After her meeting with the representatives of the various factions of the Assembly, Dee had a lot to consider. Especially Mit-Amen had given her a lot to think about. The two significant revelations about the Fallen and the connection between the red faction and Hassan-i-Sabbah had helped to put her in a certain mindset of distrust. This mindset, in turn, helped her in verbalizing certain vague feelings she’d had during her experiences with the Assembly.

The issue in front of her seemed pretty clear from the outset. Join a faction. Which faction? It would be either the red or the white. The problem was that neither of the options really felt right to her. The red faction’s connection with Hassan-i-Sabbah was simply the most obvious hang-up she had with joining them. The faction was also clearly focused on manipulation and secrets, in addition to more direct covert actions of course. She had no real issue with that being important to the faction, information should be important to everyone, but in truth, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to return to that world. The older and the more powerful she got, the less she felt like the secretive ways of the assassins and covert operatives were for her. For one, staying secretive was becoming increasingly difficult for her for obvious reasons.

Then there was the fact that the reds were also the faction that actively wanted to grow the influence that the Assembly wielded in the universe, and they weren’t too particular about the methods they employed. Dee wasn’t squeamish about the methods, but she wasn’t so sure she wanted the Assembly to grow stronger. Sure they were a convenient shelter for her for now, but she wasn’t a true member of the organization. The Assembly was simply the best option for the time being. All the factions of the Assembly had some inclination towards expansion, with the possible exception of the yellow, but the red faction was the one dedicated to the idea.

Then there were the whites. Like she had told Mit-Amen, she felt a certain amount of sympathy towards and kinship with the Fallen, but she didn’t feel like she was truly one of them. If one thing had become clear over her life, then it was the fact that she wasn’t truly a member of any single race or group. Even the original Four Winds, she had no idea how many Winds it was currently with the empress in charge, was more of an ally. A good ally that she enjoyed working with, but still not a true family or home for her. When compared to them, the Fallen had done nothing for Dee besides donating some of the blood that was used in her creation. No, joining the white faction simply because of that kinship would be an error.

Then what about what the faction stood for? That was even more of a joke. Dee had no interest in being pro-angel, not even if it was in the idealistic way that Mit-Amen saw the faction. Even if the white faction tried to make the angels a better force for good and light, that was not a goal that Dee shared. All that she wanted to do was make a large number of angels sorry they ever crossed her. And complete Lumen’s mission for good measure. She was somewhat glad that there was a group that tried to make the angels better, and she wished Mit-Amen luck in her endeavors, but she didn’t feel right in joining the faction. Someone should take on that job, but that someone wasn’t her.

But she did need to join a faction, right? Or did she? She didn’t feel like taking orders from some faction leader, even Mit-Amen.

While she considered these thoughts, Dee had been walking among the inhabitants of the White City. She had also left a trail of devastation through the food carts and street restaurants that got on her path, but that was not what suddenly made her become more alert. No, what grabbed her attention was that the mood around her had suddenly seemed to shift. Even with someone like Dee drawing everyone’s looks and focus, the mood around her had still been the general din of a city going about its business normally.

What interrupted her thoughts at a critical juncture was a sudden shift in that general mood. As her senses had been trained and honed to watch for just such things, she was immediately on alert. A mood change like this could be a sign of approaching danger after all, and she focused her hearing on the people around her. Apparently, there were rumors flying all over the city about something extremely important happening to the angels. The rumors were wildly exaggerated and couldn’t agree on anything, but there were two things that kept popping up. Angels and something bad happening to them.

Dee decided that if the general public had heard rumors to this extent, then the Lords would know a lot more. Anything that concerned the angels also concerned her to an extent. Thus she took wing and flew towards Aurelie’s tower. Who better to ask for information than a member of the red faction? She didn’t quite reach the tower before getting intercepted by several messengers, all sent by either Aurelie or Mit-Amen. It seemed they were looking for her as well. Luckily the two were in the same place and Dee took flight towards the central mountain.

As she reached one of the large non-descript white stone buildings, she noted that the whole place was filled with messengers running back and forth with stacks of reports. One of the messengers that had led Dee here showed her to a room near the center of the building. The circular room was filled with maps, and a large number of powerful Lords had gathered around one of the larger maps depicting the border between the Assembly and the worlds controlled by the angels. The Lords seemed to be in a disagreement about what action to take, which intrigued Dee, but her attention was drawn away by the two Lords that had called for her. The room got eerily quiet as everyone sensed Dee’s presence. Before she got the chance to ask any questions, Aurelie pulled her through another door into a side room that seemed to normally function as a conference room of sorts.

