Chapter 544: Katag’s Dinner Party Part 2
Krall smiled wide, “It’s good to see you, my boy.”
“Lord Katag,” Stryg started. “Can we talk?”
“Straight to business, ey? Not to worry, we’ll have plenty of time to talk about our plans later tonight. But for now,” Krall clapped his hands together loudly.
The minstrels noticed their cue and stopped playing and singing. The guests all turned to Krall as he shouted, “May I have your attention! Thank you all for coming this evening. These last few days have been difficult for all of us. I'm grateful you’ve set aside time to come here, but I know you all came for the same reason,” he laughed. “Yes, the rumors are true. So, allow me to introduce to you, my soon-to-be son-in-law, Lord Aspirant Stryg of the Great House of Veres, the Ebon Prince of Hollow Shade!”
The ladies’ and lords’ gazes all shifted from the giant orc strapped with muscles that seemed to almost burst from his jacket, to the short unassuming blue youth standing next to him, wrapped in a pale cloak of petals.
Stryg felt his shoulders slowly stiffen as he felt their eyes upon him. His hands twitched, clawed fingers rising from underneath his cloak, Blossom.
Many of the nobles seemed excited, eager to finally see the rumored Ebon Aspirant. Others seemed skeptical, they looked him up and down as if sizing up a deer in a hunter’s sights. Fear crossed the eyes of a few and they instinctively took a step back as Stryg met their eyes.
There was a time when all Stryg wanted was to be feared, to be the apex predator in the food chain of the Realm. But he had seen a glimpse of how vast this world truly was, he had witnessed the power of old gods bend and destroy the laws that governed the chain. There was no apex predator here, they were all small prey dancing on the branches of a tree while the rest of the forest raged about them. Stryg knew this, he felt he should have been above all this posturing, but it didn’t stop the nobles’ gazes from bothering him.
The sound of a clap caught his attention. The another. Soon everyone began to clap and raise a glass in Stryg’s honor. He blinked and looked around. They were cheering him on…? A small warm feeling bloomed in the pit of his stomach.