It didn’t take much longer for the council to call their attendants back in. Though the experience only made Kaldalis panic all that much more by what he saw when he walked in.

The Contender was missing.

There was no back door to this room, and he clearly hadn’t walked out past everyone standing outside. There was a window, but Kaldalis couldn’t imagine the dignified, self-important man crawling out through it. Kaldalis gave Garyung a meaningful glance, but he didn’t provide any explanation.

Kaldalis wasn’t the only one who noticed. Brother Gnider, the other priests, and the green-and-gold clad guards all took a long moment of hesitation when they entered and noted his absence. But as they took up their positions flanking his chair, Kaldalis realized that everyone else just seemed to accept it. At least outwardly, he was the only one growing more panicked every second that there wasn’t an explanation.

“The council has voted in Kaldalis’s favor,” Cerh said, once everyone had returned to their spots around the table. “The Council of Councils orders that the Contender stand aside and allow Kaldalis to bring a team into the raid, but only so that he may enact his plan to return the Lataxinans and end the Infernal Horde threat. As a compromise, no other team will be allowed into the Tomb of Ghosts until such time as the lataxinans can explain and be held accountable for the safety of their abilities.”

That was good news. Kaldalis wanted to be happy about this turn of events. But he couldn’t stop staring at the empty chair.

“As another compromise,” Garyung said, enunciating clearly to try and catch Kaldalis’s attention. “The raid team must bring an observer from the Contender’s team to ensure that the operation stays within acceptable guidelines.”

“I volunteer,” Brother Gnider cut in. Beside him, the other priest in the room looked uncomfortably at the empty chair. But that may have been due to the Contender’s absence, and not Brother Gnider asserting authority. “Though I will need to discuss with the Contender what exact guidelines are required.”

“That is acceptable to me,” Garyung said, though he looked to Cerh. “Assuming that the rest of the council doesn’t object.”

“As far as I’m aware,” Cerh said gently, “this would be an internal matter for the Contender’s investigation, and not within the power of this council. I still believe that we are pushing the boundaries of our authority by demanding access to Dymythrae, but given the information before us, we have no other choice.” He gestured at Brother Gnider. “The choice of witness is no concern of this council, so long as they don’t interfere with Kaldalis’s assigned mission.”

It was, perhaps, the first time Kaldalis had ever heard Cerh say something without being an antagonistic asshole about it.

Maybe things were turning around here. Maybe Kaldalis and his friends were finally making progress. Maybe this council was the start of a real change in their relationship with the Zarans.

Of course, Kaldalis didn’t want to get his hopes up. But he figured “eventual uneasy peace” wasn’t too much to hope for.

“Either way, that mission will not be carried out today,” Jetmorpan said firmly. The glare he fixed Kaldalis with hadn’t changed that much. “The Contender has asked that we give him two days to get his investigation of the area in order before allowing you access.”

Kaldalis nodded. That was fine. Two days was a big chunk of Kaldalis’s remaining time, but it was not an unmanageable delay. It gave him two more uses of his Dedication Ring to power up, as well as plenty of opportunities to gather the perfect raid team and amass the resources that a successful raid needed.

“I believe that’s all we have time for,” Cerh said, “given that we must get back to our respective towns and strengthen our defenses for the next attack. I hope that with cooperation from Cotanaku, the Adventurer’s League will support us to rebuild, repair, and reinforce Panbu and Kayore against these threats.”

“I have already taken steps,” Garyung confirmed, giving Kaldalis a meaningful glance. “But given that the severity and frequency of these attacks is much higher than expected, I will redouble my efforts.”

“Very good,” Cerh said with a nod. “Thank you. I believe we can consider this meeting dismissed.”

“Go ahead and loop your people in,” Garyung said quickly to Kaldalis. “We can clear up all the other stuff later. The sooner your preparations begin, the better.”

Kaldalis had questions for Garyung - mainly about what the fuck happened to the Contender - but he couldn’t really argue with his request. As soon as Balrim and Reno knew that the raid was coming, the sooner they could work together to provide the potions and food that the raid would depend on.

Of course, as the meeting chamber emptied, Kaldalis had more questions aimed at him than he could deal with.

