128

128
Thane's POV

I inform Astella as she enters with Draco wide awake for this time of day held in her arms. “The messenger was here an hour ago. The Vampire Covens of the East cry out urgently for diplomatic assistance. Then all their leadership structure going back centuries evaporated overnight and war between the factions and civil war were all but inevitable.”

"Civil war over what?" she asks, sitting down in the chair opposite my desk as our son plays with a wooden toy that miraculously still has his interest despite being so much less engaging than the reality-warping games he could concoct with his powers.

“Integration,” I respond, reading from the message that came with their message, “Half the covens are looking at us and asking if they haven't got it wrong—shouldn't their domains have been opened, should their trade relationships allow them to intermarry with another species… The second half see this as signaling cultural suicide, and have gone so far as to threaten a mass secession from the East wing.”

I feel her mixture of excitement and concern as she processes the implications with me over our mate bond. Mixing with other supernatural communities to unite instead of divide is the kind of opening we have wished for. Yet it's also the sort of political minefield that could easily detonate into the exact same conflicts we have been trying to avoid.

"Who's leading each faction?"her pragmatic stance charging through its start points.

“That would be the progressive wing, darlin— Lady Vivienne. Only a few centuries old, she is young for vampire leadership, but she has gained renown already for her conciliatory strategies. For months now, she's rolled out her own integration policies on a smaller scale in her one territory.”

"And the traditional faction?"

My reflexive response is, of course, to maintain the measured neutrality diplomatic conversations demand, although my inclinations are not nearly as kind. "Lord Dimitri, Absurdly old even for a vampire, so strong that other lords listen to his voice and certain mixing with others of less pure bloodlines will doom the entire vampire society.”

I reach for the scroll in my hands as if Draco can see through that paper and wants to check out the fancy seals,the detailed calligraphy. Our son is a mere nine months old and he now takes interest in diplomatic documents, far beyond the normal curiosity of an infant, fortunately without capabilities that extend to either joy or accidental international incidents.

“Suspicious timing,” Astella comments with the insight for which she is invaluable as a part of both personal and political life. “Ryan comes to me atoning for his vices, but the vampire regions start to fracture over essentially the same decisions that he failed because of. Integration not isolation, cooperation not control."

"You think there's a connection?" I can't help it, I ask, although I think she's found something that my simpler thinking did not.

The laughter was the universe's dismissive response, and to this I can only give a small grin. Learning to forgive an individual who sadly puts ambition above family is reflective of the larger kind, as we are asked to help others through that same sort of far-reaching choice.

“It's a matter of whether we can handle that level of responsibility,” I remind her, my Alpha King speaking pragmatically in terms of the possible gains versus the overwhelming losses.

Derek pressed his lips together, then allowed them to twist into a mirthless smile that didn't come close to touching his eyes. “We are the hells of agent De la Vega's midnight case; forcing him to do such would place us in the heart of supernatural law and order as we've long since avoided on our part. We would be alienating whoever ends up on the losing side, and even the winners might feel very negatively about what we had done in influencing their vote later on.”

“On the contrary,” she rebuts, counterbalancing my more tactical style of planning with long-game thinking: “You see, Ryan, if we don't get involved and they kill each other in a civil war then this thing we've built here is merely an isolated experiment not the catalyst for actual change. We cannot seek lasting peace in conflict aversion.”

As we discuss the pros and cons of responding to this diplomatic call, Yvonne comes into the study and puts our morning security briefings on the desk. When she takes my leave, I see that my sister has settled into her place as leader of defense; she tempers instinct to fierceness with strategy built from seasons overseeing the territories that hold old enemies in a tenuous peace.

“The vampire messenger remains," she observes, taking a seat by the window from where she could observe both me and the world outside. “Celia, a vampire of Lady Vivienne who appears to be actually dedicated to the integration cause. Some of our vampire residents, She has been talking to them about how things were over here before and when she can make the jump.”

"What's her assessment?" That region's progress concerns Astella but she wonders how that looks to us on the outside.

Yvonne remains silent for a moment and then admits, "I'm so impressed but also terrified..Lady Miken said she believed our model might be effective in the Eastern Territories, but there is the obvious issue that Lord Dimitri has already resorted to an extreme level of violence to ensure his faction maintains its power. Well, there have been a couple of vampire-on-vampire tiffs among the more vocal proponents for working with other species.”

"How serious are we talking?" I joke, though my protective instincts immediately weigh the resources we would have to put into keeping negotiators and civilians safe during mediation efforts.

“Bad enough that Lady Vivienne is asking for not just diplomatic assistance, but direct military intervention in support of the integrationists,” Yvonne says with a face suitable to deliver sad news. “She is asking if we would be able to put some of our guards in the Eastern Territories during our negotiations.”

The demand gets my thoughts headed down fresh paths, converting what began as more of a diplomatic journey into something akin to our military escapade. And if we use them to send our people into the territory of another Faction to protect politicians path reborn as a more widespread war between factions is an escalation of communal politics, the likes of which are why we have tried so hard not to involve our community in this summit.

“That changes everything,” Astella cocks her head the way it seems to draw to my same conclusion as me. “We are no longer mediating a disagreement. We're supposed to take sides in a civil war and offer military assistance for our pick."

"Which means we have to be 100% sure that the faction we're supporting is the right one," I finish, and think of what it would cost....to get this wrong... Jesus, being an Alpha King is hard.

"Should Lady Vivienne manage to integrate them, or—may the Sanctified forgive me—if Lord Dimitri turns out less savage than his reputation suggests… we'd be making enemies of vampire factions for generations."

But as we are debating how challenging it must be for Palmer to decide, Draco abruptly drops his toy and turns toward the window with such intention that all three of us instinctively look in the same direction as he does. We see one small group through the window, walking in, along our border, diplomatic flags waving — to vampires from their white skin and flowing movements, but not the messenger who came with this first demand.

As the group, a faction of Lord Dimitri I realize with my enhanced senses, in view nears closer. ''They send their own diplomatic mission, the likely intention is that it's to argue for their side of the conflict and beg us not to take Lady Vivienne in.”

“That makes it far more complex,” Astella mutters, her shaman sense likely touching on the welter of emotions and ulterior motives that besets all substantial interrelations.

Yvonne notes with practical optimism, "At least we'll get to see the case for both sides before we make up our minds. Although I have the feeling Lord Dimitri's will not be nearly as affable as Lady Vivienne's.”

When the traditional vampire delegation comes to meet us at the entrance of our territory, requesting if they could enter for an audience and further negotiations with a proper discussion, Draco smacks his hands together with joyful laughter as though the building political threat is humorous rather than frightening. As he stands there with his enigmatic knowledge, I intuit that maybe this face-off is not going to proceed the way we all think — and that our boy somehow knows what is about to take place.