Ara looked at Kaldalis with a mixture of hope, suspicion, and disbelief written clear on her face. Her grip on his arm tightened just a little. She’d demanded his help, threatened to lock him up, and, also, haunted his nightmares for almost a month. He couldn’t blame her for thinking this might be a ploy to escape.

“I know who’s behind this,” Kaldalis said quickly. “I can talk to them.”

Ara arched an eyebrow. Kaldalis needed to control his body language. Obviously, he didn’t know if he could convince Dalgaard to stop. He didn’t even know if he actually wanted to stop them. The Jormongumo were cannibal monsters. Wiping them out might be the best outcome in the long run.

Of course, as he saw the warring emotions in Ara’s eyes, he realized the truth. No matter how much his mind wanted revenge, and to secure the safety of all who were going to live on this island in the future, his heart knew better. Ara was one of Monsoon’s victims. She’d been made a monster by their meddling in this world, when she and her people deserved better.

Furthermore, it was possible that their more monstrous attributes had been forced upon them by Monsoon, removing their ability to procreate naturally and then isolating them for centuries. What Ara had done - and what she’d tried to do - was due to their species’ fight for survival. As much as he couldn’t blame Dalgaard for wanting revenge, he couldn’t blame the Jormongumos for wanting to live.

At the end of the day, they were people. He watched Ara’s face and saw the reactions of a person. Just like any other NPC. Just like Onirioago. Just like Heluna.

Just like Haldir.

“What they’re doing is genocide,” Kaldalis said at last. “But they don’t realize it. I can explain. I can make them see.”

“How do they not know?” Ara asked. The disbelief was fading from her expression, but suspicion was beating out hope. “Everything they’re doing says loud and clear that they intend to wipe us out.”

“It’s complicated,” Kaldalis said. He didn’t know if he wanted to try to explain interdimensional colonization to a crazy spider-snake shapeshifter who had once tried to devour him and/or force herself upon him nonconsensually. But he could easily explain it to Dalgaard. If they knew that what they were doing was murdering real people - maybe - then surely a negotiation could be reached. “But I’m sure I know how to de-escalate the situation. We can discuss terms of surrender to ensure the survival of your people.”

Kaldalis didn’t want to say that Dalgaard might demand Ara’s head on a platter as a part of those terms, but she didn’t need to know that. Dalgaard’s tie to this was his ace in the hole and he didn’t want to hand it to Ara for free. Besides, they were justified in their desire. What Ara had done to them was unforgivable. Just because Kaldalis believed the crime didn’t warrant a genocide didn’t mean an eye for an eye was uncalled for.

“Why?” Ara demanded. She was growing more suspicious by the second. “Why do you want to help me?”

“I don’t want to,” Kaldalis said bluntly. “To be quite honest, I think I’d be happy to never see another of your kind again for the rest of my life.” He wasn’t going to mention the nightmares about her specifically. Again, he had to be careful not to hand her the weapons that would let her manipulate him. “But if you’re willing to make a deal with me, that might be enough to get me in your corner.”

“Whatever you want,” she said quickly. Too quickly. Her free hand came around and grabbed his other arm, pulling him close as she whispered with fierce intensity: “I put myself at your mercy. Any price you demand, any service you request. I will do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of my people. If you can save us, I am yours.”

Kaldalis had to make an effort not to panic. The closeness of her face made him terrified that her eyes were all going to open at once. Her arms were going to pop out and enclose him. Bile rose in his throat as the memory of the taste of her venom came to his mind, unbidden.

It was clear that she meant to offer a physical service. That thought was enough to make him shudder, but the actual potential beyond the gross implication was interesting. What if her people could provide enough wealth to pay back Cotanaku’s loans? What if he could weaponize Ara and use her to remove The Contender?

He shook those thoughts away. Those were problems he could solve himself. Or, at least, he knew where to start to find those solutions. But Ara might be able to give him information that otherwise died with the Lataxinans. If she could help him undo what Monsoon did, it might serve everyone’s best interests. And it was definitely a route that Monsoon had failed to block off.

