There was a long pause, finally broken by Kali taking the initiative. "Maybe we just need to ease into this. Take our time." She took his right hand in her left. "And we don't need to fill in every second with idle chatter." She leaned over to Kutur's head and gave him a small lick on the side of his snout.

_______________________

Meanwhile...

The caravan from Hekaga had finally reached the city and began to unload its onerous cargo. Slowly but surely, the dracons emptied their wagons, depositing the stones and other supplies onto a large field just beyond the city limits. It was not a fast process by any means, and they still weren't finished when the kobolds came over. One of the dracons, a burly orange-skinned guard, stood firm when asked to relinquish his arms by a contingent of kobold soldiers.

"I am under strict orders to watch over this caravan, as are all of the sentinels. We won't draw our weapons unless provoked. Let us do our work and we'll be on our way. It won't take us long to leave the supplies. What you do with them once we unload 'em is up to your people."

"And I am under strict orders to prevent you. We'll take it from here," growled the kobold guard captain, glaring up at the dracon. "If it's just wood and stone, you have nothing to worry about. Head into the palace and meet with His Might the Emperor . . . without your weapons, thank you very much." He shouted to his troops, and they immediately started getting to work extracting the stone from the wagons. The environment was already getting tense. Sharp stares went around the whole of the two guard teams, and no kobold would turn his back on any dracon.
____________________________________
Kutur was shocked. Stunned in his place. He didn't know what to do. Eventually, a gasp left his snout, and a small claw reached up and touched the place that Kali put her tongue on. "I . . . " he croaked. "Ahh . . . "

"I'm no one important. Just a guard. He'll want to meet with General Mazdak when he arrives" the guard explained. "He's traveling separately, but don't ask him to disarm. Just don't. He's already pretty pissed that he has to make this trip. Provoking him further would only lead to... trouble." The guard turned on his heel and oversaw the last of the unloading. He knew that if he was attacked, it could result in a war which would destroy the kobold kingdom almost overnight.

____________

Kali kept licking him on the snout, hoping that he would get the idea to return the kiss. She was a little annoyed that he didn't seem very into her, but she kept trying. Sometimes, it could take a while to overcome hesitation.

"I'll keep it in mind," the captain said, nodding. This once, he was willing to take the dracon's word for it. The kobolds soon finished unloading the stone and carting it away. A scout jogged over, and whispered his report to him. Apparently, another caravan was sighted outside the city grounds. "Good. Relay the message to His Might."
______________________________________________________
It was a little bit of time before Kutur made his resolve. It was now or never, and he'd much rather it not be never. Slowly, he returned the kiss, tentative and light. He wasn't sure what he was doing, nor did he mind, for being in this moment simply felt right. Despite the awkwardness of not knowing where his hands should go, or how cold the water felt dripping off him, he'd rather be here than with any book in any library.

The guard took his leave, mounted up, and left with the other dracons, heading back to Hekaga. They left behind no extra message for the kobolds, no tricks, no traps, and no unpleasant surprises. The stones were of perfectly good quality, nothing exceptional. Simple, utilitarian stones for building any number of structures. The amount left behind was not enough to build a grand temple or a long circuit of walls, but it was sufficient for a single structure of some size, or maybe some smaller structures of a more modest scale. For a city so steeped in intrigue and deception, an act as simple as moving cartloads of stone with no strings attached was very unusual for Hekaga.

----------------------

Kali leaned into Kutur's face, savoring the sensation of his snout on her's. On some level, she knew fully well that this tender moment could be disrupted at just about any time, so she resolved to enjoy it while she still could. She wrapped her arms around him and used the claws of her right hand to gently scratch his back, moving her fingers around in little circles out of instinct. It was a way of attracting a mate, making him feel good to encourage him to stay and keep up whatever it is that he was doing. It was a nonverbal way of saying "I like you" to Kutur.

Commander Qorq didn't trust these stones. His subordinates claim that they are perfectly fine, but Hekaga was not known for its honesty, to say the least. "Check the stones again," he ordered, to the grumblings of the working troops. They were quickly silenced with a glare. "Dracons will go out of their way to destroy an innocent kobold, know that. They will force a kobold into slavery, even if it is not efficient for them, for in dracon philosophy, they see their suppression of freedom and kobold ingenuity as a matter of principle. Now check them again!" All he found in return were mutterings of dissent.
_____________________________
"His Might wishes your presence at the imperial court," came a voice behind the entwined pair. Kutur jumped away from Kali, and quickly returned back to his shy demeanor.

"But, I-"

"He says its a matter of the future of the empire, magister,"

"Well . . . if you say so . . . " Kutur said, grabbing his robe and slipping it back on. It was still wet.

The stones were examined several times more. Nothing was wrong with them. No cracks, no significant flaws, and once a couple of mages were pulled over to check, no curses were detected.

