All of the onlookers began talking loudly about this unexpected tirade. There was a lot of truth to what he was saying; The Trials had changed the rules of the world. Hardly anyone in the room had made it this far without watching someone die, and even those who had lived mundane lives before this had learned the art of defending themselves and killing when it was the only way to defend themselves.

But the soul arts were profane. Most didn’t know the history of when or why they had become so wholly unacceptable, but they knew nonetheless that they were the purview of the evil and the corrupted. But this pale, small, mana-less thing that stood before them had the respect of several very recognizable figures, and beyond that, Torysen, who should be the very person drawing charges against him, who would have been forgiven even if she had slain him in cold blood in the field, was instead standing here defending him.

“Its settled,” boomed Manlen as he leaned forward in his high seat. He had glanced at the old woman and was certain she had nodded at him. “You admit to using soul arts and show no remorse at that. You’ll be executed this evening!”

“Wait,” said the council member next to him, “I don’t think that’s settled at all.”

The look of relief on the faces of each of Mason’s allies was nearly comical.

Another council-member spoke up, “We were not here today to start a war. We were here to assess the right thing to do involving this city that Torysen’s band found, and then to determine the right course of action in handling young Mason Nevels.”

The final member seemed to rouse, this one almost old enough that Mason wondered if she might turn to dust, “It is not in our laws to execute the ambassadors of people seeking peace. If he were a Marran, I would volunteer to deal out his punishment myself. But he is not.”

“Neither does he show any sign of bad intent or corruption,” Leenel chimed in, pressing her advantage. “I would motion that we keep him under surveillance, with his permission, but allow him to move freely through the city with an escort. Of course, there is a great deal of discussion to be had about our agreement with his people and the Biord, but that can be reserved for a more private meeting.”

There were mutters of agreement from the other council-members, and the citizens in the audience began to chatter away as if they hadn’t really had any stock in the matter either way.

“What terms can he even offer us? You speak of sparing him as an ambassador of peace, but I hear these Biord are hardly able to defend themselves. They bowed once to a strong leader, why shouldn’t they bow before us?” Manlen huffed, apparently agitated from the turn of events.

Mason didn’t wait to be asked to speak, “The walls of their city are lined with mana. Several of your people have confirmed what the Biord told us before- beyond their sealed royal halls is practically a mana mine. They are threatened and in danger by enemies unknown, but once those threats are removed your people would have access to all the mana that could possibly sustain you.

“But are you hoping to march into this city and fight an unknown enemy in territory you know nothing about? The Biord could guide you, support you, ease in the transition. Would you so callously suggest subjugating a potential ally? I thought the Corrosi were supposed to be the barbarians.” He glared directly at Manlen, almost hissing.

“Boy you reach too-”

“I would hesitate before speaking down to Mason again, Councilman,” Torysen interjected with a step forward, lining herself with the human.

“Captain Torysen, you have more to add?” Leenel asked.

“I’ve been to the Biord cities, and I’ve seen the hives we suspect are connected, as well as some of the monstrosities within. My archer Leornal fought alongside Mason deep within a second hidden city, as the reports clearly show, and we have great reason to believe we only know a fraction of the dangers lurking down there. The Corrosi and the goblins threaten us from the north and monstrosities threaten us from underground, from the very city we require aid from in order to survive. Is it worth taking the risk of making enemies of the Biord and humans when we could be forming alliances instead?”

“If Mason were a more vicious man,” Leornal spoke up too, “what you’ve dared to say in front of this council would already constitute enough for him to report back to the Biord that they should bar their doors and consider us enemies. I’m no politician, but I think you should probably try thinking before you suggest going to war.”

Manlen fumed, and cast back and forth between Mason’s group and the other councilmembers. Each of his fellows, except Leenel, looked ready to shift their chairs away from him.

“Let me settle this matter publicly, if the council agrees. Mason will be offered the full rights and protections of an ambassador, and we will adjourn to discuss the more sensitive matters of our military and politics in private,” Leenel declared.

When several councilmembers immediately agreed, the matter seemed settled. Leornal looked over at Mason and gave him a curt nod, and the human boy visibly relaxed. This seemed like a pretty reasonable outcome to the whole mess. He hadn’t even been asked to give up his staff.

