Monarkea sighed as the last member of the Alliance’s upper brass left. The list of demands given by the various different members were steep, but they were not nearly as crippling or as potent as either she or Vyviir had thought they would be.

This was almost certainly due to Lord Vaile’s intervention. Had he remained silent, then it would have been far more likely that not only would the Domain have been wiped away along with all of its residents, but also that she and Vyviir would have been killed due to their failures.

Many of the members of the Alliance were, beyond a shadow of a doubt, filled with nothing but animosity towards everything in the New World, and that included those that served the other members of the top brass. Few survived the first few millennia that followed the shift from what once was to the world as it was now, and even those that still remained had a sneaking suspicion that the transition they had been forced to endure had not been the first of its kind.

The Wardens had come down hard in those early days, and many had fallen before those damn wannabe gods pissed off to lick their wounds and think of new ways to fuck everyone over. If what her father had told her and the other members of the Alliance was true, then he had glimpsed their new plan for the New World and its inhabitants, and it was not one filled with sunshine and flowers.

As such, and given that everyone still around (or at least their descendants) would be needed in the inevitable eventuality of another all-out war with those damn asshat Wardens, it was good that she and her father both got a boost in power and were able to survive, all while keeping their lands and the vast majority of their stuff and people. And, while the losses the Domain was going to take to make sure that the issue regarding her father’s breach of conduct would indeed be weighty, they were still much better than the alternative.

Besides, she and her father were gods, so losing a few Greatwyrms and a bit of their hoardes was a small price to pay in exchange for keeping everything else intact and untouched. To quote a dumb little shit of a Player that had tried to fight her back when she was younger only to find himself permanently added to her collection, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”, but she would have to add that the quote only applied to other people, and not herself and her father, to say nothing of Lord Vaile.

But all of the monotony of mundane existence would now be handled by her father, as she was now in charge, and therefore had many more important things to do. Her father had handed all of that stuff over to her so long ago, citing his own position and importance as reasons why she should be the one to run the country while he did whatever he wanted.

Now, to quote the Races, “the shoe was on the other foot”. Or maybe it was back to the foot it had been on before that first changing of duties? She honestly didn’t know if there was an expression that the Races used to cover that kind of event, and to be brutally honest she didn’t care, either.

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The day had been very tiring, and now she could finally retire for the day and get some much-needed rest and relaxation. Or at least she would have done so had she not remembered that there was very, very, urgent business back in the horde that her father had been in at the start of the day that needed attending to.

She had just remembered that her father, in his manipulated state, had utterly trashed the place, and no dragon worth their salt would ever allow such a travesty to remain unaltered. She had worried back then that the damage would be irreversible, but now that she had both her own initial power and all of that of her possessed father before his resurgence, she felt confident that she would be able to remake or repair that which had been seemingly damaged beyond Any hope of either of those two outcomes.

…

In fact, Monarkea was so laser-focused on undoing that ungodly travesty that she failed to notice that Lord Vaile was waiting patiently for her just a little way into the formerly dwarf-owned hold, standing at an angle with his back flat against a wall. Perhaps it would have been better for her eventual mental state in the future if she had been a bit slower, as her speed was enough to cause a gust of wind that knocked Lord Vaile over.

Lord Vaile, for his part, simply stood back up, dusted himself off, and went back to leaning against the side of the wall as if nothing had happened, seemingly oblivious to the looks he was getting from dragons and their lesser kin alike. Vyviir, though, did take notice, and approached Lord Vaile before transforming into a more human-sized anthropomorphic form and taking a knee.

“My Lord and Master, I know that earlier you forgave me for my treason, but I must beg you to take something of value from me.”

Lord Vaile shook his head as though he was annoyed at this request, but rather than outright denying Vyviir’s plea for some form of punishment, he instead took up a position when he was able to look down on the more compact form of the ancient dragon.

“Vyviir, I understand why you want me to do that, and while I don’t particularly agree with the idea, I will just go through with it anyway because I know for damn sure that if I don’t your draconic code of honor will demand that you go out of your way to atone for who knows how long and at who knows what cost. I can’t have that, as you are too valuable for me to simply let die without damn good reason now that you are back and in control of yourself again.”

Lord Vaile looked down at the ancient wyrm and made his decision. He knew what he wanted, but Vyviir would not give him that, and so he, in His infinite mercy, settled for the second option. It would be costly for the venerable old dragon, but it would be far better for all involved (though not the Wardens and their puppets) than simply discarding him or condemning him to disgrace and humiliation, which would, in turn, have led Vyviir on a self-destructive path of penitent violence against any who served the false gods.

And so he spoke his price, a mere pittance of what some would say should have been demanded in exchange for forgiveness, and His mercy was made clear once again to all, both far and wide.