"Just like we expected, Swain really did choose to pull Demacia in. He's already started reaching out to multiple nations in private, trying to unite them to keep us in check."

In Zaun's underground conference room, Renata stood straight-backed beside Silco like a tidy little secretary, intelligence gathered by covert agents in hand as she spoke softly.

Silco gave a noncommittal nod at that, then looked to Logan.

Swain's actions did not surprise him in the least, because if their positions had been reversed, Silco was ninety percent sure he would have made the same choice. Logan had said it a long time ago, that Silco and Swain were alike in many ways. Both of them were prone to taking matters to extremes, then choosing a road that looked workable, and in the end truly was workable, but also hurt everyone else and themselves alike.

"Yeah, I know." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Logan rubbed his eyes. Fatigue was written all over his face when he looked back at Silco. He yawned and leaned lazily against the wall.

He had been exhausted lately, and Taliyah was just as worn out. The young girl Logan had coaxed out of Shurima had become the single most important person in both the upper and lower cities during this stretch of time.

The role Taliyah occupied now was even more important than Janna's. Reclaiming land from the sea meant first digging out the silt from the seafloor. It was not as though the Twin Cities lacked the technology to go deep underwater. Not long ago, Ekko had already developed a Hextech barrier, a compact device set into a watch or pocket watch that could be activated at the press of a button to cast protective magic around its user.

The barrier was impressively tough. After basic testing, it proved capable of blocking fire from Hextech rifles coming from every direction within fifty meters. With one of those on them, workers could go down into the sea and do the job.

But compared with Taliyah using magic, that method was far too slow.

What more than a hundred workers could dig up from the seafloor in ten or so days did not even compare to the amount Taliyah could shift with two casual waves of her magic, moving vast stretches of soft seabed mud in moments.

Because of that, Taliyah had been running herself ragged all over Zaun lately. At first, many people had no idea what the girl was there for. Now everyone knew that whether New Zaun could be built successfully depended on her. As a result, the people of Zaun had taken to her enormously.

Piltover had shown Taliyah nothing but goodwill too. Whether they were in business or science, who would not envy her abilities? The girl was basically a multipurpose crane.

So Taliyah's life in Zaun right now was painful and happy all at once. The happy part was that she had finally found a sense of belonging there. Yes, Taliyah had loving parents, but because her magic was so overwhelmingly strong, she had always lacked that feeling of acceptance within her tribe. She had left home to travel in part so she could learn to control her magic, then return one day and help her people.

The painful part was simple, she was tired. Exhausted. If Lux had not been there to recharge her, Taliyah would probably have spent five days out of every week completely drained of magic.

Zaun had not been inhumane about it. Taliyah only had to work five days a week, and each day was seven to ten hours. Saturdays and Sundays were reserved for proper rest.

Even so, if they had not been feeding her hearty meals and giving her enough time to recover, she probably would have wasted away by now.

She was already unbelievably skinny.

She was even thinner than Jinx. The two of them were about the same height, but Taliyah weighed around six kilos less than Jinx, that was twelve whole pounds. The reason for that was simple. Jinx looked skinny, but in truth she had that lean, wiry kind of muscle. Her thighs were full and strong, the lines in her arms were clear and defined, and if she ever struck a bodybuilder pose, you could probably see the muscle definition in her back too.

Then again, that made sense. Jinx was a girl who swung heavy wrenches all day, hauling iron and ore around while developing weapons. There was no way she would not have muscle.

"Don't worry too much," Logan said, slumping over the table as he looked at Silco. "We knew from the start Swain would do something like this, didn't we? We knew it back when we went to Noxus."

"That's true," Silco said with a sigh, rubbing his temples with both hands. "But if Demacia really does join forces with Noxus, then yes, that will cause us no small amount of trouble."

Then he added quietly, "I finally understand why we humans have never become the masters of Runeterra."

Humanity had spent tens of thousands of years evolving, splintering, uniting, merging, warring.

And still they had never become the masters of Runeterra. Why?

Because of exactly this.

A great enemy was looming over everyone. They all knew how strong the Void was, how dangerous the enemy waiting in Runeterra's future would be, and yet even at a time like this, they could still spare the effort to throw obstacles in the Twin Cities' path.

