Sam was impressed by the bravery of the blue avian who had come to negotiate with Vercedei. Was it bravery, or was it stupidity? Sam wasn’t sure, but he knew if he were in the blue avian’s position, he wouldn’t have agreed to a meeting deep within enemy territory all by himself. Of course, he wasn’t going to say anything. Vercedei could make his life miserable if Sam ruined the twin-headed snake’s fun.
The blue avian sitting across from Sam, on a chair that didn’t exist, cleared their throat. “My name is Benedict; it’s a pleasure to meet you,” the blue avian said. The blue avian paused and waited. After a bit of awkward silence, it continued. “If you would so kindly introduce yourself….”
“You can call me Sam,” Vercedei said. “Did you really come alone, Benedict? I’m surprised there was an individual amongst the blue avians brave enough to wander into my territory as an envoy.”
“Well,” Benedict said and wiggled in position, straightening their chest while parting their legs ever so slightly, “my companions do commend my bravery from time to time. Paula insisted you would be terribly difficult to communicate with, but I knew you would be level-headed and rational.”
“Is that so?” Vercedei asked. “What made you think that?”
“Why?” Benedict asked. “Do you think I’m wrong? You were capable of evading us for an unbelievably long amount of time. Someone capable of doing that would have to be adept at using their head. One doesn’t evade us blue avians by being lucky.”
“You’re not wrong,” Vercedei said. “So, tell me; how do the blue avians wish to negotiate with me?”
“Blue avians have been around for a long, long time,” Benedict said. “We’ve faced countless calamities, and we know how they function.” The blue avian made eye contact with Sam. “You’ve been empowering the calamities by having humans worship them, no? The Anunaki and mantids behaved in a similar manner before.”
“Go on,” Vercedei said, neither confirming nor denying the blue avian’s words.
“We are willing to yield this plot of land to you,” Benedict said, gesturing broadly around themself. The blue avian would’ve indicated the territory with its All-Seeing Gaze, but its effects were limited within the city, making it impossible for the blue avian to even see beyond the walls of the room it was in. “In return, leave the rest of Oterra alone.”
“In other words,” Vercedei said as the aura around the illusion of Sam darkened, “you wish to confine me in a place even smaller than the range of my All-Seeing Gaze.”
“When you put it that way….” Benedict fell silent. It was clear Sam didn’t like the terms, but it’d be unacceptable for Sam to have more freedom lest he influence the mantids and reptilians, converting them into strength for the calamities. “Yes. If you’re willing to stay in this region, we won’t disturb you.”
“Won’t?” Vercedei asked, “or can’t?”
“Won’t,” Benedict said. “We’re seeking to negotiate because the costs of stopping you is very high, and some of us are unwilling to pay the price if there’s a chance you’d be willing to listen to reason.”
“Let me hear this reason then,” Vercedei said.
“There’s an effective range to your strength,” Benedict said. “The closer you are to the believers of your familiars, the stronger your familiars become. As such, if you leave your followers behind, your familiars will weaken enough for us to become a threat to them.”
“And?” Vercedei asked. “Does that mean the blue avians plan on staying outside of my territory all the time in case I attempt to leave?”
“Yes,” Benedict said, “but it doesn’t stop there. We’ll turn the region around your territory barren and inhospitable. If any living creature ventures out of your land, we’ll kill them. Although we’re pacifists by nature, we recognize when tough choices have to be made. If we have to commit genocide on Oterra’s native population to prevent them from becoming your followers, we will.”
“How very noble of you,” Vercedei said. “I assume if I ever leave my territory personally, you’ll come in to massacre the humans living here.”
“As we should,” Benedict said. “We can’t allow your power to grow, or the whole of Oterra will be doomed. It’s better for us to partially destroy it to limit you than to allow you to destroy the whole plane of existence.”
“This hardly sounds like a negotiation,” Vercedei said. “What would you give me if I peacefully stayed in this region without attempting to leave?”
“We’ll leave you alone,” Benedict said. “Peace and quiet is one of the best luxuries one can have. Imagine if, every day, you had to fend off a bombardment from us. We can throw boulders from outside your effective range and force you to turn back time over and over until you’re exhausted.”
“So, if you can do that, why haven’t you?” Vercedei asked. “Instead of winning, you’re over here negotiating with me.”
“Not only are we pacifists, but we care deeply for the environment,” Benedict said. “Leaving gaping holes in the ground to use as ammunition is not only disrespectful but also distasteful to Oterra.” The blue avian’s aura practically solidified as if it wanted to shield its true feelings from view. “Also, an important holiday is coming up soon, and we’d hate to miss it just because we were fighting a battle of attrition with you.”
