I laid the invitation down on the table between us. "Well, what do you think?" I asked everyone there.

King Antius was here, along with his magister Marius the Bronze, his champion Pious Godfrey, and the Catcher, taking a break from his work in Darokin with the Moor Corporation, which was rapidly making a name for itself. One of my weekly trips back to Darkmoor had resulted in him returning here to see how the work was going, his friends and aides had accompanied him. In an amusing coincidence, this invitation had arrived.

It appeared, at least on the surface, that King Brucall did not hold any hard feelings over the death of his half-brother. He had sent a diplomatic envoy to invite the new leaders of Eisfall to Aetla, his capital and city, for 'discussions on important matters'.

"What do we know of this King Brucall?" King Antius asked, his eyes turning to Sama, whose information network extended across the oceans and world entire. The Catcher was setting up a more pervasive network slowly and surely in the more immediate kingdoms, but Sama's reached across the world… and now included my Sims.

"The older son of Empress Cleossa the Wise of Delpha and General Eolford Bronswer, Marshall of the Armies of Delpha," Sama informed him immediately. "Like his father, he has absolutely no magical ability whatsoever, nor affinity for clerical studies or monastic skills." That assessment of his potential mental prowess did him no favors among this crowd. "The lack of magical ability extends to all of General Bronswer's immediate kin and children, so they may in fact be nascent Forsaken, I would have to personally examine them to tell.

"Brucall was a disciplined child who takes after his father, and was extremely diligent in the study of the ways and rules of war. He is an exemplary warrior, can be trusted to be a competent general and warlord… and other than that, he displays no real skill at command in times of peace, bureaucratic establishment, or other skills and strengths of mundane governance. He's a bit of a spoiled brat who kept asking his mother when he'd get a kingdom to rule, and she set him up in the city Delpha has rebuilt for the third or fourth time here in Eislas, probably just to get rid of him, as he doesn't qualify to be even nobility in Delpha, let alone be named a king," Sama finished up a bit disparagingly.

Someone who could lead the army but couldn't build the nation. Not someone you wanted as a king, unless he had some really gifted and loyal subordinates.

"It's like emperors sending off their talentless children to far locations to rule them out of sight and mind is not limited to Iberon," chuckled Marius the Bronze, the tall Southern mage seated next to Briggs. He rather enjoyed it, as suddenly he didn't loom over everybody else at the table, and indeed looked positively skinny next to the ominous bulk of Briggs.

The two had hit it off pretty quickly, too, unloading their collection of short and tall jokes at one another cheerfully.

"He's feeling out a competitor, then," Antius judged. "He's a warrior, so he has ambitions of conquest and expansion, dreaming of creating his own warrior realm that doesn't have to rely on mother for backing… in both senses."

"A skilled warrior would feel incredibly stifled in Delpha on all levels," Briggs agreed with a nod, his huge arms crossed over his barrel of a chest. "There is simply no acknowledgment of martial ability as being anything of worth, a niche specialty that doesn't deserve much recognition… and martial skills haven't evolved to dispute that judgment there."

As Forsaken most certainly would.

"What about recruiting him?" Sir Godfrey asked. "What's his Color?"

"White," I reported evenly from the side. "He's got a good heart and he's a decent person. He's just… the entitled and frustrated son of an empress, being given a kingship he really hasn't earned, handed out like his weekly allowance after whining about it."

"He's entitled and his mother gave him a kingdom. He won't join us, he'll insist we join him. He'll figure he's bigger because Delpha is behind him, or he'll need to be bigger to get out from under Delpha, figuring they'll take no military action because the Empress is his mother. There's no chance he would join us and betray his mother and father, at the most he'll go independent," Sama stated coolly. "We can go to hear what he has to say, but there'll be nothing for us but possible trade relations and forcing early establishment of territories we can't defend for lack of people."

"As a king, how far does his writ extend?" King Antius asked with a frown.

Endure flicked up a Holo map on the table between us with a flick from Briggs' hand. "The territory around Aetla, basically. The peninsula, that pass, Delta Bay, and he commands the entries to the Saber River and the Great Bay, basically forming the major end to the trade routes that come from the sea. Trade from the shires at Loha passes through Aetla, few outsiders bother going across the Great Bay with Aetla's pristine port there."

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"He's been sending out feelers to Seacall, inquiring about fealty 'for the greater good of Eislas'. King Taravon hasn't turned him down completely, but insists on retaining his own title," Sama informed us calmly. She naturally had informers in the homeland of Emperor Magni.

"That is… a passively firm way of saying 'no'," the Catcher pointed out in admiration. "To properly claim eminence over a king, Brucall would have to style himself a High King or an Emperor. Either title puts him directly in conflict with his own mother, and is a challenge to the Empire of Siricil. Unless Brucall is soft in the head, he will do no such thing, even if he were to declare independence and dare the ire of his mother."

