The next morning, he learned that Reno and SeventyEight had a few additional catch-up quests to help them level up. It was simple business, taking on a nest of kismeleon before it could get out of hand, and clearing out some jungle vines encroaching on the city walls. He was happy to accompany them, even if he couldn’t also pick up the associated quests.

It was a good thing he did, because the kismeleon nest was in a location near to the spawn point for a grizzled dragon. He was able to pick up the mob and direct it away from the mob of newbies hunting their quest.

After completing their catch-up quests, the trio got on the town cultivation quests. The work for the new and improved Persimmon meant there was a huge demand for wood, and the potential improvements for the town itself demanded a large amount of quarried stone. There wasn’t a huge demand for foodstuffs, but they had a quest to fight flytraps to push them out and make room to clear more of the forest to begin preparing farmland.

Kaldalis was just trying to think of a reasonable-seeming way to suggest that they seek out a different healer than Banuk for their runs through the dungeon when he was interrupted by the sudden and unexpected approach of Garyung.

“Hey, Kaldalis!” The Bhogad greeted him, and though he was obviously trying to remain calm, there was a visible thread of building panic in his eyes. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”

“Uh, of course,” Kaldalis said before turning back to Reno and SeventyEight. “Excuse me a moment?”

“You go ahead,” Reno said, “we can handle ourselves for a little while on the grind just outside of town.”

“Thanks.” He was about to tell her that he’d be along shortly, but when he caught sight of Garyung’s expression and started to doubt it. “Don’t wait up too long, just in case this isn’t a quick fix.”

Garyung gave a sheepish smile at that, confirming his suspicion that this might be a bigger deal.

“So what do you need?” Kaldalis asked as Garyung started to walk him towards the town hall.

“I’m having the final meeting with the Zaran diplomats in about fifteen minutes,” Garyung said, “I want you to be there for a couple of reasons.”

“Alright,” Kaldalis said, “I’m listening.”

“First of all, I want you to be there for future-proofing,” Garyung began, “if something important gets said there, I want to make sure you hear it. The next time I need help dealing with them, I don’t want to have to read this entire meeting back to you to catch you up on it.”

“Smart,” Kaldalis nodded. “That way I don’t have to come up with an answer in the middle of you making the announcement of it again.”

“Yeah, I thought you’d like that,” Garyung said with a laugh. “But there’s one more thing. The council believes that the Zarans will expect me to appoint an envoy to act as a go-between with them. Basically, someone to act in my stead to hear their needs and keep our people in line out there.”

“Let me guess,” Kaldalis said, feeling the rope tighten around his ankle before it fully closed. “You think sending your most critical advisor away is a good idea.”

“Um, maybe I was thinking...” Garyung said, his voice starting to waver into the uncertain stammer that signaled a nascent panic attack. “The whole colony support thing was your idea, so It seemed that… Uh, maybe you would…”

“Garyung,” Kaldalis said flatly, “speaking as your most critical advisor, this is a terrible idea.”

“Okay,” the Bhogad said, taking a slow calming breath, “please explain why.”

“First of all,” Kaldalis said, holding up a finger to count the reasons, “if you’re sending me away, you’re going to be dealing with all the demands of the council - and the town - without me to fall back on. Think about that for literally one second, alright?”

“Alright,” Garyung said with a sigh. “I understand. But don’t you think that’ll be a chance for me to learn?”

“Also,” Kaldalis said, holding up a second finger to push through Garyung’s complaints, “the Zarans already have reason to hate and distrust PCs. This whole operation is an olive branch to them. Using me as your go-between is sticking a big ugly spider on that olive branch on purpose. You have plenty of NPCs to choose from for this, don’t you? Hell, you could delegate an assignment to someone else. Send one of Ikzoz’s researchers, or Gavinkim’s lieutenants. They’ll be much happier to see one of their own is in charge.”

“I thought you wanted to use this to teach them to trust us,” Garyung protested.

“And third!” Kaldalis held up a third finger, quieting him. “I don’t want to! I have other business to deal with. I have friends and contacts here who need me. I have other obligations that you’re demanding I uproot myself from. I could understand if you’d given me a few hours to discuss it with them and see if they can make other plans. But you’ve put me on the spot here for something I think is a terrible idea already!”

Garyung grimaced, and didn’t have any protests prepared this time.

