Vexia curled her lips back in a smile after a moment of neutral expression, “Duchessa Aiwenor, that’s the sort of problem ‘lying’ was created to solve. You’re an assassin by trade unless I miss my guess. Here in my city with, by your own admission, a dangerous swordsman and a dangerous mage. Do you realize how easily I could claim you came to kill me? It might create a brief diplomatic flap, maybe hurt relations with Pas’en for a little while. But this is the center of the Starwatcher faith. The temples will push whatever I tell them to push, and in the worst case…?” She snapped her fingers, “Princes die all the time. It’s an occupational hazard for some reason.” The arrogance of her smile as she said that… grated.

Nua pursed her lips and inclined her head from where she sat. “Fair enough, but you didn’t call me here to kill me, and I didn’t come here to kill you, so setting aside that we’re both very good liars, who will do whatever we have to in order to get what we want… what do you want from me?”

Queen Vexia felt herself begin to calm at the unexpected common ground between herself and her wood elf opponent. She sat back on her throne, resting herself against the backrest, her fingers relaxing from their tight grip, she gave her next words thought. ‘I won’t get everything I want, yet. And she has a point, even if I call out my guards for this, I can’t be sure of the outcome.’

“Alright then, Duchessa. Let us dicker. Why don’t we start with what you want?” The Vex Queen’s robust and powerful voice was the epitome of a born monarch, ringing about the hall it bore the weight of her office behind it.

“The security of your race, the safety of your city, prosperity for all of Mict’aratz, and the destruction of the Triumvirate.” Nua said as if she were asking for lunch.

Vexia stared as the decisive answer dropped from elven lips as if it had been rehearsed, and she began to laugh. Her purple hand came to rest on her breast and her chest heaved with the forced laughter she could not stop.

Nua did not laugh.

When Vexia felt her laughter fade on its own, she felt her anger rising, “You mock me.”

“No. You ask what I want here, that is what I seek.” Nua stated with a very serious voice. “You’ve ruled a long time, or so I am told, you’ve seen a lot of liars in your life. You’ve probably gotten good at telling when someone is being dishonest.” Nua put her fingers into a pyramid in front of her and leaned forward in turn, her sky blue eyes held to the radiant solid purple of the Queen of Vexation. “Tell me, am I lying now.”

Looking at the disruptive element straight in the eye, Vexia searched for any sign of dishonesty, though it was difficult to ignore that her rival was using a demon-elf as a chair, she found no lie in her eyes. “No… no I don’t think you are. You may be a liar when you need to be, but I don’t think you’re lying now.”

The tension passed and both women relaxed, which did nothing to minimize Queen Vexia’s caustic words as they flowed out. “But since it’s wish time, I want our numbers restored to what they used to be and to rule in peace without sacrifice forever. Are we done? Is the time for wishing passed?” The sarcasm was thick and rich enough to feed an army, however it washed over Nua like water off a duck’s back.

The wood elf assassin answered immediately. “You say that as if the Triumvirate is unbeatable, but I promise you, Queen Vexia, it isn’t. I’ve been to the Tlalmok Empire, remember. I watched one of your people die there, horribly. She was dear to me.” Nua blinked back tears and her fists clenched with rage that swirled like death around her. “I will see them die… I promise you.”

Vexia froze. ‘This is unexpected… one of my race… yes. The consort of the Prince… this rage seems genuine. But the well meaning are worse than true enemies sometimes.’ She thought, but could only feel a sense of sadness rising.

“A power in the west that I have seen with my own eyes is coming to destroy them, I have seen both places, I have killed Devorian harvesters that crossed the border of the Minotaur Kingdom. Power to the west of them is rising like flood waters. When they’re read the Dark Savior’s armies will come in the hundreds of thousands. The Triumvirate roused the ire of the child of my god. Nothing will save them now.” Nua promised with iron conviction and clenched her open palm tight into a white fist that even the black glow of the gem could not slip through.

“You may mean that, but my line has ruled for a very long time, I’ve seen many promise the destruction of the Beastmen. They all ended up the same way, sacrificed to the ruling family’s hunger.” Vexia’s eyes shut in brief memory of her lessons.

