Those two months passed quickly. Too quickly. Before I was ready, it was time to leave for the negotiations.
"I don't want to go," I admitted to Kael the night before. "Don't want to leave the children even for a few days. Don't want to face more political maneuvering and threats."
"We don't have a choice. If we don't show up, they'll see it as weakness. Will make demands even more aggressive."
"I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it."
"No. But we face it together like we face everything."
"What if this time together isn't enough? What if we lose? What if we come back to find another crisis has emerged while we were gone?"
"Then we handle it. Like we always do. One crisis at a time until either we win or we die."
"That's not as comforting as you think."
"It's all I have."
We left the next morning, traveling to the neutral meeting location with heavy guard. The journey took four days.