“Oh, I’d hate for you to miss such an important event,” Vercedei said. “Luckily, I’m good at getting over things that upset me.”
Benedict’s aura flickered as if a ray of light had swept through it. If they were interpreting Sam’s words correctly, then things were going to go very badly for the blue avian—they wouldn’t be able to attend their holiday for whatever reason, probably death—unless they came up with something that could change Sam’s mind.
“If you kill me or take my soul, there’ll be no chance for another negotiation in the future,” Benedict said.
“Is that so?” Vercedei asked. “I guess those three fellows I caught earlier aren’t as important as the one of you since you’re here negotiating with me right now. I have a feeling nothing will happen to me even if you were to perish here until after your holidays. Then again, even if your soul doesn’t stay here, I have a feeling the blue avians are planning on resting and recovering before attempting to kill me again.”
“That’s not true,” Benedict said. “Words have power, and blue avians don’t carelessly speak them.”
“Can you speak for all blue avians?” Vercedei asked. “For example, Paula seems pretty determined to erase my existence off the face of Oterra. If I make an agreement with you, will Paula uphold it as well? I don’t think so.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“They will,” Benedict said. “I can’t contact them right now because there seems to be some form of interference, but once I’m outside, I’ll relay everything we’ve discussed, and we blue uphold our side of the agreement.”
“I don’t believe you,” Vercedei said as the illusion of Sam shook its head. “I’m afraid you’ve come with insincere intentions. Weren’t you calling me outside the city to negotiate because you wanted to find the extent of my domain’s range? I’d be a fool to believe you after blue avians have already killed me once before.”
“You’re not going to kill me and take my soul, are you?” Benedict asked.
“No,” Vercedei said.
Benedict’s aura brightened.
“Not personally,” Vercedei said.
The light around Benedict dimmed.
***
“I don’t think Benedict is coming back,” Paula said. “They’ve been gone for an awfully long time. If the negotiation was successful, it wouldn’t take this long for them to come back and tell us the result.”
“Should we attack?”
“We can’t. What if the negotiation hasn’t ended?”
“That’d be bad. If Benedict isn’t already dead, they’ll die for sure if we lay siege to the city right now.”
“This is why we shouldn’t have let them go,” Paula said.
“If you knew this was going to happen, then why didn’t you say anything before they went?” a blue avian asked in a whining voice. “You could’ve stopped them.”
“I expressed multiple times how I thought it was a bad decision,” Paula said, “but we decided individual freedoms were more important, so how could we limit Benedict’s choice?” The blue avian’s aura solidified. “Benedict knew death was a possibility, and they made their decision despite knowing the potential consequences.”
“It sounds like you’re planning on having us bombard the city with Benedict still inside,” a blue avian said. “Before we do, why don’t we find out if Benedict is dead or not? I’ll do it.” Before Paula could protest, the blue avian flew towards the capital and opened their mouth wide. “Hello! Sam! Benedict! Are negotiations going well?”
“Negotiations are going well,” Sam’s voice said, drifting into the ears of the blue avians.
“Great!” the blue avian said and flew back to the cluster. “See? It’s a good thing we didn’t start indiscriminately bombarding them.”
“You believed him that easily?” Paula asked. “How much longer do we have to wait? If things are going well, it shouldn’t be a problem for Benedict to say a few words as well.”
“You’re too cynical, Paula,” the blue avian said and let out an exaggerated sigh as it flew back towards the edge of the city. “Hello again! How much longer do you think this negotiation will take? Is Benedict available to answer a few questions? We’d like to know the terms he’s negotiated so far.”
“At the rate the negotiation is going, it’ll take several days for it to end,” Sam’s voice said, causing the auras of the blue avians to dim and darken.
“Several days?” Mozart asked. “Why is it taking so long?”
“Because he’s lying,” Paula said. “Those calamities have always been biding their time for whatever reason, and this is just another ploy to keep us distracted. Benedict is dead, but Sam is pretending that they’re alive, so we don’t attack the city. Essentially, Benedict gave Sam a hostage to stop us from taking action.”
“They didn’t do it on purpose,” a blue avian said. “Benedict meant well. They risked their well-being for all of our sakes.”
“What’s that human saying?” Paula asked. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Benedict might’ve meant well, but they made a poor decision that affects all of us.”
“Benedict’s soul could be trapped in one of those earthen puppets at this very moment, and you’re roasting them for trying to help us?” Pierre asked.
“Yes,” Paula said. “And when we find out that’s actually the case, I’ll be sure to tell each and every one of you a fat I told you so.”
