Twig was annoyed by the tree. For several hours it had been nagging him for blood and food. The constant annoyance even brought him to consider cutting the damn thing down more than once. It was not like he was unwilling to feed it though. He had a very special training in mind, but that would take a lot of mana and he wanted his human disciples well rested. Luckily his invisible Abyss Raven had finally found its way inside the large conference hall they had set up to hold talks with Teiming.

Although it still was another hour or two until the sun would rise there were already three men sitting at a large oval table. It was big enough to comfortably make room for about sixty people, which was a feat in itself. The hall however was rather crude. In comparison to the Royal Military Academy or the palace it was a plain, old and rather ugly place. Stone walls, odd choices for wall decorating like boar hides and troll teeth or skulls. It was very apparent how this was a country for savages.

However, any information Twig could gain here may possibly help getting his master out savely. So he made his raven land on the table as silently as possible and patiently sit between these men. Unable to sense the creature their conversation was promptly exposed.

“You both know very well, how this could affect the negotiations! How can you allow your brother to set up an ambush under this circumstances Enrold”, a white bearded old man explained in frustrated manner. “It’s insanity. You want another Dreytora?”

Enrold just shrugged. “It’s not like they are in a position to wage war right now. You heard the rumors. They are weak!” He told the other two. Hastily scratching his well shaven face and shoving his long dark hair out of his eyes, he awaited a reply.

A middle aged man with an aura of nobility spoke up calmly. “Ah, we are not in any danger for now anyway. They want our help in the war. We will stay neutral. As long as this prince of theirs does not go and demand unreasonable things we will play this out peacefully.”

Enrold rolled his eyes. “God damn, we could do so much more than that…” He grumbled out, barely letting the others hear. “So far we have not even negotiated. Why not demand something?”

Twig laughed to himself. The man was rather frustrated. He clearly wanted war. The others apparently did not. Not necessarily at least. This information was already worth a lot to him. As long as he presented his master with a legitimate reason to retreat and put a hold on negotiations, these men would let him leave. Unless this young fool, Enrold, had plans to start a new conflict.

The old man with his white bear and tired eyes spoke up again with shaky voice. He was very old. At least sixty years old, maybe more. “We are barely on our… second I think it was?.. yes. Second day of negotiations. We made trade agreements. It is good to be patient if you want something. Tell him now what you want, and he will make his own claims. Which he can hardly refuse easily.” The old man got up from his chair and slurred away leaning on a walking cane. “Just be patient, a few day and we will get to it. Trust me.”

The nobleman nodded. “It’s true what Dain said. We don’t need to rush into this. And your brother can hold out in the forest for a few weeks, can’t he?” He asked in annoyed fashion. “And the battle of Dreytora should have been a lesson to you. We may be able to avoid war even if he provoke Antalia, but other countries will not back us afterwards and they will come after us as soon as they find the possibility. Best would be for them to suffer in the war and bring us a longer peace, lasting a few years.” He sighted. “Let’s just stop these talks, we should go await the prince to come. No mistakes Enrold.”

“Yes, my liege.” Enrold bowed and frowned. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” The nobleman frowned too. “What is it?”

Enrold drew his sword and slashed across the table surface, barely a few centimeters away from the wood. Naturally his weapon drew blood, slicing through the invisible raven. Twig’s connection broke up immediately. He clenched his teeth. Hopefully that would not spike aggression of any kind. It was unexpected that this warrior had such sharp senses. The bird had hardly moved and most likely one would not be able to hear that even if they listened to it. To be so aware of his surroundings, this man had quite the heightened senses.

Shrugging Twig summoned a new original Abyss Raven and sent it on its way to spy again. It would be harder to access the place now, but maybe he was lucky. His hobgoblins and common ravens had not observed anything of interest outside of the city so far either. Twig felt that his next task was ready to be taken on, since spycraft was on a stalemate. Namely that his humans were not very experienced in the art of killing, nor had they ever stood on any battlefield. Not that Twig had done so, but his indifference to human lives made him certain that he would have no performance issues in killing.

The three of them however… they needed to be trained in this. And his plan was fitting where well in the whole situation. First off all he wanted to find out about the girls abilities, while not asking them directly. It was more fun that way for Twig. The second factor was Daz. His cultivation had improved and he had trained with his heavy armor very well. Twig was sure these four pieces of armor that his disciple was wearing on each limb easily weighted as much as one of his trolls. It was insane that he was even able to walk. But he was running about already. It would be very interesting to see him take them off at a later time when he was fighting.

