Amanda Rose watched the two dozen boats traveling down the river towards Brexis. The flat bottomed cattle barges were filled with mercenaries and siege weapons. They would establish a beachhead, invade the city, and kill everyone inside. Which would absolutely ruin Shiv’s wedding.

“What exactly is going on here?” Amanda demanded, “Why have you turned my daughter's wedding venue into a warzone?”

Francis was about to give her a piece of his mind when McHorseface spoke up. “They're wedding crashers, obviously.”

Amanda craned her neck to look at the horse. “You're telling me all this is because they didn't get invitations?”

“I can only guess, but can you think of another reason?” McHorseface asked, keeping his expression blank.

The horse and the dragon stared at one another. Amanda didn't totally believe him. In fact, she knew he was probably lying. But she had to respect the hustle.

It was such an elegant deception too. It played on her pride just enough to make her want to do it anyway. Besides, it had been ages since she got to kill anyone. The switch to legitimate business had been lucrative, but incredibly boring.

Amanda handed the dress over to Shiv and began to remove her jewelry. The dragon held out a claw containing two sapphire earrings the size of tangerines. “Shiv, be a good girl and hold these for me until I get back. Mother has to go incinerate some people.”

***

Francis watched with fascination as the dragon went to work. Amanda started by leaping into the air and circling the palace. Then she gradually worked her way outward, sending gouts of dragonfire at any remaining green cloaks she found.

Once she reached the outer walls, the dragon went over the city again. This time she did a grid search, traveling back and forth to double and triple check her work. Then she turned her attention to the boats.

During the Gulf War, retreating Iraqi forces had come under fire while traveling along Highway 80 towards Basra. Coalition forces bombed the front and rear of the column, trapping enemy forces on what would later be referred to as the “Highway of Death”.

Nearly two thousand vehicles were abandoned or destroyed and upwards of seventy thousand troops were forced to escape on foot. It turned out that putting all your armored vehicles on the same stretch of road was a bad idea when your enemy had total air superiority. (And as any dragon will tell you, they are indeed superior.)

Amanda blasted the boats that had already landed and started working her way up the river. The barges couldn't stop or reverse and the Dark Forest had them boxed in to either side. They had no cover and no weapons capable of engaging the dragon.

Some jumped into the water rather than burn. But they quickly sank or were dragged to the bottom by the river’s inhabitants. Amanda continued burning and devouring the enemy forces as they were brought to her by the current, like sushi on a conveyor belt.

Then, when the boats were all destroyed, she went off to look for more. Amanda could guess who had sent these people and she was beginning to understand why. It was all about trade, and possibly divine politics.

Amanda didn't give a clipped copper about Francis, or his city. But the idea of someone threatening her daughter, even unknowingly, made the fire inside her burn white hot. If Shiv had chosen to align herself with Brexis, that meant it was Amanda's duty as a mother to ensure its survival.

The dragon flapped her wings, gaining altitude and speed. She had a city to burn.

***

Olympia was a proud city, with tall stone walls to repel invaders and bronze statues of the great lords who ruled it. Once the few remaining defenders and defenses were converted into charcoal, she systematically razed it to the ground.

The dragon started on the far side of the city and went block by block, building by building, destroying everything. Even the rubble was flattened or melted to a uniform height.

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She made a mental note whenever she discovered a vault or treasury. Amanda was a dragon, after all. And it would be simple to have her minions recover the gold later. Though she hadn't decided what to do with it yet.

Amanda let the people flee, she had plans for them. Some headed down the river on boats, unaware of what had happened to the fleet of mercenaries. Others departed on foot or in wagons. It would take them a few days to arrive in Riverlark.

She watched them go, the gears in her mind whirring as she plotted and schemed.

***

Zeus watched in horror as his holy city was destroyed, and there was nothing he could do about it. Amanda Rose was part of the Chroma Cabal. They had their claws in the Villain’s League and almost everything else unsavory, but not yet completely illegal.

So much as throwing a thunderbolt her way would start a chain of events beyond his control. Zeus thought about a certain young god who had been stupid enough to piss off the Chroma. He had no desire to wake up next to a severed pegasus head, or have his other cities burned to the ground.

Amanda was sending a message. Fuck with her interests and suffer the consequences. Zeus wanted nothing of that. Besides, killing an adult dragon would trigger what could only be described as an ecological disaster.

The older and more powerful the dragon, the greater the destruction. The form it took would depend on the kind of dragon. Killing a red dragon like Amanda would turn the surrounding area into an ever-burning hellscape for generations.

“That sucks,” Hades said as he watched Olympia crumble and burn.

Zeus couldn't help but think about how this disaster had worked out in his brother's favor. He looked at Hades with suspicion. Had he planned this from the beginning?

“Don't worry, I'll get even with the ones responsible.” Zeus assured him. “You can be absolutely certain of that.”

***

Amanda stopped briefly in Brexis to tell Francis what had happened to Olympia. Then she flew off to kidnap some caterers and musicians for Shiv’s wedding, humming as she went.

Francis was in a less pleasant mood. A whole city had been wiped out. That meant the people living there would need shelter. He didn't give a fuck about politics or what god they served. This was his mess to clean up. His fault.

“Open the city to them. Give them anything they need,” Francis said, acutely aware that they had just repelled an invasion from the same people. Though, he was willing to bet the ones actually responsible would be riding to the capital with saddlebags full of gold, not showing up on his doorstep begging for scraps.

“That might not be a good idea. They follow Zeus.” Willow warned him.

“So? I don't give a rat’s ass if they follow Larry Bird. Freedom of religion is a human right.”

“It is?” Shiv asked, trying to wrap her head around the unfamiliar idea.

“Yeah, it's right up there with the right to bear arms and freedom of speech.” Francis realized as he spoke that none of the people around him had ever read the constitution, much less sworn to uphold it. “Ah, fuck. Get a pen and some paper, we're gonna write some shit down.”

Francis walked them through the basics. As a Marine with nearly two decades of experience he had seen first hand why a strong constitution was important. There had to be lines you didn’t cross. Otherwise, you ended up with guys going door to door with power drills to visit political rivals and dissidents.

It was easy to slide into a dictatorship, and impossible to return from one once heads started rolling. Francis had fought in wars against assholes like that, and he would rather be roasted alive on a stick than see Brexis become another petty dictatorship. No, they needed a constitution and they needed it now.

Then they needed to figure out how to feed and house thousands of people without getting their throats slit in the middle of the night. Francis rubbed his temples, trying to fight off the incoming migraine. Once again he found himself wishing there was someone better than him to take care of all this stuff. But there wasn’t. So, he would have to make do.

Hours later when the others were gone he went for a walk in the garden with Willow. The glowing vines and flowers gave it a soft dreamy ambiance as they watched the sun set.

“You know, I almost died today,” Francis said, finally stopping to process how close he had come to losing everything. The full weight of it was only now starting to hit him.

“Yeah, today was pretty shitty, wasn’t it?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and gently kissed it. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Fuck no,” He said, wrapping his arms around her, “I just want to spend a minute alone with my woman.”

They pressed their foreheads together, not speaking, just enjoying the closeness and the fact they were alive. Willow looked up at him with her wide green eyes. “I’m happy you didn’t die,” She said.

“Me too, baby. Me too.” Francis replied. “You know, I ain’t cut out for this god shit. I’m just some grunt from Texas.”

“But that isn’t going to stop you, is it?” She asked, tilting her face up towards him for a kiss.

“Nope, absolutely fucking not.” Francis replied as he took the comfort that was given.