Tialla and Castor sat opposite each other with a small table in the middle of them. Attached to hard points on their chairs each had two slaves with them. Already a contrast was in place in the room as Eranor and Rosewood were able to sit relatively calmly and comfortably, while Castor’s two slaves fidgeted around in their excessive and revealing restraints.
“I presume you know why I’m here Queen Tialla,” Castor said quickly.
“Indeed, I do,” Tialla nodded seriously. “Obviously to discuss your invasion of Pal Miqo.”
“And your army’s counter attack against mine.”
“I would call it an effective defense,” Tialla replied quickly.
“I would as well, if I had known you were entering an alliance with Pal Miqo. It came as quite as a shock to us to see your troops there.”
“I’m sure your unwarranted attack also came as a shock. To the Miqo at least. From our perspective the imminent attack was easy to predict.”
“Feisty,” Castor said with a grin.
“I suggest you keep that expression saved for your slaves,” Tialla dismissed the comment with a serious gaze. Castor gave a small laugh as he brushed the comment off. Tialla kept her stare steady.
“Had I known you were in an alliance, I assure you I would not have launched my attack.”
“I doubt that,” Tialla cut in. “You may not have attacked at that moment, but you would have attacked eventually, when you had gathered more forces. In fact, I’m quite sure you’re doing that at this moment. Though, we both know that, while your technological advantage may have let you easily overcome the might of one nation, even you cannot hope to overpower an alliance. Especially with your technological edge rapidly decreasing.”
“It would be a costly war for both of us,” Castor retorted. “I would not want to cost you and your kingdom.”
“Let’s be frank. You’re trying to convince me to leave so you can conquer Pal Miqo easier. You don’t care about the damage to me or my kingdom. Though you will find me hard to convince. What gives you the right to Pal Miqo’s lands?”
“What gives you the right to stop me?” Castor countered with a smile.
“Because I know why you’re doing it.”
“Our empire is expanding. We require more land and resources.”
“Please!” Tialla spoke loudly. “Don’t insult my intelligence general Castor. The reason for your invasion is attached to your chair. You’re pillaging Pal Miqo for slaves, and I know very well that if you had not been stopped that would only be a staging area for you to launch more raids into Beastkin lands.” General Corinthus rustled in her restraints at the heels of Castor. Her eyes met Eranor’s and Eranor struggled to keep her composure.
“Quite the accusation,” Castor yanked Corinthus’ chain which got her to settle down. “If it was true, and it’s not, why exactly can’t we take slaves? Clearly you also partake in this practice. Seems to be something of a cultural staple for you beastkin.”
“You can’t because you don’t know how. That much is evident.”
“Do go on,” Castor leaned his head into his hand.
“For starters you have no concept of the delicate balance we have to maintain,” Tialla leaned back slightly as she continued explaining. “Your plan was to just simply enslave an entire country, maybe an entire race. That’s not sustainable long term. We only take slaves sparingly, as prisoners of war or of crimes. We understand that trying to do so to an entire country is a horrible and fruitless endeavor doomed to fail.”
“Oh, I disagree,” Castor leaned forward as he explained his argument. “Modern advancement in rune technology would make keeping control of a large population relatively simple,” Castor removed a circular device from one of his pockets and pressed the large button in the middle of it. His two slaves yelped and writhed on the floor in pain until the button was released. Then he pressed another button the two slaves started writhing on the floor in a completely different way. Even through their open mouth gags the moans they were making were very explicit in nature. Eranor and Rosewood looked on with concern, Tialla struggled to hide her own expression. “And this is only a prototype. We can link similar systems up to large populations, and the negative and positive reinforcement has proven to be effective in enforcing proper behavior. Furthermore, our rapid technological advancement requires such large populations to sustain its growth. We have both the means and the need.”
“Do you not have your own population of humans to pull from?” Tialla asked.
“The humans are not suited to that sort of work. They lack a certain affinity for magic. They are brutes so they serve us well as our military force. Even if they did have the affinity you beastkin have, they don’t have the population we require.”
“Your requirements seem rather costly,” Tialla commented angrily. “Perhaps you should work on your efficiency instead.”
