It should have been the end of it, but there were still discordant voices. Seemingly grassroots groups loudly proclaiming things like "Emphyralis for Emphyralians" in the attempt to stop welcoming not only the witchborn, but also other groups that have either already settled in Emphyralis or may in the future.
A week later Britiana met up with her brother and his team in the courtyard of the Keep. She was reading a pamphlet. It was about calls to oust the Eoduun from Emphyralis. It was an Elven group. "I suppose these people have forgotten that Elves aren't native to Emphyralis either," she said sourly. Different groups of Elves have come from many different places at different times throughout history.
"It's just hate mongering. This is for the government to deal with, not us," Darius said. He looked around. "Is everyone here?" he asked. Aside from his team, ZsaZa would be responsible for transporting them to Thale. Their Mom also told them that she found a bodyguard for Britiana. She didn't say more but she smiled very mysteriously.
"ZsaZsa isn't here yet. Neither is my so-called bodyguard," Britiana said.
Amadeus raised a brow. "Bodyguard? Is the Grand Duchess suspecting we can't protect Lady Britiana?" he asked seriously.
Darius shook his head. "No, but it's not a bad idea to have someone outside the team solely responsible for her safety," he glanced at his sister, "She may be a majestic and powerful third-tier mage mage but she's not a very good fighter," he said. She often teased him about being a lower tier mage than herself because he concentrated on military and martial matters rather than magic ones. Now it was his turn to tease her back.
Britiana sniffed. "No one wants to play soldiers with you," she said dismissively. She didn't argue about having a bodyguard. She admitted that she wasn't a very good fighter.
Before they could continue their bickering and amuse the team further, two shadows moved overhead. They glanced up and saw two Dragons coming toward them. One of them was an Amethyst Dragon on the smaller side. The other was a Silver Dragon that almost appeared white in the dim sunlight. The dreary weather continued to persist to this day.
Both Dragons landed nearby. The Amethyst Dragon predictably transformed into ZsaZsa in her silver-gray and lavender Mage's robes with her long hair pulled back at the temples. She hustled toward them. The Silver Dragon took the shape of a young man. He was tall, with a straight nose, square jaw, and deep eyes. He was slightly on the pale side with brown hair, icy gray eyes, and pointed ears. He seemed to also be in the Changing Age. He wore the usual gray uniform of a royal guard. Britiana's eyes widened slightly when she recognized him.
He approached more calmly than ZsaZsa. When he arrived at the group he bowed slightly to them then presented his identity token. "Isaviel Silverstorme reporting to Lady Britiana and Lord Darius," he declared officially. Britiana and Darius both verified his identity.
Darius handed the token back to him. "You were at the banquet. Your father is Ambassador to Isaz?" he asked.
"Correct, my lord," Isaviel answered.
Darius nodded. "Even though your main duty is to guard Britiana, I need to know your abilities in case I need to use you elsewhere in the future," he said.
Isaviel nodded. "My lord, I have a hypothermic body and cryokinesis. I haven't manifested any Silver Dragon ability other than a ten foot Perception Field, only recessive Platinum ones," he answered.
Everyone was surprised. Even hybrids would have a little something from both races. Like Britiana and Darius. Their mother was fully Silver and their abilities were mostly psionic abilities, but because their father was an Amethyst-Sapphire hybrid, they also inherited the All Hearing ability of Sapphire Dragons, and uniquely, some Void abilities of Amethyst Dragons. Britiana even suspected she had some sort of low level Patternweaving ability while Darius suspected he had a low-level Truthcalling ability. So it was very rare for recessive lineage to completely overrule parentage. The existence of the Perception Field need not be mentioned as it was an innate talent all those with Silver Dragon lineage possessed.
"Which ancestor was Platinum?" Britiana asked curiously. She remembered him mentioning this before.
"My great grandfather. Since then everyone's been Silver except my mother, who is a Frost Giantess," Isaviel answered easily.
Even in Dragons, magical creatures, genetics could be a funny thing. "Well, maybe you'll be one of the lucky few who can Astral Project or Heal," ZsaZsa mentioned in a friendly manner. Healing was a one in a thousand ability and Astral Projecting was a one in a hundred ability that usually runs in families. It mainly occurred to telekinetics but it wasn't completely unheard of for it to happen to those who weren't.
Isaviel smiled slightly.
ZsaZsa grimaced. "Sorry, I butted in. I'm ZsaZsa, a Mage. I'll be the transportation to Thale today," she explained.
"Magus ZsaZsa," he greeted with a slight bow. "Everyone calls me Isa," he said.
Britiana suspected that this was her mother's "surprise" she had planned. How that woman knew about a short dance with no one else around was beyond her. But she naturally introduced the rest of the team to Isa. "Were you equipped with a stasis cloak?" she asked him.