"Nothing, commander" the mage explained, deactivating his magic. "These are just stones. Nothing special about them."

--------------------

"I'll come with you" Kali said, her voice flat. She followed the other kobolds to see Rughoi, feeling quite bored by her services for almost the first time. For a few moments, she indulged herself in a daydream. She imagined herself living in a hut with Kutur, enjoying a lazy afternoon lounging around on a soft bed made of hay. Her humble fantasy was soon cut short when a herald announced that 'his might' was approaching. It took Kali all of her self control not to tell Kutur that she didn't want to be there and that she'd much rather spend the day making out with Kutur by the water's edge. For once, she thought of herself, her love life, and what she wanted to do.

"Greetings, my lord. What is the matter?"

"Crisis, people. Crisis," Rughoi muttered, eyes fixed at the door. "In any moment now, a dracon will be escorted in, one who no doubt follows a false culture while worshipping false gods. Worse still, Rebat is still recovering from the attack outside the Talon Pass. That ought to toss a dampener on the whole thing. Good you're here, at least. I'd hate to have to cut a dracon throat alone." Rughoi was quickly interrupted of his angry tirade by a shout from the gate.

"Announcing the General Mazdak, representing the city of Hekaga!" shouted the herald, bursting into the room. "His Might, Rughoi 'the Unbound', Emperor of all Kobolds!" Rughoi hissed, and stood up to his full height, to face the still-larger dracon emissary.

"I trust you've had a pleasant journey," he said, through gritted teeth. From looking at them, the feeling was undoubtedly mutual. "Care to explain why you hadn't left your swords with the gatekeepers?"

"For self-defense. And nothing more" Mazdak snarled. He knew that he was outnumbered, surrounded, and keep in what was very likely hostile territory at the moment. The only thing keeping them from attacking him was the threat of overwhelming retaliation by dracon forces.

"This is a diplomatic mission, but I don't need to tell you that bandits and raiders from the desert don't respect a flag of truce. Traveling through the desert unarmed is a fool's errand. I'm still not convinced that I'm fully secure from those brigands in here, seeing as how your little city is reportedly the source of many of those rogues." The orange-skinned dracon scanned the room, wary of an ambush.

Kali made her way into the room, briefly speaking to Rughoi on the theological matter.

"Truly, only a small fraction of dracon gods are false. They worship thousands of deities, so a few of them are bound to be pretenders"

Mazdak continued his speech. "None of that really matters now. My goal is to create -for want of a better word- an alliance between your kingdom and Hekaga's. We need not call it that. I've been given discretion to also name it as a pact, treaty, agreement, concordat, coalition, association, affiliation, league, consortium, or partnership. I've been told to avoid using the term 'union' or anything approximating a single political entity. You may want to remain completely unaffiliated from any dracon state, but you need a protector. Think of it like a kobold allying with a dragon, if that helps. You don't even need to agree to Grand Prince Ternoc's supremacy; he's prepared to accept you as an equal, but only is you accept the title of king. Your only serious concession is to give up the title of emperor; it's a pretension which is making the other dracon realms rather angry."

Smith was someplace on Adkyon's farm sitting down on a chair for the time being recovering, His wound was healing quite well for the most part. Reading a book about the local fungus while having a cup of tea that Kara's mother had prepared for him, It was quite good and it would be something he would want to talk to her about for later.

Kara entered the room, bringing in some food for both of them on a tray. She sat down next to Smith in a cushioned chair next to him, keeping silent for the moment so as not to disturb his reading. Only after a few minutes did she speak up.

"You know, not many people read those things, apart from alchemists." She examined his injury for a moment. "Want me to apply more healing magic to it? It's been a while since I cast a spell on it."

@Aristocles

"Very well you can" Smith said simply flipping though a page of the book he was reading, "Well I know and have a interest in nature and the like" He then added taking a quick glance at her. His free hand taking what looked like a apple and taking a bite out of it.

"Preposterous, as I expected," Rughoi snorted, reacting to the outrageous compromise Mazdak put forth. "You want to revoke my title? How pretentious can one get?" He walked over to the map he had hanging on the wall, and turned back with a glare that would melt glass. " . . . For what? Protection? Is that how the dracon realms refer now to slavery?" Ardasa went over to whisper her piece where the guest may not hear.

"Ooh, I wouldn't quite approach it that way," she whispered, gazing with fear at the orange dracon standing at the door. He cut an imposing figure, and was a fearsome representation of a dracon soldier. "These people are nobles and lords. They appreciate good diplomacy, and will make concessions our way if we show a bit of respect."

War is not on our agenda, as you would remember," added Kutur, joining in on the conversation.

"Hmm," Rughoi muttered. It was difficult not to spit in the face of a being he hated so much. He looked up at the dracon, then back at his bounded. " . . . Perhaps I have been hasty to reject an offer I had not yet considered. There is no reason both our nations can't get something out of this."

