Chương 53: Deal by the Sister

POV: The Dark Lord, Milo Miles By the time we landed close to Arkhay, Lunessa was a disaster. Partly my fault; I'd launched us off the ground fast and flown faster. but I suspected the outcome would've been much the same regardless. Her hair had come loose from its pins entirely, whipped into a windswept nest, and her coat was rucked up around one shoulder with the collar folded the wrong way. She sorted herself out in about fifteen seconds after we landed, which was impressive on its own.

We came down outside the town, naturally. Landing in the middle of it would've startled everyone and stamped a large 'I AM DEEPLY SUSPICIOUS' sign across both our foreheads. So we set down at a distance and walked in. The guards clearly knew Lunessa. A quick flash of her papers and they waved us both through, and I was introduced as her assistant again, which made me wonder how much longer she'd be able to move between towns like this.

The moment the Church put a bounty on her name, all these doors would probably be closed. The guilt sat in my chest where it had been sitting all day. I hadn't just dragged Evelisse into this; I had taken her sister and her friend along with her. Evelisse kept telling me not to blame myself, that the choice had been hers and theirs, and I still couldn't make the feeling go away. The only thing I could do about it was take care of them properly. Actually take care of them, not just say so.

Make plans alongside them and be useful for once. I had already failed everyone before. I couldn't afford to let anyone down again.

"What are you thinking about?" Lunessa had appeared directly in front of me, leaning in, head tilted, close enough that I nearly walked straight into her." Whoa —that's dangerous! I almost bumped into you!"

"What you're doing is fairly dangerous too." She straightened, unbothered.

"In a town this size, you keep your eyes up. You never know when you'll bump into someone you'd rather not, or find your purse three streets away from you." Fair point. I needed to stop thinking about things and start doing them.

"R-right…sorry. And thanks." We turned onto a broader street.

"So what's the plan? Do I go buy the groceries and food while you handle your business?"

"Nope." Lunessa caught my wrist and towed me along.

"You're coming with me to the mayor's office." Huh? The mayor's office? So there we were, sitting in the mayor's receiving room. Dark wood everywhere, shelves of ledgers along one wall, a large map of the region pinned behind the desk, and a wooden bench along the far side softened with thick cushions, which was frankly more comfortable than any chair I owned. Lunessa sat beside me, back straight, hands folded, wearing a warm and entirely genuine-looking smile.

Across from us, the mayor settled into his chair; a broad, heavyset man somewhere past forty, I guess, thinning grey hair combed carefully over the top, with the sort of face that had spent decades learning to look pleasant while calculating. I, meanwhile, sat there feeling like a chair someone had dressed in clothes.

"Lunessa. You've come back sooner than I expected." The mayor folded his hands over his stomach.

"I heard Eremiah had an unfortunate visit from the Dark Lord. I'm glad to see you well."

"Yes, it was sudden, and devastating, for a great many people." Her eyes flicked to me for a fraction of a second, no expression at all, and then away. Must have been intentional to stir the guilt in me.

"But there were no casualties," she went on smoothly, "and I expect Astrea will assist with the rebuilding soon enough."

"Good, good." Grant nodded.

"So what brings you to me? Has something gone sideways with the Oqocia arrangement?"

"Oh, no, Mayor Grant, that's perfectly on track. They should be reaching out to you directly within the week." Lunessa's smile didn't waver.

"I'm here about something else entirely."

"Something else?"

"I've struck a deal with the Dark Lord." The room changed. Grant's hands came apart. The pleasant expression stayed on his face but stopped meaning anything, and I watched the color drain slowly out of it while his eyes moved from Lunessa, to me, and back to Lunessa.

"... What exactly do you mean by that?"

"When he came to Eremiah, I made him an offer." Lunessa leaned forward slightly, entirely at ease.

"Information, in exchange for sparing the town. And after some further discussion, he agreed to provide me with certain rare materials as well. Cerberus fur, among others."

"I see." Grant swallowed.

"That would explain why he didn't kill anyone there." He straightened in his chair, gathering himself.

"But I don't imagine you came all this way simply to tell me that."

"No." Lunessa smiled and sat back.

"In connection with it, I'd like to make a deal with Arkhay."

"A deal." Grant's voice went flat.

"Lunessa, I have enormous respect for how you do your work, but you have just sat in my office and told me you're trading with the Dark Lord. You understand that I could report you to Astrea for this. Today."

"I do." She said it without a flicker.

