Riyala smiled at the young man, and she kindly said.
"Delegate from the Machina, please, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?"
The delegate looked around at all the dragonborn staring at him, and he frowned before he stood up and spoke in irritation.
"We, the Machina, would like to know how long you intend to play us for fools? Do you think we haven’t caught onto your schemes?"
Riyala blinked in surprise, and if anyone saw her at that moment, they would think that she was genuinely confused about what the delegate was saying. Riyala asked what the delegate meant by his words, and he slammed his hand on the table before pointing at Riyala!
"You know exactly what I am referring to, priestess! You and your people have been delaying the payment owed to us for the past month while reciting obscure and useless portions of the treaty as protection, and we have grown tired of your deceit. The Overlord has demanded that you provide a fixed date upon which you will pay the full sum of your debt. This fixed date will be sealed in magic and blood and cannot be altered, and if on the day of the payment you do not provide us with what we are owed, then we have every right to take over the Yellow Ashen Mountains as reparations for your debt."
Riyala’s hand squeezed into a fist under the table, and she had to fight to keep her face as calm as possible! The other elders at the table were not so calm, and some of them began to murmur and glare at the delegate in irritation when they heard the way he spoke to Riyala, but Riyala managed to calm all of them with a raise of her hand, and she spoke to the delegate as calmly as possible.
"I apologise if we’ve insulted you or the Overlord in any way, but I assure you that you are very mistaken about our intentions. Every portion of the treaty that we have submitted has been legal and binding according to the law, and we are only asking for more time to make sure we can properly gather the funds needed to make a full payment. Surely you don’t think I would do something like this on purpose."
The delegate grit his teeth in anger when he heard the innocent tone in Riyala’s words! Right now, Riyala made it seem like she was just an innocent leader who was being falsely accused by the Overlord of intentionally delaying this transaction, but the Machina knew the truth! They all knew that the only reason why Riyala was going this far to delay the payment was because she was trying to buy time for the Black Enigma, Jason Marc, to complete his mission! But the delegate couldn’t say that to Riyala because it would make it obvious that the Machina were trying to stop Jason from reaching a particular part of the Primordial Expanse. Right now, Jason had been branded as an enigma, so the Machina’s mission was to capture him and bring him in to pay for his crimes. If the delegate mentioned that he was trying to prevent Jason from reaching a particular world, then that would only make it seem like Riyala’s plan was working.
The delegate took in a breath and let it out calmly before he finally brought out a folder and placed it on the table. Riyala eyed the folder calmly, and she motioned for one of the guards in the room to bring it to her as she listened to the delegate’s words.
"We understand that every excuse invoked by the dragonborn so far has been legitimate, and we applaud the ingenuity that you’ve showcased so far, but this is where this ends. What you have in your hands is a legally binding order by the council stating an exact date and time by which your world is required to make the full payment to the Machina. With this, there is no section of the treaty that you can invoke to bypass the payment, and if you cannot make the full payment on that date, then the Machina are entitled to possess whatever collateral they deem fit as reparation. I know that the only reason you are going this far is to protect your estranged lover, but let me give you a very strict warning. The enemies of the Machina never survive. And if we ever learn that you or any of your allies have extended a hand towards an enemy of ours, then you can be assured that you will not like our retaliation."
The delegate’s eyes bored into Riyala with intensity as he said this, and Riyala glared right back at him. Under the table, Riyala’s fingers were cutting into her palm with how tightly her hands were squeezed together, but she made sure to keep her face as calm as possible, and she gave the delegate a tight smile as she responded.
"Of course. We have always had the best intentions for our allies, so we would never extend help to those who oppose the Machina. I will study the documents and honor whatever decision the council has made."
"See to it that you do."
The Machina finally stood up with a flourish, and a Dimensional Tear opened behind him. He adjusted his coat properly and gave everyone in the room a condescending glance before he finally left. Once he was gone, a loud bang echoed through the room as one of the councilmen slammed his fist on the table!
BANG!
Everyone in the room turned towards him in shock, and he silently apologised while putting his hand over his face. Riyala just smiled at the man, and she finally opened the folder in her hand to get a good look at what was written inside. Riyala could understand the man’s anger. The dragonborn had been successfully postponing the payment for well over a month now, and they already had plans in place to extend that postponement to beyond two months if they had to, but this one visit threw all their plans into disarray, and it was now obvious that they wouldn’t have any chance to buy more time. Beside Riyala, the King watched calmly as she brought out the letter and read through it, and he finally asked her what it said after a few seconds. Riyala hummed and placed the letter on the table before speaking.
"We’ve been given till the end of the winter moon to pay the complete reparation."
The King immediately frowned.
"The end of the winter moon. That’s about a month away from now. So we only have that long."
Riyala nodded, and she watched as the other members of the council murmured amongst themselves about what this could mean. None of the council members here knew where Jason or Gina were going, but it wasn’t news to them that Jason was on a mission to try to figure out a way to prevent the Overlord from completing his transaction. But with this new order in place, they didn’t know if it would be possible for Jason to finish his mission before the set time. They didn’t know how far Jason had gone, and it was possible that he hadn’t even passed the halfway point. Riyala could hear the doubt and fear in the voices of some of the board members, and she could understand it. Whenever she was alone, Riyala would sometimes also feel that doubt and fear, but Riyala couldn’t allow those emotions to get the better of her right now. At this moment, Riyala was the priestess, and it was her job to present a strong front to the people who looked up to her.