[Emperor POV] Year 5, Day 206 (Evening before race, Central)
Emperor stood in the Banking Guild’s grand hall. Chandeliers overhead. Music playing. Hundreds of guests mingling. Wealth displayed casually in every direction.
He talked to Head Mage using telepathy—too many eyes and ears everywhere for spoken conversation.
«This city is incredible. The amount of wealth these guilds have managed to steal together is quite horrific.»
Head Mage’s mental voice came back with dry amusement. «I told you they could be useful.»
«You still think they can be useful? To me it seems more like enemies.»
«You may be right about that. I’d never seen those who call the shots here this close before. But at least we’re learning about the enemy now.»
The goblin evening leader—one of a pair of small green Mindglow goblins in formal attire, carried in backpack-saddles by their ponygirl attendants—introduced another guild member with practiced professionalism.
“Aldric Razorclaw, patriarch of the Razorclaw family from the Merchant Guild. The Razorclaws are the second biggest rice importers to the Republic among their many other businesses. Let’s all thank them next time when we eat some nice rice balls.”
Emperor watched this Aldric—a tigerkin beastman in expensive merchant robes—accept the introduction with practiced grace and calculating eyes.
The food imports made the Emperor think of a nice memory, so he shared it with Head Mage. «I bet this guy overprices food as well as we did when we controlled all the borders here during the Empire’s prime.»
Head Mage almost laughed through the mental connection. «Probably more. We used food imports as one of our control tools mostly to keep locals under control. The fact that he imports rice shows he’s all about profit. If it were grain, I might perhaps believe some goodness in him.»
Emperor felt confused. «What’s with the grain versus rice?»
«Oh, you don’t know? As the Republic is heavily negative in food production, they import even more now than they did in the past since the population is massive. So as part of some kind of social contract, the Syndicate provides some basic food items under cost to keep the populous happy. It’s basically grain and a few items around it that make basic menus here. Rice is not on this list and is actually quite pricey.»
Emperor acknowledged. «Ah, yes. I heard about this Syndicate menu.»
The goblin leader continued with introductions.
“Monoto, head priestess of dragon temples in the Republic.”
Emperor almost cursed when he heard the introduction. Damn dragons again. He looked at this Monoto—a beautiful foxkin in classical priestess robes who was making friendly banter with the goblin brothers.
[It would be better if the elves had actually pushed this race to extinction. What resulted from their actions instead is so much worse—a slave race of zealots for dragons. So much worse than daemons. Daemons are just opportunists.]
Emperor looked around and gave up counting after ten, twenty, thirty. Too many beautiful foxkin females in their distinctive shrine maiden dresses, and most of them probably weren’t maidens anymore.
Most of them were concentrated around the dwarves, who clearly liked to show off their high-quality servants serving with perfect devotion.
[Though maybe some might still be maidens. Dwarves are almost as strict as elves about taking that final step with other races. Cultural barriers run deep, even when temptation is right there serving them.]
Emperor noticed that Head Mage looked almost frozen, so he asked. «What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.»
Head Mage’s mental voice was serious. «This Monoto—there’s no soul in that body. Only a soul binding. She’s a dragon-servant, I think bound to Selyra.»
Emperor felt sad. «That would be the fifth today. Plus more who are probably named by dragons—sadly no real way to detect namings that easily. But yes, they’re penetrated by dragons too deeply. Perhaps like junior partners.»
«Junior partners.» Head Mage’s mental voice carried dark amusement. «Well said. If there’s some good thing to take from this visit, we haven’t seen any actual true dragons in human form.»
Emperor warned. «Don’t say it like that. It can make bad luck, and we have more of this dragon race to watch tomorrow.»
Head Mage responded with amusement. «I didn’t make you that superstitious.»
Emperor decided to switch topics—didn’t want to ruin things by thinking about more dragons.
He spoke aloud this time. “You see those two goblins who are running the show today? They’re named Hob and Drek. And those girls who haul them around in those backpack-saddles, or however those things should be named.”
Head Mage observed with professional interest. “Well, Mindglows have always been the more civilized end of goblin kind. And their extremely small size makes them look cute if nothing else.”
Emperor shared his story—for once he could share a cool story to Head Mage instead of the other way around.
“Well, this Hob had a ponygirl in the past. Total golddigger. After the goblins got enough of her, they kicked her out, and she wrote a book about her life there. Titled it ‘Goblin Slave’ for marketing purposes since dramatic titles sell better.”
