Ahrden awoke to the sharp sensation of his wards being triggered. He immediately reached for Alia, who slept beside him peacefully, elegantly. When he touched her, she awoke instantly, ready for whatever was coming. When she saw nothing out of the ordinary, she looked at Ahrden with her huge green eyes. She wanted to ask what was wrong but remained quiet after seeing how focused he was.
Unable to hide his fright, Ahrden's eyes went wide at the realization that the wards being triggered were none other than the ones he had set up around this small area on top of the mountain. The thought that others with malicious intent would go to the length of climbing up the side of the mountain to seek him out in this extremely remote location infuriated him greatly. The fact that this happened while Alia was beside him sent his emotions to a whole new level.
Ahrden's guess was that Malitez was behind it, but finding him here was still something that the Evil King shouldn't have been able to do—especially not this fast. However, none of that mattered at this moment because, with his extended senses, he could feel the intruders creeping ever closer to his house. Ahrden counted twelve assassins, and if they were able to make it up this far, they were the best at what they did. They had already passed his garden, and Ahrden could actually feel his precious plants being trampled down by their soft leather boots without the slightest sound.
Ahrden wanted to get as much information out of them as he could, but he feared that none would survive his wrath.
"Twelve rogues are surrounding the house."
Alia's eyebrows rose as she listened, and she needed a little time to process what she heard. Ahrden could see her mind working on the solution—thinking about the exits, where she had left her weapons, where she remembered the floor creaking, and everything else. Ahrden admired her for that.
"I'll get my stuff; you get yours. We move on from there."
Ahrden nodded, letting the experienced one lead. He had significantly fewer things to gather, which should have made a lot less noise, but Alia was still done faster and with less sound than Ahrden. When he had the clothes he wore when he prepared for combat and Duskedge on his side, he turned towards Alia.
Before Ahrden had shown her his house, they took a short trip back to Alia's home where she gathered her most essential equipment in a bag. Now, she was peeking out the corner of the window, fully geared, with everything that was needed on her and the rest of her things in the bag.
Ahrden did another scan of the attackers, this time focusing on anything related to arcane. He felt a faint signal of which he couldn't make much, but it was enough to determine that it wasn't a threat. He went around the bed, grabbed Alia's bag, which sat on a chair, and placed his hand on Alia. She turned around and saw his sad expression, knowing what it meant.
In the next second, they were standing on Alia's balcony.
She grabbed his hand, lightning fast.
"You are not going back there alone."
"I have to."
"Take me with you. This is what I'm good at. You need me there. You know that."
"I need you alive, Alia."
"You don't understand; poison shone on all of their daggers and shuriken. They climbed that far up without a problem. They are the best; you can't risk facing them alone."
Ahrden leaned in and kissed her. Alia softened; her tension eased. She relaxed.
"I don't want to force you to stay."
"Well, I'm not staying."
To emphasize that, she grabbed on to him even more firmly. Ahrden wasn't sure whether this was something he should be happy or sad about. It surely felt good and warmed his heart.
"I'll never lose you," said Ahrden.
"You won't."
Ahrden was afraid to think about what he would do if she was taken from him. He couldn't risk it. He couldn't risk her.
It was challenging to teleport while physically touching someone, but it was possible, just like he didn't teleport with a house every time he had his hands on the walls. When he materialized in his bedroom again, he focused and extended his senses.
By then, his house was completely surrounded; five rogues were around the front door, and the rest clustered at every other exit of the house. All were waiting, probably for an order from their leader, who, by Ahrden's estimation, was the one at the front door. With his senses extended, Ahrden could again feel the one object that had arcane traces on it, and it was on the chest of their leader. It was faint, indicating that it wasn't powerful, but it still intrigued him.
After spending decades learning everything about this house, Ahrden had moved it to a different location, which rendered a large part of that knowledge useless. He was unsure which part of the wooden floor would make a sound if he stepped on it or what kind of light was normal to come in from the different windows.
Doing his best to remain quiet, he walked to the living room, where he had his bow and quiver filled with arrows, and grabbed them. Ahrden knew that he needed to avoid getting into hand-to-hand combat with these master rogues because a single cut was lethal from them, and he wasn't confident enough to know that not a single cut would land on him.
