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Into the Icy Darkness II: The Next Generation
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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1613114" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p>The council meeting was brutally short, and the four friends found themselves waiting barely fifteen minutes before the chamber doors burst open and Lucius stormed out, fury etched on his face.</p><p></p><p>“It’s war,” he said simply, as his two children, his adopted niece, and the young foreign prince fell in behind. “House Vendome turned over to us this morning a letter they claimed was ‘unsolicited,’ demanding the other barons rise up in arms against <em>me</em>!” Lucius snarled. “I’d expect that many other houses have recieved these letters calling for open rebellion!”</p><p></p><p>“We’ll still beat them,” the Emperor heard his son say confidently.</p><p></p><p>“We’ll find out shortly. I’ve ordered a meeting of the <em>regis terra</em>, leaders of the land, to demand their fealty and loyalty, as well as ask for their renewed support,” Lucius said quietly. “The barons within the city, as well as the heads of the various churches and monastic orders should be arriving in the Throne Room within the hour.... then I’ll find out how deep this plot goes.”</p><p></p><p>“They’d be foolish not to back the Dragon Emperor,” Valaron repeated again, confidence riding high in his voice. “You are unmatched in war!”</p><p></p><p>“War?” Vintressa asked quietly. The princess nervously glanced outside the rows of windows the small entourage passed as they walked through the palace, and one by one, the distant towers of the innermost city towers became ablaze... warning fires lit on their turrets.</p><p></p><p>“Yes... I’ve ordered the Imperial army to be mustered,” Lucius growled. “Diogenes expects within two weeks we can put together our first army... forty thousand foot and twenty thousand horse.”</p><p></p><p>Valaron’s eyes betrayed nothing less than excitement. “Father, do I have to go to the Valley? I’d be more useful in one of the armies, leading from the front!” he half whined, half gibbered in excitement. His mind filled with the stories he had heard from the officers that had served sixteen years before and from Kelir. The stories of glory won on the battlefield. Of meeting demons and beasts head on... of do-or-die situations, and the victorious, glorious triumph.</p><p></p><p>His comment prompted his father to stop his strides forward, and turn to the young man, eyes dead serious.</p><p></p><p>“You are fortunate. You have never seen a full battle. It is not as much glory and glamour as the stories made it. They leave out the carnage, the blood, the broken souls!” the Emperor half growled. At seeing his son recoil slightly, a sad half-smile began to from on Luke’s face. “You are so fortunate, and yet you don’t realize it!” He looked up for a second, before turning around to continue his march. “No, you’re going to go with Raven and some guardsmen to Kulloden! Its the opposite direction from Comnitas, and there you’ll find this Fire Stone... as well as helping our friend!” the Emperor gave a vague reference to Ari. </p><p></p><p>Royukgan had not been privy to their discussion about the prismatic dragon. And while it looked increasingly likely he was mentioned only as a bluff to extend the threat to cover friends of the Emperor, Lucius didn’t want to take any chances. Valaron was to take Ari with him, and guard the inquisitive creature as well as possible.</p><p></p><p>Below his breath, in a voice he hoped his son would not hear, the Emperor also muttered, “You’ll be safer there. You are like your mother... you would be reckless. I’ll let you be reckless where there is less chance of you hurting yourself...”</p><p></p><p>“But father-“ Valaron’s teenage whine started, only to halt as seeing his father not even turn to acknowledge it. His head fell, he knew he’d lost.</p><p></p><p>“Vintressa, this makes your job more important,” the Emperor said after a few minutes of silence. “I have utmost confidence in the palace guard, but as for the other security personnel... I believe your suspicions are correct. Hemmel had help getting this close to us, even if it took him five years to work his way in,” the Emperor mused aloud. “Diogenes will be marching out with the second army, which will be ready in a month’s time. And I have no doubt your mother will march out as well.”</p><p></p><p>“So <em>I’ll</em> be in charge of the palace?” Vintressa asked warily, to a nod from the Emperor. “But, I mean...”</p><p></p><p>“Vintressa, you’ve shown me you have an intelligent mind on your shoulders... and a cool, steady hand. You will not be alone... the City Governor will still be here.” The Emperor then turned his head again. “And I need you to watch over the palace, your two younger siblings, and Prince Royukgan. This is perhaps the safest place for them!”</p><p></p><p>“Yes father,” she nodded in understanding. </p><p></p><p>“And now, if you’ll follow me, I would appreciate you four by my side when I demand loyalty from this rabble,” the Emperor growled. “And meet a group that I know all of you have heard of that can help us.”