Chapter 151 - Terms and Tension

My apologies, folks! I have been given six zillion vaccines thanks to my time in the Army - they lost my shot records a few times, so I got the full series a lot! Never had an issue before. But when I got the first dose of my shingles vaccine Monday, it hit hard. I was spiking high temperatures all day Tuesday, and was still sick Wednesday as well. BUT! I'm feeling much better today, and back in the saddle working. I'll see about catching up those extra chapters this weekend for you. In the meantime, enjoy the next installment!! :) -Kevin

I was nervous about hosting all this. Like everybody else, I grew up reading stories about presidents gathering people from around the world to Camp David, hoping to hack out a deal to solve one massive real-world problem or another. It made for terrific TV and fairly boring newspaper articles. But from what I’d seen, it failed more often than not.

Failure wasn’t an option here. We all needed this alliance. Our people did, too.

We gathered in the largest room of the farmhouse, one that used to be a dining room, back in the days before the Event. We’d cleared it out and repurposed it into something like a war room, with a long, hand-built table running the length of the space and mismatched chairs pulled from half a dozen houses and shops. On top of the table I’d created my own version of Gideon’s massive diorama, showing what was basically a sand-table map of the surrounding area. It wasn’t elegant, but it did the job.

Carver sat to my right, Delores to my left. Colonel Turner had taken a seat beside Delores, arms folded tightly across his chest like he was already bracing for something unpleasant. General Jefferson and Major Packer sat across from us, their expressions calm but watchful. Kara and Farnsworth sat a few chairs down from them, their eyes tracking every movement. Alfred, still smarting from the well-earned talking-to I gave him, stood at attention in the hall with the other guards.

I opened the meeting by inviting our new friends from the Army to introduce themselves to everyone.

“We’ll keep this brief,” Jefferson said, voice clipped. “We’re not here to waste time. We’re here to understand the power structure we’d be entering, should we join this alliance.”

“That’s fair,” I said. “What do you want to know?”

“Mostly just how you all work together, miss,” Jefferson replied. “You’ll have to forgive me. This is difficult. You look almost young enough to be my granddaughter. It’s not easy to think of you as a fellow leader, even given the unprecedented crisis.”

I arched an eyebrow, considering my response. Farnsworth surprised me by jumping to my defense before I could say anything.

He laughed, a harsh bark. Once everyone’s attention was firmly focused on him, he spoke. “Sir, you realize that if everyone in this room turned on Selena and tried to kill her right now, that she’d probably be the only one to exit this room alive, right?”

Then it was Jefferson’s turn to arch an eyebrow, and of course the man was half-Vulcan or something, because he did it perfectly. He stared right into my eyes for a long moment, then glanced over at Carver.

“No, he’s not wrong,” Gideon said, chuckling. “These are strange times, aren’t they?”

“Indeed,” Jefferson replied. “My apologies again, miss. I meant no offense; this is new and strange to me, and I’m working to adapt.”

I actually hadn’t been offended until just then. I stood slowly, gathering my thoughts, but I still wasn’t sure precisely what words were going to spill from my mouth until I started saying them.

“General, I accept your apology. You need to understand, sir—the old way of doing things is over. All the things which used to indicate power? Age, money, and weapons, right? Yeah, none of that matters anymore. I don’t know if I could take down everyone in this room at once. Maybe. Maybe not. But the fact that we’re even discussing this demonstrates that the world has changed! And frankly sir, you owe it to the people under your command to get caught up, fast. If you’re not ready to build the new type of power that matters in this new world, then step aside for someone else who is. Or you doom your people.”

He was only tier five, which made him one of the lowest ranked people in the room. It told me he wasn’t pushing himself, not the way he had to if he wanted to be able to lead. Jefferson flushed a little, but to his credit, he took it. The general ducked his head, then nodded.

“Point taken. Thank you for the advice.”

I sat back down, unsure if I’d reduced the tension in the room, or cranked it up more.

“Shall we move on to other matters?” Turner leaned forward slightly. “Let’s start with Peter Eddings. You visited his Domain last week. Then a dragon showed up.”

I smiled thinly. “It’s been a busy week.”

Delores raised an eyebrow. “But the dragon. It was the same one we’ve seen flying overhead?”

“I think so,” I said. “It’s hard to say for certain, but I haven’t seen two at the same time, so I’m hoping there’s only one. I was meeting with Peter to negotiate his joining our alliance, as we discussed at our last alliance session. The dragon hit during the meeting. We don’t know where it came from, but it didn’t stay long. Between the ballistas KingsHaven has in place and my help, we scared the dragon off. He did say it wasn’t the first time it attacked.”

“Interesting,” she replied. “And after?”