Ahrden teleported out onto the very edge of the small clearing with his back to the gaping drop, facing his house and the rogues who had their backs to him. He was sure that they had heard him move within the house, but he put a great deal of effort into making his teleportation as silent as possible. At that moment, it seemed to have worked.
Seeing these master rogues—with more years of experience than he had lived—try to do what they were the best at, yet fail so visibly, was a bizarre thing to experience. Their clothes made them blend into the background, they had cloths covering their heads, and Ahrden could even get a glimpse of paint around the parts where the fabric could not reach. The leader had his ear placed on the door, listening to what was going on inside, while the rest awaited his orders.
Ahrden let go of the quiver and kept it silently levitating in the air. He then took an arrow from it, nocked the bow and drew the string. He aimed and sent the arrow flying. Everything had been enchanted with spells that made the equipment silent, so neither the arrow nor the bow made any sound when the arrow left the string. It accelerated with incredible speed, but shortly after it left the bow, the arrow stopped in the air. Ahrden visibly strained from the effort but took out another arrow and repeated the process. He did so another two times until four arrows hung in the air, slightly shivering from all the energy still within them.
Ahrden could have used pure arcane to deal with these rogues, but he believed this method to be more suited for the situation. The spell he used stopped the arrows mid-air and preserved their energy within them. Suspending the energy of a moving object like this was extremely difficult and could hardly be done with anything bigger than an arrow, but in this case, it was perfect. Ahrden nocked another arrow and let it fly while allowing the other four out of their prisons.
The five rogues at the front of the house hadn't moved in that time, so Ahrden only needed to adjust two arrows because his aim wasn't perfect. Four rogues dropped dead without much sound. Only the leader remained standing. He was able to somehow sense the arrow, and he was fast enough to move out of its way so that it only hit his arm. Ahrden reached out with his power and wrapped it around the leader tightly, preventing him from moving or making a sound.
While holding him in the air, just above the ground, Ahrden started bringing the helpless rogue across the garden. Everything seemed to be going according to plan when Ahrden suddenly felt the frantic signalling of Alia through the amulet he had given her. He couldn't imagine any other reason for it than the fact that he hadn't returned yet, so he ignored it for the moment.
This made him remember the magical object that the leader had around his neck, and as the rogue neared, Ahrden used his power to lift it out from under his clothes. When Ahrden saw it, he became confused; the rogue had a medallion very similar to the one he had given to Alia.
Everything that happened afterwards occurred in a matter of heartbeats.
First, Ahrden noticed the change in the nearing rogue's eyes. The rogue went from glaring furiously at him to being shocked and in disbelief while staring behind him. Afterwards, Ahrden noticed the faintest but growing purple reflection in the rogue's eyes, and finally, he felt something unspeakably powerful near his back. Without even knowing what the threat was, a shield sounded laughable, so he did the only thing that was left. He teleported away.
Ahrden materialized on top of the mountain directly over his house. He rushed to the edge and looked out over it. He had just missed the missile, but he witnessed the entire explosion. It was something he had never seen before. Deep purple arcane flames erupted from the small pocket in the mountain he once called home. The very rock he stood on shook and vibrated from the explosion. The displaced air travelled in every direction of the blast, and the gushing wind hit him in the face once it reached him. He couldn't go back down yet, but he doubted that a single piece of any of his belongings could have survived that.
The rogues were a decoy—only a means to guide the real attack of Malitez. The leader's medallion was the beacon that allowed the Evil King to know his exact location and guide the missile that would surely kill him.
Ahrden felt the frantic signalling of Alia again. He understood now that she must have seen the purple arcane missile travel through the empty night sky, and she wanted to warn him of it. He needed to tell her that he was alive.
"Lucky your wards signalled you in time. This might not always be the case."
Ahrden could not move, so stunned was he by the voice that spoke to him. Alia's continued signalling snapped him out, and he whirled around on his heels to face whoever spoke.
It was an Arcane Agent. He casually stood there facing Ahrden, although his face remained covered. Ahrden felt the wind and cold escape from there as the Agent erected a dome around them.
