New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

It was not something Astaroth enjoyed doing, negotiating, so he let Phoenix handle it. In the meantime, he made sure to keep the players in his party in the loop, in case anything had to go down suddenly.

He also sent a message to RedWing, who was back in Bastion City. In that one, he entered their current coordinates, as well as the location of the one-way portal in the palace.

He knew he could trust him, and so he chose to give him access to it, saying he should only use it in case of an emergency.

RedWing replied with many thanks and promised to use it as sparingly as possible, which was as much as he was willing to promise already. Although Astaroth had a feeling that he would use this portal for situations other than emergencies, he could tolerate a bit of leeway.

While doing this, he also looked at the guild treasury, wondering how much accumulated Exp was in it. He had promised the players that accompanied him some levels, but never checked to see the precise amounts they had.

And since they didn't have all that many players in the guild, he had no idea what it would look like.

Of course, Astaroth was less in the loop regarding the other incentives that had been set in place, and wasn't aware they had more than one source of incoming Exp. When he saw the number, he almost shouted in surprise.

**

Guild Treasury; Exp:

Taxes to citizens of Stellar Woodlands 5%

Taxes to players of Paragon: 5%

Accumulated total: 847,894,538,946

**

This was way more than he had expected, and much more than he needed to fulfill his promise. With this amount of Exp, he could shoot to the forefront of the level charts and get such a comfortable advance that no one would ever overtake him again.

Of course, getting to the top in this fashion didn't interest him. It felt cheap and hollow.

Astaroth thought more about the broad application they could use all that Exp for.

Power levelling new members, rewarding loyal ones, and raising the guild as a whole.

The applications were many.

This was also a great incentive for recruitment. Although, right now, they were trying to go for quality over quantity, in the long run, there were only so many talented players.

When they ran out of rare fish, they would have to switch ponds and go for one where the fish were duller but higher in numbers. This wouldn't be ideal, but it would have to do.

But he chose to set this thought aside.

'We'll cross that bridge when we get there.'

As he closed the interface, he realized Phoenix had already bargained the Matriarchs under the table. The leverage they had, with them being the victims, and with how poorly they had treated them, along with her speaking first, had led to an almost one-sided conversation, and Phoenix had played her part well.

She had gained the rights to deal with the diplomat how they saw fit, as well as the right to execution on their terms. To this, they had also added in a few compensational gifts that would be given to Coral for the scarring experience she had gone through.

The head Matriarch offered to remove the memory from the girl's head entirely, if so was her wish. But Phoenix couldn't speak for Coral in this situation.

She promised to talk to her about it, and share with them her response. But somehow, Phoenix doubted the girl would agree to it.

Coral may look fragile on the outside, but she was a resilient girl. She did not doubt that Coral would get through this and come out stronger.

Her only worry was how her attitude would change. Many women came out of rape situations with new personalities.

Aside from all these superficial things, Phoenix also made them promise that next time they sent a diplomat, to vet him first. They didn't want a rehash of this happening in the future.

The negotiations were pulling to their end, before Astaroth added a point no one had thought about.

"I think a more solid promise should be made for the inter-kingdom relationships. Diplomats are fine when dealing with neutral countries, or trying to get peace. But we are past that stage, I believe."

Astaroth started passing around the interior of the crescent-shaped table.

"What if instead of having you send a diplomat, we had you establish an embassy?"

Phoenix was waiting to see where he would go with this, but for once, she wholeheartedly agreed with him.

"This is a great idea. This way, you can have officials always present in our lands, and it would make it easier to communicate. But I believe we should go one step farther, and also open one for us in Themiscus," Phoenix added.

Her words made many of the Matriarchs frown. In all their existence as a kingdom, Themiscus had never let a kingdom develop any kind of structure in their kingdoms.

Even their long-time allies, and other members of the alliance, were not allowed that luxury.

The reason was also very simple.

Showing the people of Themiscus the culture of other kingdoms, their ruling structure, or even their living conditions, could very well make them wan't to move there. And that wasn't something they wanted.

As the biggest kingdom on the light continent, as well as one of the most powerful, or 'the' most powerful, if you asked them, it was practically impossible they would allow this clash of living ways.

But Astaroth wasn't joking. And neither was Phoenix.

To them, this was a splendid chance to get possibly closer to them, and maybe someday be truly united.

But their reactions were mixed, at best, and it wasn't something they could decide so fast and decisively. Long talks would be had, and the results of this action would be measured.

And that was their exact reply.

With this done, Astaroth couldn't wait to be out of the room, and go back to where he felt at home.

The head Matriarch dismissed the meeting, and soon after, the different Matriarchs started leaving through their own means, and the room was left practically empty.

Aside from one man. The man Rodney wished to see the least.

His father.