For once, Elijah scarcely noticed the décor. He’d seen it all before, and he was more focused on his upcoming meeting. Empress Siala was the unquestioned leader of the illythiri, and at her word, everything could go wrong. He wasn’t worried about impressing her, but rather, he just wanted to avoid saying something insulting.

His track record wasn’t the best, after all.

At least he had Sadie with him. If all else failed, he could just let her take the lead. She had plenty of experience with diplomacy, even if much of it came from corporate mergers and business deals rather than negotiations concerning the fates of whole nations.

She had adjusted to the difference quite well, as evidenced by her sure stride and the steady beat of her heart. She didn’t even seem nervous.

And she probably should have been, given that Siala could order her death at any moment. Any attempt to fill that order was destined to fail, but that didn’t really matter. There was reason for a little anxiety.

In any case, Elijah and Sadie followed the attendant, who wore a white robe trimmed in purple, through the palace halls until they finally reached a pair of double doors. They were emblazoned with a webbed pattern and a depiction of the illythiri goddess, a giant spider at the center of her web.

In some ways, it was a grim reminder of the guardian who’d died only a few weeks before, though where the guardian had felt comfortably natural, the carving of the spider deity elicited a twinge of undeniable discomfort. Elijah had the sudden urge to smash it into splinters.

But he restrained the impulse. He didn’t think the meeting with Siala would go very well if he started destroying depictions of their deity. He still wanted to, though. So, so very much.

The doors swung open before they even reached them, so the attendant wasn’t forced to break stride. After Elijah and Sadie entered, they closed of their own accord, sealing with a burst of ethera and an audible hiss.

Elijah was just about to extend his Mantle of Authority when a soft but commanding voice implored, “Please do not be alarmed. Certain precautions must be taken. The enchantment only provides privacy. It is otherwise harmless.”

That was when Elijah first laid eyes on the empress. Like all elves, she was beautiful, though in that exotic, untouchable way that emphasized her sharp features and alien nature. Her skin was the color of a grape, dark and deep purple, while her straight hair remained stark white.

Her irises were like amethysts, though.

Rather than being a source of attraction, her appearance was a warning of just how different she was. This woman had come for a different world, and her people had endured an ongoing genocide. Escaping to Earth was their species’ only chance of survival, and most of her elders were likely already dead. Or at the very least, doomed.

She knew it, too. Elijah could see the resulting determination in her amethyst eyes. In that, he could sympathize. After all, his own people faced extinction. Not through war or starvation, but via the promised excisement from the World Tree. Only by conquering the remaining Primal Realms, and before the timer ran out, could they avoid that fate.

“Empress Siala,” Sadie intoned with a slight bow of her head.

Elijah went much further, clutching one arm to his torso and bowing deep as his other arm stretched out to his side. “Your highness,” he said. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you. May your reign be eternal.”

Sadie cut her eyes at him, clearly surprised by his eloquence. But she didn’t say anything. When Elijah straightened to his full height, he saw a slight tilt at the corners of Siala’s mouth. Not a smile. More like a precursor to a smile that would never be born. But Elijah would take it.

She gestured for them to take a seat. The informal setting was intentional, meant to put them at ease. For his part, Elijah could accept that, and he took his position across from the empress as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Sadie was his opposite, and though she sat, she did so with a straight back and tension in her shoulders.

For a few moments, they exchanged meaningless pleasantries, and the empress offered them refreshments. Elijah accepted a cup of tea that was surprisingly not terrible, while Sadie abstained.

Finally, they got down to business when the empress asked, “Tell me what you see when you look at my city.”

Sadie took the diplomatic approach, answering, “It is quite beautiful. Your people have taken quite a burden upon their shoulders, and they endeavor to rise to the occasion.”

“You’re floundering,” Elijah stated, choosing an entirely different approach. “You tried to hide it, but you have people who are starving. You don’t have room for all the refugees, either. This is a city at war, and I’m guessing that you’ve allocated most of your resources toward the front.”

“That is no secret. The trolls are voracious in their appetite for conquest.”

“It’s not conquest,” Sadie interjected. “It’s blood. They want to consume. They want to grow. That is very different from conquest.”

And Sadie would know the difference better than most, especially after her experiences in the Eternal War. Ogres and hobgoblins also set out to conquer everyone in their path, but they did so to prove they were superior. The trolls acted similarly, though for far different reasons.

For Elijah’s part, he only had to sense the local ethera to see the difference. Others likely required more concrete evidence.

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Not that it really made a difference, except that the trolls’ quest for conquest would be much more difficult to dissuade.

Elijah said as much, explaining it as best he could before adding a simple question. “Why haven’t your people sought to conquer the Primal Realm yourselves? You have elites, don’t you?”

Siala glanced toward her door, then at her attendant before letting out a very subtle sigh. “Politics,” she answered.

“What do politics have to do with it? I thought you were the unquestioned leader.”

She waved her hand, and a web of ethera bloomed into existence. Eljiah extended his Mantle of Authority in its most basic form, nullifying everything. Even the enchantments in the walls sparked and deactivated.

“Please don’t,” he said.

A second later, a large, athletic, and armored illythiri burst through one of the adjacent doors. He already had his sword out. Siala raised her hand, and he skidded to a stop. However, his murderous gaze never wavered from Elijah.

“He comes one step closer, and I will kill him,” Elijah said, taking another sip of his tea. “You’ll probably be a casualty. We call it collateral damage. I don’t want that. I don’t think you do, either. But I won’t sit here while you cast spells of unknown purpose. That’s how people end up wrapped in chains.”

