Vengeance of the Dragon Queen

Chapter 6

Narran strode down the corridor, while he looked his usual calm and collected self inside he was seething with rage. He had been Emperor for several decades now and he felt that people whould by now have an understanding of how he was, his personality, and what not to do infront of him. Yet so far today he had been insulted several times, and by Delle of all people. He could, or rather would, overlook the insults done by the ambassadors, after all they were from inferior races, however Delle was another matter, and one that must be resolved soon.

As if that wasn't bad enough he had just been informed that Narran had not executed his spy that had failed in catching the priest, Ma'Shen. Pausing for a moment, he suddenly changes direction, a few minutes walk later he arrives at a dead end. Checking he's alone he takes a step forward and places his hand in the center of the wall, "My Lord, if you have a moment your humble servant requests an audience." There is no reply, Narran frowns, and then turns and leaves returning back to his original course. "That's unusual, he normally grants me an audience, something must be happening in the upper realms; damn this isn't good."

As he wanders the corridors he pauses now and again to contemplate the paintings hanging there. We need to do something to handle Delle soon, he's getting to arrogant. When we were instilled we were given specific roles by the Lord, i've tried not to cross that line; as did Delle for a while. However the past decade or so he's changed, started to plot and seek to unify the roles, he's wanting to make a Divine Emperor or something. He frowns as he looks at a recent addition to the citadel's painting collections, "You damn old fox, why couldn't you be satisfied with the role you were appointed." Sighing he turns and strides on until he reaches the same doorway that Jarrath had used earlier. He decends into the depths of the citadel and makes his way to his old friends rooms. Conflicting emotions course through him, on the one hand he is an able commander who has never failed in his tasks, that was why Narran had petitioned for him to be made immortal. However Narran has a very strong code of conduct he adhere's to, failure is not acceptable and those that fail are executed. Especially when the failure has the potential to undermine the kingdom.

When he reaches Jarrath's chambers he dosen't knock, just strides in, and gives the room a quick cursory glance. Jarrath lies reclined on one of the divan's, a tray of wine, cheese and fruits by his side, a half glass hangs lightly from his fingers as he lies with eye's closed; for all appearances asleep. Narran frowns, and slowly reaches for a dagger, no normal dagger of course could kill an immortal; this dagger was one given to him by Marduk and can even kill and immortal. As his hand slowly grasps and draws it a soft voice rises from where Jarrath lies. "Isn't it better to hear the reports before you react? Like you i do not allow failure, except where the failure is caused by something beyond the persons control, such as what has happened here." Jarrath opens his eyes's and looks at his friend, no sign of sleep in his eyes.

Chuckling softly he releases the dagger, moves to the side and pours himself a glass of wine. "Forgive me old friend, this fiasco with the ambassadors and Delle has me on edge." Narran moves to one of the other divan's and reclines, taking a sip of the wine. "Ahhh that's a good vintage, what's been going on? You've never failed in a task i've given you before, so what happened?" Narran stretches his legs out and kicks off his sandles, absently swirling his wine he looks at Jarrath.

"There's a lot of things going on, some disasterous, others not so much so." He looks at his wine and grimaces, "firstly, were you aware that the Clans are still alive? What's worse they seem to be active in the empire." At this Narran stiffens and stares at Jarrath.

"Let's have it all, leave nothing out." Narran's voice is cold and oozes suppressed rage.

"Well, it seems that Brother Ma'Shen may be a survivor of the Clans," He reaches for a folder on the floor, picks it up and throws it to Narran. "I had that file 'removed' from the Temple archives, it's Ma'Shen's shadow file. When he was recruited to the Temple he stated he came from Zarthilin, which explained his proficiency with the rudimentary magics." Narran flipped through the pages, nodding slightly. "He was found to have language skills, as well as some proficiency with the clerical arts, so was put on the fast track." Taking a small drink from the glass of wine he continues, "frankly i personally would have found all of that suspicious, but apparently Delle relaxed the procedure about thirty years ago. Frankly i think that alone should allow you to remove him from office." Standing up he places the glass on the sideboard and picks up a bit of cheese. "However his ghost file there, which only Delle and the senior clerics know of, and you and i of course; shows that he comes from Ra'Sar. While he and his father were expelled from there when he was three years old, and did move to Zarthilin, he's still a decendant of the Clans, what's more since he's from Ra'Sar it's highly likely he's a direct decendant." He pauses and throws the cheese back on the plate, before returning to his divan.

"Did Delle really believe he would get away with this?" Narran shakes his head in disgust, "Surely he must have known that we'd find out eventually?" He drops the file on the floor and looks over at Jarrath. "I assume you believe this is reason enough to excuse your agents failure?"

"Hardly, it may have saved him from immediate execution, but it would have put him in abeyance. This time however i decided to allow a reprieve, something felt wrong; and after i investigated i came accross this," He picks up another folder and passes it to Narran, "These are the official plans for the temple, which is what my agent based his plans on. Given these there was no way for Ma'Shen to escape i looked for the conflict, what i found was a huge conflict." He passes over a third folder, "This was recovered from Delle's chambers, if you look it over you'll see the differences. Take Ma'Shen's tower where he was placed. Not only are there several rooms that are not on the official plans, there's also several secret entrances; including one right in Ma'Shen's chambers leading to an undocumented exit. Given that, i've decided to forgive my agent this once, he's always been good and solid in the past. This time he didn't have the right information to base his plans on, do you agree?" He looks over at Narran and waits.

Narran flicks through the pages, noticing the extra rooms, and that several of these hidden chambers are attached to Delle's personal chambers. After a few minutes he nods. "I agree, i've always trusted your judgements in the past, and you are right, even i would have allowed him to escape based on these plans." He drops the two folders onto the floor by the first, leans back and rubs his eyes. "Anything else you need to report?"

Jarrath grimaces, he's not looking forward to this. "Delle is almost ready to make his move, after what i've reviewed today i'd say within the season." He picks up another folder up and passes it to Narran. "Seems we have an interesting character working for us by the name of Lem Suldor, he was a minor strategic analyst, however he's proven rather valuable, and resourceful. He has, it seems, a rather extensive inteligence network both within the military and the Temple. He discovered that Delle seems to have joined forces with Berint, they've provided a brigade of Berint's army, to pose as a mercenary guild." He leans back and spreads his arms across the back of the divan. "He's recovered some of their equipment as well as other information, though he's waiting for those to return, these he says verifiy his arguments."

"Damn, how the hell did this happen? How did we drop the ball on this Jarrath?" Jarrath chuckles softly "We've grown complacent over the years. happens to us all eventually." Rising to his feet Jarrath strides to the door and pulls on one of two sashes that hang from the ceiling, and then returns to his divan . "The question is how do we handle this?" Jarrath looks at Narran and waits.

Narran nods to himself, "I see what you mean, this has to be handled carefuly or it could cause the next war. We aren't quite ready yet. we need to sort Delle out first and then reorganise."