Ar'Kendrithyst

To the right, on the blue side, stood Niyazo and a few leaders of Pale Cow. Speaker Yorila was there, too, oddly enough, but perhaps even odder than that, was the presence of Koori. Yorila’s presence signified that Pale Cow was willing to submit a caster to the probable battle; they were willing to break their traditional orthodoxy. Erick shouldn’t have been too surprised by that, he supposed, since he participated in yesterday’s debate, and Blue Sky was, of course, going to field a caster or three. The rules of debate were already agreed upon before anyone stepped up to the stage, and these debates were strictly of the ‘standard’ variety.

But Koori being there meant that she would be participating in the battle, and that battle would include magic… And Koori had a personal hatred of magic.

She was breaking her own morality to be there on that stage.

Koori’s presence held much of Erick’s attention, and he was not the only one to take heavy note of her. To the left, on the orange side of the stage, the people of Blue Sky saw Koori and were nervous. All Erick truly knew was that Koori had some sort of [Cleansing Domain], but these people knew a lot more than that; they knew her actual capabilities.

A bit further to the left, outside of the debating area, stood two other groups of people with clear connections to Blue Sky. Linxel from Green Grass was the most noticeable, at well over two decimeters taller than the next tallest person and with spiraling horns beyond that. Some people with some brown dogs stood next to Green Grass and Blue Sky. They had to be from Clan Brown Dog, but Erick didn’t know much about them. Brown Dog only had three people in attendance, though, each with their own brown dog at their side. That full clan had yet to show up in Ooloraptoor, but they should all be here in the next day or so.

Elder Teer stood in front of the crowd, bringing the debate to order. She spoke a shortened version of her speech from yesterday, laying a foundation that would hopefully foster peaceful discussion of Integration.

And then the first speakers took their places by the podiums.

The actual debate started off normal enough. One of the leaders of Pale Cow got up on stage and spoke of how the world was changing, and how they needed to band together, or else outside forces would corrupt them from multiple directions at the same time. They spoke of hope; that the grass travelers could keep their nomadic ways of life, exactly how the orcols managed to keep their nomadic ways of life, even after the establishment of Treehome. Just like how had been proven before, a civilization could be organized alongside a strong center without infringing on the individuality of separate clans.

And then a guy from Blue Sky took the stage and spoke of how the orcols were some of the worst people to take examples from, for they had failed to keep the Forest of Glaquin habitable. If the orcols were forest-cullers like Blue Sky, or like Green Grass, then maybe they wouldn’t have needed an archmage’s help to drive back the shadows in the Deep Green.

Teressa scoffed. “Now that’s just insulting.” She flicked a hand toward the screen, scowling deeply. “Assholes over here never grew up with forests that fight back and they think they could do better than us!”

Erick glanced backward for a moment. Teressa was truly angry.

He turned back to the screen.

The speaker for Blue Sky spoke of how Integration would drive people away from doing their sacred duty of burning all trees to the ground. Within twenty years of integration, forests would return to the grasslands, and with them would come the more dangerous monsters, and with that danger, would come death, and an expansion of the forest into a true Forest.

Pale Cow countered how, with a centralized system, they could raise forest cullers up to positions of power to keep the land clear of forests. Then they started offering solid organization solutions to how such an undertaking would be achieved. They spoke of offices and bureaucracy, and they also spoke of quick response times to danger that didn’t involve a nobility overseeing everything.

Blue Sky’s response was instant, “There would always be a nobility in these sorts of situations. There would always be a top, and a bottom, with a gulf between the two based on the size of the society. If all the wealth in a community is just ten gold, the most anyone could ever lord their money over another is with that ten gold, and that ten gold would soon become worthless in trade. But you’re talking about making a community with ever-increasing wealth; with a nobility that has no limits. Maybe the disparity you create won’t be of gold, but there will be a disparity, and that means an eventual nobility. There is no way around this.”

The speaker of Pale Cow was expecting this sort of response. So they launched right into the idea of transferable power, speaking of many things which Erick had spoken of last night, to Niyazo and Koori. They spoke of how the problems with transferable power only occurred when communities could not respect the institution, but the grass travelers had been having debates like this for a long time; they could do tradition, and they could even make new ones. Traditions that could stand the test of time. Traditions where nobility was not allowed footholds, for that sort of power would always be split among the people, instead.

