“Alright then, it is time we get down to,” I spared a glance to Chooka as I continued and enunciated my words clearly, “brass tacks.” She smiled warmly at our little inside joke. “What I have to say is confidential and should not leave this room.” I glared at Bellwright in particular as I continued, “No rumors, no talking around it without trying to state it, no hints, no leaks. If anyone feels that they cannot abide by this, please speak up now.”
I paused, and though Bellwright looked fidgety, he finally resolved himself after taking a deep breath and nodded for me to continue.
“As you know, I am a [Dragon Emperor]. Earlier today, I officially established my flight, The Crossroad Wayfinders. As you can guess, I plan to claim the roads of this world as my own, to protect those that travel them, and to keep them in good repair. My flight is unique in that it has been completely exposed, for the world knows full well who I am. It would be impossible to remain incognito, and so I have taken a strategy with how I build my flight to address such circumstances.”
All eyes were upon me, each person keenly listening to my every word. Nanu schooled her visage to appear in control of her emotions, but she was bleeding impatience and a desire for me to skip past the preamble and get to the juicy stuff. Torborg, Bellwright, and It-Has-Pockets, the individuals with the least involvement with my flight, appeared intrigued, as if delighted to be trusted and in the know of one of the great secrets of the world.
“Apparently, I have some unique aspect to my person and my life, or perhaps, lives. All evidence suggests that I have lived many lives, across many worlds, and that a select group of individuals have been with me in those lives. Our appearances change to a degree, our roles and skill sets as well, but the familiarity and comradery in my vague memories of those lives remains the same.
“I have an inner world that I can visit, and in that world, there are silhouettes of people in a central area, each one frozen in time as if a statue. At first, all were black as night, but after performing a specific ritual on certain individuals that matched the appearance of the statues, those statues have all the color and image of living beings, and indeed, they match the people on whom I have performed the ritual.
Expressions of puzzlement and slight concern flowed from those in the room who were not yet in the know, yet they remained steadfast to hear me out. Perhaps a few [Leadership] skills soothed their concerns and quieted their questions until the explanation finished, or perhaps they possessed the discipline or social tact to withhold such inquiries.
“Skull, Alterez, Gambino, and Bambina are the ones who have undergone the ritual, and the last two are of the same statue, their figures embraced in dance.” The kobolds in question beamed at the news, happy that even in my mind, they were together. “Chooka is almost certainly one of the silhouettes that remains. I suspect that It-Has-Pockets, Torborg, and Bellwright are likewise candidates. To undergo the ritual is to have your life saved by me, and through it, you would be empowered and bonded to me. It is not something that I would force circumstances to require, but Destiny and Fate may both conspire to see it made so for you. If any of you do not wish to accept this Fate, should it come your way, then speak up, so that I may do what I can to ensure another future awaits you.”
I paused for a while to let the news sink in and to examine the expressions of those gathered. It-Has-Pockets appeared concerned and intrigued, like one wanting to pet a fluffy wolf but unsure if it would bite. Bellwright puffed up, his ego stroked at the prospect of being so close to an Emperor. Torborg sat with eyes lowered, his face contorted in concentration as he internally assessed and weighed what I offered. Minutes passed until he looked up once again and raised his hand.
“Ask your question, Torborg, for this is not something I would want you to accept lightly.”
“Let’s say all this is true, that I am the one to be bonded to you, whatever that entails. What would be my role and responsibilities?”
All eyes focused on me, each eager to hear the answer, as if my next words would sway anyone here one way or the other on the choice.
“While it is not something you need to accept now, I would have great use for an engineer of your caliber. While my roads may lead all over the world, it will take great feats of engineering to have anything of value where those roads lead. I plan to have towns and cities all over the world, and all will need infrastructure to support their populace. I have seen what passes for acceptable in this world, and I find it lacking. With the resources I will command and our shared insight on how to build a better world, I would want you at my side to help see such become more than schematics on paper.”
Torborg stroked his beard as he contemplated the pros and cons of the offer. After a minute, he responded. “Aye, sounds reasonable and enticing. What’s the catch?”
Concern and doubt cropped up on those gathered, some wondering if perhaps they had gotten too deep into circumstances beyond their means.
“Honestly, I do not know.” I paused to let my words sink in before I continued. “I don’t know what the future holds for me, why I am what I am, why I remember past lives or where that knowledge could lead. Certainly, I will make powerful friends and enemies, and indeed, your stars will rise or fall with my own. I want to build an environment where people can thrive and pursue their ambitions, and I prefer to offer the carrot over the stick. I have no nefarious intent for any of you, for the greatest of ambitions attained in full would feel hollow without friends at my side to share it with. That may be campy, but it is how I feel, and I would like to help all of you achieve your goals as well.”
