“You must be Tyrannus,” Perry said, offering his hand to the wall of gemlike red scales.

The twenty-foot tall death-lizard daintily extended a single arm-length, razor-sharp claw and Perry shook it.

“And you must be Paradox Zauberer. Please, call me William.” the dragon said before waggling his front paw. “Tyrannus is my…stage name.”

“Perry,” Perry said.

“You’re so shiny!” Natalie blurted.

Tyrannus gave a booming chuckle that Perry felt rattling his bones.

“I just got them buffed for this meeting, actually. It’s good to meet you as well, Natalie Smith, and Heather Skinner.” The dragon ‘shook hands’ with each of them.

He was crimson red, with scales polished to a mirror-shine, and his sailboat-sized wings were neatly folded up against his side. He was wearing a heavy gold harness around his chest with a head-sized amethyst in the center, swirling with light.

Too obvious a weak-point? Perry thought, eyeballing it. It looked impressive, but it felt about as magical to his dimensional senses as an LED lavalamp.

Could be a red herring.

“So, Perry,” The massive creature slumped down to his belly, bringing his height closer to that of Karth, who watched the dragon with barely restrained anger. “In about an hour and a half, we’ll ‘officially’ meet for the first time in the audience room, with spectators and everything. Right now we’ve got time to…make a rough draft of our conversation.”

“And that’s why wrestling is fake.” Heather said, nudging Natalie.

“I remember those eyes,” Karth muttered, eyes narrowed.

“Karth the plains troll. Good to see the collared symbol of Gna’kis is still working well for you, although you’re further west than I’d hoped you’d be by now.”

“It’s Karth the Troll King now,” Karth said. “I’m claiming the territory of North Dakota as a sovereign state.”

William raised a brow and glanced from Karth to Perry. “Who thought giving an exceptionally brilliant plains troll an education was a good idea?”

“Touche,” Perry said, wishing he had some fancy wine to swirl ominously. “It seemed like an ‘enemy of my enemy’ situation.”

The dragon idly tapped his claw on the marble floor, cutting massive gouges out of the floor that seemed to heal themselves shortly after the claw was gone.

“’Enemy’ seems reductive. We have conflicting goals, it’s true, but they are not so diametrically opposed that common ground is unachievable. I seek to expand the Empire and secure her future, you seek to protect those you serve, as well as your family. The two goals can be married.”

“By all means, tell me how that can be done,” Perry said.

“How would you like everything east of the Mississipi?”

“That’s…insultingly close to Chicago,” Perry said. “You’d leave us with less than a third of the continent.”

“Ah, but the majority of the southwest is arid desert, while the east coast is fairly lush. Good farmland. We’ll need that much land simply to produce our own food.”

“And the mineral deposits in the Rockies couldn’t hurt your next phase of expansion?” Perry guessed.

“As I said before, I seek to secure a future. I’m currently…speedrunning the nineteenth century, and will turn my gaze toward the industrial revolution once we have sufficient expansion.

“And what will you use for fuel?” Perry asked. “Not a whole lot of coal and oil left.” Not enough for a second industrial revolution anyway. From what Perry was following from the conversation, Tyrannus wanted to avoid armed conflict he wasn’t sure he could win, and win the long game by creating a vastly more prosperous nation…in fifty years or so, whose purchasing power would allow it to annex Chicago, Washington and Franklin without bloodshed.

For most tyrants, a plan fifty years out in the future was the furthest scope of their foresight, something they might accomplish on their deathbed.

The way this dragon spoke, made it feel like ‘step one’.

“Fuel? The Eternal Empire has what you call Tinkers, who are in the process of creating a power-source, scalable enough that it can serve our purpose of industrialization.”

“Oh really? What is it?” Perry asked.

William gave him a toothy grin, but declined to answer.

“In Acolyte Karen’s debrief, it was mentioned that you requested the blood of three thousand people as reparation, and Karth demanded four million pounds of meat. It’s being arranged as we speak. The land though…That’s something a bit trickier. Naturally, I won’t give you land you have no stake in, literally and figuratively.”

“Disappointing. How about something smaller but no less valuable?” Perry said, pointing at the Non-Euclidean Essence Physics Phd.

“Ah, my research?” William said glancing at the wall. The dragon Leaned down onto his elbow until his chin was a mere eight feet tall, the heat radiating from the fire inside nearly singing Perry’s eyebrows. “Tell you what, Prince of Manita, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Ah, sexual innuendo. My forte.

