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Before I knew what I was doing, I had pushed to my feet, my chair crunching against the gravel it was sitting on. "I'm not going to pretend that I know anything about Agartha, its people, or its customs, but allow me to enlighten you on everything that's been going on so you can put your mind at ease as to whether or not this honorable warrior betrayed you or not. Honestly, I wouldn't blame him if he had, given the way you're talking about him as though he's not even sitting there."
"Lady Tessa—" Timmon tried to interrupt, but I didn't let him stop me.
"I'm not a lady of your people. I'm not interested in whatever kind of social hierarchy you have going on here. Let me say my piece, and then you can make me an outcast too if that's what you want, so long as you don't get in the way of me finding the stone."
When Timmon said nothing further, I continued, "When I found the stone in Atlantis, it was after fighting a troll, for lack of a better description, and that was after I drowned and died. If it wasn't for my warriors, I never would have made it. Once I had the stone, that wasn't the end of it, though. Someone tried to kill me and failed. I still have a scar to remember the incident by, which not even the healing waters of Atlantis could get rid of completely. Before we left Atlantis, we were forced to decide where to go next. Of course, you think we should have come here, but Hyperborea was in the middle of a civil war, and El Dorado was about to fall into one as well while they struggled to crown a new king.”
I started to pace, listing all the things that had happened was making me tense.
“We decided to go with Hyperborea since people were already dying in droves just for thinking negatively about the woman who was queen at the time. This was the same woman who locked me in a dungeon and tortured me until these same honorable warriors came and rescued me.”
I suppressed a shudder as I thought about Ailsa.
“By then, El Dorado was ready to erupt, so we went there next, only to find ourselves with a ruling council unwilling to help us find the stone until they had elected a new king. We tried to be patient. We were even poisoned for our troubles, to the point that, yet again, I almost died. Fortunately, by this time, I'd figured a few things out, so while they were debating on who should be the next king, I found it without the council's permission. The trial to get that stone would have killed me again if it wasn't for the caretaker who healed me. Once I had the stone, I was attacked by hundreds of the One Realm cult members. They forced us to run before we were ready, and this honorable warrior,” I turned and gestured to Kai. “Who you are determined to insult and degrade whenever you open your mouths, saved me. I have three realms as stable as I can get them. I want to do the same for yours, but if this keeps up, I will leave, and I will take this outcast with my other warriors, and you can all suffocate on your petty bullshit."
I took a long, deep breath before turning to Timmon, who was staring at me wide-eyed.
"I can be your savior or your doom. That is what the caretakers told me. The stability of your realm is in my hands. Remember that the next time you want to treat me or my warriors like shit you've stepped in."
I did nothing but watch Timmon as I spoke the last words, and his gaze told me everything I needed to know. He was just as power-hungry and corrupt as any politician, and he'd get in my way just like the others had done.
6
Tessa
Timmon's cold gaze watched me as I turned, intending to return to my seat, but I paused and looked at him again. "Do you know where the stone is? If you do, tell me, and this will all go a lot smoother."
I hadn't planned on asking him, but I knew we needed to get the focus off Kai and me and the outburst I'd just had. What better way to do that than to address the matter at hand?
Timmon's face cracked then, the sour, hateful expression turning into glee as he saw his moment to lord his power over me. "You actually expect me to hand it over after that? You just told my people that you'd let them suffocate on their own—what was it, petty bullshit? How am I supposed to trust you with our most sacred object after that? How do we know you will not take it and leave without stabilizing the realm?"
"You don't. But I'm the only choice you have. Work with me or watch your people die." I shrugged, feigning nonchalance, even though I didn't want the people of Agartha to suffer as a whole for the issues of a few.
At this point, if I had smelled popcorn, I wouldn't have been surprised. I doubted that the people of Agartha that had come to this dinner had expected to get a show as well, but to be fair, I hadn't expected to give them one either. It wasn't like I went into this evening knowing I was going to lose my cool, but I wasn't super surprised by it, either.
"People are going to die either way," Timmon ground out.
I was about to turn back to the table, but his words stopped me. I turned to him again, going so far as to move a few paces toward his table. "Do you want to know what I've discovered as I've spent time in the other realms? Some are willing to help me, who care about others, like the people they rule over, and those that will stand in my way. Inevitably, those that stand in my way fail. I have the stones anyway. I've spoken with other leaders. I've even spoken with the caretakers themselves. I mean, I've actually, literally spoken with them. Some of the oldest ones that I think are even out there. And do you want to know what they want?"
I paused and turned to face the crowd. "They all wanted me to help, so you can tell me where the stone is and help me, or you can get in my way and make it take longer for me to achieve my goal, which I guaran-fucking-tee you I will achieve nonetheless. I'm doing everything I can to save every life possible, including those in this realm. I don't want anyone to suffer needlessly, no matter what I may say when I'm angry."
I almost turned back to Timmon, but I could feel the crowd swaying in my favor, so I kept talking to them instead, like an actor on the stage, only I wasn't faking anything. "Please don't get in my way. You're the last realm, the last ones that need to be stabilized. In fact, I would go so far as to bet I could stabilize the others permanently without Agartha being included. Your realm will be cut off from the others, and you will wither and die. Believe it or not, I don't want that for you."
Timmon's voice cracked like a whip across the crowd, breaking the careful spell I'd woven. "Do you even know what happens when you stabilize the realms, little girl? Do you have any experience whatsoever with magic? You come from the origin realm. You have nothing. You have no one except these warriors, who are evidently idiots based on how they're fawning over you."
I had no choice but to turn back to him if I didn't want to look like I was trying to play the crowd, so that was what I did, even though I wanted to ignore the asshole. "You're right. I am from the origin realm. I have no experience with magic, which is precisely why the caretakers chose me. Whymespecifically? I still don't know. It's not like I've had a lot of time to talk to them, especially when people keep murdering them."
Gasps went up around the clearing, and I knew that not everybody was aware of what had been happening throughout the realms, so I turned back to the crowd.
"In case none of you are aware, caretakers are being slaughtered. It's not happening in just one realm but all of them. I imagine it's even happening here. Or it will. Since you are the people of Agatha, I will ask you, do you wish to help me? Do you wish for your leader to help me?"
"You're just going to leave us anyway," one of them called out.
I searched for who might have spoken, but I couldn't find them in the crowd. "That's not what I want to do. I want to help all of you. I want everybody in the realms to be safe, including my own."
"You're still going back to your realm when you're done, though, aren't you?" the same person challenged.
I found them after they spoke a second time. It was a younger man who looked exhausted, sitting next to a woman with a sleeping baby in her arms.
