Helmond sat in his office, his head supported by his arms. Amaya was next to him, resting a calming hand on his shoulder. She had felt the pain of losing a sister. This was bound to be at least equally as hard.

He looked up.

'Thank you', he signed, 'for sitting with me.'

'It is nothing. You were there to discuss my letters. I wanted to be here to help you deal with yours.'

'His going away means nothing if the Senate still goes to fight.', he shook his head, 'We need to stop them.'

'Rheza and I are sure your speech did exactly that. The entire moon elven delegation walked out. I think that's a big deal.'

He shrugged. 'They do not carry the vote alone. If they refuse to vote today and tomorrow, their votes will not even be counted.'

'Meaning that if the dragons have equally effective speeches, we are still looking at all-out war.'

'This will not just be chosen here, General. Other bastions exist, and they all control legions.'

She nodded. 'I know.'

'It is hopeless. Our people will destroy each other.'

Amaya stood up. 'It's too early for that sort of talk. We need to see what the senate does.'

He shrugged, hopelessly, then looked at the door.

Amaya turned to see the dragons enter. She excused herself.

"Helmond", Ivine began, the voice of Regina Lunaris spilling from her mouth, "We apologise for the obvious harm we've caused. It was thoughtless."

He nodded, "It was, Lord. It is equally as thoughtless to appear before me at this time."

"Please Legate, show a semblance of respect", the Regent reprimanded, but Ivine bode him to be quiet.

"I felt a need to let you know that we've received messages from the other assemblies. They are unanimous in their choice to attack preemptively. Bastion Korhal cannot be the only hole in the front. It would destroy Xadia."

"Be that as it may, Lord, I have no further business with you. Call the vote."

"Legate, you cannot be serious. If we refuse to join the other legions at the front, we risk destroying our entire federation! More personally - you still have a summand. A daughter. Do you not care for their fate?"

Helmond now glared at her, and vice-versa.

"Helmond, what choice do we have? We can chose to fight on their soil, destroying their fields, their towns, their people. All of Xadia is afraid! From the cloud city of Yol an Vali to the burrows of Lowe..."

"You dragons are rather quite afraid, aren't you?", the Legate interrupted, "The Death of the Dragon King has shaken your confidence", a dawn of realization came over the Legate's face, "You are terrified of humans because they have achieved what elves have never even attempted! You are wondering, at this moment, if it will be your hide on their tanning racks, next!"

"It is not a question of whether they will try, but when!"

"Ah, yes, the tried and tested adage of `They might kill us, so we need to kill them first`! A toddler could find the circularity in the argument! How platitudinous you are, lizard.", he pointed at the door, "Begone. I renounced my rank. You have no power over me any longer unless you wish to challenge our peoples' covenant further than you already have."

She snarled. "You are making a grave mistake, Helmond. The General is using you…"

"The General may be using me - but at least she never just pretended to care. She showed it. Whether it is a feint or the truth, her presence comforts me while yours merely disgusts me."

At this final insult, Ivine turned and stomped out of the room, leaving the Regent behind.

"Your insolence will not be…"

Helmond interrupted, "I have not a shred of respect for you left. I will take my leave from this place soon enough. Leave me."

The regent shook his head, turning slowly, and followed his mate.

An hour later, Amaya was standing next to Rheza, in front of the Plenum's closed doors. She wished Gren could be here to translate. He knew how to hold a speech. A last-minute stand-in for her closest adviser, Rheza was young and while he was a competent interpreter, he had no word craft himself. Translation to get an idea across was one thing, being persuasive another. An idea shook itself loose in her head.

'Rheza - would you mind sitting this one out?'

He didn't hesitate. Obviously the young soldier had felt little interest in speaking publicly at humanities most ardent enemies. 'I would not!'

With an understanding smirk, Amaya continued, 'Fetch Helmond, will you?'

A moment later, the requested person appeared.

'You asked for me?'

'I'd like to request you to be my voice. It feels like a good message to send and you have the attention of the delegates. Rheza will hear for me, you will speak.'

'I will agree, but must remind you that my sign language is not great.'