"Then why are you advertising it?" His voice rose slightly.

"You've spent years building your name and you're spending it in front of me for nothing. Is the Dark Lord threatening you? Is that what this is?" Oh God. This was going badly, and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. Sit still? Look menacing? I settled for sitting very still.

"Mayor Grant." Lunessa's voice didn't rise to meet his.

"I know precisely what I'm doing. By tomorrow I may not be able to walk freely into most towns on this continent. Today is very likely my only opportunity to sit in this room, and I would not have spent it on you if I weren't about to propose something that benefits us both." Grant said nothing.

"Given our history," she said, "will you at least hear what I've brought you?" A long pause.

"... Fine."

"As I mentioned. I have access to rare materials. Things that are extremely difficult for a town like Arkhay to acquire through ordinary channels."

"What else, besides Cerberus fur?" Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"I can't disclose the full inventory yet." Lunessa spread one hand.

"But I can assure you they're of comparable value. In several cases, considerably higher." Lunessa swung her pack onto the table and unfastened it. One by one, she set the contents down between them. A curved fang the length of my forearm, pale as bone china, with a thin dark line running its whole length. Beside it, a palm-sized scale, iridescent, throwing green and gold across the desk as it caught the window light.

Then a shard of something like black glass, its edges catching the light in ways that didn't quite match how it was sitting. And last, a knuckle of dull grey stone shot through with faint copper veining, which she set down with noticeably more care than the rest. Mayor Grant did not touch any of it. He leaned forward over the desk, and I watched his eyes travel across the row of them, one to the next.

"These are only a sample," Lunessa said.

"Shake my hand today, and I'll promise you there will be more."

"You're proposing to hand these over to me?"

"In exchange for something, yes." She let a beat pass.

"And I can tell you now that it would be more than sufficient to clear Arkhay's debt. In full. Plus, I can bring you even more rare materials from time to time." Something moved in the mayor's face. Not much—a tightening around the eyes, a small shift in how he was sitting—but it was there, and I noticed it. Whatever that debt was, it had been sitting on him for a long time. Lunessa noticed too. I saw the corner of her mouth move.

"And what," Grant said carefully, "would you want in exchange?" What followed, I mostly couldn't follow. The mayor pushed back on nearly every point. He questioned her, poked at every seam in the proposal looking for a place it came apart. Yet, Lunessa met every single one without breaking stride. Twice I watched her raise an objection herself, one he hadn't gotten to yet, and dismantle it in front of him before he could pick it up.

By the third time, he'd stopped trying to catch her out and started actually listening. The short version: Lunessa wanted Arkhay designated a safe zone. She would guarantee that the Dark Lord never attacked the town, and provide enough rare material to wipe out its debt. In exchange, she and a small list of whitelisted individuals would be permitted to come and go freely, without challenge, and without any of it being reported.

"And you're certain you hold that kind of sway over the Dark Lord?" Grant asked.

"That he'd actually listen to you?"

"I think the safety of a town or two is a small price for key information and access to certain kingdoms. He'll consider it an easy trade."

"And if he decides to raze Eremiah again?"

"He won't. I know what I'm worth to him."

"You may be dooming the entire world, Lunessa."

"This Dark Lord isn't like the ones before him. You've heard how few have died."

"People died in Mistros."

"Yes, and Mistros remains the only one." She didn't blink.

"Compare that with the last several Dark Lords, who put many more villages and towns to the torch within their first week." Grant's jaw worked.

"He's still the Dark Lord."

"He is, and I'm confident I can trick him." That got my attention." Trick him," Grant repeated.

"He has a vision for this world that isn't destruction." Lunessa's tone shifted, just slightly.

"I believe I can bring him around to seeing certain things. And that in time, the world will be safer for it."

"You're playing a game well beyond you."

"Nothing is beyond me." She smiled.

"And if I'm wrong, then it's on me, not you. Arkhay risks nothing here. Arkhay only gains."

"What if Astrea finds out you have been entering the place and questions me?"

"I will handle that; disguise or mind-altering magics are good excuses as long as they can be proven."

"Can you prove them?" She smiled, and that was what sealed it. We were making our way toward Arkhay's cookshop district for the food run when I finally asked Lunessa why I needed to be in that room at all. She put a finger to her chin and glanced upward, thinking.

"Hmm. The goal was to let you see with your own eyes that I can contribute. And that I'm not lying to you about it." Why would she feel she needed to prove that? Did she think I was going to throw her out? Do I come across as that kind of person?

