Aggressive Negotiations

“Stop! None are allowed into the Senate chambers when negotiations are underway!”

A goblin guard dressed in that dark blue military uniform sans the hat stood at the door. Goblins were a head or so shorter than Earth-humans. Height was the primary differentiator between goblins and orcs. That, and gob-kin had some more elvan features about their ears, which were spikier and more knife-like.

“Hail, good sir guard.” Lucy mimed an Aeirun salute. “My mother will want to see our guest.”

“Some human?” the goblin tilted his head.

“The human,” Lucy said. “The human from the other world!”

“That guy from the history book?”

Lucy frowned in frustration. “Skott of Omaha!”

A flicker of recognition crossed the gob-guard’s face.

“Oh. Uh, wow, glad to meet you.” The goblin saluted. “My parents heard of you, back in the day. I was only two…”

“See? The average young adult is a bit too young to have firsthand memory of you, specifically,” Lucy told Skott. “May I see my mother?”

“I… well, we could try and send a messenger in to relay…”

The look on Lucy and Skott’s faces prevented this goblin from completing his sentence.

“Ah, Madam Kignora’s kid? And Skott of… just… just go right in!”

With a nod, Skott of Omaha and Lucy-Kignora threw open the doors to the in-session Senate chambers.

+++

“None may enter while the council is in session!” proclaimed a dwarven parliamentarian.

The chamber was circular, built into a natural pit on the pyramid’s ground floor. Politicians sat around a central natural speaking platform. Acoustics naturally carried any speech all around the chamber with minimal effort on the speaker’s part.

Immediately, the faction lines were apparent. A fourth of the legislature’s seats were empty. Dwarves and goblins occupied another fourth. Various orc clans and lowland human representatives combined to fill out the remaining half.

Skott knew at a glance who the missing seats belonged to. The Elvan were not a terribly populous species, but as it appeared each major region received equal representation around the chamber, they would make up at least an eighth of the pie. Meaning the remainder of the missing seats likely belonged to their highland human cousins.

The orcs and lowlanders were bickering, with a vigorous argument both in the aisles and down on the debate floor. What they were complaining about, Skott did not yet know.

Senators trended older than your average hapless guard or corporal. They were old enough to remember the great rebellion of sixteen years ago—indeed, many were ranking members of the original coalition! This is to say, Skott recognized some faces.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the Prime Ministresses’ brat,” began a particularly smug human. He never finished his taunt, as he noticed Lucy’s companion.

Gasps spread through the chambers as the senators noticed Skott one-by-one.

“What do we have here?” Skott asked.

Translation magic did not quite flatten his Midwestern accent relative to the Aeirunian twang. When Skott spoke, his status as an outlander was apparent.

Humans balked. “That’s… what is this?”

“I’m back,” Skott declared triumphantly. “Now, sounds like you all are having some kind of altercation.”

“The humans want to leave the coalition government,” shouted an orc senator.

Humans roared their disapproval, orcs bellowed back.

“If the coalition government cannot protect our settlements, what’s the point of humans offering this land for the capital? Of sending our tax money to fund the coalition army?” a human on the speaker floor said.

Some goblin Senator spat at the human, nearly starting a fist fight.

“Where’s the Prime Ministress? She should be ensuring order!” grumbled a dwarf.

Skott was back in his element. It was like he’d never left!

“Hanging separately.”

The outlander stepped onto the speaking floor. The vigorous debate quieted down.

“Hang together or hang separately. It’s a metaphor. It… look, ‘hang’ has two meanings in my language. It makes sense in my universe. Now, where are the elvan representatives?” Skott looked about expectantly.

Time passed. Nobody answered. Skott had to point to a senator, a goblin.

“They’ve never taken their allotted seats we’ve offered,” said the senator.

“Okay. Fair enough. Now, where are the high-men? All I see are lowlanders here.”

High-men and lowlanders were both Aeirunian-brand humans. Lowlanders were more or less identical to all the varieties of Earther. High-men were most like denizens of the Mediterranean in countenance, with the odd spiky ears showcasing distant cousin-status with the elvan.

“The high-men have already left,” said a lowlander. “For all the reasons we were about to. The Redeemers run rampant, and we cannot continue to be beholden to a calcified alliance too slow to respond.”

“Have you considered the possibility that these Redeemers are attacking settlements for the express purpose of fraying the coalition?” Skott asked.

The senators mumbled amongst themselves.

“Now, if the lowland humans quit this governing body, you’ll lose quorum, yeah?”

Various senators nodded at Skott.

“It took several years of dedicated effort before I ever came to this world to get to the point where you could stand up to the elvan. Only united did we all succeed. Now you’re in charge, and they’re on the back foot. You going to let a few elvan guerrillas divide and conquer?”

Murmurs filled the chamber. Some human senators sat down.

Skott nodded. “Glad to talk sense into ya. Now, I’m here. I have a fairly reliable doorway back and forth to my world now. I’ve got some dedicated time to focus on helping with the problem. Heck, I can come back on weekends now.”

The hero glanced at Lucy. He was going to be spending more time back in Aeirun anyway.

“Order, order!” yelled the parliamentarian, though the issue had largely been resolved. A majority of the lowlander contingent had sat down. Their threats to leave subsided for now.

With the great hero from another world returned, faith in the coalition government would be renewed for the time being.

A figure descended from the far side of the chamber.

“Madam Prime Ministress! What are you… doing? You haven’t said anything throughout this bedlam.”

“Do my eyes deceive me?” came a dusky and mature voice.

“Mother! Look who I brought!” Lucy said, showcasing Skott off.

An older she-orc smiled, baring two very cute fangs. Clearly, that’s where Lucy inherited her incisors.

“I… I thought we’d never meet again,” Lucy’s mother said.

Skott took a step forward and put on his signature smile. “It’s been a long time, Lamora.”