</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Imperial Throne room had always been designed to inspire fear and awe in whoever entered its depths seeking a meeting with the Imperial Person. Its massive marble and gilt colors, decorated in beautiful colors, and its ornate and priceless silk tapestries, depicting battles won and glory gained, were all expressly designed for this purpose. And as overly ornate and gaudy as the current Emperor may have thought it was when he first sat on the throne, Lucius now realized its purpose, even to the point of adding his own touch to the immense hall.</p><p></p><p>Hanging above the massive Dragon Throne, its gilt form rising in mighty fury above the Emperor’s head, hung another form of draconic fury... this one preserved in its final roar. </p><p></p><p>The eyes of the great wyrm Stalatan’s head were, of necessity, fake. The teeth, scales, horns and the like were not. And their formidable form now loomed over a bevy of the elite of the Imperial society, come to give condolences to the Emperor and cries of support. Word had spread through the city like wildfire, and at Vintressa’s insistence, Luke had written up an official statement of what happened, to stop rumors from flying.</p><p></p><p>In the spacious hall in front of them, Valaron and Vintressa could make out the High Prelate of the Church of Tarantor, the Most Holy Commander of the Righteous, chief of the Hieroneous Church, His Holiness, Speaker of the Light from the Church of Pelor, and many of the other chiefs of the sanctioned religions of the Empire. Most of the nobles currently in the city were present, adding a riot of color to the crowd.</p><p></p><p>Somewhere out there was also the representative of the one institution and family that the two twins wanted to talk to. Their leader could not be present... she was currently absent from the Empire... and likely completely off-world.</p><p></p><p><em>Aunt Tess would know what to do,</em> Vintressa thought quietly as the parade of pomp and circumstance filed into the room. Even as the Chief Prelate began an opening prayer asking the Empire and her father to be blessed, and justice be done to the offenders, Vintressa could see her father’s hands gripping the throne so hard that his knuckles were white.</p><p></p><p>‘Aunt Tess’ had been the third and, in Vintressa’s mind, most important cog of the old traveling friends from some time before. The bard was not only beautiful, but sharp-minded. Frequently, when her ‘Uncle’ Shaun had run around like a fowl with no head, and Vintressa’s own mother had wanted to draw her blade and fight almost certain doom, Tess had figured out a way for them to come to the best situation... and save their hides.</p><p></p><p>True, she did have several breakdowns involving interrogating evil after her own brother was slain, and true, she did single-handedly cause all the Nine Hells to want her dead, but she’d somehow survived... not only survived, Vintressa corrected herself, but thrived.</p><p></p><p>Vintressa had always been saddened that Tesseron was not around as much as the other friends of her parents. She’d sit by the bard’s knee many times, listening and learning how to reason, think, and when to act on instinct, and when to sit down and use logic. It was Aunt Tess that got her started on mind puzzles early on, and taught her that for every situation, there were multiple paths... one merely had to plan.</p><p></p><p><em>Aunt Tess... what would you do?</em> Vin thought to herself as the Chief Prelate finished his longwinded prayer, and en masse the nobles present repeated their oaths of allegiance. <em>Sit down and think for a few moments, discover my opponents wants and goals,</em> Tess’ voice replied quietly from Vintressa’s memory, <em>figure out what they want, why they want it, and how they are prepared to get it. Then, and only then, will I come up with a response. If I know all three of the above... then... then I can hit them from three points; deny them what they want, deny them their reason for wanting it, or deny them the means to get it.</em></p><p></p><p><em>What do they want?</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The Fire Stone... and Ari. Or did they really want Ari? They mentioned him in passing... they might just have wanted to hint danger to Aunt Elenya and Uncle Shaun...</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Why do they want it?</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>It has some kind of power likely. What power? I don’t know. I need to answer that.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>How are they going to get it?</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>They can’t. They need someone of Caladron blood to fetch it...</em> This part of the problem also stuck in her mind as well.