Breathe.

They'd known this was a possibility. Not this specific thing, perhaps — Vex hadn't even begun to consider that they might bring his little brother to a diplomatic meaning, he was only four — but they'd known that Wisfield was going to do something to try to throw them off. That they'd chosen this method... sucked? It sucked. For a second it felt like all the progress he'd made was hollow, if this was all it took to undo him.

But only for a second. Because they'd known something like this was possible, even if they hadn't identified the exact means, and there was a very, very significant advantage they had identified when it came to the Relay charms.

All communication was restricted to what they chose to communicate. It didn't apply only to the mental skills and what Wisfield might be able to derive from them. It applied to anything they said. It applied to their body language. With those charms, they could speak freely, and Wisfield would hopefully be none the wiser.

Well, except for the part where they couldn't read them. Indeed, the Wisfield representatives seemed slightly nonplussed; if Vex had to guess, they'd tried to read them and failed. But they were also trained to react minimally to surprises, so as to not reveal that they had identified from their mind-reading, and he reminded himself that he might just be reading too much into their expressions.

"Holy shit," Misa said, her voice filtered under the effects of the charm. Neither Wisfield nor Ashion reacted; they were watching carefully, apparently trying to gauge the four of them for a reaction, and they saw nothing that they chose not to share. "Is that a fucking child? Is that—"

Misa cut herself off before she could continue, her own hands tightening into fists; her expression darkened like a storm, and yet there was not a flicker of reaction from Wisfield or Ashion.

So far so good.

"Is that a child?" Rekka said, completely nonplussed and evidently not hearing Misa either. "He wasn't on the guest list."

"I just thought I'd bring my youngest along." The adult lizardkin — Karix, his father — spoke with a deep baritone, smiling a charming, kind smile. The same smile he wore while strapping Vex into that chair —

Breathe.

Vex stopped that train of thought before it could go any further. "He's my brother," Vex explained tersely, making sure the charm filtered his words; he didn't trust himself to speak yet. Not to them.

But he could only wait for so long before the silence itself became suspicious.

"They want you to ask why your brother is here," Derivan said. He was staring at the representatives of the two houses, his gaze flicking between Ashion and Wisfield; his eyes narrowed slightly on Karix. "...Wisfield wants to throw you off, emotionally. They are... anticipating. They are hoping you will stumble, and make your brother believe you do not want him here."

"That's fucking shitty," Misa kept her voice low, though she didn't need to. She was glaring harder at Wisfield, though, and clearly she wasn't trying to block that, because the Wisfield representatives were starting to look uncomfortable.

"Your father... he just wanted you to see your brother?" Derivan seemed unsure. "He is harder to read. I am sorry."

"It's fine," Vex said quietly.

Breathe.

The sensation of Derivan's hand on his own helped; the cool metal gave him something to focus on. Karix was still talking, saying something about how the Ashion family had all missed him, and how little Riss had missed him the most. Vex was fine with this. It gave him time to consider how he would act.

Slowly, calmly, he picked himself up from the table he was seated at, and walked over to Riss. His little brother stared up at him with wide eyes, one hand still clutched in their father's, he seemed a little nervous to be out here. If his childhood so far was anything like Vex's had been, then it had so far been kind, and fulfilling.

One and a half years left until that was gone.

"Hey, Riss," Vex said; he heard his own voice crack slightly, but he held firm to the magic in the cham, only letting his gentle happiness at seeing his brother through. And there was a lot of it. The last time he'd seen Riss, he was so small, and in that small amount of time he'd grown so much —

Riss' eyes sparked with recognition, and his mouth fell open in the purest expression of joy; the kind only a child had. "It's... it's my brother!" he exclaimed, tugging excitedly on Karix's hands. "Daddy! Look! It's my brother!"

Karix smiled down at him, letting go of his hand. "Do you want to go greet your brother, Riss?"

"Yes!" Riss bounced on his feet a bit, and then ran forward the two steps he needed to reach Vex; he threw little arms around him, and Vex had to bend down quickly to catch his brother properly by the arms, lest the little guy end up hugging only his legs. "I missed you!"

"I'm surprised you remember me," Vex said with a laugh, doing his damndest to keep his tears out of his voice; no matter that he knew the charm was hiding it, it was hard for him to talk properly. His throat felt like there was a rugfly lodged in it. "You were so much smaller the last time I saw you!"

"Of course I remember you!" Riss folded his hands indignantly. "You were big. And helpful!"

"Big?" Vex chuckled. "Where did you get the idea that I was big? I'm like the smallest of all our siblings."

"You're big here," Riss whispered, his tone almost conspiratorial. And then he pointed at Vex's head, and then his heart.

Vex's laugh was genuine, this time, though there was a small part of him that ached. "I missed you too," he said, reaching out to poke the tip of Riss' snout; the little lizard went cross-eyed trying to follow the movement, and wobbled on his feet. "Lemme introduce you to my friends, okay? They're really cool."

"I don't know..." Riss looked over Vex's shoulder doubtfully. "They look kinda scary. Except the human."

"They're very nice, I promise," Vex said, patting Riss on the head. "The big one lets me ride on his shoulders sometimes."

"Really?" Riss' eyes went wide. "He's so big!"

"Really!" Vex grinned, even though it had only happened once, and it had not been the most comfortable experience. "I can ask him for you later, if you want."

"Yes please!" Riss said, bouncing on his feet again, and Vex felt his heart go out to the lizardkin.

"He really has missed you," Karix said from above the two of them, rumbling in amusement. "For the first month after you left he talked about you nearly every day. I hope you found something that was worth it."

