January 16th-23rd, 4991.
A week came and went, and none of the Princesses offered an apology over the incident with Ambassador Otion. Blaze didn't know, Blister already had Coral's support, and Burn wasn't going to talk. Coral, being a Queen of her word, declared war upon the Kingdom of Sand. More accurately, she was going to send her army over to help "restore order in that barbaric backwater". What's worse, Tanwen had been writing to our dear friend, Queen Scarlet. In a move that surprised everyone (and especially Burn herself), the attendant had convinced our Skywing bestie to let the Seawings pass through her kingdom, essentially giving the invaders a straight shot to our home.
Needless to say, a LOT of dragons were pissed off at this turn of events. Every Army was naturally angry that every potential claimant had done nothing to prevent war, putting the entire Tribe at risk over a stupid apology. The Eastern Army in particular really hated the fact that they'd have to take on the Seawings themselves, and were openly calling for "anyone other than Burn". Smolder and the Boys, meanwhile, resented having to move into Blister's camp, out of fear for their lives. By the time I got out of my protective imprisonment, none of them would even see me, let alone hear me out on anything. Losing the generals hurt us all politically, but losing my friends? That cut into me like a stinger to the heart, and there was nothing I could do about it.
To make matters worse, Blaze and Flame had been active in lobbying the dragons among the Civil Service, convincing many that she was a much better claimant than the others. Flame had convinced many that under her administration, they would receive lucrative appointments within the Court, as well as significant raises in their salaries. It certainly helped that she was considered their "ideal crisis candidate", as she had the compassion and willingness to listen to her advisors (i.e. was an easily manipulated puppet who won't torture them in a dungeon). Can't say I blame them, but losing complete control of the Civil Service - the one true advantage I had for Burn besides the Eye - made me feel increasingly desperate. I needed something, anything to keep us in the game until I could give Burn that damned magic necklace.
Fortunately, I had one last arrow in my quiver.
On Friday, I finally released the Xero Crossbow to the world. During my imprisonment, my nervous energy mixed with the weird emotional tumult following that vision from the Eye to make me really, really, really busy. I had built dozens and dozens of the crossbows, enough arm a squad for each Army and the Guard, and shipped them out through Burn's guards under the door. With each shipment was a decent amount of arrows to shoot with, as well as instruction manuals detailing how to fire, reload and perform maintenance on each 'bow. It'd take time to train everyone to be good with them, but once our warriors got to see how effective and deadly my weapons are, the orders would come flying in as everyone and their father wanted to get their paws on one...
It all culminated Saturday, the day Burn finally came back from her hunt. The day I was released from my containment.
Over the week, I convinced a couple of guards to come inside my quarters, so I could train them how to use my crossbow. Spirits knew that since everyone and their grandma knew I had the Eye, every other claimant would seize the moment to come in and take it from me. I'm not a soldier, or a fighter of any kind. My only advantage would be my new weapon, and at only a couple shots a minute, I'd quickly be overwhelmed if I was on my own. Fortunately, my guards turned out to be quick learners, able to hit a bullseye several dragons-lengths away, and reload 3 times in a minute. Not spectacular, but good enough to hold off any hoodlums that decided to make a strike at us, or so I thought.
The trouble started right as we got outside the servant's quarters where I lived, and entered the large Courtyard that made up much of the Palace area. In front of us, over two dozen Sandwings adorned in armor and carrying spears. In front of these soldiers stood Marshal Grit, standing a little taller than the rest, his body adorned in scars.
"Mr. Xerophilous," The general commanded, "Surrender the Eye. We have you surrounded."
I squinted suspiciously at the soldiers before me. "Why should I do that?" I demanded. "What would you do if you had it? Do you think you're worthy?"
"That's none of your concern." Grit snorted. "We will do our duty to the Sand Kingdom, and determine for ourselves who should be Queen."
I shook my head. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that." I answered. "None of you what this thing is capable of. I'm going to give this to Burn, with or without your approval."
"Then we will simply have to take it from you." The Marshal stated. His tail twitched, and several Guards began to approach.
I raised my crossbow, my own guards quickly following suit. "I am prepared to defend myself." I warned, taking aim at the nearest dragon. "You call your boys back, or I won't be held responsible for what I have to do next."
