Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 443

Chapter 443: Negotiations
Arguing with the wights was an arduous task. Each one took turns voicing pieces of the Emperor’s demands.

Once Anaisa had understood that the Emperor wanted her to surrender all powers on behalf of the human race, she hesitated.

She would willingly surrender her own. Happily so; she had not wanted magic in the first place.

Ben had even been willing to surrender any human claims on the tree, after some discussion, but to give up all existing magic in the human world?

The time without magic, after the tree was damaged, was difficult. The kingdom got through it, but there were setbacks.

In crops, in healing, in all sorts of realms where people had become reliant on magic.

For Anaisa, it was also personal. She had spent the equivalent of many lifetimes in Trace’s dream world with him… and the Emperor was demanding that she give that up, forever.

In addition to all that, there was the practical impossibility of rounding up every magic user to bring them to the Emperor to have their powers removed. Doubtless there were some in secret, and many who would resist having their magic taken from them.

The Emperor’s retribution against either those specific magic users, or the entire human race, was too big a risk to take. And so, negotiations of a sort had ensued.

The dozen or so wights had come, speaking a bit more, and more softly, than the Emperor was willing.

Anaisa still didn’t understand why he couldn’t string entire sentences together. Perhaps he had a distaste for human language and wanted to use it as little as possible. Perhaps, given how it shook the walls and floor whenever he spoke, he was unwilling to make his castle crumble for the sake of a conversation.

“What if we surrendered the powers granted by direct contact with the tree, but you left magic with the people who were born with power?” She suggested.

That, surely, was a reasonable middle ground. And not too difficult for humans to comply with since the people who had been given powers by the tree were all known to her personally. Anaisa figured that, apart from Denholm, all could be convinced to give up their powers.

Ben frowned, and so did the Emperor.

“Unacceptable,” One of the wights intoned on his behalf.

Anaisa held back a sigh of frustration and tried again.

“Your Majesty, you seem concerned with morality and lies. That is something we have in common. Perhaps any magic user who uses their power for evil shall be submitted to the wights to have their magic stripped from them, in addition to any further punishment the human courts should impose?”

There was a pause. A slight tilt of the Emperor’s head as he considered her words.

That seemed like progress.

“Determination?” Another of the wights used his apparent allotment of language to ask her, and she hesitated before clarifying.

“You’re asking who would determine whether the magic had been used for evil?” She asked.

A nod from the Emperor. It wasn’t agreement with the entire principle, only confirmation that the question at hand had been correctly identified.

Anaisa looked towards the prince. Ben had a thoughtful look behind his eyes, and she understood the difficulty in negotiations.

Give too little, and you risk the other party walking away—in this case, to destroy humankind–but give too much, and he would be potentially subjecting humans to the justiciable ideations of a practically alien race with unknown morals.

“We can make our justice code available to you for perusal, and see if there are any added offenses you would add to the list. I imagine we have much in common in what we hold to be unacceptable behavior–thievery, murder, assault, and other matters.

“Once we are in full agreement on which offenses merit removal of powers, our courts and justice system will hold trials for wrongdoers and refer magic users for punishment.”

Ben stood straighter, looking at the Emperor with a calm facade. Anaisa, since she was standing right next to him, was the only one likely to notice the slight tremble in his hands.

The Emperor’s dark eyes were impassive. The wights, too, were silent as they awaited his deliberation. Anaisa cleared her throat.

“It seems as though we are getting into matters of detail, which is better served in a subsequent meeting with scribes to take notes in order to see things properly administered. May I take the liberty of guessing that we have a tentative basis for a treaty between our peoples?”

Having a declaration of at least a promise to not immediately destroy the human race, pending further discussion, would be a huge victory. If Anaisa could claim it, she could get Trace and the others home and send the king himself to work things out with the Emperor.

The monarch narrowed his eyes at her, and she struggled not to shrink under his powerful gaze.

“As a token of our good will, I am ready and willing to give up the magic I have at this very moment.” She added as an afterthought.

It made sense that he wanted something from them in order to incentivize him into giving up his immediate wrath. Would that be enough to assuage him temporarily?

“All tree powers,” One of the wights put in.

“I beg your pardon, can you clarify that?” She requested. Interpreting their cryptic statements was becoming more difficult as exhaustion ate at her.

Physically, she was ready and willing to keep going, but mentally and emotionally, she was growing rather drained.

“All here,” Another intoned, and Anaisa closed her eyes for a moment.

“You would like all the magic users present that got their powers directly from the tree to give them up now?” Ben guessed.

The Emperor nodded slowly.

Anaisa bit her lip. How far had they gotten? Mentally, she listed them off. Grandpa, Martin, Ford… and Denholm.

That might present a problem.

“I’m not sure where they are, but I can try to get them to come,” Anaisa said calmly. The Emperor’s eyes narrowed again.

Anaisa flinched. Clearly he caught on to Ford’s ability to hide. If Anaisa couldn’t get him to come out… all the progress they had made might be for naught.