"...Maybe I did," Vex said, his words coming out a little bit more curt than he intended. "But we can talk about that later. After this meeting. What are you doing here, dad?"

"Wisfield wanted us along with the meeting, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see my long-lost son again," Karix said, smiling at him. "You look like you're doing well, Vex! Even a little bit taller. I'm proud of you."

"...Thanks, dad." Vex tried not to let his emotion show.

It would be so much easier if Karix was just pointlessly cruel. If he didn't have so many moments of genuine kindness. If he could dismiss Karix as just evil.

A storm of mixed emotions rolled over Vex as he stood to walk back to his seat. Riss didn't stop him; his little brother just waved happily at him, fully believing Vex would do as he promised and introduce them later; meanwhile, the Ashion and Wisfield representatives sat on the other side of the meeting table.

"Alright," one of the Wisfield representatives began — he was an old, grizzled-looking human that looked just ever-so-slightly bored, his gaze flicking over the clipboard he'd brought with him. "Let's get started. My name is Henry, and my companion here is Wen. You already seem to know the Ashion house, so I won't bother introducing them. The stated reason of this meeting is that you want to gain access to the dungeon in Elyra, but there are two other agendas for this meeting. Is that correct?"

Wisfield couldn't read them, but they could still read the minds of Rekka and the others; no doubt they'd caught on to some of what this meeting was meant to address through that. The words were meant to throw them off. Layers. They couldn't read them, but were pretending they still could.

This was why Vex hated dealing with noble society. They had ancitipated this, though.

"And what are those other reasons?" Sev raised an eyebrow at Henry.

Henry's brows furrowed together, almost imperceptibly. "You wanted to address your entrance to the Elyran dungeon, air your grievances with Wisfield and Ashion for our indiscretions in funding the Guild for political favor, and identify what we have done with the researchers that came back from your little dungeon excursion."

"That's true." Sev let a flicker of admiration and respect flicker through the charm, from what Vex could tell. It seemed to help. The Wisfield representatives relaxed just a bit, though Karix didn't react at all. "The Guild isn't particularly happy with Elyra right now, Henry."

"I'd argue that everything we've done has been to the Guild's benefit." Henry folded his arms, and Vex let himself sigh.

This was going to be a long meeting.

Being able to sigh without the other party noticing was pretty cathartic, though. He fingered the charm around his neck briefly; it still seemed to be going strong, though the mana within it had dimmed slightly.

"You encouraged members of the Guild to pursue an avenue of research without the Guild's explicit oversight, and provided funding so that this could happen. There's no way you didn't notice the side effect of the [Reinforcement] buff, Henry; your House would have noticed it immediately. You just took the opportunity to try to cement the Guild as another noble power in the city."

"We reward nobility to those that have earned it."

"The Guildmaster doesn't want the Guild as a noble power here," Sev said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "We are a bridge between nobility and the average citizen. Noble status would affect our ability to recruit from the common folk. Image matters here. And, more to the point, the status of nobility would mean that the Guild would be beholden to Elyra for any military operations it wants to conduct."

"Hmm." Henry took a moment to absorb this, folding his hands across his lap. "Fine. We understand your reticence, even though we disagree with it. We apologize."

Sev paused. "An apology is not good enough for the damage you have done to the Guild. It will take time for us to heal from the effects of [Reinforcement]."

"I would argue that the damage done by that buff is hardly our fault," Henry said, shrugging. "We just provided the money. We'll take responsibility for that. But the buff? That was all your people."

"You could have said something."

"We could have," Henry agreed easily. "But it hardly seems fair to blame me for what we could have done. Not taking an action is hardly a crime."

Vex gritted his teeth slightly —

"They are messing with us," Derivan said calmly, from the side. Vex turned to look at him; the armor was leaning forward in his seat, eyeing the Wisfield representatives with a sort of detached curiosity. "They are frustrated at being unable to read us, and trying to provoke a response. They truly do not feel responsible for what has been wrought here... I believe that may be a difficult avenue to approach."

"Change tacts, then?" Sev glanced to Derivan.

"For now." Derivan tapped his fingers on the table, punctuating his statement with the clack of metal on wood. "There is something else that they want."

"Fine," Sev said, both to Derivan and to the Wisfield representatives; Henry frowned at him, as if confused by how long he'd taken to respond. "We're not letting that go, but we're tabling that, for now. I want to know when we can be allowed access to the dungeon."

"It may take some time," Henry said. "The recent changes have caused a resurgence of research applications, which, as you know, take priority. Perhaps a month?"

"...A month." Sev almost didn't keep the disbelief out of his voice. "This is a high-priority request from the Guild."

"A month is a short amount of time, for what you are requesting." Henry said; his words were patronizing. "Really, it's a privilege to be able to access the dungeon at all."

"There is a way around this." Henry's companion, Wen, finally spoke; she glanced contemplatively between the adventurers. "If you were nobles, you could submit a research application, and it would be approved. With some conditions, of course. But yoru friend there cannot submit one for you."

Vex froze. "Me?"

"Yes." Karix frowned at him, the older lizardkin finally speaking up. "Really, now, we've let you do this long enough. You need to come home. Riss misses you."

"I do!" Riss waved at Vex, completely oblivious to his father's machinations.

"You're not going to find a new magic all by yourself," Karix continued. "You've always been brilliant, but this is the kind of thing you need research teams for."

Ah.

There was the trap.

Nobility, or Vex rejoining the family.

Vex wasn't sure why this, of all things, he hadn't expected or planned for.