“It’s good that they found you quick. The situation has changed.” Aurelie stated without preamble.

“So it seems. We need to discuss a few things by the way.” Dee replied, planning on bringing up the topic of Hassan-i-Sabbah.

Aurelie cut her off though. “Whatever it is, that will have to wait. Take a seat, both of you.” Aurelie noted that she had been acting rather impolitely by leading the discussion with Mit-Amen also being present and senior to her. In fact, Aurelie had not noticed the leader of the white faction following them into the room until just this moment. Very careless of her.

As if noticing the change in Aurelie’s demeanor, Mit-Amen picked up the discussion. “It seems that the angels are the target of a very coordinated attack that has rendered their gate network inoperable for the time being. We can’t say for sure how long this will last, but we estimate it will take at least a few weeks before the first connections can be reformed, and even then the travel will be extremely taxing and limited. It should take at least a few months for their gate network to reach back towards their border worlds, and that’s a conservative estimate. Some think it might take years.” She turned towards Aurelie. “Now as it happens, we don’t know exactly who is behind the attack, but I personally think our friends in the red faction know more than the rest of us. They acted too quickly, as if they had some forewarning. Care to elaborate?”

Aurelie kept her stoic expression despite her moment of panic. She had known their quick action might have been noticed, but everything had happened much too quickly to take measures against such things. “Not fully just yet. I can say we have a pretty good idea, but we need more information.”

Mit-Amen turned back towards Dee. “Want to know what I think? I already mentioned that dear Aurelie here was having a discussion with a certain party earlier. As far as I know, this discussion coincided with the attack on the angels and the reds sprang into action immediately. Now, this seems like a bit too much to be a complete coincidence to me.”

Dee’s eyes narrowed. If Mit-Amen’s words about Hassan-i-Sabbah were correct, then she could connect the dots. The leaders of the assassin organization did seem like the type to be able to pull off something like this, just that the scale seemed beyond anything Dee had assumed the man capable. Or to be more exact, beyond anything Dee had assumed the man’s organization to be capable of doing. Perhaps she was simply unaware? It still seemed a bit fishy.

That all said, there was a much more personal matter that concerned Dee more than such trivial details. “You said that the worlds controlled by the angels were affected. How extensively exactly? And was a particular world, I think you know which one I’m referring to, affected? I’m fairly sure you’ve already figured out the exact world that I need. You wouldn’t have made your earlier suggestion about helping with her freedom otherwise.”

Mit-Amen suddenly smiled. She liked where this was headed. “I do know, though I’m not certain if my information is correct. To answer your question though, all worlds in that sector were affected, aside from a couple of border worlds.”

“Well then, this is the perfect opportunity. I happen to be able to travel to the world in question even if the normal paths are blocked. I have a proposition for you.” Dee looked straight at Mit-Amen, and both of them were ignoring Aurelie who was looking at the two with some growing concern. The two seemed too much in-sync with each other.

“Do tell.” Mit-Amen prompted her to continue.

“I did a little thinking and I feel like joining either of your factions seems problematic. So a thought occurred to me. I’ve been informed that starting a faction within the Assembly is not that difficult. Most simply won’t do it because they lose access to the help and resources of the older factions. New factions also wouldn’t have a say in the council until they reach certain levels of influence. Now, as it happens, I’m not overly concerned about resources, and I have a feeling that I’ll have enough influence even if it’s a faction of one. So I’m planning on starting my own faction. I assume this would not be a problem with the backing of a rank thirteen Lord? Especially if a certain faction leader happened to smooth the way for me.” Dee had hatched her plan while flying over, though she hadn’t planned on implementing it quite so quickly.

“I can see how that would work. There are certain procedures you’ll have to deal with, but I doubt that will be an issue. I can even help you with all that. I have two questions though. I don’t see an upside for me just yet, so why would I help? Secondly, there is the issue of your tower. Usually, a new Lord will receive help from the faction they join and pay that help back over time. Such towers are not cheap. Even if we assume that you’ll get a generous stipend from the Assembly, your plan doesn’t quite account for a tower fit for a Lord being built, not to mention towers for any new members of your faction.” Mit-Amen wasn’t as fond of this idea as Dee joining up with her faction, but she could see that this was much better than Dee joining the reds.