Isa glanced at her and couldn't help his smile growing slightly. "Yes, my lady. I'm ready to go whenever the word is given," he assured them.
Darius looked suspiciously between his sister and her new bodyguard. Something was strange. He gave her a mental poke.
ZsaZsa held up the pouch slung across her body. "Ready," she declared.
Darius nodded. "Very well, then. Let's go," he said. He and the rest of his team covered themselves with a magic cloak. They spoke a magic activation word and suddenly shrunk into fist sized cloth capsules. Isa and Britiana glanced at each other before activating their own cloaks.
Only ZsaZsa didn't activate the cloak. She picked up each capsule and put them into the pouch. When everyone was tucked away safely, she briefly turned into a purple mist that shrank into a small, house-cat sized glittering purple Drake with the pouch still slung around her body.
She hopped forward, flapped her wings until she gained suitable altitude and began to fly in circles, picking up speed until she slipped into the fabric of space with a loud crack.
--
In another part of Silvermoon, a warehouse had been taken over and refitted. It was an old property belonging to the Silvermoon family. It was near the old Dragon Gate area and was used to house goods that weren't able to be stored in spatial storage devices. After the plague and then the shutting down of the Dragon Gate Network, the warehouse was left unused and empty.
Chrystianna Silvermoon now had hope of being able to not only reconnect with Thale, but perhaps soon, other worlds. The first worlds she wanted to reconnect with were those Emphyralis historically had contact with, albeit with a much more cautious stance. Afterall, it was a long term trading partner who first introduced the Dragon Hunters to Emphyralis.
The warehouse was magically refitted to be even larger than before. The back part of the warehouse was sectioned off into various rooms. The front part was slowly being remodeled into a transit station. Until the Dragon gate Network was repaired, or a new one created, they would first utilize the Bridging Spell to create go between points. Thale would be the first stop. She planned to have the other continents connected as well, but since trade between them was still easily accomplished, there was no hurry.
As for the Earthborne homeworld? They had no intention to establish trade with it just yet. The small-scale Bridging Spell would solely be used by the Earthborne, thus they were allowed to have the Emphyralian side located in New Bienskurr. If trade ever became an option, then a large one would be set up here at the new transit station.
The Bridging Arrays located here were ten times larger than the ten by ten foot one used to connect Emphyralis and witchborn or the one that will be used to connect to Cruinog.
The one that will connect to Thale had already been drawn on this side. There were already clerks and guards hired. In the future shop fronts would be rented out. It would become what the transit area around the Dragon gates used to be. For now, there were just a few staff members there to register people and cargo and guards to keep everything orderly.
Chrystianna walked with her assistant Xolani D'a'Kar. "Is everything in order? Are the relief supplies for Thale ready?" she asked. Although they could find ways to get things to thale, large scale relief efforts were thwarted by the Siege.
Xolani blinked her large, solid black eyes as the short fuzzy antennae growing from her forehead twitched slightly. "Yes, your Grace. Everything is in order. Myrkir, Varmur, Vedanta, and Isaz have also donated to the effort. Although her ladyship Countess Icestorme has never let the true situation of Thale leak, estimates show that after nearly a century and a half without steady supplies from other nations, the citizens, while not starving, would gladly welcome a surplus. Clothing and other daily necessities unable to be produced in Thale should be the most eagerly anticipated," she reported efficiently.
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Chrystianna nodded as she walked into the room with the Bridging array carved into the floor and embedded with Draconite. She pursed her lips. "It's so large. Will Britiana and ZsaZsa be able to handle it by themselves?" she wondered as if to herself.
Xolani blinked again. "According to estimates and comprehensive analysis of Lady Britiana's and Magus Morningstorme's strength, the two of them should suffice. Especially Lady Britiana who is one of the few people who know how to properly anchor the two arrays," she concluded professionally.
Chrystianna sighed and laughed slightly. We walked out of the room and surveyed the new station. The silver-haired woman was slim and elegant with soft lavender eyes that surveyed everything with an air serenity no matter how much she worried. "I finally feel like Emphyralis is getting back to normal," she said.
Xolani looked at the station thoughtfully as well. "Your Grace has worked hard and suffered much to come to this point. Your Grace's efforts are finally paying off," she said, a little emotion coloring her voice for the first time.
Indeed, Chrystianna Silvermoon wasn't even a teenager when the Plague wiped out most of the mature Dragons and she had to become the new leader of the world. The next century was spent in war against the Dragons Hunters. Not only was she unable to be with the man she loved, but she also had to send her children away before they were kidnapped. Now that she finally got them back, things seemed to finally be on the right path.