Was it infuriating?

Not really. Silco understood human nature far too well for that.

And from Swain's point of view, this choice was not strange at all. If he waited until the Void problem was solved and only then started thinking about how to contain the Twin Cities, it would already be too late.

By then, the Twin Cities would have fully matured in strength, reputation, and political power, beyond what Swain and Noxus could resist.

So he could only make his move now, laying the groundwork early and planting seeds for the future.

"Relax, Demacia didn't agree, did they?" Logan said with a laugh. Even now, the whole thing still surprised him a little. "Honestly, I expected Demacia to be stodgy and stubborn. I figured Jarvan III might refuse open cooperation with Noxus because of political position, but he'd still wind up doing the same kind of thing Noxus is doing."

"But who would've thought the old emperor would actually try to talk Swain down? Not only did he reject Swain's proposal, he's been leaning our way in practically everything. Whenever the Federation puts out a policy, Demacia's the first one to implement it. That really caught me off guard."

"True," Mel said with a nod as she took up the conversation. "Jarvan III is nearly sixty now, isn't he? For someone in a position that high, at his age, to still think that way and make decisions that boldly, that's genuinely impressive."

Mel meant it. She truly did find Jarvan III remarkable.

According to Piltover's intelligence network, Jarvan III had even begun quietly moving to abolish Demacia's anti-magic laws. That meant he was trying to change the very founding principles Demacia had upheld for centuries.

He was repairing the foundation of Demacia itself.

To outsiders, anti-magic doctrine looked like absolute garbage. But in Demacia, where that doctrine had defined the nation for generations, Demacians naturally did not see it that way. They believed it had brought them security and stability. And yet Jarvan III still intended to reform it. That kind of resolve was something Mel deeply respected.

Because it reminded her of her own mother. If her mother had possessed the same mindset and ability as Jarvan III, then perhaps she never would have ended up where she was now.

"What's so impressive about that..." Jayce muttered under his breath.

The expression on Mel's face when she praised Jarvan III made him a little jealous.

Mel had never looked at him like that when calling him impressive.

Not once. In any setting.

"But we really do need to do something to put Swain at ease," Logan said after thinking it over. "How about this. In the future, the Federation will have five seats. The first seat goes to the Twin Cities, the second to Demacia, and then Noxus, the Freljord, and Ionia."

"When it comes to deciding policy, the first seat gets two votes. Every other seat gets one. And each of the five seats also gets veto power. What do you think?"

Silco rejected it immediately. He found the idea deeply flawed.

"They can have voting rights, sure," he said, "but I do not agree with giving them veto power."

His tone turned cold. "Their thinking is too narrow. They're always fixated on their own little patch of ground. If you give them veto power, all they'll do is suppress our growth, and suppress Runeterra's future."

Once upon a time, Demacia and Noxus had been towering powers Silco could only look up at from afar. But the situation had flipped. Now Demacia and Noxus had to mind his reaction before they acted.

Silco had plenty of flaws, but he also had one great strength, he adapted to his position with incredible speed.

Just like right now.

Mel, however, saw things differently. After a moment's thought, she said, "I think it can work. Put restrictions on how they use that veto power. For example, if a nation wants to exercise its veto, it must turn over two years' worth of Hextech crystal tax revenue from within its cities to the Federation. I don't think they'd reject that. All it really means is that when they use that authority to protect their own interests, they return part of the benefit the Twin Cities once handed them."

Mel rose to her feet, both hands braced against the table. Gold rings gleamed at the wrists of her dark-skinned hands as she smiled and continued, "I understand what Councilor Silco is getting at. Centralized authority matters. We may not want to conquer the world, but if we want to change it, power cannot simply be handed away. Still, we need to make them feel secure. We need to let them believe they have a weapon that can restrain us, don't we?"

Silco's eyes shifted. He set a cigar case on the table, wanting badly to pull one out, but after a glance around the room, remembering this was not a meeting of Zaunites alone, he restrained himself.

"If it works that way," he said after a moment, "then I agree to letting them have veto power."

He had understood Mel's meaning perfectly.

