Page 210 of A Soul to Embrace

“I would prefer a guard,” he answered, refusing to have his magic locked away. “Will Zylah have one as well?”

“Temporarily, yes. You’re a pair, and we can’t afford for you to distract us while she goes off to enact any potential plans.” Silveria nodded and then looked down at the parchment once more. “Secondly, if you are found anywhere near the room that holds the mana stone to our protective dome, where our soldiers are housed and train, or anywhere near the walls of the city without permission, we will consider this a breach of security and you will immediately be thrown from the city. Considering your ability to teleport on a whim, we’ll be increasing our watch in those areas, and those there will flee from you to inform us of your trespassing.”

“That sounds justified to me,” he easily conceded.

“Good. If you instigate any violence within the city, steal, or do anything that would be considered a crime, we will punish you how we punish everyone.” She lifted her gaze from the parchment just to narrow it at him. “We will imprisonyou temporarily, and your mate will join you. If you commit manslaughter, whether incidentally or purposefully, you will be thrown from the city, but we will place our magic nullifying bracers on you as additional punishment for such callousness.”

“Tsk.” Jabez clicked the inside of his mouth while rolling his eyes. “That’s rather cruel.”

“We consider murder to be the vilest thing a person can do. Life is sacred, and you have already ended the lives of many upon your escape. Such a punishment would be deserved.”

“Am I allowed to defend myself?”

“No one would dare–”

“You currently have a bull-headed Duskwalker in your midst,” Jabez stated over the top of her with his eyelids lowering. “Merikh is no stranger to swinging his fists.”

Silveria’s expression inwardly cringed, and her eyes darted to the side. He wasn’t able to grasp who she looked at quick enough before she looked back at him.

“Shouldyou be attacked for any reason, you may defend yourself. However, we implore that you use your teleporting ability to evade such instances and ask that you report them for the record. Like I said, any death, even to a deathless creature, will not be tolerated, as it’s preventable.”

“Understood. Anything else?”

“Those are our restrictions, but we wish to discuss what you have offered, as well as make some requests.” Silveria shuffled the top page of her parchment to the back so she could keep reading. “We will take you up on your offer of obtaining mana stones for us, and we will assign you a team that we would like for you to train with.”

“I would like Merikh on that team,” Jabez quickly cut in, making a few on the council frown in confusion.

“If this is a way to get back at him,” Raewyn started, her voice ringing with concern, “then we ask that you let go of the hostility between you two. He has a justified reason to be angry with you.”

“Hostility?” Jabez stated with his head rearing back before he shook it. “It has nothing to do with hostility. He’s likely the strongest being within the city, including myself. His echidna quills make him the best at defence, his large size would be a formidable blockade against a swarm of Demons, and he is ruthless in battle. If I’m going to endanger myself, I would rather the best chances of success. Now that I’m aware he is the Duskwalker in the city, I’d rather he was the one watching my back. To be honest, assigning a team would be useless when all I would need is him. Everyone else would just get in our way.”

Although what he said was true, he did have an ulterior motive for requesting Merikh.

Jabez didn’t want some snivelling, weak, inexperienced soldier protecting him. He hated people who were overconfident when they were actually nothing but a bumbling babe. They’d been locked behind these walls their entire lives and had likely rarely left the city to face anyrealdanger.

Jabez imagined he would end up needing to protect them instead, as many would freeze up and piss their pants if a Demon were to attack them in the wild. And should he fail to save their lives, he’d be blamed for it. They could accuse him of killing them, or that he didn’t care enough to prevent their death.

He’d rather avoid such an argument in the future.

He could protect himself, and Merikh would just be additional muscle and his handler for these councilmembers.

“We would have to ask him if he would be willing to work with you,” Raewyn stated quietly.

“He’s not wrong, though,” Cleth translated for Mericato, who had a faraway look in his green eyes. “I’ve seen Merikh spar with my soldiers, and he is completely untouchable. We wereconcerned for Jabez’s safety while he risked serious injury to procure stones, but this could be an alternative to endangering him, and it would prevent the possible loss of my soldiers. They’re both deathless.”

When no one objected, a grin so large it revealed the full expanse of his fangs beamed from him.Ha! You fucker. I’ll force you to my side if need be, and if you give me shit like earlier, I’ll make you eat your own tail.

Hopefully over time, he could find out what Merikh had shoved up his non-existent asshole and get the big guy back on his side.

Because, if he were being honest, the likelihood of Jabez befriending anyone within the city was low. Considering he distrusted everyone, was disgusted by Elysians, and was probably hated within the city for his past actions, kindling any friendships was doubtful. He could tolerate Merikh, and hopefully they became what they had once been: companions.

It was something he could look forward to.

“Regarding your secret revolving around Demon completion, we’ll have you speak with Raewyn tomorrow so we can begin that project immediately. We’ll be keeping you close, so you will remain in the central tree for the time being, and we’ll have our soldiers escort you both to your new home after this meeting. You may relocate after you’ve gained our trust and we no longer feel the need to keep guards on you.”

I don’t care where we are so long as they don’t disturb me often.The central tree was usually the nicest place to live, so at least that was a benefit, but it meant he’d be at their every beck and call.

“Regarding the potential of building a Demon village, we’ll discuss this at length with you in the near future. There are still a lot of concerns and unknowns, but we’re fully open to the idea of helping those outside our walls and obtaining peace. Since youalready have experience in establishing such a feat, we’ll seek your advice regarding this. Consider that a token of our faith in you, as your involvement will be vital, but it also poses a risk we’re aware of.”

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