Limitless Path

Beth returned the kisses, sliding into Sera's lap while they waited for Barnabas to reply, or for something else interesting to happen. It was getting late at night, and Beth expected people to be asleep, but they were only kissing for a minute before Sera got an irate message back, demanding to know who Sera thought she was. Beth didn't even need to coach Sera, as she immediately sent back that she was the heir of the Black Dragon Clan of the Milky Way, of course, and who did the person messaging her think he was?

Sera and Barnabas traded barbs by communicator for a couple minutes before the man started demanding that they change the payout amount and threatening to bring this up to his clan elders. That might have been something impressive at one time, perhaps even to Sera, but at this point it made him seem like a petulant child. Sera sent back a message that they were thinking of increasing the price further and taking it to the dragon elders, meaning of all the clans, before she put her communicator on Do Not Disturb, the same as if she were in a dungeon or other instance. All Barnabas' messages would stop at that DND status and wait, and he would get notification about the status, meaning he would see he was just yelling into the void. Hopefully, the one two punch of their raising of the stakes and ignoring him would have him up and fuming all night. Without a Mana Physique and a lot of rebirths under his belt, he was far more likely to feel lost sleep like that than they would be, though Beth was perfectly happy to pull Sera on top of her and pass out.

The next day, they woke to a lovely breakfast before getting ready to saunter down to the arena to fight some more. They were interrupted from those plans when they got a message that they, all four of them, were requested at a meeting, which was to be a full meeting of the clan leaders. Sera just sighed and rolled her eyes at that, explaining that it was likely from her bet, which was a bit extreme, but they'd all have to go down to the main hall. It would likely include all the leaders of the various dragon clans, a bunch of the Elders, and more important people besides. Then, there'd also be hangers-on and guests and such, so the place was likely to be quite lively, especially if there was more on the docket than just their bet and performance in the fights.

"What can we expect?" Val, always more concerned with image and politics than basically anyone else in their group, inquired as they walked to the meeting.

Sera sighed before saying, "It's going to be a bunch of old fogeys sitting around, droning on for minutes and minutes, each, about what should and shouldn’t be done and how to uphold the rules fairly. I expect there's more to it than just that, but I also have an idea to throw a wrench into the works, so just sit back and watch."

"Just don't make too much of a mess," Val said, shaking her head.

They finished the walk to the main hall, finding it arrayed in a fashion where the host family, the black dragons, in this case, would be at the head of the hall, while other important members would be arrayed in two rows facing each other down the center. Less important members were then seated behind those rows and plenty of chairs had been arranged to accommodate quite a few people at the meeting. Sera took a place at the right edge of her family with Beth seated directly behind her while Val and Blood were next to Beth. Normally, Sera's guests would have been seated behind her as lesser voices in the meeting, but there were a pile of reasons why that wouldn't work. Beth was not only engaged to Sera, she was essentially an Exalted-in-waiting, so pushing her into the background wouldn't do. Val was very important in her own right, the next air of the kresnik clan in the Milky Way, so it wouldn't do to insult her. That left Blood, who was dating Val and was Beth's only bond, putting her in a sort of weird place where whoever arranged the seats must have just given up and said fuck it, putting her on the same level as the other three.

Sera pointed out the others as they filed in or were already there, for some few, and it essentially was a split between four groups. There were other clan heirs like Sera and Barnabas, and technically Val, but they were just talking about the dragon clans there. The second group were the clan heads, like Sera's parents, and there were a lot of them, lending credence to Sera's thoughts that bigger things were in the works. The third group were the Elders, not all of whom had places in the front row, as it were, but they had heavy representation in the meeting. The final group were the clan administrators, as each of the dragon clans had someone that that basically oversaw day-to-day operations, freeing the clan head to negotiate deals, work on leveling up, engage in diplomacy, or a hundred other things they either had to or might want to do. The guests weren't counted as a fifth group as Sera's guests were the only ones that had a place of honor in the current meeting; not that that was a unique experience, but there was nobody else visiting the dragon clans right now that held the same level of importance.