Give them a weapon, let them believe it can protect them, but that weapon would still be one the Twin Cities had chosen to hand over. The material, the strength, the limits, all of that would still be decided by the Twin Cities.

Logan smiled too, some of the fatigue leaving him. He looked up at Mel and teased, "So basically, the rules of the game still belong to us. That's what you mean, right?"

Mel smiled back and nodded. "Exactly."

"Then it's settled," Logan said. "Send word to every region. The land reclamation project is almost done anyway. In just a few more weeks, Zaun will start moving onto the new land. Let them come see how much Zaun has changed, and we'll settle this matter while they're here."

"What about the invitees?" Viktor asked at last, breaking his silence. "How do we choose them?"

He disliked politics, but as one of the people in the Twin Cities who could never be left out of a moment like this, he had no choice but to attend.

Viktor was effectively filling the seat Professor Heimerdinger used to occupy. Since slipping into semi-retirement, the science yordle had stopped interfering in the Twin Cities' policy. Back in the old days, Heimerdinger had intervened because he wanted to preserve peace on the surface between the two cities. He never wanted the people of Piltover and Zaun to truly come to blows.

He had never been greedy for power. And now, while the two cities could not quite be called of one mind, they were at least united against outside threats. So naturally, Heimerdinger no longer felt the need to cling to authority.

These days he much preferred hiding in his laboratory, tinkering with dangerous weapons.

Which was a little absurd, since he used to be the one most opposed to turning Hextech into weaponry.

"All right, then that's settled," Logan said as he got to his feet. "I'll go ask Taliyah to speed things up a little more. She'll have to push a bit harder for a while. One week... give her half a day off. Once we get through this stretch, it'll be fine. We need to finish all the reclamation work before the leaders of the various regions arrive."

"Understood. I'll issue the order as soon as I get back," Mel said. "We'll invite the leaders of every nation to the Twin Cities, and set the date for January of 991. What do you think?"

"Wouldn't that be a bit rushed?" someone asked. "They'll all be busy after the new year. Are we sure they'll come?"

Jayce gave a snort. "Busy? Busier than we are? Kai'Sa is leading a team of Shuriman scholars helping Singed research Void creatures. Jinx and Ekko are leading teams developing our latest weapons. Viktor and I are working on new communications technology. And that's not even counting the rest of you. You think the things on your plates are any lighter than theirs? Right now even Zeri is out on the coast acting as a human power plant."

Then he said flatly, "No matter how busy they are, they're coming."

"After the new year is fine," Silco said. "They'll come."

"Then that settles it." Logan waved a hand. "Meeting's over."

Do not think that was the only topic they had discussed. This meeting had covered a great many issues, the governing structure of New Zaun, the first group of people to relocate there, whether territory belonging to Piltover should be built beside it, and much more besides.

By now, the meeting had already dragged on for more than three hours.

Logan had already been exhausted for days, and after spending all that time thinking at full intensity, all he wanted now was to get out of there.

So before anyone else could speak, Logan lifted both hands, gave the room a casual wave, grinned, and vanished from the spot.

"That guy..."

The dozen or so councilors in the room were all stunned for a moment when Logan disappeared. Silco shook his head, half amused and half annoyed.

"Logan really has been working too hard lately," Aunt Marna said softly. "He's helping Kai'Sa and the others research the Void and giving them ideas, negotiating with the Freljord, and on top of that he goes every day to help Taliyah draw in sand, stone, and soft mud. He's barely slept at all recently, has he?"

"All right, that's enough. Go get some rest over the next couple of days," Silco said. "There'll be even more trouble waiting for us in the future."

With that, he left with his people.

Renata bent down, picked up the briefcase beside Silco's chair, and hurried after him, slipping neatly back into the role of his attentive little secretary.

Vander, meanwhile, had understood almost none of it. Yawning, he climbed out through the window and left.

Jayce and Mel exchanged a glance, then walked out together.

Viktor looked at Jayce, opened his mouth, then closed it again after a long pause. He had wanted to talk to Jayce about that matter, but seeing the situation now, he gave up.

Better not play third wheel.

//Check out my P@tre0n for 10 extra free chapters //[email protected]/Razeil0810