“I’ll do it.”

Vikar turns toward the rest of the room. “See? It’s fine with him. If he has nothing to hide, then this will go without a hitch.” He then looks toward the mage. “Now, if you please.”

“Yes sir,” the mage replies as he takes off his hood and pulls out an amulet. He appears to be a cleric, but neither Garik nor his aunt recognize the mark on his holy symbol.  

The middle-aged cleric looks towards Garik and begins to cast the spell by chanting and clutching his symbol which begins to glow a bright white. His dark eyes start to glow in a similar fashion and his hair lifts up as if wind was blowing from underneath him. Garik tries to remain unfazed by this display but instinctively shuts his eyes in anticipation.

A few seconds later the mage stops chanting, signaling that the spell is complete. Garik cautiously opens his eyes and checks to see if anything about him has changed. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, he looks towards the rest of the people and is met with a bright white light shining directly in his face.

“It is done,” the cleric says as he pulls his hood back up and returns to his seat.

“Excellent!” the older gentleman applauds, “Now, my young niece, please ask your question once again.”

Doing as she is told, Venice rises to repeat her question. The half-orc squints to block out the magical light limiting his vision, and he can barely make out his new friend’s worried face.

“Garik, after the people had treated you so poorly, why do you want peace with our city?”

Garik starts to repeat his answer, “Our tribe values survival over everything, so we lived isolated from everyone else for a very long time. We only fight to keep our home safe. We have never attacked anyone-”

Just as he is about to finish his answer, Garik clutches his throat and starts coughing uncontrollably. The already bright light shines even brighter as the half-orc literally chokes on his own words.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?” a distressed Adeline marches towards the cleric who sits unsurprised by this turn of events.

Vikar steps in between them as she reaches to grab the man. “It is just a simple truth-telling spell. He’ll be fine,” he looks at the suffocating half-orc, “IF he stops trying to lie to us.”

The lord of the house shouts, “That is quite enough! I did not agree to you harming the boy! Uncle, I must ask you and your guest to leave-”

“I-it’s …fine,” Garik croaks out, starting to recover from his coughing fit. “I’ll keep going. Please.”

“Garik.” His aunt reaches out to him but is afraid of going near the area of the spell. The lord looks uncertain but ultimately calls for everyone to return to their seats.

Vikar is little more than a silhouette from the half-orc’s point-of-view, but he turns to face him as best as he can. “What I was saying earlier isn’t exactly true. For the most part, our tribe has only gone into battle against people who crossed into our territory, but there was an attempt to destroy the city. I hid it from you because it is the most shameful thing our tribe has ever done.”

Vikar raises an eyebrow at this but stays silent.

“It was 45 years ago, shortly after we had been discovered by humans. Our last leader was a powerful warrior who believed that survival was ensured only by the destruction of anyone who might stand in our way. He thought that humans would come to destroy us and the only way to stop them was to attack them first. Against the wishes of most of the tribe, he launched an unprovoked attack on Varden.”

“Care to tell us what became of that attack?” Vikar says in the tone of an order rather than a question.

The brave face Garik had been putting on melts away. “We had the stronger warriors, but the size of the human army overwhelmed and nearly wiped out all of our war party. Hundreds of lives were lost on both sides. They say the only reason the tribe hadn’t been completely destroyed was because the humans didn’t attack us, thinking we’d die out on our own.”

“That battle and my attack made me realize that no matter how strong you are, it means nothing if a large enough force stands against you. That’s why I want peace between us. I don’t just want my tribe to survive. I want our tribe to become bigger and better than it has ever been, and that won’t happen if we just wait around until some larger settlement decides to get rid of us.”

The room is silent for a full minute as the hosts contemplate what they had just heard. Virgil eventually breaks the silence by asking, “Why do you think that asking us will help?”

Garik’s eyes finally adjust to the effect of the spell, and he answers without thinking. “I was told that your family built this city, so you could convince people that we could be peaceful with each other.”

“A simple but noble plan. His heart is in the right place,” Rosa says to her husband. All is well as Venice is relieved that her parents seem to approve of her new friend and  Adeline shoots a prideful look at her nephew for speaking his true feelings so well.

AHEM!!

“Before we decide on anything I would like to ask our honorable guest about one more matter.”

“Go ahead,” Garik says, now confident that he will be able to handle any question asked of him.

The old man slams his fists on the table. “You seem to know quite a bit about the history of your tribe. It is true that there was a short time that our two settlements did have an agreement to get along. So much that someone living in our city left to marry a woman from your tribe. Tell us about him.”

Adeline stands up in protest, “Now isn’t that unrelated to what we were talking about? I don’t see the point in changing the subject to this.”

Vikar turns his condescending gaze towards her. “Why, it has everything to do with our conversation. That man is the very reason why things are what they are today.”

Garik, seeing this as a challenge, speaks up again. “The man he talks about was a researcher studying in Varden. He is my grandfather.”