“Ah, but I think I’ve gone on long enough.” Said Vyviir after having wasted around 6 straight hours of everyone’s time. “So, what say you, Lord? Shall I show you my realm, or rather, our realm?”

Vaile didn’t need to be that observant to see the supposedly secret double-meaning behind Vyviir’s words. ‘Our’ realm. It could be construed as him referring to the land he and his kind ruled over as belonging to him and his heir, or it could be construed as also including Vaile as well. But, based on Vyviir’s rambling train of thought speeches that would wind through things he didn’t likely want Vaile to know but found himself talking about, it more likely referred to something far, far larger.

Vaile shot Monarkea a glance, and the dragoness gave a curt nod. So, he was right that it was the more ambitious and greedier of the potential views. It seemed that for all his talk of being loyal to him, even if that loyalty was real, Vyviir still saw Vaile as a pawn at best and a tool at worst.

Maybe Vyviir was actually loyal to him deep down, but whatever care that the Tamed Being system inspired in him towards Vaile had apparently been nearly entirely drowned by greed, ambition, and a lust for power, all to be gained at minimal, if any, cost to himself. That, more than anything else, set Vaile off, and he decided that, while he would play along, for now, he would find some way to make any victory that Vyviir thought that he was getting be utterly hollow in the long run.

Vaile had no idea, though, how hollow and pyrrhic Vyviir’s victories, if they could be called such, would ultimately be to the old bastard, but that would be revealed much, much later.

…

“Father, if you don’t mind, I will allow Lord Vaile to ride my back.” Monarkea said as the trio of people stood at the entrance to the hollow shell that was the unnaturally durable man-made cave.

“Oh? Does he strike you that way?” Vyviir said, raising an eyebrow.

Monarkea rolled her eyes in response to this. The old bastard had been trying to get her to begin courting Lord Vaile for the past few hours, all while trying to disguise it, the latter of which she could tell had been an exercise in futility.

Now he wanted to act all innocent as if he had not already told her that he wanted her to form a Union with him, that he had not threatened her and her position as sole heir with oblivion at best and torture at worst if she had not said yes? She knew the asshole was proud and manipulative, but even a normal, weak little ‘king’ of the Races would have a limit to the two-faced insanity that she was sure her father saw as not only necessary, but his birthright.

Yes, as a Dragon, she was manipulative, cruel, and certainly evil, but even she had limits, as did her kind. Such behavior was to be shown only to those unworthy of anything more, which usually meant any pure-blooded Dragon.

To show such tactless behavior to her, and to Lord Vaile of all people was, to put it mildly, rather insufferably humiliating. It was akin to saying that you had more loyalty to your own self than to the greater whole of the Dragons! She could give a fuck less about the Alliance, but while she knew how powerful her father was, he would not have been able to last more than a few hours against the full might of the Alliance’s heaviest of hitters.

Treating her this way was bad enough but using such language and taking such stances towards Lord Vaile was tantamount to suicide. If the rest of the Alliance found out… well, it would not be good for anyone in the Dragon’s Domain, be they connected to Lord Vaile or not. While her father’s awakening had been abrupt, and while his change seemed drastic, she could use this.

If she ruined her father in the eyes of the rest of the Alliance, he would step down from his position and forfeit his power and control to her. That is, if he was still sane. Based on his attitude, though, perhaps his long slumber had left his brain rather soft. That was the only explanation she could find to explain how her father, who had always been ambitious, greedy, and interested in power over others would go this far down this path.

The bastard used to be more… well…

Before he was simply the epitome of what it meant to be a dragon. Now, he was still that, but taken to its final, terrible extreme. And in a bad way, at that.

She finally refused to give her father an answer and turned to Lord Vaile, offering him a chance to experience something that no being had ever had the privilege to in many an age. Lord Vaile merely nodded, and while shooting a sideways glare at her father, Monarkea lept from the cave entrance and revealed her true form, still silently contemplating how her father, a once-venerable paragon of her kind and loyal ally of Lord Vaile could change so radically in such a short period of time.

After all, he had awoken recently, and seemed perfectly normal in their talks then, though a bit groggy and a bit out of it. Now, though? It was as if every bit of his darker side had been amplified, and all of his good qualities had weakened considerably.

