Jake waited impatiently for the conference call to restart. While Ell’Hakan and company likely had a lot to talk about, Jake and the others really didn’t. Nothing said or discussed so far warranted any real conversation, so all Jake did was check in with Carmen and Bobby to hear their thoughts on how things were going so far – after Bobby assured Jake no one could hear or see them, that is.
“He seems pretty on board,” Carmen shrugged. “But it’s hard to say with slimy bastards like him. Either way, even if he doesn’t believe us, he probably wants to just go along with the story anyway, right? At least until his Patron battles the Malefic Viper.”
“I’m in agreement,” Bobby nodded. “You just need the story to be somewhat believable. I’m sure Ell’Hakan will do the rest of the selling necessary to the rest of the galaxy and multiverse to help power up Yip of Yore from there, and when you do your official public denouncement of the Malefic Viper, nothing prior will have mattered. That in itself will be more impactful and benefit Yip of Yore more than all the current ongoing schemes. From there, all we can do is sit back and wait for the gods to finish their battle while being ready for what comes next.”
Jake nodded at their input, fully aware. Right now, the only important thing was just to get Ell’Hakan on board and pause the conflict in the Milky Way Galaxy. Surely, he would spread information about what they had agreed on from there, laying the groundwork for Jake’s future renouncement of his True Blessing. Something that was bound to be a grand affair.
He was still worried about how everyone would deal with things back on Earth, but he didn’t really have the mental leeway to do that right now. The fifteen-minute intermission felt so damn long before it was finally time to restart things, but at last, it was go-time once more. Bobby reactivated the magic circle, only for them to see Ell’Hakan and the two others had already activated theirs and were ready and waiting.
“Right on time. I do apologize for requesting this short break, but I believed it wise to give us all time to digest all we had discussed thus far,” Ell’Hakan said in a calm tone, restarting the meeting.
“It was fine,” Jake shrugged. “Assuming the break led to anything productive and wasn’t just a waste of time.”
“I believe it wasn’t,” Ell’Hakan smiled as he turned to King Iludar and Jacob. “We discussed and agreed that assisting you in your quest to free yourself from the shackles of your tyrannical Patron would be mutually beneficial. We also agree to a temporary truce within the galaxy as long as the details regarding that are satisfactory, with full recognition that it’s only a temporary truce until the battle between Yip of Yore and the Malefic Viper has concluded.”
Jake nearly asked him to repeat all that, as he wasn’t sure if he’d heard right… because it sounded like Ell’Hakan had just agreed to everything they had been asking for thus far. Both a temporary alliance and truce were accepted just like that, and it felt way too fucking easy. It was so easy that Jake got suspicious, but he couldn’t exactly question why Ell’Hakan hadn’t tried to get more out of them without looking weird. No… there was still time for Ell’Hakan to make demands.
“Oh, but I do have one burning question before we get to the details,” Ell’Hakan said, tilting his head. “How will your fellow natives respond to all this? What will the Verdant Witch who serves the Order of the Malefic Viper say? The countless allies only there due to your title as the Chosen of the Malefic Viper? Because I have a hard time seeing them just going on with business as usual after you declare the Malefic Viper enemy number one.”This was one of those times where preparation really came in handy, as Jake had a quick response ready.
“I told them a story,” Jake said curtly. “I informed them that everything is part of the Malefic Viper’s complicated scheme, and for them to simply trust me. That everything I’m doing here, and everything that will happen, is all part of the Malefic Viper’s plan. If all goes well, that story should stick until the bitter end or at least convince enough people long enough for them not to cause trouble.”
“And if it doesn’t convince them?” Ell’Hakan raised an eyebrow.
“One thing at a time,” Jake waved him off. “I never said this was a perfect plan, and it doesn’t have to be. As long as it’s good enough, things will be fine. With the help of Valhal, I’m confident in handling the aftermath.”
“Don’t you mean confident we’ll handle the aftermath for you?” Carmen said in a jokingly mocking tone, Jake giving her a mental thumbs-up for the natural assist.
“We have made preparations,” Bobby added. “Lord Thayne’s homeworld is one occupied overwhelmingly by humans and without the influence of the Malefic Viper, it would have been a prime target for recruitment. Will there be challenges should there be a switch of backers? Yes, but I would reckon many of those who put their trust in the Malefic Viper will also find themselves scrambling in the event of his death and would gladly accept the helping hand of Valhal during all that turmoil. As for those who still oppose us… well, any excuse to pick up arms would be more than welcome.”
