Karl Valdemar simply shrugged at Rohaan's outrage. It was likely both warranted and genuine, but it still wasn't something that the Emperor particularly found to be interesting. "You misunderstood me. I said you life [i]may[/i] have been easier as a slave. I would be right, from a certain point of view. A slave would be of no value to me, and you would have made for poor one besides. I don't mind the passion, though."

The Emperor was leaned back in his chair with is legs crossed. He was entirely comfortable in this setting, and it could even be said that he was enjoying himself. The one peculiar thing of note, however, was that he hadn't even so much as touched the food before him. The same was true of the wine, which by even a laymen's perspective, was extremely expensive. Every time that Rohaan took a drink of his ale, a smile flashed across the Emperor's lips. It was so fast that it would have taken a well-trained eye to catch, yet it appeared with such frequency that eventually even a fool would notice the pattern. 

"Little shiftling, you must remember the man that you're speaking to. You cannot even fathom the amount of deaths that I'm directly responsible for, and that's only scratching the service of the trail of bodies that continue to follow me even to this day. For as long as you hold inherent value to me, the number is utterly insignificant." Karl Valdemar did not mind the leverage the Shifter was holding over him at the present moment. In fact, it made things so much more interesting. The opposite was true so often that he generally found negotiations to be utterly dull in most respects, though he did have to acknowledge that they often ended with a dead body of some sort.

Karl Valdemar allowed the Vokurian to present his own terms, threats buried within and all. The Emperor found it to be amusing more than anything else, but he kept his silence. Even if he agreed to it, an independent nation of Vokurians would never last. They had never had their own country, to the best of his knowledge. In antiquity, they had coexisted in disparate tribes, before they had been subjugated by the Old Empire. From that point onwards, Vokurians had existed as a minority race, though their rights and privileges had come and gone in the multitude of successor states in the years after. This was only compounded by the reality that the majority of the Vokurian population was enslaved. That hardly left room much for skills that could successfully organize or administer an entire nation. Many were quite content with being enslaved by the upper nobility - which most Vokurians were. They are quite the novelty after all. Being a slave to the aristocracy still meant a better life than living in abject poverty, unless you counted the freedom to starve in a ditch as something worth having. Of course, there were many other issues that could be rattled off, but it was rather refreshing to see that Rohaan was a true idealist, though it was also amusing that he was so quick the abandon the other enslaved races.

"Despite your illiteracy, you still want this all in writing? This makes me feel as if you don't trust me at my word." He scratched his cheek with his gloved hand as he spoke, more than aware that it had finally gained the attention of the Shifter. There still lacked good reason for the Emperor to divulge this particular secret to the Shifter at the present time, yet he was very much aware how dangerous Vokurian curiosity could be when left unchecked.

"I am not quite against agreeing with your demands as they currently stand, but wouldn't it be dull to give you everything that you want before we even begin? That seems to me that you would lack every incentive to act satisfactorily as my agent. No, I'm afraid I must present my final offer." 

"If you prove to be successful, I will grant you everything that you have asked for and more, assuming anything else pops into your head from now until then. If you happen to fail, however, I suppose I'll still liberate the Vokurians from slavery by having my soldiers round up as many as they can find and exterminate them. High risk and high reward; that certainly would give you enough incentive to competently act upon my behalf." The Emperor's tone and look didn't change at all while he spoke. He could have been discussing the addition of a new aqueduct to the capital and his demeanor wouldn't have been any different.

"My previous offer still stands, if you are not as confident in your abilities as I previously thought. Your choice. Before you decide on anything, I suppose it's high time that I provide actual context over what exactly I need from you." The Emperor got out of his seat, turning his back to Rohaan as he began to gaze towards the setting sun. It was blood red.

"Some years ago, before I was emperor, my father tasked me with breaking the siege of Durgan." For a thousand generations, Durgan had served as a fortress that prevented passage into the Imperial lands from the lands beyond the mountains. Those lands consisted of open plains and steppes that were currently inhabited by the Centauri nomadic clans - half-horse, half-man abominations that were a persisting scourge to all neighboring civilizations. It was over 15 years ago in which a charismatic chieftain had united most of these clans and assembled a horde that had never been seen in recorded history. For whatever reason, they had committed themselves in attempting to take Durgan so they could overrun the Eastern Marches.

"As a result of that war, I had grown close to the daughter of the Lord of Durgan. She died in childbirth as a result of giving me a bastard daughter." Karl Valdemar had no legitimate children to speak of, and a common enough rumor was that he was sterile or worse. Those that spread such rumors often found their tongues cut out. "My father didn't allow me to acknowledge her and I had already burnt a bridge with the Lord Of Durgan. So she was left at Durgan, though I had spies in place so that I could continue to keep tabs on her development." Karl Valdemar paused for a second, as if he was reminiscing about his lost love and child. It was possibly the only moment so far in which the Emperor of Mankind had shown any humanity.

"Roughly a month ago, I stopped receiving correspondence with my agent at Durgan. Not long after that, Durgan's gates close, and nobody has entered or left the fortress since. It would look odd if I interfered directly, and I do not want the fact that I have a bastard daughter to become public knowledge. Especially considering that there are certain other developments that I have only become aware of recently. I need you to investigate Durgan and retrieve my daughter if she's alive, or her body if she's dead. I have no interest in the rest."

"In any case, I do hope that you'll act as my agent on this matter. After all, there's little that I can do for you if you decline." With that, he pulled out a small flask and set it on the table, not so far from Rohaan himself. The Emperor only cast a look at the cup that Rohaan had been drinking from and gave him another smile.