//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Art of Diplomacy // Story: King of the North // by Sanguine Eyes //------------------------------// The air crackled and churned before spitting out a young wolf and sputtering shut. Jalm nearly puked as he stumbled forward. His mind was jumbled and his stomach twisted into a violent knot, not only was it his first time being teleported but his new Shaman master was still rather young and inexperienced in teleporting or portal magic. Proof of this was in how badly his fur was singed and his current status. "Bleh...goodness, well… this is the Citadel I think." His first steps were slow, his balance was just coming back and his nearly frail body teetered to and fro as he fought for equilibrium. Though, even when he had recovered his every step was unsure. This was the Citadel of the North. The King's home and office of government, just about every single living breathing being in this building had the authority to put him to death for so much as looking at them wrong, he had never witnessed it himself but he grew up hearing what the clan wolves and various tribes would do to the Crused Blood. His cursed lineage combined wallowed about inside his head with his awkward fears and his mind began screaming about his nearly non existant chances of leaving the Citadel alive or at the very least unharmed. The scrawny pup almost preferred going toe to toe with the Kaar back with his brothers. The trip down the long halls and winding staircases went rather slowly, even slower when his mind burned in agony and pain of the possibilities. He was so busy panicking that he did not notice he was being followed. "Oh goodness, why did the Shaman send me out here? Couldn't she have sent me literally ANYWHERE else?" "Dunno... could she have?" "Of course she could have, she’s just really mean. Maybe she’s just testing me or something." He continued walking for a moment before his mind started to wonder where the other voice just came from. When it clicked, he whipped about in fear only to see an empty hallway. Gasping and clutching at his now racing heart his eyes whipped back and forth. He knew he heard an answer to his question. It was a female voice, it even sounded a little too young to be in the Citadel. Turning back, hoping to just get going and deliver the message he came face to face with a very young Susi. A wolf pup about half his age but he could plainly feel the air bubbling with power about her. Despite her age, she was exceedingly powerful in magic. "Hullo! What'chu doing?" She smiled warmly nosing up close to him. "You look funny, and you sweat too much." She poked his nose and giggled as she stepped back one single step back in front of him only to end two steps behind him. Panic set in again, with magic this powerful and her age, she was very likely someone's daughter, someone VERY powerful and VERY important. He was about to speak, humbly ask for assistance. However, he did not get the chance in time as when she playfully hopped about she suddenly uprooted and hung gently swaying back and forth from one leg as a very large Susi had snagged her. "Got you little one! Now, you are going back to your father." The Susi present with the young pup looked old, his fur was a dull gray, the same color as most of the older wolves but he seemed to be only just into his late forties. Other than that and his taller than normal height, he looked completely unremarkable. "But I don't wanna! He just wants me to train to replace Mama... I'm powerful enough. Lemme go, or at least best out of three." "Nope! Its back you go! Come on now..." He paused looking over at Jalm as he slung her over his shoulder as she pouted. "Oh... you don't look like you belong here. What are you up to? Do you need any help?" Jalm stuttered and sputtered in fear quickly holding up the report. "Ah! I have… a ... um.. a thingy... the ... the field report thingy... for the King's Shaman..." "The King's Shaman you say?... If I remember correctly, he’s in the hall of memories... it’s down two floors at the center of the Citadel... hard to miss." He gave a soft bow feeling relief of such a helpful and calm figure. "Th...thank you... It's kinda intimidating in here for the first time, it’s good to see another servant... I'm just kinda freaking out." The old wolf gave Jalm an odd look before he stopped closing his mouth firmly in worry. "Oh... I.. I'm sorry... are you not a servant? I just noticed you were chasing after her, I thought it was your job." Again he started to fret and panic. "Oh don't worry about it, we are all servants are we not? We all live to serve the Great North." He smiled warmly which gave a great amount of comfort to the poor Jalm. "Come to think about it I think the Skull is down there too... I need to get this pup back to him. We