'Must be infuriating to have a mage like Kartesta Malitez continuously seeking a way to destroy you. You can run, you can get lucky, but it cannot last forever. Join us before it is too late.'
The Arcane Agent held out his gnawed hand with the wicked dagger in it.
'Thy power. Thy arcane. Come to me.'
He was gone in the next second.
Ahrden stood there, barely noticing the wind and cold which returned to the mountaintop.
He was snapped back to reality again by the signals Alia kept sending him, and he teleported immediately.
When he arrived, he saw Alia curled up in the corner, quietly crying while squeezing the medallion with her right hand as hard as she could. When she saw him, she jumped up immediately and crashed into him, knocking the air out of him. They fell onto the ground, with Ahrden absorbing most of the impact.
'I saw the missile…' sobbed Alia. 'I thought you wouldn't notice it… I thought.'
'It's all right. I'm fine. I'm here.'
'What took you so long? I thought you died up there.'
'I know, I'm sorry. I came as fast as I could.'
'But the assassins, why were they there if the missile…'
'The leader had a medallion just like yours. They were there to show Malitez where exactly I lived. They were the decoy.'
Alia calmed herself, and they both sat up.
'I didn't know, but I felt the faint arcane signature of the medallion when we were both still there, and I couldn't allow you to be there if there was even a chance of something like this happening. Even if the possibility was only the slightest. I just couldn't risk it… I couldn't.'
Alia leaned in and hugged him tightly.
'Don't ever do that again.'
'I won't.'
'Promise.'
'I promise.'
They sat there silently for a little.
'What happened to your house?'
'My house…'
Ahrden stood up suddenly, feeling a terrible loss.
'I need you to help me.'
'Anything.'
'We can't keep this up. Not your nation, not mine. Malitez is trying to get rid of me because he knows that I'm the only threat that could stop him from expanding his empire to the whole Valley. Our nations need to unite and march on him.'
'Ahrden…'
'Listen, I'll convince the leaders, but I need your help to get them together. Go to your president, tell him that you need to talk to him alone.'
'At this time? He won't see me.'
'Of course he will; you are a leader in the elite rogue division who just now received extremely dire intel. How could he not see you then?'
'Maybe…'
'Can you get it done?'
'Yes.'
'Great, I'll salvage what little I can from my house and find my bastard president. Signal me when you have yours. I'll snatch up everyone, and we'll have a little discussion.'
'You'll snatch up our presidents and expect them to listen to what you have to say. You might even start a war.'
'I'll handle that. What we need is to have that conversation, because if we don't unite, both of our nations will fall.'
'What is the plan for the conversation?'
'I will break them with the truth.'
Alia remained sceptical, but she dearly hoped that the reality would be enough to sway two rigid minds.
'Another thing, can I crash here for a while, since my…'
'Ahrden… You live here now.'
He kissed her for that. Having someone care about him this much unconditionally was a very new experience for him.
'Good luck.'
'You too.'
Ahrden teleported to where he had lived mere minutes ago. He materialized facing the Valley to make sure that no other attacks were coming. When he was safe, he turned around, and his heart sank. Nothing remained. Smouldering ash, rocks, and more rocks that crystallized under the heat and pressure. Subconsciously he reached for the hilt of Duskedge and was glad to have at least that with him as one thing that surely survived.
When he walked closer to the remains of his house, he felt emptier than ever before. These walls were his only true sanctum as he grew up in his hostile childhood. His study was his only safe place where he could truly be who he was. The room no longer existed where he spent countless hours reading, learning, bettering himself. The table he slept at, when he fell asleep over a book, was something that only lived in his memory now. The house that allowed him to turn into the man he had become over the decades perished in the blink of an eye. Ahrden felt a loss similar to when his parents died, and it was agonizing. He didn't think he would experience something like this in the near future, but fate made it so.
Time after time, he proved unable to save what he held most dear. All the memories, the knowledge, the artefacts, the notes. All gone.
Carefully walking through the ruins of his house, he reached out with his power and searched for anything that had arcane traces on it. He immediately saw the obvious mistake of his plan. After such a potent arcane explosion, even the simplest rock possessed arcane traces, so even if anything survived, it would blend in with all the rubble around it.