“Tialla my dear queen,” Castor shook his head. “I’m sure you will learn this soon, as your own technology progresses. No cost is too great to fuel the progression of progress. Either you give your all to it, or your enemies will and get their first.” There was a silent pause as Tialla glared at Castor. “But you had another reason why we should not be allowed our expansion,” Castor offered Tialla to continue. “Please enlighten me.”
“The other reason,” Tialla said composing herself. “Is that you clearly don’t know how to control your slaves.” Castor laughed at this comment.
“I assure you queen we are quite capable of controlling any slaves we capture. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“You should be more worried than me,” Tialla sighed. “Your crucial mistake is that you are leading them through fear instead of respect.”
“Respect?” Castor chuckled. “That’s an interesting concept. I am interested in how you convince your salves to behave with respect.”
“It’s quite simple,” It was Tialla’s turn to smirk. “They chose to.”
“I’m sure they do,” Castor said in disbelief.
“We do in fact,” Rosewood spoke up still in a kneeling position.
“Nana couldn’t keep me this cute otherwise,” Eranor added.
“They clearly lack discipline,” Castor seemed offended to even be talked to by the two.
“They are perfectly disciplined. Eranor Beg!” Eranor struck a begging position. “Rose bark!” Rosewood gave a yelping bark. “Eranor, diaper check.” Eranor lifted her short skirt to show her diaper more than usual.
“I wetted my baby diapers,” Eranor answered proudly in a cutesy voice.
“They are very disciplined, as you can see. Because they respect me, and because I respect them, I let them have their own thoughts and opinions,” Tialla leaned back into her chair. “It’s on you that you offended them by calling them poorly behaved. I would speak up as well were I in their position.”
“It is quite interesting how much you value your slaves,” Castor said trying to regain the momentum.
“Why would I not value them? They are very valuable after all, and the more freedom I give them the more valuable they are. They respect that I value them, and in return they value me. I would take Eranor over a thousand of your version of Corinthus,” Castor huffed under his breathe. “And ultimately it will be your undoing. Fear will lead to resentment, and at the rates you described, the number of slaves will vastly outnumber their masters. Their revolt and your fall will be inevitable, and it will just be more war, more death, more destruction. It is my duty as a leader to prevent that.”
“We have a fundamental difference in philosophy,” Castor gripped the arm rest of his chair. “It’s just one way of thinking.”
“It’s the right way of thinking,” Tialla said quickly.
“I don't believe so.” Tialla stood up from her chair huffing in anger a bit. While keeping eye contact with Castor she removed a small dagger from one of the belts on her armor, a mostly decorative thing, but it would prove the point. She handed the weapon to Rosewood, and then grabbed her hand and positioned Rosewood’s hand and thus the dagger to be incredibly close her throat.
“Hold there Rose,” Tialla said in a calm anger. “I can do this Castor, because I trust Rosewood and she trusts me. Even with the dagger at my throat I know she will never harm me.” Rose was tense a little as she was struggling to not accidentally nick Tialla while she was talking. “Thank you Rose,” Tialla spoke more evenly. She held out her hand and rosewood deposited the dagger into it and resumed her sitting position. “Now Castor, would you like to repeat the trick with general Corinthus over there?” Tialla offered her dagger, and the captive Corinthus shuffled in anticipation. Suddenly her eyes were locked onto the dagger. Even with her mouth held open by her gag, she seemed to lick her lips. Castor grimaced, and his silence was the response to Tialla’s request. “I think my point is proven.” She tucked the dagger back into its place and sat back down in her chair. Castor gave an approving huffing noise.
“You are quite the woman queen Tialla.”
“I do my best.”
“I must admit you may have persuaded me to try your methods,” Castor leaned back in thought. “On a small sample size at least. We will have to give it some thought in the future.” Tialla’s expression soured as Castor has so easily brushed past her victory. “We have talked a bit about philosophy here, but I think it is time I moved to practical things. I am prepared to offer you and your people a deal.”
“A deal?” Tialla asked incredulously. “I’m quite curious what you are going to offer me.”
“It’s a simple deal. I’m offering a peace agreement with the elven empire. In exchange for removing your armies from the Miqo countries, and agreeing not to interfere with our conquest of the Miqo, we will in turn not expand our conquests to the Naga lands.”
