled a single coin from his pocket. “This buys me as many armed guards as I need, and I do believe that includes you adventurers, does it not? Truly, money is the most powerful weapon out there.”
“Cool.” Anastacia shrugged. “Give me all your money then.”
Farcie’s jaw dropped as his excessive flair seemed to have no effect on the adventurer. “Wh… what? Is this a robbery? What’s going on here?!” He yelled in confusion.
“Sir, you said it yourself, money is a weapon in your hands. Now please, hand over all the money you have on you.” The necromancer insisted, grabbed the coin from Farcie’s hand and tossed it into the corner with the forgemaster’s luggage.
Flabbergasted by the rudeness of the adventurer he considered to be no more than a mere mercenary, the elf looked at Lumira for aid, but the vice commander didn’t seem interested in moving a muscle to help him. “Just wait until my father hears about this…” Farcie muttered and reluctantly handed over several heavy pouches full of coins from his bag before being pushed into the great hall by Lumira.
While all this had happened, an elderly orc had patiently waited for his turn by the door. Oozing the kind of dignity found in old warriors, he reminded Anastacia about Gilbert. Walking with the aid of a cane, he entered the lodge and stared down at the necromancer. His robes were made from a sturdy-looking orange fabric and had plenty of signs of use from the years, or possibly decades they had been used. Clearly Toumarillians didn’t put too much weight into their appearances, but it wasn’t as if the war chief was unwashed or anything, so Anastacia thought the slight scruffiness was charming.
“Greetings.” The war chief said and bowed politely.
Anastacia bowed back. “Hi. Have you got any weapons on you?” She asked as briefly as she could while eying the war chief’s cane, which seemed somehow odd. Because the handle looked a lot like a sword’s handle, she hoped it was one of the trick canes with a blade in them, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“Child, anything is a weapon in the hands of a warrior.” The orc laughed.
“Fair enough.” Anastacia shrugged and let the war chief pass since he didn’t have anything on his belt, and there was no way she could be absolutely sure about anyone without going through their luggage. Not to mention that there was a plentiful supply of decorative weapons and other utensils inside the lodge.
While watching the carriages leave for the nearest town, where they would wait for the meeting to be over, Anastacia listened at the conversation in the great hall. The mood was nothing like she had expected, everyone seemed to be getting along well and there wasn’t even a hint of friction in the air. For a while she even wondered if her presence there was more of a formality than anything else. Eventually the next carriage appeared in the horizon and she told Lumira about it.
The dark elf took a glance at the carriage and sighed. “Get ready.” She said, looking oddly nervous.
“What? Sure, Ou is a major party pooper but it can’t be that bad? Everyone else seems like they’re having fun.” Anastacia asked and started to get a bit worried as well.
“Their representative’s name is Pain, Lady Helia Pain the Pure. So yes, it can be that bad.” Lumira pointed out and nervously straightened her uniform again. “If I were you, I’d just avoid her entirely.”
“No can do, I’m not here to take shit from anyone. Nikolai said I needed to impress the guests, hiding from them isn’t going to do that.” The necromancer said, hiding her nervousness as much as she could. She had hard time even imagining what kind of a monster would get the usually so calm vice commander so worried.
The carriage itself was entirely white and decorated with small gilded carvings that depicted cloaked praying figures. The driver was wearing a set of robes that hid their identity completely and didn’t reveal as much as their hands. Even the horses in front of the carriage were heavily armored with white plates of metal that had been decorated with gold. As it stopped in front of the stairs leading up to the door, the driver hurried to open the door for whoever was inside and carried their luggage to the top of the stairs.
With a bright lantern on her hand, Lady Helia Pain lowered herself onto the stairs and corrected her posture. Wearing a completely white military uniform that wasn’t all that unlike Anastacia’s, the representative of Ou stood taller than even the forgemaster, though far, far nimbler. Her skin appeared to be some kind of a hardened carapace and had lines of spikes running along her forearms and shins. Because her feet were little more than two sharp nails, instead of boots she was simply wearing a pair of white spats with golden buttons on them. Similarly, she only had three fingers that ended in black, razor-sharp nails on her hands.
Without bothering to greet Lumira, the representative waltzed inside and seemed genuinely confused when Anastacia stepped in her way. “Who dares?!” She hissed, brought her lantern closer to the necromancer’s face and intensely stared at her with her pitch-black eyes that only had small orange dots on them for irises. “This is a child?”
