<~> Chapter 332"So, what do you think?" I asked.

  I just finished retelling what happened to the city council, and their reactions were mixed. The nine of us on the council were having an emergency meeting after I returned from speaking with Corrine. My other friends were sitting behind me observing, but they weren't supposed to speak unless someone from the council asked one of them a question. The sun had already set, which would normally mark the end of our day, but we wanted to have an idea about what we intended to do before tomorrow morning.

  "Do you trust what this Corrine woman was telling you? You said you had dealings with her in the past," Raksha'va asked.

  I frowned. "It's a bit hard for me to say. Nothing they said was completely unbelievable, but I'm skeptical of what Corrine was telling me. She let me go through Norta without any trouble in the past, so I don't exactly consider her hostile to me. On the way back today, Cecilia reminded me that our friend Fellia had once said something derogatory toward beastfolk in front of one of their guards in Norta to curry favor, but she received an unexpectedly cold reaction. She wasn't sure what to make of it at the time, but it might be a sign that Corrine was telling the truth about collecting Tamin members that don't look down on beastfolk."

  Raksha'va tapped the table in thought while studying my face. "Have you had any more luck recreating the zone of truth spell you once had access to?"

  Shaking my head, I let out a sigh. "I've tried, but it was one of the most complicated spells that I've used through the system, and I'm not entirely sure it's even possible, considering the spell itself was given to me as a boon for being a follower of Sorsette. Has there been any luck with any of the other people who used to be able to cast it? I know I'm not the only one who used zone of truth in the city."

  Aquil interjected. "The only person we know of was a follower of Allerel, and he left his church after Sorsette's death. He was the person the legal system in Traehall relied on for court trials, but even if he could use it, he wouldn't have access to the spell after forsaking his Allerel priesthood. We're now in the position where we can't use a zone of truth for trials anymore, either. Not that many would trust an Allerel priest to remain impartial anymore. Killing Sorsette and being revealed to be one of the Tamin gods has put her church's trustworthiness on shaky ground."

  "That was the man who verified your testimony in the Mark Williamson case," Raksha'va added. I flinched a little when I heard his name, but I tried not to let it bother me. Unfortunately, I feel like everyone noticed my reaction, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

  I nodded. "I remember him, vaguely. It was kind of a long time ago now, and I only met the man once."

  "A rger city may have access to a different mage who may have been able to cast the spell, but it was most common among Allerel adherents in the first pce, and we're not even sure anyone can still use the spell after system's end. It's best to assume using it for this is not an option," Brominn said.

  Raksha'va sighed. "Which means we're back to trust. They were once adherents of the Tamin church, but they cim to have quit."

  I scratched the base of my horn. I didn't really like this. I might have been willing to stick my neck out if it was just Corrine, but I didn't think it was a good idea to let an entire troupe of them in. They cim not to be as prejudiced as the rest of their members, but it feels risky to bring a miniature army into town.

  Dominik gently knocked on the table, gathering everyone's attention. "We may need to bring them in. It sounds like these guys have been hunting demons well after system's end. The forest around us is still crawling with them. My scouts and I have done our best to cull the ones nearest the city, but having a rge group of self-sufficient and still functional fighters who could coordinate with my scouts would be a blessing right now. It's still too dangerous for a majority of our city's adventurers to leave the walls, let alone the total greenhorns. We're still in danger of being suffocated by the threat the demons pose to the city in the long term."

  "I don't like it," Kaligan said. "They might be helpful, but bringing in a rge group of soldiers who may not mesh well with our beastfolk popution, let alone the succubi, is more likely to cause unrest than help us with the demon problem."

  "That all depends on how much they can actually tolerate beastfolk, and aren't just lying about that," Aquil added.

  Tenna grumbled and looked agitated. "Are we even able to feed them? Our food reserves are tight as it is. We already ate through most of what we were able to grow in the spring. I don't know if we could feed them in the winter as things stand."

  Tornick sighed. The dwarf man had seemed quieter than usual throughout the conversation. "The food problem is in their favor, actually. A lot of the city's fields are left unused since the siege, because it isn't safe for most of our farmers to leave the walls. If they are still effective fighters, they could guard our farmers from demons and stray monsters while they tend to the fields. I don't like it, but I agree with Dominik, I think we may need them."

  "More hands that I could trust not to get themselves killed while gathering wild vegetables and hunting game would be appreciated too," Dominik added.

  Tenna continued to grumble, but didn't immediately argue.

  Raksha'va turned to her. "Is there any reason other than their trustworthiness that you are opposed?" Raksha'va asked.

  Tenna squinted at her, then shook her head. "I just moved here to get away from the Tamin bastards in the capital. I don't like the idea of them infesting this pce as well."

  "Even if they are no longer Tamin priests and padins?" Brominn asked. "Would you feel the same way if they were followers of Bollide, or just random sell-swords?"

  Tenna crossed her arms. "I don't understand what you're getting at, Brominn."

  The elf shrugged. "I'm asking you in good faith. Is the problem that they're a group of unknown armed people, or is the problem specifically that they're reted to the Tamin church?"

  Tenna was gring at Brominn now. "I don't trust the Tamin church. Ex-members or otherwise."

  "To crify, would you be opposed if they were just mercenaries?" he pressed.

  She tapped on the table rhythmically while thinking. "No... I suppose not. But that's a hypothetical, not what we're dealing with, Brominn."

  Brominn shook his head. "No. I think it's rather illuminating. The crux of the problem isn't that we don't trust a group of sell-swords. The problem is that we don't trust ex-members of the Tamin church, is it not?"

