‘On top of that, only those with at least three more affinities are chosen for the role.’ Lith thought while the remaining representatives fought for his attention.
‘Judging from their childish behavior, they must be desperate for Origin Flames. None of them has promised me anything but all of them are trying to get on my good side. Time to stir the pot and see what comes to the surface.’
Lith waited for the pleasantries and goodbyes to be over before making his move.
The only other person to receive attention and courtesy from the Parliament was Aalejah, but it wasn’t without an ulterior motive as well. The representatives were greatly interested in hearing about her stories as a former Chronicler candidate and examining her Yggdrasill staff.
They also demonstrated great curiosity toward her status as Awakened and the influence she held in the outside world through her position in the Council. For such reasons, she received many invitations to spend her time as their honorable guest.
‘Greedy bastards!’ Unfortunately for them, after playing politics by Athung’s side for so long, Aalejah wasn’t so naïve anymore. ‘Their only goal is to use me to get a place for themselves in the outside world in case the Parliament decides to serve the Tree but they don’t want to follow.
‘They want to bring me to their respective sides to use me as a deterrent against the other Clans and exploit my relationship with Lith as a backdoor access to his abilities.’
None of her thoughts showed on her face as she smiled and thanked them one by one before turning down their invitations, claiming that she was in a rush to report to the Council the status of the negotiations.
“I thank you all for your offers, but I don’t like to play favorites.” Lith said before bidding them goodbye. “I want you to make your decision with a mind free from the burden of possible future alliances and to evaluate the different offers solely on their merit.
“For this reason, I can’t stay in Setraliie and I can’t bring Le’Ahy with me.” At those words she went pale, the only trace of color left on her face was in her cheeks as if Lith had slapped her. “My duty with the Council demands secrecy and discretion, just like yours.
“I can’t ask my loyal guide to choose between her duty as my host and that to her people.”
“I see.” Bal’Eza said with a sigh while aside from her pallor, Le’Ahy remained impassible.
“In a sign of friendship and since we need a means of communication, however, I want you to have this.” Lith handed Le’Ahy a silver communication amulet. “It already carries my rune.
“Whenever you need to speak to me or when the Parliament is done with its deliberation, you can call me and we can set a neutral meeting point.”
Communication amulets were trivial objects on Garlen, but a priceless treasure for the elves who had been exiled long before Jeron Klavin, the second Ruler of the Flames, had shared them with the rest of Mogar.
To the elves, it was a wonder of modern Forgemastery and due to its ability to create holograms, it stirred their hopes of learning the secrets of Light Mastery by studying the amulet’s enchantments.
It was all a pipe dream since true and fake mages had tried and failed to do that from the day of the amulets’ release yet in their ignorance, the elves had no way to know it.
With one move, Lith was giving them a taste of the outside world, showing them the advancements that magic had made from the time of their exile, and adding more fuel to the fire of their rivalry.
Seeing the Dragon Lord giving such a “treasure” away like it was nothing was bound to stir the internal conflict between Clans.
Lith had chosen Le’Ahy as the giftee because being a part of the Ra’Firo clan, the gesture would look like favoritism and drive the rest of the Clans to work hard to regain the ground they assumed to have lost.
More importantly, Le’Ahy was the only one who had shown him a shred of loyalty even though only out of interest. Based on what Aalejah had told Lith, the elf woman had nothing to gain and everything to lose if the negotiations failed.
His goal was to keep her loyal, even at the cost of playing with her feelings, in order to have someone inside of the Parliament who could warn him in time if something went wrong.
Le’Ahy opened her mouth to thank him, but only a girlish squeal came out. She put the purified stone inside one of her pockets before accepting the amulet and embracing Lith with all the strength that her lithe body possessed.
“Thank you, Lord Qisal. I promise that I will protect it with my life.” She said while burying her face in his chest. “I won’t abuse your trust nor will I call you often. Too much.”
‘Based on her reaction, the smile on Bal’Eza’s face, and the grimace on the others’, they must consider this some kind of betrothal gift.’ Lith thought. ‘If they believe I’m the inventor of the amulets, my status in their eyes will go up and they’ll look at our proposal more favorably.’
Once again, he was glad to not have Solus with him. He could almost hear her voice nagging in his head for his manipulations, weaving strings to control the Parliament uncaring for who got hurt in the process.
‘A lie by omission is still a lie!’ Solus’ echo said. ‘That poor girl did nothing wrong. She has proven to be willing to sacrifice her life for you multiple times and that’s how you thank her for her kindness?
‘I’m truly disappointed in you, Lith Tiamat Verhen. Just wait until I tell Kami about this.’ The nagging would have gone on and on, but that wasn’t the real Solus and Lith had no problem cutting the voice off.
On second thought, he realized that was exactly what she was going to say.
‘Fuck me sideways, either we do spend too much time together or I’m developing ESP. My money is on the former. I need to start working on countermeasures.’
The group was escorted out of Setraliie and waited to be outside of the protective array field before moving away with a regular Warp. They had no idea if the World Tree had taught M’Rael about Spirit Magic as well and wanted to keep its immunity from dimensional sealing arrays a secret, just to be safe.
Finding and reaching the location of the caves took them seconds. Amulets could share their location as well so after calling Nalrond to announce their arrival, they Warped a few times to random locations.
After both Life Vision and the Eyes of Menadion confirmed that no one was following them, they flew straight to their destination.
“How did things go on your side?” Lith asked the moment they entered the underground network.
Both groups used mind links to share their respective experience until everyone was brought up to speed.
“I’m truly disappointed in you, Lith Tiamat Verhen!” Solus said the moment Lith was done with his report.
