The Treant sent his vines into the open wounds of the Fae, stitching them close and stopping the bleeding.
"Now, tell everything with a mind link." Lotho’s voice was the creaking of trees during a storm. "Don’t try to lie to . I’ll know and do to you sothing worse than anything Verhen can."
"You are underestimating ." Lith said.
"No, Verhen. You are underestimating ." Lotho replied. "You know nothing of Fae anatomy, while I’ve written many books about it."
"Point taken." Lith had to admit that killing a Fae was still hard for him.
"You heard him." Feela said Hesaria. "No dumb tricks. Tell everything. And I an everything."
A few seconds later, the Representatives’ expressions went from surprised to shocked and then from shocked to disgusted in quick succession.
"You trusted the Incontinent King’s words without consulting ?" Feela’s face showed all three emotions at once.
"You plotted against an innocent boy who might beco one of the most powerful humans on Mogar and tried to kill the future of the human race?" Raagu had never hidden her interest in Lith’s bloodline.
A Tiamat’s seven eyes ca from his human side. Valeron was still small and weak, but once he grew up, he might pave the road for other humans to follow like his forefather, the First King, had done.
"You decided to gamble our lives in the attempt to survive?" Lotho’s outrage made the ground quake. "You fools! Fae are already branded as traitors after so many of us stupidly joined ln’s army and beca Upyrs.
"Now you follow his suggestions and play in his hands? Do you realize what the rest of the Council will think when they learn about your involvent in ln’s plan?"
"This is our plan." A younger Treant tried to protest, but it sounded like the whining of a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
"This is his plan!" Lotho roared. "ln wanted you to attack Verhen and his child. If you killed them, ln would have gotten what he wanted. Since you failed, you just put another crack in the already shaky unity of the Council!
"Your loss is still ln’s win!"
"How is Poopie involved in all this?" Lith asked.
Feela answered through the Spirit tendril, showing him the ssage the Awakened had received and how ln had identified Valeron as Thrud’s son.
Lith clenched his teeth, inwardly adding the ambush to the long list of things his disowned brother would pay for.
"You guys crossed the line." Raagu seethed with anger, her face taut. "Everything you’ve done today is madness, but gambling with my life is the final straw. Had I arrived here first, I would have never survived Verhen’s blow."
"And neither would I." Lotho admitted.
There was a big difference between an ambush from a powerful Golem and a Divine Beast infused to the brim with Life Maelstrom.
"I’ll be honest. If not for my Griffon strength and hand-to-hand mastery, I would have died as well. I answered the distress call without preparing anything." Feela said.
"Exactly." Raagu nodded while raising her hand. "Since there are three of us here, all in favor of delivering the maximum punishnt?"
"Aye." Feela and Lotho raised their hands as well.
"Three yes, it’s the majority." Raagu smiled. "The other two votes are irrelevant. No politics. No debates. Only retribution."
The Human Representative swept her gaze over the injured Awakened.
"You summoned us here to save yourselves and not betray your comrades, yet you get neither of that." Raagu said. "I want the nas of everyone involved. Now."
An awkward silence fell on the clearing as the Awakened refused to answer.
"I don’t know if you act like this out of loyalty or because you know each other’s little dirty secret. Either way, I don’t care. Let persuade you to collaborate."
Raagu and Feela took enchanted manacles out of their dinsional amulets and put them on the wrists of humans and beasts.
Lith recognized the modern version of the Odi’s chains, and their effects were just as he rembered. The chains healed the Awakened, but they also sealed their magic, strength, and bloodline abilities by suppressing their life forces.
Even a bright violet-cored Divine Beast would have been reduced to the strength of an average human while wearing the Odi chains.
As for Lotho, he did much worse.
His tendrils seeped inside the bodies of the Fae, and this ti, they healed nothing. They dug and carved their path inside bark and foliage as the plant folk writhed in terror.
When the Treant pulled his tendrils out, they clenched the Roots of the Fae. Lotho stored them inside his body, and his prisoners could finally heal.
"In case you don’t know, Verhen, by holding their Roots hostages, I’ve halved their strength." Lotho explained. "On top of that, these Fae can’t disobey or get far from . All I need is a little squeeze to make them regret the day they were born."
The Treant gave Lith a demonstration, making the Fae grovel and cry in helpless agony.
"They’ll be my slaves until they tell what I want to know. Fae are independent and unrestrained by nature. This will hurt them more than any punishnt or prison could. They can’t move or practice magic unless I allow them to."
"We don’t have that option, but we have our ways." Feela lifted her prisoners to their feet. "You’ll be the guests of my dungeon until you speak. Also, I’m stripping you of the titles and possessions entrusted to you by the Council.
"You have until I take down the defenses of your lairs to tell everything. If you don’t, your magical mines, books, and treasures will go to your replacents. Make no mistake, even if you wait that long, you’ll still be my prisoners.
"You just won’t have anything to return. Nothing at all."
"Indeed." Raagu nodded.
"This is monstrous!" The Basilisk beca paler than when Ragnarök had stabbed her. "You can’t do that! That’s my life’s work. There’s my bloodline legacy there!"
"All the more reasons to talk and do it fast." Raagu replied. "Breaking past your arrays while your imprint is still there will take ti, but not as much as you think. On top of that, I can get a lot of helpers by offering them your positions in the Council."
Basilisks were Lesser Dragons, but there was nothing lesser about their greed.
Hesaria knew how many coins of every tal lay in every corner of her lair. The thought of losing everything and compromising the secrets of her bloodline legacy was worse than any death threat.
"I’ll talk." She said. "But only if you promise not to touch what belongs to the Basilisk bloodline. Kill , take my magic mines away, I don’t care. Just don’t punish my people because of my stupidity."
"That’s the spirit." Feela’s lips curled in a cruel smile. "We’ll conduct the investigation and prosecute the rest of the mbers of the conspiracy. Is this enough for you?"
"I have children who’ll need equipnt and not enough materials." Lith replied. "What about compensation?"
"Valeron has the Arthan Set, and I bet Lady Tyris will update it with Salaark’s Creation Magic if he grows up into a good man. He isn’t entitled to compensation. Not after what his mother did." Feela replied.
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