[b]Redana![/b]

"I know exactly what you should do," said Iskarot, a serene being, filled with wisdom. "First you must find your rival, this assassin you have spoken so much about. Then you must challenge her to a fight. Use these." The Hermetic champion placed a set of brass knuckles on the table. "My father gave these to me, and now I give them to you. Make me proud, apprentice."

He nodded at you, a paternal tear of affection in his eye.

[b]Alexa![/b]

"That was what it was [i]for[/i]," said Lacedo. "All the history. All the practice. All the training. All the centuries of dreaming. It was for glory. So that our lineage would rise and we would become the new right arm of mankind. A thousand warrior breeds have vanished into history seeking a victory like this. The alternative is dissolution and extinction and an end to the Alcedi forever. Just another skull on the throne of Ceron."

She hasn't said why. She doesn't truly know. This rivalry was woven into her bones, the same as with every other warrior servitor species.

[b]Dolce![/b]

"Uh, yeah, little guy," said Ramses. "Look, the army was, what, fifty thousand strong? Like maybe three hundred could actually see you. Riders went up and down the line and repeated your speech to them. Scared men and women, people with pre-battle nerves. So maybe they jazzed it up a little, made it sound like you were a big strong demigod ram of war who would lead them to glorious victory, and that's what the soldiers imagined. That's who they fought and died for. If I put in [i]their[/i] movie that the Captain looked like a militarized plush toy - no offense, I think it's a great look - then they'd call me a liar. And they'd be [i]right[/i]."

[b]Bella![/b]

"Because I am in [i]so[/i] far over my head," said a voice as the Assistant Secretary of Fear and Doubt materialized. He wears a golden helmet decked with amethysts, a curling helix staff, a ceremonial orb containing rainbow light. He was there all along, pressed up against a wall, skin camouflaged to blend in with the wall and gilt adornments blending in with the treasure junk that washes up inside Poseidon's realm. A single eye fixes on you as tentacles nervously clutch at the staff.

"I mean, I was only ever the [i]acting[/i] Assistant Secretary!" cried the squid. "My substantive position is as a Administrative Positional Spawning Six! That's not even on the management cognition track! but then a spaceship ploughed through my supervisor's office and then I was kidnapped by wolves and nobody ever relieved me of the position! And now I've got ten thousand battlecrabs under arms and another ten thousand on the way and they just hailed me as dictator! I'm following the Tidal Field Manual Policy as best I can but now entire specialist cohorts are hatching and a subsidiary administrative caste is coming into being and they're asking for documentation and I don't know what to tell them!"

"And..." he slumped a little, clutching his staff. "And the mice said that you were the best captain they ever had. That you changed their lives and freed them from tyranny. And so I was wondering if you could maybe help me, too."