“I’ll accept it, should circumstances come to pass where you will save my life,” responded Bellwright before Torborg could contemplate and answer. “You have done right by me so far, and I have been around long enough to read the measure of a man. You have my approval.”
It-Has-Pockets glanced around the room, skittish but excited. I turned a gentle gaze upon her, a slight smile inviting her to speak her mind.
“It sounds a little frightening, but the opportunity is above what even my elders would have anticipated for me. I was born to achieve great things, at least that is what I have been told my whole life, and even riding your coattails, I would be a legend of Tarr and an inspiration to trolls everywhere. I accept.”
Torborg, inspired by the other two, yet still considerate of his future, sighed before giving a response of his own.
“We dwarves live long lives. I am old enough to have seen the faults of the world and the stagnation of society, yet young enough to still have the fire burning within me to fix this world. If it should come to pass that I am in need of this ritual, then it will be by Hammerrabi’s will that I find myself in your service. I do not seek it, nor do I try to hide from it. Let the future be what it is, and I will accept how it unfolds.”
I turned to Chooka, nudging her lightly as she looked out at everyone else for what they had to say. Startled, she quickly found her composure and gave an answer.
“Oh, naturally, I accept. I thought that was a given. By the way, are there more than just us?”
A heavy burden I did not realize I shouldered suddenly lifted from me as her words carried it away. I don’t know what I would have done had she refused, and thankfully, I would not need to spare any of my thoughts for such moot hypotheticals. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze under the table and a beaming smile before I answered.
“Indeed, there are more. Ten in total, if you count Gambino and Bambina as one. There yet remains an orc female, one who is tall and strong, which really does not narrow it down. There is a female elf, yet that figure keeps shifting between several individuals, so perhaps that future is rather uncertain. Lastly, of all things, there is a male ogre, and considering I have not met any ogres ever, that may be either a challenge, or it will be the first ogre I see. My instincts tell me that I will at least meet everyone soon, if not bond to them as well.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Okay,” interjected Nanu, her patience having grown thin,” but how does that relate to your flight?”
“Right, that part,” I responded coolly, as if I had forgotten it, my casual disregard for the main item on the docket rattling Nanu just a little.
“Such a tease,” chided Skull. “Just tell the poor girl already before she explodes or pummels you to a pulp.”
Properly chastised, I proceeded to the big reveal after clearing my throat.
“My flight will be based around whelps. As most of you know, whelps are fairly harmless and not very powerful. Mine will be an exception to that rule, and I will have far more than what an ordinary Emperor would have at his disposal. They will be my eyes and ears around the world, and I would gift some of them as pets to individuals that show promise for great things.”
“Ah,” interrupted Torborg, “I think I see where this is going. You plan to cultivate a loyal army of us mere mortals who will fill The Void where the dragons of your flight should. Your whelps, pets though they may seem, will keep tabs on us.”
Unperturbed by how he stole my thunder, I rolled with it, for with him being the one to say it, I did not sound like some nefarious mastermind in the shadows plotting and scheming.
“It is as you say. Dragons tend to live at odds with most of the civilized world. Rather than maintaining an antagonistic relationship with humanoids, I would like to foster cooperation and comradery. The True Dragons of my flight will be few in number. They will assume a mostly administrative role or serve as heavy hitters in times of strife. I want to build a community that doesn’t include both wondrous palaces and slums full of starving peasants at the same time. By bringing the mortal races into the fold, at the discretion of each individual of course, I can help them to build a better world. I will just keep things fair and crush the greedy bastards that try to take more than they need.”
“Oh, aye, that all sounds well and good, but how long until you become jaded at how stubborn and foolish we mortals are and try to force it?” asked Torborg, clearly not content to let my plan stand unless I had ironed out the kinks. He wasn’t being a dick or anything, for not only was this how dwarves ensured real plans were made instead of mere ideas, he was offering me an opportunity to showcase my point without seeming like I was preaching.
“An excellent concern that would not stretch the imagination to consider it has been the folly of many who sought the same goal. I believe that is what all of you, my companions, will be for, to keep me grounded and to help restrain my darker impulses to speed things along. I expect I will fail many times before I succeed, and that concessions will need to be made. If anything, the plan will need to adapt constantly to meet the goal, and I expect the council of those here to ensure that I do not overstep on the freewill and wellbeing of mere mortals.”
“That is a noble pursuit for an idealist, Boss, but how would you make it so?” asked Alterez. “I’m not trying to rain on your parade,” he continued as he put his hands in the air in a sign of non-hostility. “I am almost a thousand years old, and I have seen people with such ambitions come and go. None have succeeded. The system isn’t broken; it is working exactly as intended. You are going to step on the toes of powerful people that have established themselves in a lifestyle that would not fit in your world. Convince me that you can get around that, and you will have my vote for this plan.
Everyone looked to me for an answer, one I had thought of over countless nights as I contemplated a solution to that very problem. Ready to bring the hammer down while the iron remained hot, I responded with the best answer I could come up with.
