Carlos took them to the table outside the hut instead of making them stand beside the portal.
Cosmic arrived with six stools, carrying two under each arm while a Lizardman brought the others. He placed one beside Carlos and sat down before Cedric could begin again.
"You spoke to each other first?" Carlos asked.
"Yes," Rhea answered. "We came together because we decided together. You can still ask us separately."
"I will."
Carlos opened the old subordination request. It was still a request he had never accepted, with the terms that had made him stop the first time.
He turned those toward the table.
"Read the part about your territories. Giving them up could be bad for your future. You won’t be independent Lords anymore. If you build something here, it will be under my authority. You need to understand that before the raid scares you into accepting."
Cedric rubbed his hands together beneath the table. He had dirt under his nails from the district, and Carlos remembered him standing there with blood running down his forehead.
"I have thought about it since you refused," Cedric said. "I thought about it when we saved the beds, and when you came back with Rowan. My parents asked what I had managed to build. I could barely answer them."
Carlos let him continue.
"We work hard, but we keep starting again from somewhere worse. Here, the work stays. You repair something and then use it for something better. I want to be part of that."
"And you trust me to keep doing it?"
"You and Cosmic, yes. Enough to try building a future with you instead of waiting to lose the one I can’t protect. I would rather survive with people I trust."
Cosmic stopped turning the edge of his order sheet.
Rhea pulled her stool closer. "My people come with me. That includes the ones who are bad at fighting. I won’t have them treated as useless because somebody else’s troops are stronger."
"You have seen my Farmers," Carlos said. "Do you think I would do that?"
"No. I still wanted to say it..." Rhea soon realized she was being bossy again when she did not have any strength or support. Her face went down in embarrassment.
"Then say it when you need to. You know me, we have been working together for a few months now."
Her shoulders lowered a little. Tomas had been reading the loss-of-authority line without joining in, and Carlos turned to him next.
"What about you?"
"I want my soldiers properly equipped," Tomas answered. "I have sent them out with damaged shields too many times. I know I won’t command your army. I want to know whether I can speak when something is wrong."
Carlos sighed. "Why do you think I will not let you speak your mind? You are lords for god’s sake. Have some confidence." He spoke, making Tomas look at him with awe and then nod. "Speak to Kaia about military as much as you want. If she gives you an order during a fight, follow it. Argue after we are alive to do it."
Tomas nodded right away. "I can follow that."
Milan leaned forward with his hands clasped tightly.
"Carlos... I know you have problems with having Goblins. But I can’t leave my troops behind... My Goblin comes too if I do. Please give me an answer."
Carlos looked at him and spoke, "Your bound troops are included in this assimilation. Though they will become mine instead. But don’t worry, if you and your troops had a good relationship from the get-go, not much will change. I can give you their command too if I think it’s right," he added.
Milan nodded and took a deep breath. He could look at all their faces; this was a very important decision that would affect their whole lives.
And it felt like a burden on Carlos’s shoulders too.
Carlos sighed. He had refused them before. There wasn’t much point blaming Evan for believing he might do it again.
"Also, the share we decided before will stay even now."
Rhea looked up at that. "R-Really???"
"Yes. Same bed, same work. I am not taking it back because you join me."
They read the complete terms with Cosmic beside them. He explained his own choice when Evan asked about the bridge, then pointed to the difference in their requests. His territory remained intact under Carlos. These five were choosing complete integration.
Carlos opened the raid warning before anyone confirmed.
"This part first. I inherit what comes with you. We need to see what that means tomorrow."
The System supplied the answer when he attached their five warnings to the proposed integration.
--
[Complete Territory Integration selected]
[Pending raid obligations detected: 5]
[Pending enemy forces will transfer to the receiving territory’s raid]
[Integration will not remove or reduce registered enemy forces]
[Combined attack will follow Ironroot’s current raid countdown]
[Review integrated territory layout before confirmation]
--
Tomas leaned over the record. "They all come here?"
"Yes," Carlos said. "We defend the land together."
He called Kaia over before deciding placement. They kept Cosmic’s eastern connection untouched and previewed the incoming land along Ironroot’s west. Their buildings and people would arrive on their own transferred plots, beyond the old western wall. That wall would become an inner defensive line until they could enclose the larger territory.
Kaia studied the new approach and asked for enough clear ground between the transferred buildings and her positions. Carlos adjusted the layout with her. No building was discarded because it looked worse than his own.
The five Lords returned home through their own access to gather their people. Carlos made them explain the permanent terms to everyone who could refuse. Meanwhile, Mira received the resident and food lists, and Cosmic checked which stored supplies would arrive with them.
It took most of the remaining evening. Carlos ate at the table while confirmations came through, waiting rather than accepting an incomplete transfer to finish sooner.
Cedric was ready first.
His personal confirmation appeared beside the gathered residents. Carlos accepted, and land joined beyond the western boundary with the low sound of moving earth. A damaged roof appeared behind a small fenced yard. Cedric stood in front of it with his Axemen, looking toward Ironroot’s lights.
Rhea came next, then Tomas. Milan waited until his Goblin had finished carrying the last loose tools inside the authority range. Evan’s confirmation arrived last, with his own acceptance written beneath the warning about permanence.
Carlos accepted every one himself.
--
[Permanent Assistant Lords registered]
[Cedric Vale]
[Rhea]
[Tomas]
[Milan]
[Evan]
[Independent territorial authority surrendered]
[Transferred land, buildings, residents and obligations integrated under Carlos Goldwin]
--
They met him at the old western gate after the last transfer. The strip beyond it was no longer empty ground at Ironroot’s edge. There were homes there, people looking through doorways and workers carrying things they had been afraid of losing.
"Come inside and eat," Carlos told them. "Show Mira who still needs food before anyone goes looking at the buildings."
Cedric looked back once, then came through beside him.
Carlos felt the weight of the decision then. He had five more people waiting for his orders and many more residents depending on whether those orders were good.
He looked at the combined raid warning.
"Bring Kaia the full warning," he told Cosmic. "I want to see what we have added before anyone goes to sleep."
His friend nodded and came beside him. Carlos kept looking toward the new homes while the record opened. He had accepted their people. Tomorrow, he was going to keep them.