</p><p></p><p>As the monotonous series of prayers from all the churches dragged to a close, Vintressa barely listened as her father announced there had indeed, been an assassination attempt on the Empress, that it had failed, and that the culprits were being tracked down. Of course he didn’t name names... only few parts of what was no doubt a widespread conspiracy were known... possibly even one or more of the many gathered here that had only minutes before prayed for long life to the Emperor.</p><p></p><p>Not naming anyone put everyone on notice. And when the guilty are on notice... there’s a higher chance they’ll do something incriminating...</p><p></p><p>The Emperor then spoke of the letters, the threats for insurrection. He added in some savory details Xanadu had deemed prudent to add in as ‘filler,’ pieces of information that weren’t actually in the seized letters, but could be reasonably inferred, knowing how the Baron Erelion operated. Some of these included how House Erelion planned to kill off other noble families and divide up the land, of what chaos and prolonged civil war would destroy in terms of revenues, livelihoods, and human suffering. It was an appeal to the minds, hearts, guts, and pocketbooks of those present to ally with the current ruling family, and crush the rebellion as quickly as possible, to save as much of the country from war as possible.</p><p></p><p>The Emperor then issued the call for fealty, asking those that would stay with the Emperor to kneel, and before all of the gods aligned, swear loyalty to the crown. To the surprise of the four young people, they could hear the noise of footfalls from people leaving the hall. The crowd was too large to see who, but none had any doubt the Emperor had people watching to catalogue who refused to swear loyalty.</p><p></p><p>The rest, en masse, fell on one knee, and thousands then placed their heads upon their knees, speaking the words in old Common that translated to, “One Emperor for One Empire, we swear loyalty to the Draconic Crown!”</p><p></p><p>The pledge was something that was bound with holy power... it was an oath sworn in front of the highest clerics of most of the patron dieties and saints of these very noble houses. Failure to follow through with such an oath would undoubtedly bring chaos on their house.</p><p></p><p>However, Vintressa’s politically astute mind realized, the oath merely called for loyalty, not active support. It was entirely reasonable that a baron swear loyalty to the crown and thus not take up arms against it. He wasn’t required to actively provide troops, as long as he paid his taxes, respected imperial laws, etc. And from the perspective of many of these nobles, who had no idea someone had come so close to taking out the Emperor, the wise course of action <em>would be</em> to sit on the sidelines. </p><p></p><p>In the dirty politics of the Imperial nobility, being a bystander was always preferable to being on a potentially losing side in a squabble of these proportions.</p><p></p><p>As the nobles, prelates, churchmen, and other notaries began to file out, a single man, clad in a uniform of brown color, emblazoned with a sky blue chimera, stepped forward. With a deep bow, he held out his hand in a posture of giving to the Emperor, and ancient custom where the subject symbolically offered their obedience to the ruler.</p><p></p><p>Vintressa could make out words on his hand as her father thanked him. As soon as the words came from the Emperor’s mouth, the words vanished, and the man stood, bowed again, and excused himself.</p><p></p><p>When the great doors to the room closed, and they were alone, Vintressa was immediately by her father’s side.</p><p></p><p>“What did it say? What news from the organization!?”</p><p></p><p>“How do you know it was from Aunt Tess’ group?” Lucius raised an eyebrow.</p><p></p><p>“Because she sends people to you with magical writing on their hands that only appears in your presence,” Valaron rolled his eyes. “Its obvious. I’m sure the others in the organization do it as well!”</p><p></p><p>“My, how perceptive you are,” Luke smiled. “Very simply, she’s heard of the... incident, and she is traveling back to focus her own people to help us out. She’ll be teleporting in within a few days...”</p><p></p><p>“She <em>will!?</em>” Vintressa jumped up excitedly. </p><p></p><p>“ Which means for the next two days you’re going to stay put, Val... at least until we can find out how many of her people can help you out.” <em>I’m not about to let you go off in the wild if there is more help I can spare...</em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Hemmel growled as another mug was placed in front of him. He looked up at the waitress, and gave her a gruff nod of thanks. Taverns were an excellent place to pick up rougher mannerisms and speech... something Hemmel would have to re-learn after spending five years in the Imperial Court.</p><p></p><p>His eyes took in the crowd calmly and coolly. It was the early morning folks at the <em>Pony Alehouse and Eatery</em> were busy enjoying one of the establishment’s trademarks... its excellent poached eggs for breakfast. In fact, Hemmel was enjoying some himself, and he did have to admit that for their price of a silver piece, it was very good.