Chapter 573: Putting an end to the war(2)

The three rebel lords ducked beneath the low lip of the tent flap, shoulders drawn tight, pride bleeding from their heels. Inside, the heat was caught and made thick, but not oppressive—it was the silence that stifled most, wrapped around them like a noose.

The tent was massive, wide as a noble’s hall and tall enough for a standard to stand upright in the center. Yet it was almost entirely bare. The earth beneath their boots was covered in a woven carpet of pale red and gold, threadbare in places.

At the center of it all stood a single table.

Plain. Wooden. Low and narrow—not nearly grand enough for the gravity of this gathering. It looked absurd in the sea of space, like a raft in the middle of an ocean.

On the far side of it sat the man who had brought their ruin.

Prince Alpheo.

He did not rise. He did not need to. He simply watched them as they entered, chin raised, his youthful face calm—but carved in iron. He wore no crown, only his black armor , polished and severe. His gloved hands rested easily on the table, one over the other. A half-emptied goblet sat near his elbow, untouched for some time.

To his sides, seated as if for judgment, were his close companions.

There were guards too, stationed in stillness around the tent’s edge. Not one moved. Not one blinked.

And in the center of it all, that little wooden table waited, like an altar for the sacrifices to walk upon it.

Lord Eurenis was the first to bow, though the motion came with a wince sharp enough to carve lines deeper into his already aged face. His left leg trembled slightly, stiff and angry like his shoulder, who bore a similar wound.

Niketas and Lysander followed suit a heartbeat later. No words were spoken—none were needed. The gesture itself was admission enough.

Prince Alpheo acknowledged them with a single, measured nod—neither mocking nor generous.

“Please,” Alpheo said, his voice as calm and cool as a winter stream. “Let us not delay. Take your seats, and we shall begin our affairs. Gods only know how much time I wasted playing with your little charade”

The lords moved, ignoring the jab, their footfalls soft against the carpeted floor. As they passed the long flank of the table, each paused briefly to nod this time toward the commanders seated beside the prince.

Some of these men had crossed swords with them not a week ago. Now they sat as judges, silent and statuesque. Their faces betrayed nothing—though Niketas could swear that all of them were quietly savoring every inch of their humiliation.

Then came the chairs—three of them, simple wood with iron fittings, without cushions or crests. They sat.

But not before Niketas gave a slow glance around the vast interior of the tent, his eyes narrowing slightly. There was a face missing.

Lord Gregor.

No sign of the brute lord, no word of him since the last day of battle, when his heavy knights had charge inside the camp with the van. And more troubling still, no word of the High Hierophant either—that pious leech who’d caused all of this.

Niketas’ lips curled back in distaste.

He turned his eyes back toward Alpheo, who remained as still as a painting.

His voice, when it came, was soft as polished silk, brushed with a veneer of deference but glinting with carefully veiled concern.

“If I may, Your Highness,” he began, his tone sliding low and measured, “neither myself nor my esteemed peers have received word of Lord Gregor’s condition since the battle’s close. Nor of the priest. Given their… former station in our cause, may I inquire as to their whereabouts?”

Prince Alpheo did not even blink. His gaze, hard and unamused, did not flicker from the faces before him as he answered in clipped tones. “Both are guests of mine, presently eating and drinking at my leisure. You’ll be pleased to know they are alive and well, until I decide better, of course.”

Niketas hesitated for the briefest moment, weighing his words like a man defusing a trap. “And—if it pleases Your Highness—might it not be appropriate, or at least proper, for Lord Gregor to join us in this parley? As one of the most senior among us, his voice—”

Alpheo raised a single brow.

“His voice?” he repeated, as if Niketas had suggested the wind be consulted. “Why?”

Niketas opened his mouth—but Alpheo didn’t allow the breath of an answer.

“He is my prisoner. A man who charged blindly into a slaughter and thought himself the storm. He has no cards, no power, and no leverage. Why would I afford him the courtesy of attending a negotiation he has no say in?”

The prince leaned forward slightly, voice calm but laced with a razor’s arrogance.

“Tell me, Lord Niketas—if a child kicks a pebble down the road, must he ask the stone’s leave? Must he inquire whether it finds the dirt too coarse, the heel too cruel, the path too long? No.”

He waved his hand, casually dismissive, like swatting away a gnat. “Gregor’s interests, opinions, words—even his presence—are utterly useless to me. A waste of air. Of chairs. Of patience.”

A pause.

“To suggest I humor him in this chamber, after the insult of his defiance, is not only foolish—it is unfathomable.”

Alpheo leaned back, folding one leg over the other with the quiet confidence of a man already writing the next chapter of history.

