94 A Fruitful Partnership

Looking over Lia and I, Aurelia asks, "Who wants to start?"

After a brief moment of silence, I decide to start, "I will, I was wonderin--"

But before I can ask anything I get cut off by Aurelia, "Since neither of you will ask then I shall pose the first question. What is the aim of the Central Alliance of Talonia here in my Empire?"

Catching us off guard with her question, we don't give an answer right away. But despite it being somewhat pointless to avoid the topic when Aurelia's abilities are taken into consideration, Lia still tries to manoeuvre around it.

"Your Majesty, just what do you mean by that?"

"You needn't play dumb, know who you are, Lia Straellum, the right hand of the Alliance's Khatun. While I'm not entirely up to date on the current affairs of a country as far away as yours is, I am familiar with the key personnel. So I don't believe someone of your stature is here for no reason. Of course, I can find out with ease, but I'd rather hear it from your mouth."

With a heavy sigh, Lia begins to talk, "our goal is simply weapons. The new weapons called guns that the Empire has been developing."

"I see, well I already knew that was the case, but it's nice to hear things with my ears every so often. Now as for Cordelia, when sitting before me you can't escape the sight of the Eithgar's All-Seeing Eyes. Why don't I tell you about an old legend? There's this old tale in Lausiel that tells of a battle with a giant feathered serpent that eats the Elements. The legends say it was slain by a warrior who could see the truth behind all things and after spending days bathing in the blood of the monster, the warrior took on a portion of the feather serpents power for himself. And this power has been passed down through his bloodline since. Does this happen to remind you of anything?"

Well shit, she already knows that I'm not really a Dragonoid, doesn't she? But thinking back to when the assassination attempt took place, what Aurelia did was reminiscent of when I eat the various Elements. And while I'm sure many points in that legend have been exaggerated over time, as the saying goes, 'where there's smoke, there's fire'.

"Your ancestor is the warrior who killed one of my kind. Does that mean all members of the Imperial family has inherited his power?"

"Not even trying to hide the fact that your a Dragon, and a Spirit Dragon at that, not that you could have anyways. But as far as your answer goes, you're only half right. I am the only member of Lausiels Imperial family to have inherited this power as the warrior isn't the ancestor of the Imperial Line, but rather, my ancestor from my mother's side. Now then, you're wondering why I'm telling you all this. The main reason is that I want to gain your trust to make a deal for some assistance in a certain matter. But there is another reason, with my All-Seeing Eyes, I can tell we have a shared animosity with someone, although yours is personal while mine is ancestral."

Hearing how she wants to make a deal in a semi-official capacity, Lia switches gears and asks, "What is it you want our assistance with, and what will be our payment."

"What I want is simple, I need your help in solidifying my position as the Imperatrix of Lausiel."

"You already seem rather well-liked by the common citizens. Your guards seem trustworthy. And from the few interactions we've seen so far, at least on the surface the nobility doesn't dislike you."

"Just as you put it, on the surface that is what it seems, but underneath it isn't all true. While it is true I have much support from the common citizens and many merchants, the nobility is quite two-faced and the military isn't something I have under complete control. Even my own personal guard has a couple of spies hidden amongst them."

"Can you elaborate?" Lia asks.

"While there is certainly some noble families that support my position, most are low ranking. I don't have much support from much of the high nobility, even if they might claim to support me on the surface, no falsehood is capable of escaping my eyes. As for the military, it's practically under the complete control of my Uncle, whom many of the nobles secretly believe should reign as Imperator. Although, it is partially my fault since very few people are actually aware of my abilities and most see me as nothing more than a talented artist, which I am."

Nodding her head, Lia says, "I understand your problems now, but what exactly is it you want from us specifically?"

"You won't need to do much in regards to the nobility, they mostly want to see their possessions safe and prevent any invasions upon their territory. Both of these stem from their assumption over my lack of military knowledge and level of statecraft. If I say so myself, my talent for statecraft isn't any worse then my Uncle's or even my Grandfather's, so this problem will be resolved in due time. What I mostly need your help in is military affairs. More specifically I want your help in wresting control of the military from my Uncle's grasp. Ordinally the military should have been under my Grandfather's command, but he gave it to my Father to help secure his position, but with his death, it was passed on to my Uncles since I was too young at the time. And then with my Grandfather's death despite command nominally being returned to me, the seeds my Uncle sowed have taken root, and few would truly listen to my words. After all, in their eyes, I am but a dainty woman whose talent lay in art not combat, even if reality is that I am quite skilled in both. To assist in this, I basically want you to do a couple of things, you can try just killing my Uncle and most things will probably fall into my lap since his successor, my cousin, is not suited for running a country, the man's head is full of flowers and he goes skirt-chasing all day long. Alternatively, we wait until my Uncle starts a coup and put down the rebellion with your strength. Unless it's something major like those, I'm afraid there is little that can be done at this point, building up connections seem to be my Uncle's strong point after all."

"Ok, I have a good understanding of the situation, your goals, and what you want from us. But can you give us in return?"

