>>5629742Rufos bids you leave without confirming any intent… But over the next few days, you find yourself summoned, not by a Prince of Hawksong, but by its Paladin King.
By light of day, you pass through the portal which barred your invasion in the realm of dark and dreaming. You hesitate only momentarily at the portal, wondering if its wards will affect the illusion and fleshcraft which make ‘Theral’ into ‘Long Wang’… But you take the step, ever-bold and fearless as a Knight Ascendant ought to be, and you do not burst into flames or sprout horns and tail.
The Paladin King sits upon a throne, of sorts, but it is more like a great and well-carved wooden chair with a single plush, red-and-gold cushion for his tailless posterior. Your eyes flit behind him and to the side, where you see a smaller, more humble door—entrance to his sleeping quarters, you’d assume. This chamber where you now meet him is no great and ceremonial chamber of auspicious office, but a sort of guest-room. Perhaps he is no longer well enough to leave it, even to hold such meetings?
Still, he is flanked by both of his sons, and by his worried-looking daughter—your would-be mate, your technical-fiancé, Ekaterine!
(Oh, and a half-dozen guards, though none with the same unmistakable air you’ve come to recognize as ‘Paladin’)
You approach the throne and, as you were instructed by the male humans who escorted you here, you drop to one kneed before the throne and bow your head. He is, after all, a king, and if a Paladin King is a lesser thing than a Dragon King, it is at least worth noting that the former has been known to slay the latter. Perhaps that’s worth some respect, even if it’s mostly feigned?
“Rise,” the man upon the throne croaks.
You do so, and regard him. Archos is… Not well. He is still powerfully-built, and if he can stand straight at all you imagine eh would stand at nearly seven feet in height. He is less a human as you have come to know them, and more a giant. Neither of his sons, muscular though Alexos is and leanly-built though Rufos may be, is taller than six-and-a half feet, and even Alexos lacks the breadth of this giant-among-men in the shoulder and chest. Ekaterine is small among them, uniquely so—perhaps her sex and her youth are not the only reason they are protective of her?
