King Balor and the Fighting Force were together in the war room of Everlight. In the centre of the room was a large table they stood around.
The table used to display a 3D hologram powered by the crystal technology left behind by the ancients, but ever since the destruction of Everlight, crystal tech was gone. Forge, in the years before his death, had brought about many inventions that helped bridge the gap to easy living that the residents of Everlight had been so used to.
Instead of a hologram, there was now a screen in the surface of the table. Though not as fancy, it still served a purpose.
“Our Shadow Circle has confirmed sightings of Summoner and two of her creatures have advanced on the small kingdom of Brytton. Though small, they are an important part of Etherum.” Balor flicked along the screen. It displayed a small island country in the middle of the Emerald Sea.
“They’re the kingdom that wants to stay neutral in this whole conflict with Lord Husk and Circe,” said Needle.
“What use is such a tiny kingdom?” asked Claw. She stood furthest from the table. Leaning against a wall, her arms were crossed in front of her.
“Though they are small and technologically inferior to many other places, they are rich with a resource that’s important.” Balor looked at the members of the Force, waiting to see if anyone would take over.
“Their country is rich in vegetation like no other place on the planet. Their crops are magically enhanced, a gift from Etherum. They grow faster and better than anywhere else. Everlight relies heavily on that supply to feed its people.” Princess Adamantia paced along the table as she spoke. “Ever since the Day of Darkness, Everlight’s own farms are almost useless, like the land has been spoiled.”
“So if they decide to side with Lord Husk, then we won’t have enough food,” said Needle.
“Precisely,” said Balor.
“Pity you can’t all just eat rocks like us,” laughed Rictor.
“So what’s the plan?” asked Gareth. “If we all go, it would look like we’re forcing them into siding with us.”
“Exactly. So only two of you can go.” Balor pointed to Adamantia. “I think this would be good diplomatic training for you.”
“Of course. But who else?”
“Subtle talking is not really my strong point,” said Rictor with a hearty guffaw. “My strength is my strong point.”
“More like your head is a dull point,” bit Claw. Rictor’s laugh snapped shut and he turned on Claw.
“I could beat you easy. Don’t push me.” The blue glow that latticed Rictor’s body flared. Claw stepped up to the Rockton. He looked down to her, their foreheads almost touching, sparks flew between their eyes.
“Stop it you two. I’ll go.” Needle stepped forward and bowed.
“Just the person I was thinking would be right,” said Balor.
“I don’t like it though, I feel like there’s an ambush, or a set-up. Something fishy,” said Gareth.
“Of course there’s going to be some kind of trap. That’s always the answer when it comes to dealing with Lord Husk and Circe. Anyone from The Scorched Wastes. So I’ve got a plan.” King Balor touched a point on the screen. The screen zoomed in on a small green dot.
“An even smaller island?” asked Rictor.
“Yes. The rest of Fighting Force will be here in secret, waiting for the inevitable to happen. Then you can pounce.” Balor raised a fist in front of him in triumph.
“What exactly are we trying to say to this kingdom?” asked Adamantia.
“They don’t have to choose any kind of side. We just want them to keep trading with Everlight. We need that food.”
Summoner walked through the cobblestone streets of Brytton with disgust clearly on her face. Their cottages were a mix of timber and stone, an architectural style that had long been left in the past.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they poured buckets of piss out of their windows,” she growled to herself. She had been at the city-state of Brytton for three days now, and she hated it more and more with each passing moment.
By her side was a majestic tiger. Its red eyes flared with her anger. It constantly growled as it walked. Her mode of transport, a giant bat, had been left outside of the walls that circled the city.
As if in answer to her musings, a violent splash of yellow-brown liquid slapped the ground just in front of her. Summoner’s shoes were splashed with droplets.
“Disgusting!” she screamed. A violent wind stirred up around her and slammed the shutters in the face of the civilian that had just emptied his bucket.
“Ah, there you are ambassador. Taking in our lovely city?” The king of Brytton had snuck up on Summoner and he struggled to stifle a laugh at her misfortune.
“How could anyone think this place was beautiful?” She snarled, but immediately regretted her retort. She was, after all, here to make a good impression on the king. “I’m sorry, I was just taken by surprise.” Summoner spun and noticed the king had his majestic Pegasus by his side.
“That’s alright. It’s a lot to take in, how different we are here in our little country. I hope you can come to appreciate us over the coming days.”
“I’m sure I will. Have you come to a decision with my little proposal?” Summoner and the king were no walking together.
“Ending trade with Everlight is a giant ask,” said the king. “We’ve been dealing with them a year after Lord Husk destroyed them. Why should we trade exclusively with The Scorched Wastes?”
