Kaldalis got to his feet, gesturing for Garyung to sit down. The Bhogad gave him a grateful look as he turned his attention fully to digging through his notes. They both knew no answers were there, but the physical act of shuffling the papers was probably helping him think fast.

“I’m sure your intelligence is more complete than mine, personally, on this matter,” Kaldalis said to the spymaster. “But now you’re the one steering us off-course. I’m sure any agreements Garyung has made with Cornix are relevant, but his personal relationships are definitely beyond the scope of this meeting. I’m sure we’re not here to trade gossip.”

Despite Kaldalis’s objection, the spymaster just smiled. Yarganbintlehat cut in almost immediately.

“This council is well aware of how Cornix operates, and the question is more than valid,” he said, folding his hands together and leaning over to narrow his eyes at Kaldalis. “Unless you have something to hide.”

“I’m not here to hide anything,” Kaldalis said, defiantly meeting the man’s eyes. As much as Garyung had tried to play nice, Kaldalis wasn’t going to bow and scrape for these people. “I’m only here to try and facilitate a mutually beneficial agreement.”

“If you don’t want to hide anything, then don’t hide anything. You’re here to help this man pass off his debts onto Zara,” Emmyth said with a smirk. “He took a loan out from Cornix to pay us back for his mistakes, and now he wants to give us the debt right back.”

“That’s not true at all,” Kaldalis said. Though he immediately realized he had no idea if he was lying or not.

Garyung had been tight-lipped about how he’d gotten the money, and it might have actually been a loan. It also might have been possible that giving the town back to Zara would pass them the loan as well. Kaldalis didn’t know, and Garyung’s deepening grimace told him that he might not like the answer.

“Let me be totally honest with you about our intent,” Kaldalis said. He knew it was a bad idea, but he felt like they were hosed from the moment Cornix was mentioned. All he could reasonably do was put their cards on the table and depend on the kindness of strangers. “Garyung doesn’t want Cotanaku. He never wanted Cotanaku. We believe that returning Cotanaku to you is the right thing to do. That’s not a lie. You paid for it, and a series of freak accidents dropped it in Garyung’s lap instead of yours. But we also just plain don’t want to be in charge. This isn’t passing the buck. This isn’t pulling a fast one. We have this thing you paid for, and we don’t want it.”

The council seemed unsettled by the admission. It was hard to tell. The spymaster still had that smug grin, but all the military officials looked confused or worried. Dancao turned to one of their attendants and started a whispered conversation. On the far end of the council, the other Vathon, Occbunshenev, was fixing Kaldalis with a piercing glare. At the other end, Captain Lukina’s grimace looked like she’d just bitten down on a cayenne-coated lemon slice.

“I promise my total honesty here,” Kaldalis pleaded. He was done hiding his desperation. “If there’s a way to pin the loan to Garyung and have him work it off himself, if you want to survey the town before accepting it to make sure this isn’t a trick. You can call us incompetent if you want. Tell the world this is definitive proof that Zara is right about our type in positions of leadership. Spin this however you want. We’re just trying to do what’s right, both for you, for us, and for Cotanaku itself.”

Garyung stopped shuffling his papers. His answer was no longer important. Kaldalis noticed he had a page of notes in Ikzoz’s handwriting about Zara’s relationships with the other nations, but it wasn’t important now. Kaldalis had laid all the cards on the table face-up.

No more deception.

“It is worth noting for the council that a team is on the way to Cotanaku already,” the High Cleric said from the far left seat, eyes still firmly locked on Kaldalis. “A message can be sent to expand their investigation.”

“What team?” Thajok asked.

“What investigation?” Wauktug asked at the same time.

“I have not been apprised of the details,” the High Cleric said, turning briefly to confirm with an aide. “And I am not in the habit of assuming the Glorious One’s Will myself. But the Contender himself arranged for a ship earlier today, and he is already on the way now.”