“Well, to answer the second question first, I actually have something akin to a tower already. I’ll just need enough space to place her. As for why you would help me, well my new faction could easily be allied with the white faction. I was planning on basing the faction on the idea of freedom from the control of others. I’m sure there are Lords that might value their freedom beyond just myself. The faction would exert no control over its members, would not demand the Lords to vote certain ways, or even demand their services. In essence, every Lord of the faction would function as a freelancer. Very little support, but also very little in the way of responsibilities. But if the rank thirteen head of the faction happened to be allied with your faction…well that would be almost as good as having her in your faction.” Dee explained her plan.

“That…might be good enough actually. I’d rather have a willing ally than a member of our faction that didn’t want to be there. I’m assuming this alliance comes with the condition that I’ll help you free Selvaria?” The white faction leader actually liked this plan. It wasn’t completely according to her wishes, but it was rather close and she was experienced enough to see the merits of a good compromise.

Dee got up, already preparing the leave. “Of course, and the sooner we leave, the better.”

At this point, Aurelie raised her hands to stop the two from leaving. “I’m sorry to put a damper on your fresh minted plans, but there’s more. The situation isn’t quite that simple. Sit back down and I’ll explain.” As much as she wanted to interfere with the alliance emerging in front of her, she realized Dee had made up her mind. Thus she decided to move on to other things and hope that they could also forge an alliance with Dee’s upcoming new faction in the near future. Like Dee said, it was almost as good as having Dee in their faction.

Dee looked at Aurelie a bit exasperated but finally complied. Aurelie then weighed her words for a bit before she started explaining. “As you might imagine, the plight of the angels has been met with general glee by both the Assembly and the Dragonflight. With the current situation being what it is, our two factions could roll up most of the border worlds of the angels and even start pushing towards the central worlds of the angels while they start establishing new connections from their side. We could snap up large swathes of their territory without even facing real resistance, and the new connections made by the angels would not be very useful in trying to retake those worlds as they would be harder to use due to being new. Moving troops and supplies would be much harder for them. In addition, if we do manage to pull this off, then the angels would be facing a two-front war. As you saw in the other room, the Lords are already making attack plans. The problem is, we are currently embroiled in a war with the dragons.”

Dee looked at Aurelie with an odd expression. “That’s all well and good, and I wish you luck in your endeavors. However, what does that have to do with me? Make a temporary peace with the dragons. I don’t care, I have nothing against them. And no, despite my heritage, I can’t help you with that.”

Aurelie coughed up a bit at those words. “Well, as it turns out, yes you can. The dragons seem amenable to the idea, but there’s a catch. It seems one of the most powerful Aspects wishes you to be present during the talks.”

“Who and why?” Dee asked with narrowed eyes.

“The Black Dragon Aspect of Anti-Magic, Mneventh. I don’t know the exact reason, but he has a connection with Selvaria, so there’s that.” Aurelie speculated.

Dee’s suspicious expression was immediately replaced by a befuddled one. “Oh. Well, that might be alright. I actually want to meet him too. There’s a slight condition though. You already know I’m in a bit of a hurry, so I need this to happen fast. I have places to be, and only so much time.”

---------

The Assembly could move quickly when they wanted to. It took less than a day to set up negotiations with the Eternal Dragonflight, and it took only two days for Dee and the other negotiators to arrive at the agreed upon location. As the supposed diplomats the grey faction had the nominal lead of the delegation. Nevertheless, they felt a little left out as two rank thirteen Lords and three faction leaders were also part of the delegation. The presence of the pro-angel white faction leader was a little odd and even a little provocative considering the situation, but the presence of the red faction leader was expected. He was the only one capable of matching the Black Dragon Aspect in battle. So if the negotiations went badly, then his presence might be required.

The odd one out was the leader of the newly created faction that didn’t even have a color just yet. Still, the dragons had asked for her presence so the head negotiator had little choice in the matter. At least Dee seemed to be strong enough to stand against an Aspect, or so the rumors went. They would need that strength if the list of attending Aspects was right. Why would there be four Aspects in attendance? And two of them being the black and platinum ones famed for their strength!