Manlen was conspicuously absent from the private meeting, having stormed out muttering something about, “I won’t be stuck in the same room with that Demon.”

Mason had long since given up on getting offended by things. Whether he was liked or not, he was alive, and there were people who were helping him for whatever their own reasons were. And for the moment, he was sitting among a pretty notable array of people and if he wasn’t respected, he was at least seen as necessary.

Four of the council members were there, as well as Torysen, two other Roving Band leaders, and three heads of the local defense. There was an old woman, too. The same that Mason had failed to notice during the trial, though he overlooked her now as well. She looked half-asleep, and that was being generous. Her skin looked worn and grey, and somehow the bones of her body seemed to be lost in the mess of sagging flesh and heavy furs that surrounded her.

Though all these people were civil, the disputes were clearly running heated.

“We cannot afford to send our forces to secure some other city when we can’t even be certain we can defend our own,” insisted the true head of the local defense, Coltren, for possibly the sixth time the conversation.

“And again, nobody is suggesting we do that, not immediately. We need to survey the city of the Biord for viability, probe the willingness of their people to comply to our demands, and ensure that we even have the ability to fight whatever it is that threatens them. For all we know, they’ve fallen already,” Leenel responded, not for the first time herself.

“We’re talking in circles, everyone. Can we please come to a basic agreement, and then deal with the details by casting votes,” asked the first council member to side with Mason, Hoatner. “We can use young Mason here as the tie-breaking vote in Manlen’s place, since the man is too busy sulking to help manage the city.”

The eldest of the council members looked at the old woman in the room for a long time before nodding solemnly toward Mason, “That would be a fair sign of our respect, as he did come here as an ambassador. You will have to be straightforward with us if you do not understand our values. And might I suggest you not share the details of this meeting around. The fact that a soul-arts user is in our midst is already more controversy than these old bones hoped to ever be wrapped up in again.”

Mason nodded, “I’d be honored to help weigh in with as much knowledge as I can.” Assuming some humility was due after his show in the trial, he added, “I am young, and new to the Trials, as well as your people, so please do not allow me to overstep my bounds.”

Both Torysen and Leenel flashed him approving looks, and then Torysen spoke up, “So then let us start with this. We must get a better understanding of the region surrounding the Biord, as well as scout where the humans are likely to appear. Only once that has been accomplished should we send the scouts to investigate the threats to the Biord, and how many of our people they could accommodate if we did send our people to join them.”

There were several nods around the table, but the head of the local defense put a fist on the table, “We’re just going to sacrifice our local awareness on this longshot idea that we can just move in happily with some other species? They’ll kill us in our sleep if we don’t all die to the Corrosi and Goblins while we’re distracted.”

Predictably, his lackeys nodded along with him, and the rest of the civilized people in the room simply sighed before the elderly council-member spoke up again, “What would you have us do?”

Coltren looked pleased that the question had come up, “I believe we should keep the Roving Bands in closer to town, and prepare to lay out an offensive against the Corrosi. We know there are mana springs, and possibly even more powerful resources to the far north. If we can rout them out and claim those for ourselves, we won’t need to give up our city or split our population.”

This time, the room seemed split.

“I think we’ll stand a better chance if we let the Corrosi wear themselves down from in-fighting and failed raids on the city. If we can thin their numbers while we wait for and train up the humans, we’ll actually have the manpower to launch a full resistance!” insisted Leenel.

Torysen then turned to Mason before anyone could contest that, “Mason, you know what your people are capable of better than any of us here. Do you honestly believe they will be able to provide us the assistance we require? That is ultimately what this hinges on.”

Mason shifted uncomfortably in his chair, and tried to hear the voice of Mowry and Geralt within him. All he could perceive without focusing better on the link he had to them were vague feelings, but they seemed to be sending him confidence.

He didn’t feel so certain. “Humanity has always been known for its adaptability and resilience, but we wrote those stories to tell each other. From what I can tell, I’m not a horrendous fighter and I’ve only been in this plane or exposed to mana for a few weeks. There is potential there, but they won’t come ready to fight, and it may take some convincing to get them to join your battle anyways.”

“Be clear, boy. We need to make a decision,” urged one of Coltren’s lackeys.

