Mutual Gain?
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"Wow, I was so scared! If it wasn't for you, I would have been doomed to slave away for the Third Prince, Medea." Words flowed out of my lips like watered down honey, though they sounded sweet to my ears. Of course, I was pretending.
My Caster gave me a sardonic grin, one that read like she totally knew what I was doing. She didn't like this sort of mischievousness. "I was doing only what was necessary, Master."
Prince Nallorath regained his demeanor quickly, though the smile on his face was shaky at best. He looked like he couldn't believe I was such a bad liar, or maybe he just didn't like how shameless I was acting. "… I apologize, Lirath Windrunner. My lax attitude has resulted in my bodyguard's bad behavior. I will offer you restitution, please, come meet me at the table."
To be honest, I wasn't so petty that I wanted some chump change from the already impoverished brother of the king. On the other hand, I wanted to sell the image of a greedy child merchant, because such a depiction was just so easy to underestimate and dismiss as a threat. Still, I joined Nallorath at his war table and sat to his opposite. "You know, if it was the last time we met face to face, I would have been completely overwhelmed by Mage Brighthand."
"How could that be?" The prince shook his head. "You are a master of spatial magics not seen in anyone under the ranks of archmages, Apprentice Windrunner. If you did not wish it, there would have been no way for him to capture you."
"And yet you have such audacity, hm?" I raised an eyebrow at him and dismissed the platitudes. I smirked. "He is an experienced warrior-mage, while I am just… a scholar and a merchant."
"A miscalculation… and desperation has forced my hand. I am at fault, what more can I offer you?" The prince finally sagged into his seat, as if whatever purpose that had been propping him up had left him like a puppet whose strings were cut.
"More waters from the Sunwell. There is always a market for that." But in truth, I was keeping it for myself.
I did not have fascination for the Sunwell.
No, I had found a purpose for it… though perhaps I should have labeled it as a mere curiosity.
The Sunwell had been used once as a font of arcane energy, which created masterwork artifacts that could rival Felo'melorn, which was one of the few implements in the kingdom that could not just withstand the powers of the Amani Empire but suppress the troll voodoo entirely. One such example of its creations was the bow wielded by my ancestor, Thas'dorah, carved from the mother tree Thas'alah, dipped in the Sunwell, and honed by successive generations… currently wielded by Mommy.
Many great feats of power were stemmed from the Sunwell. Even the construction of Silvermoon City and the foundations of the kingdom were rooted in that font of power.
But what intrigued me was how it was such a font of arcane energy when after the Sunwell was destroyed and then reconstituted it become a font of light energy. More was at work than what was visible, because to my people, the worship that the Sunwell received was akin state religion and the veneration even the concept of the Sun received rivaled that of a deity.
Thus, it wasn't just a font of power. It received the worship and belief of a whole kingdom for thousands of years. Its light energy was derived from belief too. It couldn't have just been so easily twisted by the revival and corruption of undeath, its destruction at the hands of survivors, and its reconstitution. Something more must have influenced it, and I believed that to be the belief of Quel'Thalas.
Really, belief as a source of power wasn't a foreign concept in fantasy fiction. Acts of the Light in this universe were all derived from a sense of willpower or faith. It wasn't so strange that the Sunwell could have been accumulating such faith since its creation…
… I wanted something like that.
I didn't even need my own people to believe in me. There were so many worlds out there, and so many of them held this intangible power source known as faith.
It wasn't going to be easy however, because I didn't even know how to start. Unlike eromancy, I didn't have a basis to start from. I knew nothing about actually wielding the Light, and there weren't even any wielders of the Light in the kingdom at this time in history to begin with. In the end, it could only be considered a curiosity, both because I didn't know how to start and because I had no way to start even if I did.
But Nallorath didn't know that.
He wore a pained expression as he sighed, "It is no longer so simple, Lirath Windrunner. My brother the king has come to see some threat in my actions in the south, and so I was recalled back to the capital. Can you read between the lines and understand the problems I face?"
"You are saying that King Anasterian sees you, with less than a few hundred mercenaries, as a threat to his royal throne?" I frowned. "I find that hard to believe, but even if I did believe, how is that my problem?"
"Is my friendship worth so little to you?" Nallorath retorted.
"Who was it that spat in whose face first?" I growled, unwilling to put up with such shameless hypocrisy. Only I was allowed to be shameless!
The royal brother had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Perhaps I am not seen as a threat to the throne itself, but as he has just risen to power, he wishes to consolidate his authority. The royal house must be united against the Seven Families, in his eyes, and the only way for such unity is for everyone to be under his control."