"Don't you... trust me? Because I trust you. I mean, I don't doubt your skills. You've been doing the trade liaison thing for years, you clearly know what you're—""I did trust you, Milo." Lunessa smiled at me, pleasant as anything.

"Do you remember what happened the day after I trusted you enough to let you into my house, have a meal, and even spend time with Eve?" Oh. Fuck, she's right. I was the one who betrayed her trust.

"... Sorry," I said. She laughed and reached over to pat my arm, twice, light and companionable.

"Sorry. I went too far." Her hand stayed at my shoulder for a moment.

"You just get so wonderfully guilt-ridden. It makes me want to poke at it." So she was a bit of a sadist, then. Good to know. Then a question surfaced in my mind.

"Why do we even need free access to Arkhay?"

"Insurance, mostly." Lunessa kept walking, unhurried.

"If bounties go up on all of us, then in fairly short order we lose access to most towns and kingdoms. That's a problem. We need information —how Astrea's moving, what state the Hero's party is in, that sort of thing. And we'll need to draw on resources, exactly like we're doing today." She gestured vaguely at the street around us.

"Beyond food and drink, a town gives you a great deal. Certain people you might need the help of. Somewhere to go to ground if it comes to that." She glanced at me.

"And Arkhay is one of the larger towns in the region, and one of the closer ones to Astrea. It's a very good place to have locked down."

"Right, but—" I hesitated.

"This is just a hypothetical, but couldn't I have just... taken the town? By force? Or threatened the mayor. Or the king, for that matter."

"You could." She didn't sound remotely scandalized by the question, which was somehow worse.

"But then people help you reluctantly, and anyone helping out of fear will sell you the first moment it's safe to." Fair. If somebody threatened me into cooperating, I'd absolutely be looking for the first chance to ruin them for it. The more I turned it over, the more I saw what Lunessa had actually done in that room. She hadn't strong-armed Arkhay; she'd rescued it. The mayor got to clear the town's debt, maybe even come out ahead, which meant real benefit spread across the whole place.

And if he ever chose to tell people where it had come from, even if Lunessa walked back in tomorrow with a bounty on her head and no disguise, they'd have every reason to protect her anyway. Because if she goes down, the arrangement goes with her. And underneath all of that, without a single word of threat spoken aloud, the mayor understood perfectly well what might happen to Arkhay if he broke his end of the deal; the Dark Lord might raze the place. The fear was still in the room.

It just wasn't the dominant force. Lunessa had wrapped everything in gratitude and steady mutual benefit, and left the fear sitting quietly underneath as the guarantee.

"Besides," she added, "we managed it without killing anyone or threatening anyone. All the things Eve and Mel would object to. I don't know where their lines will end up sitting in the long run, but for now, this is the safest way to do it." Then she smiled, and it had a distinct edge to it.

"And you know the best part? I never once made the Dark Lord look weak. It reads like a truce on the surface. But that man is still frightened of you. He just has a reason to be polite about it now. Well, not that he knows who you are at this point, but you know what I mean." She was... genuinely incredible. It hadn't been a full day since she decided to throw in with us, and she'd already put together a plan like this and executed it flawlessly.

"... Thanks," I said.

"You're really amazing." Lunessa's eyes went wide for a second. Then a slow, deeply smug grin spread across her face, and she leaned in toward me and cupped a hand behind her ear.

"Sorry? Say that again?"

"Uhh, thanks?"

"Nuh-uh." She waggled a finger.

"The other one."

"... You're really amazing."" Mm." She straightened up, looking thoroughly pleased with herself, and patted my shoulder.

"Good boy. You may keep saying that as often as you like. Every day, ideally. I'll never get tired of it." I decided not to dignify that.

"Though," she went on, "we will need that Cerberus of yours to part with some fur reasonably soon, and I'll probably need your help gathering more rare materials. If we really needed to spend weeks hunting for the rare materials, this deal would not be worth it. But with your powers and resources, I believe it would be much easier to get them, I hope?" Well, that should be true. If there were no holy element cheats, I should be able to clear a lot of high-level quests on my own? Hopefully?

Anyway, finally, there was something in this arrangement that played to my strengths.

"Sure. For the Cerberus fur, I think Luke will be fine with it. Probably."

"Wonderful. Now come on, you've been walking far too slowly." And she caught my wrist and started towing me down the street again. Yeah. I'm not going to let her down. Not her, not any of them.