“I do not entertain pebbles, my lord. I step on them.And I would like for our discussion to be quick for as you know, I wish to return to court as fast as I can.Of course I hope you do not misunderstand , as nor should you imagine yourselves better placed than Lord Gregor,” he said, his tone sharp as drawn steel.

“Your armies are broken. Scattered. Those not rotting under carrion birds are fleeing—desperate, disarmed, and far beyond your grasp. And your castles?” He smiled, not warmly but with the kind of satisfaction one feels when tightening a noose. “Ah yes, your noble fortresses—swollen with your trembling vassals, who as we speak are likely thinking about composing sweet little letters to me, offering their keys in exchange for my mercy and a warm summer devoid of flames. It’s always funny to see the rats swim away from a sinking ship”

He let the words linger like smoke out of a cigar

“No, my lords. This is not a parley between equals.” His hand lifted, slicing through the space above the small, empty table like a judge with a gavel. “This is not a negotiation. This is me—laying out terms you will accept.”

He reclined in his chair slightly, just enough to show how little strain he was under. “You may dispute a word here, a name there, a tax or a title. I’m not without a sense of theater. But do not delude yourselves—you will not say no. You lack the muscle, the steel, the coin, and the time.”

The silence that followed was cavernous, even the breeze outside seeming to hold its breath.

Niketas’s fingers clenched slightly against the rim of the chair, though his face remained a well-trained mask. Eurenis shifted stiffly in his seat, his injured leg twitching at the phantom sting of old pride being crushed. Only Lysander held his gaze on the table’s edge, like a man calculating the width of a blade meant for his neck.

The three lords did not exchange words, but something moved between them in silence—something cold and real. Defeat is bitter, but hopelessness is fatal.

Niketas knew that dwelling on the humiliation would gain them nothing. Alpheo had spoken truth—cruel, naked, and absolute. Their armies were gone. Their banners trampled in fields that now bloomed with crows. Their castles were hollow threats, their vassals as fickle as the wind. They had nothing.

Or almost nothing.

Niketas turned his eyes up to the prince, measuring, weighing, not with defiance but with the subtle desperation of a man grasping at the final straw of leverage. Because the very fact that they were here, seated across from their conqueror, sipping the dregs of formality instead of being dragged in chains—that meant something.

If Alpheo had truly wanted their heads, they would already be decorating pikes along the roadside.

And so—Niketas reasoned—there was a meaning behind this meeting.

Peace, a settled one , he wondered , why would he want that instead of pressing the advantage?

That was the crack in the armor they needed to dig at. To find what the prince wanted that he couldn’t just take. And offer it—not as equals, not as threats—but as the smallest island of value in a sea of loss.

Niketas adjusted his cloak slightly, hands clasped in a formality that masked the tension in his knuckles. His voice, when it came, was level—diplomatic, yet shadowed by the tremor of a man who knew the weight of the sword above his head.

“We have come,” he began, “with the sincere hope that we may put an end to the bloodshed that has… washed across our lands. We understand, Your Highness, that the advantage lies squarely in your hand. Still…” His voice slowed, thinned as he chose his words with careful desperation, “we trust you see that prolonging this conflict serves… no one. Except our enemies’ I-Interest”

He should’ve stopped there. But he made the mistake of looking.

Alpheo’s lips had curled up and up

“Our enemies?” Alpheo repeated, slowly, as if tasting the phrase on his tongue. He leaned forward slightly, his voice still smooth but now carrying an edge like silk wrapped over steel. “Tell me, Lord Niketas, when did we start having our enemies?”

He gestured lazily, the motion as casual as it was damning. “You, who gathered your bannermen to stab your prince’s back. You, who rode alongside armies who desired to burn loyal farms, to slaughter towns that bore my colors, and shattered the great work that I have done?”

His eyes narrowed, glittering. “There is no our in this war. There is only me. And those foolish enough to stand against me.”

Niketas bit his inner cheek, trying not to react.

Alpheo noticed. Of course he noticed.

He tapped one finger idly on the wooden table—tap, tap, tap—like a drummer counting out the final notes of an execution march.

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Alpheo murmured, “but I believe what you’re doing is desperately trying to dig a hole in the sand deep enough to bury shit, and praying the stink won’t rise.”

He let that hang in the air, the smile now fully formed, teeth just shy of bared.

“You can dig and dig and dig as much as you want, but it is meaningless. I do so hate to dash hopes,” he said, voice soft as velvet and twice as suffocating, “but I fear you won’t find anything to cover yourselves with, my dear lords. No excuse. No clever twist of words.”

He sat back in his chair, eyes never leaving Niketas. “The only reason I’ve agreed to sit here today, rather than see your heads decorating my war camp, is because I find stepping over roaches… bothersome.”

The tapping stopped.

“But make no mistake,” he added, “I will finish the job if you become too annoying to watch crawl.”