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"Oh, not this again," said the man in bed, also in Valgan. "I told you before: they can't be trusted. Negotiating with them is pointless. As soon as they have our confidence, they will betray us in order to attack Abolish. This much should be obvious."

"Ritter, just listen to me for a minute, will you? My contact is reliable. She wouldn't bring me this if it wasn't worth our time."

The man sighed but didn't argue further.

"They're saying they can get Graves to pull his forces out of Ridgemark in exchange for a simple prisoner transfer."

Raul blinked. Whoa. That was massively valuable intel, if true. It didn't sound like this Ritter fellow was going to go for it, though.

"Absurd. They expect us to believe that they would leave Vantalay entirely for the return of a few of their prisoners? Do we even have any of their men?"

"Ah, no, it would not be that kind of exchange, actually."

"Hmm? What kind would it be, then?"

"They don't want prisoners of ours. They want to hand some of theirs over to us for safekeeping."

"What? Why?"

"They're having operational difficulties, at the moment. Their forces are spread thin all over the continent. They're trying to free up manpower, no doubt. This would eliminate two birds with one stone. They could pull their troops out of Vantalay and also retask those prison guards as soldiers."

"Hrm."

"It's a great deal for us, Ritter. We should take it before they change their mind."

"So eager. You truly have no reservations about it? It's highly irregular. Why would they trust us to look after their prisoners? Why not one of their allies?"

"Because they're afraid their allies might release them. And perhaps make it look like an accident, afterwards."

"Why would they do that? Who are these prisoners?"

"The Rainlords of Sair."