Book 3 Chapter 2

Tirr glanced around the palace gardens appreciatively as he made his way through its now somewhat familiar courtyards. No matter how many times he had come here with Nerida, he still felt moved by what was still the closest he had seen to the splendor of his old empire.

He walked along with Garm in his arms and Maria and Torvus following close behind. Nerida had come ahead of time, leaving Tirr and Maria to find the former assassin as they prepared for tonight's meeting. They had been worried it might be a difficult task when he had appeared on his own… All smiles and already knowing what was going on.

As they traveled over the elegant bridges and streams towards the same meeting hall they had originally used when they had first arrived in Lutel, Tirr spotted Nerida up ahead, speaking with Agir as they watch his young son play nearby.

“That shouldn’t even be a question Nerida…” They spoke in hushed whispers and Tirr barely caught the end of some sentence before the little princeling noticed them. He clapped happily running up to tug on the wolf pup in Tirr’s arms. The action revealed them and Nerida greeted him with a smile, before turning to give Torvus a withering look.

Agir sighed looking at Nerida with a strange mix of anger and pain, “I trust you Nerida…” She nodded in response and the King gave a polite greeting to the others before picking up his son and carrying him off towards the palace.

“Everything all right?” Tirr asked as they stood watching the King leave.

“Yes, Agir is just understandably… Upset…” Nerida answered carefully, “He just wanted to make sure that Lutel's interests were well represented.”

“Lutel’s interests or his?” Torvus asked, still watching the King leave.

“His interests are Lutel’s interests…” Nerida answered, rolling her eyes before quickly leading the way to the meeting hall. As they arrived they were greeted by the sight of an athletic young woman in red-trimmed armor sitting on the table as a similar-looking young man stood nearby, scolder her.

“Ah!” Claire yelled at the sight of them, ignoring Claus to jump off the table to greet them.“Good to see you all again, ya know, without all the blood and screaming and swords around.”

She pulled Tirr and Maria into a hug, holding them tightly before giving a quick greeting to Nerida as well. Her, brother, Claus stood up from the table saying his own greetings as he reprimanded his sister, “You could at least try to act like royalty Claire.”

“I don’t need to act like royalty Claus,” Claire drawled, winking at Tirr, “I am royalty, so therefore how I act is how royalty acts…” Her brother just sighed as Tirr laughed and the group moved towards the table as Nerida led them to their seats, placing Tirr at the table’s head. Once they were seated servants came by, asking for orders for food or refreshments.

No one seemed interested in eating so they chatted quietly among the table while they waited for their drinks, talking about the situation in Rasor and the church’s recent growth. As the drinks arrived and the servants left, Nerida locked the door behind them.

“Then let's get started,” Nerida said taking a sip of her tea as before pulling out a stack of documents. She passed the pieces of parchment around the table to everyone before sitting down again, though Maria and Claus were the only ones to even look at them.

“We all know why we are here today,” The Water Priestess started, “Within these documents are recorded testimonies and evidence from multiple sources that the Merchant Confederation has been interfering with both of our countries for its own purposes, with the most dire effect being the previous war. I don't know if you’ve had a reply to the initial accusation yet… But we received word from the Confederation a few days ago denying any involvement, along with some not so subtle threats to cut trade if the issue was pressed.”

“They said the same thing to us…” Claus said, followed with an angry grunt from Claire…

“The purpose of tonight's meeting…” Nerida continued, “Is to prepare a joint response to the Confederation to properly punish them for their actions while protecting the interests of both our countries from them in the future…”

“Do we need a meeting to know that we're going to march west and burnt that city of theirs to the ground…” Claire cut in, sparks starting to dance in her hair as the talk went on.

“Living up to that nickname of yours huh…” Torvus added, smiling until Claire’s glare silenced him, “ I was just joking! still, that should be the last thing you all want to do.”

“Excuse me…” Claus said, looking towards Tirr and Nerida confused, “who are you again?”

Nerida sighed, “This man was once an assassin in the employ of the Confederation, he went by the namer Reaper.

Torvus gave the Rasor King a wave, “Hey!”

“Why is he here at all? Of course, the person from there is saying retaliating would be a bad idea. How do we know he isn’t still working for them?” Claire’s glare didn’t soften even a little as she stared down the white-haired young man.

“He has provided useful information about the confederation that I thought it would be important for this table to hear,” Nerida spoke up somewhat reluctantly, before looking towards Torvus, “Go on then…”

“Right… Well then, you already know I’m from the confederation…. “ Torvus started speaking, beginning with how he was originally brought there as a child. He went over the organization called the Assassin’s Guild and its structure as well as general information he knew about the confederation itself.

“So even though they may not have a standing army like you guys, They can hire more than enough mercenaries from the mountain tribes and the south lands. And even though I helped you get a lot of their agents here, they’ll still have more than enough eyes to let them know if a whole army starts marching their way. You go charging in and you're just gonna get a lot of innocent people killed…”

“So what do you suggest then?” Claire asked, “Just wait until they send more assassins after our heads?”

“No…” Torvus said grinning, “Tirr and I will just sneak in and wipe out the whole place ourselves…”