Chapter Four-Hundred Sixty-Seven |
I wonder if the ravenkin can feel my happiness as the representatives prepare to explain their government structure to everyone. It’s a rare occasion where everyone is gathered together, all mingling and yapping, as they love to do. Eventually, though, the reps get everyone’s attention… with a loud screech from all of them.
That’s one way to call a meeting to order, I suppose.
“We’re proud to announce we’ve finally come to an agreement for our government,” starts Sivart. “All four of us likes the idea of electing representatives from each season to represent them, but that came with a clear problem.”
He steps back to let Asereth step forward to continue. “With four seasons, we’d often have ties. To be enacted, a proposal would require three out of four reps to agree.” He pauses and smirks at all the ravenkin. “I’m sure you all know how difficult that would be for any three of us to agree on something.” The crowd chuckles in amusement as he steps back and Leinad steps forward.
“Which caused us no end of debate on how to fix it. Until we had an idea: choose a person to break the ties. At random. And only for a day. It won’t eliminate bias, but it will minimize it, and was the most fair thing we could all come up with.” He steps back as well, and Enara steps forward.
“Everyone will have a chit with their name, to be placed in a barrel to mix, and one will be chosen when a meeting of representatives is to take place. They will serve for a day, breaking any ties that arise, and that’s it. One meeting, one breaker, one day.”
That, of course, gets a lot of squawks and questions from the seasons, but it looks like most of them are pretty satisfied with the solution. Once that settles down, they start going over the details, with each representative talking about the specifics for their season, and yielding the podium to the others so they can talk about theirs, too. I watch their bars fill most of the way, and wonder if they’re going to just make it their official separation ceremony, but then they talk about that, too.
They want to wait for Aranya to get back, since she’s been a part of every other one so far, and it feels wrong for them to not have her involved. And it’ll give them some time to hammer out the bumps and small things that either weren’t considered, or simply don’t work like they’re supposed to.
As the meeting winds down, I feel a little tug toward the cathedral, and checking it out, I see Larx meeting with both Karn and Jondar. Only a heartbeat later, Teemo pops out of a shortcut to sit on Larx’s staff, officially marking my presence, enough though I’m pretty sure all three of them can tell when I’m paying attention.
Oh?
“Yeah?” echoes Teemo, looking interested at the two guild leaders.
The two nod, and Jondar motions for Karn to start them off. “We were talking about the results of the raid, and about attacking the Betrayer, and Jondar thought of something we should probably prepare for.”
Teemo tilts his head in curiosity as Jondar speaks. “It’s an ancient dungeon, right? Powerful and probably murderous? If that’s the case, it probably has access to lifedrinking.”
If I still had blood, it’d run cold at that. I’ve been thinking about denizens and the least line, without even considering it might have access to things like enchantments for lifedrinking. Teemo’s expression shows my concern, and Jondar continues before he can say anything for me.
“So we of course would like to have better access to the enchantment you have to counter it. But we’re not asking for it for free.”
Karn picks up the train of thought. “You have plenty of goods and gear, so we can’t offer much in that vein. But what if we helped train your enclaves? They have some good tricks, but we both think they’d benefit from learning from experienced adventurers.”
I like the sound of that, so I take a few seconds to think it through. I can give my dwellers a lot of pointers, and I think they’ve done incredibly well so far. They even handled themselves well against the Maw. But even then, they had adventurers along to help. While I think they can pick up a lot from doing proper delves with the new potion, I don’t know if we have the time for them to learn that way.
There’s always room for advice. And it’d give me a way to pass out more of the anti-lifedrinking enchantment, without just giving it away.
“How’re you going to train them? Use the lecture hall?” asks Teemo.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Jondar shrugs. “Maybe a bit, but our real idea was to make a competition of it. Assign adventurers from our guilds along with some of your dwellers, and have them compete to get the next set of keys for the raid boss.”
Oohh, we’ll need to have the scions decide who’s going to get to step up next.
Teemo chuckles. “Boss is onboard with that. Fluffles had a lot of fun with the actual raid, and the others are eager for their chance to show off. What do you think, Larx?”
The aged ratkin smiles. “I think it’s a wonderful idea. Closer cooperation between the enclaves and the town can only help everyone. We’ll need to make sure the other three agree, though.”
I kinda doubt any of the other enclaves are going to object… but there might be a problem.