“The people of my land are always starving. We have almost nothing. The food you rade with us now is hardly enough. If you dropped trade with Everlight, we’d have plenty to feed everyone.” Summoner fanned her hands out to the city as if to put the kingdom on display.
“But to take away from Everlight? They need our food as well.” The king stroked his red beard.
“They can always develop farmlands further out from the city. But almost nothing can grow in The Scorched Wastes. There’s plenty of cacti, but most plants are carnivorous and are more than happy to eat and unwary traveller.” Summoner held out her palm and projected a small illusion of one such plant and the king pulled away from the grotesque, writhing image.
A group of grubby children ran around the pair, and it took all Summoner had to not react to their filthy hands almost touching her dress.
“But what exactly is it that Lord Husk would do for us if we cut all our ties with Everlight. Its always been a fair trade with you both?” His voice had gone deeper as he lost himself in thought.
“Protection from the unfolding war with Everlight.” Summoner’s tiger was sizing up the king’s Pegasus.
“But Everlight already offers that.” The king snapped his attention back to Summoner, confused by the angle of which Lord Husk was approaching this deal.
“Like I said, everyone of he Scorched Wastes is starving. We cannot grow any food there. The expectant backlash if you changed who you traded with will surely put a pressure on your kingdom that you won’t be able to protect yourselves from.” Summoner made a little hand wave, casting a small spell over the king. A smile broke out on her face.
“Providing food for a starving nation would be an honourable thing.” The king’s eyes had gone cloudy for a moment, but he shook his head. “But Everlight would never attack us, even if we stopped trading with them. King Balor is the most honourable man I’ve ever met.”
“But of course. Let us talk more over dinner.” Summoner’s smile disappeared when she realised her spell failed. The king’s will was incredibly strong.
“What an honour it is to have two members of the Fighting Force to visit my kingdom. To what do I owe the pleasure?” The king sat upon his stone throne, his fingers steepled in front of him with an eyebrow raised as he watched Needle and Adamantia walk into his throne room.
“We heard you were holding a feast and we thought you might need the extra company.” Needle laughed softly as he crossed the room.
“Oh, is that so. And how, may I ask, would you happen to know about that? Is Brytton constantly under surveillance?”
“Of course not. But other people certainly are.” Adamantia felt the tension tighten in her chest as she eyed the room and counted eight knights clad in heavy suits of armour. Each holding a two-handed weapon.
“I’m not interested in the petty squabbling between Everlight and The Scorched Wastes. The two of you have waged war since before that crystal city was even built.” The king narrowed his eyes now.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Nor do we want you to be a part of any of it. The Kingdom of Brytton’s neutrality is highly respected. We only wish to talk over our trade deal.” Needle breathed an air of confidence that nobody else held.
“What’s to discuss? It’s been unchanged for over twenty years.”
Summoner was about to enter the throne room when she stopped in the passageway, the voices of the new visitors had broken her momentum.
“Where’s the rest of the Fighting Force?”
“Its just us two. Purely a diplomatic excursion,” said Adamantia.
“There’s no way it’s just them two. The others will be around somewhere.” Summoner sent a telepathic message to her two animals, urging them to find the other members of Fighting Force.
With that, she walked into the throne room, a hideous smile upon her face.
“Good evening, Fighting Farce. Welcome to Brytton. It’s a lovely place, isn’t it?” Summoner spun with her arms in the air, as if to show off something she owned.
“Good evening, Summoner,” said Needle with a grin.
“What does Lord Husk want with Brytton?” snarled Adamantia. Needle placed a hand on her shoulder.
“That’s of no real concern to you, princess,” replied the king.
“Yes. Everyone can come to Brytton and talk trade.”
“Be careful, your majesty. They’ll find a way to turn a fair deal against you.” Adamantia didn’t remove her eyes from Summoner.
“Throwing around serious accusations will do you no favours in my kingdom.” The king stood and nodded at his knights. They all took a step closer, in perfect sync.
“Your majesty, I offer my sincere apology on behalf of my friend. Some of us don’t know how to talk before we’ve thought things through. Please, we mean no harm, only to talk about our trade agreement. Of course Summoner, or anyone from The Scorched Wastes, or any other kingdom are welcome in Brytton.”
“Then return for dinner in two hours. Hopefully, by then, the princess would have brought herself into line.”
At that, Needle bowed. Noticing that Adamantia still hadn’t looked away from Summoner, Needle pushed her head down for a bow as well.
Claw, Rictor, and Gareth had been waiting for a few hours now and were growing incredibly bored.
The island was less than three hundred meters in length with a small copse of trees in the middle. The sporadic songs of birds could be heard.
“I’m gonna go over there and make sure there’s nothing dangerous going on,” said Claw.
“We were instructed to stay here. Any kind of interference could be taken as coercion and the whole trade deal could fall apart.” Gareth stood in front of Claw.
