>>5689474You promised them soils, and spoils they shall have… But ONLY spoils for now. Trade, you reason, should remain funneled through you. The dark elves have more in common with the surfacefolk than you—and political complexities perhaps in excess of yours, with ongoing power struggles you hesitate to disrupt overmuch. If you enable them to engage in trade and diplomacy on their own, might they not eventually eclipse you? Without your leverage, will King Solinsyr continue to let you exercise your influence in his realm—and if he will, what of his eventual successor, or even those hungry-eyed princelings beneath him?
“The bugbear is correct, King Theral,” the Wevenore Ambassador replies, when you tell him of your boon. “You are most generous, to offer so much. One must almost assume you have plans on how to replenish your treasury, and your larder…?”
Shrewd elf, this one… But you suppose it’s a precondition for a job like his.
“Yess,” you acknowledge. “I do. We will make diplomatic overturesss to the sssurface.”
This results in a cacophony of reactions—positive, negative, confused, excited—from everyone present.
“I see,” the ambassador merely says. “And what role shall Wevenore play in this new era of peace and prosperity which you will no doubt bring about?”
Flatterer, and a conniving one. Oh, he’s good.
“A major role,” you reassure him, “in time. But for now, it isss bessst that we present a united front, yess?”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” the Ambassador says cooly, with a bow.
Queen Ekaterine’s hand brushes yours, and when you glance her way, she squeezes your hand.
“You won’t regret this,” she promises you, almost painfully earnest. “Your dreams… I have to admit it, I wasn’t sure about all this, about… This place. But it’s true, isn’t it? Your dream really IS of a better world, for EVERYONE?”
You nod, and it is truth… If a more complicated truth than Eka perhaps understands.