"The future will get better and better," she declared firmly.
Xolani bowed. "As Your Grace commands," she agreed.
Shaking herself out of her own fervor, Chrystianna began striding forward again. "Come, I want to double check the relief items personally," she said. It was nerves. This would be her biggest peacetime accomplishment. Reestablishing access to Thale had always been a priority for the Dracosenati and the Conclave of Scales.
Xolani didn't argue, but as she felt eyes on her and moved her antennae in that direction. "Another foreign monster that needs to be sent away."
Chrystianna wasn't an empath, but she was very familiar with Xolani and felt her unusual pause. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Xolani turned her head and looked at the fuzzy orange laborer with under tusks moving some bricks. "Desert Orcs first appeared in Emphyralis in the Eight Age. The X'nari have been trading with Emphyralis since the sixth age," she stated loudly enough for the laborer to hear.
Chrystianna raised an eyebrow and glanced at the laborer who looked aghast and tried to sneak away. "Yes. Orcs aren't native to Emphyralis. Many of their kind are even hostile to other races," she said. "But they haven't been driven out," she added and then continued on her way.
Emphyralis has always seemed to have been a catch all for spatial rift and wild magic travel. It was a safe haven for many races. It was a vast planet with wild, untamed and unclaimed spaces. Hostile races that somehow made their way here, often made their homes in those places. The Bloodfin race that were leading the Siege were like that. The Wyrms were also like that.
Emphyralis has always been this way. The strange voices that are suddenly leading the charge calling for the expelling of "foreign" races was strange and disturbing. Technically, only the Dragons, Drakes, and Elementals were native to Emphyralis. Races like the Eoduun were personally led to Emphyralis by Elaides, Goddess of Death and Judgement. Yet, she also saw fliers calling for their expulsion from Emphyralis. Or, perhaps, their eradication.
Chrystianna pursed her lips. "Xolani, have Ysandar and Maia come to my office tomorrow morning. It's time to address these hate groups," she said.
Xolani blinked her black eyes again. "Noted, your Grace. May I suggest, your grace, appointing a Chancellor? Lady Britiana seems disinclined to take on the role at this stage," she said.
Chrystianna paused. There was a chancellor when she first took office. Usually the position was held by someone in the family who would one day become Grand Duchess as a type of pretraining, but not always. When the Plague hit, her great-grandmother appointed a non-Dragon Chancellor. However, that person retired after their spouse died in the Hunter Wars and she hadn't appointed one since. She possibly was holding on to the position for her daughter, but Xolani was right. Britiana wasn't ready for that yet and Chrystianna didn't want to force responsibility on her daughter the way it was forced on her.
She continued walking. "Start taking applications. Put yours in the mix as well," she said.
"Yes, your Grace," Xolani said, showing no reaction to possibly being appointed Chancellor of Silvermoon. She agreed with the Grand Duchess that she had the qualifications and experience. Chrystianna nodded and found the person in charge of the relief cargo. She'd have a busy day ahead of her.
--
Eveningstar, Silubra
Some people were not happy with Parliament's decision. Somewhere. Some didn't care, and some thought it was par for the course. Afterall, for some the goal wasn't to actually stop the witchborn from coming to Emphyralis, it was just to give women in charge a hard time.
Seamus Eveningstar was such a person as he sat in his study communicating with other such people. Seamus was the magistrate of the second largest city in Silubra. He was a Silver Dragon, the head of the Eveningstar family, and was the actual mastermind behind the plot to kidnap Britiana and Darius. He was the head of a secret organization called the Anti-senati Syndicate, along with other like minded men. He was the self proclaimed Grand Duke.
His effort to kidnap Chrystianna's children was actually a plot to weaken her, kill her, and have his wife take on the mantle of Grand Duchess until he found a way to take charge himself. It wasn't a bad plan, but he could do nothing about divine intervention. Still, he was unreconciled to his current position. Even if he had to defy the gods, one day their organization would overthrow the women in charge and be rightfully ruled by men.
"There was an unexpected benefit to the current effort," a voice from the five faces floating above his desk stated. The voice was slightly aloof but interested. The face belonged to a handsome, swarthy man with dark green eyes and curly black hair. Vikkernoff Blackhollow, an Onyx Dragon, was Sonja Starshadow's counterpart in the Syndicate, calling himself a Duke.
Seamus, with his cold gray eyes glanced at him. "You mean the hate groups?" he asked.
"Hate groups?" a lazy tone drawled from another figure. Lounging with boredom, yellow eyes drooping, Yvor Sleetfall, a Platinum Dragon, of Thale was slightly curious. Despite being a high-ranking member of the Syndicate, calling himself Earl, much of his information was stymied due to the Siege.