“Hi. My name is Anastacia, I’m the adventurer in charge of security.” Greeted the necromancer as happily as she could.
“Is this a dwarf? A goblin? Can an adventurer be so small? But why is it stopping us? We wish to enter. We demand access.” Helia continued hissing and turned her head.
Anastacia smiled and pushed the lantern a bit further away from her face. “I’m going to need you to hand over any weapons you have before you can go in.”
“It mistakenly touched us? Surely it wouldn’t do so on purpose? And it wants weapons. The invite did not mention combat, so why would the pure carry arms? Is the adventurer a filthy idiot? They have hired a filthy idiot.” Helia prattled on and moved the lantern back closer to Anastacia’s face. “A human after all? Tell us, human adventurer Anastacia, have you faith?”
Anastacia scratched her head. “Well, I’ve had dealings with some gods, but I don’t really put much stake on them helping me personally, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“A lesser being of no faith then. We will not waste more time on human adventurer Anastacia. Unless it wishes to become more than filth? But now we must pass. Would the filth move?” The Ouan representative asked, now sounding somehow bored of the conversation.
Getting tired of the rudeness as well, Anastacia stepped aside and sat back down to wait for the final guest, whom she easily dreaded the most.
As soon as Lumira announced the arrival of Lady Helia, the crash landing of the mood in the great hall was almost noticeable as a cold ripple that traveled across the room. The friendly chatter ceased immediately, and the guests returned to their seats to only whisper at the people that were a part of their alliance. Even the host’s attempts at starting conversation did little to mend the situation.
Half an hour of waiting later, Lumira gazed into the darkening horizon and sighed. “They’re running late. I wonder if something happened?” She said and leaned against the wall.
“Well it’s Mournvalley, so maybe they found some nice little village to slaughter and lost the track of time.” Anastacia mumbled.
“You don’t like necromancers?” The vice commander asked and seemed surprised.
Anastacia couldn’t help but to laugh. “I’ll snuggle up with Lady Pain over there in a heartbeat if it gets be from dealing with whatever asshat they’re sending.” She joked.
“Well, for your information, Sir Teal is a good friend of both Nikolai and I, and the entire realm of Vassund. So watch your tone.” Lumira said with a hint more disdain in her voice than usual.
Recognizing the name ‘Teal’ as one of Coquelicot’s apprentices, Anastacia couldn’t help but to wonder why she wasn’t attending the meeting herself, though it was possible that the queen of the necromancer had other meetings to attend. While deep in thought, she didn’t pay attention to her surroundings and was startled by the presence of a strong necromancer when Lumira suddenly perked up.
“Hey, do you think there’s a chance I could chat with this necromancer before he gets in? I’ve got some concerns about him, even if he’s your friend.” The adventurer asked, hoping she could tell Teal not to blow her cover by telling others about her connections to Mournvalley.
Lumira shrugged. “I can’t tell you how to do your job.” She said and opened the door.
Anastacia slipped outside and waded through the snow to get enough distance to the lodge so she wouldn’t get overheard.
The carriage drawn by two reanimated skeletal horses pulled over to the side of the road and its door popped open. Out hopped a young man with the pasty skin of a necromancer and long black hair, whom Anastacia did recognize from their previous dealings. However, he had changed the blue robes of the new inquisition into a long blue coat and a set of far less cult-like clothes. Hanging from his belt was not one, not two or not even three, but six swords, that Anastacia could tell had bone parts in them for obvious reasons.
“Did not expect to see you here.” Teal laughed and took a step closer. “I take it that you’re our adventurer?”
“Yep, and for the record, we don’t know each other and I’m not a necromancer. Unless, you’re here to just kill everyone, in which case, do you want me to burn what’s left of you? I could send the ashes back to Coquelicot.” Anastacia nonchalantly threatened the inquisitor. “Also, I’m going to steal your swords.”
Teal chuckled. “Still don’t like us, huh? Well, whatever. I’m not here to kill anyone, Mournvalley is far better off if this war doesn’t happen. Besides, if I wanted to kill anyone here, I would have just killed my way into their home ages ago. You of all people should know that we don’t dick around like this if we need people dead.”
Anastacia groaned because the inquisitor was right, and she would have to deal with him for the next three days. “Fine! But I’m still taking the swords.” She grumbled.
