Lord Bosina

The tent was stifling. The red tent walls that surrounded them perfectly captured the body heat of the thirteen people inside, snatching it and redirecting it back at them in a vicious cycle.

Fate was standing behind Queen Dinan, who was seating in an elegantly carved chair made of dark brown wood, on which were engravings of wise sages bending the Elements to their will, all situated underneath the carving of three enigmatic men with arms spread wide for a welcoming embrace.

This chair had ten lesser brothers placed around the sixteen-foot-wide log that they were using as a table, within which sat five witnesses from both sides, to spread the word of what happened here. The only chair capable of matching Dinan's own was being used by Lord Bosina, the leader of the Fractured, sitting on the opposite side of the table.

Lord Bosina was, in a word, average. He wore red plate armor that covered him from neck to toe, complete with a flowing red cape that sparkled in the sunlight that the hole in the top of the tent let through. Leaning against his chair was a blood-red short sword without a scabbard or sheath, so sharp that the air itself seemed to cut itself with the slightest breeze. But even his armaments did nothing to subtract from the plainness of his face

His short brown hair and brown eyes were common on Venlanz, his face neither handsome nor ugly and without blemish. Without his armor and sword, he was someone you wouldn't look at twice. But judging by the strength of an Incarnation billowing unrestrainedly from his aura in waves, disregarding him was a fatal mistake.

The confident smirk he wore told everyone he was confident he could kill those present and walk away scot-free.

"So, this is the Destroyer of legend, huh?" Lord Bosina said, voice oozing with amused indifference. "A single Avatar, and yet he carries the hope of so many. We're a lot alike in that regard, you and I. The only difference, really, is that I care about those I'm fighting for. You, however, wouldn't be moved even if I slaughtered the Venlanz to the last man."

"My Lord, please tone it down. These are supposed to be peaceful negotiations," whispered one of Lord Bosina's witnesses.

"Just harmless small talk, Bredna. No need to get worried." He leaned back in his wooden chair, turning his gaze to the stacks of paper in front of him. "Besides, considering we're here right now, it's obvious that these Venlanz cowards don't think they can wipe us out, so they have to resort to bargaining."

One of Dinan's witnesses, an elderly man with a full white beard, pushed himself out of his seat. "We are only here because the Savior and Queen Dinan have seen fit to spare your sorry lives, you Emotional curs!"

Dinan grabbed the man's arm, meeting his eyes with fury. "Sit. Down." He dropped back into his chair, sulking.

"See, Bredna?" Lord Bosina laughed. "They are so weak and scared that they cannot even back up their threats. Tell us, Little Dinan, why should we accept this treaty, instead of purging this world of you hateful, backstabbing Dracknu?"

"Because this is in the best interest of both of our peoples. Because my people miss their families. And," Dinan tapped the log table in front of her, her voice dropping to a near whisper, "because Fate will kill you if you don't."

"Fate will kill me?" Lord Bosina laughed, harder than last time, his contingent of witnesses joining in. They laughed for a solid ten seconds, before Bosina abruptly stopped, suddenly indifferent as he motioned to his witnesses for silence.

"Tell me, what mighty Time Embodiment has told you with such surety that destiny itself will put me down? Me, the most powerful man on the planet?"

"I believe you are mistaken, Lord Bosina," Queen Dinan said sweetly, a refreshing smile gracing her face. "Although I can understand your confusion. We don't need destiny or karma or anything like that to strike you down. The Fate I mentioned is the man standing behind me, the one who struck down your generals, Micheil and Hedra, with no more effort than it takes to scratch his nether regions."

All eyes converged on Fate, who continued standing stoically behind Queen Dinan, his right hand resting on the hilt of his brand-new Manifest Miao Dao. He appeared older than when Dinan had announced this meeting to her subjects, as if he had aged seven years in only three days.

He ignored the majority of the stares, his black scleral eyes meeting Lord Bosina's studious gaze with all the indifference of a man picking out fish at a supermarket.

'Hm, yes, he seems capable enough," Lord Bosina said, breaking the eye contact. "But what exactly makes you so confident he can kill me?"

"Hedra rose to the Incarnation Level before he put her down," Queen Dinan said matter-of-factly, as if discussing the weather. "And that was before he was fully trained."

"A bold claim. Fortunately for you, I'm not in the mood to call your bluff. Now, tell me what this contract says. My parents disowned me before they taught me to read, and finding a teacher has been a hassle."

"Ahem," one of Bosina's witnesses, a savage-looking man in the same red armor all of the Incarnation's witnesses wore, cleared his throat. "If you'll allow me, My Lord?"

Bosina handed the man the contract, and the man pulled reading glasses out of his pants pocket and put them on. The man spent the next twenty minutes sheafing through the papers before setting them gently on the table. He cleared his throat again, suggesting a habit.

"Well, My Lord, it boils down to the Fractured being subsumed back into Venlanz, and Your Lordship and your descendants' words will have the same sway as Queen Dinan's advisors in matters of running the world, but final say in all matters related to Emotional Embodiments, so long as it does not go against established laws. Overall, I believe it to be a fair exch—"

The man stopped talking, blood leaking from every orifice as his eyeballs popped, splattering those unfortunate enough to be nearby with gore. Lord Bosina watched the man's corpse flop forward onto the table with the same indifference he had been wearing for the past few minutes, his finger extended toward the body.

"After all the pain, all the suffering you've put my people through, you want us to continue to be *beneath* you?" Lord Bosina curled his finger back, forming a fist that he slammed into the table. The chainmail on the back of his gloves chinked as he did so. "Tell me why I shouldn't butcher you animals like I wanted to from the start."