“Logistically,” Sardol said quickly, hurrying on his short human legs to catch up to Kaldalis in the hall, “are the Lataxinans interested in opening up a trading relationship with us once they return? Are there measures we can take to best capitalize on the sudden arrival of a new population to the region?”

“That seems a superficial concern,” the shifty Suyon said, cutting in on Kaldalis’s other side. “I’d like to know what to expect from their return in the long term. Are they going to be alright with our presence here on their islands? Are they going to kick out Cotanaku and Zara and annex our towns?”

“I don’t know,” Kaldalis said, “and I don’t think it’s a valuable use of my time to go back to them and ask.”

He stopped dead and turned, looking for Ikzoz. Unexpectedly, the Talsar researcher was almost directly behind him, no doubt about to hit him with his own barrage of questions.

“Ikzoz,” Kaldalis said. “Can you please set up a debriefing for me? I’d love to sit down with Bangen and get a report written up so that everything I know about the Lataxinans - and everything I don’t - is freely available.”

“I can arrange that,” Ikzoz said with visible excitement. “I’ll get that set up right away. Come by the research center in fifteen minutes and she’ll be ready.”

“If you have any specific questions,” Kaldalis said, looking between Sardol and the shifty Suyon, “please make sure Bangen has them. If there’s any vitally important clarification that I need from the Lataxinans, I can take one more trip to their vessel and try and get some answers, but I only want to take one more trip. I would rather spend my time preparing to bring them back so that they can answer every question instead of hopping back and forth so that you guys can have pen pals.”

“Understood,” Sardol said with a nod. The shifty Suyon nodded as well.

“I just need to get the word out to my friends,” Kaldalis said, turning back to Ikzoz. “As soon as they can begin preparations, then I’ll meet Bangen at the research center.”

“Perfect,” Ikzoz said. From his inventory, he had produced a pad of paper and a pencil, and even as he didn’t break eye contact with Kaldalis, he was visibly filling the page with questions. “I look forward to reviewing the report.”

“If it’s not too much to ask,” Kaldalis said, looking back at Sardol, “I hope you can take some time to coordinate with the others who might have questions for the report to make sure I only do this once.” He turned to the shifty Suyon before adding: “and I’m sure it would be politically prudent to extend the offer to Cerh and Jetmorpan before they leave.”

The sudden urgency caused the trio of council members to scatter, which let Kaldalis escape the town hall without being accosted any further.

To his surprise, Dalgaard was waiting for him outside, standing at attention and falling in beside Kaldalis as he tried to figure out where he could find his other friends.

“How did it go?” Dalgaard asked in a strangely formal tone.

“Great,” Kaldalis said with a grimace before correcting himself. “I’m sorry, I mean it actually did go great. My goals have been achieved and the path is clear to the next step. I’m just afraid there’s going to be consequences.”

“Anything we need to prepare for?” Dagaard asked.

“The Contender,” Kaldalis said. He tried to continue, but there was just too much to say. Despite his trailing off, Dalgaard nodded in agreement at the name alone. It seemed like that was enough to convey the problem.

“Anything else?” Dalgaard asked when Kaldalis failed to elaborate.

“I need Balrim and Reno to start working on churning out potions and food,” Kaldalis said. “And I need you and everyone else to start building a raid team. I have a meeting in the research center in fifteen minutes, too.”

“That’s not enough time,” Dalgaard said firmly. “Raid team building is no joke. We’re going to need to make some hard choices, and it’s going to take more than fifteen minutes.”

“I know. I just need everyone to be able to get together to start the conversation,” Kaldalis said. He looked up at the sky, judging it to be about mid-afternoon now. “We need to figure out what our full roster looks like before we can talk about who’s on the bench. We have two days to put this together, so we actually have time to assemble our resources and set up a schedule to make sure everything gets done. Can I trust you to get the ball rolling on that?”

“I can spread the word,” Dalgaard said, puffing their chest out a little with pride. “But what should I tell them? I don’t want to get everyone worked up to get running when we’re two days out from the day-of.”

“Tell them to get ready,” Kaldalis said with a smirk. “At dawn, we plan.”