“The only way to survive is to keep things as they are. You disrupt that, and put us all at risk! I will not see my people thrown into breeding pens because of your futile hopes!” Queen Vexia pronounced with an iron will that denied Nua’s conviction.

“You’re all the living dead.” Nua replied with a sorrowful shake of her head.

“At least this way we stay living… you ask me to believe you, but why should I? Everyone wants their dreams to be believed in, but everybody fails. Your feet are on the living proof of that.” Vexia gestured to Sado, who lowered his eyes to the floor.

Nua kept her voice even and unwavering as she held her eyes to the woman on the throne with whom she began to feel a strange sense of both kinship and pity. “A point, Queen of Da’nak. But I won’t. Why do you think he follows me?” Nua asked rhetorically, gesturing to Sado, “Why do you think she follows me?” Nua rested a hand on the head of Kaiji. “This can be done, this will be done, the only question is how many have to die for it to happen.”

Vexia’s tail lashed back and forth, “Are you threatening me?”

“Not yet.” Nua shook her head, “Not if I don’t have to. I’d rather you submit to me willingly. You have a wonderful city even from what little I’ve seen. A wonder of the world, it would break my heart to topple you.”

Vexia wasn’t sure if she should feel praised or threatened, so she answered as diplomatically as she could, “You can’t buy your way to victory here, death worshipper.”

“No, I wouldn’t expect to, but I don’t want to waste lives either. But I see we’re not going to come to an accord, not now at least.” Nua acknowledged with a sad little frown.

“No, not if you’re after what it sounds like. I’ve put a great deal of effort into making sure Komestra fell when that one,” she gestured to Sado, “started making noises about a new sacred city for slaves to flee to. If you’re aiming to do the same…?”

Nua gave a grim laugh and politely ignored that Sado was shaking with rage at Vexia’s admission. “No.” The wood elf assassin shook her head.

“The fact that I come here with slaves in my possession should tell you that I have no intentions like that. Slaves running wild all over the city states would be too disruptive even for me. Sado’s plans were flawed, he had the right idea in a way, but he was rash. He underestimated you, and his friends, chiefly because they were his friends, most of them at least.”

“And you won’t, I suppose?” Vexia asked sardonically.

Nua’s denial was vigorous and thorough. “No, I won’t. With a trio of exceptions, I don’t trust anyone here that I don’t own. I’m not going to make the same mistake. Sentiment won’t touch me because I haven’t got history here. I can do what he couldn’t. In part, I admit, because I have his loyal help, and hers, and the hearts of those who cry out my name with devotion. My slaves are my children, beneath my loving hand, they are safe, and I will kill to protect them. So it will be with everyone I rule.”

The sense of the wood elf’s ambition would have made Vexia stagger if she hadn’t been seated on the throne, and with that sense of ambition, she all but smelled the danger it carried. She briefly imagined the ravenous Tlalmok hearing the wood elf’s refusal to send anyone to sacrifice, their armies massing, swarming over the city states, taking half the population, and leaving the rest to rebuild in the ruins. Fire, devastation, the roving golems that mercilessly stomped or broke all in their path.

“Are you insane?” Vexia whispered.

“If I didn’t know the things I knew, I probably would be.” Nua answered benignly. “But before you grow more hostile, Queen Vexia, let me tell you something more. If I fail in my ambition… nobody else will die for it.”

Vexia was brought up short, and Nua was briefly rocked as her ‘seats’ turned their heads with dismay to look up at their mistress.

“When I went to the Tlalmok Capital, I struck a bargain with the God-Emperor. I promised I would return to him in eight years as a sacrifice, a tribute for peace. If I fail, if I am wrong, then only I will die. None of my precious people will suffer, no invasion will happen… and if what I build afterward falls apart…” Nua hung her head, “then I can die saying I tried, which is more than even you can say, sitting there and letting it all continue as you do. As you all do.”

Vexia was rocked to her core at the pronouncement, and it was clearly news to her slaves as they reacted as well.

“Mistress! You can’t!” Kaiji and Sado said as one, restraining themselves from the instinct to rise in protest.

