>>5680082Olu, at least, is in good spirits—even with the dead body upon his back.
“I wonder how the war has proceeded in your absence, Dragonborn?” he asks, breaking the silence. “You said that in Hawksong, you heard the dwarves were losing rather badly, yes? This bodes well for us! You might be returning to a much larger kingdom than you left!”
“Yes,” you agree, happy for the more positive discussion. “If we are not yet undisputed rulers of the mountains, we will be soon enough!”
You both chuckle at the images that conjures, and Olu in particular seems flattered to be included as a ‘ruler’—as a human-born ‘Degenerate’, his lot is that of a useful abomination in your society—a slave-spy, sterilized and subjugated. To him, your brave new world—the New Age of Darkness—means even more than it does to other Reptilians of the Master Race. It means recognition, respect, and a chance at genuine happiness. You are glad to give these things to him—to ALL the forgotten children of darkness and deprivation. It is your duty and destiny, and it’s THIS world that you know even skeptical and Light-born Eka will come to love.
But speaking of love…
“If things are going so well in Bloodrise, perhaps we are not so urgently needed?” Olu the Archer asks, tentatively.
You tilt your head questioningly, slowing down somewhat. It’s not like him to initiate conversation, you realize, and so you begin to wonder what he has in mind—if this question, and where it leads, is WHY he broke the silence.
“I was wondering,” he says, averting his gaze and fidgeting with uncharacteristic nervousness for the normally-confident Archer, “if we might pay a visit to the forward camp of the Drow? We are not far from there—a two-day journey, there and back, at most.”
Ah. Yes, the encampment which the dark elves of Wevenore keep to monitor the caves closer to the surface, between Bloodrise and the northern forward base of your race. You first encountered it when you left that base almost two years prior—it feels like a lifetime ago, now!—an your journey to subjugate the kobolds of Bloodrise. That fateful mission eld you on a lifechanging adventure such as you never could have expected, changing you from just an usual-looking experimental soldier of the Master Race into the Dragon King you are today!
And it was there that Olu the Archer met Jazkarmel—the Drow Princess (if the term still applies, now that her patron relative is no longer queen?) who serves as commander of that camp.