I could understand that. It was the way of all politicians, whether they admitted it or not. Power was a tempting thing. "Even if it means the loss of border territories?"
"Even if it means losing half the kingdom," Nallorath nodded.
"I find that harder to believe." I crossed my arms.
"It is the truth," He shrugged.
"Whatever the case, I think you and I both know that I wouldn't wish to actually harm you. The most I can do is hurt your friend here… so why don't you calm down a little, Third Prince, so that we can talk business," I pointed out.
Prince Nallorath looked down at Aertin Brighthand, who was still kneeling with his crushed hand cradled in his lap as if it were an infant, before looking back at the map before him. "I have learned early in my campaign that information is the key to victory… only by knowing the forces of the enemies and their location could I hope to defeat overwhelming odds. Returning to Silvermoon City has dulled my senses, Lirath Windrunner. However, I see now that I should have put more effort into knowing you before acting. It is not unease with you that leaves me unsettled, but at my own complacency."
"What a flowery way to say that you underestimated me." I clapped my hands, acting the part of arrogance and as if I thought I had already held absolute leverage over the prince. Of course that wasn't reality, but whatever let him sleep better at night. I didn't need an extra enemy, and he was still too rich, too prideful, and too powerful to become subordinated.
He didn't deign to respond to that comment. Instead, he waved at the downed elf mage, "If it is all the same, Lirath Windrunner, let us speak of mutually beneficial business after my bodyguard can stand."
"There is a certain… decorum to that, isn't there?" I frowned while breaking his flow of thought. "Is it rude to leave him laying there, Medea?"
"No less ruder than laying hands on a guest," She answered coldly and stared into the prince's eyes.
Prince Nallorath shuddered and looked away from my Caster. His lips thinned as he turned his attention back to me. "Alright. Alright. Fine. What are your terms?"
I leaned back in my seat and studied the prince and made a list of pros and cons for aiding him, or for trading with him. Publicly doing so seemed to have far too many negatives—I wasn't willing to make an enemy of King Anasterian even if by coincidence. That was by far my main concern.
However, it wasn't my only concern.
The elven prince was eager and willing, but he wasn't very capable… compared to his brother.
But at the same time, he wasn't incapable. He was actually a competent enough mage in his own right. Moreover, I knew that in three hundred years from now, he would become best friends with a certain half-elf named Alodi… the first Guardian of Tirisfal, a title that came with the empowerment by a council of powerful mages for the purpose of defending the planet against demonic forces.
Fate wasn't set in stone, of course. Nothing was on rails already—the world was already off course. Yet… what if…? I couldn't dismiss even the concept of 'fate', because on the off chance that key events were protect by meddling time travelers…
… there were too many unknowns, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"I can help you keep that settlement with armaments. After all, you are only as influential as you are powerful. Your brother the king is respected because he is powerful, but he is not the total authority in the kingdom because he alone cannot defeat the empire of trolls." I reasoned with him slowly as I laid it down. "So if you cannot deal with the intrigues of nobility, then why shouldn't I seek a different partner or even set off on my own? Don't answer that. It was a rhetorical question. I want gains if you cannot meet my demand for coin or special materials."
"That is… acceptable. You cannot labor for nothing," The prince bit out.
I did my best not to sneer at him. "How much are you willing to give, Third Prince?"
That was the incorrect question to ask, as we had already entered the stage of bargaining. Asking for his maximum price would only lower my position and give him an opportunity to drive a better deal for himself. It revealed my lack of information. I knew it the moment I said it, and he knew it the moment he heard it. "An introduction to any influential individual of the kingdom? An official position under the Court of the Sun? A path to becoming a magister, perhaps the youngest in history? A betrothal to an elder noble lineage? I can offer you many things, Lirath Windrunner, even if I do not have the more material resources on hand."
And the worst thing is I couldn't just say that this wasn't what I wanted because that would reveal too much of my goals and capabilities. It was just too obvious. However… that was a trap. "You have such to offer me, Prince Nallorath. Then let me take half."
"Half?" He chuckled, a tension eased in his form. "You ask for much, but I suppose that is not beyond my capabilities. Which two do you wish for, Lirath Windrunner?"
"You misunderstand." I rose from my seat and stood before him. In that moment, I towered over him. "Half your kingdom, Prince Nallorath. Half. Half of all that you have gained and will gain, for as long as I support you."