The Marshal scoffed, and motioned for a couple of guards to go get us. My blood ran cold. My thoughts turned back to the vision the Eye had given me, and to Oasis herself. How far was I really willing to go? Would I actually take a life to help Burn win? A Royal Guard, no less? Was Burn truly worthy of the Throne?
Maybe, maybe not. But I knew I wanted to live, and giving the Eye to the Guard (and inevitably, to Blister) would almost certainly result in my death. And so once again, my choice was crystal-clear.
I looked at the closest guard. I can still remember his face: He was young, fresh out of dragonethood, eyes full of confidence bordering on arrogance. He must've been thinking it would be so easy to take it from me, some nerdy wimp spending his days fiddling away with contraptions. In a fair fight, he would certainly beat me.
But this wasn't a fair fight.
My claws tightened around the trigger, and the 'bow fired. The arrow launched with a FTHWIP!, moving at incredible speed. Before anyone could possibly react, the arrow struck true at my target - right between the soldier's eyes. With a THWACK!, it pierced the young dragon's skull, pierced his brain, and he was dead before he hit the ground. The other soldiers and spectators further afield stared back in shocked surprise, and in that moment I seized my chance.
"Cover me!" I shouted to my guards, as I scuttled over to the nearby alley between my quarters and the armory. As I worked to pull back my drawstring and reload, my guys quickly followed suit, with another shot striking a guard in the base of his throat. The rest of the squad panicked, backing quite a distance away and looking for cover. Never before in Phyrrian history had dragons been downed by crossbow fire, and seeing two of the Sand Kingdom's finest go down in the blink of an eye unsettled even the bravest souls.
The alley was the perfect place to protect ourselves. The space was narrow enough that a dragon couldn't fully extend their wings, meaning they couldn't fly in above us. Combined with our weapons having far greater range than a dragon's fire, we could keep them at bay so long as we had arrows. Not to say that they didn't try to get at us. Multiple times, several soldiers tried to charge at us, hoping to overwhelm us before we could reload. Unfortunately for them, I had trained my guards enough in basic marksmanship and drilling that each shot was a kill, and that one would cover while the others reloaded. After several minutes, ten Guards laid dead in front of our entrance, arrows sticking out of their heads and chests. Of those, I personally took out four.
Could we have held on in that alley until Burn came back? Maybe, if we were careful. But then the situation changed, as more dragons entered the fray.
"Well look what we have here?" A familiar voice called out from above. "Did the bookworm build himself a way to cheat at darts?" I looked up, and spotted two Sandwings perched atop the roofs, watching us.
"What're you doing here?" I shouted back. "I've got nothing for you!"
"Ah, but you've got something for your boss, yeah?" The dragon jeered. "Something shiny? Something that doesn't belong to you?"
"It doesn't belong to your boss either!" I snapped. "The Eye can only go to a worthy Queen! Nightshade will never be worthy!"
"You sure about that?" Another voice asked, this one right behind me. Before I could turn around, something struck me in the back of the head. Everything turned white, as I fell to the ground. Everything was blurry, everything hurt, but still I tried to gather myself. I felt someone come close, pulling the satchel off my neck, and the Eye with it. I panicked, blindly reaching out to take it back.
But it was to no avail. I felt the string leave my neck. My vision cleared, just in time to see the dark shape of a Nightwing run out of the alley and fly away. A couple of the Guards took flight to pursue them and the Sandwings that left the roof. My own guards helped me up, as the soldiers risked getting a little closer.
"Who was that?" Grit demanded. "Another one of your goons?"
"NO, you damned moron!" I yelled, my anger and pain boiling over. "Those were Nightshade's! They took the Eye!"
The Marshal blinked, then slowly turned pale, as he realized just what happened, and how badly he messed things up. "Get everyone up and after those bandits!" He ordered his drakes. "Get the Eye back, now! I need to speak with Princess Blister about a few pressing matters."
We looked at each other for a moment, and his expression turned sympathetic, apologetic even. I didn't respond - not because I didn't have anything to say, but because my jaw was clenched shut from the barely contained fury within me. Not only was I back to square one, with nothing to show Burn when she came back, but I had been attacked, mugged and humiliated in the heart of the Palace. Dragons laid dead around us, their lives ended by my actions, and now a foreign crimelord had their paws on the most valuable item in the Kingdom of Sand.
I wasn't looking forward to my next meeting with my boss.