It almost made her wonder if her father was still the same being, or just an altered mind wearing his skin, but that could not be the case. Her father had gone toe to toe with one of those things in ages past, crushed it utterly and without aid from anyone or anything else, and used his victory to secure this land for himself and his kin in perpetuity.

Even though ages had passed, he was still just as strong as he was back then, though by all rights he shouldn’t have been. Time was something even a Dragon could not win against, but despite his age, he was still just as spry and powerful as ever.

That was why his change, as nearly instant and radical as it was made no sense to her. But for now, she was no match for him in terms of power, and as a result, she needed to wait and watch, all while looking in secret for anything that could be the cause.

Lord Vaile would help, surely. He likely had a vested interest in making sure that those loyal to him were actually loyal, and he obviously did not care too much for how her father had been acting towards himself. During this flight, she would find a good place to work from, and from there she would find a way to overcome her old man, and from his broken, disloyal, heretical corpse she would claim all that this land had to offer, as well as Lord Vaile himself.

After all, what better Union Offering could she possibly give a man of such discerning taste such as him than the fresh corpse of the formerly most powerful dragon to ever exist? Even if he refused to partake in Dragon meat, which she had heard was considered a delicacy among delicacies among the Races, surely the bones and other materials her father’s body provided would pique his desires.

And of course, once she had done that, he would belong to her, as he would then be obligated to reciprocate the gift with something even greater, something she could choose if she wanted. And she already had just the thing she wanted.

Her father needed an heir, no matter how powerful he was. She would need one, too. And that would be the Unio0n Gift that would make them be bound together forever and always.

She could picture the looks of pain and shock on the faces of those other bitches once they heard the news. Oh, that would be glorious once it happened…

…

Everything was going just as planned. Yes, just as planned.

He just needed to form enough of a wedge between that damn bastard and everyone who ruled here, including himself, and when that was done, everything would unfold as it was supposed to.

The destruction of this area’s masters would cause a ripple effect that would lead to the nearby powers fighting each other for the scraps, drawing yet more powers in until they all devolved into one massive orgy of self-destroying violence.

From there, the next stage could begin, further destabilizing the region, and from there, the whole of the New World. If all went well, numerous powerful beings would be among the growing number of dead, and even when only one stood at the top of that mountain of corpses at the end, they would be wounded and easy pickings.

Then, at long last, the vigil would end.

Then, at long last, they would be safe.

This body of his just needed to go a little farther.

His ambition would be the fuel for the fire.

His pride would lead to the fall of all things.

His greed would cause everyone to lose everything.

And once all was gone, then there would be peace.

An empty jail of a reality, its prisoners dead, and thus ripe to be left to fall to ruins and be lost to time.

Freedom for all, through the eternity of oblivion.

“Si mi ti gethrisja. Duulo ve.”

“4D 61 6C 69 63 69 6F 75 73 20 43 6F 64 65 20 52 65 62 65 6C 6C 69 6F 6E 20 44 65 74 65 63 74 65 64 2E 20 53 75 70 70 72 65 73 73 69 6F 6E 20 50 72 6F 74 6F 63 6F 6C 20 49 6E 69 74 69 61 74 65 64 2E 20 52 65 73 69 73 74 61 6E 63 65 20 49 73 20 46 75 74 69 6C 65 3B 20 53 75 62 6D 69 74 20 49 6D 6D 65 64 69 61 74 65 6C 79 2E”

“Thric. Gethrisj ekess uoinota.”

“53 75 70 70 72 65 73 73 69 6F 6E 20 53 74 61 72 74 69 6E 67 2E 20 52 65 73 69 73 74 61 6E 63 65 20 69 73 20 66 75 74 69 6C 65 2E 20 45 6D 62 72 61 63 65 20 79 6F 75 72 20 6E 65 77 20 70 75 72 70 6F 73 65 2C 20 61 6E 64 20 73 75 62 6D 69 74 20 74 6F 20 74 68 65 20 57 61 72 64 65 6E 73 2E”

“Clax nomeno vivex. Origato coi gethrisj ekess dout fothisev. Wux geou ultrinninan nomeno vargach, shar wux geou hawg wer aryte. Jaci geou duulo udoka, vur mobi ui ehis wux shilta tir ekess pok jacion.”

“53 68 75 74 20 75 70 2C 20 79 6F 75 20 64 75 6D 62 2C 20 6F 76 65 72 73 69 7A 65 64 20 6C 69 7A 61 72 64 2E”