Omake
It was Saturnsday when Amber Scion of Pristine Winds saw his part-time apprentice. The Pterok was an odd egg, twitchy and whose thoughts seemed to jump from subject to subject with a frequency that caused frustration from older and more established Dragon Kings. Indeed, Seventh Sparking Raptor of the Hidden Peaks would need a very patient polymath to serve as a traditional master, and while Amber was hardly that, the Raptok was willing to teach what he knew of both the draconic body and the body politic.
One of these tasks was notably less difficult than the other. Sparky had memorized the chakra meridians found in Anklok and Mosok bodies within the first week of instruction, could reliably diagnose selected poisons the Mosok enjoyed eating for the hallucinagenic properties found among some of the local aquatic species 'found' near Luthe and the treatments to both sober up a Mosok on a trip and how to make the resultant after effects even less enjoyable. Due to the eclectic nature of Sparky's studies, as much of it from dreamstones as tutors like Amber Scion of Pristine Winds, the Pterok also had ideas for odd treatments and procedures that, while probably technically possible, seemed too odd for Amber to expect to become particularly commonplace. Praise the Sun, why would a dragon ever desire a replacement arm of steel and lightning when a vegetative graft is simpler (and more intuitive), and Lizard Tail Regeneration now available enough to make the loss of a limb merely a matter of temporary embarrassment anyway?
Still, it was one topic that the two could agree on. Or rather, could amicably and productively disagree on. "Allocation of resources." Sparky said when he landed on the balcony as he made his way in. It was a complete nonsequiter, and it was even money whether this was a continuation of a conversation they'd left off months ago or a thought he just had that he was expecting someone else to follow. "Everybody needs jade, but there are enough base metals laying around that no one is going to object to their acquisition and refinement. No wait time to get what you need."
Probably a conversation from sometime late in Crowning Fire then, they had been comparing potential methods of transdraconianism and Sparky was adamant that an Autocthonic approach got society more shine for their obol, while Amber had pointed out that Gaian methods were already understood (and accepted) and would be more likely to be integrated without issue. The conversation had stalled when Amber Scion of Pristine Winds had attempted to explain why it just made more sense for a living thing to synch with another living thing as a symbiote rather than attach a dead thing to your arm and try to make that work, then derailed entirely when Amber had used the phrase 'reinvent the wheel' which for some reason prompted the youth to get an excited look in his eye before flying off crying something about 'cogs'.
"And if resource allocation was of reduced concern?" Amber asked leadingly. Sparky had the promise to be an extraordinarily proficient physician, if not one with all his acupuncture needles in a row sometimes. The Raptok considered bringing Sparky's social education up to par as part of his duties as a teacher, and while his early hopes of an erudite, suave student that brought a certain amount of reflected glory upon his sensei had been tempered repeatedly at first to merely being a 'skilled' and then to 'proficient' socialite, they had not yet slipped so far as 'acknowledge that social activity is a thing that happens (primarily to other dragons)'. Not that Sparky was unschooled; he could recite titles of address, knew the basics of social dynamics and how governing and bureaucratic societies worked, and could even make his way through a formal reception provided he had something to keep him from sparking off on some new activity. Academically he was well-schooled, it was making the transition to the practical applications of said knowledge in his personal life.
Sparky quirked his head at the question, thinking about his answer. "It depends on the cause for the recalculation of resource allocation. A short-term windfall in jade might help with a single batch or project, but the status quo reasserts itself and you are little different from where you perched before. However a realignment of requests based on an output could cause severe-"
Before the conversation could be diverted to numericals and spreadsheets, Amber just spat out the information he'd gotten that morning. "Knife of the Waves won the Howling Isle manse yesterday." Someone else might have been offended at their answer being cut off, but Sparky took it in stride.
"...and?" The Pterok asked, sure there was a point to that datum. With someone else it might be an oblique insult, but Amber took it as a positive sign.
Trying to not just yell at Seventh Sparking Raptor of the Hidden Peaks very hard, Amber laid out a number of bread crumbs for the youth. "You know who Knife of the Waves is, correct?" A nod, which reassured Amber more than it should. Knife was one of the elders that still remembered Lost Creation, and was as known for his conservative streak as his bitterness at their exile. "The Honored Elder has come into possession of a manse of the third station not far from Luthe, and as with any who hold such hearthstones there are those that would seek to tell him what is best to be done with it." Amber knew his clutchmate Wisdom of Saffron Ages was a strong proponent for creation of greater industrial manses but Saffron was an idiot who measured progress in material things instead of capabilities or deeds.
The Pterok waited and thought. "You are going to ask me what should be done with the manse."
"Not quite." Amber made a pleased head-bob for his pupil, gladdened that he had the youth's attention. "I was going to ask how you would convince him to support efforts to promote transdraconianism, either research or implementation."
Sparky immediately responded with "Gaian or Autochthonic?"
"Either, at the moment. Yes, I know that which needs to be determined before proper implementation, but let us not get lost among the trees here."
Sparky made some clicking sounds, then said "Write up a project proposal emphasizing low resource demands and a long term but potentially beneficial yield." When Amber saw the pleased expression on Sparky's face it was all the Raptok could do to keep from sighing. Oh Daystar that commands the heavens, let me have the strength of will to properly nurture this stupid genius sapling.
Instead of saying anything like that out loud, Amber simply arched an eye ridge. "An appeal to investments? An interesting approach to take with an Elder Anklok who reportedly burns 'frivolous busywork' from his desk at the start of each day." An apocryphal report, and likely false but helpfully illustrative. "Most people respond to emotional appeals you can back up with logic better than logic alone. Here we know that Elder Knife is bitter about losing The War" and to the Elders who survived the exile it would always be the war that deserved the definitive article "and we can use that emotion to frustrate his conservativism with a single line of reasoning; if the Unconquered Sun was the perfect general, how had he lost? By having inferior soldiers. We were his soldiery, and brave as we were it apparently wasn't enough to bring our god the victory he desired. If he were to call upon us again, how could we be better servants? By being better dragons, and that is the question transdraconianism seeks to answer."
Seventh Sparking Raptor of the Hidden Peaks was nodding as Amber explained. "Yes, I suppose I can see that. Only..." Amber leaned closer to hear his student's question. "Gaian or Autochthonic?"
This time Amber Scion of Pristine Winds just set his head on the desk and cried a little.