"And he would be seen as weak, regardless, as Taravon could simply renounce his oath of fealty at any time, since submission was not by conquest or capitulation," Sir Godfrey agreed quickly. "Likely this Taravon does not see the need or benefits of capitulating to an appointed king, and considers him a mere proxy for the Empress. Hasn't he only been out from under Siricil for a generation or two?"

"A couple years after Magni left his home for Siricil, actually," Sama confirmed. "The people had enough of Siricil taxes and interference in their lives, and the endemic corruption among the appointed officials Siricil sent their way, along with the extra tension with Delpha. They sacked the lot of them and sent them home, fairly peaceful as far as revolutions usually go, but naturally Siricil wants one of its colonies back, and doubtless Magni doesn't want to see his own birthplace secede from under him. That's like a slap in the face to him. One of their own becomes the emperor, and they not only can't tolerate his rulership, they want to leave his empire?

"Have no doubts, Magni has plans to take the city back," Sama judged, unafraid of the possibility. "But then, we took Newport from them, and he doubtless is quite stung and wants to take that back from us as well."

Everyone murmured agreement, but were unafraid. With the technology of the Greens to buttress them, an invading army was going to be annihilated before it ever left its boats, and would send a clear signal to any would-be attackers in the future.

"Shall we address the dragon in the room?" Marius the Bronze asked smoothly, flicking out his own gesture to highlight the range of mountains that backboned Eislas' eastern edge, chopping up the interior of the continent and separating it from the coast. It was called the Last Range because early explorers among the Northmen thought that was where the world ended. "That was some VERY disquieting news, Lady Edge."

"I admit to mixed feelings myself, Master Marius," I agreed, taking control of the Holo, blowing up the displayed area, and then spraying it with dots of various colors.

Everyone's expressions sobered as they looked over the Last Range, the Dragonfangs, and the Iceteeth even further inland and more northwest, along with the complex ranges that sprawled off all those mountains.

Those glowing dots of color were dragon lairs. All taken, there were thousands of them spread across the map, although they were concentrated most heavily in the Dragonfangs.

Effectively, they were the neighbors to some of the areas that were targeted for settlement by the Moorians and Moorish Dwarves.

"Historical research confirms that the presence of a draconic realm in the Dragonfangs has been a powerful deterrent to both Delphan and Siricilan expansion in Eislas," I told everyone. "They are one of the primary reasons that neither empire has been able to expand much beyond the shore. I expect testing of our own positions and resolve to stay to begin quite soon, likely with younger dragons being sent out to harass us and drive us back. When those fail, the parents will become involved in an organic manner, and test us again.

"If we choose a strategy of mass conflict, the dragons will whelm in numbers and likely try to sweep us off the board, especially if they manage to suss out how to defend themselves against our defenses. We do not have the numbers or technology in place to defend against them yet, especially with winged mobility allowing them to mass at multiple or single locations as they see fit. We could likely hold Eisfall against them, as that is where the bulk of our defenses are currently established, but the crucial inland settlements will have more problems until we can get our technology up and rolling."

"Still establishing the mines and production facilities," King Antius sighed, having gone over reports of progress from Prince Ukker and the many Greens and other Artificers invested into creating the new settlements. "That fabber that we smuggled through in parts is helping wonderfully in creating new tools and lesser machines, but there is a lot of work to do to make even the foundation technology, and wrestling around with magical adaptations to it naturally takes time and money." Because unlike tech, it was pretty hard to rush the Investing and Infusing process with Artifice, and the requirement it be hand-made to be most effective.

"That sounds like our diplomatic efforts should be focused on the Dragonfangs there. Do we know the name of the ruler there?" Briggs inquired, looking at me.

"Cirruluxul stated that the name of the Dragon King there is Charred-Eye, an ancient and extremely powerful Red dragon. He is considered quite discreet and sly for a dragon, especially a Red," I informed everyone. "Cirru is not even an adult and doesn't have the standing or power to introduce me to his court. The only way to gain an audience is to gain their respect, and that will require a demonstration of power."

Sama's eyes lit up instantly, Briggs just smiled slightly. If there was one power that dragons and giants understood together, it was the power of bigger fist = more respect.

Well, there was a reason dragons did not rule the world, as powerful as they were. Normal mortals simply had too many advantages and ways to kill them, especially high-level ones… and they had far more Immortals supporting them, too.

"Edge, your plans are still in the north, on the far side of the Great Bay, correct?" Sama asked.

"Yes. I plan to begin contacting the elven tribes there. As you know, the majority of elves in Eislas are spread across the area between the Twin Lakes and Landsplit River, and the Great Bay. Any further north, and it is unseemly cold and all the trees are coniferous. Between the two there is a graduation which is tolerable to the elves, and there are a dozen settlements with Lumina Trees in those locations. I intend to be raising an elven homeland in that area, as a possible resettlement area for shadenelves who wish to leave the Underdark."

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