Chapter 1963: The Everclaiming
"No, my lord. The queen rules from Sarthal. Her Sovereign is a true dragon, with holdings far beyond our city. You won’t be expected to present yourselves to her."
Ayame’s fingers tightened against his sleeve beneath the edge of the crate.
An actual dragon owned the continent ahead of them.
Quinlan stared at the sprawling land on Narethi’s chart, trying to imagine the being who could claim all of it. He wanted to see her. The desire arrived so strongly that he had to remind himself they were discussing someone whose attention might be extraordinarily dangerous.
They had met primordials. He had a demon living inside him. Even so, hearing that a dragon lived across this sea filled him with an excitement he couldn’t dismiss as childish.
This was part of what he had wanted from coming here. Creatures he had only imagined, places he couldn’t predict, a world that could still leave him staring in wonder.
Serika said.
Aurora replied.
Kitsara corrected.
Quinlan sighed.
Vex looked down at him. For once, her excitement had left her without an immediate answer, and she tucked her hand around his arm while Narethi moved the timber covering an inland border.
Beside the mast, Black Fang was watching the captain intently.
"How does her rule affect travellers? Would we owe anything beyond the local fees?"
"Your ordinary business is with the local authorities. Their rulers, like Queen Zorvanna, pay her tribute. Unless you intend to involve yourselves with her possessions, I’d recommend learning the laws of the places you’re visiting."
Quinlan looked across the borders Narethi had shown them. Every hostile neighbour she had mentioned occupied land belonging to this same dragon.
"She permits these conflicts in her sovereign territory?" he asked aloud.
"They’ve been happening for as long as I’ve traded here. Whoever holds the land still owes her tribute afterward. I couldn’t tell you what she thinks of them, but she seems to not care much about the inner workings of her territory."
Narethi hesitated, then added, "Our queen is her daughter. That hasn’t stopped anyone from trying to take Sarthal."
Lucille lowered her cup.
"Her daughter?"
"Yes, my lady."
"And that makes no difference?"
"We still hire guards. We still lose ships. When an army comes, it’s the queen and her warriors who have to meet it. I’ve never seen her mother come to help."
Lucille stared down at the cup in her hands.
Quinlan agreed. He thought of Rosie at home, of her little hands catching his before he left. The idea of hearing that someone wanted to take her home from her and caring only whether they paid him afterward was as alien as possible to him.
"People talk, of course. But I carry cloth, my lord. I don’t attend the Sovereign’s court. I can tell you what it costs to bring goods through the harbour. What passes between her and her daughter..."
She shook her head.
"I won’t pretend to know."
"Fair enough," Quinlan said.
Beside the mast, Black Fang shifted her gaze from the map to Narethi.
"The pirate captain. How would he compare to your queen and her strongest fighters?"
Narethi looked at the black-haired woman, then toward the sea behind them.
"He wouldn’t have come near us if one of them had been aboard. Or if he had, he and his men would’ve died within moments."
Black Fang waited for her to continue.
"I don’t know their exact levels," Narethi admitted. "The great figures keep that information close. They certainly don’t share it with merchants asking about escort fees."
"Rumours?" Quinlan asked. "I’d like some idea of whose toes we should avoid stepping on."
"The strongest in the region are said to have passed level two hundred. Whether all the people claiming that know anything... I couldn’t say."
Ayame’s hand paused against the crate.
Two hundred.
The captain had been level 102. He had cut Quinlan through Synchra, and his men had hurt the women even with their surprise attack.
There were people here rumoured to be another hundred levels beyond him.
Quinlan felt excitement rising alongside his caution. He wanted to reach that strength, to discover what his classes would become with so many levels behind them. The world had finally given him fights worth seeking.
It could also kill the people he loved if he became careless.
he told his women.
Vex agreed.
"Does that include the Sovereign?" he asked Narethi.
"I couldn’t even offer you a useful rumour about her, my lord."
"Then we’ll start with something more approachable. Where would you recommend looking for work that involves travelling inland? Hunting, perhaps. Exploring somewhere worth seeing."
Narethi looked between him and his wives.
"Adventuring?"
"We’re rather well equipped for it."
Her eyes went to the blood drying around the salvaged bow.
"Yes. I suppose you are."
Ayame squeezed his arm.
He covered her hand with his while Narethi pointed inland again.
"The Adventurer’s Guild has a branch in Sarthal. Merchants need escorts, people need creatures driven away, expeditions need fighters. You’d have plenty to choose from.
"I’m not sure how it is in your distant lands, but here, the Guild is a power in its own right, recognized across most continents. Its adventurers aren’t sworn to the nation where they happen to be staying."
Narethi traced a road crossing the city’s border.
"A neighbouring kingdom can go to war with Sarthal and still welcome adventurers from our branch. Its people need monsters killed too, lands charted, and other problems solved. Taking a contract here doesn’t make you one of the queen’s soldiers."
Ayame leaned forward to follow the road beneath the captain’s finger.
"And the border guards accept that?"
"Generally. Though if nobody knows you and you arrive during a war, they may wonder whether you’re a spy. A reputation helps. Someone whose deeds are known has an easier time explaining why they’re travelling with weapons."
"Understandable," Quinlan said.
He liked the prospect considerably. They could make a home in the city, travel beyond it, and return without having to take its rulers’ side in every dispute.
Ayame said.
Quinlan chuckled.
<...> The girls found it a bit less amusing.
"Why don’t the dragonkin take that work themselves?" Vex asked. "There must be fights worth having."
"There are, but the dragonkin take pride in serving their queen. Most consider wandering off to fight for whoever offers a contract disloyal. They’ll call adventurers wandering mercenaries, then tell you what a true dragonkin warrior ought to be."
"Even if the adventurer is stronger?" Serika asked.
Narethi smiled at her.
"That would make for an unpleasant argument, my lady. I’d prefer to be elsewhere when it happened."
The captain moved a piece of timber off the chart, uncovering the neighbouring territory.
"Their leaders still hire adventurers, though. That independence adventurers enjoy is very useful when they want something done across a border."
Aurora understood instantly. "If the queen sends soldiers and they’re caught, her neighbour can point to them as proof that Sarthal acted against it. That gives them grounds to declare war."
Ayame looked from the border to Narethi.
"But if adventurers are caught, the queen can deny sending them."
"Exactly. They were pursuing a private contract. Whatever they did, she can say it had nothing to do with her. Unless the neighbour can prove otherwise, it loses that justification for war."
Lucille lowered her cup to the crate.
"And the people who accepted the contract are still across the border."
"Yes, my lady. I’d want to know very clearly what I was being paid to do before accepting that sort of work."
𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
Quinlan studied the inland routes. There was enough land beyond them to keep the family occupied for a very long time, and enough trouble to make choosing their work worthwhile.
"We’d be more interested in the place and the challenge than the fee. Someone who knows the region would be useful company."
"Then I can introduce you to people who arrange expeditions. And help you find somewhere to stay while you choose. Somewhere suitable for your family."
"With a bath," Vex added immediately.
"A good one," Ayame agreed.
Narethi laughed, looking at the two women pressed against their armored husband.
"I’ll make certain of it."
Above them, Blossom leaned over the basket again.
"And tasty local food!"
"And the food," the captain promised.
Quinlan caught the chart’s edge as the wind lifted it, keeping the inland roads exposed beneath his hand.
"It’s time to adventure, huh, ladies?"