Chapter 5: Aggressive Negotiation

Oksana

She purposefully strode up to him, as all eyes followed her every movement. She didn’t acknowledge anyone around her but instead directed all her focus on her host. When she reached him, she looked down her nose at the vampire. She scoffed internally, it seems his nickname was apt. He would have been close to six feet tall, but instead was slightly hunched and barely reached her shoulder. The classic regal features of a vampire were absent from his face. Instead, it looked plain, pinched and uncomely. Kostin was looking at her nervously. She was amused to see his eyes wander down her necklace and to her chest in quick succession.

She held out her bejeweled hand. The vampire hastily took her hand, kissed it immediately and said, “My lady we-” he paused as he tried to collect himself. Once composed he started again, “I’m sorry my lady. We did not expect one of the Sanguine clan to be in attendance! When my servants reported your retinue had come into our house seat, I assumed they had been mistaken!”

Oksana withdrew her hand and said in a clear strong voice, “Yes, my father took it upon himself to….,” she paused and smiled before saying, “….invite our clan to this, gathering.”

She put a heavy emphasis on the word gathering. As if to imply this was no more than an informal gathering of lesser, rather than a full-blown ball.

“I assume that is of no issue?” Oksana asked in a tone that clearly implied that he really didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Kostin licked his lips nervously and stammered, “Oh uh, of course-- of course. We are honored by your entrancing presence, my lady. Um, let me uh-- introduce you to my wife Evalena!”

Kostin hurriedly ushered his wife forward, as if to interpose her in between himself and Oksana. His wife was far better looking than her husband, but she looked just as stunned at Oksana’s sudden appearance. She bowed deeply to Oksana and said, “We are honored to host you and your retinue within our walls, Lady Oksana.”

Oksana inclined her head ever so slightly to the woman in front of her before turning her head back to Kostin. “Thank you for your hospitality Kostin. May I in turn introduce you to Yuri, personal advisor to my father.”

Yuri took a step forward and bowed his head to Kostin who hastily returned the gesture and said, “Ah uh yes, yes, I have heard of the wise and venerable lord Yuri of clan Khvostov. Your exploits on the battlefield, are well-known sir.”

Yuri smiled at the compliment and said, “Thank you for your words, Kostin. I hope my lady’s arrival is of no inconvenience.”

Kostin, who had seemed to recover slightly nodded and replied, “Of course not sir. We are honored by her and your clans' attendance.”

As if just realizing how the entire party had stopped, Kostin hastily shouted past Oksana to the musicians in a corner of the room, “What are you looking at? This is a ball and a grand occasion! Play, entertain us!”

The musicians, who were made up of what looked like lesser vampires, flinched at the rebuke and immediately began playing their instruments again. Soon after, the rest of the guests gradually began to return to what they had been doing before Oksana had made her grand entrance.

Oksana briefly turned to Yuri, and in a voice only he could hear said, “Inform those who accompanied us, they are free to mingle and refresh themselves. Once you are done, rejoin me here and we will conduct our business with the shriveled one.”

Yuri smirked at her insult and bowed respectfully to her, before turning around and making his way over to the group of vampires who had accompanied her to the ball. Oksana turned back to Kostin who was still staring at her. She smirked at his attention, and the attention of all those in front of her. In total there were six high vampires before her, including Kostin and Evalena. She recognized all of them. They were each head of their own lesser clans.

The first stepped forward. He was the tallest of the group and almost matched Oksana in height. He was powerfully built and held himself like a warrior. It made sense seeing as his clan was known for its raids on the human kingdoms to the south. Oksana offered her hand to him, with more grace than Kostin. He leaned down and kissed her hand, “Greetings, Lady Oksana. I am Andrei of clan Zubov, I have heard much of your beauty and accomplishments. I am glad to see the stories have obviously not done the lady the justice she deserves!”

Oksana smiled at the flattery. “Thank you Andrei. Your clans’ ability to capture blood thralls during your raids are well known and much appreciated throughout the blood lands.”

Andrei smiled graciously saying, “You flatter me, my lady. I am glad my clan’s accomplishments are known to one of your great standings.”

The other three vampires introduced themselves in similar manners. She greeted Lord Nikolay of clan Melikov, Lord Oleg of clan Shuysky and finally Lady Sonya of clan Orlov. They all exchanged some small talks before Yuri arrived back by Oksana’s side.

Oksana cleared her throat and announced, “Kostin, shall we and your guests here move to more private chambers? I have some business to discuss with you before I enjoy this gathering”

Kostin looked uncertainly between her and Yuri, before nodding and saying, “Yes, please follow me. I have a place for such matters of business.”

