NTR quest

NTR Quest 54 - Polite Decline

"As tempting as the offer is..." You trailed off as thoughts of desecrating either of the small 'wholesome' creatures before you filled your mind. They both looked to be in anticipation. Their wound together tails were wagging back and forth together in a vague show of tug-of-war and the woman especially leaned forward intently. You exhaled all of your bad thoughts and shook your head.
"No. You're both very nice, but I can't commit to anything like that right now." You had committed to being diplomatic with these people and you had no idea what the implications of fucking either of them would be in the long run. The safest thing was to decline.

They stared at each other in disappointment, then turned their resigned gazes upon you. "We understand." The Imp leader spoke first. His wife looked at him and he added.
"It's just that we probably can't make any special exceptions for someone that we aren't 'close' to."

You pinched the bridge of your nose in frustration. "Of course." A thought entered your mind as you reeled from the obvious answer; they wanted something from you and you did not offer it, in either sense. You thought to try and offer something else. You were not powerless. You had avenues open to you to try and mediate between the Kingdom and Demonkine. You had the 'Prince' after all.
"What if I could open up the free flow of goods back and forth between Demonkine and at the very least, one kingdom of Trysk?"

They gave that offer some thought. The wife broke her husband's meditation by whispering something into his ear. After that the man offered a light shrug.
"It doesn't make much of a difference except that, if more Pillars were on board we'd consider it. At the end of the day we got commitments to all of them, too. If we went back on those it'd seem like a betrayal."

"Reasonable. Alright. So it sounds like you're saying that if I can convince more Pillars you might go along with it."

The man nodded and said. "That's right on the-" He then turned to his wife and the two performed more Eskimo kisses in front of you. The oddly unsexual act somehow managed to be more disturbing than if they had just done something explicit, especially once you knew what they actually wanted beneath their chaste exteriors.

* *

Cerius abstained, which functionally felt as though it was a vote against. If it came down to it you could talk to him and you felt it might be fairly simple to convince him to stop the war. Next to him, however, was Rannighast. He was a curious case, as he seemed wise and had some connection to Jeane based on how he wanted to speak to her. You were curious about that, and his reasoning, so you chose to seek him out next.

The dark elf delegation was dressed similarly to Raithe when you first met her. Their clothes were leather or fine cloth tied together with thin vines. Their ash-colored skin was wound with jet-black tattoos of spiraling wood, roots or animals. Even if some of their attire was skimpy, the feel you got from them was quite the opposite. Their demeanor almost made it seem right; dignified, even. You could understand, however, how an observer would have gotten the impression that they were lustful. For you, with proper context, the impression was simply calmness and patience. They allowed you to enter into the sitting room that had been claimed while Rannighast was present for the meeting. There were rooms for all of the pillars and their delegations. The large Den beneath the broken World Tree served as a government building of sorts. Something crossed between a palace and a town hall.

The man was sitting with Jeane across from him. They were sharing a hot drink and talking up until you walked in. Despite your intrusion, Ran smiled as you entered and motioned next to Jeane.
"Please. Sit."

You nodded and graciously took a seat next to Jeane. She was your friend and perhaps something a bit more, so you did not mind at all.
"So-"

"I know why you came." Ran interrupted, wiping his lips after taking a sip from his tea. Despite being old, the man showed very little signs of aging. He was an adult in appearance, for sure, but not an old man by any means. IT gave you the idea that even dark elves could grow to full maturity at some point in their long lives. Jeane, as old as she was, still carried something of a youthful charm about her that gave you the impression she was a young adult like you.