Half the time when Selena was with Prince Virion it was interesting just seeing how he handled the work of administering to his province. He was an administrator first and foremost. As well he was a numbers driven man. Economics, development projects, infrastructure building. All things Selena had never known as being so important. In this respect he really was a good choice for a governor of a province. Albar had been rendered very ruined from war after all, so Lyssia has a province needed quite the mind behind it. 

She was perched upon his shoulder as she watched him administer to matters from his throne. As he understood it the people that came before him were essentially regional officials he assigned and granted land grants. They would eventually found noble houses once the province was finally established fully. It was a system where he assigned those most competent to try and carry out the rebuilding effort, they in turn were incentivized to do well as these lands would become the homes of their dynasties. It was unique. 

“...Should have been sent out a week earlier. I’ve heard you’ve been hesitant to use the humans in your territory. I didn’t leave them at a decent scale for kindness, many of them know the land and routes better than we do. Use them. Not using them is akin to writing with your finger as opposed to a pen because you don’t like the color of the plume!” He said to the latest official. 

The official dipped into a low bow. “Of course your grace! I will make proper use of the tools you’ve given.” 

The prince waved a hand. “See that you don’t overwork them, we aren’t in a position where we can afford needless waste.” He said as the elf departed from his sight. 

His servant Rytha came up beside him and offered him a scroll as the next elf stepped up. A well dressed woman about a head taller than the prince. “Hmm… rebel activity. Not unexpected. I can’t approve these levels of troop deployments however. They are needed at the border with the Grand Duchy.” 

“But your grace, they are disrupting internal supply!” The woman said. “If you gave just a small force we could crush them and make an example.” 

“More likely they would lure us out into the wilds and countryside where they have the advantage. Still, something does need to be done I agree. Our moves will be two fold. We will shift the supply chains. As well let it be filtered out that any that lay down arms will be granted a pardon by the Governor for their actions and allowed to work.” He said. 

“Your grace, that simply rewards misdeeds-!” 

“Fool, their main source of resources comes from raiding those routes. By shifting them where they are not we can draw them closer to the border if they continue to resist. As well, when faced with starvation and being able to survive it's likely some will find their hunger overrides their misguided patriotism. We won’t catch all the flies with honey, but enough to lighten our problems.” Virion said as he handed the scroll back to Rytha. 

The elven woman frowned but nodded her head. “Of course, your grace.” 

It was never ending when he held the audience. If it wasn’t officials like this, it was the occupation forces. If not them it was the mages that were building out the gate system in Lyssia. If not them it was the humans he had allowed to serve as elected members of their peers to bring concerns directly to him. Every day he sat upon the throne of Lyssia and actively worked on the affairs of his personal kingdom on the edge of the Empire. It was quite exhausting just being with him during it all. Her father the Emperor had a lot of advisors he delegated most affairs like this to. Prince Virion was very hands on in his rule. 

Eventually Rytha came up next to him and whispered in his ear. Thanks to Selena’s position she could hear her voice. “The appointment from Nura has arrived, your grace.” She said. 

“Hmm? Good. Send for them to enter.” He said. 

“Nura?” She asked aloud. 

“Strange bedfellows and all that, princess.” The man muttered to her. 

The Republic of Nura was well known for being an isolationist nation that made a good deal of coin by renting out a rather impressive mercenary arm of its country for the infighting of the countries on the continent. In recent years they were used by desperate nations to avoid being crushed under Elsiran heel but even they weren’t enough to stop the march of the army of the elven Empire. 

The doors of the audience chamber opened and in stepped a woman dressed in a very rough looking uniform of blue and gold. Her boots clacked upon the ground and she ignored whatever glares were sent her way by the elves around her. She was middle aged by the looks of her, her coat fluttering behind her as it hung off her shoulders. Her dark hair was wild behind her, flecks of grey to be seen peppering it. One of her eyes was gone, replaced inside by a strange mental and glass replacement that looked more like an artful eyepiece than anything else. She was more handsome as opposed to classically beautiful. Tall for a human woman at six foot flat, but absolutely dwarfed by most of the elves. 

“Hail, Prince Virion of Elsira, prettier than all maidens of Nura truly. Certainly prettier than me by much.” Her Elven was very thickly accented, but understandable. She bowed at the waist in an overly exaggerated manner. 

Selena tensed as the hostility the elves in the room were shooting the woman could have melted a lesser. Many of these elves could probably have rendered the woman Selena’s size and no doubt many of them ached to do so. Virion leaned forward however, causing Selena to grip onto loose strands of his dark hair for support as the ground beneath her shook. 

“Saying an elf is prettier than all humans is a backhanded insult really back home.” He remarked. “Not that you’d know that miss…”

“Colonel Adalina Vitarez at your service, leader of the Iron Hand Mercenaries. When your letter reached the Ministry of Commercial Affairs I’ll admit I found myself intrigued. Same cannot be said for my peers.” She laughed. It was a very easy going kind of sound. 

