Sapphire Skies

Everyone avoided her gaze, staying away from her eyes like they could kill her with a look. The Gnolls however ran up and bowed to her reverently, leaving the tied up humans near by.

Silus walked over and smiled, kneeling on one knee with his sword before him. "My Queen. The town is yours, and I will defend it with my life."

Still dressed in the blue dress with the sheathed blade tied loosely at her side, Caeriadne addressed the people that had assembled. The setting sun casts rays of crimson in the sky beyond, illuminating the tree flecked with sapphire shards that stood in the square behind her.

She nodded towards one of the gnolls and then gestured to the fallen body of the governor, across the square.

"No more harm will come to you," she spoke to those bowing before her. "You are safe here. Do as I ask, do not defy me, and we will build this town's future." She took a few moments to look at the people before her. "Which of you directly serve in the city government? Stand and come forward."

Most people kept away from her and nodded, it would take time for them to full accept her as their new leader. A few people stood and walked over to her and explained they were low level treasurers or clerks, that the Governor, the old Priestess, and Silus were the overseers of much of the government.

Silus walked forward and said "I was in charge of policing the town, the Miltia, and town guard. Also once caravan's got within a mile of our village they became my responsibility."

"Silus, and all you treasurers and clerks, shall maintain your positions. There will be some changes in how we run things here, but your responsibilities will be the same for now. Halt any caravans going out of town and shut down the gates for tonight. We will meet in the morning. We have much to discuss. All of the rest of you are free to go back to your homes. Do -not- try and leave the city tonight. Go on, and rest. Silus, and my council - report to me."

The people scattered immediately, trying to go about their business as well as they could, all caravan's were halted and any close to town were brought in and told they could not leave.

The members of her council that were present, Korrok, Ular, and Silus walked over to her. Silus seemed a bit off put seeing her council is made of Gnolls, but he didn't say anything.

"Good work today. I am proud of what you have done. You fought well and served me, and now, you are in a place of safety and growth. Tell the gnolls to find somewhere comfortable for tonight - perhaps the church, or the city hall. Tomorrow we will work on finding better...housing arrangements for everyone. There is much to do." She smiled. "Have some guards posted on the walls, and kill anyone who tries to get out. Rest well." She turned again, giving a gesture of dismissal to her followers as she walked towards the city hall on her own. She had no need for a bodyguard just yet - she had nothing to fear for the time being."

They went off to do what they were ordered to do, with a dutiful bow, except for Silus. He lingered for a moment, and said to her "My Queen, I wish to talk to you about something. Tell you some things about me, so you better know your servant so you can use me in any way you may want. Do you have a moment?"

She paused and glanced over her shoulder, interested in what he had to say. "I was hoping you might care to share." She turned with a patient nod. "Go ahead, Silus."

He smiled and took off his helmet and gloves, then spoke under his breath, a draconic shape shifting spell. His nails elongated slightly, his eyes become the spitting image of dragons, and the skin near and on his hands became slightly harder, more like scales and darkened so they were a dark shade of tan. "I am a dragon blooded, descended from a brown dragon named Demirtas."

Caeriadne looked at Silus as some recognition flashed across her eyes. "Demirtas..." She took a long moment to recall. It had been so long ago. "Yes...I remember him. It's been so long, but..." She smiled a little. "I knew I recognized something in you, Silus. You have the sacred blood within you. You will serve me well, and be rest assured that you will be with another of your kind. Tell me...have you seen any other dragons before? In your entire life? You seemed so...surprised."

He seemed very pleased at how she reacted, and he left the armor and spell off, he seemed much more comfortable in his own skin now that he could be himself. He shook his head at her question "No, all the dragons in the world were in that prison and most dragon blooded were hunted down. My family managed to escape, but over the years the only things we had left of our dragon heritage was broken knowledge of Draconic, and a shape shifting spell...and this sword, my great sword was fashioned by Demirtas before he was taken into the prison."

"Hm," was her initial answer. She absorbed the information, tucking it into the back of her mind for later. "Well, Silus. I imagine things must not have been pleasant for you, out here among all these humans. We will see what we can do to remedy that and teach you the proper ways. It's time for the world to change. And, by the way...I apologize for spearing you with psionic energy earlier. Coi jahus ihk wer jennuilt bensvelk, wux kampiun."

He smiled and nodded "Thank you for the offer my lady, I will take you up on that. I would love to learn more about my ancestors...and I understand it was for the greater good. If you hadn't done that I could have hurt some of your followers and hindered your plans even slightly, I would feel terrible if I did that."

She nodded. "Rest well tonight, Silus. Tomorrow, you will join the Council, and we will lay out our plans for the future. We have a society to build." Smiling, she turned again and headed off towards the city hall. She had accomplished almost everything she needed today, but there was one more thing she needed to do.

It was time to find the dendritic.

Silus nodded and walked off, he seemed very pleased with how everything had turned out today, truly this had to have been the best possible outcome.

When she entered the building the irresistible smell of the dendritic wafted onto her, and it filled her nose. For some reason she could not leave it alone. This would be a familiar sensation, since before the prison spell stole her form this world she had a horde just like any other dragon, but it was never dendritic. Perhaps the spell had changed something fundamental about her, perhaps the spell wasn't quite finished changing her life. Upon entrance to the building she would see a rather plain looking meeting hall, it was large and seemed to be able to fit far more than the population of this town, probably the former Governor planning on his future.