"Don't mind him too much, esteemed guest," Ardasa said, treating Mazdak to one of her brightest smiles. "Rughoi is a good leader, truly. If he comes across as . . . crass, then it is just his love for his people showing through. As he said, both of us can walk away happy. A counter-proposal, if you would listen to it. We create a pact of non-aggression between the two of us, and the Empire of Xigyll will now demand half-tariffs on all merchants flying the flag of Hekaga. Surely a smart negotiator like yourself would know how wealthy you would grow as a result. In that, let us keep the right to call ourselves an empire, headed by emperors. It's just a name, isn't it? A lovely one, coined by Arjun 'the Brave' in his ancient conquests. A culturally-tolerant and all-embracing realm such as the mighty Hekaga would want to preserve such a vibrant and rooted culture. What do you say? Friends?"

"We do not recognize the Empire of Xigyll. We recognize the Kingdom of Xigyll, and only under better terms than that" Mazdak explained. "As for the tariff deal, we can work with it. We are prepared to make economic deals, and that's a good start. Gods know they charge far higher taxes in Hekaga. As to the bigger point, you need to understand that an empire is a state made up of the lands of many nations, implying a claim on someone else's territory. The very claim of empire alone invites danger. Plus, Xigyll isn't the size of an empire at all. More like a small fraction of a dracon kingdom. Frankly, the title of king is pretentious enough when there are dukes and sovereign princes with domains which dwarf Xigyll by far."

Mazdak turned his gaze to Ardasa, finding her easier to deal with than Rughoi. "But don't let yourself be fooled by the siren's song of cultural tolerance. That's how countries come apart. A realm can be multiethnic, multiracial, and even multilingual to a degree, but it cannot be multicultural. Culture is what binds a land together with unspoken bonds which cost little to maintain and require no force to protect. Law is only a bond when it can be upheld, and no law is so well enforced that it can be upheld when enough of its subjects aren't of a mind to obey it. In other words, laws only work when people choose to follow them. It's actually a problem in Hekaga, believe me. That's how I know. Without a dominant culture to hold sway over subcultures and set norms to follow, your realm will disintegrate like a brick wall without mortar."

There was a long pause. He had gotten a bit off-track, but it was for a good cause.

"I know you might not like giving up a title like that, but it's the only sensible course of action. People can't help but associate the title of "Emperor" with "Dememoras." Hekaga allied itself with that devil and we found ourselves without a king entirely. My lord Ternoc is a Grand Prince, as you may well remember. If it helps, you might try a title similar to emperor without using the name itself. Something like... autokrator, basileus, or maybe even despot?"

"Quiet," Rughoi growled, from his place at the far end of the room. "If all you can say is that my very name offends a dracon I care nothing about, then you have said nothing. It is my name, for Hetuis! My name! I do not care if a hundred dracon creatures have bore it before!" He sighed, and Ardasa thought perhaps it best now that she try not to intervene. Rughoi hissed, feeling the air slowly escape his throat, and continued, far more peaceably. "What sacrifices has your grand prince lost, by forfeiting the title of king? He could replace it with any word, but he knows in his heart that anything less than king tastes of ash when he speaks it." He waved at the door, staring at its knob instead of at Mazdak. "Get gone, emissary. I have enough peace already. I don't need protection. Commander Rebat, if you would show the guest the way out?"

"At once, Your Might," croaked the haggard kobold, hobbling over to Mazdak and gesturing for him to follow.

"Double tariffs on Hekaga," Rughoi ordered, when the guest was out of earshot. Kutur quickly noted the command down. "Let them dream their dreams of hegemony. My empire will have none of it, so long as I live."

"You act as if you were speaking from a position of strength" Mazdak countered, slowly moving from the room, but still close enough to be heard. "What my prince has lost by forfeiting a title, you could gain by altering yours. The throne you sit on is too large for you, too small for Ternoc, so to speak. You make claims above your station, while he is forced to kneel to a position above his own. Even as a king, you would still technically outrank him in order of prestige, though not of actual force. The 'dreams' of hegemony which Hekaga has could easily become reality if you mistreat an emissary, such as myself. All it would take is one report from me and-" He was out of earshot by then, but Kali had grown nervous with the ramifications of this meeting. It wouldn't have been the first time Rughoi had made a bad call, even if he wanted to do good for his people, in a strange sort of way. She was determined that this not be the last chance he'd get to make things right.

"-my lord, allow him to say his piece, please! Ardasa, please speak some sen- advise our lord, for the love of all the gods above!" Kali exclaimed, greatly concerned.