Kostin beckoned them to follow behind him He and his wife led them through a side door leading away from the main ballroom. They all walked down a narrow corridor which eventually came to another door where a house guard stood watch. Without waiting for direction, the guard opened the door for them to pass. Oksana smiled as she saw the guard do a double-take as she walked by.

The door led them to what looked like Kostin’s private study. There were numerous scrolls neatly organized on the wall mixed with a large number of books, which Oksana assumed were all related to his clan's accounts and business ventures. Despite Kostin’s well-known lack of martial might, he was an undeniably efficient trader and merchant.

There was a large fireplace with a small but pleasant fire burning, giving the room a comfortably warm interior. The light given off by the flame made interesting images on the obsidian wall and Oksana found the room quite pleasant, if not small for her tastes.

Kostin directed Oksana and the others to all take seats around the fire. There were several armchairs and comfortable couches. Oksana sat in the nearest chair to the fire and Yuri sat in the chair next to her. Everyone else took their seats and Kostin was the last to sit along with his wife.

“I shall have refreshments brought for us, so we may conduct this business in comfort.”

Kostin reached over and pulled a cord next to his chair, a moment later a thrall maid appeared from across the room. Oksana saw she had been an elf before fully turning. The slim woman bowed her head and asked, “What can I bring you my lord?”

“Have the cook bring our guests platters of the food from the ballroom and bring the aged Krov wine.”

The maid bowed and quickly moved out of the room. While they all waited for the refreshments to arrive, Oksana took her time to study those in the room. Kostin was obviously still nervous, despite his attempts to remain calm. In fact, all those in the room, besides Yuri and Andrei seemed on edge. She was impressed by Andrei’s poise and filed that knowledge away for any future business deals.

In short order the thrall came back through the door, accompanied by a handful of other thralls who each carried large platters of food. They set the assortment of plates down on the table in between all those seated around the fire. And lastly, the original thrall handed Kostin an obsidian bottle, which she assumed was the Krov wine. Kostin stood up and made appoint to pour Oksana a glass first, which she accepted and took a sip of. She smiled at the taste. Whatever was said about the man, he had excellent taste in wine. She sat back and sipped at her wine. Yuri passed her a plate of food, before helping himself to the dishes.

Once everyone had a plate of food and a glass filled with wine, Kostin cleared his throat and said, “While I had planned to have this meeting towards the end of the night, our surprise guest has moved our timeline forward.”

He turned to Andrei and said, “As you know, my clan has recently formed trade agreements with several of the minor clans and have been exporting our obsidian outside the blood lands as well. While that avenue provides its own difficulties, it is lucrative. I however would also like to expand my clan’s business dealings at home.”

Oksana remained silent as she listened to what Kostin was proposing. It basically boiled down to him wanting to form trade agreements with all these minor clans today, in exchange for various guarantees and other forms of payment. However, that was why Oksana was here.

All these clans here were client clans or allied to several of the large Sanguine clans. Her father however wanted direct access to as much obsidian as could be found. This was due to the fact that her clan’s enchanters had recently discovered that if obsidian was ground to powdered alongside the right mixture of powdered crystal it made for an extremely potent enchanting reagent. As far as her family’s spies and informants could tell no other house had discovered this use for obsidian yet.

Up until now, obsidian had mainly been used as a valuable medicinal reagent that worked especially well on vampiric bodies. The ability to weaponize it though would make the rock even more valuable. It would give her clan a further edge in the constant internal struggle amongst the vampire clans to outperform the others. In the blood lands, the strong ruled, and the weak served.

As Kostin was in the middle of offering terms to lady Sonya, Oksana decided to make her offer. “Kostin, though your offers are by all means fair and beneficial to all those here, I would like to make you a different offer.”

All eyes in the room snapped to her as she smiled a predatory look at them all. “Clan Khvostov is willing to enter into a formal trade agreement with Clan Tereshenko. In this agreement, we will acquire exclusive rights to all your exported Obsidian.”

She paused, as the expected shocked protestations from the others filled the room. All the heads of clan shouted at each other and at Kostin, trying to be heard above all others.

“You promised us a share of the exports!”

“We have already made an agreement with your clan Kostin, you cannot renege on that deal!”

Oksana smiled wolfishly, as she watched the chaos unfold. She knew this was the reaction that her offer was bound to cause. Never in the history of the blood lands had a Sanguine clan made an exclusive trade agreement with a lesser house.