</p><p></p><p>Hemmel chuckled at the irony, just before the numerous itches in his chin annoyed him again. In slight frustration, he scratched the long shadow growing over his face, and the greasy hair that covered his head. At the palace, he had been used to shaving often, and cleaning his hair frequently. After only a few days of not doing such, his appearance had started to change.</p><p></p><p><em>I am eating in the business owned by the friend of my enemy,</em> he chuckled, stuffing another piece of egg in his mouth. It had been a boon that he’d stumbled on this place, and its very friendly and talkative staff. </p><p></p><p>It was here that Hemmel found out the Dice family had extensive connections all over the Valley. They owned a series of chicken farms outside the city that gave them a steady supply of eggs for the tavern. They owned stakes in several of the local mines. They owned a series of magic shops in Kulloden, Holstean and Irulas. The more Hemmel heard, the elder Dice sounded less and less like a reformed thief and more and more like a consumate investor and businessman.</p><p></p><p>He also learned more of the matriach of the family, that she was head of the local Mages’ Guild, and being eyed by one of the various ‘schools’ of Magic, the Council of the Fine Art of Abjurance, as a possible council member. </p><p></p><p><em>Amazing one can learn with a few questions, and more listening at the proper locations,</em> Hemmel thought, sipping on the wine he’d been handed. It was cheap, he could tell, but palatable. He’d had far worse.</p><p></p><p>Quietly he looked up at the bar. The same halfling was there, smiling and laughing with what Hemmel assumed was a regular. It was apparent the short creature was on a stool of some sort when he suddenly did a handstand, and thrust his hand out towards the other man.</p><p></p><p>Behind him was an young woman with raven hair and green eyes... the same girl that Hemmel had thought was following him for a few minutes after his arrival in the city. Now it was apparent who she was... daughter of the Dice’s. His brain categorized her as one to watch.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, none of them pertained to his plans in the city... nor the color-filled boy that showed up occassionally and was quite loud. House Erelion did not care about the dragon... it had been a herring tossed in for expressly this situation. Hemmel had failed once... but he would not fail again.</p><p></p><p>He finished the rest of his eggs, and waited fort he waitress to come over to collect his plate before placing a few copper beside the dirty dishes as he rose to leave. Hemmel might be an assassin, but there were some aspects of civilization he would keep with him.</p><p></p><p>“You are a kind gentleman, sir,” the young woman nodded her head in thanks as she picked up the dishes.</p><p></p><p><em>A gentleman,</em> the words struck a chord in Hemmel, before he shook his head. No, he would not let his mind go there. With a polite smile, he thanked her for her compliment, and walked out of the tavern into the morning sun. </p><p></p><p>It would be a long day ahead, and he would have much planning to do.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 1613114, member: 15043"] The council meeting was brutally short, and the four friends found themselves waiting barely fifteen minutes before the chamber doors burst open and Lucius stormed out, fury etched on his face. “It’s war,” he said simply, as his two children, his adopted niece, and the young foreign prince fell in behind. “House Vendome turned over to us this morning a letter they claimed was ‘unsolicited,’ demanding the other barons rise up in arms against [i]me[/i]!” Lucius snarled. “I’d expect that many other houses have recieved these letters calling for open rebellion!” “We’ll still beat them,” the Emperor heard his son say confidently. “We’ll find out shortly. I’ve ordered a meeting of the [i]regis terra[/i], leaders of the land, to demand their fealty and loyalty, as well as ask for their renewed support,” Lucius said quietly. “The barons within the city, as well as the heads of the various churches and monastic orders should be arriving in the Throne Room within the hour.... then I’ll find out how deep this plot goes.” “They’d be foolish not to back the Dragon Emperor,” Valaron repeated again, confidence riding high in his voice. “You are unmatched in war!” “War?” Vintressa asked quietly. The princess nervously glanced outside the rows of windows the small entourage passed as they walked through the palace, and one by one, the distant towers of the innermost city towers became ablaze... warning fires lit on their turrets. “Yes... I’ve ordered the Imperial army to be mustered,” Lucius growled. “Diogenes expects within two weeks we can put together our first army... forty thousand foot and twenty thousand horse.” Valaron’s eyes betrayed nothing less than excitement. “Father, do I have to go to the Valley? I’d be more useful in one of the armies, leading from the front!” he half whined, half gibbered in excitement. His