"We all know why we are here, the Giants have gotten a bit too arrogant, and they are interfering with our business and causing trouble on our Oceans. The question is what we are going to do about it. The first Speaker will be Elder Druzzat. He has news about the leader of the Giant's idiocy, obtained by his spy network." The lead Elder declared.
The lack of formality and fake politeness was a refreshing change from what Cain knew of politics. It was the first time Cain had ever heard a politician tell the room to shut up, that was for sure.
Elder Druzzat stood from his chair in the circle to address the gathering while looking down at the notes in front of him.
"From what my spies have been able to gather, the force we deal with comes from four cities along the coast. They allied under a leader called Drakon. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any solid information on him, but the rumors on the Western Continent day he had set his eyes on the Northern continent in a box to expand his power base.
The giants following him believe that they are inherently superior to the humans of the Northern Continent, which makes the humans an easy target. But that's about all we know so far.
Either they don't know much, or this Drakon has enough power to keep the usually stupid and open-mouthed giants from bragging."
That's a lot more than Cain knew a few minutes ago. A strong giant organizing his Kin is not new, but expanding beyond the continent is. That makes Cain think this leader might be more intelligent than average, making him more ambitious.
One after another, the Captains give reports about attacks and the state of trade along the coast. The situation seems pretty dismal right now, the Giants might be dumb, but they are powerful and resistant to magic.
It doesn't help that they don't know the end goal. The giants must realize they can't take on the Dragons, but they're attacking all along the Dragon Riders' borders anyhow.
"Captain Cain, you look enlightened. Care to share with the rest of us?" One of the Elders calls the moment Cain's face shows signs of his realization.
"Of course Elder. I believe this Drakon might be a powerful new transfer. He doesn't understand the power balance or the Alliances. He is attacking what looks like the weakest targets near his borders without fear of retaliation.
That tells me that either he thinks he can handle anything that we throw at him, or he has no idea what's coming for him." Cain speaks clearly so the entire assembly can hear.
With the change in the world, it is possible a new transfer shot up in power without learning much about the world and began feeling invincible.
Many ideas are shared around the room before another Captain stands to speak. "What are the chances that the System granted him a spell or item above Mythic Rank? If he is Spirit Awakened it would explain a feeling of invincibility."
That portion of the Western Continent wasn't an awakened area before, so it would have put anyone who received it way above their peers.
"I wonder where he might have gotten the idea that the truly powerful could take over an entire continent?" One of the Elders asked in a snarky tone, clearly meaning Cain, but not facing his way.
"Could they actually be trying to build a rival faction of giants to match up against the Darklight Host? Could they even cooperate long enough for that to work?" The woman behind Cain mumbles to herself.
Is not exactly impossible. But most of the power that the Guild has now is due to their outreach work, bringing people to their side without a Guild tag. Trying to do that with brute force would be much harder.
Even if they tried to rule through terror and force they would quickly run out of muscle. There must be more to the Giants' plan than simply outpowering an entire continent.
"If he was inspired by the Central Continent, shouldn't there be something to link all his forces together? Some sort of marker, or uniform?" One of the Captains asks brashly, ignoring the Only Speak when spoken to rule.
"That would make our lives easier, but so far we haven't found any sign of it. Perhaps it's only the leaders of a squad that are officially allied with him, so we haven't been able to link the clues yet?" An elder suggests.
A lot of the voices in the room seem to think that this is the likely truth, but the question of what to do about it becomes the sticking point.
The Wave Riders are in no position to attack the Western Continent the way that Drakon's forces are attacking the Northern one, so that is out. The Council that supposedly rules the Western Continent is overlooking the issue, for now, so they're unlikely to be any help, but to attack all the ships that are causing trouble would invariably cause a lot of lost lives, which the long-lived Elves hold very precious.
Their own lives at least.
"What if we formed a group to go scout the Western Continent shoreline and see what we could learn about the Global Quest? The status of their Guardians might tell us something about what is going on." The head Elder, who never did give his name since everyone here should already have known it, suggested.
Saying no to his suggestions in this audience wasn't easy. He had the lead position because of the great amount of respect that he had earned from his peers, plus his idea was a practical one.
Those who were previously doing business with the area volunteered to go and investigate the status of the cities along the coast, which were a bit more multi-species than most of the continent. While they were gone, the rest of the Council of Captains would come up with contingency plans based on what the spies found out.
The most obvious question was what to do in the event of a full-scale war. The Giants weren't great swimmers, so the thought of simply drowning them by sinking their ships was one of the first ideas put forward, but that was only a tactic and not a strategy.
Every Captain was familiar with a different region of the world, though they all shared some basic knowledge, so the meeting turned into sector-by-sector details of deployments after a war against the forces of Drakon had been called.
That wouldn't be a short conversation, but the meeting broke up at twilight, set to convene again in the morning at first light. Cain now understood why these events often took weeks to complete. It simply took that long to plan the strategy. Maybe he could convince the Elders to break up into study groups, each of them taking a region of the sea so that they could make a half dozen regional plans at the same time, saving a week of preliminary meetings before the final consultation on the overall strategy.
The Wave Riders have been doing things this way since long before the Transfers began arriving, so the ideas that were brought from other worlds never modernized their political process.
"Nila, could you put that idea forward for me? If I do it, many will see it as meddling, but if you do it they just might accept it." Cain suggested as they ate a late dinner, knowing that she had heard his thoughts.
"What idea? If I put it forward, it might go even more smoothly." One of the Captains in the restaurant suggested.
Cain elaborated his plan to split the war zone into six sections for the six Elders other than the leader or mediator, and have them each come up with a plan for their zone with the Captains that were more familiar with it, and then after that, they could bring everyone back together and combine them into one overall strategy, should it come to war.
"That could work. Each of the Elders is normally in charge of activities in a section of the world, it wouldn't be a big change to reduce the scale. I think the Captains would agree by vote." The man at the next table agreed.
The others who were listening in thought about the same way, a week shorter meeting was in everyone's favor, and this was still their way of doing things, but more efficient.
"Alright, I hold the highest honors in the room, so I will present it by special request first thing in the morning. I can ask for a vote of the Elders, and if they agree it will be a vote of the Captains to make the change for this part of the meeting." An older Captain in the back stood up with the help of his first mate.
Looking at him, he wasn't far off from being an Elder himself, only there were no positions currently open on the Council. If he held as much influence among the others as he did in this room, the thoughtful Captain might actually make everyone's lives a bit easier.
With that decided and the meal finished, everyone headed for their rooms, while Cain sent a thought to the Puppets left back on the ship to make sure that everything was good. Half of them were cleaning Queen Rose, while the other half were playing cards with the junior hands left behind to guard the ship they were tied off to.
Nothing wrong with that, though Cain did wonder where the Puppets got the money to go gambling. There were a lot of things he would have to ask Nila and Mythryll about their honeymoon adventures at sea.
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