>>5758137“And of their appetites, Dragon King?” asks the Translator, while your money-minded South-Merchant nods in appreciation.
You sigh, thinking of Ekaterine—your distant beloved one—and the child in Hawksong, born by now, never yet seen by your eye or held by your hand. You know that what you propose now has implications for the relationships between your heirs, between Hawksong and Bloodrise, between the two world you have inhabited and for the world to come—the World of Darkness, and of Dragons.
“Bloodrise is a kingdom founded in the mountains, NAMED for the mountains… But it cannot remain CNFINED in the mountains, CAGED by them,” you conclude. “In time, we will expand. We MUST expand, if we are to grow and not to stagnate.”
“But… The peace with the humans, the flow of trade…”begins the Wevenore Amabassador.
“Stuff your trade up your end!” the Bugbear Boss laughs. “Anything you trade for can be taken much easier, and with meat on the side, huh?”
There is actually a chorus of agreement from many of the more martial and traditional Reptilians in attendance, earning the Bogbarri leader a bit of goodwill after his earlier sacrilege. Still, you quiet it down and offer assurances, ever the skillful manipulator and mediator:
“This expansion will not take place immediately—not beyond the foothills, not yet. But it is inevitable. The New Age of Darkness is OURs. The world is OURS… But the heir to Hawksong’s throne is one of ‘ours’, too. Human leaders give their cousins and brethren fiefdoms. Perhaps this shall be our path—rule through alliance, rather than war?”
“Boring,” snorts the Bugbear Boss quietly, hunching over somewhat and picking his nose.
You glance at the bestial goblinoid ‘king’, and fear he—or his descendants—may find their future anything BUT ‘boring’, or lacking in wars to wage… But a king, and a father, can hope. Maybe, if you do your job right in both capacities, you really CAN expand and grow, melding one empire into another, without the need for bloodshed between brothers?
