Far above the current scenery, concealed behind a golden relief of a gargoyle-like lizardkin of whom countless are decorating the ceiling remained a hidden watcher. A nearly invisible drone comprised almost completely of a single eye, widened its mechanical lense, unable to believe what it just witnessed. The lense enhanced, rotated, zoomed and then replayed the recorded video of Bianca uttering her sentence once more in slow-motion, the eye was finally able to read her weak maw movements. it giggled inside, and with a deeply satisfied humming the A.I. sent over the gathered intel to its owner.
Walking far away from the currently piquing scene, embracing the silence of the palace of unity alone, ambassador Larx observed with little interest the gilded history of Nemthi. The demihuman suddenly stopped when the voice of his fallen ally appeared in his mind screaming for attention with a squeaking voice.
<Cancer research, Silent Shadow Narxis Crass. That is the reason these kobolds arrived. They found a method to cure it without our assistance.>
Larx, or better Narxis, thanked his friend, who stood loyal even after his demise getting turned into an Aetherial Intelligence to pilot one of his many drones. The demihuman held the brim of his head and pulled it further down into his from the hat-darkened face he was giggling silently.
"Wrong move, Nemthi, wrong move. You are venturing into a direction you don't wanna. But-" Narxis stopped his whispering monologue, and an evil grin widened on his scaled face. "This intel could be useful. Ivory Jack ... we will meet soon, very soon."
His four mechanical arms were shivering in excitement but the ambassador calmed them down with shushes, letting the small pair, whom he silently addressed as Laurel, undress his heavy garb revealing a sleek knee-long grey mantle with silver streaks. He brushed with his left hand over a relief decorating his shoulder; A black crosshair with a thin silver line dividing the circle from the top left to low right forming a silver eye in its centre. Caressing the symbol of his craft, he sighed in relief:
"Laurel, Hardy?", his mechanical arms immediately responded, staying at attention, "Old chums, I think you and all our other A.I.-pals will have something to do pretty soon."
He starts petting his mechanical arms, and the expression of a hunter having spotted his prey distorted the lizard-human's face:
"Soon I can drop this facade, and my job is done. The shadows are inevitable."
Bianca's weak words were still echoing through the halls, yet she felt Jack's grip noticeably loosening up. She was still captured in his firm grip, but the expression on his face made her giggle inwards. An expression of unbelieving confusion, anger and ... was that fear? No, that part of his emotional spectrum vanished as quickly as it arrived, and the usual prideful expression took over. Nobody was saying a word, and it was Jack's pleasure to break the spell. He laughed and glared at the olive kobold.
"You are taking a big risk here, kobold. I like this! But I fail to believe you; people like you could never develop something that impossible ... even with you being a cleric. You are just stalling my patience, I-"
Before Gâteau could resume his kobold bashing, Bianca witnessed a silver coil slinging up and wiggling around the drake's wrist, pulling it down. The surprise that came with it caused Jack to loosen up his grip for a single moment allowing the Silver King to wrap the tip of his tail around her, gently pulling the kobold out of the situation. Having abandoned his dignity for a moment, So'teyo hanged now in his entirety from the arm of the drake. He let his upper body wander like a pulley around the wrist and gently placed Bianca on the ground, his face now in front of the ivory jack. He sighed and looked deep into his friend's raging eyes.
"Gâteau, please. Bury your prejudice against koboldkin for a s~singular moment you are making a mistake if you don't give them a chance. If s~she is telling the truth, this~s could be a game-changer."
The drake was now uncertain, not knowing how to respond, so he instead grunted and shook his wrist, flinging away the lamia like a pesky ant. He looked at the group with an indifferent look and eventually came to a closure with himself. He let everyone feel his discontent by raising the gravity pressure on everybody present forcing all, who were still standing, to kneel in front of him.
"I am done here. To come to a closure the Triumvirate needs two votes. I will abstain from the vote and this meeting altogether. I have better things to do than trusting the word of this treacherous cleric.", the giant turned on his heel, and his massive tail graced Bianca's feather hair, "Good day!"
One last look of his over the small group and the final act of aggression by further increasing the gravitational force on Denton forcing him on his belly unable to withstand the Gravimancer's might and the drake walked the way the bronze queen previously arrived from. He didn't look back even once and shouted angrily in a horn at the end of the hallway. Growling, that a Mirrormage has to open a portal to his chambers. Five seconds passed, and a purple bolt jolted out of the horn on a pillar opening a gateway. A gateway the drake immediately took, leaving the meeting before it even started.
With the drake gone, the gravity pressure finally diminished and everybody was able to stand up again. Lady Bisfourth immediately walked over to Bianca ordering her kobold butlers to take care of her. With pain in her eyes, she apologized for everything that happened as she observed how Miriko and Evamal inspected her body for any damage.
"My sincere apologies for this less-than-optimal first meeting with Jack. He ... knows how to leave a bad impression. I hope you are not hurt.", she looked to Miriko, "Everything alright with our guest?"
The blue kobold looked up and readjusted his monocle before answering with relief in his words.
"Yes, my Queen. The kobold is healthy; her healing factor has repaired all damage. Her reserves, however.", he looks with sadness to the kobold, "Her juices are spent, repairing whatever his shininess has caused sucked out her entire battery, and she will need aid to even walk. Evamal?"
The lime green kobold teen raised her ear-horns upon hearing her name, immediately reaching down to pick Bianca up, letting her lean against her shoulder acting as a third leg. Bianca spoke silently, trying to preserve enough energy for what was about to happen.
"Thank you, Evamal. But I can-", Bianca trips trying to walk by herself, getting stopped by Evamal's gentle grip, "I ... can't. Stay at my side.
Denton noticed how the automatons immediately wanted to dash aiding their friend, but stopped and stayed put after the Queen's staff took over. Especially Lanstein looked ashamed, having not felt the strength to defend her friend against Jack's hurtful display. He walked over to the two and spoke calmly and silently to Lanstein.
"Everything's alright ... ok, nothing is, but it has passed. try to relax, dear."
But the automatons, now opposed by one of the siblings, a direct source of their discovery suddenly spoke towards him, their voices overlapping being full of admiration.
"I have never expected - neither did I - You are so talented - A cure against cancer, who would have thought? - I now understand, why you didn't want to tell us sooner. This is heavy."
Denton grinned in return and blushed slightly. He placed his paws on the hands of the automatons holding his shoulders and gave both a soft rub. He looked short to Lanstein, but when his eyes met with Thilarie his got lost in her galaxy gaze.
"Now you know, Thil. Lan, Yes, we did. Now we can only hope that we will be able to convince the Trium - Duovirate.", he looks worried back to Bianca, "But in sis' current condition, a demonstration does bear quite the risk. I-"
Hearing that the silver lamia slithered over, cutting off his sentence looking at him with apologizing eyes, his split-tongue twitching nervously.
"My sincere apologies regarding what happened to your s~sister. And don't be worried, we won't ask her to perform today. All you need to do is to s~show us~s that you are not bluffing, and we take care of the rest at a different date. I have no excuse for Au'piere's~s behaviour, but I will as~ssure that Bianca will experience the best care we can recruit if s~something s~serious happened to her.", he growls hissing silently to himself, "Jack ... are you even worth protecting anymore? Etherium wants you and I see with each day passed fewer reasons to delay the inevitable."
