Aux 3 - Speaking of the devil, about the devil, with the devil.

'The fuck do you want?' Trepid screamed at the man who just came into the room.

'I… I am sorry sir, I was just following the orders to bring you a glass of water. I can get you something else if you want me to? I can bring you a cup of chocolate milk?'

'No, no… a glass of water is alright.' He shouldn't have fallen out against the waiter, he was doing his job. But Trepid was agitated, for the entire day already. Why? Good question. Cause today, he was having a negotiation with the leader of the aliens that had just invaded a beach in Canada. And he was absolutely pissed off that he had to be the one who needed to speak with the damn things.

'I'm sorry, I'm just a bit pissed off that I have to speak with that… with that devil,' he added to his last sentence right before the waiter left the room.

'Speaking of the devil, I'm here.'

Trepid immediately blushed. 'I'm sorry, I wasn't talking about you, miss.'

The woman laughed it off. 'I know that you were talking about me, don't lie. That's not very… manly of you. But I understand why you think of me as a devil, I'd call you the same when your people defeated mine. Not that they would be able to.' She laughed.

Trepid felt something snap inside of him. This woman probably caused a ton of deaths already, and now she was just laughing him and his people in the face? 'The fuck do you want?' He repeated his own words. Not very diplomatic, he immediately thought.

Her smile vanished. 'You'll see, little shithead.' She turned away from him, but then immediately turned back. 'And do something about your posture, just saying.' The tone for the peace talks was set.

An hour of usually peaceful men and women shouting at the aliens passed by too slow for Trepid's wishes. At some point, he just decided to end it.

'Guys, guys, we understand your motives, and you've heard what we wanted to say, so we both will be better off if we just end it here.' He started. 'You say that your people have set up some kind of force field. I'll send men to verify that. Is there anything we can do to shut that off? Like would you take any money?'

'Definitely not.'

'Well, alright,' Trepid striped something off of a piece of paper. 'Is there anything else we can do to stop this war?'

'Well, maybe I have a fun idea,' the queen, whose name he still didn't know, stood up out of her chair. 'Let's play a little… game. You know what I mean?'

'I know what a game is, but, no, I don't understand what you mean.'

'Somewhere inside of the force field are nine stones located. Getting all of those nine stones, makes your people free. But: every stone has to be captured by a specific person, and no one else can accompany him or her. Oh, and, the force field will be expanding.'

'Excuse me, what?' Trepid didn't know what he heard.

The queen bowed a bit forward. 'You heard what I said. If you also understood it, I don't know, but that's not my problem.' She chuckled.

'What happened to the people inside the force field?'

'Good question…' she began. 'That's only a question for you, though. I know the answer. Not that I'll tell you.'

Trepid felt a drop of sweat slowly making its way down his bald head. 'So, who's going to be the first person to… get a stone? Me?'

'No, that would be way too obvious. The first person is…' she thought for a second. 'Maia Ardins!'

'Who's that?'

She laughed hard again. 'Do I look like I know?' The queen then walked away.

'What did you do? And why? Why would we just give away our land like that? We captured it ourselves!'

Tera laughed. 'We're not going to make it easy for them. In fact, getting all of those nine stones is going to be… impossible.'