Indeed, Elijah could already feel her domain pressing down on him. He ignored it because he didn’t find it all that effective. But he had no idea what that spell was meant to do. And he wasn’t eager to find out, either. Not by letting it affect him, at least.

Sadie spoke up, saying, “There is no reason for this to escalate. We came in peace. No harm has been done.”

Elijah glanced at the tall illythiri. “I’m Elijah, by the way. Nice to meet you. Ivin, I’m guessing.”

He grunted, but he didn’t attack, which Elijah considered a win.

Siala said, “I…apologize for my lack of decorum. My only excuse is that, in this palace, I have few restrictions. It is easy to forget that my actions might have unintended consequences. The spell was meant to ensure our privacy. Nothing more.”

Elijah glanced at Sadie, how gave him a slight nod. If she trusted that explanation, he would as well. So, he said, “Go ahead.”

He retracted his Mantle of Authority.

She once again cast her spell, and Elijah felt nothing but a jolt of ethera when it activated.

“That should keep our conversation private,” Siala said. Then, she glanced at Ivin, adding, “Sit, Ivin. We are among allies.”

He grunted again, but he didn’t move.

“Suit yourself,” the empress went on, her tone far more casual than it had been only a moment before. “The problem, as I said, is politics. If we do not make every effort to maintain our forts, the political situation may become untenable.”

Taking her cue, Elijah didn’t mince words when he said, “I thought you were the supreme leader. No questions. No refusals. Just obedience.”

She gave a harsh laugh. “Would that were true,” she mumbled. “We are cut off from our elders. Many traditions have fallen. Some by necessity. Others have been thrown aside in favor of ambition. I remain the head of state, but only so long as I give them what they want.”

“Who?” asked Sadie.

“The church. The merchants. The noble families,” Siala answered. “Each fort is controlled by one faction or another. If I withdraw support and focus on finding and conquering the Primal Realm, many of those forts will fall. What do I tell those chosen for sacrifice? What soldiers remain will flee. They will retreat to the surface and pretend they made the only viable choice. Survival will trump loyalty. Perhaps not for all, but for enough that Eldrathûn will soon be overrun.

“There will be a mass exodus,” she continued. “Some have already left, and more will flee if they believe we have abandoned them. That cannot be allowed.”

“That’s why you need us,” Sadie stated. There was no question in her voice.

“It is.”

After that, they discussed logistics, though Siala did object to Elijah’s exclusion. Sadie mollified her, countering her objections by saying that if Elijah was needed, she would contact him. For Elijah’s part, he pledged that he would come when called. He also cited the need for his intervention elsewhere, adding, “Not every Primal Realm has an entire nation to combat it.”

They moved on after that, establishing that Sadie and her army would not be expected to go alone. Indeed, Ivin and nearly a thousand elite illythiri fighters would accompany her. Together, they formed as powerful an army as any seen on Earth. Even the war elves, despite superior numbers, would have struggled to match them, save in very specific circumstances.

Lastly, Elijah addressed something he’d been wondering since his first experience with the illythiri teleportation network. Every time he saw representations of the spider deity – be it carvings like he’d seen on the door or her priestesses – he felt a distinct enmity, and he wanted to figure out why.

So, he asked, “What is the history of the spider goddess?”

“Our myths say that she was a drachnid,” Siala stated. “Some theologians suggest she was a powerful guardian who gained sapience and reached beyond transcendence. All agree that she protected our people, and through her efforts, we managed to survive long enough to establish the first city, Kaelathûn.”

“What happened to her?” he asked.

“The stories vary. Official texts of the Church of the Spider claim that she ascended to wage an eternal war against the Ravener,” Siala claimed. “Others believe she fell to a swarm of transcendent insects known as the god-killers. There are a hundred other myths meant to explain her disappearance.”

“Anything to do with dragons? Or as an enemy of nature?” Elijah asked, his eyes flashing despite his efforts to remain calm. Even talking about the spider stirred his ire.

Siala shook her head. “No. Not that I know of.” She glanced around. “Though I am no expert. In fact…I consider it all myth. Perhaps there is a seed of truth in there, but their faith seems entirely misplaced. I have never felt the eyes of the spider watching over me, and I do not expect that to change. If she lives, she has long since abandoned us. We must look inward for the ability to survive.”

“I believe that as well,” Sadie said. “There are no gods. No watchful guardians. Just us against the world.”

Elijah nodded, though he didn’t speak. What would they say if they knew how many times Kirlissa had visited him? How would they react to know that a transcendent – and an elite one at that – had taken such a keen interest in his development? Sadie knew about his patron, but she didn’t know the full breadth of the gold dragon’s maternal demeanor.

He kept that to himself.

But as interesting as Siala’s history lesson was, it got him no closer to figuring out what was going on. Perhaps he’d need to investigate himself.

That thought occupied his mind as they continued to discuss their response, but given that he wouldn’t be part of the team, Elijah let his mind wander. Ivin’s eyes never left Elijah, but it was easy enough to ignore the elf. He was clearly dangerous, but in a one-on-one battle, Elijah liked his chances.

Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. The meeting lasted for another hour or so, during which time Siala showed herself to be a competent, if hamstrung, leader. Sadie didn’t precisely dictate things, but she came very close. In the end, they hammered out the details, and at last, Elijah and Sadie retreated to their rooms.

“That went better than expected,” she said when they were alone. “Good job with the mantle. It really put them on the back foot.”

Elijah nodded, going along with her obvious assessment that it had been a strategic decision. She didn’t need to know that he’d simply reacted without thought.

“So, I’m going to leave tomorrow,” he said, giving her a pointed look. “What do you want to do until then?”

He barely got the question out before she kissed him. After that, things got a bit blurry.