Kenna and Zaremba stared at Laryn, mouths open.

  “Me, a subordinate?” Zaremba exclaimed.

  “You’d let goblins join the kingdom?” Kenna asked at the same time.

  “We could even designate the next few mages to be yours. Goblins, I mean,” Laryn said. “They could be a part of your personal bodyguard.”

  “I am a princess of Grekhol,” Zaremba said.

  “It’s either join with us, or flee forever.”

  Zaremba rubbed her face with both hands. The scarred stubs of her severed fingers were white. She groaned.

  “I don’t want to be part of a human kingdom.”

  Laryn watched her silently. Kenna elbowed him in the ribs, leaning in. “You don’t want goblins in your kingdom,” she whispered. “They’re a menace; uncontrollable, and all your human subjects will leave.”

  “Hush.”

  Zaremba raised her head. “How strong are your mages?” she asked.

  “Four stat points. Two in magic affinity, one in strength, one in constitution.”

  “Not that strong, then,” Zaremba said. “It would take several dozen to match the strength of my personal guard.”

  “With all due respect, your personal guard has been stripped of their roles by Gariz. Even one mage would be stronger than what you have now.”

  “I’m not sure how my guard would feel about being beholden to a human kingdom.”

  “If they care about doing their job to protect you, they’ll be willing to do it.”

  “What of the others?” Zaremba asked. “We have more than one thousand goblins with us. Will they be received into Vallor?”

  “Um…”

  Kenna shook her head aggressively.

  “Gariz may send his own hordes after us. We’ll all need the protections of a core.”

  “I had not considered—” Laryn trailed off as he thought about it. Wasn’t that a better outcome than having Zaremba setting up her own goblin kingdom using Harrat’s cores? Or even better than having Zaremba march off into the wilderness with her horde. If she did that, Vallor would certainly be overrun by Harrat. He needed to get her to stay…

  “There is room,” Laryn said. “If they can work to produce, and not steal or burden the kingdom.”

  Kenna squirmed.

  “Yes,” Zaremba mused.

  “But that’s a future problem,” Laryn said. “What matters now is you. We can deal with broader specifics later. But I promise you that we’ll do everything that we can to protect you and your people. We could create a special region within Vallor, of which you are queen and have all authority over the goblins in your care.”

  “A Geas,” Zaremba said, rising suddenly. “I’ll do it but I want a geas. We need to be certain about this. And once we have defeated Harrat, we’ll return to Grekhol. I’ll overthrow Gariz and claim my rightful place.”

  “Yes…” Laryn said, suddenly nervous. Was he committing himself to a campaign against Grekhol? “For now let’s just add you to the kingdom, and I’ll make you a mage,” Laryn said.

  He called to Adi in his mind and asked her to start preparing a geas.

  “Can do,” she said. “It’ll become valid upon her acceptance of the offer to join Vallor.”

  “That’s not enough,” Zaremba said. “I trust that you have good intentions, but contracts are formed so that we don’t have disagreements over details where we thought we agreed. I need the contract to contain more than that.”

  “Like what?” Laryn asked, checking to make sure Adi was paying attention, listening through their link.

  “First, I want the authority to join any goblins to Vallor. If they swear fealty to me, I’ll be their queen and they’ll only be answerable to me.”

  Laryn gestured for her to continue. “Tell me everything you want and we can discuss each point.”

  “Okay. I must have the right of emigration; freedom to abandon Vallor for any reason at any time, and take every goblin with me. I also want a guarantee that the next… twelve mages that you designate will be goblins under my command. And I want a recognition that you support my claim to Grekhol’s throne.”

  “Laryn, she’s asking for a lot but not offering anything in return,” Adi said in his mind. Laryn recalled his earlier nervousness that Zaremba might be plotting to take his kingdom core from him. It was a reasonable target, and he would need to protect against that.

  He activated his [Temporal Thinking Space]

  “What do you recommend?” he asked Adi.

  “A few things. Tie the right to emigration to certain conditions. You don’t want her to simply wake up one morning in the middle of your kingdom and declare war against you.”

  “Fair,” Laryn said. “And doesn’t twelve mages seem like way too many to you?”

  “Yes,” Adi said. “You also need mages. And labor. You should also obligate her and her goblins to feed themselves, but to also produce products for sifting to feed to the core. I wouldn’t agree to support her in a campaign against Grekhol, it’s too open ended and troublesome. You also need to have a conflict clause; if a rule of the kingdom conflicts with a declaration of Zaremba, your authority supersedes hers.”

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  “I don’t know if she’ll agree to all that,” Laryn said. “It’s asking for a lot, isn’t it?”

  “You’re in the superior bargaining position,” Adi said. “She needs you, or else she’s running for her life to the west.”

  “I need her too, though,” Laryn said. “We’re going to be destroyed by Harrat if she abandons us here.”

  “So maybe you’re in an equivalent bargaining position then,” Adi replied. “If she wants to ask for a lot, then you can ask for a lot and meet somewhere in the middle.”

  “Okay, let’s talk through it with her then.”

  The thinking space crumbled, and Laryn presented his counter offer.

  “You ask for a lot,” Laryn said. “Here is my counter offer to you.

  “Any goblins who swear fealty to you will be your subjects, but they will also be subjects of Vallor. I will grant a right of emigration, conditional upon Harrat’s death or removal of his forces from the region, and with a required seven day notice. However all gathered or extracted resources will remain property of Vallor.

