Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

Sapphire is sitting there, bored.

 

"Uh, hi!" The Shadow says, "You left your portal open."

 

Making for a faster strike, I use my axe to deflect the axe before a right-to-left swipe with my sword.

 

Sapphire jumps, cloaking near-instantly.
"W-waiting on the king."

 

"Oh, well, you might want to leave a smaller portal open then," The Shadow says, "People could easily walk through here."

 

He parries with his tail, then pushes you away with his blade before throwing a kunai at your foot.

"I-I'm not holding it... She is."
Xlentia puts her face on the ground, eye barely visible.
"Hello mortal!" Xlentia says sweetly.

 

The Shadow seems rather intimidated, backing out of the portal immediately.

A long while later, I step through the portal with Artemis and Onyx; Onyx being held by Artemis.

"Greetings," I say politely, "I heard you wanted some of my forest guardians?"

 

"Yes, to heal my wound."

 

"And in order to do that, they need to mass-produce an extremely rare flower for multiple years in order to gather enough medicine?" I confirm.

 

"Yes, and I want to know how much it'll cost me." She says, straight to the point. "I doubled your coffers for my life. You damn well better not expect quite that much for this."

 

"This isn't an easy task, Xlentia." Artemis says, petting Onyx.

"So, just looking at things basically here, you want to borrow my forest guardians for multiple years to mass produce a flower so you can be healed? What sort of benefits would you be able to provide us in healing you?" I ask, curious.

 

"Your realm would have my protection for the next years-worked times millennia, naturally a chunk of gold, and..." She pauses.
"...what else would you be looking for?"

 

"I don't think I'm looking for specifics, more viewing what you do have to offer." I say in a business-like fashion.

 

"Full-kingdom library access, some gossip among immortals, pest control, and..."
Xlentia starts laughing.
"Ah, I got it. Closure."

 

Artemis looks at me, and I look back at her. We seem to have a silent conversation, understanding between us, before I nod.

"Very well, Xlentia. I will grant you access to ninety percent of my forest guardians. I still need a few to maintain the gardens and various plants." I say.

 

"Still haven't named the price. All of that is worth you giving me your kingdom, which you're not. So, now that terms are laid out, let's negotiate."

 

"One Mage coin for every forest guardian who works on growing the flower." I say bluntly.

 

Xlentia pauses, then laughs, sliding you ten gold coins.
"Surely you're not dumb enough to call that good enough! Don't short change yourself!"

 

"A paradoxium coin for each Forest Guardian." Artemis says, smirking.

"Artemis, we don't need to be paying them ten thousand mage." I say flatly.

"But, you heard what Mother said, didn't you? They're going to be worked really hard growing enough of this flower in a timely fashion." Artemis says, slightly offended.

"I'm fairly sure the entire Shadow Realm doesn't have that much paradoxium." I say flatly.

 

Xlentia grins, flashing a paradoxium coin.
"Is this, by chance, what you speak of?"
She stows it... somewhere.
"Besides, fear not. They will not be overworked. If they tire, my palace is sufficient to allow them to rest. If it isn't, then they better have a back-to-earth meeting with Gaia!" Xlentia snickers at her own bad joke. "That aside, I will see to it that overexertion is avoided, even if it increases the work length. Hell, if I were you, I wouldn't mind extending the time... a millennia of my protection means more than a little to mortals thinking out of line."