"That great matter is our Sacred Order. Mr. Vance, you took this tournament by your own strength, so your gifts and talents are naturally of the very first rank; and the great matter I speak of is a sincere invitation for you to join our Sacred Order."
Elder Vayne brought out this "great matter" of his, and held out an olive branch.
If the man under him could not take the title, then bringing the man who had taken it onto the team would come to the same thing, would it not?
There seemed to be nothing wrong with the reasoning. So long as it came to much the same effect it would serve; it was a way of repairing the damage.
And this champion's origins were plain and simple enough, with no very great family interest or League connection standing behind him.
He was an excellent man for their Sacred Order to draw in.
Taken all together, so long as they got hold of this one, whatever they did would be right.
"I'm sorry. I have no interest in your organisation."
Vance shook his head as he answered, refusing the offer in front of him flatly.
He had only just made his first entry into the League's system; if he were to join this Sacred Order on top of it, would that not do him harm?
"Perhaps you know very little of our Sacred Order, Mr. Vance. Allow me to tell you something about it. Our Sacred Order is not an evil organisation like Team Rocket; it is a proper and lawful body. You have only to look at how close our cooperation with the League is to know it."
Elder Vayne went on explaining, finding a suitable justification for his organisation; whether he truly valued the man or had some other end in view, he kept at it.
"As for the transmission of psychic arts, our Sacred Order is very complete in that as well. You are a Psychic yourself, Mr. Vance, and you know what such an inheritance is worth. If you join, then besides that inheritance our Sacred Order will raise your strength for you, and far faster. Take myself — it was with the Sacred Order's help that I came into my own power."
Having got that far, Elder Vayne saw that Vance's face was still unmoved; there was not a flicker of feeling on it.
So he threw out a more tempting condition.
"Our Sacred Order also provides every outstanding Trainer — a Trainer such as yourself — with a Legendary Pokémon, to help him explore power at a higher level."
The words left the two Farrows standing behind him sick with envy. A Legendary Pokémon, no less.
Kai Farrow went so far as to think that if he had a Legendary Pokémon he too could have cut his way through all comers at this tournament.
And enjoyed the admiration and the worship of the crowd.
He could have scraped into the last eight at the very least, and gone up on the platform for an award.
Was that not exactly how Wren had done it? On the strength of two Legendary Pokémon he had cut through all before him and reached the final two.
"Think it over, Mr. Vance. With gifts and talents like yours, you have already brought your Pokémon on this far. What if you were given a Legendary Pokémon? What sort of sight would that be?"
Elder Vayne said it in a ringing voice, with every appearance of confidence.
In this world more than ninety-nine Trainers in a hundred cannot refuse a Legendary Pokémon.
A young man like Vance above all, of which he felt quite sure.
"A Legendary Pokémon? I don't think much of that, myself. However formidable it may be, it isn't the equal of my partners."
Vance said, without the least interest.
"Precisely so, and precisely why I am here. As I said a moment ago: with ability such as yours, and a Legendary Pokémon to go with it, what a fine thing that would be."
"And besides — the Raikou and the Darkrai you faced against Wren are only middle-ranking Legendary Pokémon within our Sacred Order. We have better and stronger."
Elder Vayne said it proudly. Whether it was true or not hardly mattered; the point was to have Vance believe it. He knew nothing of how things stood inside the organisation in any case, and if he could be talked round it would answer well enough.
As for afterwards, that needed no thought at all. There would be ways of dealing with him in due course.
Once he had joined and declared himself openly, everything would be settled.
"The Darkrai....."
Something turned over in Vance's mind. He looked at the man, and then at the two Farrows, and smiled slightly. He had hit on an idea.
His lips moved a little, and a voice sounded in the old man's ear.
When he had heard it Elder Vayne gave him a look, and glanced from the corner of his eye at Gerald Farrow and his grandson behind him.
"On those terms I might consider it. The particulars are up to you."
Vance said with a soft laugh, lying back on the soft sofa.
"I shall go back and see."
Elder Vayne rose and said it heavily.
Seeing it, the two Farrows rose with him.
"As you like."
"Elder Vayne..."
Gerald Farrow put the question with his eyes. This threw out everything they had agreed on beforehand.
Leaving like this, with the quarrel between his grandson and Vance unsettled and nothing arranged — how could they simply go?
"Wait a little longer. There will be an outcome."
Elder Vayne looked at the pair of them out of those shadowed eyes and said it with a smile.
Watching the three of them go, Vance wondered whether this Elder Vayne would do as he had said.
What he had thrown into the man's ear just then were his own conditions: if the man could meet them, he would consider the offer.
There were two of them.
The first was that he wanted the Darkrai he had fought.
The second was that the man must choose between the two Farrows and him.
How that was to be done he left the man to decide.
Only when it was done would he consider the offer.
Consider it, that is. Not accept it.
"Comes to apologise and brings men along to back him, and works his own strength into the talk. If I weren't the tournament champion he'd be crouching in the long grass outside town waiting for me."
He was no fool, to be fobbed off as lightly as that by a few words from Gerald Farrow. All that was going on in it was a weighing of strength.
As apologies went, the attitude would not do, the words were not right either, and as for the stake, he had not seen it produced.
An apology and compensation of that sort came to little. Had the man not stopped to think whether someone who had become champion would be short of such things?
"No telling what he'll do. Never mind it. What he does is his own affair. I'll find a day and go to the League Vault first, and take what's owed me."
Vance put the business of those three aside and thought about his own affairs.
As for what he had just done, and whether it might be cheating the man with a play on words, Vance had not the least weight on his conscience about it.
With a man like that there is no need for any.
After Elder Vayne and the other two had gone, several more parties came to the villa to discuss matters with him.
A tournament champion is a prize worth having, and every institution was interested, above all given how things stood this year.
The other man in the final two belonged to a different organisation, so he was naturally passed over, and people like Aurelian and Elspeth had places of their own to go to; and so Vance's standing showed itself.