Edited by: Solyom

The archmage was laughing like a madman. He simply bursted, and couldn’t stop.

- “What a time to be alive! They really put you in jail!”

Oh, yes. Right now he was mocking his old friend behind the bars. An ugly grimace appeared on the beautiful and young face of the potion-maker. Be not fooled, my dear, she maintained her beautiful and young look only by drinking hectoliters of herbal infusions.

- “I am more than happy to know that you have time to mock me instead of doing your bloody job!

- “You think I didn’t try? I was just talking with the king.”

- “And?”

- “He wants to keep you here for few hours more. Maybe days.”

- “You must be kidding!”

- “I am dead serious. Arthur is angry. Like, really-really angry. Maybe even furious. He just asked me why didn’t you even bother leaving a note, informing him about your actions. You seriously damaged his patience toward your organization. I think that I don’t have to point out that our king, may he live long, have never liked you in the first place.”

- “I never wanted his affection. It’s just business.”

- “See? That’s what I am talking about. Maybe if you weren’t such an arrogant bitch, you would be free already.”

- “I shouldn’t be here in the first place! Those bastards must have bribed the guards!”

- “You didn’t realize it? Tell me – if you wanted to start an illegal organization that would, let’s say, create potions, where would you locate it? Right under the headquarters of the monopolist? The Magic Council that supports that monopolist? And in the capital, ruled by a King that is also getting lots of potions from that monopolist? It was more than obvious that they had something up their sleeves. Something that countered all these disadvantages. It would be smart to suspect that not only the guards are on their side.”

- “You mean the king?”

- “No, I think that’s too much even for them.”

- “Wait! If you knew about it…” She threw an angry gaze at her conversation partner. He could have warned her.

- “Oh, don’t get me wrong! I first heard about that organization this morning – from you. I started wondering about their circumstances much later – when you already started your little… adventure behind the bars.”

What could she do? Without the chairman, she would spend much more time in this place, so she just clenched her teeth and swallowed the insult.

- “After you leave this lovely place, his majesty will want to talk with you. Did I mention he is really pissed off? He will ask you a question or two. Prepare for lots of scolding. And maybe losing a few benefits that he was offering you before. What can I tell, Mir? You fucked up.”

- “Don’t you fucking dare calling me like that!”

- “You know, it’s bugging me for quite some time. How is that possible, that such a great alchemist like yourself is such a hot blooded, dense, short-sighted idiot?”

- “That’s actually a requirement, if you want to be good in alchemy.”

She replied with weak smile after a few moments.

- “This is the true secret of alchemy. This is what differs a herbalist from the forest and a real genius. This is the first thing I tell to people I recruit to my company. Alchemy – the art of miracles. The art of changing properties. Adding at least two elements in order to create a third, or improving the effects of one of it. What is necessary? What is important? Ingredients? Yes, they are vital. Without them you can’t even start. Water? – the liquid in which the two are merging together? Tis’ but catalyst. Also, these two elements can be gathered by everyone. Now tell me – can everyone, who gathered the ingredients and put them into a pot with water, be called an alchemist?”

She rarely talked about her job from this side with someone that did not belong to her guild, so the archmage said nothing, he just listened.

- “No. It’s all about fire!” She said opening her palm, on which a small flame started dancing. “The fire that boils the water! The fire that push ingredients into dance! It’s like with two people. With a man and a woman. Without the fire of love, no new life would be born. Without the fire of passion, the ingredients in the pot would turn into nasty soup. I have spent my whole life looking in the fire. Fire, which is changing everything. Fire, that destroys two and creates one...”She looked at him. “… I have seen the art of gods. I have seen the art – the origin – in which WORLDS can be born. But, I need to waste my time to create potions for a noble-men’s hangover. To make potions that will make noble-ladies kill the babies they are carrying in their stomach, just because they weren’t faithful to their husbands and wish to avoid scandal. Then some fuckers dares to come up from nothingness, start selling some half-assed potions and DARE CALL THEMSELVES ALCHEMISTS!?”

She needed a moment or two to calm herself down.

- “But you will not understand.” She said weakly.

- “Yup. Sorry, but you just sounded like a maniac with issues. But you are OUR maniac with issues. I will once again try to calm Arthur, maybe I will offer him the usage some of our researches on an economic field. I have just one thing to ask you.”

- “What is it?”

- “Stop being such a bitch. Honestly, we are in the same team. You, me, the Council, the Academy, the Senate. Maybe if you came to us before making move, we could have thought of some better solution?”

She didn’t reply. She was to proud. The archmage doubted that she would listen to his advice, but it didn’t matter. He made his point. From now on, the owner of the Guild would think twice before taking some radical measures, which could harm the Council’s good name. That’s what he wanted to achieve.

Red Mountains

Faster, my fiery steed! To the main forces! They can’t be THAT far away! I could sense the ground shaking under the feet of the marching army, yet because of the canyon-like terrain, my sight was limited. Crossing one natural corridor after another, I eventually left the labyrinth of rocks and joined the forces.

Or I almost rode right into the first line of the walking infantry.