When everyone was there, though Beth wasn't sure how they could tell, Sera's father called them to order and started the meeting. Despite how important Sera's return to the clan and duel with Barnabas might have been, it was not the first thing on the docket, that thing being a discussion of a trade deal. A very long, very boring discussion of a trade deal, one which Beth thought might go all the way to lunch time, but they managed to cut it off before absolutely everyone in the room was asleep. Sera's return and duel, comparatively, was important enough to rate being the second item on the docket, with quite a few people casting their group disparaging looks or more neutral, interested glances.

"Our erstwhile daughter, and probable heir, has returned from her little journey," Sera's father started.

"Don't get used to it," Sera herself cut in, immediately causing some disturbance in the hall.

"Sera!" her father snapped, though there was a weary acceptance in his voice. Seeing she wasn't going to interrupt again, he continued, "Seeing that our daughter has returned, we were already going to call a meeting of clans for several reasons, but naming her as our official heir was the first piece of business. However! It has come to our attention that there has been a continuation of an, shall we say, incident that was involved in her original trip out of the clan halls. We need to attend to this business before we can move forward with the rest of our agenda."

"This hardly needs a full clan meeting," Sera said, and there was quite a murmur of agreement to that statement.

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"While I agree, the meeting is pertinent to other matters, but now your matters, and our family matters, are wrapped up in it," Sera's father replied in an annoyed tone. "Now, let us hear the complaint before we continue on."

"It was a duel," said somebody that Beth didn't recognize. Sera quietly pinged her that it was the leader of the red dragons. "And in that duel, wagers were placed on the line, as is natural. I would normally say this is the domain of the youths just stretching their legs a bit, but the demands made after the duel was completed were unreasonable to the extreme."

"Rich coming from those demanding a max Royal Rose term," Sera cut in, getting a mixed and varied reaction from the room at that.

"Sera!" her father snapped again, though it was in a manner of someone long suffering under the same angst.

"The terms of the bet were that a payment would be made," the head of the red dragon clan said, though Beth could see a vein throbbing on his temple. "The demanded sum, however, changed considerably from one moment to the next. The clan is prepared to pay the agreed upon amount, but not the extortionist amount that was demanded after the duel was concluded."

"Is this true, Sera?" Sera's mother asked.

"A gross distortion," Sera replied with a wave of her hand. "We agreed on a wager, agreeing on the standard terms of winning a duel, and we fought. He lost. The bet was for an amount of equal worth to my service at the Royal Rose, and he agreed to pay out on a loss. I still haven't gotten my money."

"Then what's the issue with the bet?" Sera's father cut in with an exasperated edge to his tone.

"She tried to increase the amount beyond all reason!" Barnabas cut in from his place at his father's right hand. "There was an agreed upon amount before the duel, but after winning, she has pushed that amount to many times what is reasonable."

"What is reasonable?" Beth cut in with a snort. "We were clear on the bet. It was Sera's value for a Royal Rose contract. You assumed it was for her initial contract, when she was weak and inexperienced, but she's not weak or inexperienced anymore. Her price has increased significantly. You just didn't take that into account."

Sera's father leaned his face into his right hand, the elbow resting on the arm of his chair, which was a great reaction, as the room now devolved into chaos. It wasn't that surprising to Beth, but everyone had an opinion and everyone wanted that opinion to be heard right now. The place didn't calm down for more than twenty minutes, though there was still a shouting match happening between two elders and Sera and Barnabas were loudly arguing with each other about the bet amount. Eventually, Sera's father demanded silence, flexing his high rebirth Ascended power to get most of the hall to shut the hell up. It didn't go unnoticed that Beth was entirely unaffected by the flex, but that was something to bring up at another time. For her, it didn't really feel like much of anything happened, but it was clear a suppressive force crushed down on the others in the room.

"Enough!" Sera's father bellowed.

