Chapter 407 - Agreed and Witnessed

--AN--

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and to inform you that like RR, there will be no chapter Christmas Eve. BUT, I will try to put one out Friday. I'm not sure if it will come on Friday or if it will come on Saturday, but I'll do my best to get an extra one out for you guys.

Thank you and Happy Holidays.

~~

Chris

Vanessa made no attempt to conceal or rein in her aura whatsoever. It blazed brightly and with an intensity impossible to mistake for anything other than anticipation.

She was prepared and ready for a fight, even outnumbered as we were. Michael, Vanessa, and I on one side, versus Zuri, Ryan, Bri, and a fourth I didn’t know on the other.

Michael, on the other hand, was less prepared to charge into battle with the odds against him. Ever since the four new arrivals appeared, his own aura retracted. Not completely, it was still suffusing the area around him, just a smaller area than before. He was either unwilling or unable to assert control over a larger area.

“You finally show your face,” Vanessa was the first to speak, and directed her annoyance at Zuri, understandably. “I was beginning to think you never would.”

“My Faction is large, and its needs are many,” Zuri answered, “I am where I am needed most. Which, for now, is here.”

Even when pressured by Vanessa’s aura, Zuri kept her own defensive and warded the hot haze away completely without pushing back. She seemed… less intent on this devolving into fisticuffs.

“You brought company,” Vanessa finally looked at the three others standing beside Zuri, taking their measure. Based on her reaction, all of them were known to her.

The last one, the man I was unfamiliar with, seemed to displease her, and not in a good way. He was an older gentleman, with a touch of grey that hadn’t gone away with levels. That usually only happened with people who’d been older before the Change. Sixties or seventies, probably.

A faint trace of crow’s feet and wrinkles solidified that image, but it was his face that drew my eye. A calmness and stoicism that no one present matched completely. He reminded me of my grandfather, with a similar posture.

A warrior. A man who has seen battle. Military. Those thoughts confused me, as there was no one in any of the three Factions we were facing that matched his description. Sure, there were former military members, but no one with such strength or characteristics.

“As did you,” Zuri indicated toward me. Michael couldn’t be considered a guest. Not like the rest of us could.

To remain silent, I whispered through my aura to Michael, “Who is the man on the right?”

I wasn’t sure if Vanessa could respond through her aura as I could, and with her gearing for a fight, my aura couldn’t get anywhere near close enough to her ear be unnoticed.

Thankfully, Michael had the answer I was looking for, but had to whisper it quietly.

“Robert Steele. A close friend of the Admiral, but not a leading member of his Faction. He’s more of a freelancer, if that makes sense.”

Similar to Austin, then, I thought, but what is he doing here? The Admiral and his Faction weren’t involved in this war. That much, I was sure of, yet here he was.

Michael watched me for any short of reaction, but I showed none. It didn’t change anything. If he wanted to involve himself, then so be it.

“Have you come to surrender?” Vanessa goaded, a smirk on her face. Rubbing in the fact that the tables had been turned since my arrival. Premature, but not untrue.

Zuri’s face tensed, “I could say the same to you. How much longer can you hold on?”

“Me? We’re not the ones dying in droves by the day.” Vanessa prodded, “I haven’t lost a Baron, unlike you.”

Every insult and provocation Vanessa slung caused Michael to flinch slightly. If I hadn’t been standing next to him, I would have missed it. He knew what Vanessa was pushing for, but he could do nothing to stop it.

And neither did I. If this was how she wanted to play this, then this was how we were going to play this. Would this be my choice? No, but this was her war, I’d made that clear.

The glowing freckles Zuri sported flashed in anger, “Why do you insist on provoking me? We could have come to an agreement before all this bloodshed, but you just couldn’t give up, could you?”

“Give up? You wanted half my land! And for what, some coins?” Vanessa said incredulously, “No, I wasn’t just going to give you what I’d fought for. Don’t act like this is all my fault.”

It was at this point that someone other than Zuri or Vanessa spoke.

“This is getting us nowhere.” Ryan stepped forward, “Why don’t we discuss things like civilized people?”

“Quite, you. The adults are speaking,” Vanessa spat.

Ryan flinched at the rebuke, “Now is that any way to-”

“If I hear another word out of your twisted mouth, I’ll burn it.” Vanessa turned her full fury on him, “You were the one who instigated this. Don’t think I’m unaware of that fact.”

Ah, if she’s right, the hand behind the ‘coincidence’ is found. A fact I filed away for later.

A shadow passed over Ryan’s face, but he quickly covered in a smile. In the disarming way of his. I hated it. It was all so fake. His mannerisms, his words, all of it. I hadn’t liked him the first time I’d met him, and that hadn’t changed.

Zuri directed her attention at me, “You’re just going to stand by and say nothing?”

