Page 105 of Truthfinder’s Promise

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Meredith took her place in the dining room next to Jensen. He nodded at her. She nodded back. Great. Their non-relationship had deteriorated to the level of people who nodded at each other.

Three hours later her back was stiff, her butt was going numb, and her ears hurt from listening to people argue. So. Many. People.

Twenty-four didn’t sound like a large number, but once you’d listened to them all bicker until they were blue in the face you realized it was about twenty-three more people than you wanted to be around.

The numbers were split evenly, twelve on each side. The Shifters had their six enclave protectors, each of whom had brought their seconds, and Siren had brought her advisory committee. Meredith was on it, along with Jace, Random, and Valkyrie. The remaining members she’d chosen might not make sense to most people at first glance. They weren’t politicians or people who’d ever been involved in Council business before. But they were people who were deeply rooted in the Aspect community.

Hank Trembley and Betty Lou Walker-Trembley both owned stores in Seclusion’s downtown area and had seen three generations of Aspect Society come and go. Shane and Derek Anders were well-known by their extensive volunteer work, and Derek was a therapist who now worked at The Refuge. Siren had also included two of the Aspect Academy teachers, one of whom was Mr. Struthers, to whom Meredith had given the civil-war-could-be-avoided-by-facials response.

Charles Jackson finished out the group. As an Oracle, Charles wasn’t technically Aspect Society, but when Siren had submitted her list of committee candidates for approval, he’d passed the affirmation vote. He was also here by video chat, because the simplest randomly-asked question had the potential to throw Oracles out of the here-and-now. Questions tossed around through a technological interface had a lessened affect.

While Random’s thorough examination of the laws that had propelled Siren to interim Head Councilor had proved beyond all doubt that she had the authority to make this decision, having the full approval of the advisory committee would be invaluable toward getting Aspecters at large to accept and respect it.

At least, it would do that, if a decision could ever be reached. At the opposite end of the table from Meredith, the Silver enclave’s protector, Kait, wrapped up a five-minute speech that used a lot of ten dollar words and essentially boiled down to, I’m pissy I’ve been asked to consider this alliance.

Meredith geared up for another round of reassurances from the Aspect side when Clyde Bell’s irritated voice said, “Are we boring you, Ms. Townsend?”

He was present as the second to the Temple enclave’s protector, and he was decidedly not Team Meredith. She’d been doodling random geometric shapes in her notebook, and apparently he couldn’t miss the opportunity to point it out to the rest of the room. She knew the right pretty words to say, the ones designed to make her appear chastened and contrite, that would satisfy the room and do it smoothly enough that no one would even remember the incident later.

She should probably use them. But the glazed look on faces around the room told her everyone was as fed up with the pointless back-and-forth as she was. They’d been in here for four days, eight hours a day, and they had nothing to show for it. At the rate things were going, they wouldn’t have anything to show for today, either.

“You aren’t boring me, you’re wasting my time.” Clyde’s face flushed red with outrage, and she suddenly had the undivided attention of every single person present. “Everyone in here is wasting everyone else’s time. We have spent the last four days arguing the minutiae of theoretical infractions and what-if this and what-if that.

“Our purpose in being here is not actually that complicated. We want an agreement that Aspect Society has no quarrel with Shifter Society and vice-versa. That we both want to peacefully coexist without the need for either society to hide from or live in fear of the other.”

Clyde sneered. “Spoken like a naive, foolish girl.”

Spoken like a bitter old man. She bit back the retort because right now, he was the one who looked like an asshole. She might not care about burning the bridge that was Clyde Bell—he was never going to like her, and his enclave’s protector, Carsten Temple, was the one who would be voting in this matter—but alienating the enclave protectors by saying something petty would be foolish.

Rebekah shot Clyde a sharp look. “I’d like to hear what she has to say.”

He gave a derisive laugh. “I have no intention of listening to some chit who’s only here because she crawled into your grandson’s bed.”

Siren’s irritation crackled across the room with tangible force. “Meredith is here because she is a member of my advisory committee. Her thoughts hold the same weight as anyone else’s, and have nothing to do with whose bed she is in, a matter which is none of your concern and is not open for public discussion. If you can’t keep a professional, civil tongue in your mouth I will adjourn this session until Carsten has replaced you with someone who can.”

Clyde’s face shaded from red to purple. He opened his mouth but Carsten cut him off. “Take a five minute walk and calm down. If you can’t be neutral by the end of it, send Elizabeth here in your stead.”

Clyde shoved his chair back and stalked out. Carsten nodded at Meredith. “You have the Temple enclave’s sincerest apologies. I, too, would be interested in hearing what you have to say once my second has returned or been replaced.”

Three minutes later Elizabeth walked in and took the seat next to Carsten. “I heard a new idea was up for discussion?” she said brightly.

All eyes turned to Meredith. Well, she had their attention. “So far, we’ve been approaching this as if an entirely new set of laws needs to be made. But we aren’t here to discuss a merger of our societies. We aren’t even here to discuss a peace treaty in the typical sense, because we are not at war. Neither of us has attempted to take possession of the other’s territory or resources, and neither is attempting to do so now.

“At the root, all we are here to do is establish a formal recognition of the fact that we all wish to peacefully coexist.” She looked at the Shifter half of the room. “You have concerns. Given what you’ve dealt with in the past, and the recent capture of several of your people, those concerns are more than understandable. Those in our community involved in these crimes have been stripped of their Aspect.” It was the first time in over a century that that particular punishment had been enacted. “We have also agreed to reparations that will be made regardless of what outcome these discussions have.

“So the way I see it, there are two simple options. One, we have closed borders. Aspecters do not enter Shifter territory, and Shifters do not enter Aspect territory. Failure to observe this is grounds for retaliation. Two, we have open borders. Our people are free to intermingle, with the expectation that they are respectful of the territory they are in.”

Silence reigned. The protector of the Vayne enclave, a tall, lean woman with muscle definition to rival Valkyrie’s, broke it. “I appreciate your intentions,” Moira Vayne said. The hum of Meredith’s Aspect told her she even meant it. “But you make a complex thing sound simple. We are two very different peoples. Our societies are structured on different laws and mores.”

As if no two different societies had ever managed to have a working relationship before. “When we interact in the Null world, outside our territories, do we not manage to abide by their laws and mores?”

“Yes. But we are all also citizens of this country. We are already also bound by those laws.”

“And none of us have ever visited another country, of which we are not citizens, and managed to behave accordingly?”

“One is required to have a passport to enter a foreign country.”