Kaldalis tried not to let himself visibly pale at that. He was unsure of how successful he was. If the Contender was already on the way, then he was going to arrive in Cotanaku before their return. Kaldalis couldn’t warn anyone what was coming. Even if he had total confidence that the Lataxinan abilities were okay, a boat full of assholes was about to barge into town and get in everybody’s way at every possible turn.

He hoped that he could discount the possibility of them just grabbing random people and burning them at the stake. But a little voice in his head worried that it might be unfounded optimism.

Though it seemed that what he should have been worried about was what the announcement would do here with the council. The whole group of them were either deep in conversation with their aides, or staring at the High Cleric in shock. Even the spymaster seemed to have been caught by surprise, snarling something impatiently to an assistant who looked like he expected to be struck dead on the spot.

“So much for innocent until proven guilty,” Garyung muttered.

“I feel like some conclusions have been jumped to,” Kaldalis said loudly, drawing the attention of the council from their private discussions. “In particular, more derailing onto unrelated concerns.”

“If the Contender is involved,” Yarganbintlehat said, slowly and carefully, as if explaining something to a small child, “then I think we are drawing very reasonable conclusions. Ones that are of vital importance to any decision this council makes.”

“You’re assuming the results of an investigation before it’s even begun,” Garyung said, standing up quickly. “If you want to wait to make a decision until the investigation is over, we understand, and we will accept that request. But-”

“What magic did you use?” Emmyth interrupted.

“It’s not magic,” Kaldalis said, “evil or otherwise. It’s just a completely mundane, even boring, ability. It just happens that nobody in Zara had seen it before and someone made a fuss about it.”

“What is it?” Emmyth pressed. “What does it do?”

“How many people in Cotanaku have this so-called ability?” Wauktug cut in.

“On what grounds do you decide that it isn’t evil magic?” Dancao asked with a scowl. “What qualifies you to make that assessment?”

Kaldalis pressed his lips into a line. Garyung started to speak, but Kaldalis held up a hand to stop him. This was ridiculous. Absolutely absurd. The meeting was turning into a game, and it was one Kaldalis had no interest in playing.

“These details are unimportant,” Kaldalis snapped before the barrage of questions could continue. “And all of these questions are no doubt going to be covered by the Contender’s report, which we’ve already offered to wait for. Is this really Zara’s war council? You can’t stay on a single topic for five continuous minutes! Can we reach one conclusion in this meeting before we hard pivot into another unrelated question?” He turned and waved, as if to flag down one of the guards in the room. “Can I get some Ritalin in here? Or maybe you can find a proper administrator for me to talk to instead of these clowns?”

If the mention of the Contender had sent the Council into uncertainty, this insult sent them into an uproar. Five out of seven immediately stood up and yelled “you dare” in unison before their exact complaints deviated and turned into garbled crosstalk. Captain Lukina buried her face in her hands, and appeared to be trying to hide that she was laughing.

“Enough!” Yarganbintlehat slammed both hands down on the wooden desk before himself, the clapping sound accompanying the bellowed order as a single sound. The council members snapped their mouths closed, though the indignant rage across their faces remained.

“I believe this council has heard all it needs to hear from you,” the Vathon said, every word seething with anger. “We are prepared to begin deliberations. You are excused.”

Kaldalis wanted to be embarrassed. He wanted to feel guilty and apologetic for escalating right to insults. But he knew better. The whole Zaran bureaucracy had been set up to drive him to this. He couldn’t be convinced that the Council hadn’t made their decision before the meeting began, giving them the freedom to play childish gossip games all evening, if they wanted. Kaldalis would find it hard to believe that anyone would pin the blame solely on him.

“How does this work?” Garyung asked. Even as he asked, the audience was filing out into the hallway.

“You leave,” the royal representative explained, with insulting slowness and enunciation. “We discuss and make our decision, and you return and we will deliver our conclusion.”

“Don’t go far,” Emmyth said with a smirk and a dismissive wave.