Her incantation song must've finished because he could feel the faint working of her spell as it kicked into action. Gradually, a yellow and transparent wall rose between them and the outside world. The sounds of the street his sensitive ears had been picking up muted completely.
"Now, we begin." The man at the head of the table said. "We are here today because both the humans of the Halicon group and The shapeshifters of the Everglade pack want the land that stretches hundreds of miles from Vhadland city all the way to the Everglade mountains, is this right?" He asked and every one nodded
"This intercessory meeting was called because neither part wants to back and the Vhadland enclave just wants to relinquish the property, is this correct as well?" He asked again and theVhadland enclave nodded.
"Good. Now, to proceed. Both parties will give their arguments on why they should be the ones to get the land and my enclave as third parties will analyze this information and give verdict which the Vhadland can still choose to decline is this alright with everyone?"
"Yes," was chorused by and then he looked to the humans.
"The floor is yours."
The human lawyer cleared his throat and nodded at the assistant standing beside him, the smartly dressed young woman carried a stack of papers lying beside her boss and began to share them around. If one looked in on the scene with normal eyes it would look like any other conference meeting.
But if one looked in with eyes like his they would the sweat rolling down her temples. The way her hands shook when she gave the papers out to them. How her eyes darted around and kept looking to where she'd been standing behind the other humans. He made no attempt to hide his smirk, at least until Eva sent him a mental nudge at which point he looked away when the girl reached where he was.
She returned to her former position and though she tried to be subtle, she could not hide her little sigh of relief from the predators in the room.
"If you will please look through the first page, you will see where we have carefully specified the projected benefits of the rig to several groups including yours," he said looking at theVhadland enclaves who were all paying attention to the paper.
"The rig will provide energy for the cars and systems for a very large number of people, cut the strain to the current providers and get to more people in the Headlands. We- "
"-I don't see the projected revenue here." Talan pointed out and everyone turned to him, Mallon noticed that he had worn the glasses he put on around humans to seem…tame? Was that the word?
The human lawyer flushed at being interrupted. "W-what?"
"I said…" Talan leaned closer, although the man sat closer to the other head of the table opposite from them. "That I do not see any graph for the projected earnings you stand to make. You have been harping on about the benefits to the communities, what of the benefits to you?"
The man looked down at the paper in his hands, sweating profusely, willing the information he hadn't put it to be there.
"Mr. Talan, please let the human finish his presentation. For this, the human too has right to cut into your presentation once." The Savakis head said and Talan raised his hands and leaned back to signify he was backing off.
The human cleared his throat, "We have also made alliances with several eco companies to start a projected dedicated to mitigating and hopefully negative the negative ecological effects our project might have on the current work at hand."
He turned another page and everyone did same. Mallon noticed that was the contract they intended to sign with the Cede.
"This is exactly what will be included in the contract if theVhadland go with us, we are promising a fifteen percent revenue cut of all the proceeds from this project. By our projections that is quite a sum of money and that will be in addition to the two hundred million with which we are buying this land." The human now turned to address the Vhadland. "This deal will make you and yours extremely wealthy, this is not a deal you can afford pass on. We have already been leasing sections of it from you these past few months and you we mean you no harm, and are prepared to make any concessions that will make us all happy. This is the end of our argument." He finished with a nod to everyone before taking his seat again.
Mallon looked to the Vhadland vampires, their leaders was a svelte female with whit blonde hair that fell pin straight and shimmered like water, something vampire hair did in the light. She had dark brown skin that gleaned like golden stardust. She did not make any move and neither did her people, he didn't doubt that they were having mind speak between themselves.
~the humans were smart not to add the projected earnings~ Tolan said as the human conferred among themselves.
~yes, but they do not know we are not greedy about money as they are, money is a means to an end. But for them, it is everything. Listen how his heart beats, not just in fear but anticipation. At the money they stand to make from this.~Mallon replied.
~Too bad, let's hope they did not invest too much money in this.~ Eva added and he could just feel the smirk.
Finally, the Head of the Sevalis banged his gavel. "Thank you for your argument, now to you Everglade, please tell us your reason why you should own this land."
Tolan stood up and adjusted his suit.
"The Everglade corporation, has no intention of building any land polluting structure on the land in question. We intend to hold it as a wild life preserve where the everglade pack and all it's constituents are free to roam and hunt."
The human lawyer raised a hand shakily. "You may ask your question; you are after all entitled to one interruption." The Sevalis head said and the lawyer swallowed.
~We have barely even begun, idiot.~ Eva said and Mallon scoffed.
"The everglade pack is the largest on this continent is it not? Why do you need such substantial land?"
"I was getting to that sir, if you hadn't interrupted you would have known the reason. That swathe of land lies at a point that makes it share the border of more than a dozen of the packs in our territory. It is a security risk we have been trying to solve for a very long time. The Vhadland enclave has refused to sell it to us for decades and we did not dispute this because they are honorable neighbors. And we trust them as far as any different species trusts the next. But we do not know you, or any other party that might express interest, that is why we want this land."