

The Negotiations lasted for a day and a half and were for the most part pure tedium. In general more than 90% of the terms that had been presented were acceptable to Drive and Supernova but there were a few technicalities which were of a concern and had to be adjusted and redrafted. Despite the losses the Dark Elven delegation made it clear that this was no unconditional surrender and were not above posturing to make that point known. A few minor power plays had been made by the various Drow States which were hammered out in private session with speech handled in coded language just to be safe. This had been expected by all parties, Drow, Doge and Core alike and it meant that the treaty needed to be revised on a few points, and while it did waste time it ultimate was productive. The biggest adjustment to the original draft was an agreement to repatriate those slaves taken by the forces of the Four present states who were younger than the age of thirteen years. Further attempts at prying into matters risked discussion about the repatriation of prisoners of war the other way.





There was only one point where a risk of derailment happened. Two hours into discussion on the Second Day, Supernova took note of a minor point. Part of the Peace Treaty had been a cessation of hostilities between Infrastructure and the trading partners of the four gathered Drow states, one of which listed in the margins of a rather unremarkable list.







"The Central Committee must inquire as to the whereabouts of the listed country known as 'Fidelium'." Nomenclature was a rather tricky business, given that each kingdom would usually have at least it's own distinct dialect often with distinct names for both regions and states both archaic and contemporary. Even so nothing registered about this polity.





Had the Drow Delegation not have been the products of centuries of cutthroat politics and business dealings they might had choked. They might have responded a beat too late or too soon. They might have stuttered or blinked or made their face blank. Instead Lady Valcas gave her response with the same slightly annoyed hautiness she'd employed throughout the meeting.





"Nations fall and nations rise, Supernova. The deficiencies of your charts are not our concern. I'd recommend against attacking random settlements in the interim."





Supernova was not satisfied, but she did not pry further. The precedents of diplomacy and navigation meant that no nation was obliged to share their charts. She figured most likely situation was that it was some recently established enclave born of some fringe religious group desiring to set up their holy society which some Drow Lord decided would more valuable as a captive market and source of native POWs rather than something to be reaped.





And so the agreement was struck and the treaty signed. Talnara and Supernova added their signatures last. The Dread Sorceress Mistress of Many and Puppeteer of More and the Alien Machine Lifeform in Her Artificial Body observed each and for a brief second gave each other a polite smile. Both of them wondered what secrets and schemes the other had planned and how they would manifest when war once again came to pass. But both of them knew that would be a challenge for another time. And so with two final names were signed. The leather bound document was closed and with that the Escort War ended.