“But we can just tell them we come in peace. Come on Gareth, it’s pretty boring out here doing nothing. I’m all about action.”
“No way big fella, you know we need to stay here. King Balor’s orders.” Before Gareth could react, Claw leapt over him and landed on her hovercycle and roared out over the channel of water to reach Brytton.
“No fair. If she gets to go, so do I.” Without meaning to, Rictor pushed Gareth out of the way and jumped onto his own hovercycle and followed after Claw.
“Oh come on. What do I do?” With a growl of frustration, Gareth mounted his hovercycle and chased after the other two.
“We should at least go by foot,” said Gareth. They had made landfall at Brytton within ten minutes. Claw and Rictor nodded in agreement. They hid their hovercycles behind some giant tomatoes and slowly made their way toward the town walls.
“Stop, behind the carrots.” Claw darted behind the carrots and pointed up to the sky. Gareth pulled out his binoculars and noted the two Pegasus knights circling the perimeter.
“The knights that serve Brytton are among the best in all of Etherum. They’d give us a run for our money.”
“I doubt that. We’re Fighting Force. Best of the best.” Rictor laughed a little too loudly and pointed at himself with a thumb.
“Yeah, we are. But their Knights are the main reason, besides their trade, that nobody has tried a full-scale invasion on such a small country. They’re fierce, differing abilities and some even wield magic. They aren’t to be taken lightly.” Gareth was clearly in awe as he spoke.
“Hmm, I’d love to fight their best.”
“That would be King Maximillian himself. He and King Balor would make an interesting match,” said Gareth.
“How do you know so much?” Rictor asked.
“Don’t you two ever read? Everlight literally has one of the biggest libraries in all of Etherum.” Gareth looked at his two allies in amazement.
“Books bore me,” said Claw.
“Oh goodie, you can’t read either?” Rictor looked at Claw with a smile.
“Erm, no. I can read, I just don’t like to.” Claw snapped her head away from the other two.
“Oh dang. Well, I can’t read, in case you couldn’t guess.” Rictor’s shoulders sagged.
“That’s okay buddy, I can always teach you.” Gareth smiled.
“Hey, thanks.” Rictor patted Gareth on the shoulder and the smaller human buckled under the weight.
“Any plans moving forward then?” Claw asked.
“Oh yeah, how about I send in Recon?” Gareth retrieved the small metallic egg from his satchel, twisted it in his hands and they watched as it unfolded into a rickety, metallic bird.
“Can I pet it?” Rictor reached out with a finger, but Gareth pulled his invention away. Rictor looked disappointed.
“Not right now, it’s a little more on the fragile side. Sorry.” Gareth put on the earpiece and sent Recon out to fly around.
“She’s up to something, I just know it.” Adamantia paced the visitors room that she and Needle had been appointed. It was small and devoid of all furnishings save for two, rickety chairs.
“She definitely is, she’s one of Lord Husk’s followers. But we need to make sure we don’t damage any relations your father has made with Brytton. Everlight relies on that trade. Ruining this, would be a hard thing for Everlight to recover from.” Needle sat in one of the chairs and was rocking it with his feet against the wall. He almost fell over backward but was able to recover himself, Adamantia never noticed.
“That’s a stupid amount of pressure to put on one person’s shoulders. What if I mess it all up?” Adamantia kicked her chair and it smashed against the wall.
“Now you can start to understand what your father has to carry around, all the time. And you won’t mess it up, you’re doing great.”
“How am I? The king only seemed annoyed at me.” Adamantia spun and looked at Needle now.
“He was measuring you up, your King Balor’s daughter. I’m sure he’s doubtful of Summoner and Lord Husk, but he’s having to think of everyone involved. Give it time, it’ll all come out in the wash.”
“I hope so, because I’ve got no idea on what’s happening.”
Summoner, Needle, Adamantia, King Maximillian, and a number of other important people in the kingdom of Brytton were feasting in the great hall.
Countless tapestries of red, gold, and purple covered the walls. These showed the countless heroes that came from Brytton and some of the greatest accomplishments of the kingdom.
Of all the heroes shown, the most famous was Sir Aldway, the Red Knight. Over a thousand years ago, had rallied the knights of Brytton to aid Everlight in a horrific war against a powerful entity. The war had lasted over three years before Brytton and Everlight were victorious, and it was Sir Aldway that had landed the killing blow with his legendary runic sword upon Grimwing, his griffin. This story was sill taught at Everlight to this day and was one Adamantia had loved as a child.
Needle was devouring the food at an animalistic rate; Summoner had barely touched her food and had spoken even less. Adamantia had picked at some food but was too focussed on her enemy.