Teemo’s smile slips before he speaks. “Other two. The ravenkin still have their bars, and they don't plan to finish them off until after Aranya gets back. While they have the bars, they’re still technically denizens, and I don’t know what that potion would do to them.”
Larx, Karn, and Jondar all frown at that, with Karn eventually breaking the silence. “Probably nothing good,” he admits.
“Still, I can go ask if they want to do the ceremony and join you guys?” suggests Teemo. “And you three can go check with the spiderkin and the antkin, too.”
They nod and Larx speaks up. “Will Lord Thedeim be providing the enchantment, or will the antkin?”
“Boss was going to, but if they want to help, he’s not going to tell them no.”
“Is their version as powerful?” asks Jondar, and Teemo nods.
“They know the full array, so yeah. And they’re plenty skilled, too. And with them, you can have it on something specific. With Boss, they’ll basically all be belts.”
Jondar and Karn nod at that, each of them clearly thinking through what they’d like to have with the enchantment instead of on a belt. “Anyhow, I’m gonna go talk to the ravenkin. It’s probably going to take a while to get them to make a decision either way.”
They all share a knowing smile before Teemo dives into a shortcut, and soon emerges onto the podium, interrupting what sounds like an argument about traffic disputes. I’m kinda curious if they mean walking, flying, or if they have some kind of carts or wagons I haven’t noticed. Teemo ignores me getting distracted, as Sivart addresses him.
“Teemo? What a surprise! Did Lord Thedeim have something he wanted to add?”
“Uh… not about right-of-way, at least. Did you guys want to keep talking about that, or…?”
The other ravenkin shake their heads and caw for him to say what he has to say. I get the feeling they were arguing just to have fun arguing about something, so now there’s something that could be important, they’re ready to listen.
“The delvers and the other enclaves are going to be teaming up to train together. Said training is going to involve them forming mixed groups and competing to get the four keys for the next raid boss. They’d invite you, but there’s a problem…”
He trails off, and Leinad speaks up, seeing the issue. “We’re still denizens, not officially dwellers just yet.” Murmurs sweep across the crowd as it sinks in why they can’t participate.
“So Boss wanted to know if you wanted to do your ceremony soon, or still wait until after Aranya gets back.”
The ravenkin start arguing among themselves, and Teemo and I do our best to listen to them. A lot of them are against it because of breaking the tradition. Sure, it’s technically not even a year old yet, but it’s still a tradition. On the other wing, missing out on the training might mean missing out on getting to join in the raid on the Betrayer! None of them want that, either.
Then a voice in the crowd shouts over the din. “We should fight on Lord Thedeim’s side!” The throng goes quiet for a few moments as the idea sinks in, before they explode into agreement.
I’m inclined to argue, but the idea is kinda growing on me the longer I think about it. If they’re still technically denizens, they still can make mana for me by ‘fighting’ the delvers. Not only that, they’ll get their own training by facing off against them, and the delvers will get smarter foes to challenge them and make them grow quicker, too.
I could even continue the spirit of it being a competition and have each season guard a different key. I’ll need to make sure the medics are on standby, and I bet Grim will be making more of an appearance than usual, but it could work!
Teemo looks to the representatives, who shout the whole flock into silence, before he speaks. “So, sounds like you all want to participate, but on the opposite side, basically?” Chirps and squawks of agreement join with bobbing heads, so he continues. “Boss is fine with that. In fact, he’d like to offer each season one of the keys to protect. You don’t even need to keep it in the forest. Protect it however you see fit, though still no killing, of course.”
They all look excited about it, and start talking amongst themselves about the best ways to secure their keys. My Voice turns to the representatives with an apologetic smile. “I hope I didn’t interrupt too badly?”
Enara chuckles and shakes her head. “Of course not. We were effectively done anyway. Lord Thedeim really trusts us to keep the keys safe?”
Teemo smiles. “He trusts you guys to make them work for those keys. He wants as many as possible to return from the raid, and something like this could be invaluable to give people the fighting experience to survive it.”
“Will we be able to participate in the raid?” asks Asereth, looking concerned.
“On the Betrayer? Of course. On the raid boss? That’ll depend on if you can keep the keys safe until after Aranya gets back and can help with the ceremony.”
The ravenkin all grin, eager to prove themselves. If they play their cards right, they can have the best of both worlds: be a foil for the delvers, and still get to join in on the next big canopy fight.
Now, who should be the next raid…