“If I had to vote, I’d vote in favor of the best potential of my people. I think they could help, and I think New Marra would stand a better chance if it had mana-resources behind it. If you start a war and end up besieged, it doesn’t seem like you’ll last long,” Mason confessed guiltily.

Torysen was nodding though, so he must not have done too horribly.

“How do you know he doesn’t just want us to offer ourselves up to the humans whole so that they can all take our souls with their twisted magic?” Coltren asked with venom in his voice. It seemed more like he were trying to sow dissent than that he actually feared Mason at all.

“That’s enough of that,” Leenel admonished. “You could have spoken at the trial. As it is, we all agreed that it was to our benefit to wait until we had real reason to suspect Mason before we treated him like a criminal. We have seen stranger things in this world than a kindly soul-arts user.”

“Can we just put it to a vote?” cried Hoatner. “All in favor of holing up in the city and hiding from everyone?” There was some uncomfortable shuffling, but nobody rose their hand. “And all in favor of waging a full on war with the Corrosi right away?” Coltren and one of his lackeys rose their hands, as well as one of the Roving Band leaders that hadn’t spoken yet.

“Good. And all in favor of scouting out the Biord and the Humans, and discussing our options further once we have a better understanding of what they are?” Hands went up all around the room, and Mason tried hard not to look smug.

“Even better. Now we have a starting point. I believe we should send…”

The rest of the discussion went on for about an hour. They were going to send another of the Roving Bands to do the scouting since Torysen’s group was already biased and unlikely to bring back the best possible information. One of Torysen’s scouts, who Mason didn’t know well, would go with them to make notes of the changing landscape, as well as to make introductions between the band and the Biord.

Beyond that they began to discuss possibilities for how they would respond to different scenarios, answering questions like; Would they be willing to undergo an emergency evacuation of the full city toward the Biord if they were threatened? Would they rather run mana supply between their locations, or set up a more permanent occupation with the Biord? What sort of military might could they do without in New Marra in order to engage with the threats on the Biord?

The questions went on and on, and Mason failed to follow most of the more nuanced tactics, especially since the flurry of names in the air meant almost nothing to him. He did gather that Torysen’s group would be reassigned for the time being to scout out the north-west though, where Corrosi were present but not especially active.

As the meeting was wrapping up, Mason decided to act on a thought he had been stewing on the whole meeting.

“I’d like to make a formal request before Torysen and the full leadership of New Marra.”

All eyes were on him, and he choked as his throat went dry.

“Well, as I’m sure is fairly apparent from the reports and from what I can only imagine is fairly astute mana-sight, I’m still a novice at combat, and have only learnt the basics of magic. I would like to be assigned to support Torysen’s band as they rove to the north.”

Nobody said anything at first, and then Mason noticed that the eyes in the room were shifting from him to Torysen. It was only then that he realized the position he had put her in. She had stuck her neck out for him despite the fact that she had a great many reasons to distrust him.

But because she had done so publicly, and Mason had requested this assignment publicly as well, she almost had to accept the request or she would look like she was backing down on her earlier confidence in him.

Steeling himself, Mason locked eyes with Torysen, trying to get across through a look how seriously he was taking this.

Torysen drew her sword and moved its tip against Mason’s throat while everyone watched. Mason wondered if Coltren was hoping she would follow through with the attack. After a moment had passed and Mason hadn’t moved, Torysen asked, “If I were to try and kill you right now, would you be able to guess my next action? Would you be able to defend against it and protect yourself?”

“No,” he responded honestly, knowing her speed and power firsthand.

“If you join my band and cannot defend yourself, you make it someone else’s obligation to do so. We do not let our own members die, and your weakness already put Leornal at risk. Would you put him at risk again?” Her gaze was level, and Mason knew she was making this point in front of everyone for reasons he couldn't comprehend, but that meant a great deal to her.

“I will do everything in my power to keep myself from being a liability. I believe I have strengths that can be put to good use, and that with the guidance and experience from working with your team, I will become great.”

“Does the council agree with putting an ambassador to our people in the line of duty?” She asked the people around her.

Several of them muttered agreements, and a few of them seemed almost eager for their own reasons.

“We have a great deal of training to get through, then. I’ll send someone to prepare you soon.” Torysen said, without a hint of pleasure in her voice.