The goat dug its legs into ground, trying to stop before the collision, sending me flying in the process. I turned in the air and with grace, I landed with my foot on the face of some solider. I quickly jumped again, using the heads and shoulders of soldiers as platforms to get into the center of the formation as fast as possible. On my way there, I was rewarded with a few quality insults, a few were quite good. I needed to remember those, will be nice to use them on Loki.

As I was passing through the third squad, I noticed the Ironblood prince. I just yelled to him to follow me.

His father, riding side by side with the queen, was furious after seeing me. He started shouting yet I paid almost no attention to him.

- “What were you thinking taking the whole squad without having valid.” He kept yelling.

- “We have a small problem…” I said to the shield maiden.

- “DON’T YOU DARE IGNORING ME? Where are our riders?! If your lost any of those great warriors then…”

- “They are all alive. No casualties. Few wounded, most of them are able to keep fighting. Now, if I have already satiated your hunger for information, I would allow myself to make A FUCKING REPORT THAT WOULD LET YOU KNOW ALL THESE THINGS! Can I? Thanks.”

Ah, the furious clan head wanted to yell some more, but he was stopped by the gesture of the queen.

- “We are not happy with your actions, Zariel, I needed to say that. We will have to discuss that…” I gave her THAT look. “… but as we are on the front of war and you leaded scouts, it is only smart to hear you out.”

Oh, the old fart was not pleased.

- “Our enemies did as I though. They set up a chain of camps and ambushes to make the army stop in as many places as possible. They wanted to play with the time, and as they noticed that they current strategy was seen-through…”

- “GOD DAMN IT! DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO MAKE A REPORT?! TALK LESS AND GIVE MORE INFORMATION!” Guess who yelled? I will give you a tip: up until now we have met only one yeller in the whole dwarf-race.

- “SIR, THEY WANT TO FUCKING NEGOTIATE, SIR!” I added like soldier on both ends of sentence, but mostly no annoy him even more.

- “The hell? You sure?” another advisor asked.

- “A flag with a buried sword? Three individuals in the open field with a bloody table and chairs? The front of their army was around two bow-ranges away from the negotiation spot.”

- “Bastards. How can they actually know the tradition of nobles war?”

- “Probably from one of your cities, that they plundered.” I suggested. “The question is, what now?” I asked looking at the queen.

- “No brilliant idea of your own?” The old dwarf mocked me. “You sure you don’t want to take control of the whole army and…”

His son wanted to interfere, but the queen was faster.

- “ENOUGH! Both of you! I don’t need fights in my own bloody camp! If you are so full of energy, feel free to use it on our enemy!”

Hooo? She finally started doing what she was supposed to?

- “But all this little rascal do is…”

- “Fine by me. So. I am waiting for orders. Do we negotiate? We can always send my riders. We should be able to easily butcher these three down, before the rest of their army could react. Without main commanders, and these three looks like the main commanders, dealing with rest of them would be much easier.”

- “Do you suggest we should act like savage barbarians? To trample the memory of our ancestors and…”

- “I suggest nothing. I have no idea how your tradition works. All I did was pointing out a possibility. And we are back to the question I am asking for the… third time? What. Are. Our. Orders?

Vakirra bit on her lip. I knew what she was thinking. One: if she should risk life of her men just to honor the tradition of the greenskin, which are honoring it for the first time – only because it suits them. If to honor it – isn’t it a trap? Many could lose their respect to her if she would not honor a negotiation. Same if she wouldn’t take opportunity.

- “I will talk with them. You said there is three of them?”

- “Ay.”

- “In that case I should take two advisors to.” The old Ironblood looked like a donkey from a certain animated movie. He was almost yelling “ Did you see them well?”

- “Sub-commanders? I did. Some bulky ogre, covered in scars from nose to heels and a goblin, most likely a shaman.”

- “In that case I will take the leader of our forces…” She said looking at head of bulldozers. “… and our guest.”

Oh, another smack on Ironblood’s nose! Still, I was more than sure that she picked me not because she liked me that much. I was simply her protection from the magic that shaman could have prepared. Thinking quickly on many fields, are we? Damn, she is a bit too soft, but if she would get enough experience… she would make a worthy queen. And a worthy ally-to-have.

In the end, the much smaller army of dwarfs formed its own lines behind us – as we were slowly riding to the meeting place. My companions were afraid that it could be a trap. Me - I was not. Why? Despite the fact that our enemy is greenskin (despite being red. I know.), he proved multiple times that he is quite intelligent. His goal is still unknown to me, but he wants to delay us. If he would kill the dwarf’s commanders, the armies would clash. But the dwarfs have many more strategists than goblins. So, using basic math – if we all would kill each other there, the greenskins would be in a far worse position.

- “Agn Arvall, meh aidis.”

- “Great. Do we have someone speaking goblin-ish? Or whatever it was?”

- “Actually, it was dwarfish.” The general of army whispered to me.

Woopsie. Faux-pas.

- “… well, as for me, he can as well talk in their own speech. I still don’t get what he is talking about.”

- “It was just a welcome. A polite one.”

