AR Chapter 516 (Patreon)

Yesterday's chapter.

“Hello, esteemed clan heads and clan representatives,” I said. “I appreciate being given this opportunity to speak to you all as a whole. I recognize that there’s some disagreement regarding my being welcome here.”

I deliberately let silence slowly appear in response to my initial words. True to what I’d expected, Inuksuza, as the leader of the claw faction who opposed my presence, didn’t hesitate to refute my words.

“You’re not welcome! Not only are you not one of the chosen, you also are the destined prey as commanded by the Great Hunter! Beyond that, you’ve murdered hundreds of our people! Why would we begin to give you any sort of a welcome at our most sacred gatherings?”

“I’ll remind you of what happened to the last one of your people who decided that my people were only prey to sharpen your claws on,” I replied. Angry shouts started to go up at that, but I clicked my tongue in my mouth as I drew on a thread of magic from my sonilphon. The sound exploded from my mouth, echoing loudly in the inverted pyramid we stood in, and everybody went silent, if not deaf, at my forestalling of their complaints.

“I began my address to you politely,” I growled. “However, do not mistake my small attempt to respect your customs as any sort of subservience to you. Your Nyust’Taa is, to my knowledge, the agreed-upon leader of the entirety of the principality of the Misty Hawar. The previous Nyust’Taa was Kusi’Wi and, with either reluctant or enthusiastic agreement from all of you, led an army of hundreds of your hunters to my doorstep. Then, with the support of your god, hundreds more of the shadow wyrms came along with something only known by the name of the spawn of Illan’Klli. With all of your agreement, the Misti Hawar led an attempted extermination of my people straight to our door.”

Again, I let my voice echo through the amphitheater, but this time, I didn’t wait long enough for anybody to interrupt. “With the blessing of your clan heads, your Nyust’Taa, and your god, you attempted to murder every one of my people. You shattered eggs, you murdered children. There was nothing which you thought merited pity or mercy.

“In exchange, we killed or captured everything that was sent to us. Every representative of Illan’Klli was slaughtered, your soldiers were eaten or imprisoned, their bravery broken like their fangs upon our scales. Any survivor who has returned to you is, no doubt, desperately whispering in the ears of any who would listen that the best option available to you as an entire country is to surrender and pray that I will offer you mercy which you never presented to us.”

“You dare to enter our conclave and make demands? Are you so foolish as to—”

“Interrupt me again at your peril, clan head Inuksuza,” I cut the male off. I stepped forward towards him, flaring every one of my Skills that weren’t liable to kill the idiot where he stood and trembled. “I am simply presenting to you the facts of why I have come here and what my expectations are regarding you and your people moving forward.”

“You say that you are merely stating your expectations,” another male voice said, not cutting me off, but stepping into the brief quiet that had descended over the conclave. All of the Misty Hawar had speckled fur, their feline faces covered in a pattern of fur that would break up their outlines against stony and snowy cliffs. This male, however, had almost no color on his muzzle, all the way up to his eyes. Everything was gray, and several small scars patterned his face. An experienced warrior, then.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “If you don’t want me here, that’s acceptable to me. However, I need to know that every one of the clan heads has heard what my conditions for surrender are. I do not think of them as too onerous, because I don’t think that surrendering to us is a death sentence for all of you. However, in the interest of transparency, a part of me hopes that you all turn down my expectations for your surrender.”

The male continued to lock gazes with me, and I could tell that he knew exactly what I was getting at. Even so, he waited for me to say it. Something in the way his ears flicked seemed like he was indicating for me to continue.

“My people are civilized. Civilized enough to offer terms of surrender to people who never thought ourselves worthy of such a thing. We need to be this civilized as we establish ourselves, so that every nation across the world doesn’t collapse in on us in an effort to destroy everything that we are. As such, you receive terms for surrender.

“If you refuse to abide by them, my armies will descend on your ranges and will snuff out every life we find. Just as your Nyust’Taa showed no consideration for the gravid, the egg, or the hatchling, I will show no mercy to the mothers, fathers, children, infants, old, sickly, warrior, male, female, or any other Misti Hawar that we find. We will sweep over you like a wave of death, and we will not stop until there is not a single one of your egg-smashing brethren to be found.”

Again, silence descended over the amphitheater, though this time there were no grumblings of anger. Instead, only an appropriate fear had consumed everybody who sat before my address, until the grizzled clan leader spoke again.

“That is quite a threat you make against us,” he said, the tone conversational.

“It’s the same threat you  made against my people. However, I show a greater kindness than you did. I make this promise in the light of day, and with an option for what you can do to avoid such a fate befalling your children and grandchildren,” I replied, my tail flicking. “I give you the options. Just know that, as those who started the war, as well as lost it, there will be precious little room for you to negotiate with me. After all, these negotiations are not truly for you, but for me. If I cannot be sure that the Misti Hawar will not attempt to spill my children’s blood across the ground in some misguided thought of superiority, there will be no more Misti Hawar alive to attempt to do so.”

For a heavy ten seconds, silence settled over the amphitheater. I had hardly raised my voice through the address; I hadn’t felt it necessary. My magic and my Skills kept my voice from being drowned out by the wind or disagreement. Then, finally, the grizzled male looked at me, one long, retractable claw coming out of his finger as he scratched at his chin.

“What were your proposed details of surrender?”