BECMI Chapter 254 – The Future to Fight For

Probably much to the dismay of any Treekeepers of those elven tribes displayed there, the locations of the Lumina Trees rose up, widely distributed across the map. Locations of other tribes subservient to those Trees, as well as tribes and minor settlements of human barbarians spread between the elves, rose up in great numbers there.Truly, the area north of the Great Bay was wide open, but the increased winter weather and utter lack of large settlements tended to inhibit growth.

Also, there were a lot of wandering tribes of nifloids, particularly orcs, skirmishing with everyone and also trying to scrape out a living in the harsh land there. Trolls, ogres, and hill giants were also common, and goblins and kobolds lived in the cracks here and there, although the latter preferred the mountains closer to their draconic idols.

Most worriedly, there was a major frost giant kingdom with over two thousand warriors to the utter north, a short trip across a sea that was known to freeze solid in the winter here.

Frost giants served Tyrm, which was one of Guzgul’s alternate forms, along with being the Fire Giant god Surt…

Definitely not the most peaceful and serene of lands to found a kingdom in, but I wasn’t a peaceful person, so that didn’t bother me. The mortals of this era learned to fight and reveled in it for a damn good reason.

The Immortals loved themselves some war, and the conflict between races was just an easy means of stirring up entertainment.

Nobody said much about my choice of venues. That it was a potential home for the elves of Darkmoor was also a given, if they wanted to come there. However, I had to prepare the place, which included traveling around to all the major clans here and explaining to them what I was going to do.

Yes, going to do. I wasn’t asking them for anything. I was going to do this. Too many Immortal tests required the establishments of nations or organizations, and I refused to do anything half-arse in proving I didn’t need their help to accomplish this.

I was going to make Eternal one way or another, and stomping on their Immortal tests was just one way it was going to happen.

I looked at the territory again, especially the territory with human settlers, and tilted my head. “Sama, would King Brucall call for lords?” I asked of her, looking at the arc which included the lands the Moorians were intending on claiming.

“A call for nobles?” Sama repeated thoughtfully. I highlighted in green all the areas an incoming would-be nobleman might want to claim, spread all along the Dawnbreak Coast and Great Bay for emphasis.

There was a lot of overlap with both my chosen territory and those of the Moorians. Sure, lords might choose to go inland closer to Aetla, but why? Distance from Aetla meant more independence and lip service to said king, depending on their inclinations to loyalty.

Briggs leaned forward suddenly, massive palms coming down on the table. “That would be an inspired move on his part. If he can get some loyal, powerful nobles to come here and claim land in his name, he can take the area without effort on his own, letting them clear the land and do the work for the chance at becoming nobles. He obviously doesn’t have enough retainers to truly claim anything from Aetla itself, and there are no true human realms that aren’t tied to the three cities here. If they actually unite under his banner, he instantly creates an entire nation worthy of being called a king over, and intimidates any challengers to the title.”

“Also directly interfering with our plans for the area,” King Antius noted ironically. “Why do I have the sudden feeling I might be the first of these to be so offered?”

“Because he can’t issue a call of that kind in the Delphan Empire,” Sama responded immediately, studying the map with flickers of heavens-blue eyes. Even Antius had found himself deeply unnerved by how easily Sama could read through people and their motivations, especially on the field of battle. Briggs was demonstrably better at logistics and outright leadership of troops, but in terms of sussing out enemy commanders, Sama was frightening… and although he was acclaimed a Grandmaster of draughts, he still had yet to win a single game against her!

“Explain?” the surprised Sir Godfrey spoke up, surprised at her words.

“What happens if he issues a Call for nobility and dominion lords, when he’s basically just an appointed figurehead in the eyes of the Empire?” Sama replied to him.

“Ah.” The Paladin of Darkmoor slowly nodded. “He’ll attract Delphan loyalists eager to prove themselves to the Empress and the Empire, not to ”

“And they’ll likely be mages, too. Who are already nobles in Delpha, and specifically would naturally outrank him. He’s just a figurehead son of the Empress, not true nobility,” Marius interjected into this, also seeing that fact. “If he sends out a Call, he’ll make himself and his new kingdom true thralls of Delpha, make himself irrelevant, and likely immediately start a war with Siricil as a recognized puppet state, yes?” he asked Sama.

Sama nodded shortly. “If he issues a Call, he’s going to want people from this side of the Dawnbreak, so it can be seen he’s not a Delphan puppet, and that he’s putting warriors and non-Casters in positions of power and importance. This would make him naturally a neutral third party… which doesn’t necessarily strengthen his position, but it does mean he has room to grow and expand personally, instead of leaning on his mother.”

