Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-ding-dong.

The bells tolled after the diplomats had taken their seats this time. The audience continued scuffling around for another few seconds, but they quickly quieted when the grey-robed woman stepped up to her dais.

This was the fourth time the audience had heard her speak. They’d grown used to her robotic, cookie-cutter speech. The only part that most anyone listened to were her final few words. “From the country of Mexai, I would like to introduce to you Seras de Valas,” she said, finishing her now-repetitive monologue. Trici wondered if she’d have it memorized by the time this was all said and done. She joined the audience and the translators and the diplomats and the speaker herself in a brief round of applause for the speaker. Once the clapping scattered and then died entirely, she spoke one last time. “Ms. Valas, you may now speak.”

…

Tria had thought they knew how each speaker’s oration would go. The commoners would flounder, the merchants would abandon reason for profit, and the cunning, cut-throat nobles would actually be the ones changing any minds. Above all else, Tria expected the young ones to brashly charge ahead without carefully considering their argument.

They had not expected any speaker to have eyes as verdant as a jungle juxtaposed with hair as brightly red as a just-fired iron. They had expected even less than that unusual stunning combination to find it to belong to a merchant, let alone one who put reason before money. And yet that was exactly what they had found out about a certain 29-year-old Ms. Valas.

They made sure their sources were credible and their information true, but each one agreed with the other. It was a gift as sure as star-dappled skin itself, to Tria, to have such a person like that on their same side.

With many of the speakers, Eric or Rei would have discreetly, but not completely secretly, reached out to them to fine-tune their speech. Eric apparently trusted this not-even-thirty-year-old enough to let them prepare themselves. Either that, or he made special care to make sure the Zeryziani underground didn’t know he had talked to Ms. Valas.

Tria was thankful, above all else, for the chance to finally get a pinch of long-awaited sleep. Unless something went drastically wrong (or right), they could just write ‘Helped Eric & Aren gain some ground with their opposition’ and be done with their report.

As they had before, they reached out in front of them to grab the woman’s- now, Tria knew, was named Trici- attention and again ask to be woken when the speaker started fielding questions. The ever-kind girl hushedly agreed as Seras de Valas began speaking, launching into a doubtlessly perfect defence of the current state of affairs.

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…

Eric hadn’t expected anyone’s point of view to change over only one speech. Those expectations were betrayed early, disappointing him as Mari was swayed towards ‘peace’.

Now he hoped that his expectations would be betrayed. Seras de Valas was an astounding speaker. She had clearly put thought and effort into her speech. She challenged the two earlier speakers, Terys de Valen and Griffin Parlos, on their points’ validity. In all, she wove her speech into a fine cloth of attacks and explanations, statistics and facts.

Her symphony concluded with a last attack against Griffin’s bastion of religious foolishness. It struck a chord with Eric, reminding him of how some fanatics would let demons rush through their town, pillaging even the smallest hamlet. Their faith ended up killing them often.

She was the first speaker to not surrender her time to questioning early, so time would be short if Eric were to help her further her cause. So firstly, he would ask-

“Ms. de Valas”, Aren suddenly started, “You are from Mexai. Your speech was great-”

“Thank you, Ms. de Gephyra.”

“-but why do you oppose a treaty? You’ve told us why we shouldn’t broker peace, but what pushes you to do so? Peace would be good for business, wouldn’t it?”

Aren had given Seras a good question. It would let the merchantess spend some time explaining why she personally opposed peace if she took the opportunity.

Those were several minutes Eric did not have to lose.

“My reasons are fairly simple. I don’t care for some more profit when we all will suffer a loss if they get in. It isn’t holy fervour or some political goal that moves me; it’s just the fact that demons won’t peacefully integrate into our society that does. I can make my profit either way. Yes, peace would be good for business, but it would be bad for my life expectancy. Does any speaker have another question?”

He was lucky that Aren’s question got a curt, half-minute answer. He now had his chance to ask his question. “I would like to go next,” he said, aiming carefully for the argument that had swayed Mari initially hours ago, “You say that you’d likely die if we broker a peace. Would it affect everyone the same, or would it only damage a society’s upper echelons?”

“I think it would affect each and every person here, or in Zeryzian, or even in Zeryzian’s rural hinterland, badly. I don’t really understand why you would ask me such an obvious question with such an obvious answer. We will all suffer, from the highest king to the lowest slave, if devils attack us from within our cities or even within our houses. People will die. It won’t just be a change to a new, cruel leadership, it will be a great damage to us all.”

Mari glanced down at her hands for just a second, then up at Seras de Valas. It was a tic of hers Eric noticed, that she repeated whenever she put thought into something.

Aren’s carefully prodding questions continued for some time, and Eric felt that they were making progress in shifting Mari’s opinion back towards their side. If it continued like this through the likely easier second and third days… well, that was 3 of the 4 needed votes at least.

But still. He had surrendered Seras’ question time to Aren to not get in her way. If he hadn’t, they would have hamstrung each other’s efforts. He really needed to start working with her soon.

Next speaker soon, preferably.