Chapter 152: Negotiations (Part 2)
The rain had stopped while he was upstairs. Through the window of the guest room Roland could see the clouds breaking apart, the sky behind them flushed red with a dying sun. The light came in sideways and turned the dust motes above the fireplace into something almost golden.
Margaret was pacing.
She stopped when he entered — three quick steps to stillness, and her face cycled through something he almost wasn’t fast enough to catch before she arranged it into composed attention.
Sean bowed from his post by the wall. Roland waved him out.
“How is Lightning?” Margaret asked.
He had been ready for anger. For cold politeness, or the careful performance of calm that merchants deployed like a weapon. Not this — not that as her first question.
“Tired,” he said. “Otherwise fine.”
Her shoulders dropped half an inch. “Good. That’s good.”
“You’re worried about her.”
“She looks exactly like her father.” Something softened in Margaret’s expression — old recognition, older than the afternoon. “The narrow eyes, the pointed nose. I knew her the moment I saw her.”
Then she reached up and unclasped the necklace she wore. It came free in her hand: a gold chain with a hexahedral pendant, the stone at its center a clear pale blue. She held it out to him.
“If what you meant earlier — that you have someone who can judge honesty — was the ability of a witch, then I would like to ask her to be present.” A beat. “I don’t enjoy being observed without consent.”
A God’s Stone of Retaliation. High-quality, by the cut of the stone — its suppression field would run to roughly a meter. She’s been wearing this the entire time. Which meant Nightingale had been invisible to her not because of the fog but because Margaret had, without knowing it, kept her at bay.
Roland took the stone and hung it from the hook beside the fireplace, well outside arm’s reach.
She’s trying to control the negotiation even now, he thought, and felt something that was close to genuine respect. Locked in a strange room, caught watching something she was not meant to see, and still reaching for the terms of the conversation she wanted.
“Reception room,” he offered.
Nightingale was already on the couch when they entered, which Roland was certain she had only just materialized into — she had adopted the elaborate posture of someone who had been waiting a long time and found it tedious.
“This is Nightingale,” he said. “She determines whether what you say is true.”
“Hello, Miss Nightingale.” Margaret nodded. Received a nod in return.
“You said you have no ill will toward witches.” Roland moved directly to it. “Why? The Fjords fall under Church influence.”
“Weakly.” Margaret settled into her chair with the ease of someone who had learned to be comfortable in difficult rooms. “We have the Three Gods — sky, sea, earth. The Church’s reach doesn’t go as deep there as it does here.” She paused, smoothing her skirt, then let her hands rest. “I had a friend. A very important one. We went fishing together once — a storm caught us, the boat broke apart. We were drowning.” She looked at the fire rather than at Roland. “She became a witch in the water. Her ability was breathing like a fish. She found me unconscious, floating, and pulled me to shore.”
“What became of her?” Nightingale asked. Her voice had acquired that particular quality it got when something genuinely interested her.
“She left, when I woke. The sea wanted her more than I did, I think.” Something fond and unguarded crossed Margaret’s face and then was gone. “People say she still appears on foggy mornings, rising from the water near the rocks, singing to guide the fishing boats past. I can believe it.” A slight tilt of her head. “Whatever she is, she is not the Devil’s minion. That, I know.”
Roland had been watching Nightingale at the edge of his vision throughout. Nothing in her expression suggested a lie.
“You said you guessed I had more than one witch — with only one sentence,” he said. “You have some familiarity with what witches can and cannot do.”
“Because of my friend, I took an interest. I even considered — for a time — hosting witches myself.” A wry edge entered her voice. “But King’s City is not Border Town. The risk was too large in the end, and I gave up the idea.” She met his eyes directly. “When I saw Lightning fly into your arms, I thought: here is someone like me, who doesn’t fear them. A lord at the edge of the kingdom has room to keep a few women safe. But you should still be careful, Your Highness. If the Church finds out, it will be difficult even for you.”
Nightingale had not signaled anything throughout. The entire account had been true.
“It seems I was too cautious.” Roland let his voice carry a note of apology. “I hope you’ll forgive the inconvenience.”
“Au contraire.” Margaret waved a hand. “If you hadn’t acted carefully, you’d be irresponsible.” The trace of a smile. “Lightning’s safety matters.”
He had one more thing he wanted to understand. “You know Thunder well. Better than a business acquaintance would.”