Ahrden used his spells to push aside what he could in the hopes that something had survived underneath it, but it never yielded any result. Devastated by the loss of everything he ever had, he caught a glimpse of something round in the ruins. Upon closer examination, he indeed saw part of an orb buried in the rubble. Ahrden knew that it was an artefact he had found some time ago, but since it was covered in ash, he didn't know if it was still intact or not. He walked up to it and used his power to lift it from the ground, and to his biggest shock and relief, the mysterious liquid was still flowing in the sphere. Ahrden was thrilled to have found this intact, as it was one of his most prized possessions.
Not trying to torment himself any further, Ahrden decided to leave. He was doing his final lap in the rubble when he sensed something powerful deep under many layers of debris. The waste was cooling down, and the arcane saturation was lessening, which allowed Ahrden to notice this powerful object. He placed the sphere beside him in the air and kept it there while he worked on the newly sensed object.
Ahrden used a spell to lift up the debris that was above the thing he was trying to salvage. Once the majority of the waste was lifted, Ahrden could tell that it was a book that he had sensed. After he was able to wrap his power around it, he became fairly confident that it was the Book of Knowledge he had gotten from Kadelinas. He turned out to be correct, and the small but thick black leather-bound book floated to him. He let the lifted wreckage fall back, which made a loud clamour and created a cloud of ash, but all Ahrden cared about was the small unharmed book he was excitedly flipping through.
Holding the book in one hand and grabbing the sphere in the other, Ahrden turned around and walked to the edge of the cliff. The whole Valley slept peacefully, unaware of what the Evil King was doing under the cloak of the night. This night, the deeds of Malitez dearly affected Ahrden, but he could not imagine how many nights had passed when others fell victim to his treacherous scheming. Ahrden had to see the clear disadvantage that one faced when his opponent had no boundaries to keep him in check. For this very reason, the reign of Kartesta Malitez had to be stopped.
As Ahrden neared the cliff, he wanted to pick up his bow and quiver, which he had dropped, but he was sad to see that the blast of the explosion had pushed them off the cliff. He could have gone after them, and he might even have been able to find them, but he took it as a sign that those no longer belonged to him. All Ahrden had now was what he held in his hands and vengeance. These were all that belonged to him.
Ahrden looked back at where his house had stood one last time, then out into the Valley. He stretched the moment out as much as he could, but he knew that he had to go.
After arriving at Alia's bedroom, he placed the sphere and the book on the floor and straightened up. He unhitched Duskedge from his belt and leaned it against the wall, something that a true warrior would never do. It was time to kidnap two presidents.
He materialized on the street where President Kirthen lived. Ahrden knew he could recognize the house, but he didn't know where exactly it was. Sure enough, he found it fast when, upon seeing the guards, he remembered that two soldiers always stood guard at the front of the president's house.
Ahrden walked in the middle of the street, minding his own business, and when he was in front of the door of the presidential house, he turned towards it.
'Keep walking, or I'll kill you, mage,' one of the guards barked.
They couldn't have known what he had been through, but that was no excuse for such behaviour. Ahrden teleported between them, placed his hands on their chest plates, and teleported away with them. They materialized in the middle of the forest, just below the crowns of the trees. Once they started falling, Ahrden teleported to the ground and waited for the soldiers.
Both of them screamed the whole way down, and they didn't fare having their legs broken any better.
'The warriors cross here during their morning training. Don't die till then.'
Once Ahrden was inside the presidential home, he felt Alia signalling him that she was ready. This urged him to move faster. He didn't try to conceal his noise when he was inside; he wasn't a burglar—he came to talk with the owner. He found the bedroom fast and knocked on it loudly.
'Who is it?' Kirthen asked in a tired voice.
'Ahrden, and I need you outside now.'
'What is the meaning of this, how…?'
'Inferno has returned, and I can't stop it. I need to take you to safety.'
As expected, the president asked no more questions; he and his wife hurriedly readied themselves and were at the door as fast as they could. Once the door opened, Ahrden cast a spell that made the old lady fall asleep while standing and helped her to the ground with another spell.
