I closed my eyes, enjoying the cool air blowing over me. I had a table with snacks and a drink at my side, and I was sitting on what could be the most comfortable seat I have ever experienced. All in all, if I had to sit and watch negotiations crawl along for eight hours, I couldn't ask for anything better.

  Except for not being here, of course… but Kanieta made that impossible as she demanded I be present. In her eyes and into everyone else's ears, I was the official representative of the Triad, and as its ambassador, I had to be present.

  It was my own damn fault.

  After the battle was over and the Crescent Moon remnants were fleeing the spinning columns of fire, a hesitant cleanup began once the blaze disappeared. Even if I told everyone to expect a show of unparalleled destruction, it was another matter to see it.

  There were whispers in the camp that a fire elemental had come down from the sky to smite the earth. Or that an entire century of knights ignis had joined the battle. Others said the earth opened and spat out its fiery wrath. Stories were flying every which way, but there was one thing they all had in common.

  Fear, whether they admitted it or not.

  Everyone but my traveling companions and I were on edge when they spoke about the battle's ending. The smart ones were anxious about whether the Kin would turn their castings on them, while others were eager to prove their strength by surviving the attack.

  Suddenly, Franklin, Hurring, and I became a lot more important, and a gaggle of tribunes headed up by the legion prefect rushed up to us. They wanted assurances that the casters of the spell were, in fact, friendly and willing to talk.

  When Kanieta, along with a contingent of her warriors, appeared outside the walls, I was part of the group sent out to open up the negotiations. And that was what began my downfall. Seeing her in a stupid headdress and mantel, holding a carved stick with feathers and fur while obviously failing to contain her annoyance at the entire situation, I just couldn't help but snicker.

  I'd seen her dressed up before, but this was my first chance to study it with clear lighting. Also, the last time, I was trapped in a cage, so I would say that is a good enough excuse to say I was distracted. The situation was only made funnier when I got to know her and learned she didn't enjoy formal gatherings like these.

  You know what, it wasn't even the snickering that sealed my fate. Would I laugh at a woman? Yes. Was I stupid enough to do it to her face? Fuck, no. I turned to the side and put Franklin between her and me. I did not think to conceal my amusement from the cackling witch who enjoyed stirring the pot.

  It was like Nareta was waiting for my reaction, and the moment I locked eyes with the gray vixen and realized I was caught, her lips slowly curled with malicious pleasure. In slow motion, and I mean she was intentionally moving slowly to draw out the moment, she leaned over to Kanieta, putting her head close enough to whisper into the other's ear before slinking back, looking particularly pleased with herself.

  I tried to hide from Kanieta, but I was forced to the front when she asked, "Where is my former scout turned ambassador?" in a far too sweet voice that demanded a response.

  Reluctantly stepping around Franklin, I gave a half-hearted one-handed wave while flashing her my best smile. It bounced off the icy woman like I had kicked a rock at the wall, and then it came back and hit me in the nuts as she returned the smile tenfold, sending dread down my spine.

  "For any peace talks or negotiations to occur, I require the ambassador to be present, as I have come to trust his opinion and judgment. I hope that isn't a problem for you?" Kanieta said to Maginum Opious, the Prefect of the 14th, without breaking eye contact with me. "As for continuing this conversation, let us reconvene tomorrow; you and your men must be tired after the battle. My people will construct a better location to hold our conversation."

  Why wouldn't the tribunes accept terms for peace talks that consisted of inconveniencing a scout not in their legion and waiting for them to be well rested in case the negotiations fell through? So as Kanieta pulled me under the wagon with her, much to the amusement of that smug bitch behind her, they came to an agreement.

  This led me to be dragged along with Franklin, who refused to join Kanieta the night before, to sit in the tent as the leaders of the two sides talked. Most of the discussion revolved around the legatus probing the Kin about what their intentions were while Kanieta danced around answering the subject.

  Throughout the whole day, the only issue that seemed to matter was a passage through the territory the Kin claimed. Expect the legatus brought it up in passing like it wasn't that big of a deal either way, and the conversation quickly moved on.

  From my point of view, no one said anything of importance other than them agreeing to prolong my agony by coming back tomorrow to speak again. Which was going to suck… as I would have to be here for however long it took.

  I watched the two parties from the side, as I wasn't a part of either. Excluding Kanieta — who was intent on me suffering — no one in either group seemed to trust my loyalties enough to include me in a conversation, so I watched them trade grips and give nods of farewell.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  And then Kanieta turned and walked along the invisible divide of the two groups over to where I stood with Franklin. I didn't like the burning intensity in her eyes, but there was no way for me to escape without making the scene that would further drop my image.

  Looking past the woman, I saw the legatus staring at me with flat eyes, his gaze slowly shifting from me to the Kin around me. This is gonna be a problem… I mentally sighed before shifting my attention back to Kanieta.

  "You forgot your stick," I said to her as a greeting. The woman looked like she had sucked on something sour at my comment, earning a snicker from Franklin that I was sure didn't earn me any favors.

  Ignoring me, Kanieta turned to Franklin, "What are your plans after this?"

  Stifling his chuckles with a cough, he rumbled, "Until my elder tells me otherwise, I will follow Green around."

