When Tinidan had told me that he was taking me before the Nine, I had imagined some kind of conference table kind of situation. Maybe they’d all be sitting along one side of a long table, and I’d be facing them, either on the other side of the table or standing all on my own. Perhaps I’d be standing at the focus of a horseshoe-shaped table, getting interrogated from all sides.

Some scene from a Star Trek episode sprang to mind, with me in a sunken pit, surrounded by accusers. It would take some magic to get the lighting right— A single spotlight shining on me, while the Nine were in shadow— but I could make it work, so I supposed they could manage it.

Thinking like that showed that I hadn’t entirely grasped the Tribe’s dislike of formality and professionalism. What Tinidan took me to, was a lunch. No, not even that.

This is a barbie, I realised, looking around the open-air gathering. Two older beast-kin were flipping steaks on a hot plate. One of them was some kind of cat and the other had scales. Cooked meat was being piled up to be taken by whoever needed it.

A long table was piled high with salads, fruits and nuts. Another table groaned under the weight of a selection of wine casks. Everyone was wandering around talking to each other, cup and plate in hand. Everyone was— there were a lot more than nine people here. The others must have been other petitioners, wives, children… grandchildren.

“This is how the Nine handle their duties, is it?” I said. [Charm] kept a polite smile on my face, and the tremor out of my voice, but Tinidan must have known that it was there.

“Yes… I gather it takes some getting used to, for outsiders.”

A genuine smile twisted my lips at the thought of… oh, any noble that I’d met having their self-importance and dignity challenged by having to deal with this. Even the elves I’d met recently had been excessively formal. They might have skills to save them from dealing with this, but I doubted that they would want to develop them.

“It’s no problem, Elder,” I said. “Where I come from can be equally informal.”

That was true enough if you were talking about your local footie club association, rather than a branch of government.

This is why no one takes you seriously, I lectured from the safety of my head. How can they when your executive council has all the gravitas of a sausage sizzle?

“So, you promised me some introductions?” I said aloud. “If it’s not too rude, I’d appreciate notes on who is what race. I still have difficulty telling.”

Tinidan nodded. “It’s no problem,” he assured me. “Most of the Nine will be eager to meet you.”

There was that celebrity status again. “Lead on,” I said, and he did so.

Fortunately, I had [Memorise] to handle all the names and faces that were thrown at me. The two meat grillers were, of course, of the Nine. They were Faelan Whisperwind, a panther-kin and Riven Stormcoil, a snake-kin. They greeted me jovially while piling meat on my plate.

As Tinidan took me around, I started to get a feel for how things worked. Most of the people here were related to one of the Elders. There were a few petitioners, a few aides, or people like Tinidan who worked for the Council in some capacity. Mostly, though, it was family. And the family was a part of the politics.

My [Intrigue] skill started to perk up, feeding me information. There were factions here. Most of the children of the Elders were fully grown. The few kids I saw running around always turned out to be grandchildren (or great-grandchildren). Some of the next generation were working as aides, some of them belonged to factions… not always the same faction as their parents.

[Intrigue] took in half-overheard conversations, noted who was looking at whom and gave me a sense of what their body language was saying. It didn’t tell me what the faction’s policy was, but there were other ways of finding that out.

Asking Tinidan, for one. He was reluctant to spill the details of his nation’s internal divisions, but there were a few things he didn’t mind sharing.

“Under other circumstances, I wouldn’t bother introducing you to this one,” he said as we made our way toward a lynx-kin with snow-white hair and ears. “But I don’t want her to claim that we’ve snubbed her.”

“Hostile?” I asked softly, though probably not quietly enough, given the size of those ears. There were a lot of conversations going on, though.

“Yes,” he said shortly. There wasn’t much there, but it was useful information. Vesper Frostpaw, as she was shortly introduced as, was the singular elder in her faction. There were some other people here who looked to her, but none of them were part of the Nine.

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There were two pairs of elders who looked at her with disdain. The two pairs were standoffish to each other, so I took them to be two separate factions that opposed her while maintaining their own disagreement. Tinidan deferred to one of those factions, so I tagged that one as being in favour of trade and diplomacy. Where that left the other one, I didn’t know, but they were hopefully not as hostile as Vesper.

“Ah, the human,” she said at my approach. “Here to cut down the trees and drive out the Goddess.”

I raised an eyebrow and patted at my clothes. “I must have forgotten to bring my axe.”

She grimaced at me. I had [Charm] running at full blast, of course. Her own total was quite respectable, but mine was higher. Not enough to win her over, not when she wanted to dislike me so strongly. But it must have felt quite uncomfortable, holding on to her grudge so strongly.

“Do you really think that was why I was here?” I asked, genuinely curious. ‘I get that there’s a history between the Tribes and the Kingdom, but I’m not from around here, you know?”

Now that my little secret was out, I’d be damned if I didn’t wring every bit of advantage out of it.

