Dangerous Territory

JP with Winteroak and White_Caribou

Shalia carefully examined the scroll with a delicacy as if afraid one overly flexed finger would tear it to shreds. Her deep green eyes scanned it as Azigul spoke, imprinting the words on her mind as she took them in.

Between the Aghul and the Ozainae, it didn't feel like her words of warning against the foreigners were being taken as seriously as they could be. It took a handful of years to be convinced that Koshnem understood the threat, but she knew Helians better than anyone. And she no idea how to press on about persuading this Prophetess when her mind was very clearly made up. The natives of this land wouldn't ever truly understand until it was too late. Preparedness was essential.

She nearly felt helpless. Like a failure. But an alliance was secured, the treaty was written into paper, and that was what she came here for.

“I do hope this new vessel for your Prophetess makes haste. Though, if our alliance with Ostiarium were to catch fire before the Sand Horde is raised, would you be of any assistance to us then?”

The man smiled. "The will of the Twin Gods cannot be controlled." He said. "The Ozainae cannot offer military assistance until commanded so by Sister Locust. Although we have agents already working to undermine their efforts and their infrastructures." He paused.

"Koshnem decided to ally himself with these foreigners to our shores. If they turn on him before the Sand Horde is raised, the Odonine are on their own."

Shalia took a moment of quiet to herself and her eyes narrowed while staring at the emissary. Her voice held great intensity as she decided on her course of action, and it would be a mouthful.

“That’s it?” She paused. “We’ve come all this way only for you to tell me…that an alliance is basically useless? That we rely on waiting for an unspecified amount of time for it to be of any value at all? We aren’t wishing on stars here, we’re going to war.”

This was unacceptable. What the treaty meant to her is that if the new incarnation came to power at the exactly right time, assuming that Ostiarium would take a break from their expansion toward the mountains and raising tensions with the mountain folk, then and only then would the Sand Horde be of use. It was too specific for everything to go exactly according to plan, and Arcadia had her ways of thwarting those who plotted ahead and relied too heavily on chance.

Besides, maybe the Sand Horde weren’t the glorious and powerful army everyone chalked them up to be in the first place, perhaps no different to the other natives beyond their priests being magikal.
Maybe the next vessel would change her mind on raising them, too. Who really knew anything reliable about these people or their leader? Nothing Azigul said pleased or impressed her. They seemed rather passive, nonchalant to the severity of everything at hand, like it would all work out in the end by way of some divine intervention.

She quickly rolled the scroll up and set it down before he could reply.
“Your Prophetess has visions of the future and yet she still doesn’t understand the full extent of this threat, so let me lay it out a bit better for you both."

"Helias has the Empire of Salos. Very powerful and very wealthy folks whose forces will stop at nothing to get what they desire. That same empire is the one backing the expansion to new shores, meaning that any of your efforts to dismantle their infrastructure in Ostiarium quietly will bear no long-lasting fruits. They will always build back stronger and hit you twice as hard until you are an eradicated threat."

“Their course has been charted for years now, but there is still a fading opportunity for all of us to slow their progress, but to do that we need armies ready immediately for when the moment comes. Without opposition, the foreigners will rip through this world like wildfire and none of us will be able to put it out alone once it starts, which it has.”

“Brutal centuries of the Empire’s reign paint the history of my homeland in all shades of red. I know what we are up against firsthand and I implore your Prophetess to take this much more seriously, commune with your gods if that’s what it takes. These invaders know only blood and should be met with violence head on, but it seems the only kind of blood Sister Locust doesn’t mind seeing spilled is any other native’s that isn’t Ozainae.”

“If a world-ending prophecy has been seen, it is irresponsible for the leader who predicted it to say that it is not their place to fight the destruction, or even make an attempt to hold it back. When you tell me that a new vessel coming forth is a lengthy matter of time, I remind you that we do not have time in our corner. Her inaction hangs the fate of this land in the balance.

“The Odonine and Fang are the last true thresholds for the foreigners and if that boundary alliance is crossed--the one thing holding them back for now-- they will come for your desert next. And then the lands beyond it, and then when they’re done ravaging this place and pillaging your people for all they are worth, enslaving, converting, and then executing all of your priests as spectacle, they will move on in search of another continent to deform.”

Spittle flew from her lips and her blood felt like it was churning in her body. The air of the room had dropped dramatically in temperature and their breath fogged out into the air. There it was, that spite and poison she had gained as second-nature. If he didn’t get the picture by now, Shalia didn’t know what else to say without further escalating.

Her tone calmed slightly to cushion the words prior.

“The Prophetess in her current body might be old, but not useless. You still make choices until the day you die and she chooses to put this problem onto another and risks throwing the chances of everyone’s survival. No, we are not the Ozainae. We are not your desert folk. We have no obligation to each other. But we are all still natives and must stand together on this, not only plotting silently against the foreigners in the shadows, but fight wherever we see an opening. Together. With Ostiarium’s focus on conquering the Odsier now, our window is open wider than ever before.” Shalia paused for emphasis.

“Have I interested you in reconsidering with your leader, or are the Twin Gods still adamant on their waiting game?”

The last sentence was spoken more like a demand than a question, and yet she felt like she knew his answer regardless. Always the will of the gods, huh? Could no one act on their own accord these days while still being in contact with their deities? Was she really alone in that like everything else?