The Marquis pushed his own arms back as he stood. He grabbed hold of his son's wrist and forced his son's sword back down. "Argen, listen to me!" he said sharply. "Alfrenzo is not here to fight. He's here to help us."
Argen's mouth dropped open in shock. "Help us!" he said, his voice cracking. "He is the whole reason we are in this mess! Did you see how he reacts to Ronney and Como? He poisons everything he touches!"
"I see how he poisons everything he touches," said the Marquis, his jaw clenched. "And yet, he stands before us now, offering help. We cannot afford to reject help, especially when the capital and the Duke have rejected us."
Alfrenzo took a step forward, his gloved hands clasped behind his back, with a calm expression on his face. "I like your answer, Marquis," he said quietly, and there was the slightest trace of amusement in his voice. "A man who understands the true weight of his own decisions."
Without an inkling of doubt in either his voice or thoughts, Argen tried to pull his arm free. His face contorted with fury, he yelled, "You would take his hand, Father? You would let this... this vulture feast on our bones?"
Alfrenzo tilted his head slightly, looking at Argen with a calmness that was almost friendly. "I'm not a vulture," he replied quietly. "I am a man, like your father. And if you want to see Duskwatch emerge from the ashes, you should listen instead of drawing your sword."
Varin moved closer to Argen, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Young master, you've got to see what is true. Alfrenzo has power now... Power that could break us or could help us to stand again."
Argen shrugged, the ire going from him, as he tried to reconcile the calm reassurance in Alfrenzo's voice. He lowered the sword, although his knuckles were white on the hilt.
The Marquis exhaled slowly. "Argen, go and see the healers. We will speak about this later."
Argen hesitated, his eyes flicking nervously between Alfrenzo and his father. Then he nodded stiffly. He turned on his heel and left the hall, footsteps pounding angrily on the stone floor.
When the doors clicked together, a profound silence fell over the room. Alfrenzo looked at the Marquis, with amusement in his eyes, the blue delightfully calm and unmoving.
"You have a brave son," he remarked softly.
The Marquis allowed himself to sink back in his chair, the tension falling from him. "He's spirited," he replied, his voice gravelly. "But he does not yet understand the burden of leadership."
Alfrenzo nodded, almost sympathetically. "He will learn," was his simple answer.
He returned to his seat and folded his hands in front of him, looking across the table at the Marquis. "Shall we continue, Marquis?" he asked, with a steady voice. "Or have you come to your decision?"
___
All the dishes had been cleared from the feast and every wine cup had been emptied. Allowing his calm grace to convey civility, Alfrenzo rose from his seat to give the Marquis a polite nod.
"Thank you again for your hospitality, Marquis," he said in his soft rasp. "I will take my leave now, and may your house find the strength it needs."
The Marquis said nothing, simply inclining his head and staring at Alfrenzo with a face that bore deep lines from worry and exhaustion. Varin bowed low while Alfrenzo stepped away from the table; Hunter and Thalanar followed Alfrenzo quietly, like shadows.
Outside, the cold air of the north bit them as they stepped into the snow flecked courtyard that house the waiting carriages; the horses were steaming in the winter air.
The inside of the carriage had a small mana lamp, which provided flickering light that allowed soft shadows to play across their faces. Hunter, leaning back into the bench, was the first to shatter the quiet by speaking in a low rumble.
"Why the mana cores?" he asked, not thinking it strange that Alfrenzo went out of his way to help the Marquis. "What do we want with them?"
Alfrenzo leaned back in his chair, his green eyes half-closed as he thought through the answer. "I want to increase my mana capacity," he said simply. "And those cores… they contain enough raw mana to satiate that hunger."
He turned to Thalanar then, a faint smile on his lips. "Not only for me... The elves and men who serve us too can tap that mana as well. We can also provide the excess energy we gain, as well, to Valdrak. He's taken a shine to this little family we've created."
Thalanar, across from him, had been silent, his gaze thoughtful beneath the flickering light of the lamp. Alfrenzo tilted his head slightly, his voice quiet but probing, "Are you wondering, Thalanar, why I would spend so much to help the Marquis? Why I would spend our gold to rebuild the Marquis's port when I could easily simply rule the Marquis through fear and might?"
Thalanar was quiet for a moment. "Because friendship, freely given, is worth more than a thousand threats," he said finally, and in a steady gaze. "Especially now when the capital and the Duke have turned their back on him."
Alfrenzo's lips broke into a true smile and the light glowed in his eyes in the dim carriage. "You've learned your lessons well, Thalanar," he said. "The human alliances are built on necessity and trust, not only in fear. So if we act as his allies now, he will remember it when the map shifts and the tide of power shifts with it."
Hunter exhaled lowly, the sound echoing in the carriage like a rumble of thunder. "And after the port is rebuilt?" he asked. "What next?"
Alfrenzo's eyes brightened, and it seemed he was already weaving the strings of a new future. "Then we use it," he said plainly. "Ships will come and go transporting mana stones to fresh markets, maybe even to the capital itself. The Marquis's port will be our way out of the cold hills of the north."
He stopped again and stared into the distance. "We'll need his allegiance when we spread our roots--toward the south to the lands owned by Marquis Mellon... and toward the east to the Duke Verasus."
Hunter's brow furrowed at the name. "And what of Duke Siegfried?" he asked quietly, his voice low.
Alfrenzo's lips curved into a thin smile, an amused glint in his green eyes. "Duke Siegfried..." he said with a bemused tone, "I am saving the best for last."
For several moments the carriage was silent, the only sounds were the quiet rumble of the wheels on frozen earth, and the calls of night birds distant and muffled.