Four Guards, two Scouts and one Leader. The leader has the markings of a tender. Tenders are the ones who have the say of how the woods are to be preserved. They also deal as arbiters between Roots and have the mildest temper most of the time. Sadly their mild temper is seen from the perspective of a Root. They can be rather ruthless, and were the ones who suggested the trial for Red.
Right now they look through the hole, where my Gate should be into my Village. As they see the pitfall they do not enter and just search for clues. Right now I am not able to capture any of them, but this does not mean, I can not at least negotiate.
Clarke is right now in the Mansion and should be able to work as my mouthpiece. With my Miasma I create sound amplifying and create a listening field. Using a body and at the same time listening through my essence is rather disorienting, so Clarke needs to close his Eyes and just lie on the operating table. The noise should be reflected by the amplifying effect of the Miasma, hopefully. First time using it, so here it goes.
“Who are you, and why do you invade my Domain?”
Shock is imminent on their faces and directly guard their Leader. She is rather young, so hopefully she already learned the common Language of this Continent.
Seconds turn to a Minute and tick even further but they just wait.
“I ask again. Who are you and why do you invade my Domain?”
Finally the tender reacts and gave a signal to lower their weapons a bit.
“State your Name and why you invade our sacred forest, before we will see you as hostile and eliminate you.”
Silly to think of such snobbish elves to be reasonable.
“This crater is no forest and you are near rock and not trees. Do not treat me like a fool.”
If they are pompous, I am pompous. The whole thing is rather silly of them, entering my realm asking my reasoning and even my Name…
Name… What is my Name?
“You people have no right to be even in the presence of our forest. Me talking to you is giving you already grace.”
Just say what you want, I have another crisis right now. I do not remember my Name. Who am I?
“There were no Elf here so this is my Domain. Without my entrance you would not even be able to go inside, so do not act so upright outside your own forest. The Questions still stand and I want answers.”
This should give me a bit time to think again. My mind hurts trying with all my might to remember my Name. There is Nothing. Where is my Name?
{Scout, bring the hunting Team, we raze this filthy place. I will distract him for the time} “We are the Elves of the woods behind the tunnel you bore through the rock. Your Mana contaminates it and we came to inspect the reasoning. Now answer our Questions!”
One of the Elves slowly hides and escapes. They do not know I can understand Root elvish, and have no idea how annoyed I am right now. The Name I always had… It is gone. There is nothing. Lost…
… the Void… It took my Name. I have nothing as a Name anymore. Why did I not notice? Like a rift in my Memory. Nothing there, where something should be…
“My Name is… Null. I have taken this place as my own Domain, as it was without Owner. Or do you claim to be able yourself to wander this place?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Null. My Name is now Null. The Void took my Name, maybe for the grace to come here, but I hate it if something is taken from me. So I take what is left and make it mine. Null – finding nothing where something should be expected. A fitting Name.
“We do not like People, who just take Land next to our own. While we are in the open you hide behind an echoing voice. How about you show yourself to talk in person?”
Right now I am hard at work to create a nasty trap for them, when they enter the Village. Sadly some of my rodent residents already died because of this, but Snow is luckily in the furthest away sewers so no problem for her.
“No, I do not think this would be a good Idea. You elves are famously known for your handling of the bow, and I am right now too weak to fight a group of bandits again.”
That rather agitates not only her but the guards too. Seems like they can understand common.
“Bandits! We Root never stoop so low to… We are not Bandits! So do not call us that ever again!”
Ha, she realizes her hypocrisy and nearly had a mental whiplash. Although it was an accident on my part, it was rather fitting of accusing them of banditry. They want to raze this Village after all.
“Then do not force me out of my own place. I have a claim on this Crater now and will stay.”
“There is no way, we can get you to leave? This place is forbidden for a reason, and we want it to stay that way.”
“If you are talking about the Miasma I am working on it.”
And right now I am working on creating a filled bubble with the deadly Miasma of the crater right in front of the Entrance. It is extremely hard to hold my Essence over it to not mix with the Mana to make it visible, but I have it mostly stable. More concentration is not possible for me, and when their Aura reaches the bubble it will pop and I will push everything I have into the tunnel, eradicating not only them but their hunters too.
This should kill most and let me harvest the crippled. Let us see who hunts who, elven snake.
…
Negotiations are tedious, when they are just drawn out to bring an army, but I humor her and work out what I want and what they get.
What came of it was rather nice for my part of the Bargain. Free travel through the forest for myself and my companions for up to 20 Kilometers inside the rim, acknowledgment of my Domain, able to harvest berries and plants to a limited degree, non aggression between myself and the Roots and a sign for negotiations, which can be used once a year but not more.
They get protection of the deadly Miasma from the Crater, a steady flow of Mana to nurture the forest (suddenly it is totally OK for my Mana to invade, hypocritical bitch), my promise to not fell any trees of the forest and the right to send a Negotiator for any occasion, they might deem a necessity.
For her it is more of a play and I am her victim, but I can learn to articulate, what I really want. And what I want is my freedom, right of passage, right for resources and to be left alone for now.
The whole thing took hours, but as elves are long living, they also can discus for hours, if not even days. The whole discussion finally ends, when someone unexpected came through the tunnels.
I am a bit shocked, as another tender, this time with a rather imposing statue came through the tunnel. If I remember right, she is a high mother and was even there, when Red was sentenced. The Name was Flowing Leaf, but to be honest I do not care. What I care about was the drama happening. The slap of the high mother echoes through the tunnel from the cheek of the young tender.
{You have overstepped not only your ground, you even have the audacity to order a hunt as a sapling tender. Have you any idea how disappointed I am with your handling of such delicate Information?}
{High Mother, I…}
{Do not dare to play the wind and bend out of the way of your punishment. Eastern Redwind is gone, and even if this is the most suspicious area for his disappearance, he has sown his own seeds of punishment for a long time. He is GONE, and no one is at fault but him. Mourn him like a tree sibling, but do not poison the roots with your stupidity!}
Now it makes sense. She wanted me gone, because she was searching for the latest brother of their dead tree. They might not even be from the same Mother, but being plucked from the same tree made them siblings nonetheless.
{I understand High Mother. At least let me explain the circumstances right now}
{As long as you leave your feelings out and work like a tender you want to grow up to.}
{...of course.}
And she explains my reluctance to leave and how I am a threat to the forest. So much for leaving feelings behind, but maybe she thinks that, because of the Isolationist mindset the Roots have.
“My Name is Flowing Leaf and I am the superior of this young elf prior. She asked me to come, as she is not yet trained in negotiation with outsiders. Not only did she not send for me earlier, she even started negotiation without her superior at her side, so this lead to this embarrassing event. Please accept my apology for this.”
Rather more eloquent with her Words, but still hiding the whole ‘trying to kill me’ problem. Well I had my own plans, and still have, as I will not remove the miasmic bubble.
“I am honored to be in the vicinity of a high mother of the Roots, Flowing Leaf. My name is Null and I reside inside the crater of what you call the Starfall.”
“You do know about us Roots?”
Oh, ups. She got suspicious, hurry and find the answer to this dilemma.
“Your inferior had told me of your name Roots and as elves are almost always matriarchal, the position as high mother is the most fitting person to lecture an impulsive young elf.”
“Now, that we know each others name, it would be good to discus the further relations between us and your Domain.”
And here we go again, with the Negotiations. I bet these will be rather tedious, as she is way more schooled in true diplomacy.