“I need information,” Kaldalis said. He had to make a physical effort to stay still in her grasp. “You said you were around for the Calamity. You said that you knew the Lataxinans. Is that true?”

“Yes,” Ara said, her eyebrow arched curiously again. “Why?”

“I need to know what happened to them,” he explained. “Where did they go? Where did the Infernal Horde come from? What were they working on in their last moments?”

“I might be able to help,” she said carefully. Slowly, she released her grip on his arms, letting him step away to get some distance. Apparently all she needed was to know that she had something he wanted to keep him here to release her physical hold. “But I need to know your goals. Speak plainly.”

Kaldalis didn’t like her tone. But he didn’t like a lot of things about her, so he just barreled right along.

“What we unearthed at the camp told us that the Lataxinans knew the Calamity was coming before it arrived,” Kaldalis said, feeling like he’d explained this whole thing like thirty times by now. “I want to know how they knew. What they learned. And, most importantly, how they intended to stop it.”

“Stop it? You mean to undo the Calamity?” Ara’s eyes widened. Thankfully, it was just her normal human eyes, both to spare him the terror of seeing the extras again, and because it made her extremely easy to read. His payment for helping her people might help her people even more. What would happen if the systems that declared her people monsters just vanished? What if they were allowed to integrate with the other races again? To seek consensual breeding partners, and perhaps even restore their biology to normal?

“Yes.” Kaldalis’s eyes flicked to the part of his UI that confirmed that his stream was still live. He’d need to navigate this conversation very carefully. “If I know anything about the Lataxinans, they had to have something in the works. Some ability, some magic trick… Something. Whatever weapon they were dreaming up, I need the blueprints for. Because I want to build it.”

“Why?” Ara asked. Her tone went from curiosity to suspicion again. She reached out a hand to grab his arm. “Your people benefit from this more than anyone. Why would you want to break it?”

“The Infernal Horde kills people. More than I can stomach,” Kaldalis said quickly. Despite his efforts to stand his ground and look heroic, he flinched back from her grasp, nearly falling off the wall they stood upon. “I can’t bring back the fallen, but how many lives would it save to be rid of them forever?”

Even as he remained out of her hands, her suspicion faded. This was what she expected of him. He was, after all, a “noble soul” in her eyes, even if she’d expressed that it made him naive. He’d sought to protect Dalgaard at tremendous risk to his own life. He’d even wanted to protect her, when he thought she was just a strange human, before she’d revealed herself to be a monster. All he needed to say to convince her of his intent was something to make her believe he was only trying to be a hero.

“I don’t know exactly the information you seek,” Ara said, “but I can help you find it.” She pointedly moved to keep her hands to herself now, even if the way she did so was to cross them under her chest, propping up and drawing attention to her breasts. “If you save my people from extinction, your desires will be my desires. I will do everything in my power to help you. I know where the Lataxinans gathered in the last moments before the Calamity. I can point you to the records they left behind. I offer my solemn vow that I will strain my every resource to uncover their secrets with you.”

Kaldalis didn’t much enjoy her phrasing choices, but it seemed an amenable deal to him. He nodded.

“But I can’t help you so long as my people are dying,” Ara warned. “Stop the attacks. Broker peace. Save the lives of my people, and my life - every century that remains of it - is yours.”

He offered his hand. As soon as he did, he knew it was a very human - no, Terran - gesture. Just the same, she understood, reaching out to shake.

“Don’t shake,” he said quickly, pulling his hand back, “unless you mean it.”

He offered his hand again, and Ara hesitated. That was a good sign. If she reached out immediately, he wouldn’t have trusted it. If she was thinking, it meant she was considering her promise. Weighing what she was offering him, and what he was offering in turn. Kaldalis knew he couldn’t trust her - she was literally bartering for her life, she would promise anything to save her own scaled tail - but if there was a chance she intended to follow through on her promise, he had to take it. He didn’t have any other options.

But at the same time, neither did she.

She took his hand firmly, and they shook on the deal.