The Conquerors Path Chapter 1100 - 1098-What To Do With All This Land?(4)

Nobody moved for a while after the door shut. The scroll sat on the table like it was radiating heat, and everyone kept glancing at it like it might unroll itself and demand an answer right then.

Brek was the one who finally broke the stillness, tapping her knuckles twice against the wood, a habit I was starting to recognise as her version of clearing her throat before getting serious.

"Alright. Before anyone starts drafting fantasies about what having Imperial Beasts under our banner would look like, let’s actually talk about what that means."

"Meaning?"

I asked, already suspecting where this was going but wanting her to lay it out properly for the room.

"Meaning military weight is one thing, and prestige is another, but both of those come wrapped in a target the size of the entire war council once word gets out. Right now we’re small. Annoying to deal with because of the contract, sure, but small enough that most factions figure it’s easier to wait us out or work around us than go through the trouble of picking a fight. The moment Imperial Beasts are confirmed to be pledged to us, that calculation changes completely."

"How so?"

Carven asked, though from his tone it was clear he already had a guess and just wanted her to spell it out for the rest of the room.

"Because suddenly we’re not just some no-name faction sitting on valuable land anymore. We’re a no-name faction sitting on valuable land with Imperial Beasts backing us. That’s not a target that scares people off. That’s a target that draws every ambitious faction leader with half a brain and enough resources to attempt something reckless. Owning Imperial Beast loyalty, even shared loyalty, even conditional loyalty, is the kind of prize people start wars over. If we accept this, we’re not just protecting land anymore. We’re protecting something every major power in this world would kill to have for themselves first."

The room absorbed that in silence for a moment. Even Collis, who usually had something clever or biting ready within seconds, just sat there chewing on the implications.

"So the safety they’re offering us."

He finally said.

"Might come with a bigger danger attached than anything we’re currently facing."

"That’s the ugly math of it, yes."

Nobody had a clean answer for that. The timing was suspicious; there was no getting around it, even if the offer itself read as genuine on paper.

Carven leaned forward, tapping the edge of the table with two fingers, clearly trying to steer things toward something more actionable than paranoia.

"Suspicious or not, if we’re seriously considering this, there need to be conditions attached before any beast sets a single paw on our land. I’m not talking about restrictive terms meant to insult them. I mean practical boundaries. Designated settlement zones, clear separation from our operational areas, some form of verification process before full access is granted anywhere near sensitive locations. If this is genuine, reasonable creatures looking for safety won’t take offence to structure. If it’s a trap, structure is exactly what exposes it before it can do any real damage."

"And if they refuse those conditions?"

Brek asked.

"Then we’ve learned something valuable about how genuine this offer actually is, without having given up anything in return."

That got a few nods around the table. It was the kind of careful, grounded thinking that made Carven useful in situations like this, the kind of person who didn’t get swept up in excitement or fear, just methodically worked through what needed protecting and how.

"There’s a problem with drafting conditions blind, though."

Seris said, quill still hovering over her half-started terms.

"None of us actually know how these Imperial Beasts function on a societal level. We’re treating this like any other faction negotiation, but their customs, their hierarchy, what they consider insulting versus what they consider standard practice, none of that is something any of us in this room actually understands well enough to draft proper terms."

That was a fair point, and one that left the room quiet again, everyone realising just how much they were operating blind on something this significant.

"I might be able to help with that."

The voice came from near the far end of the table, someone who hadn’t spoken much during the entire meeting, one of the fifteen I recognised by face but hadn’t had much direct interaction with yet. She was a woman with a rougher, more weathered look than most in the room, hair kept short and practical, a faint scar running along her jaw that suggested a life lived somewhere far less comfortable than council halls and negotiation tables.

"Go ahead."

I said, gesturing for her to continue.

"My name’s Ferris, lord, in case introductions got skipped somewhere. Before joining here, I spent a few years working as a liaison for a border settlement that dealt with beastkin migrations regularly. Not Imperial Beasts specifically; those are a different tier entirely, but I’ve had enough exposure to how the broader hierarchy thinks to at least offer something useful here."

"Then offer it."