Kirthen didn't react fast enough to even try to catch his falling wife; he just stood at the door, unable to comprehend what was happening. He had pants on with a jacket and a pair of boots, but the swift dressing was evident at first glance. Ahrden found it fitting that his president would show up at the most important meeting in the history of the Valley the same way he had led his nation: ineptly.
'I lied, but don't worry, she is just sleeping.'
He placed his hands on Kirthen, and they were gone.
They materialized on the top of the mountain where Ahrden had first met Kadelinas all those years ago. The sky was still dark, and the air was cold, with a forceful wind blowing at them.
'Wait here. Don't jump off.'
Ahrden teleported to where he felt Alia. It turned out to be the living room of the president of Nethedral. Once he arrived, he immediately bound the president to the chair he was sitting in and cast a spell that prevented him from making a sound.
'Good evening. Please calm down. Alia is not a traitor; everything is all right. We are here to make history and save our nations from certain doom,' Ahrden turned towards Alia. 'President Durim, right?'
'Correct.'
'President Durim. Please listen to me. We'll travel to a place where Kirthen, the president of the Polenteus nation, is waiting for us to discuss the problem that Kartesta Malitez and the Velintenal nation present. There will only be the four of us. No harm will come to you. I could do that right now, but as you can see, that is not why I'm here. Please cooperate, hear us out, and then we'll leave you alone no matter how you end up deciding. Can you do this for us?'
Durim could not understand how he was unable to speak, but as Ahrden talked, he stopped struggling against the spell and listened to what Ahrden was saying. When Ahrden was done, he nodded.
'Great,' Ahrden said and waved his hand to dismiss the spell. 'You have your voice back. Alia, could you grab that chair over there and bring it here?'
Once she did, Ahrden placed his hand on both of them, and they teleported.
To his relief and disappointment, Kirthen was still there. Ahrden cast a protective dome around them, which sealed out the wind and warmed the air to a welcoming temperature. He cast a small arcane ball which emitted a steady flow of light and placed the chair Alia had brought in front of Durim, who was still deciding whether to throw up or not after the teleportation.
'Kirthen, thank you for waiting for us; I can see the cold wind woke you up nicely and easily. Please sit down. Durim, you are no longer bound to the chair, but I advise you to remain seated.'
Kirthen walked to the chair and sat in it, still looking white from the teleportation, but the cold wind indeed made him look more awake.
'Gentlemen, Alia and I believe that the threat that Kartesta Malitez presents is greater than what either one of our nations can solve alone. We aren't in agreement on whether this meeting is the way to solve this problem or not, but I remain optimistic and place my fate in your clear thinking. We have a lot to talk about, so let's begin.'
Alia and Ahrden talked as if they had been preparing for it their whole lives. They each brought up points that the other agreed with, supported them with facts that no one could deny, and arrived at a conclusion that was in both nations' best interests. They talked when the other stopped, helped when the other got stuck, and agreed when the presidents should have but didn't out of pride. They circled around the sitting old men, giving them a glimpse of the future if they were willing to let go of the old ways even for a short time. They did everything to highlight that their very survival was at stake, and staying proud was equivalent to having their nations wiped from the face of the Valley in the long run.
Alia and Ahrden provided some comfort by elaborating why it was so natural to behave the way the two nations had so far: how it was the only thing they knew, how its essence could be traced back to what made a human truly human. But afterwards, they couldn't emphasize enough that this mentality wasn't going to work in the future. They could continue it and fail, but that would mean the end of them. The stakes were so high, and the odds were so against them that they needed to do something radical if they wanted to get through this. This radical change was for them to work together.
When Alia and Ahrden were done, silence fell on the mountaintop. Both presidents had been listening carefully without interruptions or questions, and now they sat there thinking about what was said. The moment stretched, and Ahrden wanted to keep their minds on the points he and Alia had presented rather than let them wander into emotional areas, so he urged them to make a decision.
'President Durim, do you believe that you could work with the Polenteus nation to defeat our common enemy?'
Before Durim could answer, Kirthen cut in.
'I'll die before I form a pact with these savages.'
