Plans of a Dwarf Queen

"To survive, my people need to evolve." Kozzala says. "We fight and fight, as we have for centuries. Even when we win, the goblins take more. They breed faster than us, they're cunning, scheming and chaotic. Everything we aren't. The dwarves... are a people of tradition and honor." She sighs. "Our traditions are **** us. Humans... you're adaptive, I envy that. You change to suit your environment, develop new methods, make others part of your civilization rather than drive them away. To restore our empire, we need to learn and who better than from the current greatest empire on our continent."

"So, you want the emperor to send people?" Marcus asks, a little unsure where she's going with this.

She smiles bitterly. "I wish. He won't hear me. My messengers return empty handed, having been snubbed in the capital. My letters are ignored."

"The emperor is..." Marcus starts.

"Useless. As they have been for generations." Aine finishes.

Marcus can't help but sigh in agreement. "The core branch of my family don't leave their palaces. They only care for their endless feasting, drinking and whoring."

Kozzala frowns in disappointment but not surprise.

"See, even with an absent emperor, humans adapt and keep thriving..." Kozzala takes another swig of ale, looking at Marcus' eyes with intensity. "If you're branded a traitor, will you fight?"

"No." Marcus responds.

"Why?"

He sighs, gathering his thoughts. "Because that would only lead to more deaths, weaken the empire and allow the centaurs to ravage the east."

"What if it didn't need to be that way?" She asked. He could only raise an eyebrow questioningly in response. "Even here, I heard how you crushed a rebellion. The people supported his goal but still cheered at your success. Your people want new leadership, a new conqueror to bring further expansions and security, as do mine. In both our cases, it is the nobility who hold us back. They fear a change in the status-quo."

"What are you saying exactly?" He asks, cautiously. Even here, beyond the sights of his emperor, such talk is dangerous.

"I want you to fight. I want us to fight. I want our empires restored to greatness, to reach new heights and... I want us to be unified."

"Queen Kozzala..." Marcus says, his mind racing. Aine watches the conversation with deep interest. "Even if I wanted to fight, it'd be impossible. I only have one legion."

The queen leans forward, still maintaining eye contact.

"Call me Kozzala, we're in private here. Let me share something. I was born poor, a mushroom farmer way down in the lower city. Nobles would only come down to take our money, our prettiest girls and our strongest men. I slept in my stone bed and dreamed, no, a vision. A restored empire, not the Dwarozzok Empire or the Golden Empire but a Golden Dwarozzok Empire. In the morning a strange woman sat at the foot of my bed. A golden haired dwarf wearing a blindfold. She didnae speak, just gave me an axe and put ideas in my head. I gathered as many men and women as who'd follow and led them out into the deeproads. We fought the goblins and were bloody good at it for a bunch of mushroom farmers. They had a mage, a nasty little shit, he killed my men and damn near killed me." She says, looking at the burns on her arms. "I put my axe square in his ugly fucking face. Turns out the bastard had been a chieftain who'd been causing trouble. Anyway... I got noticed and finally respected."

She chuckles bitterly.

"Bah, anyway, you're probably wondering where I'm going with this. That woman visited me again, speaking this time. She said the gods gave me a path for our people, the annoying bitch didn't say anything else though but my dream stayed with me. Fight for my empire and I'll fight yours if they come for you. Teach our people and we'll teach yours. Give us magic and we'll share our rune crafting. You want to defend your empire's citizens, I respect that, but do it from here. Our moutains circle most of your empire afterall, if they're reclaimed."

"So you're proposing, what? A mutual defence and a knowledge sharing agreement?" He asks, making sure he understands.

"To start. What I really want is change. I want to get rid of our stagnant traditions and your absent emperor. I want our people to stand together as yours already do with the hobbits. So... to solidify our agreement, I want to add something else to the table..." She grows nervous, downing the rest of her ale. "Give me an heir. Not a bastard, marry me so it's official." She says, her voice shaking with uncharacteristic nerves.

Marcus nearly chokes on his ale at her sudden request. Aine simply grins as though she'd expected something along those lines, still even she seemed surprised.

"What?" Marcus asked.

"An heir, my dwarven blood with your human and dragon blood." She says, now regaining her composure somewhat.

Marcus couldn't help but be surprised. It was a closely guarded imperial secret that they had dragon blood, it was the cause of their long life and golden eyes. Scipio, their founder, had two wives, one his angel companion, the other a dragon who approached him in human form. He had children with both, although only the angel's children were publicly known, although they were seen as pure human. He married his half-dragon children to his half-divine children. From then, cousin marriages were maintained to stop the dilution of the exotic bloods.

"Where did you hear this?" He asks.

"Something I just know." She replies with a shrug. "Think I realised I knew after my mysterious visitors second appearance."

"Hmm. I think that was an angel." Marcus says. Kozzala doesn't seem surprised. "Please, both of you, keep this a secret. Dragons are still seen as evil creatures."

"'Course." Kozzala agrees with a nod.

"My lips are sealed." Aine adds.

"So, what about it?" Kozzala asks, returning to the original point.

"Not that I'm against it, but why me?" He asks.

"Why not? I like your outlook, you're attractive... very much so... You're from a powerful family and, if you get your shit together, you can be powerful too. If you do and help me reclaim my empire, our kids would be heirs to both. Plus, it'd piss off the fossils in the council to have to bow to a half-human... If I havnae got rid of them by then."

Marcus' mind is racing. He couldn't deny she makes a good offer, plus she was attractive enough and he'd always had a soft spot for shorter races. All he had to do was the impossible tasks of reclaiming the dwarven empire and siezing the throne of his own with only one legion. Was this why the gods had blessed him?

"I can see your thinking a lot about it. Let me sweeten the deal more. I'll let you fuck whoever you want, hell I'll change the laws here to let you marry others if you're worried about losing that bargaining chip."

Almost as though to tempt him further, she let her dress higher up her leg as she leaned back to recline again, showing off her smooth toned thigh.

"Give me time to think about it." He replies, right now he was at risk of letting his lower head do the thinking. "May we have a room to stay tonight?"

"Of course. You'll get your help with the orcs regardless though, just as long as you promise to bring your legion. I've got a good feeling about you."

Author's note:

I feel like this chapter was a bit info dumpy, I trimmed it down a fair bit from my original draft but wanted to include what was left.

Also, a question about art. What are people's thoughts on the art so far? I'll never use ai for writing but for illustrations it has its uses when you can't draw for shit. I am having trouble generating consistent art for sex scenes so was thinking of finding more generic art that conveys what is happening. If I can get good art that matches the characters I will. This might not always be the case though so I wanted to ask your thoughts on alternatives. If you have a moment, please vote at https://strawpoll.com/2ayLQ671zn4