"… Outrageous." He snarled after gaping up at me. "You had no intent to discuss with me, did you?"
"And you offered far too little. Now, let us meet in the middle." I suggested, "I heard that your House of Sunstrider has a girl in the Academy where I am now attending. Give her to me, and I will take… a little less."
"The land I have conquered are mine alone." He frowned as he thought it through, "I can give you the land west of Greenrush River. However, you… will have to build your own settlements."
It was laughable that he thought he could give me all of Lordaeron on his own. Yet on the other hand, who was to say that his offensives didn't push the trolls south and damaged the chances of humanity's survival in this world? I pointed down at his map. "Land that you have yet to conquer."
"All of my future conquests," He said softly.
"You cannot promise that if you lack the capability." I smiled down at him.
The prince gnashed his teeth together and he glared up at me. "Then what is it that I can even offer you, Lirath Windrunner? You seem to want everything, yet you deny everything. Is there no sating that greedy belly of yours?"
"Lyandra Sunstrider, acknowledgment of my ownership of all lands west of the Greenrush," I counted off with my fingers, "and a title of nobility equivalent to the official ranking of Talanas Windrunner."
"You ask for much," He hesitated. "But you offer little in return. It is not forever that I will not have aid in my southern ventures."
"Can you do it or not?" I asked.
"Perhaps." He nodded, "But so what? It cannot be just worth some armaments and food."
I poked the little model of the settlement he had built at the border—on the foundations of an alternate history's Stratholme. It was labeled Nallorathinum on the map. "A little wooden fort on the border cannot hold back the tides. So far away from the Sunwell, how can you build a real city? I can offer… a solution."
The look in his eyes told me that it was too tantalizing an offer. It looked as if that little settlement was already at the brink, and being forced far away from it pained him too much. Prince Nallorath offered his wrist, and I clasped it.
We shook on it.
"I can do this. I can accept such a deal. It will be difficult," He sighed, "Especially with Lyandra. But I can do it."
Just as I thought I had gotten the better deal, he thought it too. What a joke—Lyandra was practically abandoned by House Sunstrider. They wouldn't care who owned her chains because she was only just eligible for the name.
Lyandra Sunstrider was a distraction I offered him. And so the prince thought he was distracting me with a pretty little princess from the royal clan. He thought I was a little boy thinking with my peepee.
Because she didn't have any inheritance with the House of Sunstrider, she was not bound to it either…
… the true prize that he did not wish to offer me was the noble title.
It would free me from having to deal with so many messes.
And it required wrangling in bloody politics.
He offered me a smile, which I returned. At this level of power, there were no eternal friendships. There were only changing situations and evolving interests. Pity about the waters of the Sunwell though, I would have to use a different puppet to gain some more. But there were plenty of opportunities left.
.
I should have settled into my new student life and focused on learning the orthodoxy of arcane magic. That should have been the end of it. There were many opportunities for other gains in the future, of course.
However, I couldn't leave the Regia Solis alone.
The satellite kept me awake at night.
And not just because I wanted to make a spell that could destroy a city from orbit either.
No satellite could destroy a city with lasers using only the near-modern technologies available in the Resident Evil Universe. Something wasn't right about it, and I kept having dreams about it.
I just didn't know enough about the technology to make heads or tails of it—my engineering skill came from grinding shitty low-tier items and being taught by people better than me. So I had been fortunate enough that my gnomes already learned from the stolen plans of the Regia Solis and sorted through the technology base that I had acquired from that Earth via multiple levels of negotiations through Ada Wong.
When I teleported back to Windrunner Spire that evening after everything was settled in and neat, I found a little report on the Regia Solis on my desk. The gnomes, being who they were, didn't seem all that overwhelmed by what it was, but having one of my past lives being a normal modern citizen of Earth, I stared at the report for several minutes in silence.
The satellite wasn't a solar power transference device in orbit. That would have never allowed it to gain the powers that it had.
No, the center of the Regia Solis was a solar-powered stellarator. The true power source of the city-destroying satellite wasn't just simply the rays of the sun but the controlled nuclear fusion reactor supplemented by solar power.
I steepled my fingers together in a rather iconic pose that cast a shadow over my face.
Living in this kingdom for far too long, I had almost forgotten the idea of near-future technological arbitrage. It reminded me that there were possible technology that I had yet to loot from Medea's world too.
Yet with just this technology alone… I could see certain possibilities opened to me.
And another headache… Back to playing Real Life Factorio.
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Mar 14, 2021Report
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