Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

"Anyway, if you agree to this, then this whole conflict could be avoided. We get to weasel out of our contract and the primordial would still be sealed at the end of the month, which means that part of the angelic contract will be fulfilled, at least. We no longer have any reason to fight you or support the invasion. Happy ending for everyone!"

"I know I’ve been quiet throughout this entire meeting, but surely you didn’t forget I’m standing right here, listening to you?" Quatach-Ichl asked her, raising his eyebrow at him. "This ending of yours certainly isn’t happy for me. And if I’m not happy, no one is going to be happy."

Silverlake clacked her tongue before giving Jornak a look of distaste.

"I told you we shouldn’t have invited him along," she told him loudly. "What good is he here, anyway?"

"Actually, that reminds me of something I’ve been wondering about for a while now," Zorian spoke up, butting in on their argument. "Namely, why is Quatach-Ichl going along with this?"

The ancient lich gave him a curious look. "What do you mean?"

"Shouldn’t you want for Jornak to make good on his threats?" Zorian asked him. "Why are you here, helping him bring about this truce? Why not purposely sabotage the talks and let Jornak damage Eldemar as much as possible. That’s what you’re here for, no?"

"Ha," Quatach-Ichl said. "No, not exactly. I’m trying to push the continent into something more favorable for Ulquaan Ibasa, not cause widespread chaos and uncertainty."

"Oh, right. I remember now. You’re trying to install Falkrinea as the local hegemon," Zorian said loudly, pretending he was just loudly thinking. He made a couple of random gestures with his hands, which he hoped would look completely incomprehensible to everyone except Quatach-Ichl. It was something he learned while traveling through Xlotic with Zach and Neolu, and should be completely opaque to anyone who has never been there. "Still, weakening Eldemar and the surrounding countries can only help you in that regard."

"You seem to know a fair deal about me," Quatach-Ichl noted, giving him a searching look. "We must have interacted pretty heavily in the past. Interesting, considering we seem to essentially be natural enemies. Anyway, I don’t think I agree with you on this. Let’s just leave it at that. Besides, why are you trying to convince me that I should start another continental war right now? Shouldn’t that be against your goals?"

"I was just curious," Zorian said, before falling silent.

Jornak and Silverlake gave them both suspicious looks, faintly aware that something more had been said between the lines of that conversation, before shrugging it off and continuing with the negotiation.

The meeting lasted for another hour, most of which was spent of making vague (and not-so-vague) threats towards one another, but eventually they reached an agreement of sorts.

There would be a truce. How long it would last, Zorian wasn’t sure. He would be first to admit that he intended to dishonor it the moment he saw a good chance to do so. He was sure Jornak and Silverlake felt the same way. For the moment, though, open conflict between the two groups was put on hold.

After everyone left, the roof of the academy building remained dark and silent for a while before two people teleported on top again.

One was Zorian.

And the other was Quatach-Ichl.

"So," the ancient lich began. "What exactly did you invite me here for, Mister Kazinski?"

"I’m going to try and talk you into giving up on this invasion," Zorian told him bluntly.

Quatach-Ichl raised his eyebrow at him. "Continue," he told him calmly.

"Correct me if I’m wrong," Zorian began, "but your current thoughts are that if the primordial is released and lays waste to out surroundings, the angels are eventually going to stop it before it can do too much damage. After all, you have seen the might of the angels personally, and you are certain they can do it. So unsealing Panaxeth would destroy Cyoria and deal a lot of damage to Eldemar, but it would have no real effect on Ulquaan Ibasa or even the Altazian continent as a whole…"

The ancient lich stared at him silently for a second.

"I’ll repeat what I said earlier… you seem to know a fair deal about me. Curious. Very curious. I wonder just how much help you got out of my… other self. But that’s a topic for later. Yes, that is pretty much how I see the situation. Am I wrong?"

"You are wrong, yes," Zorian said. "I have summoned an angel and spoke with him. It. Whatever it was."

He took out the cube out of his pocket and showed it to the lich. He hadn’t had a chance to study the cube yet and deciphered it uses, but he hoped that Quatach-Ichl, being experienced as he was, would be able to recognize it as an angelic artifact anyway.

Quatach-Ichl leaned forward, silently studying the cube in Zorian’s hands. He did not ask to hold it (not that Zorian would have given it to him), but eventually he leaned back and took a deep breath.

"It must have been a pretty high-ranking angel you spoke with," Quatach-Ichl said, sounding honestly a little impressed. "Then again, considering what kind of situation you are involved in, I supposed it’s to be expected."

"The angel told me about the contingencies that Silverlake had spoken about earlier. They aren’t just some simple local effect, like a divine warding field or a stored spell," Zorian said, putting the cube back into his pocket. "They are security measures woven into the core of the world… and triggering them could have effects that would be global in scale. I’m not sure how far-reaching the effects would be, but there is absolutely no guarantee that Ulquaan Ibasa would not be affected."

Quatach-Ichl frowned at him slightly, not saying anything.

"Just as importantly," continued Zorian, "if the primordial is released into the world, the angels will be given free rein to descend into the material world and intervene directly to stop the primordial. At that point, they also intend to get rid of all the loose ends wandering around. Like a bunch of people that escape from the time loop into the real world or that one annoying lich that made the whole thing possible to begin with…"

"I see," Quatach-Ichl said calmly. "You’re saying the angels will go after me if I help release the primordial."

"Yes," Zorian confirmed.

The lich stared at him intensely, as if trying to look into his soul to see if he was telling the truth. Zorian’s posture remained relaxed and his eyes stared right back at the undead mage in front of him. He was too old and experienced to be unnerved by something as simple as that.

"I think you’re exaggerating things," Quatach-Ichl finally said, looking away from him for a moment and thoughtfully tapping his finger against his leg. "Yes, there is certainly a danger of that happening, but angels are laboring under many restrictions. In any case, if I were that skittish about taking chances, I would not be where I am right now. A big part of why being a lich is so great is that you can take crazy risks without dying for good."

Zorian frowned. Truthfully, he did not really think he could convince Quatach-Ichl to just give up on the invasion and go home… but he didn’t expect the lich to dismiss the threat of angels so readily. Then again, he was right about liches like him being uniquely suited for taking risks. They had their own personal resurrection point. It was almost like being a time looper, in a way.

Oh well. It was worth a try.

"Don’t say I didn’t warn you," Zorian said, shaking his head. He turned to leave.

"You intend to evacuate your loved ones to Koth, at the Taramatula Estate, right?" Quatach-Ichl suddenly asked him.