Erick sighed, “Oh gods.”

Jane couldn’t hold it in any longer. She laughed, then said, “Serves you right! Telling them about this stuff.”

“It’s a nice idea, I suppose; transferable power.” Nirzir said, “Arcanaeums do it all the time the world over. Every commoner corporation or business does it… But to apply this idea to government? I mean. Commoner businesses exist because the nobility looks out for them, while arcanaeums exist because of the Headmaster.”

Teressa said, “I was gonna say that Treehome has an elected government, but the Arbors aren’t elected. So… Yeah.”

“There are problems with the idea of transferable power,” Erick said. “Most of them are solvable.” A bit sarcastically, he added, “You just need some immortal, incorruptible powerhouses which will let the people below them do their own things.”

“Easy to solve,” Jane said, copying her father’s sarcasm.

“… You both say it like the answer isn’t obvious.” Teressa said, “They just gotta make some arbors and get over their stupid aversion to the Forest.”

Poi kept his opinion to himself.

“Clan Void Song takes in lots of people and raises them all to power.” Nirzir said, “These people could do that, too.” She paused, then said, “We don’t meddle overmuch in the lives of people below us.”

“You two don’t get it.” Jane said, “These people don’t want anyone at the top, for they know that whoever is at the top likely won’t be them, or their children.”

Poi nodded.

Teressa and Nirzir fell silent.

The debates continued, with Blue Sky tearing down Pale Cow’s ideas, and Pale Cow continually offering solutions to all of Blue Sky’s concerns.

While all that happened, Erick killed monsters according to applications dropped off by various petitioners and Blessed people in the mountains. Most of his attention was on the debates, though.

After a while, after a few choice words by Clan Blue Sky, Erick’s attention went solely toward the debates, because something tickled his mind as he was watching; he was seeing something more than what most other people saw. Nearly an hour had passed with neither side losing a single speaker, for the elders had yet to vote either side off, and the audience was large, and listening. This was slightly abnormal; someone should have been voted off by now. And yet, the first two speakers were still up there.

Not too surprising, in retrospect, for aside from the first bit of banter, not a single old argument had been trod out to be judged. Everything the two speakers discussed was new, so of course the elders hadn’t voted anyone off.

And Erick had seen something in the way that Blue Sky spoke, and the way that Pale Cow answered, something he wasn’t quite sure he had truly seen. But...

Oh.

The Blue Sky speaker ended their turn, setting up the pins, “Every word out of your mouth is nothing more than wishful thinking. It’s all theory. It’s all imaginative lies; little more than a warm wind on the freezing cold tundra that is reality.”

And Pale Cow knocked them down, “But we do have proof that these ideas of transferable power work. We have spoken to Archmage Flatt about his world, where many of these ideas are present, and…”

The guy continued to speak, but Erick had seen enough.

Erick told his people, “So nothing is happening, but I have something to say. I’m putting up a Privacy for a moment.” And then he did. The world beyond the yurt remained visible, but they were cut off from all of it. He turned to his people, and to Nirzir. Poi nodded a little; knowing what was happening, but the other three were worried. Erick tried to put their worries to rest, “Nothing bad has happened, but I don’t want these words to be repeated outside of this space.” He moved right along, “I don’t know how it happened, or what happened, exactly, but it appears that Pale Cow and Blue Sky wanted to work together, and they’re doing it as covertly as they can. There’s a lot of true animosity between both sides, so all of that which you see up there has been real, and maybe the speakers after these first two will bring actual anger to the discussion, but Pale Cow and Blue Sky are working together.” Erick said, “We are not going to interfere in whatever they’re doing, and we’re not going to let anyone know that we know, either.”

Teressa was quick on the uptake, and on the ramifications. “So does that mean we’re moving on?”

