The flight to Mytros was exhilarating and terrifying. My hooves found scant purchase on the hide of the dragons, so I called upon my beast forms once more to help keep me in place. Perhaps some sort of saddle or riding platform might help, or if I can figure out the right totem spirits to shift part of my form, perhaps I might have had better luck. Though, from my observations, I am hardly alone- the riders from Mytros don’t seem to be entirely comfortable themselves. Hardly the fabled bond that we had heard described in the Necropolis.
We landed as close to the city as we dared, with heavy winds and rains lashing. It was a bedraggled bunch that made it to the palace proper before being brought before the king.
I call him king, because he wore a crown. But in truth, there was no leadership here. The storms that lashed the city were a punishment from Sydon, much as he had laid drought to Estoria in the weeks past. King Acastus, hearing of our victories in the labours, had summoned us to do the same for his city, laying an impossible burden at our feet.
His advisers were little better. The sneering Gaius was here as the representative of Sydon, with a blue skinned tiefling of the cult of Lutheria by his side. A vapid woman, most likely his mistress, represented ‘the voice of the people’ though with her soft hands and fine robes, I doubt many of the populace had the chance to speak their mind to her.
Acastus laid out the options he had so far- Use magic to end the storm, though none of use had the strength to cast such a powerful dweomer yet; destroy the temples of the Five in honour of Sydon, as if the coward cannot abide the competition; placate the Stormlord with a sacrifice of 100 oxen, the cost of which would outstrip the treasury or dedicate 77 children to the cult of Lutheria, so she would placate her brother’s rage.
If Acastus is no king, at least his wife, the goddess of Wisdom, Vallus, was a queen. She proposed that the 5 gods, working together could blunt Sydon’s storms, but that such an effort, to affect something that sits within his portfolio of power, would lessen their own powers. A noble sacrifice, but as we approach the end of the Oath of Peace, is it a risk too much?
Acastus has publicly declared that we, the heroes of prophecy, should choose. Each choice is frankly a poor one, which perhaps is why he has laid this at our feet, hoping to duck the responsibility of the aftermath of these choices. Coward.
We have until dawn. We could pull on our allies to lend their aid in our hour of need, but whichever choice we take, either our enemy grows stronger, or our allies are the weaker for it.
It is the way of bullies everywhere, to make threats. The time will come soon when my father’s position will be challenged. For the sake of these people I hope it will come soon.