"Can you continue to hold the stairs?" I asked Michael.

"Easily." Michael said. "My mana regeneration is higher than the cost of the spell."

That was hard to believe, considering the strength of the spell could hold out against three ice golems attacking it at the same time. Michael winked at me and I realised I had been frowning. Right, it's an invisible barrier. So long as he could raise it before anyone passed where it should be there was no reason that it would be up the entire time, and he had been very quick with his reactions with the spell so far. I nodded to Michael and headed back into the guard room.

The food had run out so I started pulling more from my Pocket Dimension at a much quicker rate than before, pulling from the stockpile I had built up. A chain of people formed passing food back from the table and into the holding room that still had the majority of the villagers.

I looked at Veya who was organising her people.

"You still haven't eaten, have you?" I asked. She looked down and shook her head. "Sit and eat. I will continue to provide food, and your people will all be fed. We can negotiate a treaty while we do that."

Veya sat and Chantelle set a loaf of bread, some nuts, and a large portion of the berries in front of her.

"How will we formalise the treaty without a Keeper present?" She asked.

I frowned. "The last treaty I negotiated the Keeper present said that he was only there as an impartial third party." I said. "They are required for forming a treaty?"

"They are what make the treaties that are formed enforced by the world magic." Veya said.

"Well." I said. "We can formalise it later, the Forest Keepers are allies and would do me that favour. For now do you trust me enough for us to negotiate?"

Veya nodded. "My daughter trusts you unreservedly." She said. "And our current position is not good. You are obviously overwhelmingly the stronger party."

So it was up to me to offer terms. I sighed, I disliked negotiating.

"I offer a safe place for you and your people to live, including access to food and water, and in return you and your people will act in the best interests of my fortress and the people that live there." I said. "Chantelle is my equal, you will be my vassal and responsible for your people, but Chantelle is not under your influence."

An idea suddenly occurred to me.

"If it turns out that you, or one of your people, is best suited to negotiating then they will take over future negotiations." I said.

Veya sat in thought for some time, slowly eating the food in front of her. I continued pulling food from my Pocket Dimension until the the four platters I had made filled up, everyone having food. Roughly two hundred people, and I had made three hundred loaves of bread, a thousand nuts, and fifteen hundred berries. There were some losses as food was dropped while it was being passed, especially with the berries, but I wasn't worried about it. I was looking around the guard room and settled on the two unopened doors when Veya spoke up.

"Your terms are very generous." Veya said. "My daughter has said that your fortress is very strong, but isolated. The only thing I would ask is that we be allowed to trade with the other people in the fortress."

Huh. I hadn't thought about an economy at all, just everyone contributing for the betterment of the whole.

"Basic services that people require to survive will be provided." I said. "I will not have any of my people poor or starving. The people of my fortress will have a high quality of life. But I am not against trade. I will even provide access to the two cities that I am aware of."

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Veya smiled. "You really are bad at negotiating." She said. "You are supposed to negotiate for more for your side in return for things that are requested, not offer more for the other side. But I accept your terms gratefully."

I shrugged. There wasn't much that I personally needed that I couldn't create myself. Chantelle needed her people and so I would protect them.

I stood up from the table, leaving Veya to eat. Now that we had an agreement I could start moving the villagers to my fortress. I moved the Pocket Dimension side of my thread portal through the stone of my secure room there, lining it up with the Pocket Dimension side of the doorway at the bottom of my fortress.

Taking my thread portal out of my pocket I placed it against a wall and formed it into a doorway. It was a bit narrow for the number of people that would be using it, only one meter wide, just enough for two people at a time if they squeezed through. But it would allow them to step directly from here to my fortress.

I turned to Chantelle. "Could you start getting people through?" I asked. "The doorway leads to the bottom of the fortress."

Chantelle nodded and went to speak with Veya. I headed to the still closed door on the right of the guard room. I drew my sword and cut through its latch, sheathing it after.

"You know that it can be opened from this side, right?" Chantelle asked from behind me.

"All of the doors that I've seen here need magic to open." I said. "This is simpler for me. I don't need the doors to be there after I've finished."

I pulled the door open to find a much smaller holding room than the one that the villagers were in, and it was empty. I crossed to the other side of the guard room, dodging around the table and passing several villagers who pressed back away from me.

They cleared a space around the door as I approached it. I cut through and opened it as simply as the other one and found a man frozen in a cube of ice that was two meters on each side. Almost exactly like the cube of ice I had been in, though my power bounced off of it, so this one was permanently enchanted. The man was wearing a golden robe with pale blue trimming and he had short red hair with a matching goatee.

There was no way he was still alive, but I wasn't going to leave him in the dungeon. I couldn't fit the cube of ice through the thread doorway I'd set up, so I decided to cut him free of the ice.

I drew my sword, pushing heat into it, and got to work careful not to cut the body. I got the majority of the ice away, enough that I could transport him. I took a quick step back when the last of the ice cracked and then melted away, the man gasping in a lungful of air.

"Damn but that was an uncomfortable few weeks." The man said. "Well met, stranger. They call me John, Head Priest of Summer."

He was holding his right arm out for a warrior's handshake. I stepped forward and gripped his forearm as he gripped mine, returning the bone creaking pressure.

"I'm C.C." I said.

"Ah, the Champion that set himself against Winter." John said. "How did that work out, by the way? My god was cut off from the world after your Warder set up the god banishment ward around his prison. Not that it severed my connection, but I have been left in the dark."

That was a lot to take in...

"I killed the head priest of winter, and I'm here rescuing the people from the Warder village." I said. "God banishment ward? And your god is imprisoned?"

"Right, right." John said. "The other Champion arrived a few weeks ago and had a number of powers. Divine Choice, allowed him to choose a divinity, the chosen divinity affects his other powers. Divine Trap, can entrap a divinity, forcing them into a physical manifestation and limiting their influence on the world. Divine Apocalypse, can empower a divinity to forcefully convert the neutral realm into a copy of their realm, requires the opposite Divinity to be trapped with Divine Trap. And finally, Divine Empowerment, receives powers influenced by their chosen Divinity. That is where he gets his ward breaking and teleport powers."

John frowned at me. "He chose Winter, and Winter, the bastard, stabbed my God in the back trapping him in a prison deeper in the mountains." John said. "I will return the favour when I am able, I assure you. Your Warder came up with a ward that completely voided divine influence over an area. Comparable to whatever the space you disappear to is, the gods cannot hear anything within and their effects on the plane are removed. With my god wrapped in the banishment ward Winter has full control over daylight and can sooner destroy the tethers to the summer realm."

"We should talk further." I said. "But this is hardly the place to do so. I can offer you sanctuary in my fortress in return for your word that you will work in the best interests of the people in the fortress."

"Aye, that would be appreciated." John said. "I swear by Summer."

We headed back out into the guard room to see the last of the villagers going through the doorway to my fortress. I gestured for John to step through and called out for Michael that we were ready to go.

With everyone through into my fortress I drew my sword and cut a groove out of the enchanted stone of the wall, filling it in with some stone from the table and smoothing it to match. I stepped through the doorway as the thumping steps of the ice golems approached. I collapsed the thread portal, tucking it into the stone I had placed in the wall.

I had achieved much, rescuing Chantelle and her people. But there was also still much to do. The world was still ending, and so long as it was there would always be the risk that Chantelle wouldn't survive it.