Outside of the meeting chamber, Kaldalis realized that even if he didn’t feel any guilt, it would have still been poor form not to apologize to Garyung for escalating until the council decided to kick them out.

“I probably could have handled that a bit better,” Kaldalis admitted. He didn’t feel like he did much wrong, but the outcome obviously said otherwise. “I’m sorry if I fucked everything up.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Garyung said with a grimace. “I don’t think this was going to go well no matter what. But considering what I want is for them to just take things out of my hands, I’m not going to be upset if they do it in the meanest way they can.”

“I promise if you get stuck with the bill, I’ll help,” Kaldalis said. “But as an accountant, I’m used to dealing with numbers on the order of corporations. I know that’s a scale that leaves individual people pretty well fucked.”

“I’m not worried,” Garyung said with a smirk. “It’s not real money, right? All I have to do is dodge creditors and then fuck off back to the real world. What are they gonna do?”

Kaldalis had to admit, it was a good point. As much as the worldbuilding and the people here seemed real, they were in a videogame world. Garyung wasn’t financially ruined for life, any more than he was actually engaged to the daughter of a country. When he went back to his normal life at the end of their tenure here, there was no way for videogame obligations to follow.

“I’m more concerned about the Contender,” Garyung continued. “If he’s already on a boat to Cotanaku, he’s going to arrive unannounced and catch everyone with their pants down.”

“Shit,” Kaldalis cursed. “And he’s going to fuck everything up over there, isn’t he?”

“There’s no way to predict,” Garyung said. “He doesn’t technically have any authority in Cotanaku, but he’s certainly not afraid of throwing his weight around until someone pushes back.”

“I don’t think Ikzoz is going to be a total pushover,” Kaldalis said. “But the Contender is kind of a big deal. Even Onirioago didn’t want to tangle with him when she thought Kaia’s Flicker might be evil magic. If she was afraid of that guy, I can’t imagine anyone I’ve ever met standing up to him.”

Kaldalis realized he was talking pretty loudly right in front of the group that was the audience in the meeting room. Casting a glance around, he realized that there were a half-dozen people openly staring right at him. And the others were still obviously listening to their conversation, even though they were slightly more surreptitious about it.

“Everybody getting this so far?” Kaldalis said, looking one of the nearby spectators in the eye. The group stepped back, a couple of them coughing out half-muttered apologies. Kaldalis turned back to Garyung and gestured up the hall, leading him a few yards away from the crowd.

“The bottom line is that I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Garyung explained once they were out of easy earshot. “Technically, right now the council’s allegiance is to Cotanaku and not to Zara, but I can’t say the same for their religious affiliation. If the council are ardent followers of the Glorious One or whatever, they might lock step with the Contender and turn the whole town into a detention center. I don’t know them all well enough to predict one way or the other.”

“We have to warn them somehow,” Kaldalis said. “Even if we can’t get word directly to the council to tell them not to bend the knee until we get back, we could at least warn folks not to be standing around spamming Lataxinan abilities in the middle of town for fun when the boat comes in.”

“How?” Garyung asked.

Kaldalis grimaced. He didn’t really have an answer to that.

“I can only think of one thing, but I don’t know if it’s going to work,” Kaldalis said.

“Well, that’s one more idea than I have,” Garyung shot back.

“You and I are probably two of the more popular streams, right?” Kaldalis asked. He cast a nervous glance around. He had a strange feeling like talking about the streaming bit was against the rules somehow. “So there’s probably a few hundred people staring at us right now. What if they could hit a couple of people back in Cotanaku with donation messages that explain the situation?”

“That’s actually pretty devious,” Garyung said, nodding.

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure avoiding that kind of thing is why drops happen once a month instead of in realtime,” Kaldalis said. “The only way this works is if the next drop happens before the Contender arrives in Cotanaku.”

“So the next drop will happen before the Contender arrives, right?” Garyung asked.

Kaldalis grimaced. He had no idea.

“But the next drop will happen before the Contender arrives?” Garyung asked again, eyes pleading.

“I meant to ask Reno about it before,” Kaldalis said defensively, “but I just forgot, okay? It’s been a weird couple of days.”

Garyung sagged with a heavy sigh. “Well, I hope a bunch of our viewers didn’t just throw money at people to warn them about something they might already know about when they get the message.”

“It’s fine,” Kaldalis said. “Definitely probably fine. I’m sure our friends Courbois and Martok and Aurigeant and whoever are all grateful for your support. Blah blah blah community building and all that. But until we can figure out when the drop actually happens, there’s no way of knowing if it’ll make a difference.”