“I’m sorry, William, we just don’t know each other that well yet.”

“You guys gonna kiss?” Heather asked.

“I know you quite well,” William said, focusing only on Perry. “last scion of the family that bankrolled dragon hunts for the last eight hundred years to steal our essences and spirit.”

He just said something to put me on the defensive. Perry thought, controlling his reaction. Does he want me to forget what we were just talking about, or is he setting me up for something going forward? Perry paused, pretending to be nervous.

“I really don’t care about that, though, that’s an entire world away.” The dragon continued, motioning dismissively. “Let’s focus on the you shaped by Earth. I find it inspirational that you came so far in the scientific study of Essence, when you’re something of a black sheep among your family, being completely Dull. Not enough Attunement to feed a single low-grade Symbiotic Spirit. Or so I heard.”

There it is. Tyrannus had said the dragon-hunting thing to put Perry off-balance, then mentioned the Symbiotic Spirit to gauge his reaction.

It was some pretty basic tactics. Put the subject on the defensive, reveal a surprising amount of information that you know about them, and use it like sonar to probe what hidden even further behind their façade. Basic in this case, meant simple and effective. Perry couldn’t really fault him for using them, though. It was expected.

“Sounds like something my cousins would say.” Perry said with a shrug. “They don’t know the whole story.”

“Yes. I’ve only heard rumors. You must tell me how you survived being implanted with Abun’zaul.”

And this is where I’m supposed to be so surprised by his guess that my reaction will either confirm or deny his hypothesis.

Nerve 42->48

Perry took manual control over his every minute motion, down to the goosebumps on the back of his neck, preventing any response that he did not personally design.

Perry adopted body language indicating mild surprise with an underpinning of confusion and relief, basically holding up a sign saying ‘NO ABUN’ZAUL HERE’ In big neon body-language letters.

“If you know about Abun’zaul, you should know also know it’s a death sentence.” Perry said.

“Yes, I suppose,” William said, eyeing him a moment longer. “Then I guess it’s true you’ve simply made the most creative use of an extremely minor symbiote. A gilt-brin, perhaps.”

Gilt-brin were little fae creatures who used to exist on Manita. They were often bribed by craftsmen with a candy made of a mix of sugar and rust caramelized in a fire. If they got on well with a particular craftsman, they might bless their works, causing the creations to last longer, or work better than they might’ve otherwise.

A gilt-brin achieved something similar in effect to his ‘Spendthrift’ perk, albeit significantly less potent.

Perry didn’t confirm or deny it. He didn’t want to give the dragon hints one way or the other.

“It makes sense, considering the manner in which you circumvented your limitations.”

Tyrannus motioned to the side, and Perry desperately reeled in his surprise as a suit of armor was wheeled in by a servant in gold and velvet.

Not just any suit of armor: it was his unaccounted-for suit, the one that had fallen off the side of The Wall a year ago during his battle with Chemestro. He’d adopted self-destruct measures after that’d been lost.

“An agent of mine bought this second-hand. The people in possession of it didn’t know what they had on their hands, and rendered it nearly unusable by their clumsy attempts to reverse engineer it.”

William glanced back at Perry with a judging expression.

“Your work I take it?”

There was no sense denying it. Perry had been caught on camera several times in that exact suit.

“Yeah, I made it.”

“I have to admit, I was stunned by your ingenuity creating a design that allows a machine to cast spells, but the nerve sample inside the most important part was corroded beyond recovery. The interior had been cracked open, exposed to air and contaminants. The sample inside was thoroughly dead and rotted away by the time I got to look at it. All I could tell was that nerve cells of some kind had been used.”

One of Tyrannus’s massive claws delicately picked up the floppy-disk-sized casing that housed Terry’s nerve cells.

“Organoid intelligence is a very new field, and no one ever thought to marry it to Essence rituals. And even if they did, most nerve cells are extremely delicate, requiring prohibitively specific environments to survive any length of time. Extremely resilient nerve cells have become quite valuable to me recently.”

The dragon glanced down at Perry from where he was inspecting the control chip.

“I’ll trade you North Dakota for your pet octopus.”

“I’m sure you can find another,” Perry said.