- “Hjuman dozin’t spik darzish?” The oni asked. “But darz spik hjuman. Den we spik hjuman. I spik hjuman.”

… a fucking big-ass goblin speaks more languages than myself. Ok. I am officially embarrassed. I will have to learn a language or two…

~ And dark magic.

~ And fire magic.

~ And nature magic.

~ Swordsmanship?

~ Did you forgot about the spear?

~ Do you remember you can use Holy magic since you have eaten the angel? You didn’t really use it yet.

~ What about hand-to-hand combat?

~ Also, Sebastian still wants to train your body

~ Do you remember to meditate frequently? It’s a workout for the soul.

~ Pay in mind, that source of your powers is shape shifting. When was the last time you hunted something useful? Angel does not count. It was a fluke.

~ Last but not last… Me. I just want to let you know, that I feel neglected.

I GET IT! I! GET! IT! … Damn, I need to learn shadow-clone-jutsu or something.

~ One. It won’t work this way. Two. If it would, actually brain exhaustion would kill you.

Damn it. Some time dimension magic? You know – bubble in which times passes 10 times slower?

~ It does exist. But I hope you know that creating such think is peak of magic itself? There are very few Devils and Angels that can do such things.

Sebastian?

~ I doubt it.

Dang. Any ideas what should I do with that, folks?

~START FUCKING TRAINING, NOT JUST PLANNING!

Ha! To repeatedly do something to you learn it – it is something that every idiot can do! I look for something more… fulfilling!

~ That’s one way of saying that you are too lazy for that.

Ok, ok! I will think abou… DAMN IT! Don’t disturb be! They are talking and I am spacing out because of you!

- “Why did you call us?” The queen asked calmly.

- “I thought I stated myself clear! We wish to negotiate. No spill of blood in needed!” The oni said. I allowed myself to pay no attention to his bit rusty human-language.

- “Don’t make fools of us. What is the reason for your negotiations!? What do you possibly want from us, and what can you offer us?”

- “We merely wish to know the reason of your aggression.” The oni said with a dead-serious face

- “I can give you plenty! As many reasons, as many women, men and children that died as you attacked our outposts, mines and cities! We are merely avenging our families and make sure that nobody else would suffer from your blade.”

This time the young prince was the one talking. He also remained calm. He knew, that he will have plenty time to bath in the blood of his enemies – as soon as this charade is over.

- “And what about our families? Our brothers? You think we formed this… horde, just because we were bored? You are hunting us as if we are some kind of animals! Have you ever heard the phrase – Green hunt?”

- “What is it?” I asked quietly queen.

- “… At least once per year, a group of soldiers leaves the cities to… get rid of bigger tribes in the mountain. It’s not hunt. It’s pacification. Or – village slaughter.”

I nodded. Once. Twice. Then I talked.

- “Tell me, war chief, what do you usually do for living?” I tried using simple words, so he would have no problems understanding what I said. Still, the nature of question made him raise his brow. “…Are you farmers? Traders?... Scholars?”

- “Hunters.” He replied calmly.

- “Exactly. And now, tell me – how fast do you reproduce? As you just said, dwarfs are hunting you down regularly, slaughtering you in the thousands each year. Yet, look at you and your army. How much bigger is your army? Ten times? More?”

- “What do you mean?”

- “It will sound cold. Cruel even: but, if dwarfs wouldn’t keep killing you for those past years, decades, centuries. What would have happened? I will tell you. Take no offense, but you are like a disease – you reproduce in an extremely fast tempo – you can breed with most races. You are capturing women and raping them. No, I am not telling that you did that personally. I am generalizing. But. How long does your pregnancy takes? Months? Weeks? And how many babies does one pregnancy give? And how long does it takes your children to grow up? A hundred days, isn’t it? The more of you lives, the more you eat. And what are you doing when you have no more food around you?”

- “… We raid.”

- “Exactly. Do you wish to tell me, that you have a way to feed all of your people? Or – do you have a way to… decrease your birth rate? It is cruel. It is not fair. But in the end, to protect ourselves from starvation, the population needs to be… reduced.”

- “You mean butchered?”

- “That’s exactly what I mean.”

- “What makes life of dwarfs better than life of goblin? Why won’t YOU die instead?!”

- “Life itself holds the same value, especially at the beginning – that’s answer for your first question. The answer for your second question is – because other races learned to be self-sufficient. Dwarfs are not plundering your villages, because they learned to satisfy their needs on their own…” the oni opened his mouth yet again, but I didn’t let him start a new sentence. “… but now, before you continue. Do you have some actual things we could negotiate, or will you just keep occupying us with philosophical discussion, waiting till those little workers behind your lines would finish their job?” I asked.

In same time Remus landed on my arm. The same poor Remus, whose skull’s the Oni that sits in front of me smashed with a rock.

Red-skinned only gritted his teeth.

- “I will tell you what you are about to do.” I said to the Oni. “You will tell us what exactly are you working on. Then, you will proceed telling us how are you going to make greenskins self-sufficient, or how do you intend of keeping your population from expanding. Otherwise, we will help you with the last thing.”