can go together if you like?" "The skull?... as in the ONE EYED SKULL?.... She is the daughter of the King's most trusted General?... Goodness...I... I..." The old wolf swatted him over the head, as did the young pup even from her place over his shoulder. "Calm down, you have nothing to worry about. I am sure you've heard stories, but you shouldn't base your opinion on anything until you've experienced it." "He’s just silly... and he smells like sweat...." The young pup chimed in still looking as if she was waiting for a chance to bolt off the old wolf's shoulder. "Come on now Rosie, be nice. Now would you be so kind as to show us that amazing talent and teleport us all would you?" He chuckled nudging and bouncing her on his shoulder. She let out a soft 'harumph!' but nodded and with a snap of her fingers the surrounding air shimmered, tasting of ozone, Jalm looked about and they were within the hall of memories minus the urge to puke. The room was dark, other than the soft burning incense and the coals in the iron pots on their pedestals. The room itself was covered from top to bottom with the Susi's entire known history carved into the wooden floors, walls, and ceiling through advanced artistic depictions. The first thing Jalm noticed was the very deep voice of an 8 foot tall Susi speaking to a tall and menacing dark furred wolf adorned with a mass of bones and ceremonial jewelry sewn into his robes with antlers poking through his hood. His mind churned taking in that he if anyone could only be the King's Shaman it would be that single wolf. The massive Susi turned to inspect those who had just teleported only for Jalm to see the skull mask at his waist and the leather eyepatch sewn into place over his left eye. This big one absolutely had to be the One Eye'd Skull and the other was more than likely the King's shaman. "There you are Rosie, you can't keep running off." The Skull glared down at the little pup whose ears lowered in sadness avoiding eye contact with her father. The other Wolf let out a chuckle as he set the little pup on the ground feet first where she sniffled and began to complain about how boring whatever it was he was trying to get her to do was. Jalm snapped to attention and quickly approached the hooded figure, swallowing his fear he kneeled and held out the report before the Shaman. The Shaman hardly noticed him as he peered into a crystal he had turned to as if in a half trance. Jalm was simply getting more and more uneasy. Was the Shaman ignoring him on purpose? Was he not bowing hard enough or was the Shaman literally just too busy to notice. The tension built and built before suddenly it vanished. There was an unrelenting calm that washed over him. It took him a moment to realize it was magic, someone was casting a spell on him. "Beloved, be nice. You can plainly see the poor pup is practically choking on his own fear." The voice was as soothing as the magic, nearly playful but it burned with a noble tone. The Shaman's eyes snapped into a focused stare, which drifted away from the crystal, over Jalm, and up at what had to be the most beautiful wolfess that Jalm had ever seen. Pure white fur with soft blue eyes like precious gemstones. She looked like a legend or Goddess of beauty. But what she had said instantly sparked up a strain in his throat. She called the Shaman 'beloved', he hadn't ever been involved with politics but he knew that someone, likely the king's daughter was marrying the Royal Shaman soon. There was lots of talk about it despite how little he paid attention to it, it was rather difficult to avoid. Still it made him choke up even more as the room seemed to be filling with more and more important figures as time passed. "He was doing it to himself. You don't have to ruin all the fun." The Shaman chuckled swiping the scroll from Jalm's hands and reading it quickly. "Oh goodness, the Kaar REALLLLY went at it this year. We have roughly a 30% larger problem than we thought. Oh hell that means we are actually going to have to try aren't we?" The beautiful wolf chuckled softly gesturing to him. Though the motion was not clear visually, it was complimented by a mother like voice that spoke into his mind for him to stand and step to the side, as such he obeyed. "Well. it looks like one of us is going to have to stay behind and deal with all that. Maybe even muster the generals." The Susi from before stepped up between the two. Rosie on his shoulders and the One Eye'd Skull just behind him. "And that is going to be you my old friend." He patted the one Eye'ed skull on the back. "You and little Rosie here." He tickled the pup and she giggled happily, as the hulking general bowed low with a fist clenched against his chest. "As you wish Susien Kuningas." The General, the giant wolf known as the One Eye'ed Skull who had