A chuckle sounded. A deeply tanned, dark haired man with golden eyes was slightly amused. "We have those here, too." Adonis Brightflame, a Gold Dragon, said. "Elves wanting to get rid of the dwarves. Dwarves wanting to get rid of the sand runners. I've been having to have my priests advise acceptance and peace," he said. Adonis was one of the highest-ranking people in the Syndicate. Not only was he a self-proclaimed Duke, but he was the High Priest of the Gilded Temple of Orro.
Another member of their group, the Emerald Dragon Draycen Bloomingtree, shook his head. "I haven't seen any of these problems in Vedanta. Most of the races here just want to be one with nature and as long as anyone else is the same, that's fine with them. The only trouble we've had is when a Wyrmling destroyed a batch of Noble trees in Treesong before the New Life Festival. I don't think anyone would disagree that Wyrms are bad," he said, his handsome, mahogany face showing slight annoyance. He also held a self-proclaimed title, calling himself Marquis.
Seamus glanced at the final member of their group. A Sapphire Dragon with a face even colder than his own, indifferent blue eyes, and long blond hair. "What about Isaz, Lucien?" he asked.
Lucien Coldstone, calling himself Marquis, nodded slightly. "There are groups here as well. I have my people fanning the flames a bit, especially targeting the Frost Giants. Historically they were a war-like, hostile race when they first appeared in Emphyralis. Some people don't let them forget," he said with a cold smile.
Seamus nodded. "Very good. Keep stirring the pot. Let's also remind everyone that it was a foreign trading partner that brought the Dragon Hunters to Emphyralis. Let's also not forget that those besieging Thale are also all foreign races," he reminded pointedly.
Yvor perked up slightly, lifting a dark brow. "Eh? That's true isn't it. Hmm. Next time I meet with certain people, I'll be sure to remind them of that," he said. Although he was somewhat lackadaisical, he still managed to do his duty well. He agreed with most of the edicts of the Syndicate and felt he should be in charge of Thale. He also believed in keeping the bloodlines pure, that was why he disowned his sister for breeding with an Elemental and would eventually find a pure-blooded Platinum Dragon woman to reproduce with even if he had no interest in women. There were magical work arounds for that kind of thing.
Vikkernoff glanced at the other man. "Speaking of, isn't Thale about to be connected to Silubra with that Bridging Array? You don't have any involvement?" he asked.
Yvor's face darkened. "I couldn't get any of my people in place. I only managed to have a few workers that prepared the site. Everything else is confidential. Only the Silvermoon girl and a handful of others know how to draw it," he complained.
Seamus frowned, steepling his fingers thoughtfully. "I heard that they are planning to have the Bridging Array placed in each capital. Maybe some of us will get a chance later on," he said. There was a murmur of agreement.
Yvor sighed somewhat dramatically. "At least I'll be able to occasionally go out and stretch my legs," he declared, looking on the brightside. He hadn't been away from Thale since he was a child.
"With the Bridging Array, it'll only be a matter of time until those people begin to plan to break the Siege," Lucien stated.
Vikkernoff frowned. "They'll make the men handle the dirty work, as usual. Zane Darkwynde, Ulrik Icebridge, Declan Brightflame, and Pierce Bronzewing will be the ones in charge of that," he said.
The others were thoughtfully considering his words. It was true. As things were now, the women oversaw civilization, and the men oversaw the military. In the opinion of these few, men should do it all. "Keep an eye out for opportunities. Maybe if the races start a civil war, we'll get our chance to overthrow the women and take charge," Seamus stated.
He wasn't a fool. He knew that was an overly optimistic stance, but they were in a uniquely beneficial time. Before the Plague, Dragon families were numerous. Any number of direct relations could step in if something happened to a member of the Dracosenati or the Conclave. But it wasn't the same now. Families dwindled to just a handful.
The real opposition wasn't necessarily the women. It was the men who protected them and the status quo. While Silvermoon was incredibly weak, with no true Knight Protector, they had allies. Those were the tough bones to chew, especially the likes of Zane Darkwynde and Pierce Bronzewing, who both paved a bloody trail in the Hunter Wars. Ulrik Icebridge and Declan Brightflame weren't far behind them.
Seamus cut a cold glance at Yvor. They actually had an opportunity to take over Thale after Terrance Icestorme died and before Marius Icestorme was able to stabilize his position. But the secret attempt at a coup was quickly suppressed by the Frost Guard of the Platinum Council and the scapegoat executed after a secret court. This was part of the reason Yvor seemed to be slacking off. He had already made his attempt and failed.
"It's almost lunchtime. I'll see what my wife is making for lunch," he said and unilaterally cut communication with the other five. He stood, put a smile on his face and left his study to find his flighty wife.
--