My journey back was uneventful. Now I understood my earlier feeling of being watched. Was this how the giants had felt?
I was given an over-warm welcome for the news I brought. I shook off the congratulations and called a meeting of the Academy's heads. There were few of expertise left. Some trivial baron, a professor with no bureaucratic experience, a knight-captain, and a world-weary sergeant. There was no truly official leadership, but these were the ones who had agreed to bring each faction's concerns to discussions.
I laid out our situation. We could have an archdragon for a neighbor or we could flee north. Seek the well and the Nox ruins below. If we stayed, we would need to consider our strategy of appeasement. Leyndell had subjugated the archdragons, but we had nothing of Leyndell's might. Who could say if others had survived the Frenzied Flame?
The Frenzied Flame had melted and burst stone, but the mountains still stood. If other archdragons had survived, then bowing our heads straightaway was not the worst decision. This one asked for little and yet everything. If we agreed to her terms, it would set the tone of our survival.
We would gain a guardian and mentor, but we would find an ultimate enemy as well. The last Lord. The Lord of Frenzied Flame.
It was said that the Frenzied Flame was itself a god. The Lord, its vessel, was as Marika and Radagon together. Perhaps conflict with the Lord was unavoidable, for we resisted the Flame's destruction. Yet swearing to the dragon meant we could not hide. We must march against a living god.
We did not sleep that night.
Arguments raged. No one was keen on being a subject, but neither would any abandon all we had scrounged together. If we met our end, it would be on the steps of the Academy.
The nobles were proud. They wanted to establish a new Order, whatever that meant without the Elden Ring. They were divided on whether the dragon was a suitable patron.
The scholars wanted to remain independent, as the Academy had been since purging the Carian royals. It seemed they were hiding something and wanted to use that to bargain with the dragon.
The knights had no wish to be ruled by either upper class. They had been put down upon by traditional sorcerers long enough. As such, they were indifferent to the idea of the dragon as an overlord.
The soldiers knew they were "expendable". They had no wish to go to war against the Lord. Yet they rankled within the Academy which had no place for those without sorcery. Perhaps new land would bring new opportunity.
All this was to say, there was no consensus. Dawn came, and we resumed work as if we weren't exhausted.