Regrettably, Cira had little experience in true negotiations. Her persuasiveness was tragically skewed to her advantage by overwhelming power in most situations. If someone was really strong and against her for some reason, conversation was usually skipped for violence. So, in effect, she only had experience negotiating with those who held at least a mild degree of fear towards her.

This was why Cira brought her top man. The brainiest of the bunch and a person who had no business being a pirate in the first place. This would come to be James’ proudest moment as a fleet captain of the Dreadheart Armada.

Alas, he was frozen in space with a hand in his pocket, surely reaching for a weapon. Looking at Cira and the new mage in shock and frustration. Somehow despite the paralysis, his eyes seemed to get wider and wider while Cira peered into them expectantly. “Right…” This stupid space mage has everyone locked down.

Cira held her pompous pose but if she actually moved, the ring severing her from the mage’s control would likely shatter. They did not expect to be ambushed themselves, and there wasn’t a whole lot Cira could do, but she did come moderately prepared.

First and foremost, with knowledge. Cira’s father alleged that he had a hundred stratagems for negotiations and overall conversational tactics, though she was only old enough to learn a few before he passed. To determine which one to use, Cira had already assessed the situation.

It was clear at a glance who had the upper hand here. She and her crew were immobilized while hundreds of knives threatened to plunge through Cira at a moment’s notice. She suspected this man wouldn’t need to utter a single word to make that happen.

For what it’s worth, he patiently waited for Cira to speak with a grin of slight amusement. It was difficult to see his thoughts past that, so the first thing she had to do was ‘wiggle the fox’s tail’. In Gazen’s terms this was to determine her opponent’s honor, and the degree of respect she should expect to receive.

“Why don’t you give my guys a rest with this domain, and we can negotiate.” Cira felt the pressure of being one wrong move away from a pincushion, but it was important not to be timid here, for this stratagem was to see if your opponent was willing to speak on equal footing.

As Cira suspected, the man’s brow raised in shock. He looked downright offended, “You must be joking. I can kill you and all your men in a single thought. In fact, I will kill them one by one, starting with that unsightly vagrant who seems to have lost his shirt.” As Cira’s eyes squinted with distrust, the mage’s face broke into a sneer, “Unless, of course, you tell me where you’ve hidden the deritium.”

With that, Cira had gained valuable information in confirming this man as the buyer—and she could move straight into the follow-up stratagem.

With a sound like the blast of a musket, the ground broke and plume of dust rose into the air. Faster than the mage could blink, a spear of stone tore through the dust and clean through his chest. “Gahh!! You—you bitch!” The mage cried in pain as he glanced between Cira and the spear which protruded from his ribs and held him like a bug collector’s specimen. While he ground his teeth in pain, he was both baffled and infuriated. “H-how?!”

Holy light immediately formed around his wounds where the spear entered and exited, but it didn’t seem to do much for the pain. Cira wondered if it hurt as bad as cutting her leg off.

“Does the how really matter? The point is, I can kill you just as fast as you can kill me now.”

This last stratagem was to ‘show the wolf his reflection’.

“Hardly! I’ll just—” This was a two-part trick, but the key was on Cira’s finger. She spent a few sleepless nights forging it around the time she first started reading about geomancy. “If I can’t destroy the ring, I’ll just break all your little rocks!” He snarled.

Cira couldn’t be surprised that she’d been found out, and all the rings on her fingers weren’t exactly inconspicuous. Without an aura, her Ring of Practical Geomancy only worked within one of the arrays she placed earlier—the one in which they both stood. “Do you really think you can do that faster than I can turn that spear into a barrel?”

With a column of stone inside his Chest, the holy mana could never hope to close is wound. Still, blood soaked through his clothes. The eyes that once held amusement were now like a cornered wolf’s. “What are you after?”

“How fitting.” Her father sucked at naming things, but this stratagem was aptly named. Cira chuckled, much to the mage’s irritation. “Are you ready to negotiate, now?”

“Fool! I would sooner die than tell you anyth—Gyahh!!!!” He breathes became shallow and tensed up, letting a glint of terror flash over his eyes for a brief moment as he glared at Cira.

“If you wish to die, that can be arranged.” Cira branched another little tendril of rock off the spear into the backside of his ribcage. Once he stopped screaming, Cira reiterated her opening statement, “Or, you can quit acting like a spoiled child and release my men.”

“Hot damn!” Jimbo shouted, “She friggin’ got him!”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect that at all.” James nodded.

Her paladin’s reverent cheer came next, “My Lady will always prevail—”

“Will you idiots shut up?!” Cira commanded without taking her eyes off the mage.

He was something more than irritated and coughed up blood, “And? If you don’t remove this spear, I will die in minutes. You wanted to negotiate, right? Well, now’s your chance!” The mage tried to throw his arms out in a challenging gesture, but the movement made him shudder in immobile pain.

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“You’ve proven you aren’t willing to converse like civilized people, so I don’t feel like it.” This last phase was simple, and Cira proceeded to ‘cast the moon’s shadow over the mountain’. “I’ll let you live if you tell me everything I need to know.” Or in other words, unreasonable demands via overwhelming leverage.

“Youuuuu bitch!” He spat blood onto Cira’s shoes, “You may as well just kill me now—YAHHH!!”

The spear through his torso started to gently twist until Cira felt a collar of blades around her neck. “This farce has gone on long enough,” The chain tightened as a woman’s nonchalant voice called out from behind. “and the day grows thin. Why don’t we all lower our weapons?”

This was but another situation that could be easily surmounted with another stratagem. ‘Next time I’ll teach you what to do when casting the moon’s shadow over the mountain doesn’t work. Now go to bed, Cira.’ Dang it…

She was on her own. Her knowledge of conversational stratagems was far too meager to navigate this situation with tact, but the woman’s proposal didn’t sound unfair. It was more or less exactly what she meant to achieve in the beginning.