“Not today, but sooner than I thought we would.” Erick said, “This also means we might not have to worry about a dragon attack from Ordoonarati. Honestly… I do not like what he did to Green Grass, or him sending the Mirage Dragon to try and assassinate me, and there might be some soul mutilation happening out there right now, but while I will check up on that, I’m not willing to start a war with a dragon that doesn’t want to fight.”

Teressa and Poi instantly understood; both of them relaxed in that moment. Jane gradually understood, too, but she didn’t like his decision. Nirzir was… disappointed. Yup; disappointed.

The princess of Void Song said, “But you killed all the Shades. I’ve seen what you can do. A dragon shouldn’t pose any threat?” She added, “A dragon that has probably soul mutilated the people on that stage.”

Poi said, “We can check for soul mutilation, but that doesn’t matter when it comes to the larger powers, and dragons qualify.”

“But?” Nirzir’s frown deepened.

“It’s too many unknowns.” Teressa said, “You never fight an unknown if you don’t have to, and we have no idea where the dragon is, or what they can do.”

“But…” Nirzir just shook her head a little.

Jane looked at her father, saying, “I don’t like this decision either. The dragon tried to get at you twice, and he killed people and mutilated their souls in order to do that. This dragon is not someone you should leave at your back.”

Poi said, “I would prefer not to be near a dragon fight if it is not necessary, and it might not actually be necessary in this case. We can check for soul mutilations on the people out there.”

Teressa asked, “You could try to send a message to the dragon, boss? To see if you’re actually on the same side now?”

“We are not on the same side.” Erick said, “But I don’t…” He felt tired. He looked away. “I could reach out, perhaps. See if he will take back his promise to go to war if he loses these debates. See if he’s purposely losing, now, which he seems to be.” He added, “I just wanted to let you all know what I see, to let you know why I’ll be making some of the decisions I’ll be making in the near future, before I make them. Let’s not talk about this outside of a Privacy, or [Telepathy].”

A round of nods followed Erick’s words. Nirzir was deeply unhappy, but she hid that away as best she could. Jane, though, resigned herself to acceptance.

Erick told the young girl, “We can talk later about this, okay?”

Nirzir sat a bit straighter. She nodded.

Erick dispersed the Privacy, and recast the [True Viewing Screen].

They watched the debate for a while longer, but almost all of the tension was gone. A lot of the words that passed between the two first speakers, who were still talking, were not exactly choreographed, but they were definitely organized beforehand. Some of the elders were obviously in on the deception, too, though not many of them; more than enough to ensure that neither speaker could be voted off until they were done speaking. Teer was clearly a part of the choreography.

An hour and a half into the ‘debate’, something finally broke in the equilibrium between orange and blue, and Pale Cow got voted off, first. Blue Sky took a shot at the second trained speaker from Pale Cow, and then flubbed an argument on purpose to get voted off.

Nirzir’s voice was small, as she said, “It’s rather obvious when you look for it, isn’t it.”

“Yeah; it is.” Jane turned to her father, and said, “You know, dad. It turns out I really miss television. And snacks. I’m getting more snacks.” She asked everyone, “Anyone want some?”

Everyone wanted more snacks.

Jane smiled at her father, saying, “You should invent soda.”

Erick smiled. “I could, couldn’t I. Oh! I’ll make something lemony. I always liked that stuff.”

“A lemon and lime combination flavor, perhaps? Maybe seven flavors, together? Not unlike the myriad citrus?” Jane smirked as she asked, “What will you call it?”

Erick announced, “Archmage Flatt’s Fizzy Citrus Surprise!”

Jane’s smile vanished, then it came back as she laughed.

“There will be no copyright infringement on my watch,” Erick said, most seriously.

Nirzir was lost. She asked Teressa, “What’s a copyright?”

“Some earth-thing, for sure,” Teressa said.

- - - -

It started off as a lark, but Erick could make soda if he wanted, couldn’t he? So while he watched the debates, and snacked on sweet rice and marshmallow treats, he did a bit of magic on the side. [Condense Carbon] and [Condense Oxygen] were not enough, though; Erick needed to create usable CO2, which meant a solid that could be easily transported, or contained, and not a gas. To make that final leap, Erick included another spell that he had gotten from a different member of the mage trio, back in Spur.