Generally, they would use a minor clan to make the main deal and take a cut of the product or profits. Sanguine clans only traded exclusively between one another or foreign kingdoms. The money and power at the disposal of a sanguine clan dwarfed even the strongest of a high vampiric clan. Eventually, she raised her voice as her commanding voice silenced all the protestations, “In exchange for the exclusive trade with clan Khvostov, we will not only pay a reasonable price monetarily wise, but we will also provide a detachment of our clan soldiers to help protect the mines in your lands from any raids from your rival clans and beast attacks. Furthermore, my father and mother are willing to offer a yearly transfer of three hundred thralls to your clan for feeding or manual labor. The choice is yours on what you would like to do with them.”

Her offer stunned them all into silence. Offering not only a yearly shipment of thralls and soldiers to protect their mines was basically offering clan Tereshenko the opportunity to become a recognized proxy clan of a sanguine clan. It would almost certainly guarantee the clan's safety from any of its direct rivals, as to attack clan Tereshenko would be to attack clan Khvostov. Attacking a clan as old and powerful as hers, was basically a death sentence for any of the high vampiric clans. Even most sanguine clans would go out of their way to avoid angering her clan.

She smiled as she watched Kostin’s mouth hung open. His eyes darted between Oksana and the angry and incredulous faces of the other clan heads in the room. She knew none of them had any time to formulate any good reason why Kostin should not accept the deal. It was precisely why her father had sent her unannounced. He hadn’t wanted any of the Sanguine or any other clans to get suspicious of what they were planning. None of these clans here who paid loose homage to their sanguine rivals had any guarantees from those clans to back them against clan Khvostov's offer.

Kostin finally found his voice, “Lady Oksana uh, honor me with this offer, eh but, such a thing would take time to draft an official agreement, and what abou-”

“I know Kostin, which is why I had our clan stewards draw this agreement up several weeks ago,” Oksana said abruptly cutting off Kostin, in a calculated display of disrespect. She want all here to know that she was now in control of this conversation.

She waved her hand at Yuri, who immediately produced the scroll case which held the long contract drawn up by her family. Yuri stood up and set the scroll down in Kostin's lap. The clan leader looked up incredulously, and before he could say anything, Oksana said, “I’m sure you will find all the terms are most agreeable, we have not only matched the money you are receiving from foreign kingdoms but have also doubled the price you charge for the majority of your domestic ventures. You will not find a more generous offer from anyone in this room, or their,” Oksana paused and chuckled lightly before saying, “Masters.”

“How dare you, Lady Oksana!” Lord Oleg shouted as he rose to his feet his eyes blazing, and his fangs bared, “You impugn the honor of my clan and treat us like whipped dogs of your Sanguine clans! You expect us to roll over and allow you to steal revenue from our clans, while simultaneously, calling us pawns of one of your rival clans?!”

Oksana raised one perfectly formed eyebrow, and said, “Oh, Oleg, I have said nothing that isn’t true, for instance, I know you personally are having a liaison with the youngest daughter of Clan Aminoff, to think you would be offended to be called servant of that clan, yet you have no issue groveling and falling over yourself to get between that girl's legs. I wonder how Lord Sergei would feel about his favorite daughter, who he plans to marry off politically is f*cking a high vampire lord behind his back.”

Oleg’s already pale face went white in fear, and not giving him a chance to recover Oksana continued and said, “Or you lady Sonya, who recently led a raid on one of Kostin’s mines under the guise of clan Saltkov in order to pressure Kostin here to seek an alliance with you to contract protection.”

Lady Sonya looked taken aback, and then glanced nervously at Kostin, who on his part was now staring in shocked disbelief in turn at her

Oksana still wasn’t done, and said, “As you can see Kostin, you should vet those you do business with, a little more carefully in the future, although if you sign this agreement with us, you will not have to worry about being taken advantage of in the future. For to make a deal with clan Khvostov comes with numerous benefits.”

Oksana smiled inwardly, she knew she had him, all she needed to do now was wait. Sure enough, a few moments later, Kostin stood up, and said, “Lady Oksana I will review the terms of your offer, and if it is in my clan’s interest, I will formally accept this proposal, furthermore, I will dissolve any shipping arrangements I have with all other clans or foreign kingdoms.”

The room erupted as the other clan leaders began shouting their protests each vying to drown the others out as they tried to make their point. Oksana for her part stood and gestured for Yuri to follow her. Without hesitation, Yuri stood with his hand on the pommel of his sword and followed Oksana as she glided out of the room.

“That was nicely done my lady,” Yuri said as the pair made their way back to the ballroom.

Oksana bared her fangs in a feral smile and replied, “Thank you, Yuri, but I knew that he wouldn’t have much of a choice in the end. I just need to prod him and reveal a few unsavory secrets about his former trade partners. I suggest now we enjoy the rest of the ball and wait for Kostin’s inevitable capitulation!”

With that said, Oksana threw open the door to the ballroom, fully intending to enjoy the rest of her night.