A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Hearing Nasir's question, Erik shrugged and looked at Zahra with a smirk. "You want to tell them, or should I?"

Zahra shot him a hateful glare, but Erik also saw the confusion at his willingness to reveal the sigil. She had a good reason to keep it hidden, but why didn't he? Wouldn't it be a trump card if he left it a secret?

Erik, however, didn't care about that. He shook his head and chuckled. "Don't look at me like that, Zahra. I don't need to keep this a secret, and it's better for the trust between you three if you're open about this. I need you three to keep working as a unified front, after all. Alone, you'll fall to the hunters far too quickly."

"Enough!" Nasir growled, turned to narrow his eyes at Zahra. "I've always liked you, Zahra, and I appreciate our alliance. Despite technically having a serious advantage over myself and Zohran, you've always treated us as equals. But I can't turn my back to anyone who keeps something like this to themselves!"

Zohran, previously not as bothered as Nasir, now also looked at Zahra glumly.

Meanwhile, Erik wondered what advantage she had, but knew he wouldn't get an answer to such a question. Instead, he simply filed that information away for later.

The Arcanist felt the weight of their gazes and unwillingly cursed under her breath. She knew she had no choice now, but she hated looking weak. Ever since their first attempt to kill Erik, she felt like her pride was constantly being trampled on.

"Fine!" she eventually snarled, and glanced away shamefully, arms crossed across her chest as she stood on the other side of the large, triangle shaped table in this awe-inspiring desert-kingdom hall.

"He—" she began, but stammered a little, her voice wavering. She quickly steadied herself and rediscovered her defiance as she spat the words out. "When I couldn't teleport from that brute woman's frickin grip, exhausted as I was, he forced a sigil on my back… He can cut me off from my aetherium storage whenever he wants…"

She looked back at her allies with genuine regret. "I… I'm useless in any fight against him… I'm sorry."

Nasir and Zohran looked both shocked and furious at Erik, but before they could respond, Erik chuckled. "Correction: you're powerless in any fight I don't want you to be in. From now on, you only wield your power when I allow it."

Zahra looked miserable, Nasir stared at Erik even colder than before, and Zohran snarled as he hefted one of his sabres at him. "Remove it, now!" he growled demandingly.

It looked like they actually cared about Zahra, which surprised Erik a little, as they styled themselves as independent warlords in an alliance.

Meanwhile, he cocked an eyebrow and looked at the werejackal with mockery and amusement, not even deigning to give an answer. They had no leverage to demand anything from him.

Astrid, however, did answer. "Don't embarrass yourself," she snickered. "I very much doubt you can even get past me, let alone demand anything of my husband."

As soon as she mentioned getting past her, Zohran's eyes flashed and he changed the target of his swords to Astrid. "The bet!" he grunted. "You talked about a duel between me and her! If I win, you'll remove the sigil!"

Erik appeared interested, nodding slightly and smiling slyly. "Alright… that's not a bad choice, but are you sure you don't want me to unconditionally help protect this place from the hunters? Or promise never to subjugate Maghreb by force?"

Zohran was a little taken aback, not having expected Erik to offer such options. Cautiously, he looked over at his two companions.

Before they could offer their opinions, however, Erik continued, smirking cunningly. "Of course, since it's a bet, any demand you make on Astrid's loss should be equivalent to the demand we'll make on her victory."

"For example," he continued, pointing at Zohran. "If you want me to remove the sigil on Zahra's back on your victory, then I want to place the same sigil on your back as well if Astrid wins."

He lowered his finger again and nonchalantly placed his hands in his pockets again. "As for the demands I just suggested, the equivalent of them would have to be the immediate surrender of Maghreb to my rule."

Immediate aversion became apparent as the trio glowered at both of Erik's suggestions. Still, Erik simply shrugged calmly. "We can also call the bet off, or you can come up with something else you'll give us if she loses, but it'll have to be really good…"

By now, Erik realised he might have to resolve this duel thing before he gets to his real reason for coming there. Especially because that reason would become meaningless if this duel ends in Maghreb's immediate surrender…

The trio took their eyes off Erik and turned to each other. They remained silent for a moment, and Erik waited patiently.

Zohran spoke first, hesitantly, "We do have tha—"

"No!" Nasir and Zahra both rejected immediately, speaking at the same time as they cautiously glanced at Erik.

Erik naturally realised they had something valuable that they didn't want to reveal, but he simply smiled and didn't bother asking anything. He'd discover everything easily enough after subjugating them.

Truthfully, it didn't even matter if Astrid lost. Even if her loss would close off one path to subjugating this place, it would still leave the other. As for removing Zahra's sigil, that was fine, too. It was meant as a punishment, not anything tactically important.

Of course, having tasted Zohran's strength, he was pretty confident Astrid would win.

After rejecting Zohran's suggestion, Zahra looked at the werejackal cautiously. "Not to doubt your strength, Zohran, but I don't think we should bet on Maghreb's freedom."

Nasir immediately nodded, frowning coldly.

"On the other hand," she continued, a little wryly. "I don't think getting rid of this sigil is worth risking the same thing happening to you. It's really not pleasant, and honestly… with two of us unable to resist him, we might as well hand our land over to him."

She glanced at Erik and Astrid. "It might be worth simply calling the bet off…"