A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

During the entire speech, Victor became angrier by the second, and thoughts about welshing on his deal with Frostfang became more prominent. Assuming Frostfang would even still hand Emily and 'Elora' over to him.

Frostfang noticed, of course, but he didn't care. He had always been planning to send Viljar and his group along with Victor to ensure the deal was honored. It was a dangerous assignment, as Frostfang wasn't sure how the third-rank leaders of the council would react, but there was no one besides Viljar he trusted for this.

Finally, Erik's sales pitch, which is really what it was, came to a close. "But I believe the main reason the council is after us, is because Elora managed to disappear from their helicopter while in mid-air, despite the aetherium-blocking bracelet she was wearing at the time," he said while thumbing toward the fake Elora next to him.

Of course, the entire thing was for show, as Erik and Elora had no intention of giving themselves up to Frostfang and the Enclave. Right now, he just needed Frostfang to give up on his deal with the Council, so that Victor would make his next move, which would hopefully create enough chaos for Erik and the others to slip away.

Because of this, from the moment he started his sales pitch, he had started to subtly gather power and prepare, as the most dangerous part of Elora's plan was still to come.

Meanwhile, Astrid, who actually knew nothing about Elora's disappearing act, as Erik had never described it in detail to her, put on a smug expression when Erik mentioned it, thereby subtly continuing her portrayal of Elora.

Frostfang raised his eyebrows in surprise. While he had never heard of such a bracelet, he could guess at their effects from the name. Although, even if she hadn't been wearing such a thing, the mere feat of disappearing like that was already impressive.

Naturally, everyone else apart from Victor, who grumbled furiously instead, reacted in much the same way as Frostfang. No matter how Elora had managed to do such a thing, it was still impressive, and potentially very useful.

"Alright," Frostfang narrowed his eyes with interest. "Setting aside the abilities of Emily for a moment," he said, causing Emily to pout a little despite herself, "if you can tell me how Elora managed to do that, I will protect you from the council."

For some reason, Frostfang kept his attention on Erik, rather than simply asking the fake Elora next to him. Presumably, he assumed Elora wouldn't answer without Erik's permission, as he seemed like the leader of the group.

Erik scoffed and rolled his eyes inwardly at Frostfang's promise, however. 'How exactly is he going to protect us from the fourteen third-rank councilors that rule Europe?' he thought to himself. 'Our best defense is to stay on the move and leave for Africa as soon as we're finished here.'

Yet, he naturally didn't say those words out loud. Instead, he shrugged, "I don't mind telling you, but I'm afraid the knowledge is useless to you, or anyone else."

He thumbed towards 'Elora,' again, who still looked a little uncomfortable in her slightly transformed body, "You see, me and Elora share a special bond, and we can't be far apart from each other."

He pressed his thumb and index fingers together on both of his armored, claw-like gauntlets, hiding his transformed hands, and did a stretching motion with them. A small lightning link formed between his hands, which lengthened and stretched as he pulled his hands further apart.

"You can see it as an elastic band. Stretch it far enough, and…" he stretched his hands as far as he could with the lightning link between them and then released one end of it, causing the lightning band to snap together again. "She snaps back to me."

He waved his hands, causing the lightning link to disappear, and shrugged, "It happens immediately if we travel too far from each other, or after a certain amount of time if we don't see each other regularly."

That last part was actually a lie, but it seemed like a good safety net for the future.

"So you see," he explained as he looked at the surprised gazes of the people in front of him, "this information is useless to you, but now you see that giving Elora to the council while keeping me here is pointless. Elora will snap back to me anyway."

He looked Frostfang in the eyes with a curious intensity, "So, what will it be, Frostfang? Give me up to the council, disappoint my mother, and hope for the best regarding their support, or keep us all here and have our help with defeating the Dominion?"

Instead of Frostfang, it was Victor who was the first to respond with ridicule practically dripping from his voice. "Ha!" he barked a short laugh. "Do you really expect us to believe that drivel? Who do you think you are? Fated lovers in a romance novel?"

Frostfang also looked a little skeptical. His instincts told him Erik was telling the truth and he hated to agree with Victor, but it did sound a little far-fetched and awfully convenient.

Seeing their skepticism, Erik grinned slyly. "Well, you can choose to believe me or not, but think about this. No matter what, Elora disappeared from that helicopter, and what's to stop her from doing so again?" He turned towards Victor and continued, "Did you even make a plan for that?"

Victor was a little taken aback by that question. He had to admit that he hadn't really thought about it. This ability of Elora to simply disappear was so far-fetched that, even now, he didn't really believe it happened. All he thought about was the council's reward.

Erik turned back to Frostfang. "So let's assume you decide to call my bluff and send Elora to the council while keeping me here. You'll have earned our permanent ire, and we'll never willingly work for you, while Elora will simply disappear from the council's captivity. They'd have Emily, sure, but do you really think they'd still honor the deal?"

Emily was looking uncomfortable and anxious at this point. After all, she already had her fears that she would simply be sacrificed to the council, but one of the few things that kept her from going into full-blown paranoia was that the council apparently wanted Elora, too.

Only now she found out that Elora and Erik would snap back together, causing her anxiety and fear to rise by the second.

As if smelling her fear, Frostfang turned toward Victor with a thoughtful and complicated gaze. "What would you give me for Emily alone?"

"You can stop that right there," Erik answered as he waved his hand and shook his head. "It's all or nothing for our support. We are not commodities to be traded at will. If you force Emily away from us, you can forget about getting my and Elora's willing support."