[@Shadow Dragon]

Ophion saw the wraith slice through one of the skeletons in one swift motion of his scythe. A second bonewalker fell to a burst of flame from the archmage's right hand. The remaining four skeletons continued to advance, clearly oblivious to the fact that they were outmatched. Two of the skeletons had eyes with some type of glowing blue light emanating from the sockets. 

"Be careful! I think this is just a test. Even if Polybius sent these old bones to attack, he clearly doesn't mean for them to slay us. Don't use any attacks which you need to be kept secret!" 


[@bloonewb]

Aerta thought about it and sighed. "I have the ear of almost every ruler of every major kingdom. Adykon has their ears and the hearts of their people, the respect of their armies, even the esteem of the mages." All of this political bantering was proving to be fruitless. Another approach was needed. Kali had told Aerta of the visions she had. Of what Ardasa and Kali had seen. 

"As capable as I am of bringing these matters to the attention of the great and good, further action on the ground here will be needed." Aerta took a seat and carefully scanned the room, making sure that only Ardasa could hear what she had to say next. "I want a world in which my children and yours will be safe. Yes, yours. I have my ways of knowing, even before they've been conceived. Events are in motions which I can vaguely grasp, but cannot halt. Comes with the territory of being a sorceress who can scry across space and possible futures. I won't bore you with the details."

The draconess paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "The truth is, Ardasa, that I am tired. Tired of wondering if my children will all survive to adulthood, or rather, how many will die before I will. It's bound to happen, as I have over 20 kids and more on the way. In fact, I have the very earliest stages of an egg growing in me now, another son. If you could feel the love for your own offspring in the way that- that you would want your own mother to feel for you, you'd do anything to keep your children safe. Now, keeping this on point, it would behoove you to encourage allegiance to your children among your generals and nobles. In fact, it would be best to get some to pledge allegiance to one child and some to the other, to prevent [i]all [/i]of them from siding against you should anything happen to Rughoi. Now, that's not something I would normally recommend, but it is probably the only way to keep a possible civil war from turning into a complete bloodbath. This probably isn't the advice you wanted to hear, I know. For what it is worth, I will seek out the major powers that be and encourage them to treat Xigyll with respect. Oh, and on a minor note, make sure you change your hatchling's loincloths regularly. It'll save you a ton of crying from them." Clearly, that last sentence was motivated by the 'mom brain' which Aerta had for the parts of the year in which she was gravid. Truth be told, her thoughts were affected by that particular mix of hormones every time she was with egg or was nursing, and the former or latter was true most of the time.