“He will be infiltrated by dozens of spies and traitors from Siricil, and will certainly have countless Delphan loyalists among his own people already!” the Catcher spluttered in outrage. “Could a king even be so foolish? When the attacks come, he’ll have treachery inside and outside of his own forces gutting him before he even moves!”

“And you believe the son of an Empress who wanted a kingly seat and was given it has a great interest in subterfuge and intelligence operations?” I asked the Catcher archly, who could only shake his head and roll his eyes ruefully. “I agree that issuing a Call for noble rulers is a good idea on his part, I concur he will not do so in Delpha, and I agree it’s a disastrous event for espionage purposes if he asks on this side of the ocean. Siricil in particular will attempt to flood him with potential lordlings who will conquer his new kingdom out from under him with minimal effort, and doubtless send assassins trying to kill any others.” I closed my eyes and put my hands together. “In short… we have to prevent him from issuing that call, if he is so planning on doing one. Otherwise we will be spending far too much time killing corrupt lordlings.”

“So, we have to respond,” King Antius murmured. “It seems there are two courts we must pay heed to, then. I believe our Warlords are uniquely capable of visiting the King of the Dragonfangs, if we can but locate his lair, doubtless a test all its own. Lady Edge, I believe it would be wise as the two whose territory he will doubtless be impinging on to attend together… as I believe magical muscle will prove most useful in dealing with a son of Delpha.”

I tilted my head. “Sama has to come with us.” Sama blinked in horror. “Sir Godfrey would go with Briggs.” I turned to Sama. “You need to test him for being Forsaken. He’s past the time needed to do so, but he has no children as yet. The Delphans are an extremely magical people, so any of their children who emphatically are NOT magical likely have extreme resistance to it.

“I think you will become our biggest negotiating pick.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. “Fuzzy could wait a day or two!” she proposed brightly.

“Sir Godfrey should go with him regardless. A Paladin should be taken very seriously by a dragon, and he can speak for his king and people. If we seek to recruit King Brucall, I will be needed to him to silence on the matter.”

“This will be the first time our chosen monarch has to deal with outsiders, so it will be a big moment and watched by many eyes. After all, they know very little of us,” the Catcher warned us.

“We aren’t worried about them acting rashly and trying something on us, Catch,” Antius mollified his spymaster. “Do you even want to imagine the carnage if they did?”

The Catcher looked at his king, then moved his eyes over to me, and finally to Sama, whose slow smile opened up to gleam with eight canines.

“That would be an absolute disaster for them,” he conceded calmly. “Please don’t instigate the killing of the son of the empress of an overpowered magical empire at this time!”

“Intimidate the heck out of him, yes. Kill him, no,” I agreed simply. “We are going there with Sama. He’s going to fanboi all over the greatest swordmaster on the planet. She’s going to walk all over him without effort.”

Sama cocked her head at me, then glanced over at Briggs with a grin. “Briggs should come along then, I don’t want him getting ideas. And that means we should make it a party, right?”

“How seriously are we intending to take this man? Are you asking us to reveal all our cards, and invite him to swear Oath and join the Markspace? I cannot picture him Swearing under anyone, Sama. He’s dreaming of being an emperor,” I refuted her.

“What he calls an emperor and what we call an Emperor are two very different things. He does not and likely will never have the ability to become the latter, and we aren’t going to be impressed by the former. He has no chance of becoming the former or the latter with us around, and if he tries to remove us, he won’t be a king, either,” Sama said flatly. “Best to crush his childish fantasies and give him some adult dreams to replace them. Maybe he can finally earn something in this life.”

We couldn’t very well deny that. Nobody here had actually inherited much of anything, and were mostly self-made. That wasn’t to say we didn’t have subordinates who were born to the nobility, but the ones we recruited were big on both duty and loyalty, not just the latter, and determined to make things and help things along.

Someone who’d just been appointed to a position in order to get rid of him, even if he had best of intentions and dreams for his new position, was little better to us than a kid in a toy store determined to live out his fantasies.

As for the Red dragon who was King of the Dragonfangs, dealing with him and the thousands of dragons who paid at least lip service to him was going to be a long-term problem.

That was made very, very clear because there was not a single Gold or Ruby dragon among the mountains of the Dragonfangs, and they were extremely scarce in the Iceteeth and Last ranges, as well. Those were the dragons who got along best with mortals of all stripes, and that didn’t bode well.

I had a decent ear to the ground, and the natives of Eislas that we’d met, from barbarians to farmers, had no idea of the number of dragons that lived inland like that… which meant those dragons preyed on things elsewhere, and the only direction left was further inland.

I presumed the reason hordes of nifloids didn’t regularly sweep through the area from the interior was because dragons were eating them regularly, a truly mixed blessing. The dragons didn’t want to stir up southern adventurers, but neither did they want mortals pressing into their territories and raiding their hoards.

Clearly there would be conflict. How we managed it was going to be interesting…