“I got on quite well with Lady Kaito, and a lot of the beast-kin living in Talnier,” I added.

Mentioning Kaito gave her pause, but she skipped over it and focussed on the other beast-kin that I mentioned.

“Traitors to the Way,” she growled, with a dismissive tone that told me I wasn’t going to get anywhere arguing the point. “Why are you here, then, human?”

“You know, I don’t think I’ll get very far talking about my hunt for a human criminal in your territory,” I said. “I don’t suppose you’re associated with Hidden Hollow?”

She didn’t answer, but she smirked, which was as good as a treatise to [Intrigue].

“Fine, then,” I continued. “Then let’s go with my greater purpose, which is to promote ties and trade between the Tribal nation and my town of Talnier. In the hopes of setting an example that the rest of the nation can follow.”

“Fine words, when what you mean is to take our goods and replace them with cold metal coins. What good are such worthless things?”

“Most of your goods are grown or made by you,” I patiently explained. “In time, you’ll have more goods and you’ll have the coins. Which can be exchanged for goods produced by us.”

Do I really have to explain how trade works? I thought to myself incredulously. Actually, though, it didn’t matter what I said. I wasn’t trying to persuade her of anything, which was for the best as I sensed her [Persuade] skill was a good bit higher than mine. We were even on levels, but my Charisma might even the totals.

What I was trying to do was to get her, and everyone listening, to like me. To make me seem like the reasonable one. My words, and the tone of my voice, extended out to enfold us all in a friendly embrace. It made her seem shrill and argumentative.

I’m just explaining how trade makes us all prosperous, my tone said. Who could argue with prosperity for everyone?

Vesper recognised a losing battle when she saw one, so she elected to cut her losses and leave the field.

“Fine,” she said, grimacing. “I don’t need to hear any more,”

I bowed. “A pleasure meeting you, Elder,” I said. I backed off, giving her the space, and some semblance of a win. I wanted to be liked after all.

To say, as I went around meeting everyone, that they were putty in my hands, would be an exaggeration. I was charming, possibly more charming than they’d ever seen. I schmoozed, I smarmed and I flattered.

As I’d discussed with Tinidan, I mentioned that I was here to get help finding Hector, but I didn’t discuss any details. That would have moved the discussion out of light social chatter, the domain of [Charm] and into more serious topics. That was the domain of [Persuade] and [Bargain]. I steered well clear of them, not just because this was an informal lunch, but because I got the impression that was much shakier ground.

Vesper wasn’t the only one here to favour [Persuasion] over [Charm]. Convincing their peers of a course of action was what these council members did all day. Naturally, they had the skill for it. Like Vesper, my [Charisma] made up for my lack of skill, but it was a close thing, and I wouldn’t know who was better until one of us won.

“That went well, I thought,” Tinidan said once we’d done the rounds. We’d covered all the members of the Nine. Most of them had introduced me to at least one family member and we’d also gotten to a few of the petitioners and attendants as well.

“Yes,” I said doubtfully. “But… Thorn Emberstripe is waiting for something.”

Tinidan looked warily over at the tiger-kin. Thorn had grown so old that you could barely tell his sub-species. The orange and black striped hair that his descendants were wearing had faded to slightly lighter and darker greys.

It was his body language that had given away that he was tensely waiting for something—or someone, perhaps a guest— important, but that wasn’t why I’d pointed him out. He was part of the other two-person faction that opposed both Vesper and Tinidan’s group, so I was hoping Tinidan would let a detail slip. I was not disappointed.

“What are the Isolationists planning?” he wondered aloud. Then he looked at me guiltily. I smiled innocently.

“We’re about to find out,” I said. “Look.”

Thorn was talking to a much younger tiger-kin. Well, the youngster was whispering into his elder’s ear, but that surely counted. Report given, the aide was clapped on the back and given some kind of instruction. He headed for the entrance.

It was only a few moments more before someone came in, escorted by two tiger-kin.

“Another human?” Tinidan asked incredulously. “Where did he come from?”

I scrutinised the man as best I could from the distance we were at. He didn’t look like he was from the kingdom. The clothes were wrong.

“I guess we’ll have to find out,” I said, starting to head closer. “Is there any etiquette I have to be aware of?”

This was mostly a question to keep Tinidan’s brain busy while I got a few steps ahead. It had occurred to me that he might want to keep me separate from whatever the Isolationists were planning. I’d already felt out the local etiquette using [Charm]. The entirety of it, translated into Australian vernacular, would be: “No worries, mate.”

“Um, don’t get into any shoving matches?” Tinidan replied, belatedly catching up with me. “Or, uh, any kind of physical altercation.”

“Got it,” I said, as I stepped into what I was starting to think of as “Social Range”.

Thorn turned to greet me. “Ah, Councillor Hammond, just the person I wanted to start with!” he exclaimed. He seemed just as friendly as he had when I’d been introduced to him earlier.

“May I present Borys Borkowski, Champion of the Storm.”