“Your offer is to not invade my lands?” Tialla gave Castor a look. “I’m curious as to what makes you think you could to begin with.”
“Please queen Tialla, I’ve made no insinuations that we can,” Castor explained calmly. “It’s as you said earlier. War leads to death and destruction. We are confident that we have the resources to expand over the entirety of the Miqo lands and even to Biscotti. I don’t know that we can do this if you join forces with your fellow beastkin, and that doesn’t matter. Regardless of who wins conflict between our two races will cause a lot of destruction. I simply wish to avoid this destruction for both of our peoples.”
“Then maybe you just shouldn’t invade,” Tialla shot back.
“That’s out of my hands,” Castor raised his hands in conjunction with what he was saying. “The leaders of the Elven council all agree that space is running out, and our technological advancements needs cheap labor to facilitate. I’m a soldier following orders, and my orders are to take the Miqo lands as our own, but we don’t need to fight for that to happen.”
“I would say that our conflict is inevitable if you continue on this path. I’ve already made my stance clear.”
“You’ll have some time to think on that,” Castor leaned forward and grinned. “I’m making a trip to your neighbors in Tel Naga, and I plan to offer them the same agreement. Perhaps their answer will persuade your own.” Tialla grimaced at this revelation.
“What makes you think I’ll just give you and your army free reign to travel through our lands, just to further your own goals?” Tialla was aggressive.
“Stopping a diplomatic envoy from crossing borders is an act of war my queen,” Castor reminded smugly. “Perhaps you would like to hasten the downfall of negotiations, but I think you’re smarter than that.” Tialla grimaced as Castor stood up, grabbing the lead of his two slaves. “Since we have reached an impasse for the moment, you’ll forgive me if I wish to continue on my way while you ruminate over my offer.”
“You’re free to leave whenever you wish,” Tialla regained her composure and welcoming demeanor.
“Why thank you,” Castor gave a small bow. “We will be here a few hours more while we prepare our ships for departure.”
“Of course. You may take as long as you wish to prepare,” Tialla stood up as well grabbing the leads of her two slaves. “Please allow me to escort you back to your ship.” Eranor and her two slaves passed by Castor and his to take the lead as the group left the room. As they passed general Corinthus locked eyes with Eranor once again. The look between the two carried a whole conversation, as the two couldn’t converse normally and not just because Corinthus was gagged.
It was a conversation of apology and sympathy between the two of them. Both were in demeaning positions, though clearly Corinthus was worse off. Still Eranor was reminded that she was supposed to be the general’s leader, her inspiration in battle. She was surprised that Corinthus still kept that fire in her eyes even after being humiliated as a slave and seeing her princess paraded around like she was. Eranor was thankful that Castor was behind her. She didn’t want him to see her expression of disappointment in herself. Tialla had worked so hard for this moment, to have this air of confidence while Castor was here, and it would be wasteful to ruin that now at the end.
The group was met by a guard of Naga soldiers. “The general here will be moving on to Tel Naga. He is a diplomatic envoy and as such will enjoy unmolested access to travel through our country.,” Tialla spoke officially.
“We will relay the message to General Aldyn at once my queen,” one of the soldiers said with a salute before running off to do just that.
“Shall we escort you back to the airship landing?” another soldier asked. Tialla nodded and the group once again made a brisk pace to that direction. It was a short walk back, and Castor broke from the group to board his airship. The human soldiers that were with him began busying themselves with preparations.
“I expect you to help our guests with whatever they need,” Tialla commanded a soldier. “To help ensure their prompt departure. We would not want to keep King Trellis waiting.” Tialla’s words were cloaked in disdain. The soldier saluted all the same and would carry out the letter of the order. Tialla silently turned around and left, Eranor and Rosewood following behind at the length of their leads.
AUTHORS NOTE: Here's the next chapter everyone. This is like the big moment for these past few chapters. It's just a pretty tense conversation with General Castor with some sublt political play going on. I hope I did well. You can read the next chapter about the fallout of this right now over on my patreon patreon.com/bigred0603. Hope you all enjoy.
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