Sitting below, Kallen looked at Derius, who sat in the middle of the negotiating table on one side above him. Images surfaced in his mind of Derius clutching his father, Bishop Byrne, by the collar and demanding how he dared question his loyalty to Order, and of him clinging to a wall, tormented by the Space Worm inside him.
For a moment, Kallen could not tell which was the real him.
Perhaps the higher-ups of the Order God Church could not be certain either. Otherwise, they would not have deliberately drugged him.
Xidi had received the wrong coordinates, but who had supplied those incorrect coordinates?
Kallen curved his back a little, settling into a more comfortable position in his chair. Fortunately, he did not really need to think about it or make any decisions himself. He was not a member of the Seventh Knight Order, after all, nor was he the one trapped in that space, so he could set aside all anxiety and worry and simply enjoy this confrontation.
This was far more exciting than a play. After all, plays still needed scripts, whereas reality often ran naked.
Sure enough, after another brief silence on both sides, negotiations resumed.
But today's negotiations had lost much of yesterday's hostility. Everyone truly began bargaining over the terms one by one, working through each seriously. It lacked yesterday's excitement, but the level of professionalism had risen considerably.
It was even somewhat hard to imagine what these professionals had been thinking yesterday as they forced themselves to argue, spray spit, and roll up their sleeves.
This, however, made things miserable for Peige and Fanny. They truly disliked this solemn, rigorous atmosphere, and before long, they began dozing again.
Kallen took out the notebook he had brought, writing and drawing in it from time