While he was in temporary exile, in preparation for his brother's likely vengeance on his return, Eligos chose to take the time to set the pack up for more success under whoever succeeded him than it had enjoyed under his own insular reign. They'd taken one hit after another after another and had not been able to regain their footing between tragedies to prosper. Well, no longer. Aerie would prosper even without him, if he had any say in the matter at all. It would involve making nice with the other alphas, something that in several cases filled him with distaste. Valhalla was a simple one, since they had already worked together in the past - he would likely save them for last, before he finally returned home. But others would not be so simple, and he decided to get at least one of those over with while he still had the conviction that he should, and hadn't managed to convince himself that no, he didn't need to do this.

When he stood upon the border, he thought maybe he should have let himself convince himself, because they were the last pack he wanted to be visiting. Still, he raised his head and called out to announce himself to the pack.

The Armada.

Cypher and Kida exchanged a glance behind him before moving up to flank him. Neither of them had particularly kind thoughts towards the pack that had raided them as soon as they'd moved north, either, though Cypher's were considerably more charitable than either Eligos or Kida and he watched alertly around them, his doggie expression clearly troubled. Kida too was alert, though much sharper about it with suspicion writ large in her movements. Eligos on the other hand was at his most shut down and expressionless, bloodred gaze flat as he watched the pack lands.

Az was just finishing up his patrol when the howl at the border sounded. It was an unexpected and unfamiliar call, and while Azure took a moment to consider letting his father handle the appearance alone, he couldn't deny that he'd get there first already being so close. He called his bat in from the sky, sending Diablo out ahead to scout out who it was while he made his way to the border.

The wolf who had called them was vaguely familiar, though the memories he'd made during the Long Night were still hazy and with gaps. Eligos, the Aerie alpha. From what Azure was aware, the Armada and Aerie had some bad blood between them ever since the Armada had chosen them as a raiding target back when Az was still a child. While the Armada had been prepared for retaliation, none had ever arrived - was today the day that changed? For now he'd give the man the benefit of the doubt, after all he had earned some semblance of respect for choosing to attend their pack summit, where other leaders had deigned not to show their faces. "Eligos." He greeted. "My father will be with us shortly." While Azure wanted to be at his father's side to provide the titan some support, he was not stupid enough to think he could try and run the show.

"Speech"

This was rather unexpected. The call from a voice he never expected to hear at his borders. Except perhaps in revenge. The pack, unknown to him at the time, had turned out to be far smaller than he had expected. Ill prepared for a raid at their borders, and unforgiving of its event. He knew that raiding them had caused some anguish in Zee, who had faced some moral dilemmas with the event.

The man had turned up at the summit, much to his surprise. Now he was here, at the borders? The Warlord approached cautiously, wondering if this was an attack of some sort. If so, it was strange that he announced himself.

He found Azure already there, watching the Aerie Alpha. “Eligos, this is an unexpected surprise. What brings you to my borders?” He asked with soft caution.


"Sirius Fatalis"

Eligos just watched as the younger stranger approached him - a stranger, but not an unfamiliar scent. The other male spoke, and Eligos tilted his head in acknowledgement before asking, tone very mild, "I trust you grew out of your rebellious age and we need not expect to see you in our borders this time?" In anyone else the words may have been teasing; Eligos didn't tease. But beneath the mild, bland tone was a hint of a very dry, faintly annoyed amusement as he delicately showed his recognition of the once-boy who had shown up to harass Aerie well after the raid. He had seen him as well at the meeting Armada had requested with the other alphas, but had refrained from personal discussion there so had not actively spoken to him.

But he wasted little time on the bear-like young man, as the target of his call appeared shortly after, and Eligos turned his blank gaze to Sirius.

Not all that long ago Eligos would have had to look up, however slightly, to meet the eyes of the other alpha. Now their gazes were level. The other changes - the gold-wrapped black horns, the new markings, the rippling glow - had been visible at that alpha meeting, but Eligos had not been face to face like this with Sirius since around the time of the raid, and that single minor change... looking him straight in the eye... it was an entirely different feeling. He took a moment to absorb it, curious, before he spoke.