mind filled with the stories he had heard from the officers that had served sixteen years before and from Kelir. The stories of glory won on the battlefield. Of meeting demons and beasts head on... of do-or-die situations, and the victorious, glorious triumph. His comment prompted his father to stop his strides forward, and turn to the young man, eyes dead serious. “You are fortunate. You have never seen a full battle. It is not as much glory and glamour as the stories made it. They leave out the carnage, the blood, the broken souls!” the Emperor half growled. At seeing his son recoil slightly, a sad half-smile began to from on Luke’s face. “You are so fortunate, and yet you don’t realize it!” He looked up for a second, before turning around to continue his march. “No, you’re going to go with Raven and some guardsmen to Kulloden! Its the opposite direction from Comnitas, and there you’ll find this Fire Stone... as well as helping our friend!” the Emperor gave a vague reference to Ari. Royukgan had not been privy to their discussion about the prismatic dragon. And while it looked increasingly likely he was mentioned only as a bluff to extend the threat to cover friends of the Emperor, Lucius didn’t want to take any chances. Valaron was to take Ari with him, and guard the inquisitive creature as well as possible. Below his breath, in a voice he hoped his son would not hear, the Emperor also muttered, “You’ll be safer there. You are like your mother... you would be reckless. I’ll let you be reckless where there is less chance of you hurting yourself...” “But father-“ Valaron’s teenage whine started, only to halt as seeing his father not even turn to acknowledge it. His head fell, he knew he’d lost. “Vintressa, this makes your job more important,” the Emperor said after a few minutes of silence. “I have utmost confidence in the palace guard, but as for the other security personnel... I believe your suspicions are correct. Hemmel had help getting this close to us, even if it took him five years to work his way in,” the Emperor mused aloud. “Diogenes will be marching out with the second army, which will be ready in a month’s time. And I have no doubt your mother will march out as well.” “So [i]I’ll[/i] be in charge of the palace?” Vintressa asked warily, to a nod from the Emperor. “But, I mean...” “Vintressa, you’ve shown me you have an intelligent mind on your shoulders... and a cool, steady hand. You will not be alone... the City Governor will still be here.” The Emperor then turned his head again. “And I need you to watch over the palace, your two younger siblings, and Prince Royukgan. This is perhaps the safest place for them!” “Yes father,” she nodded in understanding. “And now, if you’ll follow me, I would appreciate you four by my side when I demand loyalty from this rabble,” the Emperor growled. “And meet a group that I know all of you have heard of that can help us.” The Imperial Throne room had always been designed to inspire fear and awe in whoever entered its depths seeking a meeting with the Imperial Person. Its massive marble and gilt colors, decorated in beautiful colors, and its ornate and priceless silk tapestries, depicting battles won and glory gained, were all expressly designed for this purpose. And as overly ornate and gaudy as the current Emperor may have thought it was when he first sat on the throne, Lucius now realized its purpose, even to the point of adding his own touch to the immense hall. Hanging above the massive Dragon Throne, its gilt form rising in mighty fury above the Emperor’s head, hung another form of draconic fury... this one preserved in its final roar. The eyes of the great wyrm Stalatan’s head were, of necessity, fake. The teeth, scales, horns and the like were not. And their formidable form now loomed over a bevy of the elite of the Imperial society, come to give condolences to the Emperor and cries of support. Word had spread through the city like wildfire, and at Vintressa’s insistence, Luke had written up an official statement of what happened, to stop rumors from flying. In the spacious hall in front of them, Valaron and Vintressa could make out the High Prelate of the Church of Tarantor, the Most Holy Commander of the Righteous, chief of the Hieroneous Church, His Holiness, Speaker of the Light from the Church of Pelor, and many of the other chiefs of the sanctioned religions of the Empire. Most of the nobles currently in the city were present, adding a riot of color to the crowd. Somewhere out there was also the representative of the one institution and family that the two twins wanted to talk to. Their leader could not be present... she was currently absent from the Empire... and likely completely off-world. [i]Aunt Tess would know what to do,[/i] Vintressa thought quietly as the parade of pomp and circumstance filed into the room. Even as the Chief Prelate began an opening prayer asking the Empire and her father to be blessed, and justice be done to the offenders, Vintressa could see her father’s hands gripping the throne so hard that his knuckles were white. ‘Aunt Tess’ had been the