The Palace had calmed down by the time Burn and her fellow hunters flew in that evening. The Royal Guard were distinctly absent from much of the castle, as Marshal Grit was reportedly chewing out Blister for putting him in such an awful situation. Everyone that could stay indoors and hide was doing so, all to avoid her inevitable wrath.
I didn't have that luxury.
I stood in the middle of the Courtyard, where so many dragons had died by my paws, not too far away from where Oasis' remains were finally buried. My head still ached where the bandit clubbed me. The tension from all the stress lately certainly didn't help, as I felt my pulse throb at the base of my skull. Even so, I held my ground and my gaze as my patroness stepped towards me, leering angrily as we both stood in silence.
"Where's the Eye?" She demanded.
"Ask the guards." I answered irritably. "They watched the dragons that mugged me fly away while they tried to arrest me."
Burn growled, smoke pouring out of her nostrils. "You let the most important artifact in all the Sand Kingdom get taken from you by mere bandits? The very thing we started a war over?! The very thing you desecrated my mother-"
"I didn't lose anything!" I snapped, cutting off her diatribe before my headache could get any worse. "I was confronted by an entire squad of Royal Guards under Blister's orders. I was robbed while I was defending myself from trained military professionals! If it weren't for my crossbow, I'd be in prison, and Blister would have the Eye right now!"
"And Nightshade having it is somehow better?" She countered. "He sent in his thugs and made us all look like fools! This is an absolute disaster!"
"Well maybe it wouldn't have happened if you were here." I hissed. I hadn't realized what I had said until Burn loomed over me.
"What did you just say?" She growled, actual embers starting to flitter out of her nostrils.
"You heard me." I said, the headache and exhaustion I felt overriding my propriety or sense of self-preservation. "While you've been flying around tearing the legs off of scavengers, I've been busting my butt trying to get you on that throne. Me, no one else, against literally the entire Kingdom! I found the Eye! I built the crossbows, to bring the armies on our side! I even started a war for you, because the one thing you love more than anything else is the chance to hurt other dragons. But I am no Animus! I can't make anyone like you, or respect you, or even submit to you out of fear! That's all you, and you've done nothing to help me! For Spirit's sake, Sandstorm is more popular than you, and she barely has the Guard on her side! So if we're failing, it's not my fault!"
"HOW DARE YOU!" She bellowed, eyes almost glowing with fury. "You don't talk to me like that! I should kill you for such insolence!"
"THEN DO IT!" I shouted back. "GO AHEAD! KILL ME! If having me around is such a burden to you, then get rid of me! Go ahead and find someone as smart as me, as loyal as me, who's willing to stick their neck out for you day after Moons-damned day! But we both know no one else will! I am the best hope you have, and it'd be nice if my boss gave me a little more support instead of flying around killing vermin!"
Burn stood there, fuming with anger, glaring at me like she intended to set me ablaze with her rage alone. I stood my ground, not out of bravery, but out of frustration and apathy. I was so tired that day, so fed up with flying against the wind trying to get her to victory, that I was willing to call her bluff. Either she killed me and doomed herself to failure, or she'd step up and be more proactive.
We stood there, glaring at each other for who knows how long, the only sound being the distant whistle of the wind. To my surprise and amusement, Burn broke her gaze first, snorting smoke in my face.
"You have one chance," She warned, "To get the Eye back. Don't disappoint me again."
"Duly noted." I agreed, and we went inside the Palace. I was going to have a long night, coming up with a new plan. Little did I know, this would be my last week in my quarters, in the Palace, and in the Sand Kingdom, for a long, long time...
Condition 'Tallies'
Princess Blister: 0
Princess Blaze: -7
Guard Sandstorm: -9
Princess Burn: -14
Wanderer Nightshade: -18
A/N: My roll for distributing the Crossbows: 66 + 20 (RP) =86.
Battle of the Courtyard
Obey the Order? (1-80): 80
Apprehend Xerophilous: 73 + 20 (Royal Guard) + 10 (RP) = 103
Giving the Eye to Burn: 69 + 20 (Crossbows) = 89
Stealing the Eye: 97 + 10 (RP) = 107
The biggest takeaway from this turn that I got, is that when everyone rolls high at the same time, you get an absolute trainwreck of events. I also learned not to make my initiatives public when I didn't have to, because as soon as Xero declared he was giving the Eye to Burn, everyone was coming for him at once. After this turn, a lot of players realized it was better to run silently and secretly, and the game aboveboard became a lot more quiet.