“True. It’ll just be a bit more time-consuming,” William said with a sigh that released a massive plume of heat that billowed toward the ceiling, making the air between them shimmer with heat. “Fortunately, my heritage has blessed me with plenty of that. The offer stands until I make time to fetch one from Manita.”

With another motion, Perry’s old amor was wheeled away.

“Very well. I’m sure that while there are dozens of lines of inquiry that we can pursue, and you of all humans could probably keep me engaged in stimulating conversation indefinitely…Time runs short. let us begin scripting our ‘first meeting’, Diplomat Paradox Zauberer, representative of the great cities of the east, on the combined authority of Solaris and…Stacy Watt-Powers, the twelve year old girl who recently seized control over Washington City in an obvious coup?”

“She doesn’t have a super title.” Perry lied his ass off. “You can just call her Stacy.”

“I imagine there’s an interesting story there. We’ll make it work.”

So they sat down and hashed out a script, which went off without a hitch. In less than an hour, Perry was introducing himself in front of a massive crowd of courtiers and bureaucrats who handled the majority of the nation’s paperwork.

Most of them were slack jawed idiots taking notes for propaganda posters, or just letting the pomp and circumstance to wash over them so they could get back to bean-counting.

There were, however, a few faces in the crowd that were a bit more offputting. Militaristic types with grim expressions and firm stances. Leaders of Tyrannus’s military branch of religious zealots, perhaps?

Who knew? The dragon had reeled Perry into the capital before he’d had a chance to get the lay of the land, and visit The Temple, and that was likely by design.

Their ‘first meeting’ went smoothly, and Perry demonstrated the exact amount of deference expected of him as a diplomat of another nation, laid out the grievances between their nation, and Tyrannus gave an arrogant non-apology that left room for negotiation that implied he’d get into contact with Solaris personally.

His message delivered, Perry retired to the room they’d been given for the night and collapsed into bed, utterly exhausted by his meeting with the dragon.

***Tyrannus***

“Ms. Figgis…Karen. did your Flagbearer allow their flag, bearing my image, to touch the ground?” Tyrannus asked as he inscribed the ritual circle around the acolyte. He already knew the answer, but it was good conversation.

“…No, sire.”

“Good leadership instincts.” Tyrannus murmured. “I like leaders with spine. Those who take the risk of punishment for those beneath them. ‘Officially’, that flag never touched the ground.”

“Thank you, sire,” Karen said, glancing down at the intricate ritual spreading out beneath her in every direction, the grooves around her neatly carved into the marble floor with claws that made stone seem soft.

“Sire, may I ask what the purpose of this is?” She asked.

“You may.” Tyrannus responded with a hint of amusement.

“…Sire, what is the purpose of this?”

“I cannot see into the depths of this Paradox boy,” Tyrannus said. “His every move and manner was calculated to make him impossible to read.”

“Where do I come in?” Karen asked.

“Under normal circumstances, I would debrief you and that would be that, but I need more firsthand information about his behavior and powers. I need to see what you saw.”

Tyrannus motioned to the script beneath her feet and the assortment of magical paraphernalia. “Therefore I’m performing a ritual that will allow me to peek into your memories and live them as if I were there myself. Some Blessings are nearly indistinguishable from others, so in order to decipher the boy’s Blessings and how they interact with each other, I’ll need firsthand experience, not a verbal debrief.”

“I see,” Karen said, nodding.

“Once the ritual is over, you’ll report back to Temple. There they’ll give you a commendation for your delicate handling of the situation, then send you back out into the field with your team.”

“Delicate? We fought…”

“Officially, you did not, my Acolyte. Mr. Zauberer was very specific about that. And I personally appreciate your delicate touch handling his broodmare. Mr. Manchin made it quite clear that she’s quite the volatile leverage, and we shouldn’t employ it at all without the proper finesse.”

“Mr. Manchin?” Karen asked.

“No one you would know, my dear,” Tyrannus said. “Now this part will make you a bit dizzy, you may wish to close your eyes.”

Karen obediently closed her eyes, and Tyrannus raised a paw and crushed the frail human into a paste, filling the grooves of the marble with blood and viscera, completing the ritual.

A pale blue mist of memory began to rise from the circle, whose light was beginning to bloom.

Tyrannus leaned down over the circle, and inhaled everything that made Karen ‘Karen’, sorting through her everything with a practiced hand and analyzing her every moment of contact with Paradox with an inhuman eye for detail.