'Maybe so, Helmond, but from what I understood from your first speech, you will take what I give you and get my point across better than a straight translation would.'

He saluted her.

'We will try. I will do anything I can do to not make happen this point-free conflict.'

Moments later, the doors of the plenum swung open and they entered.

The silver wing had been seated again. That was good. At least they would be able to support the vote.

"Helmond, you are not welcome in these halls. What are you doing here?", Ivine snapped at him.

"I am here at the request of General Amaya, to serve as her voice."

This alone caused interested whispers.

The dragons exchanged meaningful glances. "We do not think this proper, General. What strange tactic to employ during treaty negotiations; affronting your hosts."

Amaya signed, and Helmond's voice rang out. "I disagree with your assessment. It is not an affront to want to show our people work together - especially to a body of leadership that so far seems to believe such cooperation could not exist."

"Regardless of the message, General, we will not permit the Ex-Legate to speak in this chamber.", the Regent said evenly.

"We disagree", came a voice from behind Helmond, "Silver wing is unanimous in wanting to hear Helmond speak."

"Red wing concurs", came the response from the sun-elves.

"White wing abstains", the skywing speaker said.

"It seems the vote has been cast, Lord", Helmond translated, "Will you accept the Senate's decision?"

"We respect it.", Ivine said sharply before Aldaris could answer.

"As I have just done, I would like to make the case that humans and elves may cooperate. We must start speaking to each other more openly. Become more keenly aware of each other's motivations and desires. It is not in the Pentarchy's interest to wreak havoc in Xadia, nor vice-versa. Our federations have existed in parallel for a long time and we hope it can be so for the foreseeable future..."

"Your `foreseeable future` is limited!", interjected a sky-wing delegate, "You live barely a century. Your perspective is warped by short term interest."

"Delegate, your people live at most three times as long as we do. I feel your comment was meant to highlight how short-sighted we humans are - but would that blame not fall on you, too? Would you not say, as the longer lived people, you should be capable of seeing how, in the long term, mutual genocide will not help anyone?"

The delegate threw a hand in her direction, turning to his winged comrades. "Mutual, she says. As if the Auxilia was comprised of pushovers and weaklings!"

"Humans are neither pushovers, nor weaklings. It is true that your warcraft has seen many eons of perfection and your magic ability outstrips ours - but I will warn you. Do not underestimate how much death and destruction this war will bring. Humanity will fight for its survival. We may lose - but so will you. Truthfully, we do not wish to kill you. In fact, I refuse, at this time, to order an answer to a hail of arrows coming down on my soldiers at the breach..."

"Refuse?", a voice came from the red wing, "You speak of strength but do not defend yourself!"

"Strength is not might alone. Strength is sometimes sitting in a storm, letting it wash over you, doing nothing. Humanity will weather your anger, delegate. We will lose lives, yes, but we understand that we have a penance to pay for the deaths we caused, and if it helps to assure you of our good intentions, we will sit and wait while your arrows fall into our ranks. One of my closest companions, Commander Gren, has suffered an injury from this action, hence my need for a different voice. I will say again, make no mistake. Should you decide tonight that our peoples will become enemies for a thousand years, we will answer those arrows, and you will bleed then as we do now."

Amaya looked about, seeing if anyone else was about to interrupt. When nobody rose, she continued.

"On that point of order, I believe it would be appropriate on your part to call on these archers to stand down. We are not currently in open conflict and it is improper to fire at resting troops."

"You will remove those `resting troops` from the Breach. Then, we will order the archers to stop.", the Regent replied.

"The Standing Battalion is just that. Standing. We will not leave our border unguarded, just as you won't allow yours to lay bare."

"Then we are at an impasse", Ivine said coldly, but was shouted down by the silver wing. She made a calming gesture at the hecklers and called one of them to speak, "You are recognized. Speak."

"We carry the General's point. It is not proper to attack without provocation."

"There has been provocation enough!", Ivine replied, "They have sent murderers and spies in our lands. They beleaguered our border for a thousand years, staring across the Breach and seeing nothing but a field, ripe for harvest!"

