The Summit

  This is part of a greater story about Igrax. The idea behind this piece is the houses regularly meet for these summits to decide the future affairs of the continent. Here we see a quick breakdown of the peace as there are some among the people who would see the peace disturbed. As always, any feedback is welcome and I will be back tomorrow with another post!

---

“Welcome to the Summit!” The way that the leader carried himself didn’t sit well with Erik, “I am Karl Tiblum, and it is my great honor to mediate all of the discussions as well as making sure this one goes as well as last year.”

 

         “He’s not the most… professional.” Erik whispered to the queen.

 

         “Have you heard of the Tiblums?”

 

         “No, they must be rather far from us.”

 

         “So, who would like to open the discussion?” Karl’s invitation interrupted their conversation.

 

         Lukas immediately stood up, “Fellow houses, I know we’re currently enjoying our age of peace, but alas, I have been provoked by one of my neighbors.”

 

         “Oh brother, here we go…” Erik tried his best not to roll his eyes.

 

         “Erik Leppet of House Leppet!” The statement rang across the room, leaving everyone in silence.

 

         “That’s preposterous!” Erik protested, standing up from his chair.

 

         “Erik, let Lukas have the house.” Karl immediately shot him down.

 

         Lukas continued as Erik begrudgingly sat back into his chair, “Erik has done something that none of us thought capable, he tried to incite a conflict between my comrade, Reginald Idmaer.”

 

         Lukas had gotten the whole room’s attention. Erik looked around and saw people furiously writing down everything he was saying.

 

         “Are these people really believing his words? What evidence does he have?”

 

         “I have with me,” Lukas pulled a piece of paper from his robes, “a letter, made up to look like one from Reginald, but in reality it is from Erik.”

 

         “And how would you know this?” Karl asked, albeit half-heartedly.

 

         “Look at the seal,” He showed a lion’s head stamped onto the bottom, “It’s facing to the right, but the Idmaer’s crest has the lion’s head facing to the left. Not to mention Reginald received a letter that was written by ‘me’ with a similar defect.”

 

         “Can you confirm Reginald?”

 

         “I can confirm that I received a forged letter from Lukas, and when we compared the contents, they were very similar.”

 

         “Elaborate on what’s in the letters.”

 

         “These letters contain false allegations between us. For example, in my letter it claims that Reginald was the one who had been raiding my farms across the border and in his it states that I was the one who had been attacking his trade caravans. The Osreds and the Idmaers have been long standing allies, we would have nothing to gain by attacking each other.”

 

         “Still this is a pretty strong allegation to make against Erik Leppet of all people, we have seen the work he has done in upholding the values of peace that we have long treasured since the collapse.”

 

         “And that is why he has done this.” It was now Reginald’s turn to chime in, “Think about it, by creating an image of being a peacemaker, it would make him appear innocent in all of this.”

 

         Erik looked around in horror as more and more of the scribes started to be convinced by their arguments.

 

         “And who would stand to gain the most from a conflict between Lukas and I? The Leppets.” Reginald let it sink in before continuing, “House Leppet has always been cramped between us, if they were to get rid of one of us, they would gain that much more power.”

 

         “Why else would the Leppets spend all of their time within their own bubble, they secretly think that they’re better than us. That’s why they never take the time to do any trade with other Houses, why they only seem to come out during the Summit, and especially why they would want one of us to fall so they come in and pick up what’s leftover.”

 

         “It would also explain why they always seem to be the ones so involved in keeping us from war. They want to keep us pacified while they slowly dismantle us and take the continent for themselves.”

 

         By now murmuring had started to dominate the chairs. Lukas and Reginald had started a storm.

 

         “Quiet, let them finish, we have to keep our composure.” Karl’s authority over the side discussions was moot at this point.

 

         “So I’m asking you to bring this back to your houses, tell your leaders of the treachery that Erik has wrought upon us. Also, tell them this, Reginald and I are ready to do what needs to be done for one so evil, are you?” Lukas confidently sat back down along with Reginald.

 

         Though the representatives had no real power, Lukas had moved them into action. Many of them stood up and shouted obscenities to Erik, who by now, wanted to be anywhere but here.

 

         “Order! Order!” Karl shouted into the masses, “We have to remain civil in these matters!”

 

         “What are you going to do?” The Queen whispered to Erik.

 

         “I honestly don’t know…” Erik was truly speechless for the first time in his life, “I never saw it coming, they played it so well…”

 

         “I’m sure when the other leaders hear of this, they’ll see reason.”

 

         “That still doesn’t explain why they’re not here. I bet Lukas has something to do with this.”

 

         Their conversation was interrupted by Karl, who had managed to quiet everyone else down, “Erik Leppet, these are some serious allegations leveraged against you, what do you have to say in response.”

 

         Erik stood up, took a few moments to organize his thoughts, and tried to dispel the false facts, “People of the Houses, I can assure you that I would never attempt such a move. House Leppet has always been committed to the ideals of truth and peace throughout the lands.”

 

         “Oh come on!” One of the delegates stood up in objection, “You’re just saying that so that we’ll ignore you! Lukas was right.”

 

         His objection was soon joined by others as the whole house interrupted in accusations.

 

         “Quiet everyone!” Karl’s booming voice fell on deaf ears, “Let him speak as we did for Lukas.”

 

         “No…” Lukas’s voice seemed to immediately calm down the crowd, “Every word that we let come out of that charlatan’s mouth is another word he can use to trick us into the complacency he has worked so hard to put us in. Well I say no more!”

 

         “Please, everyone, you must see reason. What does House Leppet stand to gain from this unprovoked attack? We would never do something like this!”

 

         “Oh please!” Reginald stood up along with Lukas, “You’re just going in circles at this point. You could get everything you ever wanted: land, power, and wealth. If Lukas and I hadn’t uncovered this plot, you could’ve taken over Igrax in less than a year.”

 

         The exchange between the three had swayed the rest of the crowd in Lukas’s and Reginald’s favor. Erik could even see it on the faces of the leaders that had actually shown up, he was probably only making it worse the more he talked. It didn’t help that the rest of the crowd was starting to become increasingly distrusting of him.

 

         “This uncivilized concourse at the Summit will not stand!” Karl mustered the most authority and volume into his voice that he could, silencing the entire room, “We will adjourn the meeting for a few minutes to let all of the animosities settle before discussing other matters in a more civil manner.”

 

         Erik almost fell back into his chair, defeated. He was completely lost.