“I see, I see…” Ell’Hakan slowly nodded as he looked back at Jacob. “To convince them all that this is all part of the Malefic Viper’s plan sounds incredibly far-fetched, wouldn’t you agree?”
“The Malefic Viper is a notorious schemer,” Jacob simply said. “However, I would agree that it seems illogical to have a plan that includes increasing the power of your mortal enemy, who currently has you on the back foot and is pushing back your faction on all fronts.”
“Right?” Ell’Hakan smiled as he turned back and looked Jake directly in the eyes. “That does sound unbelievable.”
Jake knew this was one of the more dangerous subjects, but this had been part of their considerations of what Ell’Hakan would question, and he quickly responded with one of his many pre-prepared semi-scripted sentences.
“It also sounds unbelievable that I would be unable to renounce my True Blessing, have a drop of the Viper’s blood implanted into my Soulspace, have the Viper use his Transcendence in that very same Soulspace, and all of that originating from me being made Chosen without knowing fuck-all about the system or how anything worked while still stuck in a fucked up Challenge Dungeon made to test the limits of the system… yet here we are, with all those things being truths I swear upon my Bloodline are true,” Jake said, perhaps coming on a bit too hard, but he felt like he needed to drop something like this to not lose momentum.
“You know, it almost sounds to me like you’re arguing all this truly is part of the Viper’s plan despite how ludicrous that seems,” Ell’Hakan said in a joking tone, shaking his head.
Fuck, Jake screamed internally as he kept a stoic look. Fuck me, why the-
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“But I understand what you’re getting at. Reality and fiction, especially when dealing with figures as powerful as Primordials, can be hard to distinguish for everyone, with no one truly knowing what they’re capable of doing or planning. If those on Earth have no reason to believe you were lying about it all being part of the Viper’s plan, they’re more prone to believe it than anything I or anyone else subsequently say,” Ell’Hakan continued in a calm tone. “You are the Chosen of the Malefic One, after all, and who is more trustworthy in matters regarding the Viper than that?”
… saved? Jake thought, honestly not sure how to take Ell’Hakan’s words. It sounded almost like he was trying to help Jake’s story make sense. Or maybe he’d overthought things… Jake didn’t and couldn’t know, so all he could do was keep things up.
“Not exactly what I was getting at, but close enough. They also wouldn’t want to believe I would betray the Malefic Viper, as that would be a very inconvenient truth to many,” Jake said, trying to sound convincing, though he decided to add: “I will admit this is perhaps the riskiest part of all this, but as I said earlier, even if many don’t believe I’m just following the Viper’s plan, I’ll deal with that after everything is over.”
“Fair enough,” Ell’Hakan allowed Jake to move on. “I’ll let you handle things on your end, and I’ll handle things on mine. I do take it you have thoughts as to what this truce and temporary alliance will include?”
“Do enlighten me what you have in mind,” Jake said, throwing the ball in Ell’Hakan’s court.
“Well, needless to say, the most important thing will be a joint declaration,” Ell’Hakan said, and Jake was about to protest about meeting up in person as the Chosen continued. “Meeting physically shall naturally not be part of this. I believe it best we stay away from one another for now and keep our communication strictly long-distance.”
“Probably safest for everyone involved,” Jake agreed, once more not hiding his dislike of Ell’Hakan. In all honesty, it made Jake a bit happy that Ell’Hakan didn’t want to meet Jake either. Ell’Hakan had to know that if anything could ruin a good plan, it was a punch to the face, and everyone knew Jake found the nahoom bastard very punchable. It hadn’t been part of the plan, but Jake’s dislike meant that he wouldn’t even need to argue against meeting Ell’Hakan and risking being exposed to his Bloodline, which was a great boon.
“Safety above all,” the other Chosen said in a lighthearted tone, shaking his head. “Besides a joint declaration, we shall also decide on how everything will be communicated. Also, what roles do Valhal and the Holy Church wish to actively play during all this?”
The question was directed at both Jacob and Bobby, with Jacob speaking first.
“The Holy Church will follow whatever declaration of peace is made and shall cease all activities that aren’t solely to retain our existing territory. For this, we do demand that the Risen and other formal enemies of the Church will also remain confined to their current locations and not make any moves,” the Augur said, proposing what Jake assumed was the bare minimum.
“Valhal shall not take any actions either during this period, not unless others break the truce first,” Bobby said in a strong tone. “Our goal in all this is purely to assist Lord Thayne in his matters, nothing more, nothing less. His interests fully align with ours, and when the time is right, Valhal shall be the voice of authority to bring his denouncement of the Malefic Viper to the multiverse.”
