Jon Bane and The Blade of Heptaseas

Chapter 4: The Treaty of Tubalcain

Elder Lun stopped for a moment and looked at the sky. After a few seconds, he continued his narration: "After a few days, each elder of the respective clans who have participated in the war received a letter of invitation from the Tubalcain Clan, stating that a meeting will be held in his place. The elder of that clan was Heptaseas; he is well respected and feared by the elders of other clans because he is considered the strongest amongst the elders. Obviously, we accepted the invite of Heptaseas treaty of peace. Nine out of the 13 clans signed the treaty, and the clans of the shapeshifters did not sign the treaty, which is the reason why we treat them as an enemy."

"Who are those shapeshifters?" Cora asked Elder Lun.

"There are four shapeshifting clans in this land, the werewolves of the Roger Clan and the Mulawins of the Kaja Clan in the north, and the Golems of Uranus Clan and the Orcs of the Balmond Clan in the south," Elder Lun explained.

Jon Bane, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly raised his voice to join the conversation. "Based on your story, not a single clan declined the invitation. Is Heptaseas really that powerful to be feared by all the elders? I mean, as far as I know, their clan has no special skills and is labeled as a black level clan. Yes, they're good at manufacturing weapons but those weapons are pretty much useless compared to the other clans who have special skills, most notably the Bolo Clan."

To avoid addressing Jon Bane's question, Elder Lun looked up at the sky and used it as an excuse, saying, "It's getting dark already. You should rest now and stay for the night, and continue your journey tomorrow morning."

Cora Strygwyr was asked by Elder Lun to escort their visitors to one of their cottage houses. Rica, on the other hand, requested another cottage to remain in because, clearly, she cannot spend the night with Jon Bane. Cora rolled her eyes at Rica but still gave her what she wanted.

After settling within their respective cottages, Jon Bane emerged from his. He opted to sit in one of the enormous roots of a tree to think about his future plans after successfully fulfilling Elder Chou's favor.

Meanwhile, Cora noticed Jon Bane sitting outside and decided to go check on him. "Hey, it's already late; why are you still outside? You need to get up early tomorrow to continue your journey to the city."

She politely inquired, but Jon Bane disregarded her, which enraged Cora. "Look, I know you're about more or less ten years older than me, but that doesn't mean you can just ignore me; we want every visitor to be safe while they're here in our clan, so please go back inside your cottage now."

"I can take care of myself; you should return to your own cottage," Jon Bane said calmly.

While she was planning how to entice Jon Bane to enter the cottage, she became aware that people were approaching them. She recognized the stench as not belonging to the Warwick Clan. She then informed Jon Bane that there are numerous persons hidden behind a massive boulder 20 meters away. Cora was going to notify the others when she noticed Jon Bane dash to the place she had earlier indicated. Instead of returning to the cottages, she decided to pursue Jon Bane. She saw Jon Bane clutching one of the intruders in his neck, hoisting him up while the others begged him to set their comrade down.

Not far away, a patrolling Warwick clan spearman noticed the ruckus at the back of the enormous rock.

When he saw the commotion, the spearman yelled. "Do not harm them; they are Tubalcain Clan members!"

"So you're saying members of that clan are allowed to roam around in your territory?" Jon Bane asked the spearman, keeping his grasp on the man's neck firm.

"Look, one of the provisions of the treaty allows the Tubalcain Clan to loot any kind of metal, ore, minerals, or even herb inside the clans who signed the treaty, and in exchange, they will manufacture any kind of armors and weapons for us," the spearman explained.

Jon Bane was confused by what he heard, but he finally let go of the man. "What? If that's true, why haven't I seen them roaming around Bolo Mountain?"

One of the members of Tubalcain replied. "Well, according to our elder, we don't need to loot the Bolo land. We just need to send them a request, and they'll send it to us immediately."

The spearman noticed that the looters had reached their clan's citadel, which was unusual for them since the farthest they could loot was at the boundary of their mountain. "Wait, most of you guys loot at the boundary of our mountain? How come you came all the way down in our citadel? Are the resources scarce in our boundary?"

"No, no, there are plenty of resources within your boundary; it's just that we're looking for an extremely rare herb called Bloody Mary; according to our elder, that herb can only be found in your land, but we haven't found it yet," one of the looters responded.

Cora heard him. "We have plenty of Bloody Mary in our storage, but my mom was in charge of that storage, and she's fast asleep right now, so you can come back tomorrow morning when she wakes up."

"That was such a relief! Thank you very much for helping us. I guess we'll just have to wait until the sun rises." One of the members of the Tubalcain excitedly replied.

After the whole commotion, Cora and Jon Bane came back to their cottages and went to sleep.