Ahrden shouted the spell which sent his president off the mountain. The spell ended up being so powerful that Kirthen couldn't even scream from the shock, and in a second, he was no more than a mere speck descending into the Valley. When Ahrden looked at the other two members, their jaws were on the ground, unable to believe what had just happened.
'This is just embarrassing, I'm sorry I…'
'Ahrden!' Alia cut in.
Without a word, Ahrden looked out at the disappearing president and teleported after him. Once near him, a few more jumps got Ahrden close enough, and once he had a hold on Kirthen, he teleported them back.
When they arrived, Ahrden remained standing while his president fell on the floor, panting hard from the shock he had been through.
'I said no harm will come to you, and I'm keeping my word. This was nothing more than an immature response similar in kind to the president's. I'm sorry for the chair, Durim; I couldn't retrieve it, but let's work towards creating something more valuable than that lost chair.'
Kirthen was able to pull himself together and stood up from the ground. Afterwards, Durim did the same. Ahrden was glad to see that the Nethedral president could retain his manners even in such an unlikely situation.
'President Durim, let me ask you again if you are willing to form an alliance with the Polenteus nation as long as the Velintenal threat is not dealt with?'
For the first time since Ahrden met him, president Durim spoke.
'Besides smaller skirmishes, my nation has not had an all-out battle with the Velintenal nation for a very long time now, which makes this situation less pressing for us.'
'Do you not want to understand that if the Polenteus nation falls, your nation would be facing the combined might of the entire Valley? Or are you simply unable to?'
'Ahrden…' said Alia.
'Yes, I'm sorry. President Durim, would you care to think ahead and estimate what the future might bring if you were to remain the only nation standing against the Velintenal nation? While you think on that, President Kirthen, would you be willing to form the alliance that we have been discussing?'
'No.'
'And why is that?'
'Because as president, it is my duty to protect my nation against threats such as the Nethedral nation.'
'If you form an alliance with us, we will no longer be a threat,' said Alia.
'Your kind will always be a threat.'
'I think you are missing the point of what an alliance means,' said Ahrden.
'And you are missing the point of what being loyal to your nation means, you, mage filth,' shot back Kirthen.
'I fail to understand how you cannot see such an imminent disaster. It would be your very job to shelter your nations from harm, and when the only viable option is presented to you, you hide behind the fact that your nation is not yet under attack and that the potential ally would be the real threat. To be honest, I should just kill both of you and pray that a more capable successor will be elected on both sides, but…'
'Ahrden…' said Alia.
'…but I'm not going to do that. Please tell me, President Durim, what could we offer you to make you consider forming an alliance with the Polenteus nation?'
'If we conquer the Velintenal nation, I have specific regions that I want for my nation.'
'Astonishing. So, you do see that you have no chance alone, and you also see that it is feasible if you form an alliance, yet you are unwilling to cooperate with us.'
'You asked me what it would take to form an alliance. I have answered you, boy. And I'm not completely against the idea; I just don't find our problem pressing enough to say that this is the right time for us.'
'Extremely limited view, but major progress. Thank you, president Durim. President Kirthen, what would you need to join such an alliance?'
'I would never.'
'Not for anything?'
'No.'
'You are embarrassing me with your old-fashioned views that have nothing behind them but emotions. How can you not see that only death awaits if we don't form this alliance?'
'Death awaited my parents when these animals attacked us. Of course, you wouldn't know because not even your parents were alive for that.'
'Finally, the problem presented itself. We have an emotionally damaged president who would rather guide his nation to extinction than overcome the emotional barrier created by the death of his parents. Alia, help me out.'
'How dare you speak of me like that, boy. You are nothing, an outcast, an exiled, rejected, hated nobody. You have no right to talk to me like that. I'll have you killed for what you are doing here.'
The sun was coming up, and its first rays started overflowing the horizon. Ahrden walked to the edge and examined the beauty of it.
'Let's put our cards on the table then. I'll have you executed on our main square before I let your short-sightedness be the end of this Valley. President Durim is capable of progress; all he needs is a large pile of dead bodies from his soldiers, and he will suddenly find the time to be right to form the alliance. Not perfect, but I can work with that. You, on the other hand, President Kirthen, are unable to accept reason, nor can you provide any.'