third and, in Vintressa’s mind, most important cog of the old traveling friends from some time before. The bard was not only beautiful, but sharp-minded. Frequently, when her ‘Uncle’ Shaun had run around like a fowl with no head, and Vintressa’s own mother had wanted to draw her blade and fight almost certain doom, Tess had figured out a way for them to come to the best situation... and save their hides. True, she did have several breakdowns involving interrogating evil after her own brother was slain, and true, she did single-handedly cause all the Nine Hells to want her dead, but she’d somehow survived... not only survived, Vintressa corrected herself, but thrived. Vintressa had always been saddened that Tesseron was not around as much as the other friends of her parents. She’d sit by the bard’s knee many times, listening and learning how to reason, think, and when to act on instinct, and when to sit down and use logic. It was Aunt Tess that got her started on mind puzzles early on, and taught her that for every situation, there were multiple paths... one merely had to plan. [i]Aunt Tess... what would you do?[/i] Vin thought to herself as the Chief Prelate finished his longwinded prayer, and en masse the nobles present repeated their oaths of allegiance. [i]Sit down and think for a few moments, discover my opponents wants and goals,[/i] Tess’ voice replied quietly from Vintressa’s memory, [i]figure out what they want, why they want it, and how they are prepared to get it. Then, and only then, will I come up with a response. If I know all three of the above... then... then I can hit them from three points; deny them what they want, deny them their reason for wanting it, or deny them the means to get it.[/i] [i]What do they want? The Fire Stone... and Ari. Or did they really want Ari? They mentioned him in passing... they might just have wanted to hint danger to Aunt Elenya and Uncle Shaun... Why do they want it? It has some kind of power likely. What power? I don’t know. I need to answer that. How are they going to get it? They can’t. They need someone of Caladron blood to fetch it...[/i] This part of the problem also stuck in her mind as well. As the monotonous series of prayers from all the churches dragged to a close, Vintressa barely listened as her father announced there had indeed, been an assassination attempt on the Empress, that it had failed, and that the culprits were being tracked down. Of course he didn’t name names... only few parts of what was no doubt a widespread conspiracy were known... possibly even one or more of the many gathered here that had only minutes before prayed for long life to the Emperor. Not naming anyone put everyone on notice. And when the guilty are on notice... there’s a higher chance they’ll do something incriminating... The Emperor then spoke of the letters, the threats for insurrection. He added in some savory details Xanadu had deemed prudent to add in as ‘filler,’ pieces of information that weren’t actually in the seized letters, but could be reasonably inferred, knowing how the Baron Erelion operated. Some of these included how House Erelion planned to kill off other noble families and divide up the land, of what chaos and prolonged civil war would destroy in terms of revenues, livelihoods, and human suffering. It was an appeal to the minds, hearts, guts, and pocketbooks of those present to ally with the current ruling family, and crush the rebellion as quickly as possible, to save as much of the country from war as possible. The Emperor then issued the call for fealty, asking those that would stay with the Emperor to kneel, and before all of the gods aligned, swear loyalty to the crown. To the surprise of the four young people, they could hear the noise of footfalls from people leaving the hall. The crowd was too large to see who, but none had any doubt the Emperor had people watching to catalogue who refused to swear loyalty. The rest, en masse, fell on one knee, and thousands then placed their heads upon their knees, speaking the words in old Common that translated to, “One Emperor for One Empire, we swear loyalty to the Draconic Crown!” The pledge was something that was bound with holy power... it was an oath sworn in front of the highest clerics of most of the patron dieties and saints of these very noble houses. Failure to follow through with such an oath would undoubtedly bring chaos on their house. However, Vintressa’s politically astute mind realized, the oath merely called for loyalty, not active support. It was entirely reasonable that a baron swear loyalty to the crown and thus not take up arms against it. He wasn’t required to actively provide troops, as long as he paid his taxes, respected imperial laws, etc. And from the perspective of many of these nobles, who had no idea someone had come so close to taking out the Emperor, the wise course of action [i]would be[/i] to sit on the sidelines. In the dirty politics of the Imperial nobility, being a bystander was always preferable to being on a potentially losing side in a squabble of these proportions. As the nobles, prelates, churchmen, and