“Anything else?” he asked innocently.
Melcayro waved him away. Neither he nor his sister took their eyes off Jularra, who sighed.
“Do you know why I’m in a hurry? Do you know why my mission is so urgent?”
Melcayro shook his head, but Abranni sat back in her seat. “Let me guess: the blood pact with the Voidwarden.”
Jularra said nothing. She didn’t need to. Instead, she reached for her stout, staring into the mug before taking a quick sniff. With a solemn, approving nod, she held up her mug to Abranni before doing the same to Melcayro. The siblings responded in kind, and together the three of them took deep gulps of the dark, strong ale.
“That’s good,” Jularra said softly. She took another quick sip and then sat her mug on the table.
“So, let me ask again: what do you need from me?”
Melcayro and Abranni shared another silent exchange.
“We need your help in defeating Hignriten,” Melcayro said flatly.
Jularra blinked a few times in disbelief. Then she chuckled without humor. “I just need to know where Leona is!” she said sharply. “And you’re wanting me to go to war with you?”
Melcayro had clearly anticipated her reaction.
“Jularra. I know it seems like an incredibly unbalanced request, but we could make it up to you - make it up to your people. We have resources, magical knowledge, relics. It wouldn’t be such a one-sided arrangement forever.”
Jularra scoffed. “I have no idea when, or even if, I could commit to an actual assault—and that’s if we came to such an agreement.”
“We assumed as much, Jularra,” Abranni said, matching her brother’s new-found submissive diplomacy.
Melcayro added to his plea.
“Our people have had no real sense of peace since the separation. We’re constantly having to defend ourselves. We're tired of losing innocent lives, and we want to make a decisive break, once and for all.”
“Or at last threaten them with war if they don’t recognize our independence,” Abranni added.
Jularra grabbed her mug and sat back in her chair.
I wish I could run this by Korden.
She turned to Melcayro.
“I can’t give you an answer right now. I want to, but I can’t." She heard her voice rising and didn't try to control it. "I don’t even fucking know if I’ll be alive in six months' time!”
The table fell silent.
Abranni stared at Jularra. Her eyes shone with empathy.
“Just… think about it, please,” Abranni pleaded. “Like Melcayro said: I’m sure we can come up with something to make it worth your while.”
Jularra straightened in her chair and looked at them both. The siblings exchanged a final glance, then Melcayro gave in.
“We’ll tell you how to find Leona.”
Jularra’s heart soared. She closed her eyes and sighed in relief.
“Thank you.”
“In fact,” Melcayro continued. “If you’ll give us a few hours to prepare, we can go with you.”
“Oh, there’s no need for—”
“I insist," Melcayro said, shaking his head. “If we’re going to ask you to eventually go to war with us, the least we can do is see you safely to Leona.”
Jularra grabbed her mug and took another gulp. She turned to Vischuno and Wona, who were both smiling hopefully with the positive turn in their new alliance. Jularra, however, knew her face showed frustration at the thought of having to wait a few hours. Jularra waited to hear their input.
Vischuno spoke up first, making no attempt to speak quietly.
“If they had wanted us dead, they had plenty of opportunities to see to it before now,” he announced.
Without missing a beat, Abranni replied, "How’s your stout?”
Vischuno’s eyes widened. He looked down into his mug, and then back to Abranni, only to see her smiling.
“That isn’t funny!” Vischuno roared.
Wona tried to hold in her laughter, but spat and spluttered into a chest-pounding guffaw.
Vischuno glared at Abranni, but couldn’t prevent a grin from sneaking onto his own mouth.
As the table erupted into fresh rounds of laughter, Melcayro raised his hand to an attendant along a nearby wall.
“Take some rest and resupply, and we can head out later today,” Melcayro said.
While Jularra looked to her fellow Acorilinians to confirm the plan, Melcayro continued.
“I do need to warn you, though...”
Jularra turned around, curious, half-expecting another joke.
“Leona is… formidable.”
The rustling and shifting around the table stilled.
“I know,” Jularra said. “We were actually directed to seek her out by an old friend of hers. He told me quite a bit about her.
“Well, I don’t know about all that,” Melcayro said. “But Leona doesn’t exactly answer to anyone, nor does she hold allegiance to anyone but herself.”
“From what I understand," said Jularra carefully, "Leona traveled to Hignriten because it was more magic-friendly. She wanted to further her knowledge and power faster and more freely than she could in Acorilan.”
Abranni nodded. “Right,” she said. “Hignriten and Messyleio have always been much friendlier to the study of the arts than elsewhere on the continent.”
“Well, that wasn’t always the case,” Jularra said. Her voice sagged with regret. “But we covered that earlier. We all know that my ancestors only cracked down on magic in the wake of the agreement with the Voidwarden—restricted it, and shunned it. And while it’s been privately practiced and taught for the last few generations of queens, I would like to restore it to its past glory." She paused. "I just need to break the Voidwarden’s hold over us somehow.”
Abranni and Melcayro looked at each other.
“That’s what this is about?” Melcayro asked, surprised.
Jularra looked down at the table as she nodded. Abranni leaned back, her eyes wide.
“I didn’t… I didn’t know you were trying to defeat the Voidwarden.”
Melcayro rubbed his face before running his fingers through his hair.
“Well… I guess if anyone might have the power to help, it would be Leona.”
Melcayro folded his hands together. He looked like he was trying to find what he wanted to say in the worn grain of the wooden table.
“I’m telling you, Jularra. Leona is… wild.”
“Wild?”
“Wild. Not as in, 'out of control'. More... feral.”
Jularra glanced at Abranni. Her face was rigid and sober.
“She came out