The inquisitor detached the sheathes from his belt and handed the pile of swords to Anastacia. “There might be a bit of blood on them, I ran into some… hurdles on the way and forgot to clean them.” He admitted and laughed awkwardly.
Fully intending to steal the swords anyway, Anastacia returned to the lodge with the inquisitor and tossed the swords into her growing pile of weapons. Since everyone was now present, she followed Teal and Lumira into the great hall and quickly shuffled to her seat.
“My apologies for the delay, everyone.” Teal greeted the rest of the guests. “I had the misfortune of running into some highwayman-types along the way. However, there was a bit of luck to be found there as well, as when I went through their belongings after our kerfuffle, I found this.” He explained and dug out a pouch of coins from his pocket. “Those rogues had clearly managed to rob some caravan heading out from Ou, because they had this pouch full of coins that were minted in Ou. Isn’t that right, Lady Helia?” He continued with tone so condescending that even Anastacia understood what he was really saying.
Without missing a beat, the Ouan representative responded. “You have acquired our currency? We are truly in luck. What an incredible coincidence.” She lied with absolutely no intention to admit that she herself had paid mercenaries to harass Teal on the way, even if everyone present could guess as much.
When the final guest was shown to his seat along the long table in the middle of the room, Nikolai slowly stood up and banged his cane on the floor a couple of times the get everyone’s attention. He cleared his throat and waited for Lumira to get to her seat as well before speaking up. “Good evening, dear friends. As all of you know, there has been some unforeseen developments in the political climate of this nook of the world in the past months and years. Because of that, I’ve summoned a representative from each of the nations whom it concerns in an effort to ease at least some of the friction that has unfortunately built up between us. As I’ve already explained in detail in your invitations, this lodge is to be treated as neutral grounds amongst all of us, do not consider me or my right arm, Lumira, as an authority simply because we happen to be the ones hosting this event, as we are here in the same role as any and each one of you are. That said, there is a single authority here that oversees all and reports to no one: Anastacia. An adventurer selected for this task by the guild of Valor itself. You’ve all met her by the door, but before this meeting officially begins, I’ll give her a chance to speak up.” He explained with a bellowing and powerful voice Anastacia hadn’t expected at all from an old and to a degree, frail man. As Nikolai sat back down, he whispered to the adventurer. “Why don’t you give them something to think about.”
Anastacia nodded, grabbed her staff and walked to the middle of the curved table. Though addressing so many important people at once was nerve-racking, a method she had devised earlier helped out considerably: she imagined that everyone in her audience was a goblin and as the queen, she needed to keep them in check with a flashy declaration. One more deep breath and she was ready to speak up. “Hi, everyone!” She said and smiled harmlessly. “Like Nikolai said, I’m here to babysit all of you. Now, I don’t really give a toss about the result of these talks, since I have no horse in this race at all. But what you people need to understand is that I’m here to make sure no one gets hurt. Scream at each other all day for all I care, but if someone so much as thinks about throwing hands, they’ll answer to me about it.” She continued and walked around a bit to make an eye contact with everyone around her. “I know what you’re thinking, I’m all small and cuddly while you are seasoned warriors and like three times my size, or mages and necromancers that can kill with a thought. So how could I possibly keep all of you in check? Well, to put it simply-”
Suddenly she slammed her staff on the ground and started sucking as much heat from the room as possible, quickly lowering it to almost freezing. Then the five spears strapped on her back shot up into the air and were joined by the swords she had taken from Teal earlier. Together the swords and spears slowly rotated around her and pointed at the people seated by the table. All but Teal and the forgemaster leaned back in their chairs and looked around worriedly.
“So your mind is as sharp as a sword and your tongue a tool of destruction? Mine is a force of nature. Your hands turn all they touch into deathly weapons? Mine bring death without so much as a tender skim. Your armor makes you invulnerable? My spears pierce mountains. You wish to bribe me with gold and other finer possessions? From the second you I knew you existed, I could have taken them from you and given nothing in return. Understand this and we won’t have a problem.” She said with the same tone she used to command her goblins.
With her threat over and done with, Anastacia piled the weapons into a neat stack on the floor and released what heat she could back into the room. Happy with the confused and scared looks from the guests, she skipped back over to her seat. “Oh! and you can just call me Anna if you want.”