"I will point out, Lord, that we have ordered the Assassination of King Harrow of Katolis. It is hypocritical to show affront at the human's subterfuge while Moonshadow agents operate within the Pentarchy."

Amaya saw her chance. "Delegate, have you ordered the assassination of Madame de Peverell, Queen of Evenere?"

He looked at her, with narrowing eyes. "We do not make a point of killing rulers for no reason, General. That is a more human trait."

The General nodded. "Then there may be more at work here than it seems. We have gotten reports of Moonshadow agents attacking the other kingdoms. If this was not ordered by you, we may all be pieces in someone else's game."

An uncomfortable atmosphere settled in the plenum as the whispers started up. It was apparent that some delegates believed this to be a ruse. Others threw questioning glances at the dragons.

"I see now. I misunderstood your inquiry as an accusation. We have not ordered any further covert attacks. I apologise for my personal attack."

"A point well taken, delegate, thank you. I want to make sure to note that we do not believe this to be the work of Xadians at this time. We, too, have degenerates among us who would see our peaceful co-existence destroyed for their own gain."

She stared pointedly at the dragons, who began fuming in their ceremonial robes.

Helmond turned toward Amaya, signing, 'I do not know if annoying them is a good path to go down. The dragons and my people are important to each other.'

She nodded.

"I will emphasise, again, how much I hope to find a peaceful solution here. I am now standing at your disposal.", Helmond closed their remarks.

After a moment, a sunfire delegate rose.

"General, we understand that one of our dragons was fairly recently wounded, removed from the sky by a platoon of humans over Katolis. She reported being saved by an unlikely pair, a human mage and what appeared to be a Moonshadow Assassin. Would you shed some light on this?"

"Of course, as far as I can. The commander in control of this situation has been relieved of duty. Provoking your dragon was foolish and I apologise for his attack. You must understand that our people are as terrified by dragons as you are by dark magic."

"I understand, they are menacing creatures. No offense was intended, regent. Regardless, I was hoping you would have some information on these two collaborators."

"We've heard of them in these chambers as Helmond reported on his orders."

There was a gasp in the red wing. "You are implying the pair that is ushering the Princeling Azymondias nestward is also responsible for shielding a kin of our regents in a moment of weakness? Who are these people?"

"I am not sure what more to tell you of them. You know he is Prince Callum and she is the Assassin Rayla. You know they are young adults. So far they have shown an excellent grasp on their task. I cannot say where they are but they appear to be in good spirits and making progress."

"How do you know this?"

"I provided her a shadow hawk", said Helmond, speaking for himself, "I understood her longing for news of her nephew."

"Then you should be able to tell us where exactly they are located. We intend to send a detachment to safeguard their travel."

"I apologize", Helmond translated, "They did not share their location beyond vague drawings of trees and animals."

"Then you should loose another hawk and let us follow it", the delegate suggested.

"I do not believe that would be in their best interest.", Amaya replied.

This did not seem to make the senate happy, nor the dragons. The sunfire delegate sat down, nonetheless. A sky-elf got up.

"You say you will respond to our actions, yet don't seem to acknowledge your own. What of the incursion at Bastion Antiga?"

"Delegate, I am Katolin.", Helmond watched her hands, then seemed unsure. She waved him on, so he translated, "I am not privy to the movements of Evenere's army. They are furious about an apparent assassination and are lashing out. King Ezran is attempting to mollify their regent, perhaps at this very moment. Please accept my apologies and assurance that we are attempting to resolve this issue internally."

"So you are saying that the Pentarchy is not moving as a joint force?"

Internally, Amaya cursed herself. She'd walked right into that one, and Helmond had seen it.

"you may trust the fact that if you chose to attack our response will be unanimous."

The elf sat down, a self-satisfied grin on his face. Helmond understood why the sky-wing was so unfriendly to their cause. They had suffered most under the Dragon King's passing, losing both a Regent and Heir.

No more questions were raised.

"If the delegates are finished questioning", the Regent said with the hint of a smile, "This meeting is closed. Please await our decision outside the chamber. We shall attempt to proceed with haste."

Helmond, Rheza and Amaya bowed and left the Plenum.