Varok's voice turned icy. "You want to accept my condition while tying my hands and feet."
Arvantos replied calmly, "You want to enter our Divine Realm while expecting us to trust the Devil Race. Neither side gets everything it wants."
Varok stared at him. Arvantos stared back. For a long moment, the entire council domain hung frozen between war and compromise.
Neither side was willing to fully back down. Varok refused to drop his demand to establish a devil force in the Divine Realm.
The Primordials and the leaders of the Divine Realm refused to accept any agreement that handed the devils unrestricted freedom. Both sides knew the flaws in the other's position, and both sides knew starting a war right now would be dangerous.
The devils had too few people inside the universe to win a direct war at this point. The Divine Realm couldn't kill Varok casually because of Abaddon and the Pearl of Abyss. That balance forced both sides to keep talking.
