Quoted By:
>SELECTED: Acknowledge the Exalted Kyrio Militades, bowing to no one. You will report to the ranking officer of the Dragon Guard’s Cantonian cohort and none can gainsay your approach given your connection to Militades and his recommendation. The Medusae and Merchanta will make whatever play of this distraction they can, with their own self-interest in mind. Those foolish enough in each party may dismiss you as an unwitting barbarian, while the wiser heads in each group will recognise the calculated neutrality of your chartered course. Neither will owe you favours, but you might have earnt some recognition from the smarter ones on either side. [Militades Connection]
It feels like an age since you encountered Kyrio Militades at the outset of your errantry, your small force of knights charging to the rescue of his men as they battled against the beastmen on the Kings Highway. Putting aside the ancestral rivalries of Canton and Cathagi in that moment, together your forces of man routed the Foe in short order. Well, a more honest account might reflect that the whole ordeal was actually a rather close run thing. But you were victorious nonetheless.
Little did you know at the time that the Cathagi hoplites were there with their own agenda, their presence on Canton’s roads permitted only by a writ of passage signed by the Crown Prince himself. Their mission, to capture a live direwolf and bring it back to the Crescent Palace menagerie, struck you as a bizarre endeavour with little practical benefit that might justify the expense in resources and lives that had been necessary for its success. But the Dragon had spoken, and from what Kyria Eustace had told you the triumph of the Stratiokas in fulfilling their master’s whim over the more prestigious Medusae and Merchanta was something of a political masterstroke. Their achievement had catapulted them into Exalted status, a high honour in this southern realm, and stalled the Stratiokas decline in palace politics.
Judging by the company he keeps, senior Stratiokas officers and the more prestigious members of the Medusae Caste, he has been doing very well for himself since last you met.
<span class="mu-i">“Kyrios Militades.”</span> The man smiles at your nod of acknowledgement as the Medusae and Merchanta continue their verbal sparring to the side. <span class="mu-i">“It is good to see a familiar face here.”</span>
One of the other officers bristles, shifting his weight. <span class="mu-i"><span class="mu-g">“You will address the Exalted with the proper-”</span></span>
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