Magesbane. It was a rather uncommon herb, and hard to cultivate, but as its name implied, it was deadly to mages. It did not actually kill them, but it made it so that whenever they reached for their mana, they felt severe nausea to the point of incapacitating them. Other effects included headaches, exhaustion, and irritability, but those would appear even in non-mages who consumed the plant.

Fortunately for mages, Magesbane’s rarity and difficulty to grow meant that it was almost nonexistent in most parts of the world. Unfortunately for Cass, but perhaps fortunately for this rebellion, the condition for Magesbane’s growth that was especially hard to replicate in most countries was not an issue in Beergmutar, which was to say altitude.

It was for this reason that the Warriors could impose the ban on Strioi traveling, they could apply Magesbane salves to their weapons and the slightest nick would leave the mage impotent. However, Magesbane was tightly controlled by the Voni who had it as an insurance against the Strioi. According to the Matron, this insurance had not been enough.

“They did not fight directly,” the Matron snarled. “Everywhere our Warrior guards went they were blocked by webs. The Strioi threw them like nets and they even intercepted arrows and bolts when we tried to shoot them.”

Webs? The catalyst in the window trap must have been spider’s silk! But to think they could use magic like this, there must be something more to it…

“Impressive,” Cass honestly admired magic on that level, what a wonderful display of knowledge and power! “But if that is what occured, why should this revolt be any different?”

“It is not a revolt but a reclamation!” Odev growled, “Those bastards are the rebels!”

“Semantics don’t answer that question you know.” Cass laughed, “You must have more of a plan than just ‘acquiring’ the herb.”

“Why should we trust you with that plan?” The cloaked warrior growled, clearly still wary of her. A good idea, because if this plot was idiotic she might just trade all of them in to Klein in exchange for allowing her to leave. However…

“I cannot imagine what kind of idiot would gather a poisonous herb that directly counters their power for someone when they did not know how it would be used.” Cass said bluntly, “Leaving all the practical parts of me actually obtaining any aside, what guarantee may I have that I won’t be cut by the same blade I give you? For that matter, you still have not explained why this time will be different than the last.”

Those two questions were of the utmost importance, Cass did not particularly like Elder Klein, but she did not hate the man, still, she wanted to go home and she could not without risking a fight with Warriors equipped to fight mages. In short, if she felt this was likely to succeed, she would help, and if she thought otherwise, she would trade them in without a second thought.

“The difference?” The cool voiced man laughed, “the difference will be in numbers. All of the Sand will fight with us and a fair chunk of the Stone and Warriors besides.”

A mob supported by trained soldiers… Without mages that would be very difficult to stop, which Cass supposed led to the Magesbane. She was not particularly sure that numbers would be enough to suppress the mages long enough to poison them, but she could see the logic at work behind it. Distract with a mob of Sand or Stone, then put an arrow or bolt in the distracted Strioi. Plus, the more open nature of the streets as opposed to the Voni palace would make the webs far less effective…

“As for trusting us not to turn on you…” The Matron smiled, “I hate the Strioi, loathe them with a burning passion for their crimes and treachery in supporting that man. But you are hardly Strioi, you are a foreigner who will leave as soon as this mess is over.”

“Fair enough,” Cass agreed, though she did not trust the Matron would keep to her word precisely. Probably she would try and poison Cass at some point, if the poisoning succeeded she would kill Cass. If not, then she might let Cass go and claim that it had not been her. Or she might actually be being honest, but Cass trusted no one but her Master. “So you need me to get the Magesbane for you then, how do you propose I do that?”

“I presume that your good treatment is because you have something they want.” The cool voiced man spoke, as she thought, they were in a position to know who she was now. “Simply tell them that you wish to talk to the Voni and make a deal for the knowledge. They will either have to have someone pretend to be a Voni and have a meeting at the palace, or they will inform you that the Voni are no longer there and then you can go and see the palace without restriction.”

Cass frowned, “But in this scenario I will have to tell them certain things…”

“They will all be dead, so whatever secret you carry will be buried with them.”

Cass mulled it over, then sighed. This did seem to be her only chance, she did not have much of a choice in whether or not to do it… But she could ask for more…

“Considering the risk I am putting myself in,” Cass tacitly agreed to their proposal. “I do have two other requests.”

“Oh?” The Matron smiled as she realized Cass was agreeing to help.

“First, I want all of the mages, sorry, Strioi’s, research materials and documents.” Cass held up a finger, “Obviously, I won’t take them all with me, but I want to browse them before I go.”

“That is not a problem,” the Warrior laughed. “There won’t be any Strioi to use them after all.”

Unless they killed every child who showed a hint of magical power that was not precisely true, though perhaps their anger had blinded them to the fact Cass had more or less just asked for all their national power regarding magical techniques. Or perhaps they did intend to kill her later and so it did not matter, she would find out when the time came, and she would be ready for whatever it was.

“And your second request?” The Matron asked curiously.

“I want you to break off your support of the rebels in the south of Haj.”

The Matron blinked in surprise, “I thought you would ask for money or goods of some kind… Why request that?”

“When I left my Master,” which was to say, when Cass had been abducted. “They had not yet entered open rebellion, or at least the news had not reached Tyine yet. From what I have heard here, that situation has changed, and they are openly trying to seize control.”

“From what I have heard, that is correct.” The cloaked Warrior nodded.

“My Master supports the Empire, and thus, I support the Empire.” Cass stated, “therefore, I would like you to cease helping the rebels in the south.”

The Matron was silent for a time and then spoke slowly, seeming to give every word great thought before it left her mouth. “There are political considerations there that make what you are asking very difficult.”

Cass knew that, and she was pleased by how the Matron was responding. If they had planned to kill or otherwise trick Cass later it would be easy to agree to this without thought. This kind of answer made it more likely that Cass might actually be making an honest deal with this group.

“From what I have been told,” the Matron continued. “You are the bastard child of some noble, picked off the streets and enslaved to another mage. With a backstory like that, I think it might be hard for you to understand just how difficult your request is. The short answer to your request is, no, because doing so might destroy this country altogether.”

“Haj is an empire, but not a very united one.” The cool voice man explained, “Should it ever become more united… Well, expansion would be easy with its full might, so to prevent being subsumed by Haj, we must fan the flames where we can.”

“Even the bastards who overthrew my Caste understand that much,” the Matron agreed. “Leaving the country and access to the research materials I can grant you, but that I simply cannot…”

Now the question was how deep did the bluffs and trickery go… Did they expect Cass to ask this kind of question and had already prepared an answer like this to make their tricks more believable, or was it actual honesty? Cass was not sure, but she thought that the Matron at least, might be honest in this deal.

“Alright.” Cass sighed, it wasn’t hard to act disappointed because she was to some degree. Best case scenario would have been the Matron agreeing and making an honest deal. She would have been able to return to her Master having substantially weakened the rebels, but it was not to be. “For those two things, I will help you.”