In contrast to the panic gripping the grey Lords, Dee, Aurelie, and Mit-Amen were almost too relaxed. “I still think the color of your faction should be the same as your wings.” Aurelie declared. She and Dee had cleared the air between them. She had explained everything she knew of Hassan-i-Sabbah, and Dee in turn gave her the benefit of the doubt. Dee still didn’t trust the reds in general, but she tolerated Aurelie at least for now.

“Unfortunately black is already taken.” Dee decided to play stupid, even though she knew it was pointless.

“The other wings dummy!” Aurelie sighed with exasperation. They’d had this argument several times in the last two days.

“I mean, she has a point. The color is kind of a mix of red and white, so it would be a nice symbol of our alliance.” Mit-Amen interjected. “I still can’t believe you plopped down another mountain just as large as the central mountain as your tower.”

“I’m just glad the spatial mages managed to make enough room in time.” Aurelie muttered with a shudder. The spatial mages had been skeptical when Dee had mentioned how much space she wanted right next to the central mountain. Once Dee had gotten annoyed enough she had simply materialized the Living Mountain in the sky, allowing it to slowly fall towards the ground, and told the spatial mages to do their best and to hurry. Those mages were still being treated for mana exhaustion. Incidentally, the Living Mountain had landed gently on the ground, not quite rivaling a feather but not much harder either.

“The damn mountain was showing off. I hope she isn’t constantly flirting with your mountain as we speak.” Dee grumbled in turn.

“A mountain flirting? What?” Mit-Amen just looked confused.

“Don’t ask when you don’t want to know the answer.” Dee countered just as the dragon representatives swooped down from the sky to land in the designated area.

As the Aspects were some of the largest dragons in existence, they needed a lot of space to land. Thus the negotiations had been set on a large empty stretch of grassland on a world currently controlled by the dragons. By necessity, the Assembly delegation was rather spread out over the area. The spot had also been selected with a possible battle in mind. There was nothing in the immediate vicinity that couldn’t be lost. Still, with several rank thirteen beings present in the same place, the whole world would be destroyed if things ended in a fight. That too had been considered, and the world they were on was a minor one. Some local population but no significant resources.

The number of Lords present was rather large, so it was only natural that the dragon Aspects didn’t’ arrive alone either. It seemed that almost every dragon clan was represented. Weirdly it seemed the other dragons were keeping their distance from the smallest dragon present. That dragon was barely twenty mel long and bright purple. It also had four colorful dragonfly wings that suddenly shifted to the wings of a butterfly and back again. Even from a distance, Dee could feel that the rather adorable looking dragon smelled of blood and death.

Suddenly that small dragon looked straight at Dee and it seemed to become surprised for some reason. It suddenly started hopping towards them in a way that seemed like she was playing a rabbit. “Hyacinth, stay back.” The large platinum dragon leading the other delegation commanded with an authoritative tone.

The small purple dragon didn’t even bother slowing down. “Fuck off Qazarass!” It shouted over its shoulder, barely even acknowledging the Aspect of War. It got really close to Dee, and for some reason, Dee didn’t feel the slightest bit threatened. “You!” The small dragon declared with a chipper tone. “You smell of delicious death! You’ve consumed more souls than even the big mean black one! I like you!” The purple dragon suddenly got even closer and started sniffing Dee, obviously enjoying itself immensely.

“A Faerie Dragon likes someone and doesn’t try to kill them?” The platinum dragon muttered in confusion. He had expected the tiny dragon to ignore him, they always did, but he didn’t expect this. No one got along with Faerie Dragons. A good thing too. The tiny buggers were lunatics. Powerful lunatics. They were by far the most magical of all dragon species, and some of their powers were impossible to explain or contain. The only positive thing was that the damn lunatics were just as eager to kill each other as anyone else.

The large black dragon suddenly made a small gesture with his snout and the dragon delegation started dividing into two groups. Most of them approached the main Assembly delegation, but two of the Aspects present, namely Mneventh and the Silver Dragon Aspect approached Dee’s group instead. Most of those present didn’t notice the Bronze Dragon Aspect glowering towards the smaller group, with two exceptions. Both Dee and Aurelie could sense the hostility in the dragon’s eyes, and decided to keep an eye on him. Still, it seemed clear that there were two separate meetings to be had, something that the Assembly Lords didn’t miss.