“We met a couple more times before I left KingsHaven. Last I knew, he planned to join us here today,” I replied.

Turner tapped papers in front of him, some sort of report. “You returned home, then immediately gathered your forces to knock out a goblin fort?”

“Well, not immediately. We ran into a couple of other problems first,” I said. I gave them the brief overview of the kaiju chicken and the ants, mostly because if I’d run into these threats, it was always possible they might, too. There was strength in sharing information. “The goblin fort ticked all my boxes. It was a threat to every human in the area. My people need crystals to level up. That fort was full of them—and full of enemies who’ve attacked us before. The decision wasn’t hard.”

Carver gave a grunt of approval. “Smart move. Goblins don’t negotiate. You stomp them before they swarm you.”

Delores nodded. “Agreed. Taking that fort was the right call.”

Jefferson turned to me. “Colonel Turner was briefing me earlier about that somehow resulting in your Domain leveling up. Could you share how that happened, and what changed?”

I gave the man a genuine smile. These were good, smart questions. He was trying to step up, and I didn’t hesitate to offer the info he needed. “Everything. The control stones are similar to crystals. Merge two, you get a tier two Domain. I already had that, and I had a third tier one control stone. I used the fourth control stone I won from this latest goblin fort, and combined it with the others. When it merged, it pushed my Domain to tier three. That extended my influence, doubled the radius of the Domain, and upgraded my automatic defenders. I now have four dozen tier three skeletons.”

Turner frowned, clearly doing the math. “That’s a massive power spike. And you didn’t offer the stone to anyone else?”

“No,” I said, meeting his eyes. “Why would I?”

He didn’t answer, but the line of his jaw tightened.

Carver leaned forward, voice casual but firm. “Turner, don’t tell me you’re still having the same troubles Jefferson was speaking about earlier? He seems to be getting over them well enough. Can you?”

Turner grunted but said nothing.

Jefferson raised a hand, calling for calm. “The point stands. Your alliance has one clearly dominant Domain now. That changes the shape of the table.”

“I…suppose it does,” I agreed. “But it also gives us a better chance against what’s coming: more and stronger monsters. I see this as an alliance of equals because none of us can do this wholly alone. Not anymore. If something nasty strikes one of us, I want the comfort of knowing my allies nearby have my back. I don’t want to rule anyone. But I do want to win. And I want all of us standing when it’s over.”

Delores nodded slowly. “That’s the right answer.”

A quiet settled over the room for a beat after Delores spoke. Even Turner didn’t push the point further, though he looked like he had to bite his tongue to stop himself.

“We’re glad the fort’s gone,” she added, shifting the conversation gently. “It was a problem. It’s not anymore. That counts for a lot.”

Carver gave a dry nod. “One less nest of vermin to deal with. I’ll drink to that.”

“I think the bigger question now,” Jefferson said slowly, “is what comes next. We all saw what happened when one Domain leapt ahead. I’m not complaining—but we need to think strategically about how we close that gap. If this alliance is going to be more than a name, it can’t hinge entirely on one pillar.”

“I agree,” I said. “That’s something I’d like to talk about in more detail. How we share knowledge, how we share power, and how we keep any one Domain from becoming a single point of failure.”

“We need to pay more attention to monster domains, like the orcs up north,” Carver said.

“There’s another one east of us now, too,” Delores added. “A town of mud-monsters have formed their own Domain.”

“Peter may know of some south of us, too,” I said.

As if summoned by the sound of his name, I felt a subtle shift in the pressure of my Domain as someone crossed the border. I might never detect a single person, but larger groups, especially those whose intent intersected with me or my people? Those I felt the moment they crossed the boundary. Based on the direction, I was pretty sure I knew who it was, too.

I stood, looking toward the window. “He’s here.”

Delores followed my gaze. “Eddings?”

“Feels like it. I’m pretty sure. Sending a party of undead to check, but I’m fairly confident it’s him,” I confirmed. “He just entered the perimeter. He’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“Then we should pause here,” Jefferson said, pushing back from the table. “Let’s see what he brings to the table before we go further and have to repeat discussions.”

No one disagreed.

I stood. “Let’s give everyone some time to rest and reset. Dinner will be served in a few hours. We’ve got roast, root vegetables, stew, and some of the last fresh fruit we’ve been able to find in a nearby orchard. We’ll make it count.”

Turner gave a faint grunt of approval. “Excellent hospitality, considering how new your Domain is.”

“We try,” I said with a small smile. “After all—this has to be about more than just surviving. If we’re not trying to build a place worth living in, then what’s the point of all of this? We need feasts, and celebrations, good food and friends, to remind us why we’re fighting.”