Be Gone Ch 32 – Plots About Lines

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            I had said I wouldn’t be meeting with any daimyos not involved in this fighting. Since the Horse were, I had no problems meeting with them.

            I stepped off the Seal Focus Korbald had Energized and into the palatial tent that had been set up here.

            There were no guards or bodyguards visible. There were daimyos and their advisors, and that was it. The great army of cavalry outside had no clue what was going on within.

            Conversation stopped as I stepped off the Seal. The Teleportation magic of the Tigers was unrivaled in its accuracy and range, and the secrets of it were greatly desired by the Jade Empire. Alas, it was ‘foreign magic’, and they couldn’t use it even when they tried. Naturally enough, some of the clans had been trying to get a half-human child or two of their own raised precisely just to wield Valence magic on their behalf, with rather poor results.

            The energy with which the Tigers pursued and punished thieves of their children was apocalyptic, to say the least. The Snakes had actually had the temerity to kidnap one of Bronze’s children by a paramour Dark Elf, and his headlong charge into the lands of the House of the Snake, massacring every warrior he ran into, burning through several cities and more keeps and castles, and cursing the fertile lands behind him into blighted ruin, all the while Baneskulls to Elves leered ruby flames and reaped the lives of those sent to stop him, had truly made the Black Tiger’s name and reputation.

            Their best magic hadn’t been able to hide the whereabouts of the child, and only abrupt action kept the heart of the Snakes from being assaulted by terrifying high-Level humans with exactly as much of a sense of mercy as the Snakes themselves had.

            They’d found the babe abandoned in a cove of trees outside the Sixth Fang Keep. Bronze had taken his son, turned around, gone home with his friends and family, and the Snakes had not dared to say anything of the matter.

            They had attempted to assassinate him on several occasions thereafter. His rather indiscriminate butchery of various secret training schools for assassins had heaped more infamy upon his name, and upon the bloody Axes he bore. Also, four dead Viper daimyos could be laid at his feet. The famous Feast of Poisoned Serpents, where they had plied him with so many poisons every Snake at the feast had died by the next morning from the vapors of them he’d exuded back at them, was now legendary.

            It was an extremely exciting few years for the Snakes, with promotional opportunities the like of which had not been seen for generations!

            According to what I’d been told, the last attempt by the Snakes to take some revenge was fifteen years ago, when they’d sharply cut the supplies sent to the Great Wall, citing a poor harvest and the continuing blight left along the trail the Black Tiger had left behind a generation before, something they’d been unable to remove, only ameliorate to some extent.

            Several sections of the Great Wall had been abandoned in response, citing inability to maintain the forces normally assigned there, and large forces of Shadowlands raiders had poured over them, through mountain passes with remarkably clear trails, and deep into the western lands of the Snakes.

            The supply situation was urgently restored through some rather dastardly diplomatic maneuvering and prices via the House of the Crane; the flow of Shadowlands creatures was pinched off; and skilled Tigers had cleaned the things out of the mountains, while leaving the Snakes to deal with the things in their own territory.

            It had actually been a good thing, giving them experience fighting things that became much more common when the Obsidian Pit was opened only a few years later...

            I swept my eyes over everybody present, and paused.

            Silver magic snapped on my fingers. An Amulet on the chest of the Iron Tortoise, the merchant trading clan of the Bears, burst into flame as something popped in the air. The korobokru shouted as he tore it off his chest and onto the ground, staring at me in rage.

            Feature’s silver eyes could totally see the fear there, too.

            Before the Iron Bear himself could speak, I stepped forwards, Wrath burning on my hand.

            “An Amulet of Inescapable Location, tied to an extremely powerful Scrying device I have now Warded from here. This meeting, and those attending, have been leaked to someone already. Tell me, Tortoise, who did you give your loyalty to, in Truth?”

            The lies about to splutter off his tongue gagged and choked him.

            Korbald flickered and was suddenly behind the Tortoise Daimyo’s bodyguard. The korobokru was in the midst of drawing a thick, heavy shortsword when Korbald’s hands came down on each side of his head, and steel screamed in protest as shoulder-bones snapped.

            Then they clamped together on jaw and helm, and twisted sharply. The thick-necked koro’s face was suddenly looking over his own backside in astonishment, and then the light faded from his dark eyes.

            The Iron Bear stared at his vassal in astonishment and fury, and rounded on him as the ancient jadesteel tetsubo of his position snapped to his hand.

            “SPEAK!” Commanded Mother Bea, also in attendance.

            “The Gonghu!” the Tortoise daimyo blurted out, and his eyes widened in horror at the admission. His hand blurred for his throat, and he was startled when there was a solid clang.

            Korbald’s hands pulsed, and the searing crackle of an Energy Grasp lit up the korobokru merchant lord’s skull from within as the Great Tiger held him firmly. He quivered in the gauntleted hands of the human looming over him, and went limp, but was not allowed to fall.

            “Bea, Hosu-san, if you could get the preliminary questioning started,” Korbald said into the quiet.

            The Iron Bear’s advisor glanced at his lord, who nodded shortly. He grabbed the somewhat smaller and rounder Tortoise daimyo, and hauled him off to the side as the Mother Tiger moved to accompany him.

            Domination spells were very useful at resolving some delicate issues quickly.

            “An inauspicious beginning to this meeting. I am sure the fact that we are doing so will be spread among certain parties in the least advantageous way,” the ruler of the House of the Bear murmured.