Mazdak stopped his egress and marched back into the room, staying near the doorway, much to the consternation of the guards. "And I'll have you know that Ternoc's demotion was forced on him by the other major city-kingdoms! He cannot replace his title with anything else,lest they crush him as surely as Hekaga can crush you! The other realms will only recognize a Grand Prince of Hekaga, not a King, not a Grand Duke, not anything more or less. It will be that way until they decide that we have atoned for siding with Dememoras. That could take several lifetimes if nothing is done. The Grand Prince has lost quite a bit just by failing to have the title of king. Many of Hekaga's vassals only bow down to the city's king, many taxes on trade can only be collected because they are owed to the king, many ceremonies in the city require its king to perform them... I think you get the idea. His ability to levy new taxes and laws to go to the grand prince has been limited by the reluctance of many of the higher-ranking nobles. Its no surprise that the institution of the Royal family in Hekaga has taken quite a few hits these recent decades..." he let it trail off there, waiting for a response.

Rughoi didn't even bother dignifying Mazdak by speaking to him. "Rebat," he called instead, and the disabled commander stepped forward, bowing low as his back would allow.

"Your Might, I am yours to command," he hissed. The wind from the gash in his throat whistled as he talked.

"I remember asking you to escort this diplomat safely to his nation, where he can cause no more disrespect to me or the empire, yet here he still is. Why would you say that is?" Rebat shuddered. He had faced dracon warriors in every battle Rughoi has ever fought, but knew well enough that the rage of the emperor was more dangerous than anything he'd ever seen.

"Forgive me, Your Might. I will see to it immediately," Rebat stuttered. He waved with a scarred claw, and two armed guards approached, gesturing for Mazdak to leave. Their gaze suggested they would tolerate no argument.

"Oh, and one last thing," Rughoi said, before letting Rebat and the guards head off. "Before you return, present yourself to the court at Hekaga. Speak with my voice with the Grand Prince, and continue negotiations there. Most importantly of all, be respectful of the local custom. At least more respectful than this dracon animal. If we must show ourselves to be culturally and civilly superior, then that is the burden of the kobold." Rebat nodded without a word, a few joints in his neck cracking under the strain. "It is well I can trust you with this task, Rebat. My former generals, Merat and Rama, were both found to be treasonous baser creatures. Look at their foolish actions as a guideline on what not to do, even far from home."

"Come with me, esteemed guest," Rebat croaked, opening the door for Mazdak. "You have said enough."

Mazdak left the throne room, walking ahead of Rebat. His stride was long as quick, a pace he intentionally kept so as to remind the kobold how difficult it would be for him to keep up with his much shorter legs. "Rest assured that my lord will hear of my brusque treatment, Rebat. You will have quite the task to accomplish if you seek to convince him that kobold are fit to be anything more than miners and farmhands at best." Mazdak kept walking out of the city center, only pausing for a moment to make sure that Rebat was still with him.

"And another thing. I hope you have more sense than your leader. Surely you know that he's no emperor. He's just a scared little boy trying to compensate for his half-breed heritage. Oh, I'm sorry. Rughoi is half-animal, as he described us dracons. Adykon told me all about him. You see, that kind of talk has to stop on the part of your leader. He has to realize that he has a weak hand, but he's playing it as if it was a strong one. In nature, this would result in the smaller creature being devoured by the larger. Sooner or later, all this talk will give way to nature, and frankly, an alliance with Hekaga is the only thing which can stop nature from taking its course. As you will find out, Hekaga is a city where the unnatural happens as a matter of policy."

---------------

Kali couldn't believe what she had seen. Rughoi had just insulted the emissary who was quite possibly their last shot at gaining a powerful ally, recognition from the major powers, and the safety which came with such things. She'd have to pull some strings with Aerta and call in every favor she was owed to even have a shot of fixing this, but for now, she held her tongue. At least, when speaking to Rughoi.

"Ardasa, could you come with me for a moment? I'd like to discuss something, and I think our lord needs his rest." Her tone was flat, even-tempered, and controlled. In fact, it was so much so that one could easily deduce that she was adopting such a tone as a means of compensating for something else. Frenzied panic tinged with anger would better describe what she really felt, though her face didn't betray it. Not yet, at least.

"Hold, please!" Rebat called, his voice going as loud as it can. Still, however, his cry was quiet, with most of it lost to his failing throat. He hobbled in vain after the healthy dracon, favoring his left foot. "I cannot walk as you can, you see. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to make a concession for me, if we are ever to reach your home together." Still, the distance between him and Mazdak widened till they reached the city limits. He finally arrived at the first river crossing, panting and clutching his throbbing foot. He had to cling on to the shoulders of one of his guards to make the last few lengths. "Let us cross the river first," he said, between coughs and wheezes. "If you please, could you call one of the boats? My voice is not what it used to be. You'd understand, I'm sure."

Mazdak slowed his pace. "Not a problem. Are you alright? It was never my intention to give you this much trouble just by walking." He didn't know if the kobold was sick, injured, old, or some combination of the three. "Call whatever you have to, if it will help."