"Sirius," he began by way of greeting the other alpha, and immediately got into it, his neutral tone not changing. "I would have preferred our paths never crossed again, frankly. I find you to be an arrogant, childish, overbearing ass. I do not like you, I do not like your pack's policies, and I do not see what redeeming features you could possibly have to justify so many looking to you." This was all delivered with the same tone one might comment on the weather - it was what it was. "That said, my pack's needs come before my personal feelings. I am here because Aerie was meant to be neutral to all packs, and animosity between yours and mine has no benefit." Beyond a deep sense of personal satisfaction. "I am here to reiterate that Aerie has no interest in attacking the Armada outside of being specifically contracted to do so. And to make clear that your ploy to frighten us into leaving you alone was both unnecessary and a failure. We are not afraid of you. We never were."

He stopped to stare Sirius in the eye, fighting down his own personal animosity towards the other alpha. He hadn't come here intending to trade insults or to fight, but anger was a slippery thing and it kept getting away from him.

Eligos' comment did not strike recognition in Azure right away. He assumed it was a mention of the raid he'd assisted in, the one in which he'd taken toes from one of Eli's pack members as a child. His tone seemed more conversational then offended, and so Azure answered in kind with his own sort of annoyed amusement rather then defending his actions. "We'll see."

Sirius' arrival was swift and the Aerie alpha quickly diverted his attention. Azure fell into silence as the man spoke, a faint recognition beginning in the back of his mind as he went over Eligos' words to himself. Alarm shone briefly in his eyes and he snapped his gaze back to Eli, remembering suddenly his trespass upon the man's lands that day so long ago. It was not something he'd ever been forced to answer to when he arrived home, but he could not remember if it was because Sirius had not been told, or because his mother's capture came so quickly after.

Eligos' words were not as friendly as he'd have expected from a wolf looking to reduce his enemies, and had Azure not been near-paralyzed by the threat he'd likely had single-handedly destroyed any hope of neutrality here and now. This wolf came to their borders looking for some odd sort of peace, but delivered only insult. He swallowed his fierce rebuttal, glanced towards his father for subtle permission to speak, and then back to Eligos. "You must think we've grown soft." Azure began. "What do you hope to accomplish here, Eligos? You are asking for us to take a target off the back of your pack, but for what?" Aerie was tooth-and-claw for hire, unable even to offer immunity should the Armada stand aside. "We're well aware of your pack's 'neutrality' in Boreas, which to me means only that making an enemy of you will not offend our allies. Accepting your terms benefits us only in that we could choose to hire you should we find it necessary - and frankly, our army does not need your help." His massive head shook, displaying his disappointment clearly. "I can see the benefit in allies as much as the next wolf can, but you do not even offer us that - and you do not even offer nicely." Azure sighed, tearing his gaze from the black and gold alpha and regarding again his father. He would not speak for Sirius in this matter.

"Speech"

Eligos greeted him in turn. The Alpha had changed since they had crossed paths last. Gotten a little taller, gained a set of horns. The Warlord could almost believe he had come here to mend something. If he hadn’t opened with insults, derision, and contempt. Instead, it seemed the hatred from their raid had only grown. The raid in which The Warlord had kept careful control of his wolves, and the Aerie wolves had attempted to disfigure and maim them. Despite that, he had felt a little bad for picking their pack. They were smaller then he had realised, ill equipped to defend themselves.

He should have taken offence to the man's words, but he was still the same desperte man who’s pack had fought like the Warlord intended to take everything from him. The Warlord still didn’t know what he had come here to achieve. He offered nothing, reminding the Warlord that he was available to the highest bidder. Even if there was not bad blood between them, he would take a contract against the Armada if someone paid him. He was a man with no scruples. Had he come here for the ego boost? To lay into the Warlord with his bitter anger?

His son turned to him, and the Warlord nodded, interested to see how the hot headed youth dealt with this. Once, he would have been weary, certain he would have to hold Azure back. But his son had grown, especially now that he had children of his own. “The Champion and I are of the same mind on this.” Azure had said much of what he was already thinking.

"Sirius Fatalis"

Eligos turn his head just slightly towards the younger wolf. "I have given no terms," he refuted softly. "I have asked for nothing. Offered only honesty. You needed to know where we stand now, before anything else is done." he stood silently a moment to meet Sirius' eyes, then smiled.

