It was an unseasonably cold day in Attherough. Bitter winds swirled around the valley and howled through the little Shaman settlement, rattling the tent frames. The mood inside the Council meeting-house, however, was anything but cold.
"You cannot be serious!" Syncro shouted. "You would throw away perhaps our only chance of peaceful coexistence in order to satisfy your pride? What you seek is our destruction."
"Only the destruction of our servitude!" Elivagar insisted. "You confuse peace with quiet slavery! I will not watch our people suffer because you are too cowardly to break away!"
Syncro turned to Luc for the first time, pointing an accusing finger at the other earthwarden. "This is treason! He would destroy our way of life for a throne that is not ours to claim. The House of Light would tear us apart if they so much as caught word that we planned to break the treaty."
"You see! Coward!" Elivagar snapped. "We were our own masters once, not beholden to any throne or the House. They bowed to us, and we bowed to none."
"You speak of a past that cannot be revived," said Luc wearily. Their arguing made his head hurt. "The Red King broke our power when he took the throne of Stormwind."
"If that throne was ours, we would be restored!" The ground rumbled menacingly as Elivagar spoke. "You allowed the House of Light to consolidate power in Stormwind! We are in this mess because of you!"
"Silence! You have no idea what the alternative was!" Luc snapped at him. "The true heirs are 8 years old; would you rather that throne go to a child? I did what I had to do for our survival, which you seem very intent on throwing away."
"There is nothing but pain for us here!" Elivagar retorted. "How much more of our territory must they take from us before you see it? We are nothing but slaves!"
"You are forgetting the resources that the Crown provides us in exchange for this so-called 'slavery,'" Syncro sneered. "You would not wield half the power you hold if not for the void shards they trade us. They could easily take that away."
"Then we find a way to create our own!" Elivagar said fiercely. "Our dependence on the Crown has weakened us. I know that we were self-sufficient once. The trade with them is just another tool to ensure our subservience! If we can reduce our demand, or eliminate it entirely, it will no longer be an obstacle. At least we will accomplish something, even if it is not what I intend."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Syncro muttered. "Aria and the traders brought news of strange monsters emerging from the mines. They cannot risk more warrior lives for the sake of increasing production. The shamans have a scant fraction of the number of warriors in Stormwind. Attempting our own mining operation will kill us all."
Elivagar spat scornfully into the fire. "Since when has the House of Light cared for warrior lives? 'The mines have been depleted and we had to find a new one.' 'There was an explosion in the refinery that destroyed the stock.' 'The warriors are threatening revolt.' 'There are monsters killing the miners.' Every damned year, Aria makes excuses as to why she cannot meet the quota. This year is no different."
"Perhaps we can negotiate with Aria and the Regent for a higher quota," Luc said thoughtfully. "Elivagar is right. It is rare that the agreed-upon quantity of shards is ever met by the House. We send an Emissary to the crown every time it changes hands, so why not ask for a change in the Treaty and different territory limitations? The question now is who should we send?"
"Send me." Syncro stepped forward. "This is a delicate situation that must be handled with care. The Regent grieves for the King and may lash out at us if the appropriate measures are not taken."
"Send me!" Elivagar stepped forward as well. "The Crown of Stormwind is the weakest it has ever been. We must push our advantage. It may be another century before an opportunity like this arises again."
COMMUNITY DECISION: Send Syncro to bargain with Lady Aria and the Queen Regent