Suddenly, Summoner perked up and a smile stretched along her face. She looked at Adamantia, who found it unnerving.
“Your majesty, it would appear that Adamantia and Needle aren’t the only visitors of the Fighting Force to come to Brytton.”
King Maximillian immediately stopped eating and looked at the other two. Adamantia and Needle could feel the heat of the burning rage coming off his skin.
“Just coming to discuss our trade agreement?” Some of the meat he had been eating slapped onto the ground with a wet pat. The others in the room were shocked into silence and without being told, started to back out of the room.
“They were never meant to come onto the mainland,” Adamantia replied.
“It would appear as though they are trying to force your arm into a trade deal. What’s wrong with trading solely to The Scorched Wastes?”
“You can be quiet too. I know you tried to cast a spell on me, you’re as bad as they are. Knights, take these visitors away to their separate quarters. The other members of Fighting Force are allowed to join these two. I need a moment to think to myself.”
Needle and Adamantia agreed with silence, but Summoner had tried to argue. She cut her protests short however, when she was surrounded by six knights.
“Why are they here?” Adamantia asked as they were pushed into their room.
“I don’t have the slightest idea. I assume you’re going to scold them when they get here?” he ducked as the other chair flew over his head and splintered against the wall.
“Bit more than that, I think.”
Summoner stood at a bowl full of water. She closed her eyes for a few moments and uttered a few words under her breath. The water flickered, and a picture of Lord Husk’s face appeared.
“Well, have you succeeded, Summoner?”
“Not yet. But the king is incredibly angry. The entire squad of the Fighting Force is here, and he feels like Everlight are trying to force him into making his decision.” She let out a quiet cackle.
“Good, good. It looks like we won’t have to go through with violence. When that bumbling princess messes everything up, swoop in and sweeten the deal with the good king. Nothing is off limits if it means we can starve Everlight.” Lord Husk crackled with laughter, and Summoner could hear Circe join in the background.
“Why did you come onto the mainland?” Adamantia stared the other members down with a demonic glare. They all turned in shame and refused to speak. “You know how important this mission was.”
“But princess, it was so,” Rictor had started to say, before being interrupted by Claw.
“We had a feeling something was going to happen. We scouted around to see if we could find anything.”
“This needed to succeed. You know it’s a sensitive situation. If anything went south, the knights of Brytton are amazing, nothing would have happened.”
“We’re sorry.” Gareth looked at the ground, he felt like an idiot.
A loud knock at the door disturbed their conversation. Adamantia whirled on the knight, still caught up in her anger, but halted it when she saw the knight.
“You are to come into the throne room now and plead your case to King Maximillian. I advise you hold your tongues.” The knight walked back out of the room. The group followed him and weren’t surprised when two more knights fell into line behind them.
King Maximillian sat on his throne; fiery anger burned a nasty aura about him. Summoner was already in the room.
“So tell me, why did you all come to Brytton, if you only wanted to talk about our trade deal? Were you hoping to muscle a new deal into your favour?”
“No. The rest of us were to stay offshore and only react if something happened, your majesty. We really did wish to only speak of our deal,” Adamantia explained.
“So Everlight automatically accuse Lord Husk of foul play? Showing only disrespect to us because of where we come from? Lord Husk only wished for mo-”
“Silence!” King Maximillian rose from his throne and descended to their level. “Though Brytton is neutral, we have always been allies to Everlight, and that is something we hold with the utmost respect.”
“Your majesty, the story of Sir Aldway was always my inspiration to fight.” Adamantia bowed her head but kept her eyes on Maximillian.
“I admire that. But the whole specialty force of Everlight? You can see why this looks like the way it’s been taken?”
“We understand,” said Adamantia.
“And you, to cast a spell on me? I can’t think of anything more disrespectful.” He approached Summoner now, who had to look away. “Tell me right now why I shouldn’t just cut trade with both of you and let you all starve?”
“Your highness. We came to you peacefully, and they did not. We showed respect. They did not. I rest my case.” Summoner smiled her evil smile yet again.
“Hold a minute.” Gareth’s hand was up at his ear. “I’ve got something you might like to see.”
“What could it be, boy?” Maximillian turned on Gareth and approached him.
“I’ve got proof they weren’t being peaceful.” Gareth held out his hand and a little metallic bird flew in from the window and landed on his hand. Recon emitted a small hologram that replayed the conversation that Summoner had with Lord Husk through the water.
“Leave now before Brytton declares The Scorched Wastes as genuine enemies.” Summoner was about to protest but stopped when she saw Maximillian’s eyes. She bowed her head and was escorted by more than thirty knights.
“Tell your father that Brytton is still neutral for now, but we’ll increase the amount of produce we give to Everlight.” Maximillian shook all of their hands and waved as they raced back to the small island on their hovercycles.