“That is the price I will pay for failure. I may have come to Mict’aratz for my own reasons, but these are my people, everyone here, will be my people, demon-elves, wood elves, humans, goblins, orcs, centaurs, halflings, dwarves. I will drag you all to salvation, Queen Vexia. Because I know that salvation is possible.” Nua swept a hand up and down her body, “Look at my equipment.” She held out her white left hand, “Look at this… are these the fever dreams of a mad woman?! Your best swordsman could batter my body and barely leave a bruise, with this hand I can crush a skull inside a helmet of adamantite! I can rip life from the living. Crazed people babble of terrible weapons, but I stand before you with one as a part of me. All of this comes from somewhere!” Nua exclaimed.

“Don’t believe me, believe your own damn eyes!” She cried out in frustration.

“You expect me to believe this is commonplace?” The Queen snarled and glowered.

“No. This…” Nua held up the white hand, “is the only one of its kind, I am the first to bear its like. But as for the rest?” Nua traced her hands over her runecrafted armor, “The rest you would find close to its like. Black Paladins are the most powerful death worshippers, and Red Paladins are the most versatile, for year after year, equipment similar to mine has been produced en masse to arm them. The empire in the west has two whole provinces churning out material not unlike what I wear. I give you my oath in the name of my god that I do not lie! Not now!”

Vexia took that in, “Even if I believe you… and that is difficult to imagine, let alone accept, the reality is that you speak of eight years time, you really expect me to just sit idly by as you tear apart the careful balance that has kept us safe from the Tlalmok in the west and the Tlachopan to the south, for centuries on end?”

“Even with the evidence of your eyes… that is not enough?” Nua demanded, shaking with frustration in spite of herself.

“No.” Vexia stated and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“What about the death of the Tlalmok Emperor?” Nua asked with a sweet smile on her face.

Vexia’s long ears twitched, her tail lashed, and briefly she reached up and touched both her ears as if to see if they were still intact.

“Say that again, I must have heard you wrong.” Vexia said from atop her throne.

“The God-Emperor is going to die, and nothing can stop it. His sons will fall to fighting, and they’ll spend years tearing the empire apart.” Nua explained with pleasant patience.

“He’s very much alive.” Vexia answered with dry disinterest. “Try again.”

“He won’t be. I’ve seen to that, or rather, Sobella saw to that. He has perhaps a year or two.” Nua said with a wave of her hand, “So since we’re not going to agree, why don’t we compromise. A wager, if you like. I take it you have no intention of holding back attempts to undermine me, and I’m not strong enough to destroy your city for doing so. But… how about this.” Nua held out her deadly left hand, “Continue to do as you intend for two years. Assuming I survive your efforts in that time… and the Tlalmok Emperor dies, and his empire heads toward civil war or falls into it entirely, you then promise me neutrality until the eighth year from today.”

“What happens in the eighth year?” Vexia asked with curiosity enough to lean forward again.

“Then, you will prostrate yourself to me and surrender, offering your magic and your people to my service when I show you the truth of what I claim. Or you come to my farewell party and toast my death before I walk into the Tlalmok territory to sate the god-emperor’s hunger. One or the other, either I can live with.” Nua made the proposal as if she was offering a lunch date, and it stunned the demon-elf Queen to silence from the sheer audacity of it.

After a moment, she proposed a third possibility, “And if I refuse in the eighth year?”

“Then I will bring you down first. And by then, I promise you I will have the power to do that.” Nua replied with a long, cold stare.

“This is all very bold, Duchessa. But it seems very much in my favor, you’re inviting me to try to stop you… free of retaliation from you I assume,” Nua nodded, “for two straight years? Just to then throw your life away when your absurd claims don’t come to pass?”

“I must not think them absurd, if I am the one proposing them, wouldn’t you agree, Queen Vexia?” Nua asked with a playful wink that set a tingle of anger through the demon-elf Queen.

“And why shouldn’t i just call out my guards now to cut you down and throw that notion aside?” The Queen asked, extending her left hand invitingly.