  Kaligan huffed and nodded. "I admit, I would be more amenable to sell-swords than ex-members of the Tamin church. As Tenna said, however, that is not the issue we're dealing with."

  "Lilith, Dominik, how convincing did they seem to you both?" Raksha'va asked.

  Dominik looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't speak with them."

  "No, but you saw them first. Before they opened their mouths and tried to spin their story, did they look like ex-Tamin to you?" she pressed.

  He recrossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. After a long moment, he nodded. "I believed they were from the start. That was the impression I got of them before I even brought this to your attention. Their gear was heavily used, but maintained as well as it could have been by trained soldiers. Their patches weren't just cut off. Many of them had rips and tears on their sleeves as if the patches had been torn away in anger. Their boots were falling apart, too. If this were a ruse, I don't imagine they would allow their soldiers to fight in shoddy boots, yet they were worn as if they had been walking in them constantly for months. Actually supplied members of the church would have better gear, or at least gear that wouldn't compromise their fighting capacity. I do honestly believe that they're no longer connected to the Tamin church."

  "That doesn't mean that they aren't racists!" Tenna pounded on the table. "They could still cause unrest among our people," she said, gesturing to Kaligan.

  Kaligan sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Looking at this another way, if we don't allow them in, they might just become bandits and make things worse for us. There aren't many people we can send to Norta for supplies, and if any one of the three groups we can send were stopped by bandits, it could be a disaster. We're holding on by a thread. We've been able to wean ourselves off most imported supplies other than food, but the three carriages that can still go to Norta after system's end are still necessary. You know that as well as I do, Tenna."

  Tenna scowled and her mouse ears drooped at the falling support.

  "Lilith, after hearing out Dominik, how convincing do you feel Corrine was?" Raksha'va asked again.

  I gnced at Tenna and frowned. "I... believed her on that front as well. I saw a lot of the same signs as Dominik did, though I didn't think much of them at the time. I don't know if she was being truthful about gathering non-prejudiced priests and padins, but I don't think this is a ploy to sneak the Tamin church into our town somehow. They've always seemed too arrogant for that. At a time where their church needs their followers' zeal more than ever, I'm not sure if pretending to be fallen padins makes much sense for them."

  Raksha'va turned to Morrigan next. "Morrigan, you were there too. I would have expected you to have said something by now. Did their cims seem suspicious to you?"

  Morrigan scratched at the back of her ear, and a look of sadness spread across her features. "I... am having trouble thinking about this objectively. It was briefly mentioned before, but Corrine is Bel's mother. The two of them didn't part on the best of terms, and Bel felt abandoned by her... so I don't really know if it's my pce to say this, but I wish that the two of them could reconnect. I never got to know my mother. Lori over there is the closest thing I have to a mother. My birth mother died when I was young. It kind of hurts to consider turning Corrine away, and by extension, the people she's leading because of that. But I know that none of this is particurly helpful to this conversation. My hopes and desires don't necessarily have the city's best interest in mind, so I am finding it hard to settle on a position that is more than me just wanting one of my lovers to be happy."

  Raksha'va sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Let's take a provisional vote. Nothing to be set in stone yet, but enough to get an idea of where everyone is at. It might help us better understand where everyone is leaning. Does that sound reasonable?"

  There was a round of nods and noises of agreement from around the table.

  "Good. Raise your right hand if you think we should take them in. Left if you think we should turn them away," she said.

  Dominik, Tornick, Aquil, Brominn, all raised their right hands. After a moment of hesitation, Morrigan raised her hand as well. My gut told me we should give them a chance, so I raised my right hand too. Kaligan and Tenna raised their left hands to turn them away, and Raksha'va didn't vote.

  Raksha'va gestured toward Kaligan. "Is there anything specific that you object to, Kaligan?"

  He lowered his hand to the table and sighed. "I have already stated all of my reasons for being reluctant. I voted against it, but I do not hold this position with conviction. I would accept taking them in if all others are in agreement."

  Tenna's nails dug into the table in front of her. "I can't believe I'm the only one who really thinks this is a bad idea. Lilith, can I ask you why you voted to allow them in?"

  I frowned, not really knowing what to say. "It was more of a... gut feeling, I guess. I don't think there's any way to know whether bringing them in would be a good or bad idea until we do it. With the food situation, they might be necessary for the town to survive. We'll just have to keep an eye on them."

  Tenna crossed her arms and looked at Raksha'va. "If we're going to allow them in, then we should at least monitor them. Split them up as much as possible and make sure we integrate them well. We can't allow them to take over a block of the city and turn it into 'Tamin territory.' That would be asking for trouble." She turned her attention to me. "And we need to figure out how we pn on telling them about the succubi, because that is not going to be a straightforward conversation."

  "Very well, let's pn out some of the details, then. Are there any more objections to allowing them in?" Raksha'va asked. When no one voiced any more immediate concerns, the meeting changed gears and we began pnning where to put them all.

  The meeting continued to stretch on much longer than I would have liked, but there were a lot of things to consider when taking so many people in. The truth was, we were so short on people who could fight that the more Dominik and Tornick revealed about the food situation, the more it became apparent that we really did need their help. The food situation was a lot more razor-thin than a lot of us had known.

  Taking care of a city isn't easy.

  Saine

  Hello! More council meetings! There's going to be a lot of those in this book, especially toward the beginning. If you haven't noticed, the story is turning into a bit of a kingdom builder, but it probably won't be as much of the focus as it is in some other stories. Hopefully I've been keeping it interesting so far! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for reading!

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