Reports segued into personal experiences, Sages got to air their points of view and have their egos catered to, playing up this or that horrible experiences and acts of sacrifice and desperate defenses and all the like.

I didn’t say anything, nor feel particularly motivated to. I would much rather have gone back to bed and gotten some actual sleep.

I must have been looking a little heavy-eyed, as the British Queen finally realized that I wasn’t going to speak unless prompted. “Lady Fae, you’ve not said anything up to this point, although I understand the Kingdom owes you a major debt for your aid.”

“You owe me nothing at all, Your Majesty. I came with the Marines, the compensation was agreed upon. We will be gone at the end of the day now that the land threat to Ireland is gone.”

The Irish there were all tight-lipped and nervous suddenly. Of course they’d reviewed the contract we’d been hired under, and the fact we’d be leaving. That they didn’t want us to was a given, but then, they weren’t the ones paying us, and they probably couldn’t afford us if they wanted to.

England, on the other hand...

“Is it... possible to engage your services?” the Queen asked directly. “Britain has substantial amounts of territory that has been lost to the invaders from the sea. By all accounts, your chasing them into the sea was ruthlessly efficient.”

“No.” Briggs’ voice was unmoved, and the startled Queen looked back at him, surprised he was speaking. “Lady Fae is prosecuting a long-term siege assault on a Death Zone in Gabon. I engaged her services here to accelerate our offensive here, but she has already lost two weeks of progress for spending the time here she has. She, in turn, asked her Undead Hunters to help out, and they also contributed significantly for no additional price, further reducing her away time.

“She does not have the extra time to spare to clear England, as there is literally no one in the world who can do the job she is doing down there. She is only here because I asked her, and our job is done, so she will depart.”

Everyone looked back and forth between him and I, and when I didn’t deny Briggs’ words they looked more than a little strange.

“The Redshore Marines are available for hire, although the price will be steep, now that the enemy is aware of our presence. Still, I doubt they think we can raise a Sandfall Saltflower without her, when in fact all that happened was that she enhanced the range of the spell. Lady Fae does not have an Earth Seed, after all.”

Someone with no magic speaking for a Sage was definitely a new experience for all of them, but not only did I not challenge his authority, it also felt weirdly appropriate to them, which was unnerving them all the more.

“However, Lady Fae, Great Britain is having something of a time of it, by all reports,” Briggs went on without batting an eye. “Do you have an alternative for them?”

“The Netherworld cannot be allowed to establish itself further on Earth,” I murmured. “My presence here is about shock and dissuasion, not compensation or showing off. Raising multiple Saltflowers will definitely be able to relieve the pressure of the siege, but it will not remove the Aquatics from threatening your shores and raiding at any time they choose, which is the real threat.

“If Great Britain truly wishes to relieve its Siege, it must chase away the invading Aquatics in their Element.”

Before they could get uppity about that being obvious and impossible, I tilted Noble slightly, their eyes went to the Tokens hanging there, and not even the Queen said anything.

“The Emperors of the Land watched you take these islands and drive off or slay all the Beasts who used to dwell here. This is your territory, you have claimed it, and you will live or die here, as you have fought for. They will not intervene in this matter in the slightest.

“However, the Emperors of the Sea have done no such thing.”

“The Emperors of the Sea!” blurted out the current head of Parliament, a dour old man of the Conservatives who was eying me like the young idiot I was. “Are not the Emperors of the Sea the ones attacking us right now?! What kind of statement is that!?”

I slowly turned to look at him, and he clamped his mouth shut and lowered his head in mere seconds. “My apologies, Lady Fae. Please continue,” he managed to mumble in something resembling contriteness.

I turned my eyes from him. “In particular,” I said very drily, “Emperor Leviathan has not agreed to anything of the sort.”

The Irish and the British alike sucked in shocked breaths.

“Leviathan and the Kraken are mortal enemies. The Fomorians have hunted whales as food for ages. The Whales and the Sea Serpents are ancient foes. Whales and Sharks mutually despise one another. And the merfolk are tender meat snacks to the Whales.”

I watched them all swallow as they digested that point. The four major forces harrying their shores were all enemies of the Whales!...

“On the other hand, the residents of these islands are no friends of the Whales, and have even mass-hunted them in the past for oil, of all things, and resources for magic. Leviathan does not begrudge deaths in battle, and is aware Humans are a splintered Tribe with incredibly inconsistent behavior and internal rivalries.

“But He has absolutely no love for Humans, as short-lived and forgetful a bunch of Primates as we are. Leviathan is completely capable of saving you, of bringing His Whales here, to a great buffet meal with millions of their choice prey packed together to feed upon... but He has no reason to do so.”

I let that trail off ominously, letting them think about that before continuing.