“Because, Queen Vexia, victory conditions for this meeting included ‘your’ survival as a requirement for this engagement. You invited me into your home, and I showed up, that means we ‘both’ planned on how to kill one another. And you have no idea whether my plans or yours were better.” A savage smile spread over Nua’s face and she set her feet on the floor, then stood up. “Sado, Kaiji, guard.” Nua ordered, and in an instant Sado’s sword was out and he was at her left hand, while a glowing red flame rose in each of Kaiji’s palms and she faced away from Nua at her right hand.

“Before you give that order, Queen Vexia, think about this very carefully… I am accustomed to risking my life, you are not. I am accustomed to appraising a fight before it begins, you are not. Which of us is going to do a better job of it? I promise you, I may die here, but you will go with me. I don’t care about your guards, if it comes down to it, all Kaiji and Sado have to do is buy me a few seconds… how sure are you… really, that they can’t?”

From the shadows slight glows began, and Vexia stomped her foot hard on the stone before her throne.

A snarl curled up from her lips, her fingers tensed with anger and her tail lashed as she shot to her feet. “Damn you… I won’t let you destroy us all…”

“You don’t have to.” Nua offered calmly, her knife came out of its sheath and was held relaxed and easy in her right hand, Nua rested her left hand on her chest and bowed, “You just have to take the best deal you can. If you don’t, then Queen Vexia, when you get in my way again, I will retaliate. I’m offering you two years of a free hand, and if I’m right about the God-Emperor, all you have to do is stay out of the way. Do nothing. And if I’m wrong, nothing changes, you just keep trying to stop me until I’ve saved your people for you.”

The Vex Queen stepped down from her throne and approached the trio, her steps did not slow or show any hesitation, ringing as they did off the stone with small echoes in the silent chamber.

Vexia looked up at Nua when she was near to the wood elf, her hands in front of her had fingers curled inward, revealing the demonic claws of her heritage, her tail lashed with fury at her back and her teeth were bared in a demonic growl. “I am the latest in the line of the demon heirs, and if you lie to me wood elf, I will rip your heart out myself to offer it to the Tlalmok.”

“We’re both liars, Queen Vexia, but we both lie for reason, not for nothing, and we tell the truth when that serves us best. I am not lying, you just haven’t accepted the glorious truth as I have. But you will. You all will, and in eight years, you will be thankful. Now… do we have a bargain? Two years, then your neutrality?”

“Y...e...s.” Vexia growled the word out as if it were dragged from her lips by wild horses. “I vow it by the stars.”

Nua shook her head. “No good, I can’t reach those. Promise me on something you value that I can reach. Promise me in the name of Da’nak. If you betray this oath between us, which I will tell to none, then when I come back here, I will topple your city and take your life.”

Vexia growled the words out, a demonic echo coming from every one as a testament to the rage that burned within her. “I swear, in the name of this sacred city, that I will offer six years neutrality for two years of a free hand… conditional on the death of the Tlalmok God-Emperor, and their descent into civil war.”

Nua crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked down at the furious demon-elf. “It is done then. She sheathed her knife, and extended her right hand. “I put my blood behind it.”

Vexia reluctantly extended her own hand in turn, then they grasped each other's forearms tightly, and in a fairly petty move, she dug her claws into flesh, but found no sign of pain in the eyes of the elf she looked up at.

Giving up on the futile effort at hurting her foe, Vexia relinquished her grip at last, “For what it is worth, Duchessa Aiwenor, I hope your prophecy of their terrible fate comes true… but if it doesn’t, and I have not brought you down before that, rest assured I will stop at nothing to destroy you.” Vexia vowed with gritted teeth.

“If I turn out to be wrong… I will be worried myself, because it means I have seriously underestimated the enemy we share.” Nua replied, and for an instant, the common ground calmed both their spirits, and Nua stepped back.

“Kaiji, Sado, we’re leaving.” The pair relaxed their battle ready stances, and the lights in the distant shadows faded in turn. “I’ll see you again Queen Vexia, and on that day, I pray for ‘both’ our happiness, not just for one of us.”

She bowed again, then spun about and headed for the great double doors, followed at her heels by her faithful slaves, and by the watchful eye of the Queen of Vexation and her still cautious guards.