other notaries began to file out, a single man, clad in a uniform of brown color, emblazoned with a sky blue chimera, stepped forward. With a deep bow, he held out his hand in a posture of giving to the Emperor, and ancient custom where the subject symbolically offered their obedience to the ruler. Vintressa could make out words on his hand as her father thanked him. As soon as the words came from the Emperor’s mouth, the words vanished, and the man stood, bowed again, and excused himself. When the great doors to the room closed, and they were alone, Vintressa was immediately by her father’s side. “What did it say? What news from the organization!?” “How do you know it was from Aunt Tess’ group?” Lucius raised an eyebrow. “Because she sends people to you with magical writing on their hands that only appears in your presence,” Valaron rolled his eyes. “Its obvious. I’m sure the others in the organization do it as well!” “My, how perceptive you are,” Luke smiled. “Very simply, she’s heard of the... incident, and she is traveling back to focus her own people to help us out. She’ll be teleporting in within a few days...” “She [i]will!?[/i]” Vintressa jumped up excitedly. “ Which means for the next two days you’re going to stay put, Val... at least until we can find out how many of her people can help you out.” [i]I’m not about to let you go off in the wild if there is more help I can spare...[/i] Hemmel growled as another mug was placed in front of him. He looked up at the waitress, and gave her a gruff nod of thanks. Taverns were an excellent place to pick up rougher mannerisms and speech... something Hemmel would have to re-learn after spending five years in the Imperial Court. His eyes took in the crowd calmly and coolly. It was the early morning folks at the [i]Pony Alehouse and Eatery[/i] were busy enjoying one of the establishment’s trademarks... its excellent poached eggs for breakfast. In fact, Hemmel was enjoying some himself, and he did have to admit that for their price of a silver piece, it was very good. Hemmel chuckled at the irony, just before the numerous itches in his chin annoyed him again. In slight frustration, he scratched the long shadow growing over his face, and the greasy hair that covered his head. At the palace, he had been used to shaving often, and cleaning his hair frequently. After only a few days of not doing such, his appearance had started to change. [i]I am eating in the business owned by the friend of my enemy,[/i] he chuckled, stuffing another piece of egg in his mouth. It had been a boon that he’d stumbled on this place, and its very friendly and talkative staff. It was here that Hemmel found out the Dice family had extensive connections all over the Valley. They owned a series of chicken farms outside the city that gave them a steady supply of eggs for the tavern. They owned stakes in several of the local mines. They owned a series of magic shops in Kulloden, Holstean and Irulas. The more Hemmel heard, the elder Dice sounded less and less like a reformed thief and more and more like a consumate investor and businessman. He also learned more of the matriach of the family, that she was head of the local Mages’ Guild, and being eyed by one of the various ‘schools’ of Magic, the Council of the Fine Art of Abjurance, as a possible council member. [i]Amazing one can learn with a few questions, and more listening at the proper locations,[/i] Hemmel thought, sipping on the wine he’d been handed. It was cheap, he could tell, but palatable. He’d had far worse. Quietly he looked up at the bar. The same halfling was there, smiling and laughing with what Hemmel assumed was a regular. It was apparent the short creature was on a stool of some sort when he suddenly did a handstand, and thrust his hand out towards the other man. Behind him was an young woman with raven hair and green eyes... the same girl that Hemmel had thought was following him for a few minutes after his arrival in the city. Now it was apparent who she was... daughter of the Dice’s. His brain categorized her as one to watch. Fortunately, none of them pertained to his plans in the city... nor the color-filled boy that showed up occassionally and was quite loud. House Erelion did not care about the dragon... it had been a herring tossed in for expressly this situation. Hemmel had failed once... but he would not fail again. He finished the rest of his eggs, and waited fort he waitress to come over to collect his plate before placing a few copper beside the dirty dishes as he rose to leave. Hemmel might be an assassin, but there were some aspects of civilization he would keep with him. “You are a kind gentleman, sir,” the young woman nodded her head in thanks as she picked up the dishes. [i]A gentleman,[/i] the words struck a chord in Hemmel, before he shook his head. No, he would not let his mind go there. With a polite smile, he thanked her for her compliment, and walked out of the tavern into the morning sun. It would be a long day ahead, and he would have much planning to do. [/QUOTE]
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