“Excuse me!” the blue avian at the border, Aldrich, said, shouting into the city. “How about Benedict? May I have a word with them?”
“Aldrich?” Benedict’s voice asked from within the city. “Is that you?”
“Yes,” Aldrich said, the blue avian’s All-Seeing Gaze focusing on Paula as if to say, I told you so. “How are the negotiations going. Sam says they’re going well, so what terms have you managed to agree upon?”
“As long as we leave Sam alone, he’s agreed not to spread his religion beyond the borders of the human capital,” Benedict’s voice said. “We’re still working on defining the exact dimensions of his territory, and he’s also asking for things like luxuries and unique resources that can be located outside of his lands.”
“Excellent,” Aldrich said. “And how long do you think it’ll take to iron out those details?”
“A while,” Benedict said. “We’re actually playing a QuadX game that used to be popular amongst humans before they ascended while negotiating. We’re taking steps back and changing our positions based on how well we’re doing.”
“A QuadX game?” Aldrich asked. “The expand, exploit, exterminate, and explore genre? I can see how that’d take a while.”
“Ask if there’s any way for us to watch,” a blue avian said. “I love QuadX games.”
“We know you do, Sid.”
“Is it wise to negotiate with the calamities based on the results of a game?”
“Benedict’s good at games,” Marcus said. “The terms they’ve negotiated so far seem to be in our favor, so Benedict must be winning.”
“That’s beside the point. Why would Sam agree to negotiate terms via a game? It doesn’t make much sense, and wouldn’t Benedict have asked someone who’s better than them at games to play the match?”
“Maybe negotiations are like life, and you can’t be prepared for everything. Perhaps that’s just the way the cards were dealt, and Benedict’s doing their best to survive; it must be tough negotiating deep within enemy territory with the fear of death hanging over them all the time, so instead of questioning their choices, we should be supporting Benedict with all we can.”
A few blue avians flew close to the border of the human capital, just outside the range of where the golden deity had struck with its spear. “Go, Benedict!” they shouted. “You can do it!”
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t have it in me to cheer for several days straight. Maybe our cheers will distract them while they’re playing, or maybe Sam will be displeased no one is cheering for him, so they flip the table and call off the negotiation.”
“You just want to take a nap.”
“And you don’t?”
“I do, but that doesn’t mean you should dissuade people from cheering Benedict on. Who knows how much pressure they’re feeling shouldering the fate of Oterra whilst playing a game? How do you think they’ll feel if they found out we were napping and having fun while they were busy saving the world?”
“I’m not sure. Let’s ask Paula because we did it to them plenty of times.”
“It’s not a good feeling,” Paula said when the attentions of their peers turned towards them. “It’s also not a good feeling to be ignored when I say Benedict is dead and that’s either an illusion or their commandeered soul speaking to us.”
“Well, what are we supposed to do?” Aldrich asked. “If Benedict really is dead, then did they die in vain?”
“No,” Paula said. “If Benedict is dead, then we know there’s no room for negotiation. We might even have to call on the Mother.”
“The Mother?” the blue avains asked all at once. “You can’t be serious, Paula.”
“That’s right!” Mozart said. “The Mother will be furious if we call on her.” The blue avian’s aura flashed with a multitude of colors. “If she finds out we let a group of calamities destroy the calamity detector and toy with us for years on end, what do you think she’ll do to us?”
“What do you think she’ll do to us when she finds out we’re going to destroy Oterra to deal with a group of calamities?” Paula asked. “It’ll be much, much worse, and the sooner we tell her, the less of a punishment we’ll receive.”
The blue avians fell silent. After a few exchanged glances, one blue avian spoke up. “Are we sure the Mother can even win?” they asked. “There are several calamities. What if they gang up on her in the higher dimension?”
“What if she gets frustrated and decides to wipe the whole world?” another blue avian asked.
“That’ll be more likely to happen the longer we wait,” Paula said. “I’ll be the vessel. It was my fault Sam grew to this point; I should be the one to pay the price.”
“Are you sure, Paula?” Mozart asked. “It’ll be a long time before your essence reforms.”
“It might not ever,” Pierre said.
“Don’t say that! You’re going to jinx them!”
“I know the risks,” Paula said within the minds of all the blue avians, “but we’ve already lost too many of our own. If my sacrifice can prevent further deaths, then I have no regrets making it.”
The blue avians fell silent, their auras dimming and turning gray. They hovered in the air, the human capital just within their view, their postures ramrod straight.
“We’ll miss you, Paula,” their voices echoing as one in Paula’s head.
“Miss me doing all the work for you lazy fools,” Paula said, their aura conveying a snort. “No matter how long it takes, I’ll be back.”