For a moment she was still — deciding, he could see it — and then she chose to answer.
“After I left the fishing village, I joined one of his expeditions. We were at sea for a long time. He and his wife took me under their care when I was young and new.” She turned her cup slowly in her hands. “Lightning was born during a storm, at sea, in a cabin with thunder shaking the hull. Her mother died within the week. Sepsis.” A pause. “I stayed in the cabin for months, chewing wheat porridge and mixing it with fish eggs and flour and feeding it to her a little at a time. That was how I learned to know her.” Her voice had gone quiet, not with grief exactly but with a specific and careful kind of remembering. “When Sir Thunder found the Shadow Islands, we returned to Crescent Moon Bay and the expedition ended. Not long after, I left the Fjords and came to Graycastle.”
Roland said nothing for a moment. The fire popped.
So that was it. He could fill in the rest himself well enough: Thunder would go back to sea, and some things end before they properly begin. What reached the shores of history was that Thunder found the Shadow Islands. What didn’t was what was left behind in the bay.
He cleared his throat. “Since we’re something like acquaintances, Ms. Margaret — about the terms of the agreement—”
“Your Highness.” Her smile was genuine this time, and a little merciless. “A deal is a deal. That is the businessman’s eternal principle.”
Chapter 152 Negotiations (Part 2)
At this time the rain outside the window had basically already stopped, the clouds were dispersing, and the sun was already on its way down, tinting the sky red.
Roland opened the door to the guest room on the first floor, seeing Margaret walking in circles in front of the fireplace, seeming quite restless. When Sean, who had been standing at the side of the room, saw that the Prince had just entered the room, he raised his hand to his chest and bowed. Margaret who had also seen the Prince enter, stopped her walking and stepped in front of him, anxiously asking, “Your Highness, how is Lightning?”
Roland became startled, there were several kinds of outcomes he had imagined, from being calm to angry and possibly acting cold, but he had never expected that her first sentence would be this.
“She’s all right… just a little tired.”
“Is that so? That’s good.” Margaret looked relieved.
“You seem to care about her a lot.”
“She looks exactly like her father, especially her narrow eyes and pointed nose… I could immediately see that she was the daughter of Thunder.”
Then with a sigh, she unbuttoned her neckline, lowered her head, and took off a string of gold ornament hanging around her neck. “Only to verify it, previously you said… that you have the ability to judge if I am lying, did you speak about the ability of a witch? If this was what you previous meant and if you wanted to have me prove my sincerity, then could you please let her join in this conversation? I do not like the feeling of being secretly spied on.”
Set into the gold ornament, connected to the gold chain was a hexahedral light blue piece of jewelry, which had to be a high-quality God’s Stone of Retaliation.
Roland had been thinking about what he should say to reduce the other’s resentment and doubts, not thinking that it was actually Margaret who took up the initiative to do so. To be honest, he felt some admiration for the Seafolk woman. Despite being in such an incredibly unfavorable situation, she was still trying to grasp and hold the leading position in their dialogue. Whether it was her negotiation skills or acting style, everything was consistent with the identity of a successful merchant.
He received the offered God’s Stone of Retaliation and put it on a hanger beside the fireplace. Calculating it by the quality of the stone, the estimated suppressive range at which no magic could be used was around one meter. Looking at it from Nightingale’s eyes it would look like a black hole around one-meter big. To avoid the effective range of the God’s Stone of Retaliation, she had to always keep it away from her.
“Let’s go to the reception-room,” Roland offered. Since the other side showed their sincerity, he shouldn’t act so stingy himself. When the two of them entered the reception-room, Nightingale had already stepped out from her fog and was sitting on the side on a couch, with her chin placed on both her hands and deliberately showing a bored expression as if she had already been waiting there for a long time.
When they had seated themselves, Roland first introduced Nightingale: “The name of the woman at my side is Nightingale, she is able to judge the authenticity of your words.”
“Hello, Miss Nightingale,” said Margaret, nodding her head, and receiving a greeting in return.
“You previously said, you don’t harbor negative feelings for witches, why?” Roland immediately started with his first question, which he most wanted to know, “As far as I am aware, the Fjords also belongs under the influence of the Church.”
