BECMI Chapter 127 – Discussions of Consequences

It was a pretty quiet night, all things considered. Only a couple dragons tried making a run at the ship, no doubt irked by Cirru standing atop it like a conquering queen, but a few lasers or charged bolts to the face and they hastily thought better of testing the security perimeter.

I brought one of the White dragon carcasses back out and butchered it as a way to pass the time, Duum and Cirru very interested to see what I made of the meat. It was very sensitive to heat, of course, so it was made low and slow, with some moderately peppery sauce which became more mint-like as it was cooked, but took readily to becoming thin sausages for munchies.

Decent use of dragon intestines, too. They still needed to be smoked properly, which I made mental notes on as I ground up muscle and organs and spices and fat, mixing in a bit of pork and venison and beef in different ratios to find out what worked best. Ended up with about thirty different sub-varieties to taste-test, each with about fifty pounds of sausages.

Blue dragon and Bat were plenty happy to sample all of them unsmoked and uncooked, cooked, and were happy to wait for the smoked versions, too.

The also had an extensive store of herbs and spices of all kinds, along with internal greenhouses. Matter replicators could make organic meals, but it was similar to manna in that it tasted artificial, and certainly didn’t have the texture and pleasurable dining experience of real food. I made sure to yoink a lot of samples of said materials for testing, and potentially growing them later for my own use… as long as they didn’t turn into ecological disasters, as it were.

I /asked neutrally.

I could feel the emotional stress in her /reply. -No, Edge. Not a one. Even, even the children are pinging Evil when we find them. It’s like they are born that way...-

The Free Company was engaged in untrammeled aggression against the beast-folk of the mountains, following them into the caves they normally could retreat to for shelter and cleaning them out. Some aggressive and committed elves, dwarves, and hyn had signed up with them, very interested in the kind of warfare and coordination that was going on. The coordination and communication capabilities of Marks was absolutely no joke.

I was quiet as I considered Belle’s words. It was absolutely NOT impossible to be Aligned when you were born. I was living proof of that.

-Yes, worse than humans. They basically hunt everything and breed.-

-For all practical purposes, yes. No scouts were able to find an ancestral homeland more than a handful of their generations old,- she /confirmed. -What are you thinking?-

I considered the facts coldly and mercilessly.

She considered those words, and could find little to refute them. -So, this is literally an Evil unleashed into the world at the will of an Immortal, but born mortal instead of, oh, raising an undead army, or a force of fiends to invade externally, but an invasion nonetheless.-

Belle could only take a deep breath. -So, what is the proper course of action?- she /asked.

Because that was the more subtle and devastating thing to do.

Belle was painfully silent. -That… is not a very elven thing to do,- she /said quietly.

-And you are going to do so.- It wasn’t a question. I could not in good conscience allow such a thing to be unleashed on people, knowing what I knew now.

I did indeed have a great amount of things to juggle on my plate, but it didn’t matter. It was something I could work on in my off-time.

Did I expect retribution? Probably. We’d just have to see who was going to show their hands… and it didn’t mean I couldn’t make a move or two of my own in that direction.

-What are your plans for the aliens?- she /asked, changing the subject meaning she needed time to think on what she was going to do.

-I must confess that their technology makes me uneasy. It is so very different from the magic we elves command...-

Probably the most frightening thing you could say to a Zanzyran spellcaster, really, although elves had some insulation because we didn’t forget our fighting roots. Actually, what it meant to us was that elves could get really, really dangerous, because we could use both sides of the equation!

She understood that after a moment. After all, wasn’t that why she was here?

-You advocated that I should learn the longsword, the longbow, and the dagger as the ancestral weapons of my people,- she /said slowly. -Should I do the same with these new weapons?-

Actually, I hadn’t thought about that myself. I was totally an idiot

There was a pause as she pictured all of that. -They are extremely colorful and eye-catching, and they use light,- she /admitted cautiously.

I could feel her interest promptly spike way over here.

I /added thoughtfully.I /pointed out. Barhund

-Magical advancement, too?- Princess Brittabelle was startled. -Are you certain?-

Barhund’s

I paused to let her process all that.