Night Investigations And Final Negotiations
The guest room that Liam was allowed to stay in looked like a very modern mansion. Around 60% of the walls were made of glass, giving Liam a great view of the city below. Inside the room, all kinds of high-tech quality-of-life devices were scattered around.
A few minutes passed when Liam heard a knock on his door. After opening it, he found a tall man in dark blue Wakandan robes standing outside.
"I am the royal attendant who will be serving you during your stay here, honored guest," the man said, bowing slightly.
"The King has ensured your comfort. Should you require anything, these panels will summon assistance," the man continued, pointing to a large interface embedded in the wall.
"Sounds good," Liam said. "What's your name?"
"Taye, sir," Taye responded.
"Alright, Taye. I don't need anything right now, so you can go back," Liam said.
Taye nodded, bowed slightly, and left the room.
Now that he was alone again, Liam sat down and went into meditation. He had to wait a while for the sun to go down and wanted to make that time useful by meditating and improving his control over the Float Extension.
A few hours passed. The sky outside had turned dark, and there were barely any people left on the streets. In the past few hours, he had eaten thanks to Taye's continued visits, made a plan for tomorrow's negotiations, and trained his spells.
"Now it's time to go," Liam thought, opening a portal in front of him.
He knew his room would have bugs in it and that Taye was keeping an eye on his activities by checking in every few hours. Thus, he decided to create a portal to somewhere hidden outside. Now, as long as he wasn't found, nobody would know that he was snooping around
'While I could've also gone invisible with Incursio, the scales on my arm wouldn't look good for the negotiations,' Liam thought, smiling. 'I also haven't had the time to test it fully. It would be awkward if I relied on it and it turned off in the middle of the streets.'
'Enough joking around now,' he thought, turning serious.
Liam stepped through the portal, appearing on the outskirts of the city. He had planned to portal from place to place around the outskirts since it was too long a distance to walk all the way around.
Each time he portaled, he would use his Eldritch Sight and see if his cells reacted in any way similar to before.
'I have no idea if I can find out what it was by doing this. But at least I'll have given it a try,' Liam thought, spreading out his Eldritch Sight in the first location.
After finding nothing, Liam moved on to the second, then the third, the fourth, and so on. He found nothing in any of them. This continued for an hour or so, after which Liam had gone through the outskirts.
'Didn't expect that,' Liam thought, frowning while deep in thought. 'I assumed that if there was something, it wouldn't be in the city, but it seems that might be wrong.'
Liam decided on a plan to check through the city at a later time. Although he still felt that something was wrong, he believed it shouldn't be possible for a tear or a creature to appear in the city without attracting attention from the people.
He also didn't want to risk his partnership with Wakanda by somehow getting spotted by their tech in the middle of the city.
'If the partnership goes through, I'll have all the time to check through the city anyway,' Liam thought, still serious despite opening a portal back to his room. 'And even if it doesn't go through, at that point, I won't need to care about politeness and could just go through the city anyway.'
Once back in his room, Liam decided to sleep for the rest of the night. After hearing the strange whispers for some time, he entered a dream once again.
Inside the dream, Liam saw one of the previous Incursio holders arguing with what looked like an important figure.
As the argument became more heated, the guards surrounding the important person raised their spears at the previous holder.
After some further threatening, the guards attacked. But the previous holder dodged all their spears and killed them without even using Incursio.
After dealing with the guards, Liam saw him beat the important person up badly but leave him alive. Without looking back, he left the place to blow off some more steam while hunting.
Right there, the dream ended, and the whispers continued. Hours passed by once again until Liam was woken up by Taye knocking on his door.
"Good morning, sir," Taye said, bowing slightly while keeping a neutral expression.
"Good morning, Taye," Liam said, rubbing his eyes.
"The King has planned another audience in five hours," Taye said in his neutral tone.
"Alright. Would you mind giving me some privacy now?" Liam asked politely, wanting to get dressed properly.
"Sir." Taye gave a nod, bowed slightly, and left.
Hours passed with Liam getting dressed, preparing what he would say, and ensuring the Hellish Fiend and the Duskfang inside Incursio's dimension were ready.
'Time for the final negotiations,' Liam thought, walking through the gates to the throne room once again.
Now, he stood inside the large throne room once again. Compared to last time, more Wakandan officials and council members were present.
But as he stood there, Liam noticed something. His cells reacted very weakly to something—something he had been searching for on the outskirts of the city.
'Dimensional energy,' Liam thought, confused as to why it was still here.
After everything settled into silence, King T'Chaka began, snapping Liam out his thoughts.
"After much discussion, the Wakandan council has thought about your partnership. While we acknowledge the threat you speak of, we have no proof that it is truly as bad as you say. Before we consider any form of alliance, we must know what this will truly mean for Wakanda.''
"You have spoken of needing our Wakandan people, but what benefit does that bring to us? You claim to offer something in return, yet what you propose must outweigh the cost—especially if it means the potential loss of Wakandan lives. Tell us, what does Wakanda truly stand to gain from this?" he asked, prompting many to nod in agreement.