“But their influence is far weaker than the belief of the Three Gods. Regarding this, the Seafolk and the Sandpeople are quite similar. They both worship the sky, the sea, and the earth. As for me…” she paused, “I had a very important and good friend. In the middle of a fishing trip with my friend, it happened that we were unexpectedly hit by a storm. Fighting for our lives, our sailboat was unfortunately hit by a wave, breaking it into many pieces. During this disaster, she became a witch, getting the ability to breath like a fish. She found me when I had already lost consciousness and was floating on the water, so it was she who dragged me to the shore.
“What happened later?” Nightingale curiosity was picked.
“Soon after I had woken up, she left… perhaps bigger than the wish to be with me, she was more eager to be back in the sea,” said Margaret regretfully, “Since then I have never seen her again. People often say that she would appear during foggy days, raising her body out of the water and guiding the fishing boats with her singing. Guiding them successfully around the rocks. No matter what, my friend could never be evil, nor the Devil ‘s minion.”
Roland nodded, witches who had awakened to their power were previously only ordinary people, and in cases where the people already knew the witches before their awakening and had deep contact with and understanding of them, their impression would be hard to change only by the unilateral rhetoric of the church.
“You seem to know a lot about the power of witches. Only with one sentence, you were able to guess that I had more than one witch.”
“Honestly, because of the relationship with my childhood friend and partner, I became interested in witches. I had even thought myself about the possibility to host those strange women.”
Margaret smiled, “Unfortunately, King’s City is completely differently than Border Town, in the end, I had to give up on that idea because the risk was too big. Seeing that Lightning had directly moved into your arms, it seems that she is very close to you, plus she’s a witch… So, I thought that you could be the same as me, someone, who doesn’t hate the witches. As a Lord, hiding
a few witches shouldn’t be a difficult task for you, especially here in the borderland. But you still have to be very careful, if you are found by the Church, it would be hard for you to save them.”
Speaking of it, until now Nightingale still did not find any sign that the other had lied. With this, she had already rejected the possibility of Margaret informing the Church. Roland also finally came to a conclusion in his heart, so with a slightly apologetic tone he said: “It seems that I was indeed a bit oversensitive, I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, Your Highness, after all, it was also for Lightning and the safety of the other women…” Margaret waved dismissively with her hand, “Au contraire, if you didn’t care, then you would truly be an irresponsible person.”
“Are you familiar with Thunder?” Roland asked. “Your love for Lightning is much greater than the concern of ordinary people for the heroic children.”
In the face of such a question, Margery hesitated for a moment. Roland had said, if she didn’t want to answer a question, she should just act as he had never asked, but she eventually slowly started to speak: “To tell you the truth, later when I left the fishing village, I joined one of the expeditions of Sir Thunder, together with them I explored the sea for a long time. As a young and new team member, Sir Thunder and his wife took extra care of me. On the day that Lighting was born, I was also there.
“She was born on board?”
“Yes, during a storm. Outside of the cabin, the thunder rolled and lightning continually lit up the sky. However, shortly after her birth, Sir Thunder’s wife died because of a sepsis infection, and I… acted as her half-mother. But I couldn’t give her any breast milk, I used to chew wheat porridge and mixed it together with fish eggs and flour, slowly feeding it to her. “Margaret’s voice has become very gentle. “Although Sir Thunder was incomparable sad, he still had to command the flotilla, without him as the backbone, the crew would quickly collapse after only a few months. During that time, I just stayed in the cabin, watching over how Lightning slowly grew. Until Sir Thunder found the Shadow Islands. After the discovery we returned to the
Crescent Moon Bay, and the expedition was over. Not much later I left the Fjord and settled down in the Kingdom of Graycastle.”
“So that was what it was,” Roland lamented in his heart, no wonder that when she heard the name of Thunder, her reaction would be so strong. As for why Margaret had decided not to continue to follow Thunder on his adventures, he could roughly guess one or two reasons. Even so, it seemed to be the beginning of a love story, it didn’t mean that the ending would be one, one had hoped for.
Such a coincidence, to meet again after crossing many rivers and walking along windy mountain roads… Now that they had already such a close relationship, wasn’t it possible to get an even bigger discount for buying and selling? He coughed twice, “Ms. Margaret since we can be counted as acquaintances, about that deal.”
“Your Highness, that just won’t do,” Margaret laughed. “A deal is a deal. This is the businessman’s eternal principle.”