            “We will see to it that your courtiers are contacted immediately, Ochotai-sama,” Korbald spoke up promptly, with a sidelong glance after Bea, “once we know who are not working for the Gonghu.”

            He received a nod in return. The communication magic of the Tigers was as valued as their ability to Teleport and deliver the messages in person.

            The brawny Ilkhan of the Horse waved his hand. “Well, we should be seated now, and get what we have to say with over.”

            The chairs were plain but serviceable; Horse on one side, Bear on the other, Tigers in between. Korbald sat next to Rapman, leaving Bea’s chair empty, and I sat to the left of Bea’s chair, next to the Asperaii Khan, Viamuk.

            “Advisor Rapman, what does the Tiger have to say to us?” Ochotai spoke up first.

            “The murmurings have begun to increase in the capital ever since the announcement of vivus and what it portends for those fighting on the wall. There are shifts happening in the Lion and Crane already, in addition to the Snakes. The Green and the Pangolin evince little care beyond its usefulness, although they are definitely interested in it.

            “The Ki-Rin are naturally demanding samples for their own use and study, but are otherwise unconcerned. The Imperials are of course suspicious, and looking for the darkness in the silver lining.” Rapman shook his head. “The big three all want to send forces to ‘help out’ with the reclamation of the Shadowlands.”

            There was no mistaking the undertones. The elves wanted some new lands for themselves. They’d been bound up in their own lands for centuries, making war and having other kinds of honorable fun with one another ever since, keeping their populations from growing too large... but their lands had to be heavily developed by now.

            Expand or die. Every species needed living space, and if the former lands of the korobokru were reclaimed, would they not be ideal? If they fought to secure those lands, who could deny them the right to claim and settle them?

            “The Packs are running about their borders with us again, making trouble and trying to ensure that we do not devote more troops to this fight,” the Ilkhan relayed as Rapman finished. “The Pride is complaining about bandits and talks of loyalty and duty to the empire, even as they test our restraint.

“The Snakes are ‘inspecting’ caravans bound for the Wall more closely than before, and are looking for smiths and smithwork carefully as they do. With no imperial status, Vivic Weapons can be treated as a dangerous good and impounded at will, and they are attempting to do so. There has also been a slight but noticeably delay in supplies being sent to the Wall.

“I imagine that they will make the excuse that since we are attacking the Shadowlands, and not defending the Wall and the Empire, that they can reduce the supplies they are sending accordingly, as we are clearly capable of supporting any attacking armies if we are choosing to do so.”

I had to shake my head to myself. It was a totally self-serving argument, of course. Attacking the invaders was naturally a proactive defense, but it would both curtail the scale of the Bears’ attack, sapping it of strength, and they could use the supplies for their own ‘helpful troops’ sent to the Wall.

Indeed, would not the ideal solution be for the elves to claim the new lands themselves, and leave the korobokru in their current dependent positions? If there was no Shadowlands to defend against, the Clans of the Bear could basically be driven into poverty in time, and could not the Lion drive the Horse further and further north, into the wastes and deserts there, in time, dealing with the harrying tribes who dwelled there for them, while removing them from the Empire entirely?

I’d Aural-scanned a lot of the elves, and the Blue was dominant among all of them. This kind of manipulative stuff was totally in line with what they would do.

“Is there any agreement with the Empire in the event Jigoku withdraws, and your Houses reclaim their ancestral lands?” Korbald asked calmly, clearly not happy with what was starting to form, but not in a position to do much about it.

The Iron Bear shook his head, and the Ilkhan followed in agreement after a moment. “The agreement was that as long as we continued to guard the borders of the Empire as determined at that time, the lands given us would be ours. There is no mention of terms for afterwards, in the event we actually won our war,” the Iron Bear said grimly, pounding on the table. “We watch their borders, we die for them, and when it comes time to reclaim our lands, they will attempt to keep us here while they take our lands for themselves!”

“It is just another game to them, my elders,” Rapman broke in soothingly. “You are avoiding the next obvious step. It is time to start negotiating for victory.”

“Negotiating? For our own ancestral lands?” Even the Ilkhan was irked at the idea.

“Your concerns are far greater than that, my lords, and yet, the elves are also bound by their own agreement. As long as you stand guard, they can do nothing, correct?” The blue-haired Minstrel looked back and forth between them inquiringly.

            “That is correct,” the Iron Bear nodded.

            “So, if your families, the farmers, the herders, the herds, the merchants, traders, and craftsmen all leave and take all their stuff with them, as long as you stand guard, those lands are still yours, correct?”

            “Yes...” the Ilkhan agreed this time, a sharp light in his eyes.

            I lifted a hand to intervene. “All these reinforcements they want to send you, send them to Howling Bear Pass. I will start moving my efforts south. When Jigoku musters its armies, I will make sure that is the direction they come in. Unless they come with their full strength, anything outside the Walls will be annihilated, and if they are on the Walls and not backed by the Bear, they will be shattered.”

            Korbald sent me an appreciative eye. “Stone cold, Ael.”

            “There are prices, and then there are prices. I imagine you can spin it as, ‘Ah, Jigoku has decided to stop playing games with us. See the horrors we had to face when we lost our empire!’ or somesuch. Because what is coming is going to be an attack like nothing you’ve experienced in the past.

            “The position they are defending will crack, will fall, and it will reach into the Empire. They are going to defend with everything they have, or they are going to fall as well.”

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