Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"I expected that I would see you soon, but not like this," Josar said while he was on his seat on the council.

Just like the first time, Rain was standing in the middle of the council hall while being stared at by the tribe leaders… it almost seemed like he didn't help them more than a little bit over the years. All that changed because of the guest that he brought with him.

"I suppose so, anyways, this is Seadir. He has come here with me on behalf of the sea folk," Rain ignored the atmosphere and went straight to the point. "I am working with them now to destroy the human army. Some important people among them were captured, so they want to enact their justice and end this case forever."

"We want the same time," Josar said. "I thought that you knew that."

"I knew, but I also knew that we would need more to get rid of Josar, and I also want some particular outcomes in this war, and they agreed with them," Rain explained.

"Such as?" Josar asked.

"The king, his wife, and his son would be spared, and they would become our prisoners. All the fighting is supposed to stop as soon as the humans surrender, and finally, Joanis and his underlings are to be dealt with by the sea folk," Rain explained. "We came here to inform you of that and because we would be fighting in your territory.

Also, to avoid giving the targets the chance to escape, we altered the terrain of your country. Around ten percent of it was annexed to the human country. I am here to negotiate about the steps of our groups in the next few days."

"How dare you! You stole our lands just when we were thinking that we shouldn't treat you like an enemy! You humans are all dirty cowards."

"You guys lost those lands for the king and Joanis, so we stole from them, not from you," Rain said. "We never said that we wouldn't return them eventually, but considering your words, I don't think that we will. Considering your words, I would have to offer a limb to prove that I am not your enemy, and I am not willing to go that far.

Besides, all this happened because you started the war, so this is the ultimate result of your actions."

"You are just an insolent kid! Do you think that you can rival the might of our people?"

"Maybe not. You can try to kill me once this is all over," Rain shrugged. "You guys brainwashed my father and made him lose a leg, and I will never see you as true allies unless you all have to experience the same things."

Some of the tribe leaders kept saying a bunch of nonsense, but Rain just kept enraging them with his responses. He could see the aura of the women who brainwashed his father there, so he probably said a bit too much, but it was all true, and he was tired of playing nice with those who tried to kill him a bunch of times.

"Enough…" Josar raised his voice, and everyone shut up. "We all have a history of animosity, but that isn't important for now… Did you come here to seek assistance?"

"No, we just came to inform you that we are going to defeat the human army, and those were our conditions," Rain said. "You have our word that we will leave as soon as the battle is over and our goals are reached. With that in mind, and you agree with those terms, you can attack the other side of their camp… as long as you keep your soldiers under total control.

If they don't follow the conditions, they will die on the spot."

"... Do you swear on your people that you are truly following those terms?" Josar said while studying Seadir.

"Yes, I swear," Seadir said and then nodded.

Josar knew the name of the sea emperor and that his kids had sea in their names, and yet Rain and Seadir didn't mention the sea emperor. Josar assumed that they didn't want to pressure him to accept their terms or that they wanted to surprise him with their presence.

They also didn't mention their forces, and they probably won't until Josar and the others accept their terms… if they don't follow them, some of his soldiers will die, and in the worst case scenario, they will have to fight Rain and and the sea folk.

"We need to discuss this before deciding anything," Josar said.

"We don't have time to waste," Rain declared.

"One hour will be enough," Josar added.

That was surprisingly fast decision-making speed for a group that needed a lot of time to decide things, but they all knew that time was of the essence. In the end, Rain nodded, and then he left with Seadir while thinking that he should have learned some spell to spy on the conversations of others beyond walls.

"Your friends alerted me that your negotiation skills are truly bad, but I didn't expect that you would tell them all that," Seadir said.

"It is better to make those things clear to avoid problems in lack of trust in the future," Rain said. "There is no point in hiding my thoughts when all that I said is true, and thanks to it, they know that I am not stupid enough to hide them. Thanks to all this, they know what our goal truly is. We have no use for their territory."

Esmeralda and Branden will have too much work in their hands to make the country recover, so too much land would only be a burden. The sea folk already had a large territory… to the point that they never noticed what was happening with the kidnappings. At the same time, they don't know where the human ships are. It was only logical that another war for land would be a waste of time…