“What took you so long?” Between Morok’s upset expression and Ryla’s earlier effusions, Friya was worried about what might have happened while they were alone.
“We’ll talk about it later.” The Tyrant gave her the secret gesture that signaled to don’t ask questions. “Now follow me. It’s easier to show than to tell.”
Ryla had to keep her hand on the wall so that the Gate would stay open, letting pass one person at a time. She brought Faluel, Friya, Syrah, and her court.
The Hydra took a good look at the laboratories and checked several pages from various times while everyone else gave up after a first glance.
“I don’t even know how to turn this thing on.” Friya pointed at the Forgemastering circle.
“Me neither.” Faluel said while flipping the pages of a recently written tome. “But I’m confident that I can decipher the code. It’s always the same and since runes cannot be altered, I can already tell what book is about what.
“Yet to understand what the spells do and how, I need time.”
“Which is something we don’t have.” The Hati Queen said. “Thanks for your offer to help us, but even with the food from the raids we won’t last long. If there’s no immediate solution to our problem, our only choice is to rely on the Undead Courts.
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful to you, but I have to ask you guys to leave. You can take away the books since they have no use to us, but we’ll keep everything stored in the vaults as compensation for our suffering.
“We will need it if, once the undead crack the Harmonizers, they uphold their word and share the crafting method with us.” Syrah sighed, her last hope shattering.
“What if I offered you an alternative?” Faluel asked. “What if I told you that there might be a way to avoid the culls entirely and keep your people relatively safe until we found a solution?”
“I’d say that I’ve stopped believing in miracles after my stay at the Gardens of Time robbed me of my youth.” The Hati Queen replied with a snort. “Also, in my experience, either something is safe or it’s not.
“A sword is relatively safe, but that only means that it’s not aimed at you, yet.”
“Point taken.” The Hydra raised her palms. “It wouldn’t really be safe. More like a battlefield, but at least you wouldn’t suffer from hunger anymore and your people would die for a cause rather than because they have no alternative.”
“We die for a cause and we do it because we have no alternative. What’s the difference-” Syrah’s eyes blazed with mana and fury when her friend, Urhen the Balor, grabbed her shoulder to calm her down.
“Since we are already here, we might as well listen to what she has to say. Even getting rid of the rites of passage and allowing our children to grow normally would be a great change.
“Xagra is out for less than a day. It’s not too late for him.” Urhen waved her hand, bringing a few chairs close so that everyone could sit down and relax.
“Very well.” The Hati Queen closed her eyes and took deep breaths to calm herself. “Speak, Hydra, but talk lightly about the lives of my people again and I’ll kill you all even if it means drawing the Council here.”
“Okay.” Faluel nodded. “First things first. Do you know Jiera?”
“No. What’s that?” There was a tinge of annoyance in Syrah’s voice, but it wasn’t addressed at the Hydra.
‘Verhen, Forgemastery, and now this. How many things have Glemos kept hidden from us to ensure our compliance and how many more have the Undead Courts glossed over to make us dependent on them?’ The more she learned, the more the deal with the undead sounded fishy.
Faluel established a mind link to conjure a map of Mogar and then of the continents of Garlen and Jiera. She could have used holograms, but she preferred to avoid explaining how she had learned the art of Light Mastery that allegedly only trolls possessed and demons had stolen.
‘I can’t believe it!’ Br’ey the orc shaman blurted out in surprise. ‘Is there really so much land outside Zelex?’
‘Actually, that’s Garlen.’ Faluel kept her tone neutral, trying not to offend her hosts. ‘We are in the Griffon Kingdom.’
She drew the borders to the Empire and the Desert, cutting them off from the map and the monster gasped, realizing that their territory was just one-third of the whole.
‘Zelex is located in the Remana Region which is just a fraction of the Kingdom.’ A tiny blinking dot appeared, quickly surrounded by the borders of the region while the rest of the map faded in the background.
‘That’s it?’ Syrah couldn’t believe her own mind. ‘Is that all we amount to? A mere patch of land?’
‘No, your city is the dot.’ Faluel zoomed in, letting rivers, plains, and cities appear on the map.
It took the monsters a few minutes to recover from the discovery of how insignificant their existence was. Once they calmed down, the Hydra told them about the plague that had been unleashed upon Jiera, the disappearance of the human race, and the rise of the monster tides.
‘I can’t assure you anything since I’ve yet to talk with the Awakened Council, but here’s my idea. We’ll split your people between mana geysers in Jiera so they can keep their unfallen state and slow down the aging process.
‘The local Council will provide you with everything you need to establish your settlements and food. In exchange, you have to protect the magical and natural resources for them.
‘It means that you can use crystals and metals if you need them to fight or for your research but everything else belongs to the Council. Also, you have to help keep the monster population in check and prevent the formation of monster tides.’
‘Are you asking us to exterminate our own kin?’ Br’ey asked in disgust.
‘Better than exterminating your own blood like now. Also, if you can deal with them without killing them, be my guest.’ Faluel shrugged. ‘But I doubt they would let you go without a fight the moment they smell your food.’
‘Let me get this straight.’ Syrah said while pondering the issue with the collective brainpower of her tribe. ‘If we accept your offer, we’ll be split and sent to another continent.
‘There, we will be free to live and grow our numbers but we will be also forced to fight on a daily basis. You are asking us to bet everything on the hope that thanks to our reproductive abilities and powers we’ll lose fewer people than are born.’
‘Correct.’ Faluel nodded. ‘Yet it wouldn’t be just on you. You’d get communication amulets and the Council would help you. They have no interest in getting you wiped out. The monster tides are a threat to everyone, not just you.’
‘Let’s assume that you are right and that you are not just sending us to the slaughter.’ Syrah snarled. ‘What happens when there are no more monsters to kill in the area and our numbers once again exceed what the land can sustain?’