“In truth, it will take great wealth, patience, an information advantage, and perhaps a dose of skullduggery. The main goal is to build, if not a utopia, some place that is much better than what life most people live. You have seen what I can do, how quickly and easily I can build roads and buildings that would take thousands of workers months, if not years, to build, and I do so in a fraction of the time and at a pittance of expenses. If you lived in the slums, and rumors spread of a nearby city that sprung up overnight, one with ample housing, free food, healthcare, education, and opportunities to rise above your station, and all it would cost was to physically walk over to it, would you not take the offer?
“I am not here to conquer the world with the sword, but to build a place so desirable that people will immigrate to it in droves. If I can simply absorb the populace of the workers of a city, then all the city will have left are its nobility and bootlickers. They would have little choice but to toe the line, find a new city to live in, or risk starvation or war where they have no fodder for soldiery. Either way, they lose their wealth, and if they come to me with it, I will have a source to bankroll repeating the process to the next city down the line.”
“Hmm, sounds like a lot of words to say you are starting a cult.” Alterez leaned forward with a devilish smile on his face, one that showed all his shark-like teeth in his all too wide mouth. “I can get behind that.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” chimed in Torborg. I felt my blood run cold as I thought I would lose him unless I assuage his concerns. “It would be a shame to let cities with rich histories and cultures just fade away like that, but on the other hand, many of those cities have a dark history of oppression and poverty among the masses. There would be chaos.”
“There would be opportunity, Torborg,” I countered. “Many people have no opportunity to advance their station in life; they are born poor, they will die poor. Many struggle just to survive, and most have spent a night hungry for lack of food, or cold for lack of shelter. They have no spare energy for education, art, or exploration, for every day could be their last as they are one mistake away from starvation or a beatdown from which they will never rise again.
“Cities are not buildings and infrastructure, but rather people and the systems of how they interact. Those systems could be culture, law, religion, or shared strife. If the people relocate from their cities to mine, then the heart of the city will live on. We can build cities together, complete with the infrastructure to support it, but without the people to breathe life into it, we would just have a fancily arranged collection of brick and stone. What I offer is a chance; it is up to individual people to take it or leave it.”
“I,’ Torborg started, then faltered, as if still collecting his resolve. “I want my family to live in a good world where they will be safe and can pursue their dreams. Indeed, most people claim the same. While dwarves take care of kin and clan, we are almost worse than dragons at hoarding our wealth. We, or at least the heads of clans, are wealthy beyond measure, and we covet our wealth, storing it away in fortress-cities under mountains, where it can tarnish away in vaults that have never seen the light of day. I have often wondered what good the wealth we have, so hidden from the world, serves, if not its own exclusivity of access.
“You say you want to build a better world, and I could probably find fault with any plan you make. However, I would be a hypocrite to not offer my aid when I share your vision. I would probably never find an opportunity even half this good if I lived to be among the oldest of dwarves. If you fail, it is because we failed. You have a clear goal, noble of purpose and pure of intent. Even the mightiest of engineers can not build a city on their own, for many hands make for solid foundations, and many minds make for strong defenses to stave off disaster. I will help you in this undertaking of yours.”
With Torborg swayed, the rest appeared to follow suit. I turned my attention to It-Has-Pockets to see how she felt.
“As we trolls say, keep me fed, bred, and in a comfortable homestead, and I am yours. Sounds like as good a plan as any. Just make sure to spend time with me, ya?”
“Naturally,” I answered, “I will make time for all of you, as much as I can spare given how calamities crop up one after another. I will endeavor to ensure you do not suffer neglect.”
“Fair enough,” It-Has-Pockets replied with a slightly sideways nod, one that agreed but also would see how it played out.
The rest followed suit, with most eager to find their place in this world I intended to build and in my internal hierarchy. I had dangled a tantalizing opportunity in front of them, and each sought a way to leverage it for their own ambitions. Alterez wanted to do cultist stuff. Gambino and Bambina wanted to elevate kobold-kind to dragons, or at least as close as they could get to a draconic heritage. Torborg wanted to build and improve. Bellwright wanted fame and recognition for his skills. It-Has-Pockets wanted to live both a life of luxury and one of adventure. Chooka looked forward to the mountains of paperwork to make this happen and the social intrigue of getting people to buy into it. Nanu craved to manage the network of secrets and information that would be required to pull this off.
Skull wanted almost nothing. My bond to her was the strongest of anyone, at least in my capacity to understand her feelings, for Gulthar had helped forge it. She wanted to protect me, to get in good fights, to join me in my bed, and to spend quality time together making memorable moments. She did not care if I conquered the world or remained an Adventurer, as long as I kept things interesting, and I respected such sentiments. Lucky for her, things would continue in the general trend of being interesting, whether I wanted it or not.