It was a small smile, barely more than a curling of the corner of his mouth to flash the tip of a fang, but it was there. Almost a grin, for Eligos. A silent laugh at his own expense. "What I offer is this, in unbreakable Contract. I offer my personal services to you, Sirius, and to your pack, for the length of one season, as whatever you need - ditch digger, common laborer, hunter, or gopher, whatever as long as it brings no direct harm to Aerie or an Aerie member other than myself, to be treated in whatever manner Armada sees fit, with no retaliation from Aerie or from myself, in exchange for your agreement to leave Aerie strictly alone for a full year from the time of my death, word of which would be carried to you only by Cypher or Kida so you would know it to be legitimate, a truce that will be reciprocated by Aerie for said year. I am open to negotiation, but I am afraid I am unwilling to move the date of my death for you, as that belongs to another."

This time when Azure looked to him, Seer motioned for him to wait. Eligos had stopped the hate spiel and made a request that the Warlord found strange. A season of employment for a year of peace? So long as Aeries made no i'll move towards them, the Warlord was getting the better part of the deal. If indeed he found use for the man. He could use the manual labour on some projects he had jingling through his mind, but did he trust his enemies on his pack lands?

But all that aside, the offer was not the part that caught the Warlords attention. The Aeries leader spoke as if his death was all but a certainty. “Are you expecting your death, Eligos of Aerie?” he asked softly. There was still disdain between them, but the Warlord had a soft spot. A weakness for lost causes. None of that showed but for a farrowing of his brows in question. “Are you in need of my protection?” he asked, his voice still soft as he met the glowing gaze of the dark coated alpha.
"Sirius Fatalis"

Eligos continued, revealing that he'd left the best part out of his initial opening. Azure's brows raised in interest, but he said nothing while the wolf spoke. This was not an alpha who was coming to them for peace for his pack, it was a man on his last legs trying to make amends while he was still alive to make them. That fact had seemed to occur to his father as well, who'd took control of the conversation to ask point blank if Eli needed protecting. It was not a secret that the Armada warlord had a protective streak, and the habit to welcome wolves beneath his umbrella that had no business being there. Azure gritted his teeth in silence as his father spoke.

Blowing out a short breath from between his teeth, Azure ventured a question of his own. "Eligos, answer me truthfully. Should you work within our pack for a season you would undeniably discover more about the Armada then any non-Empire wolf has any right to know." He spared a glance at his father, hoping Sirius would share his thoughts on this and not allow his softness to control him outright. "What are your plans for if our enemies contract you to divulge that information, or hire your replacement a year from now to move against us using it? Do you understand my hesitance in allowing a mercenary pack to learn where our food is stored, how many capable fighters we have, how many children, how often our patrols are run?" Eligos' apparent approaching death meant next to nothing to the Champion, and while Az himself would appreciate the year of peace while his children grew strong, he could not risk it blowing back on them when Eligos was dead and gone.

"Speech"

Eligos blinked, the only sign of his disconcerted surprise at Sirius' question, then he laughed in a low rasp. "I know when I am to die, Sirius. I do not fear my fate nor will I run from it. When that moment comes I will meet Death's embrace and return gladly to the Fallen One's side. No, I do not need your protection. My purpose here is to simply guarantee my pack's safety and happiness after I am gone." Eligos so rarely actually spoke of his faith that it was easy to forget that he was, after all, a fanatic. A soft-spoken, thoughtful fanatic, but nonetheless, beneath the quiet matter-of-factness of which he spoke of it was the reminder that, ah yes this man is a leader in a cult, right.

The big bear-like son's words were more in the vein that he'd expected, and Eligos turned his attention to Azure with something like relief from the discomfort of Sirius Fatalis acting protectively towards him. "Frankly, that is information that could be obtained in far easier and less clumsy ways," he told him bluntly. "My pack's trade depends in large part upon information like that, it is true, but you mistake me if you believe that is not information we do not already have. Information that my successor would already have the option of exercising without a specific Contract in place to sway them against it." He shrugged impassively. "Armada is hardly the only pack I intend to make this offer to; if you truly have no interest in this Contract and that leaves only the Armada for Aerie to guard against after I am gone then so be it. I will have done what I could for them."

