124
Faris climbs the stairs to the battlements. The cold winter air makes his bones more weary than usual.
“There you are. Finally decide to come out of the thicket?” Came Bertrand’s familiar voice as he leans on the crenelation.
“Busy making arrangements.” Was all Faris answer.
“Well, come with me.” Bertrand leads Faris to one of the western towers.
Climbing more stairs before entering a room that is mostly in disrepair and there’s some effort to repair some. The smell of mold and rust is still thick. Even rats move around without care.
“Welcome to my humble office.” Bertrand welcomes Faris
“It looks like a shithole.”
“Indeed. Give me a week or two and this place should be livable. But that’s not why I’m inviting you here.” He gestures at the bigger window that looks into the city.
Outside are a few hundred men gathering between Sudtor and Ostwald. Essentially a poor area and a slum area. Not much difference between both other than the former having a much more respectable outward appearance and less smellier too. The tower being closer than Ostwald made sure that the smell of the slum reached even the window.
“Ah yes. Our volunteers.” Faris sighed, already picturing the headaches of commanding the mob.
“Well, I won’t worry about them but those ones over there.” Bertrand points at two caged carriages carrying convicts.
“No, it's the other way around.”
“What you mean?”
“Most of the volunteers are not refugees but come from Ostwald. Meaning, the Low King sent them.”
“What, those racketeers? And how did you know this?”
“Some tasks require me to go there. Not exactly a pleasant experience.” Faris reminisced. It was not exactly a pleasant experience for the Low King either as Faris has a much colder supporter when he is spelunking there.
“What you think he wants by sending his men you reckon?” Bertrand asks as his only experience are at most cruel sergeants and annoying nobles that somehow have a better position than him.
“Poaching some wizards maybe? Or securing access should we build fortifications should it be necessary as commanded.” Those are the only things that come to mind
“Well, guess I will be relying on you about them then.”
“Of course. At the very least, we won’t be thinking too hard about teaching them to defend themselves. They can do it themselves or as best as cutthroat and racketeer can be. How about the wizards?”
“Eh, managing them is not as hard as it sounds. Except for the bright wizards, they seem to get compulsion to start burning things. The rest are still oddballs but nothing as extreme as accidentally burning a building. Yet.”
Then silent for a while.
“How about—
“There is—
Both speaking at the same time and pauses. Looking at each other before deciding who speaks first.
“How’s your errand to Altdorf?” Bertrand finally asks
“One thing led to another, I got a personal audience with the golden daemon herself. Not alone mind you. There’s Lord Gregor Martak, Supreme Patriarch Balthazar Gelt, and also Lord Teclis along with the noble accompanying him.”
“Ha! Those are big names. So, how it goes?” Bertrand was shocked and laughed
Faris then began recounting his experience. How the beastmen have contact with Far East Cathay, how they have guns that is better than what the empire currently wields. Possibly even better than the repeating handguns as the golden beastmen’s guns don't have multiple barrels but still fire as fast and reloads much much faster than the repeating handguns that have multiple barrels.
“Damn.” Bertrand thinks about the implication.
“Then? How trustworthy is this offer of alliance?”
“I don’t know.” Faris immediately answered.
“However I have worked with something less trustworthy. The only way to know is to see how it pans out.”
“Well, enough talking about something not for us to decide, what you want to ask about?” Bertrand changes the topic as he isn’t exactly comfortable with the way the discussion is going.
“Very well,” Faris took a deep breath.
“Are you willing to overlook something?”
“Isn’t that the opposite of what your job is?” Bertrand’s effort to make a joke is just met with a serious stare.
“Depends, what is it?”
“Something personal.”
“Fuck it. Fine.” Bertrand quickly decides. Almost asking if this is the less trustworthy thing Faris mentioned before but decided against asking it.
“I’m going to get a drink.”
As Bertrand leaves, Faris looks towards his carriage at the end of the volunteer’s group. Thinking about the cargo it catties.
—
Three days later. The dragon arrives at my Herdstone.
“So, what brings you here?” I already waited outside and asked him.
“I am here to check my abomination.” He answers mockingly.
As soon as he finished speaking, Bel-Ardraion, already the size of a minotaur as they were eating nonstop, immediately zoomed in. just finished playing along with Wolfe across the herdstone. Seeing his father for the first time, Ardraion stood on its hindlegs, unfurled his wings, and showed off his looks.
“I thought it would look much more abominable.” The dragon immediately derided his three headed spawn.
Malantur and Turcano, the middle and the right of the three heads clearly offended while Ancalimon, the left head clearly happy before seeing the other two heads and follows along growling. They pounced on the dragon that swiftly pressed one of its claws to their body and pinning them to the ground. The three headed dragon immediately curled around the claw that caught him, biting and scratching.
“How are things back north?”
“It is calm. For now.” The dragon answered before getting annoyed at his spawn.
With a flick, he throws the three headed dragon away but the three headed dragon immediately recovers and skips to near him, trying to arch its spine and presents its right side, attempting to look bigger. Acting like an oversized cat that his father promptly ignored as the dragon looked over at my Herdstone gate. Fortunately I have sequestered Stru’Kas as soon as Marrisith informs me that the dragon is visiting. Then a few Cathayan that stayed in the Cathayan quarters of the Herdstone finally managed to gather their courage and come to worship and offer something to the dragon. Though mostly just kowtowing and burning incense. Wonder if they know the relation of the Old Worlders with dragons. I bet their merchants and ambassadors do, but I’m not sure about the common populace that is staying in my Cathayan quarters.
“What is this?” The dragon asked
“They are from Cathay, somewhere far east. They worship dragons and have a dragon that rules them as their emperor. They do the same with Ardraion.”
The dragon decided to just ignore the human and went his way to my Herdstone Gate. I followed along behind him. The beastmen parted to make way for the dragon and me.
“This gate, what will you use it for?”
“For now it is used for–”
“No.” He interrupts me as it is not what he asked.
“Haven’t decided yet. I can use it as a gateway for the Chaos Gods. They have tempted me plenty for that. I can use it as a bridge between the Empire and Cathay to bolster their alliance.” I laid out all my options. Actually, there’s one more.
“Though from the looks of it, I will use it to run away.”
To that, the dragon let out a rumbling laugh that shook the air around it.
“That might be the smartest decision for anyone that has that option.”
“Is it though?” Unsure if that is the case. As even if I choose to do so, I will be going blind.
“Which is better? To wait for the inevitable to come? Or to decide to go no matter the stakes? Go left or right, up or down, back or forth, come what may, it is still something you decided for yourself no matter the consequences.”
When he puts it that way, it does sound better to sit quiet and wait for something to happen. Of course, this also means that as I have the option to run away, I also have the option to stay, no matter the consequences, it is still something I have the luxury to decide.
“I will keep that in mind.”