Wolfe placed his hand over his heart with a wounded look on his face. "Way to throw me under the bus. But you were picked by Kira, not me. She said that you would have the magic and personality to work with the Fortress City as they rebuilt, and I didn't question her judgment."
Reiko shook her head at his antics, and the Council Members slowly began to smile. They had thought that these negotiations might be a lot more hostile, given their circumstances, and the power of the groups that they were negotiating with, but the impression that they got from the visitors so far was more of a reunion of old friends.
But the representative from Gormana, the oddly human Demon, still hadn't said much of anything.
"What part does Gormana play in the breakaway villages in our territory?" One of the Council members finally asked, moving away from the topic of the Guardian before it could be decided unilaterally by the Coven Leader.
Arthur stepped forward with a bow. "We have a trade agreement with them. You see, they struck a deal with Forest Grove as well, and they have been supplied with higher level Garden Charms, as well as other useful magic. We are short on resources, including food and oil, which they are producing in abundance now, so we have set up banks in town as well as outposts of major businesses to facilitate trade.
A large number of Gormana Citizens are currently living within the swamps and woods of Morgana Territory, but few intend to stay indefinitely, other than the ones who have started families with a local."
"There are Demons marrying the villagers?" One of the old witches asked in alarm.
"No, Council Member, you misunderstand. Gormana doesn't have a large population of Demons, I am just the representative who ensures their safety. The nation remains almost exclusively human, with only a handful of witches and immigrants.
The ones who came to do business here are the humans, and they arrived last winter, while the Grand Dutchies were causing issues all over the place. I arrived after that had been settled, but I am informed that it was part of a strategy to prevent the Grand Dutchies from gaining the resources to overcome their difficulties, should they have won the war." Arthur explained.
The witches weren't shocked by that, it was information that they already knew. What they wanted was to hear it firsthand from the Gormana representative and to hear how he framed it, how his people looked at what the Morgana Coven viewed as a usurpation of their lands.
"So you are not preventing them from rejoining the Coven?" The Council member continued.
Arthur shook his head. "The religious practices of the witches, and their spiritual loyalty, are of very little concern to me, unless they prove to be extremist or violent. If the witches wish to be official members of your Coven, that is entirely up to them.
I also can't speak for the political affiliation of the villages. They had isolated themselves to sit out the civil war when our people arrived, and I haven't had an opportunity to talk to them in person to get their feelings on the matter, or any other matter that isn't trade related."
That also matched with what their informants had told them about the situation, and the Morgana Council was feeling a bit more amenable to working out a deal. But not just a trade deal, one that would help them regain the trust and respect of their people, so that the grand and ancient Morgana Coven didn't end up as an isolated relic in a decaying Fortress City.
"If you have paper copies of the agreement, we will need some time to go over it with our legal team, to ensure that there are no objectionable clauses in it. But I will certainly have clauses that we will wish to have added to the contract, which I am certain will not be in your version." Reiko informed the visitors.
Arthur handed over one stack of papers, while Cassie handed over another.
"These are the two agreements. The trade deal with Gormana, adding the Fortress City to the list of Morgana Territory towns that they do business with, and the proposal from Forest Grove.
I suggest that you read the proposal from Gormana first, as the one that we have brought you might take a bit more negotiation." Cassie informed them.
Reiko looked startled at that, and immediately went to see what Wolfe had put in that contract, but managed to stop herself and open the agreement from Arthur first.
It wasn't long, only ten pages of mostly legalese, with each clause summarized.
It really was just a trade agreement, as if it was between companies, with simple details like restrictions on price and supply controls beyond reasonable levels for national security, and protections for travelling business people.
The council thumbed through it, and Wolfe gave it a cursory read.
"I thought that you would go all out, but it looks like there is nothing too deep in there." Wolfe quietly commented to the Demon.
"There is no need for it to be too in depth. It is all encompassing, so it will allow the trade of all forms of goods back and forth, other than military goods. That alone is enough, as it will include the witch charms that we want, as well as the magically produced goods like that lovely sunflower oil that comes from the forest.
I am told that you helped them set that up, and it has been a life-saving deal for us. Half of our government fleet currently operates on refined Morgana Oil." Arthur whispered back.
The witches handed the deal off to the lawyers, who would go through it much more thoroughly to ensure that the clauses said what the summaries suggested, and then they opened the trade deal from Wolfe and nearly choked at the pure audacity of his suggestions.
"You want Morgana Coven Territory, the entire territory including the Fortress City, to become a semi autonomous region of the Frozen Wastes, under the leadership of Forest Grove?" Reiko gasped.
Wolfe nodded. "I thought that might be a good place to start negotiating from."
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