To Bargain in the Unborn
Thirteenth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
Star Admiral Kharban of the Splendid Armada greets you in the midst of a colorful coral garden warded from the eyes of others not by gleaming spears or watchful soldiers, but by the countless twists of the living labyrinth and the stinging tendrils of anemones grown as large as a man's head in the warm starlit waters. No Merman, Triton, or Marid is he, but an elder Tojanida the size of a young Dragon, his stone-hard shell infused with True Silver through some arcane process, while scores of eyes peer at you through emerald lenses bespelled, you would guess, to give him sight beyond that of flesh.
"Hail, Lord of Fire and King in the Garden," he proclaims in a deep sonorous voice that you suspect serves him just as well being heard over the clash of arms as over the din of council debates. "I hope I have not drawn you overlong from your trading else dozens of Merchant Lords might call me to task for the interruption, whether they are buying or selling."
"Never fear, my lord, I am done selling, at least for those things one trades openly in the Mirror Market..." you trail off, allowing polite interest to show on your face.
"Right to the point, I like that, saves time that I don't have to polish your scales like most Dragons," the admiral proclaims with a bluntness that makes you very glad you had brought your mother and Breath Taker along but not Relath. Without a moment's pause he rolls on. "I heard told that you made those Manta-algae beasts rather than finding them and wrangling them to serve..."
"They are no more beasts than you or I, but thinking beings who have agreed to offer me their fealty," you interject. "Let it be understood from the beginning that I will not make thinking beings to be sold. I am not a slaver." Once you might have said 'I do not trade in slaves', but that had been one line you had well and truly crossed under the sundered skies of Heaven's Shore. You will trade in slaves to free them, but you will not bind others into slavery, much less birth them into it.
The crab-like head moves up and down with the faint click of bone against shell. Rather than ask for a reason Kharban continues apace with his questions. "You didn't gain this power from the squids, did you?"
It is Breath Taker who speaks up before you can reply. "Do you know what my calling is, admiral?"
"Priest of the Ferryman, one of those who lead the tribes out into the Wilds looking for a way back to the Garden when everyone thought you were mad to try." Diplomacy definitely is not among the admiral's most polished skills, though thankfully the Triton takes the answer in stride.
"And do you then know which foe our God despises above all others, for usurping His domain?" the priest asks, his tone just as even. At the nod that follows he adds: "Good, then by all the wisdom revealed to me by He who is Rightful Sovereign of the Seas I can say that the arts of the dragon-bloded and the power of the pale trees have nothing in common with the black will that schemes in the depths."
He goes on to speak of the birth of the flesh-smiths, truthfully but with care: "It is not impossible that in the remote past those who set the cornerstone of those arts conversed with the Enemy among other denizens of the Far Realm, but just as there are natural beasts that can devour their spawn and grow strong and healthy for it, so too were those ancient wizards fortunate enough to filter the knowledge into a more wholesome craft." Rather tellingly he leaves out the fact that those insights had been 'filtered' through hellfire and the dragonlore passed down from Tiamat. Unlike the admiral, Breath Taker has been pressed into the role of diplomat many a time.
"So the beasts won't start chewing on our flippers as soon as the squids whistled the right way, good enough for me." The Star Admiral shifts slightly in place, stone and coral creaking under him as he turns to face you again. "We need three things if you can provide—dolphin-sized mounts that are no less clever or shaped too differently, but better able to tangle with sharks in melee, siege beasts, preferably ones good at shattering stone bastions, though I wouldn't say no to fire or frost that can sweep packs of Sharkmen and Skum aside, and lastly something quick with a strong will that can be unleashed to swarm their mind-benders."
What suggestions do you make and what do you wish to be paid in?
[] Write in
OOC: I know this is a bit slow, but the admiral has no idea what the Flesh-Forge can do so I can't really have him ask for specific combinations of creatures and templates from the start.