earned his status on the battlefields killing dozens of Kaar with ease was bowing to this old wolf. No amount of magic in the world could keep Jalm's heart from borderline exploding. This old wolf was the king? The very same wolf he had just mistaken for and called a servant. His mind nearly went blank in fear and panic. He was almost certain he hit the ground before his eyes opened again vaguely seeing the pure white fur of the beautiful wolf again. The Shaman and the King were both just a little ways away laughing. He could only just barely hear them. "Make sure he gets back to the front. His master may need him, just wait for him to actually recover, and put a good meal into him before you send him back. Skull, Muster the generals, take the army to reinforce the cursed blood in the iron forest. I want the Kaar problem resolved with overwhelming force this time. Oh, and make sure this little one gets back her studies. Shaman, Oracle! We are heading to the Crystal Empire. The Princess there has agreed to open trade and has promised to set up council with an Equestrian Princess directly. We have a lot to do... let’s get to it..." "Yes Susien..." The Shaman muttered loyally. "Yes Father..." The beautiful Susi kindly spoke. The voices blurred and Jalm could only feel the beautiful white furred wolf lay him down and stand beside the king and the Shaman then finally four black wolves flanked them all. The last thing he saw after the trio vanished with a snap of the Shaman's fingers was Rosie pop up in front of him with a happy grin and poke his nose playfully. "Aww darn... he passed out." The guards stood outside the throne room nearly sweating buckets as the voices inside chattered on. The report of wolves just suddenly popping into existence in the city had been passed about, news had just barely began to trickle in and now the wolves were here speaking to the princess in the throne room. The guards watched but kept their cool as best as possible as their leader was massive and simply radiated power and authority, rather surprising for how simple he looked. He didn't appear to be very threatening other than his aura. He was armed with a large axe and something that looked like a mask hanging from his belt. But at the moment, the guards were staring almost fearfully at the near motionless black wolves before them. They had come with the King but had not entered the throne room with him, these wolves all had very noticeable long since healed injuries, some even looked blatantly crippled much like the first wolf who had come nearly a week before. The one legged black wolf named Odger. The Crystal Pony guards stood firm and stared at the wolves but nearly jumped when the throne room doors burst open. First out the door was Cadence with a happy smile on her face, then came the wolf king side by side with Shining Armor talking in a soft tone. Shining Armor's face betrayed slight suspicion, it was his job to ensure the safety of the Crystal Empire after all, both as it's prince and as the captain of the guard. Shining's words were carefully shaped and chosen to try and scoop some sort of malicious intent from the wolves, though despite his every attempt to discover some hidden plot the Wolf King seemed to catch him in it and turn the question around. Despite this word game, the wolves did not seem to show that they were offended, but they did enjoy flipping the conversation about in this game, to a point that Shining almost felt like he was being downright disrespectful. His every word was unraveled by this wolf and he found himself following instead of leading through most of of the conversation despite his efforts. "And that is why its dangerous to promote sheerly out of skill or power alone. The key factor must be loyalty. Loyalty, is a sign of a good soul but mind you that you do not mistake blind faith for adherence. Loyalty and cleverness tempered by power, these things will usually lead to great commanders Just be very careful. A being can have all of these and still not have what it takes. As it is said in the north, there is an exception to EVERY rule." The big wolf smiled happily, his clawed digits were very expressive as he spoke, very interesting for a creature with only hooves to witness. Shining chuckled looking up at the massive bipedal being. "What about that rule, the rule that there is an exception to every rule?" "Think about it, what is the ONLY exception there could be? that there is no exception." Both laughed mildly not looking at the guards who stole a suspicious glance at the wolf only snapping to a panicked upright position when a clawed fingertip ran up his back and a voice whispered in his ear. "Is it not disrespectful to cast such suspicion on your guests?" The guards snapped to whipping about but they saw nothing. Not a single soul was