“Yeah, of course,” Garyung said with a smirk. “But that doesn’t help us now.”

“That’s why I said I didn’t know if it was going to work,” Kaldalis said, throwing up his hands. “And that's all I have. There’s no whispers, no in-game mail… Or, at least, no in-game mail that wouldn’t be sending a dude out on a boat with a slip of paper and trying to see if he can out-row whatever war frigate the Contender loaded his ass onto.”

“Okay,” Garyung said, putting a hand on Kaldalis’s shoulder to calm him down. “I hear you. We have to find a solution to this, but we don’t have the tools and information to do it here. We have a problem in front of us now, right? Let’s take this one step at a time.”

Kaldalis nodded, and as he did, the doors to the meeting room opened, and the guards that stepped out gestured for the group to return. Kaldalis and Garyung fell in behind the spectators as they filed back into the room. As much as he was caught up in the building panic of the next monstrous batch of bullshit they were going to face, Garyung was right. They had to deal with whatever the council was about to drop on them. Once that was done, then they could hunt down Reno and a calendar and start making plans for the next step.

The council still sat, imperiously looking down their noses at Kaldalis and Garyung as they entered. The deliberation hadn’t even been a few minutes. While that seemed like a bad sign, Kaldalis reminded himself that it was likely that the council already knew what they were going to do before the meeting was even convened. It wasn’t necessarily a bad sign that Kaldalis and Garyung hadn’t been able to make large changes to their decision.

As soon as everyone was seated and the room was quiet, Yarganbintlehat raised a hand to command the attention of the room.

“With our deliberations complete, I, Yarganbintlehat the Incomparable, now move to speak on behalf of this council,” he announced, the words carrying the stilted formality of practiced speech. “Should any member of this council object to me doing so, let them speak now.”

The council said nothing. Emmyth went so far as to make an impatient gesture for him to continue.

“The matter of Representative Garyung’s proposal has been considered,” Yarganbintlehat continued, holding up a sheet of paper and reading from it carefully. “This council recommends against any manner of annexation of Cotanaku, by military, intelligence, or diplomacy.”

Garyung visibly sagged in despair. Kaldalis felt his heart drop, too.

“We have determined it to be a very unwise move, with no reasonable gains,” the imperious vathon continued reading. “This council also submits to the record for any future consideration that the annexation of Cotanaku could have considerable drawbacks. At present, this council has no reason to believe it benefits the Kingdom of Zara to absorb Cotanaku’s debts. Furthermore, it seems a reasonable concern by this council that until the Contender releases a full report of his investigation, Cotanaku should be considered by the government as potentially harboring evil magic.”

Kaldalis felt a sudden surge of anger. This was confirmation of his fears, but in the worst possible way. The whole meeting had been all but staged. The paper Yarganbintlehat was reading off of had been prepared ahead of time, and nothing Kaldalis or Garyung could say could have changed it. What’s more, nothing they had said had changed it.

“This is bullshit,” Kaldalis blurted out. “You had that verdict written before the meeting even started.” As all eyes turned to him, he jumped up to his feet. “This whole affair was a farce! You knew about the debt and the Contender’s trip before we began, and made your decision before we began. We addressed both concerns during this meeting but nothing in your verdict reflects that! We told you Zara doesn’t have to absorb our debts! We told you we’ll wait for the Contenders report!”

“Our decision is final,” Yarganbintlehat snapped, slamming the page to the desk with a clap. “It is the unofficial position of this council that Cotanaku is a shit show. With you two in charge, it is doomed beyond any capacity for saving. Your unpreparedness, immaturity, and complete lack of a coherent case prove your inadequacy. I can’t imagine a pair of men unable to handle a simple meeting will prove intelligent heads of state.”

Kaldalis started to speak again, but he suddenly noticed the guards at the sides of the room eyeing him very carefully. Two of them had even taken a step forward. Considering he had to be in court tomorrow for Onirioago’s case, he couldn’t afford to be arrested now. Instead he held his tongue.

“As an experienced leader to an inexperienced one,” Yarganbintlehat continued, looking to Garyung, who seemed to be trying to shrink down into the floor. “The next time you wish to attempt a meeting with another nation, send someone else. Or at least leave your cute little attack dog at home.” He stood, taking up his ridiculous feathered helmet. “This meeting is dismissed.”