“Well, I thank you nonetheless. My letter lined out pretty much everything I’m looking for. A temporary mercenary force to shore up Lyssia’s defenses to the south. Free up my resources a bit.” Virion said. 

“Mmyes, it lined that out fairly clearly. Lyssia is it? My how quickly the name Albar vanishes from history. Just as Latria before it did as well. And no doubt many more.” She remarked. 

“History is written by the victors so they say.” The prince shrugged. 

“What a very dull history no? One has to wonder if humanity and this whole war will just be a footnote. Ah well. Sounds like not my concern. What is my concern is I have no wish to be shrunken and turned into a little toy. Neither do my men. A tiny mercenary army at your lovely feet might be arousing I’m sure, but rather a waste of coin and time yes?” Adalina remarked. 

It was interesting to see how much the elves bristled at the idea of a human being able to talk so casually to the prince. There was a marked lack of care for decorum and courtroom proceedings from the woman. However looking up she saw the curling lips of her giant captor who let out a little chuckle. It was probably refreshing to him, as she understood it his dealings with humans prior to coming to Albar- Lyssia were rather limited to broken slaves. 

“Agreed. I don’t have such a wealth of resources to waste on a vanity project like that. So I wouldn’t worry about that. I wish to hire you for your military expertise. Not as toys. Would be hard to do if you were reduced.” He said. 

“As I hear it, Lyssia has more humans almost people sized. Curious. Was the whole reason I came here. Wanted to get the measure of the man we’ve been hearing about for the past months. Have to say, you don’t disappoint in presentation at the very least. Though I have to remark, odd to use humans as your guard dogs against other humans. Why would I not simply take a counter offer from your enemies?” She asked with a lifted brow. 

The hostility from the other elves in the room increased quite a bit at that. As Selena understood it, from their perspective, Adalina should have been honored that Virion recognized her as being anything other than dirt under his sandal. So all of this was seen as an extremely high insult. Not that Virion again seemed to care over much. Instead he leaned back and started weaving a few fingers through his dark hair. Specifically the strands that Selena was on. 

Selena let out a squeak as the massive digits curled around the strands she was wrapped up in, binding her and tying her like thick black ropes. She was getting tangled up in the silky smooth strands and buried inside of the thick forest of his flawless hair. She felt a shimmer of magic come over her. A protective spell to keep her from being crushed. She puffed out her cheeks at the rather casual domination as he toyed with his hair and her without much concern. 

“I would think you would prefer to have someone like me in the region, actually.” Virion remarked. “My hand with humans is much more practical than many of my fellows. Humans have their uses beyond mere playthings to me. We’ve already accomplished a much quicker reconstruction with added human labor, so there is that fact. However for the sake of argument let's play that out. Lets say you do help the other side. I’m dead or captured, Albar restored possibly as a puppet state under the Grand Duchy. What do you think happens after a prince of the Empire is killed or taken prisoner?” 

Adalina smirked a bit. “Very logical, but has it occurred to you that humans don’t operate on logic, beautiful prince? Most often it's feelings that guide humans. Emotions. What you are playing out is objective fact but you fail to understand the fundamental human resistance against that. It's not a positive quality I’ll grant you, but if you hope to deal with humans more, you should come to understand that more I’d think. Just advice from a woman who’s dealt with many people over her lifetime.” 

“Even in the face of the inevitable, fight on eh?” Virion mused. “There is some merit in that but there comes a time where things are beyond inevitable.” 

His finger continued to toy with Selena and she was finding it harder and harder to focus on the conversation that the two were having. She was tied and tangled and wrapped up in silken strands at all angles. It was rather like being trapped in a spiders web almost. Eventually he stopped fiddling with his hair and removed his hand. It did little good to free Selena however as she was still very much tangled and not getting free from the thick strands. The two continued their conversation beyond. 

“Aye, we of Nura particularly have had vested interest in learning about your people. Our forces have clashed a few times indirectly through outfits like mine. Enough for me to know that, yes, it's inevitable what you say comes to pass if you die. So fair point, I think I would rather get paid by you than potentially on the other side of the blade of whatever army would come after looking for blood. Better to be at the hand of the devil than under his rather large step. I’ll have my quartermaster send over our contract and terms. The coin I suspect you won’t have a problem meeting. Do note however my men won’t answer to elves, only to me. I’ll in turn answer to you. No reductions either, makes fighting harder. A fair arrangement I think.” She said with a nod. “In return you get five thousand soldiers, one hundred landships, one hundred mobile armor units, and a few detachments of artillery.” 

The man nodded. “Excellent. I’ll look forward to seeing you at work. As soon as the contract is drafted, have it sent to me and we’ll make it official. Until then consider yourself my guest.”

With that Selena felt a slackening in his hair as he let it down… only to let out a little cry as he gathered it back up. Including the strands with her in it. He schooled it into his normal ponytail and bound it with his hair piece, trapping Selena in a mass of hair. Part of her wondered if he actually was still aware she was here and that gripped her heart with fear. However the next words he spoke dashed those concerns. 

“Rather a royal headpiece wouldn’t you say, princess?” 

What a jerk.