As Kao and the others approached our ship, which by now had a few gangplanks placed to the dock, I called out to them with a simple, "It's been a while." My appearance had changed quite a bit since I last talked with Kao so I was thankful that Shasta was among those accompanying him and was able to vouch for me.

  Much of Kao's normal liveliness was gone as he responded, "It does feel like a long time has passed with all that has happened, though in reality it hasn't been that long." From the boat's deck to the dock, I could tell that he was quite stressed. Not just mentally, but physically as well. His movements were stiff but well hidden, which I imagine has come with a lot of practice. I don't know just how much fighting he's been doing, nor do I know how close the enemy is to this location, but regardless, he's either been doing a lot of physical work or he's much older than I thought.

  I figured I'd simply jump into things, given how both of us historically appreciated straightforward discussion, "As you can imagine, given the nature of the situation, I don't feel particularly comfortable allowing dozens of unknown individuals onto our ship. We can either discuss matters somewhere of your choosing, or I can allow you and Shasta aboard. I'm sure the feeling of distrust is mutual for most of us, though I am here to discuss assistance." I finish while gesturing to the handful of humans and dwarves that I don't recognize.

  There was some amount of murmuring going on among the others on the dock at this point, from the sounds of things, much of it was translation work. After a few moments, Kao released some of the tension he was holding and his shoulders loosened, though many around him were still looking on with quite a bit of skepticism as he started talking. "That puts us in something of an awkward position, but a manageable one. People will panic if they see a bunch of demons walking about in the city, but I'm sure you also wouldn't want to be moving alone, surrounded by people you don't trust, the same goes the other way around. Give us a few hours, we'll get that warehouse set up as an impromptu meeting area."

  I looked where Kao was pointing at and saw the warehouse at the end of the dock we were on. "That seems reasonable enough. We may as well both feel a little uneasy, rather than either one party feeling put out. While some of the goods we've brought will be discussed later, I've got a decent amount of salt with us. Let's say that half of it can be taken as an initial show of goodwill. We'll unload the crates to the dock for you, and you can haul it where you want from there."

  Kao merely nodded in agreement as they turned to walk back to the shoreline. We'd previously planned on negotiations related to all the goods we had aboard, but considering the amount of effort it took previous merchants to actually make it to our island, and the amount of facilitation that Kao had done to make that work, I wanted to give him some amount of help with no strings attached since it was clear he was carrying an immense burden.

  Regardless of how I feel about Kao, I still wanted to have some of my own assurances. Before I even started the crew moving half the salt out from one of the cargo holds, I had the two turrets at the front of the ship rotate to aim at the warehouse. The rear turret, while unable to aim at the warehouse properly, was still rotated partially to allow it to be used if a hasty retreat would end up being necessary. If push came to shove, as long as we are able to make it out of the fjord and into the pass, we should easily outrun any boat that would attempt to follow us back out to sea.

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  It was quite a few hours after sunset when the meeting began. The dwarves had done a pretty good job of making the warehouse into a pretty nice meeting place. On one end of a large table, Kao sat, I was placed at the other end. Along one side of the table seven other dwarves sat, and along the other side of the table, five humans were present. Everyone except for Kao had some form of aide assisting them. Interestingly, Kao had Shasta stand next to me to function as a translator, which was probably to help the overall image of the situation, showing that despite my appearance, I can get along with humanoids.

  It was quite the lopsided visual in retrospect. Even while seated I looked down on all the other individuals who were seated, though one of the humans was very close in height. If you asked me to pick who was in charge from a picture of the situation, I'd be hard pressed to pick someone. Though it was clear that Kao was in charge to everyone present. He's always been quite good at steering the conversation preemptively, and this is no exception. Despite the fact that walls were put up to make the room seem more official, one section of temporary wall was strategically left open to not only allow us all to enter, but also, left in plain sight through the gap were the crates holding the 50 tons of salt we'd donated marked with our insignia.

  Kao, being the host, started the conversation, "I'd like to welcome Zack as representative of Kembora to Ostark. While this is technically against the current laws of Korask, our nation, I doubt anyone here will object." Kao paused to allow any objections, to which there were none.

  "To even call our country Korask when we haven't had control of the namesake city for almost a year, nor heard from the royal family in at least half as long is pointless. Choose another name already, you're the de facto leader of what's left anyway." A different dwarf at the table chimed in. He looked somewhat familiar. In fact, many of the other dwarves at the table looked familiar.

  "Yes, well, I'd rather wait until after the war before we consider anything like that. If the royal family has survived in some locked off bastion in the mountains, I'd just as well restore things to how they were before." Kao began, "In any case, as there weren't any objections. I'd like to open with a brief thank you for not only rescuing the dwarves that had been stranded and taking care of them, but also going beyond that to provide transport to allow them to return. To then also provide us with a generous donation of salt, which will be invaluable as part of the war effort, is almost too much. If things weren't as dire as they are, I'd turn down the gift, but we're in no real position to do so. As such, I'll be blunt. Why exactly are you here? We've worked together in the past, and while you're generous, you're also enterprising. While small gifts aren't out of the question, you aren't the type to work in exchange for the vagueties of a favor."

  Kao's statement was not only accurate, but did a good job of framing the situation to the others present. It even plays into the "Making a deal with a demon" turn of phrase that had taken root in the dwarven language. Since they're already in a conflict, the negative connotation of being dragged into a conflict makes it a little funny. Though perhaps the fact the crystals I sold broke after causing a civil war has given it an even darker meaning than it had when I last heard it, so it might just be coincidental. In any case, it set the frame of the meeting to be a transactional discussion, no doubt informed by the fact that I'd already negotiated with Shasta prior to this. The real question from there was how I would decide to present myself to the rest of the table, and perhaps even to Kao given how long it's been.