'You've barely lived enough to know what a man can do to another—what real battle is like, what the cost of it is, what betrayal means,' Kirthen answered Ahrden.
Ahrden turned around to face Kirthen.
'I have lived long enough to see all of these things. I know what it is like to have your parents taken away from you at a young age. I vividly remember the latest battle our nation had fought. The only reason you can still call yourself the president of a nation is because I was there. I remember when you left Tudron to die in the hands of the Velintenal nation. I learned about betrayal that day. If anything, President Durim should be afraid to form an alliance with someone like you.'
'Yes, he should be because the Polenteus nation does not forget, and it does not forgive.'
The protective dome that Ahrden had been maintaining disappeared, and the hostile elements began to harry the group. The sky rumbled and storm clouds began to gather above them. A blue fire lit up in Ahrden's eyes, and arcane hummed around him, occasionally crackling from the tension.
The presidents, and even Alia, froze from the events, afraid to even move, let alone talk. They all knew that they were at the mercy of Ahrden, but these last few seconds displayed just how much that was the case. Alia wanted to talk, but Ahrden was faster.
'We are missing someone… We have three nations; we should have three rulers. Two presidents and one king. Wouldn't you say?' Ahrden talked with ease and with a terrifying slyness; his voice was carried by arcane, and so it reached everyone.
'Ahrden…' Alia began to object, but her voice was lost in the wind.
'Don't be a fool, boy! He will kill us all.' Durim's booming voice travelled freely in the wind and reached everyone with ease.
'Don't you dare! Do not dare! Do you hear me?' Kirthen screamed over everything else.
As the dome returned, the cold and wind melted away, and a sense of calm seeped back into everyone.
'So you do see that while we talk about a potential alliance, Malitez would not hesitate to kill everyone here.'
'He is a mage; we are politicians. It is different,' Durim said.
'But would you shed blood here if you could?'
Durim thought about it, then looked down at the ground after seeing Ahrden's point and shook his head.
'I would!' Kirthen broke the silence.
With eyes flashing with hatred, he was about to continue, but Ahrden cast a spell on him that prevented him from talking.
'President Durim, would you be more willing to form an alliance with us if we had a different leader?'
'That is the first yes I can tell you today, boy.'
'I will see to that…' Ahrden said, and everyone believed him. 'Now we just wait for a lot of your people to die, then you'll be ready to talk. Alia, President Durim, thank you for your cooperation. I will take you home now.'
Durim took Alia's hand, while Ahrden took her other hand and held onto the remaining chair.
Ahrden teleported the three of them and the chair into Durim's living room. The old man needed a minute to get over the teleportation, and Ahrden used that time well.
'If you'll excuse us for a second.'
He teleported Alia to her bedroom.
'I'll be back in a minute.'
'You'll get your president, right?' asked Alia, worried that Ahrden would just leave him there.
'Yeah, I'll get him, don't worry,' Ahrden said with a smile. 'You did a phenomenal job out there today.'
'Thank you. Do you think it was enough?'
'No, we still need your men to die by Velintenal steel… That I cannot control, so I am not sure if we can make this work.'
Ahrden materialized in Durim's living room.
'Thank you for hearing us out. I believe we will talk again, probably when things are a lot more dreadful, and when we won't have enough time to do it properly, but if that is what it takes, so be it. About Alia, without threatening you or anything, I hope you won't be foolish enough to punish her for being involved.'
'She did what she believed was the right thing. No harm will come to her for that.'
'That's great and all, but we both know that you can make her suffer without harming her. That wouldn't be a smart thing to do either.'
'You care for her.'
'And that is why you should believe when I tell you that I'll be your biggest problem if her life is altered after today.'
'You have my word.'
'I wish I had had a president like you.'
Ahrden materialized on the mountaintop. Kirthen was curled up in a ball on the ground, assailed by cold and wind, while he was sobbing like a child. Ahrden walked up to him, placed his hand on him, and brought the two of them to his living room.
The president remained on the ground, no longer suffering from the cold but from the side effects of the teleportation. Ahrden stood over him.
'Times are changing. You will change with it, or I will replace you.'
Ahrden teleported to his new home.