Scorching Ascension - 2.46: Providence (Pt. 2)

A/N: A little bit on the shorter side, but I'm running out of juice. We'll be finishing up this arc hopefully next week.

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Maybe it was because he’d just executed the senator supposedly responsible for the assault. Or maybe because he outleveled their best protector by at least ten levels. But as the seconds ticked by after his declaration to the leaders and as the content of his words sunk in, none of them wanted to be the first to speak and break the silence.

Ethan wasn’t finding that much enjoyment in the intimidation, but he wasn’t being disturbed by it either. The more he thought of it, the less he cared about this council of theirs. And while he had no intention of continuing the violence or hostility—so long as they didn’t force him—he felt they deserved to squirm. Because while their hand or involvement in the matter might not be as black or white as he hoped, they weren’t innocent either.

This happened on their watch. But even silence got old quick, and now, Ethan wanted to do what he came here to do, then go home. Looking past them, he saw the pylon shining in the midst of their settlement. His target. So Ethan began walking, and all of them tensed up, anxiously stepping aside. Ethan paid them no attention, and when he walked past them—and over the senator’s unmoving body—he noted the line of protectors who seemingly wanted to bar his path.

Realizing he hadn’t been coming at them, the leaders relaxed and began speaking between themselves, with their guards urging them to back away.

“So that’s it? We’re supposed to roll over and let him conquer us?” he heard one of them mutter.

“I don’t see you trying to stop him,” someone else spat back. “And—”

“Ethan,” called out the scholarly woman, cutting off the growing argument as she stepped forward in his way. One of her guards tried to urge her back, but she only waved their attempt away.

While it looked like she wanted to just talk, Ethan kept his guard up as he stopped. He really did outlevel everyone around, but that was no excuse to get sloppy. “Yes?”

She swallowed, and as she brushed the vest she was wearing, Ethan noted the trembling in her hands, which she quickly suppressed by putting them in her pocket. But her gaze never wavered. “I understand a great injustice was done to your people. But do we not get a say in this? Our people trust us. And while it’s only fair that you’d want to integrate us like we tried to integrate you, what will happen then? Are you the kind of person who allows others to speak, or will you execute and murder to get your point across? Because if it’s the latter, then I might as well be the first.”

The last part took him a little by surprise. But while her question was fair, and her stance admirable, Ethan still found himself a bit annoyed at the spine she was showing. “Where was… this—” he said, gesturing in her general direction, “when your people were thinking of allying with Zacharia and his ilk? When you sent people to throw spells at my town?”

She refused to look away, and nodded. “Because our agents said you kidnapped one of ours. As for the alliance,” she said the words with gritted teeth, “it was voted on. Not all of us wanted to work with Zacharia but you have to understand, from our point of view, you were potentially as bad as he was. Weakening you two against each other made sense. Of course, we had been working on shaky assumptions, and someone had opted not to share the full content of your representative’s discussion with the rest of us. But that’s on us. We want to do better.”

Ethan eyed the woman for a few moments, and he appreciated that she didn’t back away. “What’s your name?”

“Sarah,” she said with a small nod. “Sarah Brightwood.”

“Alright. We’re going to look into what had happened in detail once the crisis has passed,” he told her, glancing around at the others. There was still plenty of tension in the air, but all were listening. “What’s going to happen first is that I will be taking over your pylons. Once that’s done, my own people will set up a local council per settlement, then a representative from every council will sit on the high council that looks into matters at the faction level. I will only be involved in emergencies.”

“We were already voted in,” said the man who’d spoken of expansion earlier. A few nodded at his words, but Ethan just shrugged, turning his gaze back to Sarah.

“Good for you. But this all happened under your watch. Maybe you were manipulated. Maybe the senator lied to you. But at the end of the day, you guys dropped the ball. So all of you are excluded from council matters until our investigations are done and your record is cleared out. You being misled doesn't mean your hands are clean. Does that answer your question?”

Ethan had considered only taking over the pylon and not dealing with the settlement themselves, but the fact of the matter was that sooner or later, they had to expand. Upgrading the pylons would only get more expensive, and if they wanted to keep up with the rest of the world and the dangers that will eventually come their way, they simply needed people. And with people, the headaches were inevitable. Ethan couldn’t just include those he liked and got along with. That wasn’t realistic. And with any growing population, there would be individuals that would hate his guts and what he built. But so long as he set things as best as he could with Amanda and kept an eye on things, it should be fine.

We’re going to have our work cut out for us, he thought as he glanced around, hearing the worried whispers and calculating eyes. Clearly, a couple of the leaders weren’t too happy about what was taking place, but they were all smart enough to realize there wasn’t much they could do to stop him. This will likely create some bad blood, but Ethan could live with that. Though this reminded him that they were going to need to up their protection on their key people back in New Dawn. Not just because of this integration, but for the future groups they’d bring in as well. Amanda and the others will have to speed up their leveling, and they were going to need to set up some informant network. A way to keep a finger on the pulse of their towns and cities. But that was a discussion for another time. For now, he took a step forward, which immediately ratcheted up the tension once more. Sarah flinched back a step, eyes wide with surprise, then as she collected herself, she gave him a small nod and stepped to the side.

“Lower your weapons,” she muttered to her own bodyguards as he passed them, and while he still heard some muttering and whispered arguing, no one tried to stop him. Not yet at least. But it’ll do for now.