"I'll tell you in a moment but first," Aurelia says, getting up to open the door only to find that one of her guards was about to knock on it.

Although he was surprised momentarily, he asks, "your Majesty, the waiter wishes to know what it is you three would like to order."

"We will have what the chef recommends for the night."

"Very well, your Majesty, I will inform them."

Closing the door and returning to her seat, Aurelia says, "Know where were we, ah yes, your payment. There is a visit to the factories you wanted to see. I assume this is to swipe the weapons. This will still take place, but in addition, I will supply the Alliance with a steady income of the latest weapons we develop, although to fully accomplish this you will need to succeed on your end of the bargain since research and development on the guns is carried out by a military division under the control of my Uncle. I will have a non-aggression pact drafted for the Empire of Lausiel and the Central Alliance of Talonia. And I will personally pay 100 platinum coins. I did mention this earlier, but we have a shared animosity with someone, Cordelia, although the basis of it is different. After all the internal problems have been settled, I will do what I can to assist you in fighting against Akkre."

"The terms you put out are nice indeed and I am inclined to agree. But what do you think, Cory?"

It's fine, isn't it? More importantly, I want to hear more about this shared animosity you've been talking about. I've got some problems with a lot of people after all."

"The Eithgar are Spirits, that is to say, they are beings of the Spirit world. More specifically they are a type of Demon from Artikkuus, the largest continent of Spirit World. That was the Eithgar's home a long time ago. The Eithgar Kingdom was the only sedentary civilisation amongst the other inhabitants of southern Artikkuus who were all nomadic at the time. For a while, things were stable as the nomadic Demon tribes would compete against each other, but before long a force came in to unify the Nomadic Demons of Artikkuus, Sesna Kojuuin the matriarch of the Infinity Wolves, founder of the Great Demon Empire."

"Kojuuin... that name sounds familiar."

"As it should, it's the surname of the Demon-God that created Grauntia, the one who sent you here and forced my ancestors to this land. Sesna was also his mother, although she has was originally the one who displaced my ancient ancestors, a true grudge was never held against her. After a while of migrating around the Spirit World, the Eithgar settled somewhere in what is now called the mundane realm, or I suppose you would call it, the universe. But this settlement was short lived as a civilisation that was supported by Akkre took over the planet the Eithgar settled, forcing them to flee once again. Similar things happened over and over and over again, to the point that a grudge has been ingrained into the bloodline of the Eithgar against Akkre."

"So that's what you meant by an ancestral animosity, but can you tell me a little more about the Eithgar? Why would he constantly go after your ancestors like that?" I ask.

"The Eithgar are Demons, a type of Spirit that uses the life-force of others as sustenance and/or to gain power. The term Spirit is an overarching term for a species from Spirit World, similar to how Celestial refers to a being of Celestia, which include both angles and gods. Spirit World is home to far more than just Demons, at least from what I was told from my Mother anyway. As for the Eithgar, through absorbing the souls of others we can obtain a small portion of their original abilities and pass it down to our descendants. The Eithgar's other defining trait is the All-Seeing Eyes we posses. Through our eyes, we can visibly see when someone is lying and find things that are normally hidden. It was this power that allowed me to discover your animosity towards Akkre. Although, we can't seem to see through Primordial Gods like Akkre. As for me personally, while it the Eithgar blood in me has dwindled to the point where my status says I'm human to most people, I still feel the effects of my ancient bloodline and receive the power of my ancestors, one of which is to prevent my status from being viewed by most people. Only those who originate from outside the System or those with special inspection skills can see my status, and you Cordelia fit both criteria."

Before we can give our answer to whether or not we make the deal with Aurelia, we hear someone knock on the door, and the guards bring in our dinner. Setting the dishes out on the table they make a small bow and leave the room.

Waiting a few moments after the guards leave, Aurelia sighs and says, "our meal has been poisoned, what a waste of good food. See what I have to put up with. so what do you say? Do you agree to my terms?"

Taking the lead, Lia says, "the payment you laid out is very favourable for us," while I take over saying, "and I would welcome anyone who has a grudge against that annoying God."

Standing up and extending her hands towards us, Aurelia says, "I look forward to a fruitful partnership."

~~~Meanwhile at a hotel on Earth (Akkre)~~~

"So that's what they think of me... oops."

"What's wrong, Dear?" Tsuki asks.

"I was eavesdropping in on our little friend in Grauntia and they came across a descendant of the Eithgar."

"Eithgar... oh, you mean those unfortunate Demons that were always in the wrong spot at the wrong time?"

"Yeah, them. The Eithgar seem to think I purposely went after and destroyed the civilisation several times over and that I forcibly moved their race to Grauntia. They seem to have held such a strong grudge that it's been passed through their bloodline. Do you think it's too late to tell them it was a coincidence and that I was just trying to be nice by giving them a home in Grauntia?"

"At this point, they probably won't believe you."

"Damn... oh well, I'll just leave it be then. Maybe I'll play the role of an evil oppressor next time I run into one."