Azure was not appreciating the way this conversation had devolved. In fact it was surprising that the man’s words could get more offensive than the whole, ‘you’re an arrogant, childish asshole’ part he had opened with. The Champion’s muzzle wrinkled in a brief expression of his frustration, though he managed to rope his emotions back in before they encouraged him to do something he and Sirius might regret. Had the black and gold man had approached politely and amicably, offering the Armada a year of peace in return for an agreement that they uphold it from their end, Azure might have graciously accepted it. Instead they received lies and blackmail, as if the dying man thought he could still give off some semblance of intimidation. “You are not welcome in my pack lands.” He spoke, his words clipped. It crossed his mind that he might be overstepping in speaking out of turn, but Azure had never been good at diplomacy (or, frankly, obedience.) “However, if you can guarantee that your successor will honor this contract then I, at least, am able to be swayed.” He paused, allowing the words to hang in the air so that Eligos and his father might understand that he was not speaking for Sirius. “Aerie is not a threat to us as it currently stands and so I understand your offering of your own labor to sweeten the deal. While I will not allow you into my lands to spy - because you do not, and will not, in fact, have all the information there is to know about our pack - I will offer an alternative.” Azure kept his eyes upon Eligos, though the urge was strong to look to his father for approval. Sirius had trusted him with the promotion that he’d worked for his entire life, and if he saw issue with the way he handled things he could only hope his father would wait until Eligos was gone to reprimand him. “Bring your offer to the other packs, and should any of them accept it, return to us after your period of slavery is over and answer any questions of them that we may want to ask. This is the price for your mutual year of peace.” "Speech"

[/b][/color]

Eligos was attempting to push their buttons. Perhaps in the Warlord's younger days, it would have devolved into blows. Instead, the Armada leader watched, impassive. Knowing the opinion of this wolf meant nothing to him, and it offered an opportunity to see his son's mind at work.

As Azure suggested that Eligos use any intelligence he might gain entering other wolves' territories for the Armadas benefit, the Warlord hid a small smile. It highlighted the flaw in Eligo’s words that entering the Armada would not be to their detriment, and might offer interesting insights into the other packs. It was clever. “I agree. If you want a deal of peace between us, this is the cost. Once my word is given, I will not break it.” He said at last.

"Sirius Fatalis"

Eligos lifted his lip in a smile that was barely on the polite side of a sneer vs smile spectrum. "Boy, I would not need to put myself to so much trouble to simply spy on your pack. If it was more information I was after there are easier ways to obtain it than indenturing myself."

He couldn't help the sharp bark of a laugh that the boy's offer prompted, and Sirius' support for the ridiculous proposal. "No," he said flatly. "I take my contracts seriously. The integrity of my, and my pack's, adherence to that honor would be tarnished by selling out one client for another. I will not deliberately enter into a contract in bad faith. If that is your only offer than negotiations are pointless. Good day."

He turned to leave, his pelt prickling all over in disgust that anyone would consider his honor so cheaply bought. He would find some other way to protect his pack from the Armada after he was gone.

Very well. Eligos would not break face and offer to spy on their behalf. It served to make their point that the Armada would not suffer his pack crawling Armada borders. He could understand also that Eligos would not want to make that promise to them… so he could let Eligos walk away, or offer one final compromise.

He did not need to attack Aerie, and the raid on their pack was almost a mark of shame to Sirius. They had been far smaller than he had expected, and he knew that Zee in particular had been rather upset by the whole affair. Eligos did not need to know it, but even without this offer, they were safe from the Armada so long as they offered no threat to him and his.

Eligos turned to leave, taking a step away from them, and the Warlord raised his head higher. “A moment, if you would.” he said simply. “I have one last offer to make. We will keep your peace, if you and yours keep it. In return, I would ask that you fight in our defence at no cost if we called for you. Good for one event.” It was a token of an offer. He could gain some extra muscle in a fight if they happened to need it (though the Warlord could not see it being so) in return, he would keep the peace he already intended to. Of course, if it was a pack that Aeries was allies with that attacked them, it could be rather amusing to see Eligos come to their aid. It would also prove or disprove the integrity of his pack if they turned against the Armada after promising to defend them.

"Sirius Fatalis"