Despite their victory, the atmosphere around the council room was tense. So would say it was a victory only in na, as the Banurs were the ones to face significant losses. Adrian was one of them.
They had won, but their victory seed bleak. However, now wasn’t the ti to discuss their situation. Instead, the council was busy arguing what they should do with the Tulkas.
From what little he could gather, Adrian realised the relationship between Banurs and Tulkas was similar to his relationship with the Church. They were once close aides, often working together, but they turned their backs on each other in the end and now couldn’t see eye to eye.
Tulkas were the main force behind the Banur being forced to flee, leaving their birthplace behind and establishing a new settlent elsewhere. All the while, the Tulkas revelled in the fruits of the Banur’s labour within the confines of their forr settlent.
But it looked like even that wasn’t sufficient. That’s why the Tulkas decided to join forces with the ones who destroyed the forest to bring more chaos into the tribe’s life.
"What are we waiting for? We should inform the other tribes about it!" Silka exclaid, only to et with a cold response from everyone. "What’s with the looks?"
Even Adrian, as an outsider, was more aware of the situation than a supposed council mber, but he stayed quiet since it wasn’t his place to ridicule anyone on the council.
"What makes you think they’ll believe us?" A’Mila sighed. "On one hand, there’s the demonic tribe, and on the other are the Tulkas, who have diplomatic relations with every tribe. Now tell , who would you believe?"
Silka got quiet and sat back down. All they had for evidence were so Nexarians and a map. Both of the ’evidence’ could be easily disregarded by the rest of the tribes.
If they approached it the wrong way, there was a risk that not just the Tulkas but also the other five tribes would team up against them, just like they did in the past.
The Banurs didn’t have a chance before when they were a bigger and stronger tribe. Now that they had been reduced to a re shadow of their forr selves, there was no way they could afford to go to war with Tulkas alone, forget about fighting everyone else.
Facing the enemy head-on was like asking for trouble. The tribe was safe on the opposite side of the forest, with the monsters unwittingly protecting them.
But the Banurs couldn’t control the mighty beasts to attack other tribes. In other words, they were safe until they didn’t cross the Forbidden Forest. The mont they did, it was a ga of free-for-all with their heads as targets.
"So what do you say we do? Nothing?" Siloa, the one who wielded the warhamr, urged.
A’Mila was expected to answer, but she was lost in her thoughts. There were a few minutes of absolute silence until she spoke.
"Deception."
"Will you please elaborate?"
"They didn’t attack us directly for a reason," A’Mila said. "Their map was spot-on, showing they’ve known where we are for a while. But instead of attacking us, they sent the Nexarians. But why would they do that?"
"Because it wasn’t an attack, but a renaissance mission," Adrian thoughtlessly mumbled. "They knew the Nexarians wouldn’t win; they just wanted to know what the tribe was capable of."
A’Mila smiled and nodded. "Hm-Mmm, that’s right. Which ans they had spies hiding sowhere in the forest.
Luckily, their sche didn’t work because we had yet to repair any extensive defences they could have discovered. We owe soone a big thank you for that."
Adrian shrugged when A’Mila said that. He understood she was trying to make him feel better after Silka and the others had ridiculed him quite a bit for his attack on the tribe.
But because of his unintentional attack, the Tulkas didn’t know much about the tribe’s real defences, so that was a good thing. However, Silka wasn’t going to let it be.
"Thank him? You must have lost your mind! He kills our people, and we’re supposed to thank him-"
"Oh, shut it!" Adrian yelled, finally having had enough of her bullshit. "I did this, I did that. What the fuck was your almighty self doing when I was doing this and that, huh?"
The council was stunned into silence. The docile and obedient image they had of Adrian was shattered in a mont. But A’Mila was secretly happy about it, thinking it was about ti.
The tribe had kept pushing him over and over, throwing one mistake in his face all the damn ti. At first, Adrian thought he would make them forget about it with his actions, but now he didn’t care about it anymore.
"What did you say?" Silka got up, threateningly pointing her weapon towards Adrian. "Matriarch! You need to reprimand him-"
"Why not do it on your own?" A’Mila laughed. "If he’s done sothing wrong, he should face consequences. Feel free to take charge and teach him a lesson. But I don’t want anyone else getting involved, including . Is that okay?"
Silka couldn’t believe her ears. Did A’Mila give her permission to teach the mutt a lesson? She asked again to confirm, and A’Mila replied positively.
"Don’t regret your decision later, Matriarch," Silka grinned as she approached Adrian, looking down at him. "Looks like mommy isn’t going to save you anymore, kiddo."
Adrian said nothing and just shook his head. Silka, seizing the opportunity, quickly swung her blade at him. A big cloud of dust surrounded them as the blade hit sothing.
Silka smiled, thinking the job was done. It took a mont for the dust to clear, and when it did, Adrian was nowhere to be seen. She frantically looked around to find everything she expected other than Adrian. A mont later, she felt soone tapping her shoulder.
"What?" she yelled in frustration as she turned around, only to discover Adrian standing right behind her.
She raised the blade again, but Adrian was quicker than her. He seized her sword arm and tossed her over the shoulder before slamming her down in the middle of the council room. Then, he calmly returned to his original spot as if nothing had happened.
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