She didn't open her mouth but there was evident anger in her mental transmissions.
"What did you just say?" She asked in anger. She continued in that same angry tone. "You want me and my forces to go into battle without knowing what you are planning? You want us to go into battle as ignorant lambs to the slaughter?"
"Yes." Came the calm reply.
He didn't bother to deny her accusation or sugarcoat it. The lady snapped then. It is both disrespectful that he didn't sugarcoat it and utter disregard for their lives that he didn't deny it. There is no way she will allow him to live. She lunged forward only to be held back by the three behind her.
"Calm down, lady Tanya." They said to her.
"He looks dangerous."
"We shouldn't fight our allies. That will only weaken us."
They made good points so Tanya calmed down. It is easier to do now that the divinity that influences her towards anger is no more. But that doesn't mean that she has been appeased. She won't take the offense lying down.
She said to the man, "Then you can forget our involvement. We will not waste our lives away. I don't know what you have planned but I do know that the forces of the kingdom of life are very strong. We will die if we so much as take a single step into the territory of their blasphemous god-king. We won't fight a hopeless battle."
The man looked at her in silence for a while. Then he nodded. "I can't tell you what we plan for fear of betrayal. Just do your part. Come with your forces and we will show you something that will make you fight with us."
"Bullshit," Tanya yelled.
She lunged again and her attendants held her back again.
"You don't trust us but you want us to trust you?" She yelled angrily. "In your dreams. What if we should be the ones that should be careful of you and not the other way around? We don't know anything about you after all."
It was only after yelling out her frustration that she calmed down. She didn't make any movement to attack anymore but her three followers held on to her nonetheless. They are not accusing her of being a hothead. They are just being extra careful. There's no harm in that.
It is a good thing that they were being extra careful too. Or all hell would have been let loose by what the man said next.
"Silence child." The man said.
"Let go of me." Tanya shouted at them as she struggled for freedom to unleash well-deserved mayhem, "Let go of me this instant."
They didn't let go so the man continued speaking in the absence of violence. "Use your head for once and not your anger. Of what use would it be for us to fund you all these while? We gave you food and weapons and you think we want to betray you. You are nothing without us and you dare to be so presumptuous. Do you think we have nothing else to do with our time and resources than to fatten up some lost sheep for slaughter?"
"I said let go of me," Tanya shouted again.
The man didn't stop at calling them lost sheep. He moved closer to the snarling Tanya. Then he placed his hand on her head and said, "Heel now and behave yourself or I will put you in your place."
Tanya was furious at first at being talked to like that. Her anger turned into surprise when she felt the force being applied to her from that single hand. It felt like someone placed a mountain on her head. The hand was so heavy that the man didn't need to apply any force for Tanya to slowly kneel before him. Through it all, there was a look of shock and fear on her face as her body buckled and caved against her will.
He spoke to her in the tone of the elder addressing the ignorant junior, "Do you see now child? If I wanted to kill you, there would be no need to go through so much stress."
Tanya calmed down. She has to in the face of true strength. "I see. I will do as you say."
She still doesn't believe him. She knows that having strength enough to kill someone doesn't mean you can't toy them around for pleasure. So the fact that the man is strong enough to kill her doesn't mean she is not in danger. Actually, it is the opposite. She is in danger because he is strong enough to kill her. And that's why she will do what he says. If only to prolong her life.
"Good." The man said and took away his hand. "You will be rewarded for your obedience. The era of gods can never return but you can become the next god-king of the plane."
Tanya's eyes widened. Anger threatened to spill out from within her again. She held it down so she only frowned. She didn't explode.
But she couldn't help but ask, "You said before that you could bring back the era of gods. Were you lying to me?"
"I lied." The man replied with a straight face absent of any guilt. He even dared to chuckle. "The era of gods is gone forever. It can never return. There can be only one god in the plane and that is the position of god-king."
Tanya laughed. "So I was right not to trust you earlier. And now you want me to risk myself all because of the promise that you will make me god king?"
"Yes." Came the confident reply.
She asked in indignation, "Do you take me for a child?"
"Yes, I do. That's why I call you child."
Tanya didn't speak anymore. She was afraid that she would lose her temper if he tried to express her opinion in any way. So she pressed her lips into a thin line while her eyes glared at the man as if about to spill fire from her eyes.