The spear crumbled, as did the blades that formed Cira’s collar and all the rest which hung in the air. The first mage collapsed in a bloody heap on the ground and entered a cocoon healing light. Turning around, the newcomer looked like a young woman, but didn’t carry herself like one. Dark red hair hung over a silken set of extravagant robes. They were woven with gold and silver while inlaid with various gems. This mage held a wooden staff beset with a colorless crystal and had an air about her of superiority. Given that, she strangely didn’t seem concerned about anything.

“You seem more reasonable than this one.” Cira pointed back with her thumb to the groaning man on the floor.

“I strive to be, but I think it would be advantageous for both parties if we don’t test the limits of how reasonable I can be,” The edges around her dark eyes creased as she smiled, “Now, do you mind telling me what you’ve gone through all this trouble for, dear?”

“Kill…” A weakened voice came from the ground, “Kill that bitch!”

“Enough.” The woman shot him a glare before letting out a sigh. “You had the good sense to leave the merchant vessel intact and were willing to torture my friend here for information. I’m getting the impression you want something from us.”

It didn’t take a genius to follow those clues, but it appeared negotiations were open. Cira used her ring to conjure a stone table and two chairs before taking a seat. “Who even are you people?”

“I am Eliza of the Third Order,” The woman answered with zero hesitation, “And he is my partner for this assignment, Kristof. A trainee, really. Now, who are you?”

Cira motioned to take a seat and the woman gave her an uncertain look, “After what you did to poor Kristof, you want me to sit in a chair you conjured?”

“Chairs aren’t for fighting.” She conjured two cups and gestured for Eros to fill hers. “If you’re thirsty, I can offer water or cheap ale. It must have been a long journey.”

Eliza laughed lightly, “Was it a long journey? It’s hard to say.” Well, I shouldn’t expect to get information out of her that easily. The look in her eyes was like she had found an amusing way to kill ten minutes, and she pulled a chair out to join Cira at the table. “Just water is fine, I suppose.”

Some people had eyes that seemed to look right through you, and Eliza was one of them. After just five seconds of sitting across from her, Cira felt the woman’s appraising gaze had completely analyzed her and instantly knew she was outmatched in a battle of wits, among other battles. Eros nervously filled her cup and stepped away to rejoin the rest of the crew in cowering silently.

I have a feeling James won’t be much help here.

This new mage had been forthcoming so far and regardless of her questionable motives, seemed willing to talk. Unfortunately, Cira now felt obligated to be forthcoming, as if the fox hadn’t gotten so ornery from a single wiggle of the tail. It didn’t help that the woman before her was so difficult to read.

“Call me Cira.” She eyed the woman suspiciously. “And I’ve never heard of a third order.”

Kristof had evidently healed to completion and picked himself off the ground a few feet away from Cira’s conjuration, “Don’t tell her anything! She only wants to take from us. Just look what that girl did to Sal!”

“He has a point, you know.” Eliza looked toward the crispy smuggler, “He’s just an innocent merchant we hired to see if anyone would show, what with how you swept Black Scourge Don out of the way. We knew something was wrong when the notorious Jimbo Sticks appeared instead of that Juan fellow, and none of you were hidden all too well either.”

“That son of a bitch…” Juan knew much more than he was letting on—Cira went too easy on him. When she checked if her crew had the same thought, she noticed Jimbo shook like a leaf as Eliza waved at him. “I don’t appreciate you trying to take the moral high ground here. You’re the ones who brought a random merchant into this.”

“And he would be turned to ash a hundred times over if it weren’t for the protective charms I so kindly gifted him. Those were not cheap you know.” Eliza placed a hand over her mouth and stifled a laugh. Is she just messing with me? “I must know though. How did you, a girl with no aura, move within Kristof’s domain? What’s more, you grew a spear out of the ground and impaled him with it undetected. A simple ring and array should not allow you to do that.”

She sounded genuinely curious, and it wasn’t something that would put Cira at detriment to share. “I wouldn’t call that a domain, personally. The entire point of a domain is to assert authority over a wide area, not flood it with the type of mana you want to use. Obviously, the girl with no aura is going to use it. From there, is it not natural to commandeer the unclaimed space to hide my attack? I mean, half the purpose of a spatial domain is to see everything within it. I’d say he failed every test there is when it comes to conjuring a domain.”

Cira may have looked cool as she stood before the man with her arms crossed smugly when the spear rose from the ground behind and skewered him, but she actually allowed her body to be frozen within the ‘domain’ again so her ring wouldn’t crack. This continued until he dispelled his grasp over the whole crew.

“A-are you serious?!” Kristof was infuriated, “Just who the hell do you think you are—”

“Hah!” Eliza slapped the table and pointed at him, “I couldn’t have said it better myself! The boy still has much to learn… He is quite young. But so are you, which is curious.”

“Are you… not?” The woman’s brow raised, and she fluttered her eyelashes. Whoops. “I mean, age has nothing to do with poor technique. I can’t speak to whatever teaching methods they employ in your club, though.”

“Club?! The—the insolence! I can’t believe you’re letting this girl run her mouth.” Kristof turned to Cira, “You dare insult the pinnacle of all wisdom?”

Cira was drinking water and nearly shot it out her nose, “Pfff! If you don’t want me insulting things, someone is going to have to give me more information. I don’t know any pinnacles.”

A playful grin danced on Eliza’s lips, “Have you ever considered joining a group of other like-minded mages, to plunge further into the depths of the sky’s great mysteries among those most capable? Our resources are the culmination of mankind’s knowledge, and only the most elite are accepted into our ranks—save for those like young Kristof here who were born into the position. After what I’ve seen today, I think you have the talent for it.”