“At which point, my Patron shall launch his final assault on the Malefic Viper, “ Ell’Hakan finished. “All seems simple enough on paper. Of course, there are some details to hammer out, but I believe we can find a solution everyone’s happy with.”
Jake slightly nodded, as he still felt some uncertainty from how easy this had all been so far, and how suspiciously productive this meeting had been. It didn’t feel as if Jake was trying to trick Ell’Hakan into an alliance and truce, but more like they both wanted the same thing, but for slightly different reasons. He almost felt that if he’d come to Ell’Hakan without any of his pre-planned stories and scheming and just asked him for a truce until Yip of Yore and the Viper settled their feud, the guy would have agreed.
He wasn’t sure if he should be complaining, though. This had been what they wanted, right? Yet Jake still had a nagging feel, no doubt coming in part from actually working with a guy he really wanted to just kill and be done with it. Alas, he would have to be patient and wait for the Viper to have his fun first.
Also, it was pretty damn clear Ell’Hakan had his own plans behind the scenes to be fine with this truce. Jake already knew he had dealing with the Holy Church that seemed mostly independent of Yip of Yore, and while the many allies he’d gathered were definitely strongly in part due to their Patron’s following Yip of Yore in his mad quest to slay the Malefic Viper, many also supported Ell’Hakan directly.
Without having any actual proof, King Iludar struck Jake as one of these people. During all their conversations, he seemed to never really react when gods were mentioned, making it appear he was quite neutral toward them. He also had a surprisingly clear gaze for someone Jake assumed to have been mind-fucked by Ell’Hakan over a long period of time. As for how strong he was… Jake had no idea. All he knew was that the guy was pretty good at politics despite not having talked much during this conference call.
What followed after they all agreed to a truth and temporary alliance was perhaps the hardest part of this all: discussing the details. Jake really missed having Miranda on his side here, and while Bobby was a good leader, he wasn’t Miranda-level. Oh yeah, Carmen was also there, but she was in even deeper water than Jake.
Seeing as Ell’Hakan also directly asked Jake several things during this planning, he had to stay engaged and on his feet constantly to not let anything slip. He was lucky that Jacob was also there, and his suggestions tended to be very neutral and seeking compromise, at least in any matters not directly involving the Church. Because he did get Jake to agree to a few things that the Church wanted, mostly as an act of goodwill.
It helped that Ell’Hakan agreed to all these as it was part of a larger plan to protect innocent citizens and preserve as many lives as possible. What Jacob wanted was an assurance from everyone that those part of the Church could evacuate freely from any planet involved in this and later conflict, and anyone part of other factions could also return to their own homeworlds.
Considering the fact there apparently already were tens of thousands of prisoners of war – primarily in the form of spies and planted political dissidents – quite a few would be able to go free with this proposal.
Jake called this part the hardest in all of this as he genuinely had no idea if what happened was good or bad. Sure, he’d sat in on his fair share of contract negotiations and whatnot, but this was on a whole other scale. Trying to portray himself as confident and competent in things like this was extremely difficult, and after some time, he realized that having Carmen there actually was a great boon… because she was bold enough to ask the questions Jake felt like he would look too dumb to ask.
He also couldn’t have prepared anything for this discussion but had to improvise everything, meaning there was a far higher chance he fucked something up. However, by mainly staying on topic and not discussing his story anymore, he believed it went pretty well overall.
As things seemed to be winding down, and everything looked right – at least Bobby seemed fine with things, and Jake didn’t find anything outrageous, they reached the final part they had to get done… recording a joint statement.
Four people would take part in this. Jake and Bobby on one side, with Ell’Hakan and Jacob on the other, representing that Valhal and the Holy Church both endorsed and had helped broker this deal. They wouldn’t go into many details about Jake denouncing his Patron quite yet, but keep everything vague and allow rumors to spread about why Jake would be with Valhal in the first place. It was better for people to reach their own conclusions than tell them outright Jake was looking to switch sides.
When the time was then right, Jake would use Valhal and Ell’Hakan to officially denounce the Malefic Viper and voice his support of Yip of Yore. With the seed of doubt already planted, this announcement would prove even more impactful.
However, before they got to the final announcement, Ell’Hakan once more had to take a moment.
“We need to make sure what we communicate outwardly is perfect, and before fully committing, allow me a moment to commune with my Patron,” the other Chosen said. “So, let’s meet back in… let’s say an hour? By then, we should all be ready, and we will all have some time to consider if we missed anything.”
And just like that, shit was delayed a little again… but at least Jake had a bit more to talk with Bobby and Carmen about now.