She straightened slightly, clearly not used to having the full attention of a room like this, but pushing through the discomfort anyway.

"First thing to understand is that Imperial Beasts don’t view loyalty the way factions do. For us, loyalty is transactional most of the time, built on contracts, mutual benefit, things that can be renegotiated or broken if circumstances change enough. For them, once loyalty is pledged, especially formally, in writing, through proper channels like this, it’s treated closer to a blood oath. Breaking it isn’t just a political inconvenience for them. It’s considered a genuine stain on their bloodline, something that follows their lineage for generations."

"So if this is genuine."

Carven said slowly, working through the implications.

"They wouldn’t take drafting conditions as an insult. They’d expect it, given how seriously they’d be taking the pledge themselves."

"Exactly. In fact, from what little I understand of their culture, offering vague, unstructured terms would probably concern them more than strict, well-defined ones. Vague terms suggest the other party isn’t taking the arrangement seriously enough to think it through properly. Structure, even strict structure, signals respect for the weight of what’s being asked."

That shifted the mood in the room slightly, some of the earlier tension easing now that there was at least a foundation to build from instead of guessing blind.

"What about the trap concern?"

Daven asked, turning his attention toward Ferris directly.

"You said breaking a pledge is treated as a stain on their bloodline. Does that mean it’s difficult for something to disguise itself as an Imperial Beast pledge falsely?"

Ferris considered that for a moment before answering.

"Difficult, yes, though not impossible. True Imperial Beasts carry a kind of aura, a presence, that’s incredibly hard to fake convincingly, especially to anyone with even moderate sensitivity to mana signatures. If this delegation is genuine, meeting them in person should make that fairly obvious fairly quickly. If it’s a disguise or a lesser creature dressed up through illusion or forced transformation, that kind of deception tends to crack under proximity, especially from someone experienced enough to notice the difference."

"So the real test."

I said, thinking it out loud.

" Isn’t in the paperwork. It’s in the actual meeting, when we’re standing in front of whatever’s actually making this offer."

"That would be my recommendation, yes. Draft the framework Seris mentioned, keep it structured and clear, but don’t finalise anything until there’s a face-to-face meeting where we can actually confirm what we’re dealing with."

Brek nodded slowly, already recalculating security arrangements in her head from the look on her face.

"That means whatever meeting we arrange needs proper precautions. If it is genuine, we’re bringing something incredibly powerful into direct proximity with our people. If it’s not, we’re walking directly into whatever trap Daven’s worried about. Either way, this can’t happen carelessly."

"Agreed."

Carven added.

"Neutral ground if possible, controlled environment, minimal exposure of anything sensitive until we’ve confirmed legitimacy."

The conversation kept building from there, ideas stacking on top of each other the way they always did in this room once people found actual footing instead of just circling the same fears repeatedly. Seris had started writing again, her earlier uncertainty replaced with the same efficient focus she usually carried, now that there was at least a framework to work from thanks to Ferris’s input.

Through all of it, Krave remained exactly where she’d been the entire meeting, seated close to my side, hands folded neatly in her lap, that same warm, unreadable smile present but saying nothing. I noticed a few glances thrown her way throughout the discussion, quick, almost nervous flickers of attention that lasted barely a second before people looked away again. Nobody addressed her directly. Nobody asked for her opinion on Imperial Beasts, on traps, on conditions, on anything at all.

It wasn’t that she was being ignored. If anything, it felt like the opposite, like everyone in the room understood on some instinctive level that whatever she was, whatever weight she carried simply by existing beside me, wasn’t something you casually pulled into a debate about terms and traps unless you had a very good reason to.

Collis, of everyone, seemed most aware of it. I caught him glancing her way more than once throughout the meeting, studying her with the same careful curiosity he’d probably apply to a puzzle he suspected was far more dangerous than it looked. But even he, sharp-tongued and always ready with some cynical remark, kept whatever thoughts he had about her locked firmly behind his teeth.

"Lord."

Brek said, pulling my attention back to the table.

"Assuming we move forward with arranging this meeting, how soon do you want it done?"

"Soon,"

I said.