The council had warned, of course, against acting with so much haste so soon. Their eastern border had always been a place of considerable tension, long before Aike Jadon had ever been born. That there was a sudden request from the Taluvan chief to meet, so quickly after the Proving, was suspicious at best. At the council meeting, around candles burned down so low they barely provided light enough to illuminate the faces of the nine gathered there, there had been talk of patience. Patience, patience. It was the wiser choice, of course. Cortla had not survived as well as it had without Grandmother's first lesson.
However, that didn't make it the correct choice. After all, Cortla and Talu had been skirting each other for so long that no one living remembered otherwise.
"++Perhaps," Aike had said, voice rough from lack of sleep and hours of speaking, "Talu has been patient quite long enough.++"
In the end, it wasn't the council's decision. Newly Governor, it was Aike's duty and responsibility to make decisions on their own. They had completed the trials, had proven themself capable, and if that was no longer good enough to decide Cortla's leadership, well... That was an entirely separate problem, Aike supposed. But not a problem they had to contend with. They had heard the council's advice, and the council in turn trusted their choice.
"++The thread is steady,++" the Webwalkers had said in their cryptic way. All the blessing Aike would ever have needed.
If they were to be completely honest, the chance to step out of the city was a welcome one. They had been inside the cliffs for several months now, ever since they had put their name in to be considered for the position of Governor. For a trapdoor, a few months had felt like an eternity, with longer months still ahead of them. They certainly did not complain about the opportunity to stretch their legs and feel the sun on their skin from morning to night again.
With the whole of their former squadron beside them, it was as if they had never been inside Skythread City at all. It was easy to fall back into the habits that had kept them alive so well for the last fourteen years. Stepping lightly, following the hidden trails, catching their food from traps sprung on unsuspecting beasts. Moving in the calm of twilight and preserving their energy at midnight and midday. Each one of their guard was fully armored from neck to toe, their hair pulled back into tight buns. Only Aike still wore their hair loose. They had insisted against paint, as well. A very small but pointed gesture that Cortla was not there to start a fight.
It was high noon by the time they arrived at the designated meeting place. They had seen the Taluvans from a distance, of course, standing stock still as if they were made of the mountains themselves. There was at least a dozen, as far as Aike could see, but there was Talu's own small pointed gesture:
Aike could see them.
"++It seems," they commented quietly as they and their eight companions grew ever closer to the figures waiting on the horizon, "I will not be feeding Grandmother today.++"
"++It's only noon,++" Sikke quipped from their left side, and Aike had to smile in amusement.
"++It's only noon.++" They echoed in agreement, before the whole group fell silent for the remaining distance between them and Talu. Upon reaching the hide blanket, they fanned out, four trapdoor soldiers on either side of Aike, who took a step forward and clasped their hands behind their back. They stared across the blanket at those gathered on Talu's side: masked, silent, still. Aike had dealt with the owl warriors before, of course, but this fact did not make the moment any less tense. They were just men, after all, underneath the masks, not demons.
Men sometimes were worse.
"Greetings." They spoke loud and steady, careful to be heard well enough over the wind, and also to prove they were not shaking in their boots. "I am Aike Jadon, Governor of Cortla. I am here to speak with Chief Atsida the Great Horned Owl. I and my companions have food and water to share, and certainly will not complain about a chance to rest our legs."