"It's easy to solve," Sera said once the room was quiet.

"Oh? This I have to hear," Sera's mother said, speaking for the first time in quite a while.

"We enter the Grand Palace and compete for the greater honor and greater share," Sera said simply.

To Beth, it seemed a pretty simple statement, even if she didn't exactly know what Sera was talking about, but the furor before was nothing as compared to the explosion of noise and protest that followed that simple statement. The debate raged, quite literally for a few participants who got a little overeager in their protests and were on their feet yelling, looking ready to come to blows. Sera's father didn't let it carry on as long this time, clamping down on the room rather hard after a minute or two of the arguments bouncing back and forth. He made sure everyone was quiet and back in their seats before he started speaking again.

"Sera's suggestion would normally be out of line," he started, ignoring Sera's snort. "However, not only is there some merit in her suggestion, this was an item on this meeting's agenda in the first place."

Sera's father raised a hand and flexed his power before the room could erupt again descend into madness. That shut everybody up rather handily, and he then spoke again. "It was already time to activate the Palace again, and this makes a good chance to settle a handful of various issues with one running. We have the resources gathered, and every clan will have allotments based on contribution. That will be anywhere from five to fifteen places for this running, and you clan heads know where you stand; if you need me to tell you, it is probably time you think about stepping down."

There was a general muttering and some not-so-snide whispers at that, which Sera's father let run for a moment before bringing the attention back to him. "We were already making plans to open the Grand Palace, and now it will be officially declared. You have three days from now, and on that day, at noon local time, we will conduct the ceremony and open the palace. There are several issues of note here, including the opportunity for the current heirs who have not partaken in an opening to have their one opportunity. We also have the bet between my daughter and the Red Dragon Clan heir, which is now extending into the rankings in the Grand Palace. Lastly, we have the issue of the material replenishment; make sure that participants are well aware of the expected returns in that regard. We do not want to have to acquire those materials through other means, as I am sure both the clan heads and Elders will readily agree."

'The hell is this Grand Palace you're all talking about?' Beth sent to their small group while Sera's dad talked.

'I'll explain after the meeting is over,' Sera answered, so Beth settled back and waited for the rest of the business, which included some very dragon-clan specific talk, to conclude. After the full meeting was finished, everyone was allowed to leave, and there was a general buzz of excitement and anticipation in the air, many different conversations breaking out as soon as Sera's parents had stood and left the hall, signaling the meeting's official end.

The girls made their way back to Sera's rooms, which were located pretty far from the main hall. Sera had them all eat and get something to drink first, as they had been stuck in the meeting without anything more than a very light refreshment for many hours. Once they had eaten and were nursing something distinctly potable, Sera started her explanation.

"It wasn't exactly how I wanted it to play out, but this is really good for us," she said.

"So, what exactly happened? I don't really get it," Beth said.

"I'll explain everything, but first let me just say that the Grand Palace is a special challenge dungeon that the dragon clans have access to, though if you asked around, most people would say my family owns it," Sera explained. "It's a dungeon that isn't just open, but requires certain things to be opened, so the chance to go in can be rare, depending on a couple factors. I think that's really the underlying reason that the clan heads and heirs were all gathering here and that a full meeting was called in the first place. My pushing for it to be opened just happened to perfectly play into my parents', and some of the Elders', hands."

"So, what does that part mean for us?" Val asked.

"We shouldn't have any problem securing spots. The dungeon either doesn't accept, or works entirely differently, for people after Enlightened, so the fact we're at Enlightened will mean we get the hardest challenge but the best rewards," Sera said. "It's basically a really big opportunity and something I wanted to make sure we got a chance at while here, if I could."

"Should we call the others?" Beth asked, chewing her bottom lip a bit.

"Not for this," Sera said, shaking her head. "Just getting all four of us spots from my family for this run will be a challenge, and that's without some other factors that might make things difficult. I'll cover everything in a minute, but just know that, while it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we can get spots for other people later. We would just have to pay a commensurate price."