“What is there to say?” I asked, “We either come to an agreement here, which seems increasingly unlikely, or we fight, in which case words would have already failed.”

“There isn’t a solution you wish to advocate for. A peaceful end to this conflict or a conclusion that doesn’t end in mass death? You’re content to go along silently with whatever Vanessa wants?” She demanded.

“All peaceful solutions were abandoned at the start of this war, before I ever became a part of this. There are no solutions to advocate for,” I said simply, “The only conclusions are either your surrender or ours, and surrender isn’t in my nature.”

Seeing how everyone’s eyes were still on me, either in astoundment or confusion, I went a step further. “But, if it were up to me, I’d duel and be done with it. You’re just sending people to die at this rate.”

If there was one way I hoped this didn’t go, was a continuation of the status quo. I’d keep killing, but I wouldn’t enjoy it. If Zuri continued to send bodies to the problem, then I’d have to continue putting bodies in the ground.

It was an… undesirable outcome.

___

Robert Steele

Well… he sure is blunt, Robert thought. He’d heard as much from Fitzwallace about him, but seeing it now, in what could be considered a tense environment, it just highlighted it more.

The words weren’t wrong, but it just seemed odd to be so… dispassionate. Dispassionate wasn’t even the right word, but he couldn’t think of the right one. Dispassionate implied a lack of conviction, but that was far from the truth. If anything, his words only held conviction and little else. Like the emotion had been stripped from them. Only logos remained.

“Duel and be done with it.” The Flame Witch repeated, “If only it were something Zuri would agree to.” Her words dripped with condescension. It was bait. Clear as day. Zuri wouldn’t–

“You think I won’t?” Zuri said defensively.

Maybe she would. She wasn’t stupid enough not to see it, but she also couldn’t be seen as weak. She would lose too much capital in her Faction if she refused, and then continued to send forces to die. She may as well orchestrate the coup herself at that point. The web of deceit, ambition, and greed of her Faction wouldn’t let the moment go if she refused.

Robert wanted to groan.

This was supposed to be a diplomatic talk. Something to calm the waters, not spur them on. It was also against the reason he was here in the first place. With what quickly became five Factions embroiled in war, it could very easily get out of hand fast.

Which was the last thing Fitz wanted, and Robert reluctantly had to agree. Even if it meant sticking his nose in it when it was the last thing he wanted to do.

“Are you accepting?” A tongue of flame danced around the woman in barely concealed expectation. Yet another action that pushed things forward.

A pale white light began to emit from the staff in Zuri’s hand, “I am. What are your conditions?”

“Cessation of your offensive and a non-aggression pact for a period of ten years, plus reparations in gold, skill shards, and Faction Points during the next Assessment.” Vanessa quickly rattled off, almost like this had been planned.

Zuri frowned, but nodded in assent, “All land ten miles east of Flame Falls, reparations in the form of food, and access to the flame–”

“No access.” Vanessa interrupted. “The Flame is not on the table.”

Zuri changed tack, “All land ten miles east of Flame Falls, reparations in food, dungeon access, high-grade raw materials, and Faction Points during the next Assessment.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

Both women turned toward the man with the hammer. He seemed confused at first, that his idea had been agreed to and fleshed out at such speed, but nodded nonetheless, “Witnessed. You may start when my hammer hits the ground.”

Wait, what?

Before Robert could say so much as a syllable, the man grabbed the hammer in front of him and threw it end over end into the air. It seemed near effortless, but the giant weapon of ice soared high into the air while everyone else tracked its skyward ascent in bewilderment.

Ryan and Bri were confused, as this was not how this meeting was supposed to go, and it looked like the Flame Mage on the other side felt the same way. Robert hadn’t thought it would get this far, and especially not so fast.

They were trading barbs one second, then awaiting the starting gun the next. It all happened so fast.

The time the hammer spent in the air seemed to stretch on, and not because it was thrown so high. It was a factor, yes, but the building tension worked to lengthen it exponentially.

Vanessa and Zuri both backed away from one another and readied their staves. The mana of both of them stood ready to burst forth, while the bystanders quickly backed away from what was about to become an area of death.

Robert put a hand on his sword just to give himself an anchor to think about how things had gone so wrong. The needed assurance didn’t help much, but it eased his mind a small amount.

Ryan and Bri had both drawn weapons as soon as the hammer was in the air, fearing an attack. They backed away without launching anything, but they still held their weapons at the ready.

The only one who didn’t look ready for a fight was the only one without a weapon. Christopher stood where he’d been the entire time, waiting for his hammer to come down with his arms crossed and legs straight. His legs weren’t bent, ready to launch forward, and his mana wasn’t threatening to burst forth.

To all Robert’s senses, he seemed unconcerned with rising tension and the fact that he’d just thrown his weapon into the air.

How did we get here? It was a throwaway comment. A duel? Seriously? What the fuck am I going to tell Fitz?