  “Twelve mages is impossible. I will grant you the next two mage designations. If you want more mages, your people will have to provide enough raw materials to [Sift] so that additional mage rings can be claimed without lowering the influence of Vallor.

  “In addition, I will establish a weekly quota of essence that your mages must produce to support Vallor.

  “I will not oppose your claim to the throne of Grekhol.

  “You and your goblins will obey the code established in Vallor.”

  He recited the six rules to her. When he reached the sixth, he offered additional explanation.

  “Anyone disobeying the express order of the [Ruler] or his representative, or working against the success of the kingdom will be whipped not less than one dozen times, and required to labor until restitution is made,” he said. “You would be my representative, in this case, and you would administer justice in accordance with these rules. But to be clear, in the event that you and I disagree, my word is the final law.”

  He asserted this final phrase with more confidence than he felt, locking eyes with Zaremba. The goblin princess returned his gaze, and seemed to shiver slightly.

  “I understand,” Zaremba said, continuing to watch Laryn. He couldn’t decide if her gaze was that of a predator who’d just made a kill, or a cornered animal, agreeing out of desperation. “My right of Emigration is my defense against untenable commands. Are you willing to reduce it to three days?”

  Laryn considered. If his fear was that she’d turn on him and try to take his core, was three days enough time to prepare to defend Vallor? For that matter, was seven even enough?

  “It must be seven,” Laryn said.

  Zaremba bit her lip. “Well. If it must be. An alliance is formed, then.”

  The geas was finalizes, and the goblin princess became the newest subject of Laryn’s kingdom. Laryn granted her the [Goblin Queen] role, which was a copy of the [Councilor] role, but also allowed her to join more goblins to the kingdom. He also gave her the [Mage] class.

  Her eyes danced around interestedly as she explored the interface.

  “This is a powerful core,” she said. Then, in a warm, sincere voice, she said, “Thank you for this. Good friends are hard to come by.”

  Laryn immediately felt guilty for suspecting Zaremba of plotting to betray him.

  “So,” he asked he. “What will you do first?”

  “My liege,” she said, smiling slyly. “You are the one in command.”

  “My word overrides yours, according to the contract. But I told you that I’d leave management of the goblins to you, and I intend to do that.”

  “Very well. I wish to receive further scouting reports on Harrat’s position. Then I think its time to surprise him with a blow to his backside.”

  “Good,” Laryn said. He was inclined to stay and hear the reports himself, but Kenna was stewing. She clearly had something to say to him, and he determined that it would be better to hear her out now, rather than letting the wrath brew.

  They excused themselves from the presence of the princess. They walked in silence back to their tent. Once they were within, Kenna’s frustration broke forth.

  “What in Ishtoran’s name do you think you just did! Allowing goblins to join our kingdom… do you know what that will do! Do you know how unsafe that makes Vallor, especially for women? And how are we possibly going to feed a thousand of the vile gremlins? You can’t be serious. Are you really so enchanted by that creature’s looks?”

  Laryn took a step back. He’d expected her to be annoyed, but this was another level.

  “And,” she continued. “How are we going trust them? You can’t have a geas with most goblins because they’re too stupid. The magic just doesn’t work! Your well-behaved pet of a princess might obey, but what about her horde? They’ll overrun us. They’ll destroy everything. This is a disaster!”

  “Hey, hey,” Laryn said, looking to poke a hole in the weakest part of her argument. “The contract stipulates that they have to support themselves. We don’t have to feed them all.”

  “It’s not about labor, its about the land! They’ll overrun everything, and where will we get our food for support? How will so many people subsist in such a small area?”

  “Fine,” Laryn said. “If we manage to defeat Harrat, I’ll figure it out. I’ll restrict goblins to the north side of the Ebil. Humans can have the island and the south bank. We’ll keep them separate, let them recover, and then send them back to Grekhol. That’s what Zaremba wants. She isn’t going to stick around in Vallor forever. We shelter them for a time, in exchange for fighting Harrat.”

  “I hate it,” Kenna said.

  “Well what else was I supposed to do?” Laryn demanded. “She was on the brink of fleeing to the west with her horde, and where would that leave us? Now at least we have some kind of army.”

  “One you barely control.”

  “It’s better than nothing. I don’t think you get how hard this is. I know I’m not always making the optimal, best decisions, but it’s impossible to know what those are in the moment. You can always criticize leaders with the benefit of hindsight, but it’s a useless exercise!”

  Kenna stared down at the ground. “You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap like that. When Bram and I made the decision to steal the module and run, we didn’t know if it was the right thing or the wrong thing. I’m still afraid it was the wrong decision.”

  “I disagree,” Laryn said. “You made the best choice you could with the knowledge you had at the time. That makes it right. Even if your inner critic disagrees.”

  Kenna nodded slowly. “I am nervous about what this alliance means. But it’s more important that we stick together, and support each other. I’ll do my best.”

  “Thank you,” Laryn said. “I don’t need your approval. But it means a lot to have your support.”

  Horns sounded, the signal to break camp and prepare to march. It seemed that Zaremba had decided their next move.

  Laryn returned to the princess’s tent to discuss the situation with her.

  Zaremba gave him the update. “Scouting reports suggest that Harrat is camped to the south, several hours march. He’s preparing to launch an attack, my scouts think soon, later today or tomorrow. If we push on now, we’ll hit him tonight.”