And the third and core factor of Twigs plan was to have them fight goblins. While goblins might not be the strongest individually, they did pose quite the threat in large numbers. Like a human child that was about six or seven years old. The dead corpses of his possessed minions would serve as fertilizer for Matah Naht. The tree would grow immensely and soon bare fruits. At least, that's what Twig hoped would happen.

There was a definite possibility that the whole plan backfired on to him, and the much safer way of preparing would have been him summoning himself a small army. Still, he prefered to find out about this unique tree and what the fruits could gain him. If they freed him from his shackles it would be worth a hundred armies for him, since freedom was not something he could force easily. There was always time to create more monsters.

Looking at his three human disciples they were sleeping at the walls of the pavillion, while Daz sat next to them. He was not cultivating though. The ominous dark energy surged inside the boy, yet it was not cultivation. Curious Twig observed for a while. This dark energy, was quite similar to mana. It was flowing into every corner of the boys body and then stayed there instead of circling back. Had he found a new way of strengthening himself? Maybe Twig would see the results later, he was very interested.

Turning around towards the little tree he flexed his arms to get rid of the cold feeling the rain left behind on them. Other than that the rain was comfortable and his water spirit relished in the increase of its element. The creature was quite happy turning all the rain that fell into the weak healing potion. But the rain was well enough absorbed by the ground to avoid a small lake of red. With the increase of water the potion water continued to flow steadily towards Matah Naht. The tree had also grown a bit, but still was not holding any leaves.

“Well. Do you enjoy the food?” The tree woke. Immediately the nagging started again. “Blood. Give me blood. Sacrifice something. Someone. Give me blood.” Twig rolled his eyes. “If you stop obsessing, then I will grant you sacrifices. I need information off of you.” The tree immediately changed its tone. “What do you need? It will cost you.” The trees leaves and two vines pointed their ends towards Twig threateningly. How this little existence was so bold to threaten someone was really something. “Do you know what a soulbinding is?”

The question apparently triggered a very emotional reaction. “I swear, if you dare use a soul binding spell on me, I would rather rip myself apart and kill myself than to serve ANYONE. And I will curse you before I die as well!” She was really very much pissed off. “Calm down. I do not plan on doing so, I am asking whether you can break one?” Twig asked hopefully. “Ahahah. You got yourself bound? And looking to break it?” Twig nodded and continued to ask, very much hopeful the tree might be able to help. “Is it within your power to do so?”

“You are not aware who or what I am are you? I am Matah Naht. I can do everything. Nobody has a more complete grasp on magic than I do and you insult me with these simple questions? I will tell you nothing without you paying me.” She sounded very smug and believed herself to hold the stronger position. It was unnerving to Twig to talk to her. The confidence with which she held herself was frightening. He was starting to get a little scared of her, but greed made him continue.

“I plan to do just that as soon as sun rises. I hope you can handle the amount of corpses I will bring you.” The trees voice lost their rasping sound for a moment. “Oooh. Very well, I will talk. Afterwards.” Then she remained silent, no matter what Twig asked of her. Was she just toying with his hopes in order to get stronger? Was this all a rouse? Even a few hours later he was unsure about it. The rain had stopped and the clouds started to clear up. It would be a beautiful day for his battle training. As his mana pool reached fifty percent he decided to just do it. Maybe she would remember his devotion to sacrificing her some goblins?

Twig used up 48.000 mana to summon goblins when the sunlight started to pour into the garden. It took a while to perform the spell over and over again, but after about five minutes he was done. Four hundred and eighty goblins. Naturally the garden was soon filled with chatter and bantering goblins that started fist fights with each other for no apparent reason. Sighting Twig used up another 2.700 mana to call for six hobgoblins. Without a monster core this time around. He only needed them to discipline the little creatures, they would not do any fighting.

Ordering them to each gain control over roughly eighty goblins they at least got them to stand around in line. Hopefully they would fight according to his wishes. They were cowardly creatures after all. Just in case they would not fight Daz, Mira and Marcella, Twig summoned two trolls to threaten them. If need be they would squash one or two to motivate them. Hopefully it would work, otherwise he would have to kill them all for no real benefit other than to feed Matah Naht...

A little further away said tree could barely contain herself. In all her lifetimes she never had experienced such a huge amount of sacrificial creatures. She still could not believe this four armed creature that just planned to give her power that easily…