“I wish I brought a lawyer or two with me…” Kayel muttered as he re-read a paragraph for the seventh time. His mutterings were met with much agreement from the heavily built Rethavok on one side, the beaked Vrekan on the other and the slender-bodied, robed Cassid sitting in front of him.
“I AM a lawyer…” Aesop’s tongue flickered across his thin teeth, making an odd clicking noise. “And I am struggling with the vast contents of these articles. From what I am understanding from all of this, in exchange for forming an advanced version of the Dessaron Battle Arena and putting a rotating 10% of our populations to work in several specific industries, the Allbirther is willing to fulfil our entire species’ collective needs?”
Ver, the King of the Vrekans, stared somewhat blankly at the Cassid. “What?”
“What I do not understand…” Rethais, the Rethan High General, a being who no longer had much patience for deities in general, was snarling. “Who is profiting off the creation of this arena? That is a very specific request. The requirement of the rotating 10 percent makes sense. After all, she needs beings to assist her in the creation of new agricultural and resource gathering and maintaining industries. But… who will be watching vok compete?”
“Not us? We are not watching ourselves?” Ver asked. “I mean, we did that before. Had arena fights to placate the masses.”
The conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Talah, a scythe-armed Athrevok and an impressive specimen at that. Talah sat down next to Rethais. They said nothing at first, but slowly held their claw upwards and snarled.
“Their amusement.”
“The gods?” Kayel piped up, not nearly as threatened by Talah’s appearance as Aesop was. Then again, Aesop himself had decided to sit with these Threanic beings, rather than the Temthan and their relatives across the room.
Talah nodded. “The Four. Formerly Six. They watch.”
“I dunno, friend, seems like a lot of work for just four beings. Even if they are gods…” Kayel tutted. “But that does kinda give me a thought. Maybe we ARE doing this for someone else’s amusement? Not our gods, but other gods?”
“What other gods?” Aesop was somewhat blown back by the mere mention of extra deities. “Are there other gods we are supposed to be paying homage too?”
“Kayel means deities from other universes…” Rethais explained, sighing rather loudly. “There are plenty of entities that exist outside of our small, enclosed space. External beings are the reason WHY this universe is a shell of its former self. It is also why us Rethavok are storing tons of materials for the Panelix, because they wish to sell those resources on.”
Kayel glanced around, then perked up. “Perhaps the Allbirther is planning to use us as entertainment, as a way of, I dunno, making peace with potential nasty guys out there? I mean, most vok don’t want to kill their favourite movie stars! So if we agree to this, not only is the Allbirther going to make sure we’re all provided for, but it’s a weird, roundabout sort of protection as well?”
Aesop frowned, still making clicking noises. “That there is the dilemma. This feels… potentially morally wrong. Or at least morally corrupt and rather exploitative. Nonetheless, how can we really, in all honesty, deny the potential increased livelihoods of the civilians we all represent? For what is really, a very small, very cheap tax, we are improving the lives of everyone.”
“Including that ten percent?” Kayel asked. “I admit, I haven’t gotten that far yet.”
“According to the laid out terms here, yes.”
The group fell silent. As they did so, the rest of the room fell silent too. Aesop realised that everyone present had been listening to him.
“The gods certainly don’t make this easy for us, do they?” Ver tutted.
“The opposite, actually…” Kayel muttered, idly flicking through pages. “They’ve made it really, really easy for us. We just have to say yes…”