"So tell me what you want."
Valttair looked at Roderic across the table. The mine had been laid out, the Meridian named, and Esmond had stripped the last of the value out of pretending this was still an exchange of suspicions.
"I do not want to destroy House Vaelion," Valttair said. "If that were my intention, I would not have brought you into a private room before the Council. A war between our families would kill far more than the people responsible for any of this, and even the winner would spend years paying for it."
Roderic's expression did not soften. "Then what you are offering me is an arrangement."
"It can become an arrangement, provided we leave this room with an understanding both Houses can actually keep."
"Then give me the whole of it. I am not going to agree to your first condition and discover afterward that you attached three more I would never accept."
