A Meeting with your Advisors

"At this table, we speak our minds without reservation," Duncan says as you and your advisors gather. The table is round, in tribute to the legends of King Arthur, and to show that each member of your council has an equal voice here. "To the King, we offer our knowledge, our experience, our counsel, and our wisdom. For Elyssia."

"For Elyssia," says everyone present at the table, and as you sit down so do they all. To your right is Duncan, then Captain Navarre of the Kingsguard, and General Ferdinand de la Vega. Other chairs remain empty, your other advisors are busy supervising the final preparations for the festival.

"We will be brief," you begin. "The anniversary celebrations start in less than an hour, and I must be present to open them. I will come right to the point. This morning, on my ride in the woods, I encountered the Vixen." You toss onto the table the obsidian-tipped arrow you plucked from the tree on the trail, to make your point.

This provokes reactions from all present; you had not yet told anyone of what happened on your ride, not even Lady Trina once she caught up with you. "And where was your guard during this encounter?" Captain Navarre asks.

"Lady Trina was absent, but not due to dereliction of her duties. That is all that need be said." The Captain nods, and you continue. "The Vixen did me no harm. I did not see her face. She has invited me to meet her at the ancient Druid stones above the high meadow, tonight, when the Moon is at its apex."

"That was certainly presumptuous of her," General Ferdinand remarks.

"Did she say why she wished to meet?" Navarre asks. "Surely, not to simply turn herself in; she could have done that right there in the woods."

"No. Only that she would be there, and that if I wished to meet her tonight, I would need to come alone."

"Preposterous!" Duncan exclaims. "You are the King of Elyssia; she is a petty thief. How dare one such as her dictate terms to you? This is insulting, Sire."

"And dangerous," Navarre adds. "You would be at her mercy, Sire; none of the guard could reach you in time if she chose to attack."

"That is something else she could have done on the road," you say, and your cape joins the arrow on the table. "Her arrow untied that from my neck. We all know of her rumored skill with the bow; I assure you all, having seen it myself, that the truth surpasses whatever you may have heard. If she wanted to kill me, she could have done so and I would never have seen it coming. I believe she wants only to talk to me. About what, I cannot say, but I do not think she would dare to reveal herself to the King if it were not a matter of importance."

"Sire, you cannot possibly be planning to meet her there?" Duncan asks.

"We shall see," you reply. "That is what we are here to discuss."

"She might mean to take you hostage, Sire," Ferdinand suggests, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "She could not have done so on the road, not with you upon Steelheart and Lady Trina presumably not far away. But if she can get you alone at night in the woods... it would not be so difficult."

"There I must disagree," Duncan intervenes, sounding almost **** to do so. "The place she has chosen to meet, I know it well. I climbed there many times in my youth, until it became too strenuous for me. It is accessible only through a crack in the rock, barely wide enough for a man to pass through sideways. A sufficiently agile person might be able to ascend the cliffs on either side of the Druid's circle, or to climb down the steep slope that leads away from it, but not with an unwilling hostage in tow. And if she chose to hold our King there until a ransom was paid, there would be no escape for her afterward. No, I think it likely that she wants only to talk." Duncan sets his jaw. "However, I still think it grossly presumptuous of her and would advise you to refuse this invitation in the strongest possible terms, Sire."

"It is too dangerous," Captain Navarre says. "Even if she intends only to talk, we know next to nothing about her. Who is to say that will remain her intention? I mean no disrespect, Sire; I do not mean to say that you could not hold your own. But... you have faced **** before at the hands of a young woman who became suddenly unhinged. No, Sire, I do not believe you should go. I will go in your place; even if the Vixen will not meet with me, she will be watching and listening, and I will give her any message you desire - an invitation to meet her on different terms, perhaps."

There is silence for a moment. "General Ferdinand?" you prompt.

The General stirs. "The Vixen's strategy has always been to strike quickly, at carefully-chosen targets; to inspire fear and awe at her skill, and then to take what she has come for and vanish. She has never killed; she has never even drawn blood. But I say this now... what would happen if she did?"

"Then we are in agreement," Duncan says.

"I am not finished," the General continues. "I do not believe she intends **** to our King. If she did, she would be a fool to identify herself first; it would turn all of Elyssia against her. I speak of the possibility that one day, her arrow may miss its mark; and if it should miss the wrong way, she will have blood on her hands. I have seen soldiers under my command take their first life in battle more often than I can count. It is a difficult thing for a man to do. Some are broken by it and give up the life of a soldier; many, of course, are themselves killed before they get the chance to kill again. But of those who remain soldiers and fight another day, the next life they take is always easier. Sire, there is a possibility here that the Vixen means to surrender herself to you, and chooses this method so that she may do so on her own terms. It may be our one and only chance to take her without bloodshed. If she remains at large, then eventually she will kill - if not deliberately, then by accident. And if she becomes a killer, then no man will be able to set foot in our woods again without listening for the arrow which will pierce his throat. I have spoken."

There is silence at the table once again.

"The General speaks true," Duncan says after a moment. "If it were me she approached, I would meet the Vixen's terms, in spite of her arrogance at even suggesting them. But the King is more than a man; he represents all of Elyssia, and this... this criminal cannot be allowed to believe that she may make demands of our King in this way; it belittles every one of us. I have spoken."

"My opinion is unchanged," Navarre says. "Send me in your place, Sire. I will deliver a message from you, and if the Vixen indeed wishes to surrender, she can meet at time and place of your choosing. I have spoken."

"The King has heard all that you have spoken," you respond. It's time to make a decision.