There were two doors leading off of this room, one was to a long winding staircase that led up, towards the upper floors of the buildings, which probably held offices and the like, she could smell a small amount of the dendritic up there. And there may be more information about her newly acquired town there as well. But down the other wall was a metal door with a thick latch on it, and because of the amount of dendritic scent wafting up from it, that must be where they were storing it all.

Caeriadne looked around, curious. She had shut the hall door behind her, leaving her utterly alone in this large building. It's yours now, she thought with a hint of a smile. She was already beginning to lay out the plans for this place, imagining what it would be like. What she would make it be like. This place wasn't anything spectacular yet, but it would be the launching point for her...campaign.

She spent a few moments taking inventory of what she had to work with in this building, but the scent of the dendritic slowly tugged away at her concentration. She assumed the upper floor was probably administrative; that would be the gears which turned this little city that was now hers. But that wasn't what she was interested in now...no, it was important, but it could wait. She had plans for what was underneath the city just as much as what was on its surface, and the overwhelming pull to explore this most curious of majestic, tempting scents only drew to hasten her decision. She turned and went for the metal door leading down, taking in a deep breath as she did so to inhale that wonderful substance.

That metal door was locked by the thickest iron lock she had ever seen. It was big, bolted multiple times and looked like multiple keys would be needed to open the thing. It was locked like this was their most guarded treasure, but why would humans of a town like this need dendritic? Dendritic, while not her original hoard, would not be unknown to her. It was a magical crystalline metal, used sometimes for weapons and armor but most times it was used by mages for staffs or foci. So this would probably start feeling more and more suspicious to her, perhaps brighton was not the plain old little town it felt like.

Intrigued more than ever now, she fiddled with the locks on the door. What was this town hiding in there?

She unlocked whatever manual deadbolts she could get her hands on, but was still left with several locks that she had no keys to. Perhaps under better circumstances and without the nagging call of the dendritic, she would've been patient enough to go searching. Besides, this door wasn't big enough to accommodate her true form, so she would have to do some...interior redecorating anyway.

Taking a moment to concentrate her strength, she channeled her energy and slammed hard into the door with a considerable amount of force to see if it would budge at all.

This door was built to handle something with the force of a battering ram, but not a dragon. The door broke off it's hinges after a few times slamming into it, since she was in her human form it would leave her a bit sore, but that would be a fleeting problem once she got a whiff of what was down there. Dendritic, a lot of dendritic. There were a set of stairs leading down in what looked like rough stone floors, it was a cave at the bottom of this stair case. She would have to go down to see the rest, but of course she would, little else was as pressing as her need to secure the dendritic.

Once she got down there she would be amazed at what she saw, a main store pile of dendritic was sitting in the center of a huge room carved from the bed rock and supported by a number of pillars. Mine shaft shot out from this main room like a spider's legs, in every direction. The pile of Dendritic was significant, probably close to a ton of the stuff, though this was nothing in comparison to a respectable dragon's hoard, it was a start. Thats when she saw a crystal floating above the pile, attached to the ceiling. It wasn't dendritic, it looked like a ruby that had been enchanted with something, and thats when she saw the miners. Controlled by that ruby she was see four or five stone golem miners, obviously only made to mine dendritic, going up their business, not caring about who was there. Though it seemed like they were bringing very little back out of the mines now, these caves were drying up.

A cave. Yes.

As she descended the stairs and saw the glow of the ruby, she was immediately on guard. As soon as she sensed movement, her hand went to the hilt of her blade. She drew it and stayed still for a long moment, scanning the room carefully. What the hell was this? So much dendritic...she had never seen so much of it. She was nearly overcome by the urge to simply rush in and dive into it, but she had to find out what these miners were up to, first.

After seeing that they had no response to her presence, she sent out a weak, tentative psionic tingle to see if she would be able to have any access to their minds - if they even had minds at all.

She could sense a basic intelligence, but all their thoughts were saying were "Mine Dendritic, Mine Dendritic, Find Dendritic." They were mining for the stone and trying to find new veins of it.

Cautiously, she took a few steps out, waiting to see if her movement might trigger the creatures to attack. She got closer and waved a hand in front of one, and then lightly tapped the tip of her blade onto the stone floor to make noise. She was watching carefully for any acknowledgment of aggression or reactivity.

They looked towards here for a moment while they were moving and working, but thats it. These were obviously very basic single goal golems, these were made by someone with a very basic knowledge of animating magics. Which takes years of study to master, as very few people are born with the natural talent for animation magic.

((not many jobs for animation either HUEHUEHUEHUE))

"Who is your master? Who made you?" She asked. She was mostly unfamiliar with golems, having never worked with them before, but she was wise enough to understand that what she was seeing in front of her could potentially be a very, very valuable thing. She felt half-stupid talking to the things, but there was a chance they might have more information. If not, who else would know? Silus, maybe.

They looked at the crystal when she asked those questions, their heads rotating in every angle imaginable to keep looking at it for at least minute after she asked that.