“How I cleared Ireland will not work in England. Even now they are thinking about how I attacked them, and how to counter it or greatly reduce the effectiveness of my Shards. It will not be difficult to come up with a system to do so. Commander Briggs is aware of this and that I will actually be of only normal aid in any follow-up strike because of it.

“Likewise, a Saltflower assault will utterly wipe out any attacking force of weak Aquatics in the area, and it will weaken stronger ones, but all they need do is not overly concentrate their forces and scatter rapidly enough on seeing it, and their losses will be minimal, our triumphs temporary.

“Your islands are currently surrounded by Aquatic forces, both tauroid and bestial, to the tune of approximately one hundred million combatants. Some of these are being used to maintain pressure on the mainland, admittedly.

“There are Nine Emperors cooperating in this siege, with Emperor Kraken Himself the most powerful and distant of them. Five of those Emperors are in the seas around the islands at this time. They are assisted by over ninety Nobles of various levels of power, and possibly a million Commander-level creatures.

“None of the islands outside Britain have survived intact. Ireland is alive only because of our sudden and very unexpected intervention. As long as the raiders stay in the sea, we can do nothing more to them. Wales and Scotland have been driven to the central hills. England has lost half her port cities and almost all of your outlying towns and villages without powerful Wards of their own. London is fully under siege.

“Your navy has either been sunk, or has retreated to Gibraltar and is unable to render any aid. The dragons you’ve invested so heavily in do not have the numbers needed to control the skies, let alone the land or seas.

“In short, Your Majesty, you are in a very desperate situation. You know this, I know this, and we know this. The invaders know this, and they are hoping that someone decides to split their forces and help you so they can double their fun when the full force of their gathered might is actually displayed.

“There is only one force available that has the power to save the British Isles, Your Majesty.”

Her advisors looked ready to burst at my announcements and daring to say that to her, but Shining Queen Diana just sighed and lowered her head. “Your sources of information are excellent,” she admitted. “There are very few people who are aware of just how dire our situation is.” She took another deep breath. “What happens if Emperor Leviathan does not aid us?”

“Your port cities will fall, one by one. Atrocities will be committed, hoping to lure other Humans to aid you or to pull others out of your cities to be slaughtered and further wear away at your defenses.

“In the meantime, they will patiently use Sound and Psychic Magic to play on the fears and desperation of your populations, furthering internal strife, discord, and treachery among them. Your social order will start breaking down, they will gain control of the more weak-willed and start creating havoc and tearing you apart from within, patiently hastening your fall as they press in on any areas not covered by Wards and overwhelm them slowly, surely, and inevitably, making puppets of some and eating the brains of the rest to use their knowledge to further infiltrate and dismantle your positions.”

My response was clipped, precise, and made them all go white.

“The one thing I can probably help you with is evacuation. I can put up Portals and start sending people away. Unfortunately, I can only send you to Littoral Zones, because you are in one, and if I try to send you inland whatever Emperors are in the area will personally come and help extinguish you all.

“In essence, you will be leaving this fight for your homes to take up another fight elsewhere, and I have little doubt the Aquatics will leave you much to come back to.

“It also takes a great deal of time to evacuate millions of people, and likely you will dither and delay on making that decision until there is not enough time to do so, which means hundreds of thousands or millions of citizens will not make it out before they are slaughtered.” They flushed again at my blatant assessment of them, but dared not say anything more as I kept going.

“Thus, if you wish to fight, and if you wish to stay on your islands, you need help, and there is only one being who might be willing to provide the degree of help that you require.”

Queen Diana was visibly caught between incredible pride and crushing despair at my words. She knew they were true, but did not want to admit it was so, and no one dared say such a thing to her face.

“What could we possibly offer Emperor Leviathan that would convince him to come to our aid?” the Shining Queen finally asked as the silence grew. “You cannot bribe or gift an Emperor Beast with Human wealth!”

Well, she knew that much, at least! “The main problem Your Majesty has is that you indeed have next to nothing to offer Him for His aid. Your lives mean nothing to Him. He has seen Ice Ages come and go, entire species rise and be wiped away by the time and tides, and we are as ephemeral as plankton to Him. He does not have any desire for wealth, what we call power He calls amusing, and pleas and begging aren’t even going to be noticed by Him.

“In my opinion, there is only one way to appeal to Him, and even that might not work, but at least it is in accord with the traditions and laws of the Beasts, and those, at least, He respects and honors.”

“You... cannot mean-!” Queen Diana managed to say, staring at me across the Hologram. As a ruler she was naturally attentive to such details of how to negotiate with other parties, and such parties included the Great Beasts.

“Your Royal Majesty, if Great Britain’s peoples swear obeisance to Emperor Leviathan, which is your right as an island-dwelling tribe, He may choose to acknowledge that obeisance and save you,” I finished as if she had not said anything.