Head Mage looked surprised. “Where do you know about something like that?”
“When you’re stuck in bed for centuries, books are one of the few entertainments left. I really felt bad for this goblin for ending up with that kind of golddigger.”
“Emperor and his powerful head mage. My lord wishes you both well and hopes in time there will be more ants like you who are actually worth talking to.”
Emperor almost jumped when he heard it. Monoto, this foxkin priestess, was now next to them, smiling.
Monoto continued. “I hope I did not disturb you at the wrong time. You both look…”
Head Mage managed to collect herself and answer before Monoto finished. “Thank you, no, we’re fine. Just got a bit surprised. You can tell Selyra we are thankful for her attention.”
Monoto smiled. “You should be. The fact that she remembers ants is a sign of great honor—even in this room full of great people, few can claim it.”
Emperor added his own response. “We are honored that the mighty Dragon Queen remembers us.”
Monoto’s smile turned sneaky. “My lord asks to remind you what she said last time: You two should have some bedroom fun and make some kids. It should hopefully improve the human gene pool—it’s as horrible as it was seven thousand years ago.”
Emperor wanted to curse. Damn dragons and their hubris. For ants, it was supposedly a great honor to receive such “suggestions.”
And making kids? He wouldn’t be against it with Head Mage, but not because some dragon dictated it. Selyra probably thought of it more like efficient breeding anyway—he’d heard enough stories about how this crazy dragon queen ran foxkin breeding programs in her city like someone managing horses or wyverns to improve stock quality.
Monoto smiled. “Would you perhaps like some servants? A few of them are actually trained by courtesans in this great city and can help to cheer up your bedroom life, help to break some barriers perhaps?”
Emperor looked in the direction where Monoto indicated. A number of foxkin in temple clothing stood waiting there as offerings. He had no doubt they would be the best servants one could wish for—for them it was divine duty to fulfill. But they were also a massive security risk. Dragon spies.
So he declined as diplomatically as he could. “I think we are not worthy of a gift of this magnitude.”
Monoto smiled. “If you ever think otherwise, please let me know.” She bowed. “I have a lot of other duties today, if you’ll please excuse me.”
Emperor watched how Monoto left, walking to some group of dwarves. If he remembered right, they were Steelhammers—one of the big Union dynasties. She talked a bit there, then left the group with a younger-looking female dwarf with maid accompanying her to where those foxkin were waiting.
Emperor watched Monoto leave and walk to a group of dwarves. If he remembered right, they were Steelhammers—one of the big Union dynasties. She talked briefly with them, then left with a younger-looking female dwarf and her maid. They walked to where the foxkin servants were waiting.
Emperor almost wanted to scream at this dwarf lady. She was clearly someone of importance, and she’d just accepted two spies without realizing it.
Worse, those spies would definitely start brainwashing her with ideas about dragons being good and noble. When the Empire rose again one day, he’d probably need to kill her since she’d have delusional ideas about resisting the new world order and protecting those foxkin.
And probably more than just her.
Monoto had started to marry those foxkin on the spot after the dwarf selected them. But not with one female—with two. She’d made a joke that foxkin had such a severe ratio imbalance of males and females, so each male should have several spouses.
The dwarf lady had blushed heavily at this comment but agreed. So they’d added one more female and paired them—one male with two wives.
They’d all looked super happy about it, which made sense since this was how most foxkin couples were formed through assignment.
So the chance they’d make more foxkin was not zero. Future generations of dragon zealots spreading through Union bloodlines, raised by servants who’d already been indoctrinated.
He looked once more in Monoto’s direction. She was talking with a family of gnomes now. Emperor was quite sure she was offering them temple servants also—who would poison them with all kinds of lies in the future.
So he said to Head Mage, switching back to mental communication. «Let’s go talk to those goblins. I want to share some experiences about golddiggers.»
Head Mage sounded surprised. «What’s come over you now?»
«Just want to get my mind off this madness I just witnessed. And I really have had experiences with a lot of those golddiggers. You weren’t there to act as a filter.»
They moved through the crowd toward where the goblin brothers were holding court. At least goblins were honest about what they were—greedy, ambitious, and straightforward.
Better than dragons pretending their slavery was a gift.
[At least in his Empire, slaves are marked clearly with collars around their necks. Not like this mess here with so many layers nobody really knows what is what. Who’s truly free? Who’s owned? Who’s serving willingly versus who’s been manipulated into devotion? Slavery is disguised as honor, service, and divine purpose. More honest to just collar them and be done with it.]