present. "Oh be nice I'm sure they are just doing their job, different customs and such." They whipped back at the female voice that had again showed up behind them but again saw nothing. They watched the black wolves calmly turn and leave with the king, the voices did not return but in their wake two guards simply started to have a panic attack. "It has been a very long time since we have seen the Crystal empire. You two keep it very organized....Very happy, we are very glad to see such joy among a people. I do hope a good cultural exchange will benefit both peoples involved. We have a substantial stockpile of good iron and the finest lumber you will ever lay your eyes upon, I am sure you and your people will have good use for it." The wolf king seemed to be simple overjoyed, his face expressed quite a pleasant status, it was oddly entrancing. It was like he was always genuinely happy. The proposed trade was heavily in favor of the Crystal empire though Cadence had a feeling that had he wanted to this wolf king could have convinced anypony to start up a trade heavily in his own favor. It ate away at her a little, she knew that not all nations had the same forward trusting happiness that most ponies had. But it felt like there was some sort of hidden agenda, as if they were being lead into a position. The north did not appear to actually NEED anything from the Crystal empire, yet here they were practically giving away a fortune of lumber and iron for various crystals and being lent crystal carvers so that they could learn the art. It seemed more to her that he was simply trying to make sure they were trading and developing a relationship as allies. There was a dozen things that ran through her mind but it was interrupted as the King's Oracle popped up and kept stride with them. "If you do not mind Princess Cadence, how do you get your hair to stay like that? I have been trying for ages to get something similar." Cadence smiled at the wolf and cleared her throat, after all she was a bit proud of the current hair style. She had just gotten it done a little ways back trying out the old Crystal Empire styles in preparation for this very event. "Oh... the spas here are wonderful, and while Ponies don't have opposable thumbs like you, their magic is quite capable, they can make your mane any way you want." The wolf's eyes lit up happily before she turned to the king. "Father, may I?" The King stood in thought for a bit and nodded. " I do desire to see to this Equestrian Princess you spoke of earlier. You can catch up with us later Oracle. I will leave the Hird with you, I know they don't like relaxing but try and get them at least some entertainment." He dismissed her with a smile and a gesture of his left hand. Instantly The Shaman appeared from within the King's shadow as if he had literally popped up from out of nothing, kneeling calmly awaiting orders just as the King panned over to Shining. "I believe you said it was your sister yes?... the Princess... you can travel with us, we get around pretty fast." Shining Armor looked about a little concerned, Cadence gave him an approving nod as she trotted off with the Oracle of the North to a spa. Shining's mind buzzed for a bit before he shrugged "I guess, yeah. I haven't seen Twilight in a while..." The king gave a warm smile as he nodded to the Shaman who stood and pulled a small scroll out and placed it upon the floor. Unraveled the scroll revealed itself to be a very detailed map. "Well then Prince Armor, where exactly is this princess? please be as precise as possible." The Shaman gestured to Shining letting him peer over the map. Doing his best to point with his hoof at the exact location of ponyville the Shaman appeared to understand rather well and quickly pressed a claw against the exact spot. His focus blurred for a moment and the shaman shuttered as blood seeped from his claws onto the map into a quick circle before the map caught fire and he leaned over breathing in the smoke deeply. The king stood and gave a nod to the Shaman who nodded back and looked over at Shining. "Alright here we go." "Wait now? Its almost ni-" He was cut off with the magic released from the Shaman's power at the sound of his finger's snapping. The trio vanished into nothing from the long distance teleportation ritual. Shining was about to explain that it was already late into the evening and as such Twilight was probably about to go to sleep. Though the thought wondered through Shining's mind if these wolves understood the idea of giving somepony time to prepare. After all, within an hour of Cadence making up her mind and sending the approval for council to the north by her magic they had simply poofed into existence right there in the throne room. He only hoped that Twilight was not doing anything important at the moment.