>>5934708“The Wyrm Princes are great and terrible beings, powerful creatures between a dragon and an anthropod—born of another race from the deep earth, and ennobled by the Serpent Queen’s mystical prowess at what your race call ‘chimericism’, by which she lifted them to greatness, and united their… People… And our own in one kingdom, that we might share our strengths.”
“So they’re not, like, the Prince Consort’s REAL kids?” Costella asks, confused. “They’re, like, adopted or something?”
“The particulars are not known to me,” the Thief admits, but adds with some vehemence. “The Dragon King is a great and holy king, however. He would not… SULLY himself with…”
The Thief stops short.
“He has one TRUE heir, born of the Master Race: The Dragon Princess, born of the Serpent Queen herself. But the Wyrm Princes are still important to him, to all of us, and to the New Age. As for the Wyrm Princes, they each bear a title, bestowed by our King. He who is missing is called The Unknowable One.”
Pearce grunts, half a laugh, but you can see his discomfort. The mental images conjured by this description IS rather frightful: a chimeric horror, half-dragon and half-insect, with an enigmatic name and a secret origin. One other thing is eating at you, though…
“You keep mentioning a ‘New Age’,” you note. “What do you mean?”.
The Thief speaks with great enthusiasm on this subject, surprisingly animated in his zeal, telling you:
“The Dragon King is destined for greatness, touched by the gods! Such is his wisdom and his might that he has deigned to share this greatness with all of us—the slave, the lowborn, the outcast, the half-blooded, even the…”
He pauses, biting back some vulgarity and instead saying:
“Even the mammalian dwellers of the surface. The old order was cast off, the order of toil in darkness and perpetual war… Or servitude without hope, of despair and gnashing teeth and empty stomachs. The Dark Prophet of the Coming Age, the Knight Ascendant of the Feathered Serpent, the Copper Dragon King of Bloodrise… He has brought hope to all the world!”
(They can’t be speaking of the coming Era of High Magic which you learned of on Holy Luna, can they? Do their Gods of Darkness know of this as well? The Princesses of the Moon had feared this might be the case… That the Dark Gods might be working to bring it about or to exploit its opportunities to their own evil ends. Is this confirmation?)
“How exactly does he plan to do that?” you ask warily. “These old masters of yours, these new gods… What do they want.”
The Thief seems to remember himself, or to catch the trace of suspicion in your voice. He regards you more warily himself, remembering that—beyond this mission—you are not necessarily natural allies.