Kaldalis realized he’d made a slight mistake, though.

Garyung had made this decision on his own initiative. He’d pushed through his decision paralysis and made real progress. Crushing it as he had was a huge mistake, but one he could still correct.

“Hey, look,” Kadlalis said, adjusting his tone, “I don’t mean to cut you down here. Thinking of me was smart for a lot of reasons.”

“Yeah, but I still fucked it up,” Garyung said with a groan, “this is why-”

“No, listen,” Kaldalis said quickly. “Listen to me. You did good. Your reasoning was sound and your initiative was great. But when making decisions like this, you have to recognize that the other person needs to have their own agency. Generally speaking, people like having a say in what they do with their own lives. You can’t go running that over just because you think you’re smart.”

“Okay,” Garyung said, taking a deep breath. “Okay, I understand. I’ll… I’ll have to think of something.”

“You do that,” Kaldalis said, “and you have some good ideas. You’ve got all the right logic here, but the wrong execution. You’re a natural leader, man, you just need to get everything clearly lined up before you take your shot.”

“I understand,” Garyung said, taking a deep breath. “I can still count on you for the meeting, right?”

“Of course. What do we need to be ready for there?”

“There’s going to be some chatter,” Garyung said. “A lot of the same stuff I’ve already told you about. The meeting will start without the Zarans, and then they’ll be brought in, so I’ll want you with me the whole time. There’s some… Uh. Complicated business that might need an immediate answer.”

“That sounds… Important,” Kaldalis said, grabbing Garying’s arm to pull him to a stop. “Do I need the long version before we get in the building? We’ve got some time, right?”

“Okay, so, you know how I accidentally founded a new nation?”

“Uh, I may have heard.”

“It turns out that news goes around about that,” Garyung said. “We’ve been contacted by more than just Zara.”

“Oh,” Kaldalis looked around, confirming that there wasn’t anyone in earshot. “Like what kind of contact? Are we at war?”

“No, no,” Garyung said quickly, “nothing aggressive. Er. Overtly aggressive, at least.” The Bhogad frowned. “The Estian Republic sent something that implies that if we don’t give them a favorable trade agreement, there will be consequences, but Ikzoz says they’re a landlocked nation with no navy. The others seem to be more of a ‘welcome to the club’ kind of thing. I received a personal letter addressed to me that Sardol confirms is written in the hand of President Eileen of Cornix that seems to be looking to marry off a daughter to me? And then we have an actual honest-to-god ambassador from Svjetlo who-”

“Too deep,” Kaldalis said with a shake of his head. “You’re going too deep here. We don’t really have time to talk through every single country on the planet. Give it to me in broad strokes.”

“Okay, sorry, I just-”

“Garyung,” Kaldalis said, putting a hand to his arm. “Calm down. You’re doing fine. Just talk to me.”

“Long story short...” Garyung took a few slow breaths to calm himself. “My mistake is being recognized. Other countries are reaching out. They’re all feeling us out and trying to establish contact to begin diplomatic relations.”

“That’s…” Kaldalis was about to say that it was good, but he wasn’t so sure. “That’s something. Any common themes?”

“A lot of people want to be our friends,” Garyung explained, “according to Sardol, most of these nations are host to different arms of the Adventurers League, and so feel like they already have a relationship with us to build on. The most pressing matter is the word from the nations who are chilly - or even hostile - towards Zara.”

“That’s ominous,” Kaldalis said, “what do they say?”

“Surprisingly? They offer support,” Garyung said. “They offer to send military forces to help us defend ourselves from Zaran imperialism.”

Kaldalis found himself feeling faintly curious about that.

“I know,” Garyung said before Kaldalis could speak another word, “it sounds like we have options if the Zarans get uppity about us. I don’t think it’s a good idea to seriously entertain the matter, but-”

“Options,” Kaldalis said, nodding, “especially if the kingdom is going to think human rights violations against PCs is an appropriate response to an honest mistake.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Garyung agreed.

“But we should, uh, keep our opinion of that to ourselves,” Kaldalis said. “We don’t know how many members of the council have Zara as their first loyalty, above even the League.”

“Glad we agree, and I’m glad we were able to get that cleared up between us without the council,” Garyung said, gesturing towards the town hall, which was just around the corner from where they’d stopped. “But we should get moving. The meeting is in just a few more minutes.”