  Nodding like she expected the answer, she turned to me and looked me up and down. An irritating smile was on her face as if she was somehow mocking me or knew something I didn't know, and she asked, "You?"

  After I fought off the urge to pat myself down self-consciously, I opened my mouth to respond on instinct that I would return to the legion and continue my duty, but my mouth snapped shut… I didn't want to go back. And as I looked inside myself, I could not find the tiniest sliver of that desire. What did I want to do?

  I want to follow the tugging in my chest… I thought in a sudden realization. The Call, as Kanieta and Franklin put it, but no matter how strong that desire was, I knew it would have to wait. While I didn't want to serve out my term, I would, a not insignificant part of that reason was because I wasn't a child.

  No matter the reasons behind my past actions, I committed to serving the 15th Legion for another three years. Some might be fine with desertion, but I wasn't. I wasn't content with being the type of person willing to go back on their oath because it was suddenly inconvenient. If you only followed an oath when it was easy, it wasn't an oath.

  "I guess I will go back to the legion and finish my term of service in a few years… Then… I will probably head southwest." I finally said back to her.

  "So you are going to seek out the call?" Kanieta stated more than asked, but she waited for me to nod in response. My eyes locked on her full lips as she released a radiant smile at me, her pleasure seeping into her voice. "Good. In that case, we should be able to seek it out sooner than a few years, as that is far too long for me."

  I felt my heart leap at her words and was surprised at the intensity of the emotion. Taking a moment to suck in a deep breath and center myself, I asked, "And how will we do that?"

  "Well," Kanieta said, drawing out her words, "Today, your leaders were testing the grounds of how open my people are to let them pass peacefully and probing how intelligent I am." I opened my mouth to say he wasn't doing that, but as I reflected on the conversation I half paid attention to, I found myself agreeing.

  Many questions that were meaningless individually were tests for logical consistency and thought experiments when taken as a whole. I was mad at myself for missing it for a moment, but then I remembered I had better things to do at the time, like looking at the ornate canopy I had studied for the last day. And, if I was honest, I would have missed the interchange even if I had paid attention to the conversation, as I did not think in the way required to catch what was happening.

  Grinning like she had won something, Kanieta continued, "Tomorrow, they will bring up why we are fighting those who we should be allied with and what are the borders we have claimed as our land. Maybe they will threaten us that the might of the Republic will come down to smash us for taking land they have viewed as theirs while never bothering to settle it, but they probably won't. They want a guarantee of safe passage, and the Holders will most likely be in the party tomorrow pushing for the same, though they will be looking to see if we are willing to form an alliance against the Crescent Moon. We will agree to both offers after a day or two with some minor conditions as we want to be good neighbors. The main one being that the legatus personally escort me and a party to Olimpia to be recognized before the Senate. To which he will willingly agree."

  I looked at her, processing what she said briefly before exaggerating awe and wonder as I responded, "Wow! You're so skilled with politics!" A teasing smile on my face, "So long as you are right. Otherwise, you're just yapping at the air."

  "Oh?" She smiled back predatorily, matching my smile with one of her own, "Would you like to bet on it?"

  A shiver of warning went down my spine, but I ignored it as I replied, "Sure. What are we betting?"

  "A favor." Before I could respond, Kanieta ended the conversation by turning, her tails spinning around to brush my cloak before standing high over her shoulders as she called back, "I looked forward to claiming it."

  Only for her tails to droop as Kaneita's dramatic exit went up like an explosion right into her face. Nareta was directly behind Kanieta, offering up her staff with both hands while down on one knee.

  "You forgot your symbol of office, Faction Leader," Nareta said, her voice perfectly neutral.

  With a couple dozen people watching her every move, I could see the strain in her jaw as Kaneita forced out, "Thank you, Nareta. Sometimes, I seem to move too fast for my own good."

  I snorted in amusement as Kaneita was forced to be civil and accept the unwanted offering. My noise caused her shoulders and ears to twitch and her back to go stiff. Tuning to bore her gaze into me, "I feel I should tell you, as you seem to be having such a good time, that my shadow foxes messenger spell begins recording when it starts speaking."

  My face flushed in embarrassment as my mind flashed back to my reaction to the fox messenger before glaring right back at the annoying woman. "Oh? Well, I feel you should know that I spent a portion of my youth learning to draw to develop my control of tendrils. I particularly enjoyed drawing the sky through a bare patch in the tree canopy." I punctuated my comment by letting my eyes drift toward her tails.

  Kanieta's cheeks turned rosy, matching her hair, as she snorted and turned away, not commenting on my threat. Keeping her back stiff, Kanieta stalked off, her steps marked by the thumping of her unwanted staff.

  Narita flashed her teeth at me, her eyes sparkling, as she moved to get up and follow Kanieta at what I assumed was a respectable distance. Sighing, I turned and walked toward the legionaries, who would no doubt want to discuss what I had just spoken about.

  "I wonder what she's going to ask you to do?" Franklin rumbled as he plodded along beside me.

  "You think tomorrow is gonna go as she said?"

  “Hmm… All foxes are quite clever at this kind of thing, and she was trained and has been a chieftain and faction leader for quite a while at this point. So yes. The question is whether she will punish ya for seeing her cousin prank her and laughing… Her reaction will be telling."

  I felt a sudden uneasiness in my gut at his statement but couldn't bring myself to ask why.